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Outland provided a global communication and exhibition platform for artists and collectors. Outland conducted art transactions in the form of cryptocurrencies, addressing challenges prevalent in the traditional creator economy. Renowned artist James Jean collaborated with Outland in 2022 to release a new hand-drawn digital art series called Fragments. The series received widespread acclaim. The fans had high expectations for Fragments' narrative derivative work, "Adrift," set to launch in 2023. The platform aimed to establish a fan community centred around Jean and his work. However, fans wanted to interact with the artist and participate in the secondary creation of his work, while also receiving better financial returns. How would Outland establish an intellectual property licensing mechanism to increase non-fungible token (NFT) creators and holders an enhanced financial return?

Global health and wellness industries worldwide have been changing rapidly. In China, traditional Chinese supplements brand Guanzhan was founded in 2014 with the aim to provide younger consumers with new types of supplements that would satisfy their changing needs. The company employed a "New Retail" model to best serve the targeted consumer groups, who, compared to their older counterparts, knew little about traditional medicine and had higher taste and convenience requirements for supplement products. As of when the case was written, Guanzhan's ready-to-eat fish maw products had become one of the leading supplement product categories in the Chinese market. Looking into the future, the company sought to expand their footprint offline and develop new products that would satisfy the offline markets.

The production supervisor of Gupta Furniture was tasked with selecting a mode of production that not only met the demand for the company's best-selling product, the office interior chair, but also minimized the overall cost of production. The firm's operations manager had stressed that the chosen production strategy should enable the company to meet demand at the lowest possible cost. As such, the brief was to prepare a comprehensive aggregate plan based on the forecasted demand scenario, considering how much to produce and when to produce in addition to determining which strategy among those traditionally applied would give the best results. The major challenge lay in planning and scheduling inventory, and determining regular production, overtime production, subcontracting, and employment levels over a medium term of 9 to 15 months, though both the short-term and long-term implications of these quantitative decisions also had to be taken into account.

In 2018, artisanal Italian vineyard Frank Cornelissen was one of the world's leading natural wine vineyards. Its founder, Frank Cornelissen, faced weather related conditions that forced him to have to decide between staying true to the tenets of the natural wine community or breaking with his public beliefs to save that year's wines.

Fusion energy is evolving from a scientific idea to a commercial possibility, drawing large investments and regulatory discussions; how should the FIA navigate this evolution? The Fusion Industry Association (FIA) is at the forefront of transforming fusion energy from a scientific concept to a booming industry. This shift, marked by significant investments and legislative interest, faces challenges in technology, funding, and regulation. Key topics include fusion's technical background, and the association's role in industry growth. Ongoing debates include questions surrounding continued investment, supply chain issues, technological diversity, and the geopolitics that are a practical part of the global energy landscape.

Target Malaria, a non-profit research consortium, is exploring the application of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology to combat malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its approach uses gene drives, a revolutionary tool, to suppress the population of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Although gene drives are 5-10 years from being tested in the wild, Target Malaria's strategy of staged implementation has been driven by a thoughtful, highly regulated, and long pathway. The case describes the complexity and technical intricacies of gene drive technology, the stakeholder and community engagement process, ecological and ethical risks with releasing genetically modified organisms into the wild, and the regulatory structure. Since a gene drive has the potential to alter not just a single organism but an entire species, the case raises critical questions central to the deployment of transformative technologies in public health: How can the global community govern technologies when their effects transcend national borders? What are the potential long-term ecological impacts, and how can they be mitigated? How do you balance risks and benefits of a technology like gene drives, given that malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people (mostly children) every year?

In November 2023, Mark Branson, the head of Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), reflected on the efficacy of the reforms initiated since the Wirecard scandal. BaFin had been discredited after Wirecard's downfall in 2020. The press had derided it as a "toothless tiger" because of its limited supervisory powers when it came to addressing warning signs of large-scale accounting fraud. Why did BaFin fail to detect the Wirecard scandal? Were the reforms sufficient to prevent another large-scale accounting fraud and to build trust with investors?

