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This case illustrates how Vontobel, a mid-size Swiss private bank successfully built out its multi-issuer platform for Structured Products (SPs). The case starts by describing the industry of SPs, the market for SPs in Switzerland, and on Vontobel building its know-how in SPs. As a result, deritrade® Single-Issuer Platform (SIP) was launched in 2010. The platform helped gain operational efficiency, relieve employees from doing manual operations and thus allow scarce resources to focus on the core businesses. The bank then gained experience in the market with its SIP. Once the SIP delivered its full power and the SP market stagnated, Vontobel considered opening its platform to its competitors to become a Multi-Issuer Platform (MIP). Yet, there were numerous challenges faced by the company with this decision: cannibalization, convincing competitors to join, pricing, and governance.

The case discusses the strategy of Pantheon, a UK-based fund of funds investing in private equity. Client demands and preferences had changed in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis and Pantheon had to adapt its business model to accommodate requests for new asset classes and customized portfolios. The challenge was to keep an eye on the fee structure, as clients also put pressure on the costs. Pantheon had extended its offer into infrastructure, real assets, and private debt, and had found a way to offer customized portfolio solutions at an acceptable cost level, but the very long-term nature of private asset classes was making it difficult to assess the success of this strategic turnaround.

The chief financial officer (CFO) of the Richard Ivey School of Business (Ivey) is reflecting on the state of the school. Ivey's MBA program was just beginning its inaugural year in the new 12-month format at the Spencer Leadership Centre (Spencer), and all signs pointed to a successful start. However, it was becoming obvious to the CFO that the Executive Education programs at Ivey would face some serious capacity constraints, given the resulting reduction in available space in the building. The CFO was considering the need for a $7 million expansion to Spencer to ensure that Ivey would be able to continue its number one position in the executive education market in Canada.

The chief executive officer of RenY Corporation (RenY) based in Hong Kong, had just established the Ghana Investment Fund Limited (GIF) as a subsidiary of RenY in Ghana. GIF aimed to invest in the entrepreneurial ideas of university graduates in Ghana under a model that brought together the intellectual capital of the graduates, e-commerce, and investment capital under an umbrella of mentoring and collaboration. Access to Ghanaian government contracts to provide products and services was an important aspect of the CEO's sustainable development plans for low income communities, but he was faced with ethical issues on the way government business was done in Ghana-to be successful in gaining some of these contracts, extra payments were required. He had to decide if his investment was going to result in nothing or if there was a way to move forward.

Set in 2019, the case describes the challenge Starbucks faces from Luckin coffee, a local start up in China. Having entered China in 1999, Starbucks was the undisputed leader with more than 70% market share and 3600 cafes by 2018. The brand's success was rooted in its core proposition of providing consumers a 'third place', an escape from both home and the work place, to relax and indulge themselves. While China/Asia Pacific was Starbucks' fastest growing market, the company faced a setback in the region in 2018. There was a decline in its third quarter sales, total number of transactions for the year, and the annual operating income. Starbucks' sudden downturn in the region could be attributed to the threat to its third place positioning by Luckin. Launched in November 2017, Luckin grew to more than 2,300 stores in just 17 months. Unlike Starbucks, it offered lower prices and the convenience of having coffee anywhere - at home, the work place or a café. Its mobile app-linked order and cashless payment platform, and a store pick-up and delivery model appealed to the country's digitally savvy millennials. Over 2018-2019, the company successfully raised US$550 million, and in May 2019, came out with its IPO. By the end of 2019, Luckin aimed to open a total of 4,850 stores to surpass Starbucks' planned network of 4,200 stores. The sudden rise of Luckin raises serious questions to engage students. What should Starbucks do in order to maintain its dominance in China? Should it emulate Luckin and work towards building a stronger and wider delivery channel, or should it continue to pursue its premium priced experiential retail strategy? And, would Luckin's cash burn business model that includes heavy discounting, aggressive advertising and a rapid store expansion fail or succeed eventually?

