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McDonald's newly appointed CEO Chris Kempczinski, who assumed office on November 4, 2019, is the protagonist of the case. With $21 billion in sales (in 2019) and 45,000 restaurants globally (thereof 27,000 in the United States), McDonald's remains the largest quick-service restaurant (QSR) chain. Attempting to be "everything for everybody," McDonald's fell victim to being "stuck-in-middle," without a clear strategic position. Kempczinski must confront several challenges if he is to return the company to its former glory, including: 1) How to balance the need to introduce new items while addressing "menu bloat"? 2) How to re-establish the reputation for quality products? 3) How to appeal to Millennials? 4) How to upgrade the customer experience through all channels and locations (in-store, delivery, and drive-through)? 5) How to reignite growth?

In 2007, Twentieth Century Fox faced a number of issues in the production of Avatar-a movie that was widely anticipated but had raised concerns in the production studios. Studio executives doubted the appeal of the plot and worried that audiences would not like the story. The movie needed to create an emotional appeal to attract audiences and make sufficient box office receipts. If the movie could not do this, Avatar would become one of the biggest money losers in the history of the movie industry. The project encountered many challenges in development-particularly in terms of time, budget, and technology, and the decision about whether to continue to invest or to pull the plug was extremely difficult. At what point did the risk become too significant? How should the studio decide when to go forward with a project and when to cancel it?

In May 2017 in Chennai, India, the chairman of Celebrity Fashions doubted whether the company could last until the end of the year. Venkatesh Rajagopal had found that the company, a readymade garment manufacturing and exporter he founded in 1989, was hitting hard times financially. It had been dealing with declining revenues for the past five years, and its losses had tripled between 2014-16. A slowdown in factory plant processes in 2006 and the value of the rupee against the dollar, as well as wage arrears, contributed to the financial problem. Rajagopal's son, Vidyuth, had recently joined the company after moving roles both within Celebrity and its sister company, Indian Terrain, and at organizations elsewhere. In 2017, as joint managing director, he was convinced he would be able to turn the company around. Vidyuth, along with the independent director Venky appointed, identified the problems. There were communication gaps on the factory floor, and this caused lags in the shipments of garments and pushed up costs of production. The financial problems had confused some employees, and others were not aware of it at all. The leadership team was not communicating effectively. Would Celebrity be able to cut operational costs, and would Vidyuth be able to get the buy-in from his team to transform the company, and protect his family business?

In 2017, the global market for rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries was 126 gigawatt-hours (GWh) valued at $37 billion, growing by $10 billion in two years. Once confined largely to consumer electronics and appliances, the rapid increase in demand was spurred by the adoption of electric cars and buses. Moreover, the falling cost of batteries was sparking interest in another potential huge market-the electrical utility sector. Batteries could be used to store electricity in periods of low demand and release it when demand was high, significantly reducing the need for peak generation capacity. However, historically, the costs of doing this had been prohibitively high. In response to the expected demand, several companies had announced "gigafactories," plants that, combined, could produce many times more output than total global demand in 2017. Tesla, Inc., the electric car maker, was the first. In 2014, it announced a 35 GWh battery plant, costing $5 billion, to be built in Nevada, enough capacity to fulfill global demand in 2013. In 2017, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he would announce an additional four gigafactory locations to supply the global market. Tesla was not alone in its battery ambitions. In late 2016, start-up Alevo began delivery of its new "GridBank" batteries from a 3.5 million square-foot facility in North Carolina, with the potential to scale to 60 GWh. Alevo claimed its batteries lasted four times longer and were safer than the conventional Li-ion batteries used by Tesla. Anxious not to be reliant on third parties, in 2017, several automakers had announced plans to build battery capacity, including General Motors and Daimler. Indeed, Daimler announced two plants for its Mercedes brand cars, one in Germany and one in China. New start-ups were also entering the fray, with Northvolt AB of Sweden partnering with ABB of Switzerland to build a 32 GWh facility.

"The Boss Has the Wrong Idea" is a two-person conversation exercise in which an MBA student seeks advice from a mentor in her field about how to handle an incident of workplace sexual harassment. The case consists of two confidential role materials: a role for the student, Julia, which describes her troubling experience with her boss during a summer internship, and a role for the senior mentor, Lee, which mentions that Julia is hoping to receive advice from him about a complicated situation. Julia's story presents a richly detailed, first-hand (fictionalized) account of a young woman's experience in a male-dominated, competitive firm. Her narrative provides a compelling representation of the nuances and challenges associated with experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace. Because it is written as a conversation exercise, the case provides students, faculty, and administrators with not only the opportunity to think about how to address (and prevent) sexual harassment within their own organizations, but also with the opportunity to engage in the difficult conversations that these issues demand. How can we best offer support and guidance? What are strategies for effective listening, question asking, and advice-giving in emotionally-charged and sensitive situations?