Based in Boston's Chinatown, the Asian Community Development Corporation's mission was to build affordable homes, empower families, and strengthen communities. The case examines whether ACDC should continue pursuing all three goals or focus on affordable housing.

In early 2022, Courtney McColgan, founder and CEO of Runa, a human resources and payroll Software-as-a-Service platform, faced an unexpected tech market downturn. Founded in 2018, Runa catered to small and medium-sized businesses in Mexico, offering an affordable and easy-to-use cloud-based solution. McColgan, a serial entrepreneur from Southern California, firmly believed the platform could disrupt Mexico's vast industry, and become a billion-dollar business. After an initial period of rapid growth during its first 18 months of operations, and amidst hiring a new executive team, Runa's growth began to falter as attracting new clients became increasingly hard, and customer acquisition costs increased. In August 2021, Runa raised more funds amidst an unprecedented expansion in venture capital investment in Latin America, and it deployed additional marketing strategies and developed new products to entice customers. However, by early 2022, the venture scenario grew gloomier, and tech companies began to take cautionary measures. How should Runa adapt to a potentially more limited funding scenario and perhaps even less favorable growth prospects in the short run? Would dramatic structural and strategic changes be needed? Or should McColgan consider shutting down her business and create a new venture?

As a leading education company in China, the New Oriental Education Technology Group is constantly responding to the challenges. In 2021, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and China's "double reduction'"policy, New Oriental was actively engaged in a strategic transformation, seeking new directions. Major actions include joining the live e-commerce track, partnering with farmers and rural enterprises, and selling agricultural products on e-commerce platforms. New Oriental has achieved remarkable results in 2022 by highlighting its unique approach to live e-commerce. However, the company is finding it hard to sustain its current success, so New Oriental needs to determine its future directions.

The founders of SENS Foods (SENS), a Czech sustainable-food small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), wanted to expand the business beyond their home market. SENS was operating in the rapidly growing alternative-protein market using products derived from edible crickets. Due to its increasing profitability and international expansion potential, SENS saw an opportunity to expand into one of more Nordic markets-Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. SENS had to explore the possible modes of entry and evaluate the most suitable ones. In the short term, SENS had a sustained competitive advantage with its Thailand-based Cricket Lab Ltd. farm and its brand name. SENS's intangible resources-business positioning and messaging, innovation, and research-represented a temporary competitive advantage. For market selection purposes, five cluster criteria were proposed to assess the attractiveness of the identified markets: estimating the level of primary competition, market maturity, market size, country environmental performance, and transportation costs. The founders needed to evaluate the four Nordic countries using these five selection criteria to identify the top two countries for further examination regarding mode of entry and level of competition.

Rijul Jain, the operations supervisor at Grooves Distillery Records (Grooves), is trying to decide if and how to address capacity issues at this boutique vinyl record production facility after receiving a large contract that increased demand significantly. Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the small business was started by Josephine "Fina" Leite and her wife, Theresa, to produce vinyl records of modern indie music for vinyl record enthusiasts. Jain must figure out where a bottleneck exists, balance Grooves' line of production workers, and increase production to meet demand.

The case study revolves around Amir Hashem El Dandarawy, the leader of the El Amara tribe in Upper Egypt, who faces two pressing conflicts. El Dandarawy must navigate these conflicts, mediate between the embattled families, and assert his tribe's rights while maintaining neutrality and integrity. The case examines El Dandarawy's leadership style; prominent Western leadership models such as servant leadership, transformational leadership, situational leadership, and ethical leadership; and different approaches to conflict resolution in Arab culture, including mediation, negotiation, consultation, and consensus-building. Students are challenged to compare and contrast Western and Eastern approaches to leadership and conflict resolution.

