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The Indian banking sector had undergone significant changes since 1991 when it was transformed from a highly regulated, predominantly state-owned industry to a more competitive industry with a sizeable presence of private sector banks. However, by 2017, despite reforms implemented by the government, the sector was facing many challenges. The most worrisome problem was an increasing number of non-performing assets (NPAs), particularly among the state-owned banks. Although the Indian economy was one of the fastest growing among larger countries with a stable government, its future growth was compromised by the immediate challenges in the banking sector. What had caused NPAs in the Indian banking sector and how could the problem be addressed?

In February 1933, President Herbert Hoover reviewed the past four years of his administration. He had met a stock market crash and a recession that worsened into the Depression with actions out of the playbook of Republican "orthodoxy": balanced budgets, tax reduction, protectionism, and community relief based on volunteerism. Yet as the Depression deepened, Hoover pivoted toward policies that pushed the limits of his own philosophy: debt financing of fiscal deficits, government investment in private enterprises, social relief, debt moratoriums, and public works spending to promote employment. None of these actions had halted the worsening economic news. In November 1932, New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Hoover in the presidential election. Now, in the interregnum before the transfer of office on March 4, 1933, economic conditions turned suddenly worse. Consumers and business leaders deferred spending until the new administration outlined its policies. Hoover sought Roosevelt's support for policies and actions to address the crisis. What should Hoover do or say to elicit that support? The answers lay in careful diagnosis of the problems and prioritization of remedies. Opinion was divided on the question of whether demand shocks or supply shocks had caused the Great Depression-each would dictate different policy actions. What was the appropriate diagnosis? What should be the remedies? The A case presents the dominant narrative; a suggested B case provides correspondence between Hoover and Roosevelt.

In March 1921, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) wrestled with setting monetary policy during a severe economic contraction, called by many a depression. FRB members disagreed over whether to respond to the depression, and if so, how. The depression had sparked a crisis of purpose and policy within the FRB. For the past six years, FRB leaders had been trying to get the Treasury to allow the Federal Reserve (Fed) to pursue "orthodox" monetary policies; but the Treasury had demanded that the Fed implement policies that would support America's war effort. The depression also stoked intense criticism of the Fed from Progressives, Populists, labor, socialists, veterans, and farmers, who charged that the Fed caused the depression, and were now agitating for change. The FRB leaders confronted questions that seemed likely to shape the Fed for years to come. What should be the Fed's role in the American economy? How should the Fed help resolve World War I's debt burden and the resulting inflation? What reforms, if any, should the monetary authorities seek? Perhaps most importantly, was the "orthodoxy" of established practices still appropriate in the world that had emerged from the war?

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook based on the idea that connecting people was a fundamentally good thing-and a way to turn a handsome profit. But from the beginning, Facebook received criticism both for how it handled user privacy and how it curated user-generated content. These two issues coalesced in the aftermath of the 2016 United States presidential election, after Facebook's role in the spread of political misinformation and the leak of Facebook user data to political consulting firms began to receive significant media coverage. In 2019, Facebook announced it was shifting to a "digital living room" model that would focus more on private, encrypted conversations and less on sharing viral content. Several important questions remained. Would the digital living room ease users' privacy concerns? Would Facebook still be able to effectively curate content? Would its advertising model still work? Or were financial success and good governance mutually exclusive? This case explores the parameters of governing an internet-based platform.

Mike Zani and Daniel Muzquiz needed to decide next steps to create a new category in the human resources consulting industry and scale their company. Zani and Muzquiz, serial entrepreneurs, acquired Predictive Index in 2014. Previously, as clients of the 65-year-old Predictive Index, they had used its behavioral assessment tool to help them hire staff and build teams and they strongly believed in its value. They also believed, however, that Predictive Index had the potential to be something more. After acquiring the company, they invested in technology and people to modernize the business, and Predictive Index earned recognition as a "best place to work." In 2018, they developed a Talent Optimization platform, an offering that had the potential to transform the industry by helping companies align their business strategies with their human capital and leadership development strategies. In late 2019, as they prepared a broad rollout of Talent Optimization, and planned to scale their business by an order of magnitude, the pair wondered what hurdles they might face along the way and what other steps they should take to reach their goals.