In 2007, California-based Pannacotta Development had built iPort 12 near two active New Jersey shipping ports for $122 million. Now in 2011, with only one tenant, the property was losing $2.7 million at the operating level, and the project's $76.5 million construction loan was in default. The lender, Bank of America (BofA), had taken control of the property and decided to sell the buildings. The transaction market was at a standstill and BofA knew iPort 12 would certainly sell for less than the loan balance. KTR, one of only a few buyer prospects, was under contract to purchase the project for $53 million-less than half of Pannacotta $122 million cost. It was a heady time for KTR. The fully integrated real estate private equity fund manager specializing in industrial property was sitting on $375 million of uninvested capital from KTR's $700 million second fund, a 2008-vintage vehicle whose investment period was due to expire at the end of 2011. On the heels of the financial crisis, KTR's 2009 and 2010 investments were priced to deliver relatively safe 13 percent IRRs, with potential upside if the market recovered. But the investment market had begun to shift in late 2010. Prices for well-located, leased properties had firmed as the capital markets recovered. In sharp contrast, the market for properties with substantial vacancy was an entirely different story as leasing activity remained depressed. As debt service shortfalls mounted, lenders became impatient, seized control and began selling the distressed collateral for defaulted loans. Buying these properties meant considerably greater risk than KTR's 2009 and 2010 acquisitions. But, with more risk came the prospect of 20 percent or higher IRRs.

This note examines the corporate venture capital (CVC) industry, which has played an increasingly large role in the global innovation ecosystem, especially in Silicon Valley, over the last decade. The contents of the note include: a history of CVC beginning in the early 1960s; a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the industry in the late 2010s; a summary of the primary reasons why large corporations establish CVC arms; a framework for balancing strategic and financial value; profiles of three prominent CVC arms; a discussion of the challenges to realizing strategic value; and a process model to improve strategic collaboration.

Align Technologies was a leader in disrupting the orthodontist and dental markets with the original development of clear plastic aligners, which allowed for customized solutions to malocclusions, the incorrect alignment of teeth and jaws. Unlike traditional braces, plastic aligners enabled more flexibility and customization by combining digital and physical technologies that were convenient and attractive than other alternatives. As the company began to enter its third decade, the leadership team was dealing with the challenges of new competition, expiring patents, how to improve international growth and how best to increase operational efficiency.

China Merchants Bank, the sixth-largest lender in China, intends to boost its family office business as a result of an increase in the population of ultra-high net worth individuals. Already ranked China's number-one private bank with AUM exceeding US$300 billion, the Bank is exploring different ways to cater to the demand from newly minted billionaires and their families, and to maintain its competitiveness in retaining these customers amid fierce competition with domestic and foreign banks. Management also needs to brace for an emerging trend in which super-affluent families opt to reduce their reliance on traditional bankers by setting up independent family offices. The case raises issues in segmentation of private banking, change in organization design, and devising strategies for target customers and value creation.

Talking Points is a U.S. not-for-profit 501c3 organization that provides a multilingual platform to help teachers communicate with families. The idea was first created in 2014 at a Startup Weekend as a translation-embedded SMS tool, inspired by the evidence of a strong connection between parental engagement and student outcomes. By 2019 the organization was reaching 500,000 families, exclusively via word of mouth. They had plenty of internally-collected data and anecdotes about their positive effects on students, families and teachers. MIT's Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab was assisting them to conduct a randomized control trial (RCT, the "gold standard" in measuring efficacy) in the 20-21 school year. The product, which uses a combination of AI and human translation, had grown to include versions for schools and districts. The company was earning subscription revenue and strong customer retention. They also faced competition from several venture-backed for-profit start-ups. At the time of the case, the organization has just received a sizable grant from google.org, which would enable it to transition from a small start-up to a more established entity.

In 2015, Homesake entered the home décor sector in India by designing, producing, and selling home décor products, including lighting, tableware, and wall hangings. By 2018, after three years in operation, Homesake had generated sufficient sales that its founder was ready to grow the business internationally; increase its traditional (offline) retail sales; and expand to hotels, bars, pubs, and restaurants. However, challenges related to a possible expansion were becoming evident, including the contractual nature of the labour force, inefficiencies in the supply chain, a constant need to design and develop new products, and the need to improve quality control and logistics. What would be the best course and business model for the founder to pursue to ensure Homesake's consistent growth in the future?