"The Boss Has the Wrong Idea" is a two-person conversation exercise in which an MBA student seeks advice from a mentor in her field about how to handle an incident of workplace sexual harassment. The case consists of two confidential role materials: a role for the student, Julia, which describes her troubling experience with her boss during a summer internship, and a role for the senior mentor, Lee, which mentions that Julia is hoping to receive advice from him about a complicated situation. Julia's story presents a richly detailed, first-hand (fictionalized) account of a young woman's experience in a male-dominated, competitive firm. Her narrative provides a compelling representation of the nuances and challenges associated with experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace. Because it is written as a conversation exercise, the case provides students, faculty, and administrators with not only the opportunity to think about how to address (and prevent) sexual harassment within their own organizations, but also with the opportunity to engage in the difficult conversations that these issues demand. How can we best offer support and guidance? What are strategies for effective listening, question asking, and advice-giving in emotionally-charged and sensitive situations?

Founded in 2016, DeepMap developed high definition (HD) mapping software and localization services for Level 4+ autonomous vehicles. Traditional navigational maps were accurate to a few meters, which was sufficient for drivers, but not for machine-driven vehicles which required centimeter level accuracy. Autonomous vehicles required a new form of map that was highly precise, produced a 3D representation of the surrounding area, enabled vehicles to locate themselves within the map, provided information for how to navigate safely using the correct rules of the road, and was updated continuously as road conditions changed. DeepMap was not selling a static mapping database, but rather licensing its software under a software-as-a-service model. As a startup with limited resources navigating a nascent market, DeepMap faced uncertainty across several dimensions: the timing of overall AV market adoption, which countries would adopt fastest, which AV segments would move most rapidly, which sensor technologies would become standard, and what impact regulation would have. They also faced the challenge of serving customers on a global scale. As DeepMap looked ahead, it had to decide how and where to focus and allocate its funding in order to achieve its short and long-term objectives.

The CEO of a climbing-gym chain whose UK locations are faltering must decide whether to press on or pull back from his international growth plans. This fictional case study by Simon Greathead features expert commentary by Anthony Geisler and David Spigner.

The CEO of a climbing-gym chain whose UK locations are faltering must decide whether to press on or pull back from his international growth plans. This fictional case study by Simon Greathead features expert commentary by Anthony Geisler and David Spigner.

The CEO of a climbing-gym chain whose UK locations are faltering must decide whether to press on or pull back from his international growth plans. This fictional case study by Simon Greathead features expert commentary by Anthony Geisler and David Spigner.

Saregama India Limited (Saregama), a 117-year-old music company, was on a growth trajectory. Its third-quarter financial results in 2017-2018 had shown unprecedented growth. Over the previous three years, Saregama had converted its conventional copyrighted music into high-quality digital formats and made a rare stretch from the business-to-business (B2B) to business-to-consumer (B2C) market. The company had added new intellectual properties (IP) in audio and video. Then in 2017, Saregama launched Carvaan, a portable music player with 5,000 evergreen songs. Cleverly created to meet the needs of its older target audience, the Carvaan was largely responsible for the company's turnaround. Saregama's goal was to be a ₹20 billion IP content company in the next five years. To make that happen in the context of rapidly evolving technologies and consumer trends, the company needed sharply defined short- and long-term strategies that addressed content acquisition, its success with Carvaan, and its pursuit of B2B and B2C markets.

Erick Mueller was thrilled! The fledging company that he and two friends had started a few months earlier had been the widely acknowledged 'hit' of the 2007 IAAPA Attractions Expo, a trade show in Orlando, Florida that brought together more than 1,100 exhibitors and nearly 20,000 buyers from most of the world's amusement industry, from companies large and small. From Disney to Ripley's Believe-it-or-Not to Madame Tussauds, a who's-who of the industry had blessed Mueller and his small team with more than 100 leads. "That's the good news," thought Mueller, "but where should I start?"

In the summer of 2018, Richard Bbaale sat in a rural village in Uganda, looking over a banana plantation. He recalled the inspiration behind BanaPads as he contemplated what to do next. It had been 10 years since he had founded the non-governmental organisation (NGO) to help women and girls in rural settings overcome the challenges of menstruation - challenges that he had witnessed first as an older brother to his sister and then as a teacher at an all-girls' school.