Thermax is an engineering company in India that provides integrated solutions in energy, environment, and chemicals. The Aga family along with family trusts owns 62% of the company. Post a restructuring exercise in 2000, Thermax transforms itself from a small family business to a professionally managed $850 million conglomerate. Meher Pudumjee (family) is the current chairperson of the board. The case traces the journey of the company under the leadership of Meher's father, Rohinton Aga, who builds the business; her mother, Anu Aga, who restructures the company and professionalises it; and finally under Meher and the professional management team. In 2019, with the incumbent CEO scheduled to retire, Meher feels the company stands at a critical inflexion point and needs to rethink its strategy for the future. While historically Thermax has groomed people from within to take on leadership roles, she feels the next chapter of growth requires a completely fresh perspective and initiates a search for an external candidate. What qualities should the ideal candidate possess? How will this new incumbent integrate and extract loyalty as an outsider? Will the culture of the organization need to adapt in order to allow the new CEO to drive change?

Nationwide is "on your side," but did employees feel that way? CAO Gale King and CEO Steve Rasmussen, starting in 2008, invested heavily in a human capital strategy centered around "engagement" at the Ohio-based Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. Set in 2014, this case tells the story of those efforts to bolster employee engagement as a key part of the company's strategy to recover from the financial crisis (which it did far more effectively than most of its peers, rising in the Fortune 500 ranking as a result). From 2008 to 2013, Nationwide has seen employee engagement improve from the third to the sixth decile of Gallup's North American Finance and Insurance workgroup database. The case details the multi-pronged human capital strategy that Rasmussen and King implemented. It concludes by asking students to consider: will a new initiative aimed at moving Nationwide's dozen brand under a single umbrella jeopardize the culture gains that Nationwide has achieved over the last six years?

The case is designed to prompt considerations of the advantages and disadvantages of accepting external money from institutional investors into the corporate venture capital fund (CVC) for Swisscom. Our protagonist Dominique Megret, the head of the CVC, is placed in a situation which exposes him to c-suite pressures which test his ability and conviction to argue his selected path. The historical analysis showed patterns of initial vs follow-up investments, and the strategic horizon of the investments which essentially set out to support Swisscom's growth intentions. Organic internal options are mentioned as alternatives. As the financial means to continue to invest are limited by Swisscom, the company sets out to find external partners to co-invest - at the time an unusual path towards keeping growth options option. Megret has to convince his board that this is a good option for Swisscom.

In May 1932, US president Herbert Hoover and British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald called for leaders from 65 nations to attend the World Economic Conference, scheduled to occur in the winter of 1933 after the American presidential election. Hoover turned his attention to the instructions he would have to give to the American delegation about the forthcoming conference. Arguments by pundits, critics, and Hoover's advisers fell into at least three mutually exclusive camps. Some wanted the United States to assume world monetary leadership, since the world needed a financial hegemon. Others thought the United States should simply promote better financial cooperation among nations, since the world needed cooperation more than hegemony, and hegemony was costly. The third camp wanted the United States to simply let the markets equilibrate, since even mild "cooperation" might sacrifice national self-interest without much benefit. The global economic depression presented a dire situation. All the old rules of international monetary stability had been broken. Now, what new rules should Hoover aim to promote?