The case is set in September 2019, and the protagonist of the case is Sheryl Sandberg. The case opens with her contemplating the new ventures on which Facebook is embarking, such as its transformation into a mega-app, the launch of its Libra cryptocurrency and the roll-out of its dating site, so as to continue its growth and to fend off competition. More than 99 percent of Facebook's revenues come from advertising and, along with Alphabet's Google, it dominates the digital advertising space. However, Facebook and other big tech companies are coming under increasing attack from governments and civil society groups for this dominance. Antitrust investigations and possible break-ups of these big firms are being proposed. Sandberg is facing other challenges as well. Concerns about how Facebook uses data it gathers from its users have come to the forefront. It has fallen afoul of privacy laws in Europe and the United States and been subject to large fines. Facebook's role as a vehicle for propagating fake news has been under scrutiny. Elections in the United States have been impacted and civil unrest (with occasionally fatal results) has occurred in other countries. Libra itself is facing problems, as governments and regulators voice objections to its introduction, applying pressure on potential partners. In 2019, Facebook was the fifth most valuable company on the planet, with a market capitalization of $540 billion (behind Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet).

In the fall of 2018, Serbia found itself at a crossroads yet again. Following the Balkan Wars of the 1990s and the collapse of Yugoslavia, the country had embarked on a slow and arduous process of accession to the European Union (EU). This had been further hampered by the country's tortuous relations to its breakaway province of Kosovo, one of several regions fighting for political independence at a time when the continent itself was seeking greater economic and political integration in the form of the EU. Support for the EU accession was falling in Serbia, however, also in light of the increasing presence in the country of Russian and Chinese interests and investments. But would the country eventually have to pick a side amidst the rapidly changing geopolitics of the early twenty-first century?

Epic Games entered a stagnant market with its PC-games digital storefront in 2018, in the context of incumbent competitors such as Steam, its meteoric rise via Fortnite, and imminent industry shifts in gaming distribution. On the surface, Epic Games Store's competitive advantage was its revenue-sharing policy that was more generous to developers. Early successes revealed Epic Games' potential as a new distribution platform. After serving two sides of a market exceptionally well - game developers through Unreal Engine and individual users through hit-games such as Fortnite - could Epic Games become a PC-games distribution platform in the rapidly-changing video games industry?

This case follows Nikos Stathopoulos, Managing Partner of BC Partners, as he and his team evaluate the potential sale of one of BC Partners' portfolio companies, Acuris. Acuris was a global financial intelligence, news, and data company that had been acquired by BC Partners only three years prior. During that time, Stathopoulos and his team had been able to implement a variety of operational improvements and acquisitions which resulted in BC Partners receiving numerous offers for both full and partial sales of the company, at attractive multiples. But the BC Partners team felt there was still more gain to be realized from their value-add initiatives, and there were also several initiatives they had identified but not yet implemented. Stathopoulos had to decide: should they pursue a full sale, partial sale, or no sale at all?

Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd. (STFCL), the flagship company of the Shriram Group, India's largest player in commercial vehicle finance is trying to transition from a Relationship based model to a Fintech based model in order to provide end consumers with speed, convenience, choice and savings. Digital transactions had reached an all-time high of 1.11 billion in January 2018 and digital payments were estimated to increase to USD 1 trillion by 2023. However, a judgement by the Supreme Court of India has created additional adoption challenges for the firm. This case revolves around the challenges that STFCL will have to face while adopting Fintech within the firm and getting its customers to adopt it as well. It needs to come up with an appropriate strategy to make the transition from traditional payment systems to digital payments systems, given the kind of business model and the organisational processes used in go-to-market activities.

In February 2016, SpruceLand Properties Inc. (SpruceLand) faced a difficult decision that would determine the future of the company. SpruceLand had been founded as a community development company mandated to create financial returns while engaging in socially beneficial projects. Residents of the northern Alberta region could choose to be shareholders and invest in their own communities' economic development. The company had grown successfully, but it had become a victim of its own success. It had diversified investments and continued to grow and be profitable, but the company's initial mandates had long been achieved and the liquidity of shares remained a problem. What actions should the chief executive officer recommend to the board?