In late 2022, a difficult period for the cryptocurrency industry persisted, marking the middle of what many considered a "crypto winter." Popular tokens and currencies like Bitcoin and Solana lost over 50 per cent of their value, with other Web 3.0 adjacent technologies following the same path. Debate surrounded the industry at large, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) flexed its regulatory muscle on a "poster boy" non-fungible token (NFT), Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), in efforts to provide more structure to the NFT market. The chairman of the SEC, Gary Gensler, who was extremely knowledgeable in the crypto space and also considered a tough regulator among the community, had to determine how to classify BAYC. Ultimately, questions surrounding BAYC's legal interpretation were being posed in the SEC's investigation: Should BAYC be regulated as a security? Were investors protected? Should NFTs be considered art? Did BAYC violate security regulations? As one of the leading representatives of the entire $2 trillion crypto industry, the potential regulation of BAYC had major implications for its peers, the underlying technology, and a spectrum of investors.

For over two decades, Paul Delp, the President of Lansdale Warehouse, had faced a daunting challenge; the Stony Creek rail line, which provided rail service to his warehousing business in Lansdale, Pennsylvania (PA), USA, had suffered from deteriorating track conditions and poor service. These issues resulted in delayed and disrupted shipments, lost customers, increased costs, and a decline in customer satisfaction, causing Delp to fear for the viability of his business. Despite several efforts, Delp had struggled to gain the attention of the two Class I railroad companies that jointly owned the rail line to his facility. With over 60 years of business under his belt, Delp faced one of his most significant challenges yet-finding a solution to keep his business afloat.

Innovation in aged care offers opportunities to create positive and inclusive change. Globally, healthcare systems are realizing the importance of customer-focused care, especially, when funding is limited. Residential aged care providers have traditionally focused on ensuring the health and safety of their residents. However, there are opportunities to address residents' needs and enhance their well-being without compromising their health and safety. The case explores a not-for-profit healthcare service organization seeking to make improvements to meals that will improve nutrition, but do not require a significant financial investment. This case examines the role of food and nutrition and also positions the dining experience as a mediator for residents' quality of life.

On March 24, 2015, the chief executive officer of SVB Financial Group Inc., the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, was testifying to a US Senate committee. His goal was to provide evidence in support of raising the threshold of US$50 billion in assets, for Silicon Valley Bank's application for enhanced prudential standards under the Dodd-Frank Act. Silicon Valley Bank was above the threshold of $10 billion for some enhanced prudential standards, and close to the $50 billion cut-off for the full array of enhanced prudential standards. By the end of 2021, Silicon Valley Bank still fell below strict scrutiny from the enhanced prudential standards, despite having experienced rapid growth since the US Senate testimony. With the rapid growth of its deposits, the bank was facing a dilemma. Given the nearly zero rates on short-term bonds as of the end of 2021, should Silicon Valley Bank chase the higher yields provided by longer-term bonds and accept higher interest rate risk? What risk management practices should the bank follow? With its deposit base largely uninsured, would the bank's risk exposure become an issue?

In 2022, Adani Cement was in conflict with transport unions due to a dispute over freight costs. The company had recently acquired two new cement manufacturing plants in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India, but abruptly closed their operations in December 2022 due to rising freight costs. The plant closures, aimed at seeking lower freight charges, surprised and angered thousands of truck drivers. It was imperative to resolve the deadlock between Adani Cement and the transport unions over freight rates.

In 2022, ToyBox Education Project sought to empower families to grow literacy, numeracy, and wellness starting at home. Based in Winnipeg, Canada, ToyBox Education Project provided an opportunity for students at the undergraduate and graduate level to complete several strategic assessments of a social enterprise within a post-secondary institution. The Faculty of Education at the University of Winnipeg had developed a number of tools to assist caregivers of children between ages two and eight to support their academic (i.e., literacy and numeracy) and social (i.e., wellness) development. The faculty received operational and research funding for three years. However, ToyBox Education Project had to find a financial model for long-term sustainability as well as develop its own capabilities to deliver its products and services.