This case illustrates the challenge and opportunities that firms face when developing and executing new business models in high-risk, low-infrastructure, low-trust countries. It features a global logistics group, Agility, that aimed to become the leader in supplying innovative solutions that provide the backbone to growing consumer markets across Africa. Agility's objective was to fill the institutional voids in the warehousing and logistics space that prevented multi-nationals and local firms from successfully operating at a level similar to Western countries and other emerging markets. After proof-of-concept success in Ghana's free zone, Agility faced the challenge of expanding its business model across a diverse continent of 54 countries. Agility Africa's CEO, Geoffrey White, needed to plot the way forward. Should he set a high entry barrier by building several warehouse parks in one of Africa's economic regions? Or, should he expand across the continent with one facility in each of the large and growing countries? If the decision was to pursue regional expansion, should he try to open one park per country-even in small ones-or build satellite developments in secondary cities where Agility already had facilities? He also needed to consider the pace of phasing in each park and the possibility of developing multiple parks in existing locations. With the world's fastest growing middle-class population and an internet revolution poised to spur the growth of consumer products and industrialization, Africa was considered by many as the world's leading and largely untapped, emerging market. White needed to make difficult and nuanced decisions that took account of the continent's many differences, as well as business similarities.

The cases of Standard Chartered v. Directorate of Enforcement (2005), Iridium India v. Motorola Inc & Ors. (2011), and Sunil Bharti Mittal v. Central Bureau of Investigation represent a significant development in India's corporate criminal liability jurisprudence. Standard Chartered reconciled mandatory imprisonment (as prescribed for punishing many offences under Indian law) with the impossibility of imprisoning corporations, Iridium explained whether corporations are capable of committing crimes which require intent (mens rea), and Sunil Bharti Mittal clarified whether the liability of a corporation for a criminal act can be attributed to its directors/promoters.

In 2009, Dan Meyer and Richard Palmer, two veterans of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, founded Nehemiah Manufacturing to build FMCG brands while providing jobs to Cincinnati, Ohio's beleaguered urban core. Two years later, the pair made their first "second-chance" hire of a convicted felon, a successful experiment which would grow to define the company. By 2019, Nehemiah's factory floor, as well as several supervisory and management positions, would be staffed by ex-offenders. With a robust net of social support services and a non-profit foundation for training peer companies in how to hire second-chance employees, Meyer and Palmer advocated using second-chance hiring to decrease turnover and create staff loyalty. This case deals with the challenges and opportunities associated with growing a manufacturing company while prioritizing a social mission, and enables students to evaluate the potential of second-chance hiring programs.

Ellen J. Kullman, the retired Chairman and CEO of DuPont, describes how she guided the storied science and technology company through a contentious proxy battle with activist investor Trian Partners, which acquired DuPont shares in 2013 and sought to break up the company. Trian's pursuit of board seats led to a 2015 shareholder vote, which DuPont won under Kullman's leadership. In a sweeping interview with Professor Lynn S. Paine, Kullman describes lessons from her experiences navigating the proxy contest that captured national attention as well as about working with your board, setting company strategy, leading a large corporation, evaluating time frames for shareholder returns, measuring stakeholder performance, assessing shareholder engagement, considering joining a new board and boardroom dynamics, and understanding how boards have changed over the years.

Gupta Media is a Digital Marketing firm started in 2005 that places advertisements and marketing promotions for its clients in digital media, mainly social media such as Facebook and Google. Over the years it had built its expertise in promoting music labels, artists and music festivals. Because its media placements were carefully optimized, it was able to return a high degree of performance on the marketing dollar for its clients. The case series (A), (B), and a data intensive Excel Spread sheet focuses on how to optimize performance for two such clients, the Governors Ball Music Festival in NY and Fender Play (a musical instrument company). The case ends with the question of whether such performance marketing techniques can be applied to consumer packaged goods (Red Bull) sold through indirect distribution. The case series provides students hands-on experience with "performance marketing" data and teaches them how to make data driven digital marketing budget allocation decisions.

