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In early 2018, Diana Mulhall was undertaking a career change that would eliminate the need for frequent business trips to Toronto. As a result, she wondered whether she should sell her condo in the heart of the Canadian city or keep it as a rental property to generate income for herself. The housing market in Toronto was booming, so Mulhall believed that the condo would fetch top dollar as a sale. She also thought it would be easy to attract tenants if she kept it as a rental. She had invested in rental property before but never outside of her hometown of Chicago, so Mulhall needed to identify the key risks associated with being a landlord in Toronto.

In 2016, Rakuten, the largest e-commerce company in Japan, was at the crossroads of its UK operations. After 2008, Rakuten had accelerated internationalization, mainly by acquiring local e-commerce companies. In the foreign markets, Rakuten leveraged its e-commerce platform model, with which it had achieved huge success in the Japanese e-commerce market in the 2000s. In 2011, it acquired UK-based e-commerce company, Play.com. At that time, Play.com faced challenges in the local e-commerce market because of strong competitors, especially Amazon and eBay. Rakuten tried to boost the competitive advantage by adopting its e-commerce model. However, attracting local users and merchants in the UK market proved difficult for Rakuten. Should Rakuten continue its European expansion program? What should the company do in the UK market and with Play.com in particular? Should Rakuten stay in the United Kingdom?

The vice-president of new product development for Amazon Marketplace was preparing to propose the Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) initiative at Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon)'s three-year planning session. The SFP would allow Amazon Marketplace sellers who had proven their ability to meet Prime customers' expectations for exceptional service to provide Prime shipping benefits for products that the sellers fulfilled themselves rather than through the Fulfillment by Amazon process. Because the vice-president did not yet have extensive data on the effects of his proposal, he had to work with an interdisciplinary team to determine the potential benefits and challenges associated with this initiative.

On May 12, 2016, the founder and development manager of Democrata, was considering the future of his clothing store, in light of an increase in visitors to the area from different regions of Lebanon. Democrata was a clothing and apparel store founded in 1974, providing the latest fashion trends to both women and men. It offered major brands and basic casual and formal wear at competitive prices for customers in all income ranges. With success and affordable prices in northern Lebanon, Democrata grew to attract customers from all over the country. The idea of growth had always interested the development manager, who was seeking the best way to generate organic growth in the business. However, he had to consider the challenges facing the apparel industry. What were Democrata's competitive advantages? How strong was its financial position? What growth strategy would be right for Democrata?

When Brian Huseman, vice president of public policy for the Seattle-based internet retailer and technology company Amazon.com (Amazon), prepared to meet economic-development officials and community leaders from Arlington, Virginia, in the wake of the company's February 2019 decision to pull a second headquarters location out of New York City, a lot was on the line. Facing a limit on its growth in Seattle, Amazon had embarked on a search for a second corporate headquarters, dubbed HQ2, in September 2017, and ultimately surprised the country when it announced its decision to split its HQ2 into two locations, Arlington and New York City, in late 2018. New York ultimately failed to give Amazon the warm welcome it was looking for, so Amazon focused solely on Arlington to claim the "biggest economic development prize in recent memory." Amazon was making a huge commitment to Arlington-including plans to develop up to eight million square feet of office space and hire 25,000 employees (each with an average salary higher than $100,000) over the next 15 years -one that would make it the region's largest private-sector employer. Huseman wanted to be sure Virginia was fully prepared to create the right ecosystem for Amazon's HQ2 to thrive. How should the e-retail giant approach the meeting, considering what could be asked of it-and what it should request in return?

In early 2019, the founders of Anomalie, an online direct-to-consumer provider of bridal gowns, have just agreed to an $13.6 million Series A investment from a Silicon Valley VC. They are considering three major initiatives as they move forward. (1) To scale their very successful organic acquisition process that already engages 25% of the brides-to-be in an active discussion, (2) to automate their largely manual offering that allows the bride to design her own dress, or (3) to invest heavily in technology to support their unique strategy of buying direct from the factories in Suzhou, China bypassing both the distribution and retail channels.

The case discusses the strategy of DER SPIEGEL, the leading news magazine in Germany, in the aftermath of the discovery of a fake reporting scandal. It had come to light that one of DER SPIEGEL's own reporters had falsified and made up entire articles for years, despite DER SPIEGEL's large fact-checking departments. New editor-in-chief Steffen Klusmann and an internal investigation commission had set to work to discover the problems within DER SPIEGEL that made this failure possible, and had come up with a series of recommendations for improvement. At the heart of the investigation was the question whether the scandal was the result of one bad apple or whether DER SPIEGEL had systematic failures in its control systems.

In November 2019, Ilham Kadri, CEO of Solvay, a Belgian specialty chemicals and advanced materials group, with annual revenues of more than €10 billion in 2018, announced the group's mid-term strategy, eight months after she took the helm as Solvay's 11th CEO. The case describes what options Solvay had to operate a business transformation to follow a growth path while aiming to be a leading environmental solutions company. Solvay had developed a sustainability tool called Sustainability Product Management to identify promising business applications. How effective was the tool? What business lines should Solvay promote to grow and at the same time be more sustainable?