CircleUp was founded in 2012 as a marketplace that matched accredited investors to emerging consumer packaged goods companies. A tool that the team developed early-on to reduce the friction involved in finding and evaluating new companies, Helio, gradually become very accurate in predicting the growth trajectory of early-stage companies. Ryan Caldbeck, co-founder and CEO of CircleUp, decided in 2018 to shut down the marketplace and focus the company on leveraging Helio's insights to directly provide equity and credit financing to CPG startups. This decision was followed by two difficult, significant discussions. First, Caldbeck met with the board of directors, where one investor reacted negatively and asked to sell his stake in the company. Second, Caldbeck presented the new direction to CircleUp employees, some of whom worried what would happen if the company became an investment firm instead of a tech company. By 2019, Caldbeck was on the precipice of another big change for CircleUp. The firm was raising a large fund to begin systematic investing, but finding investors for the disruptive offering was proving difficult. Additionally, as word spread about the power of Helio's insights CircleUp began receiving partnership offers from large, established companies. These offers caused Caldbeck to debate if CircleUp should further monetize Helio.

Impax Laboratories was a technology-based pharmaceutical company that used a "dual platform" strategy to sell both generic and branded treatments. While Impax had grown organically for most of its history, it was beginning to use major acquisitions for growth. In the early morning of June 21, 2016, the firm issued a press release announcing it was buying a portfolio of generic drugs from Teva for $586 million in cash. The leadership team (CEO, CFO, and Head of Investor Relations) was now preparing for a conference call with analysts and investors to describe the deal's acquisition price, strategic rationale, and financial impact. Like its first major acquisition-the acquisition of Tower Holdings in 2014 for $700 million-the Teva acquisition was expected to be immediately accretive (i.e., the firm's expected earnings per share in 2016 would increase). Was the leadership team ready to answer the full range of questions investors might ask and to explain the deal's strategic rationale and financial implications in compelling ways? And would investors react as favorably to the Teva announcement as they had when Impax announced the Tower Holdings acquisition-Impax closed up 12% that day?

In 2016, Affectiva-a Boston-based emotion AI software company with a long track record of building emotion-sensing software for market research-had attempted to expand into new verticals by releasing a mobile software development kit (SDK) that downloaders could adapt for their own use cases. The experience taught Affectiva that the company itself would have to bear most of the financial risk for adapting its technologies but also demonstrated that the automotive industry was very interested in using Affectiva's technology to monitor the emotions and cognitive states of drivers and passengers. In 2018, Affectiva executed a "90% pivot" to serve the automotive industry's increasing demand for "emotion AI". However, with automotive revenues not expected for several years and very expensive data collection requirements to enter the industry, Affectiva faced a challenging set of trade-offs between its market research business, its SDK, and its automotive aspirations.

As 2018 neared its end, Laetitia Toupet, international general manager of L'Oréal's La Roche-Posay brand reflected on the brand's achievements over the past year. At €1 billion in revenue, La Roche-Posay had recently become the number one dermocosmetics brand in the world. While Toupet was pleased with this feat, she believed that the brand was at a critical juncture. It was time to make some significant marketing decisions related to brand positioning to try to accelerate La Roche-Posay's future growth trajectory as dermocosmetics moved from serving a niche market to the mainstream.

Karen Miner is a partner at a management consulting firm, and she is becoming increasingly resentful of another partner who consistently prioritizes their family life, while letting others pick up their slack at their busy office. When Miner vents about it to trusted colleagues, she finds that they agree that it is a big problem, and pervasive throughout the office. With this case, students can role-play the eventual confrontation between these two partners, learn tools and tips for being effective in these types of difficult conversations, and extend the case with an assignment to pitch senior partners possible solutions for workload and work-life balance issues facing partners. The case is designed to surface students' instinctive decision-making and communication tendencies. Thus it is short enough to be read and responded to in class. Students are assigned readings and assignments related to the case after class discussion, in which they are encouraged to reflect on their initial responses. The case is quite flexible and would work in any course that deals with leadership, difficult conversations, decision-making, organizational behavior, human resources, and related topics. It is appropriate for a range of levels and audiences, especially MBA and executive education. It may work best with older students who may identify with the competing demands of family and work, although younger audiences may appreciate discussing these issues as well.

Peloton had redefined many things about the boutique exercise experience, bringing it into members' homes and eliminating per-class fees of roughly $34, instead charging $40 per month. Rather than chatting with a pal beside the gym locker for a few moments before class, customers had Peloton's online community of hundreds of thousands of people who interacted with one another digitally throughout the day. The instructors themselves were part of Peloton's cult following. They were expected to lead and inspire, not just teach a class, and each had a large social media following and minor celebrity status. The company was poised for an IPO in 2019 by identifying a new opportunity in a constantly evolving fitness space, by defining its business broadly, and by capitalizing upon the energy of celebrity and personality that online communities could bring to a brand. But how could a business built on a social community pivot to a position in the public marketplace?