Beth Collins, CFO of Software Sense, an American multinational computer hardware and software developer, contemplated various ways that her publicly traded company could embrace a more long-term orientation in its quarterly reports and throughout its reporting ecosystem. Like other publicly traded companies, Software Sense faced constant pressure from investors and analysts to increase short-term financial-performance metrics, particularly in its quarterly earnings calls. Many in business were concerned about the deleterious effects of short-termism, which referred to the practice of focusing on short-term rather than long-term performance and results; these effects included less attention paid to long-term value creation and innovation, strategy, and fundamentals; less R&D investment; and the implementation of high-risk strategies that could threaten the company's health. Recently, Collins had read about and heard presentations by Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP), an initiative encouraging business leaders to reframe investor calls away from short-term reporting and toward a more long-term strategic approach and orientation. As she researched CECP's recommendations and strategies, Collins could see the benefits of this approach-but also the potential problems.

A portfolio manager at Century 23 Investment Company was considering whether to maintain holdings in The Walt Disney Company (Disney). She was reviewing the recently released fourth quarter and full fiscal year earnings report of Disney and comparing the results against those of key competitors, including Netflix Inc., Comcast Corporation, and Viacom Inc. She examined financial statements, ratios, valuation metrics, and financial forecasts, to find a potential connection between financial performance and stock prices. After considering the investment strategy adopted by her investment company-identifying and investing in stocks that showed consistent earnings growth above broad market levels while also trading at a reasonable price-the investment manager had to decide whether or not to maintain the holdings.

In October 2012, Dmitry Kuznetsov was appointed Country Marketing Director for Google Russia (Google RU). His primary objective was to propel Google RU ahead of the local champion Yandex, to the number one position in the Russian internet search market, leveraging Google's digital intelligence and analytics products to win clients in a B2B setting. Along the way he faced multiple challenges, from crafting a local strategy for Russia, to segmenting the online market, deciding how to position the brand, which products and services to prioritize, and how to communicate effectively with Russian customers. The case presents relevant information on the prevailing trends in Russia's internet search market, the competitive landscape, and the high-powered digital tools available from Google to heighten the impact of his marketing and communications plans in the period to 2016.

In June 2019, the Indian government's think tank, Niti Aayog, mandated that all new motorized two-wheelers with an engine capacity of up to 150 cubic centimetres (cc) would need to be electric-powered by 2025. The chief executive officer and co-founder of Ather Energy wholeheartedly supported this mandate, as his firm's objective was to develop India's first smart electric scooter. Despite his confidence in revolutionizing the concept of two-wheeler driving in India, the task ahead was challenging and complex. How could the company encourage consumers to purchase Ather Energy's products? What personality types should the company cater to? What roles did Indian consumers' requirements and psychology play in motivating them to purchase Ather Energy's products?

Hoping to get ahead of potential digital disruption at Klöckner & Co. - one of the world's largest steel and metal distributors - CEO Gisbert Rühl set up both kloeckner.i (KCI), an internal transformation arm, and XOM Materials (XOM), an independent industry platform. KCI and XOM sought to digitize the $350 billion materials supply and service chain, and promote greater price transparency and efficiency. However, the materials market traditionally resisted digitalization, making the process longer, harder, and more expensive than expected. As 2020 opened, Rühl and his teams wondered how they could dramatically increase uptake.

Jinnah Engineering Works and Foundries had been a prominent foundry and machining business in Pakistan since its inception in 1950. In early 2018, it was struggling with internal inefficiencies caused by a lack of formal workforce planning. The company hired temporary workers almost daily-with no long-term planning and a high attrition rate-and the company's board was worried about the mounting inefficiencies and financial costs. The company had taken a positive step toward resolving the many human resources problems by partnering with human resources consultants from the business school at the National University of Sciences and Technology. These consultants undertook a thorough analysis of the company and its workforce and presented recommendations that would benefit the business but could be difficult to implement in the context of the company's existing processes. The board had to make a decision: how could it implement changes regarding how the workers were managed without demoralizing the staff or causing delays in production?

This case is about a small restaurant in Singapore offering authentic and refined Szechuan (or Sichuan) cuisine that is different from the typical ultra-spicy hotpot meals that consumers normally associate Szechuan food with. As a small player in the F&B scene, Tian Bao Szechuan Kitchen faces the challenge of establishing itself as a distinctive brand in a crowded and competitive market space that is dominated by large and powerful restaurant chains like HaiDiLao Hotpot whose names are almost synonymous with the product category. Tian Bao also has the challenge of educating consumers and re-shaping their less-than-sophisticated perceptions of Szechuan food.

In May 2019, the head of Organizational Development and Talent for Comair Limited (Comair), was contemplating the dilemma of stimulating higher buy-in for team coaching-a program in formal leadership development emphasizing collaboration and shared responsibility. The long-standing chief executive officer (CEO) had just resigned. He had focused over the last few years on enabling a leadership style of collaboration where departmental silos would be removed and management structures would evolve to reflect a new way of working along functional rather than departmental lines. The head wondered how she could promote team coaching to a new CEO, and specifically, how she could help stimulate more interest and buy-in for team coaching. What could be done to help the teams that had undergone team coaching to sustain the newly learned behaviours, especially when the pressure was high?

Arconic Inc. was a lightweight-material engineering firm that supplied the aerospace, automotive, and commercial transportation industries. Elliott Management Corporation was an activist investment firm that held a minority investment in Arconic Inc.. The two companies were locked in a public disagreement on how to generate acceptable financial returns for investors. At a shareholders' meeting on May 25, 2017, all shareholders would be able to vote on the four nominees that would become members of Arconic's new board. In the weeks leading up to the annual shareholders' meeting, the tension between the Arconic board and Elliott Management continued to build.