On 18 November 2018, Dolce & Gabbana S.R.L. (D&G) released three short videos on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as well as Sina Weibo in China to promote its first-ever fashion show in mainland China. The campaign was specifically designed to drum up excitement about an important catwalk event to be held at the Expo Center of Shanghai on 21 November 2018. However, the videos did not create the intended positive effect. In fact, the incongruous or extreme presentations in the videos jeopardized the entire promotion campaign. From the Chinese audience's perspective, the D&G videos were not entertaining but inappropriate, offensive, and racist. The result enraged the Chinese audience and fueled a heated online debate. Within 24 hours, under public pressure, D&G was forced to remove the videos from its Weibo promotion channel. While many Chinese media users were demanding a formal apology from D&G for the videos, the company allowed the debate to simmer and boil for the next few days. This case is the first case of a three-part case series. It can be used on a stand-alone basis or in combination with Case B (D&G's Marketing Missteps in China (B): The Deepening Crisis) and Case C (D&G's Marketing Missteps in China (C): The Epilogue).

This case is about global marketing, brand equity, overall business strategy and supply management. The case outlines the bold and polarizing strategic choices made by The Macallan management between 2009 and 2017 and offers an opportunity to debate and discuss the next best strategic move for The Macallan brand. The Macallan is part of the Edrington Group, which distributes the Famous Grouse, Scotland's leading blended whisky and The Macallan, which is now the global number three single malt Scotch whisky. The Macallan built a strong brand equity and reputation with its rich flavored whiskies, using age as the key communication tool to indicate quality for decades. In 2009 The Macallan launched its first single malt whisky in travel retail without any age statement on it. The travel exclusive line up was followed by additional products for retail focused on color as a differentiator. These new retail products replaced the majority of The Macallan's age line-up in the biggest market Europe (ages between 8 and 17), while older versions stayed on the market. These surprising innovations were in response to the growing demand combined with serious supply constraints. The Macallan invested in extending its production capacity, and students will be able to debate whether The Macallan should move back to the old age days or keep moving on with the strategy introduced in 2009. Or use a strategy combining both.

Planet Fitness, one of the largest health club chains in the world, developed a strategy that enabled it to achieve solid profits in a highly competitive industry. By 2018, the company operated more than 1,500 gyms, most of which were owned and operated by franchisees. In its 2017 annual report, Planet Fitness boasted of 44 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth. By August 2018, the company's stock price had risen by over 150% since its initial public offering in 2015, outpacing the S&P 500 index by a wide margin. CEO Chris Rondeau expressed a desire to open 1,000 additional locations in the next five years, largely through franchising, and proclaimed a desire to eventually operate more than 4,000 locations in the United States. Some observers expressed skepticism about the company's aggressive growth objectives. At the same time, fitness enthusiasts and serious athletes often mocked the company's approach to fitness because it proudly proclaimed itself a "judgement-free zone" where people could exercise without feeling intimidated by serious athletes and muscular bodybuilders. Could Planet Fitness sustain its competitive advantage while aiming to grow so rapidly? Could it succeed long term in an industry where many competitors had failed?

Globe Telecom, a leading telecommunications service provider in the Philippines, had a long history in the communications business. The company was incorporated in 1935 as an international wireless communications company connecting the Philippines to the rest of the world, and in 1994, it became the first company in the country to offer mobile telecommunications services. Nearly 25 years later, more than half of the Philippines' 100 million residents were Globe subscribers, generating nearly US$280 million in net revenue. But the company was not always so well-positioned. Despite its first-mover advantage, Globe had found its market share steadily eroding, and by 2010, its market share had shrunk from 42% to 33% in just under six years. Morale within the company was at an all-time low, and the workplace had become toxic. Globe was clearly failing in the execution of its strategies, and also did not appear to have the right capabilities to conceive effective ones. Spearheaded by Ernest Cu, who had joined Globe in 2008 as the Deputy CEO and subsequently became President and CEO in 2009, Globe set out on a transformation journey to meet the competition head-on. It established a framework that systematically addressed these challenges by focusing on three pillars: Network; IT and Systems; Talent and Culture. Investment into these pillars proved essential to transforming Globe's commercial offerings into an ever-growing array of sophisticated products and services supported by high-tech capabilities and entrepreneurial competencies. But was this framework robust enough to future-proof the company? Could Globe's sheer size and complexity of its offerings become a liability going forward?

Mark Cooke, Global Head of Operational Risk, needed to decide between a traditional regulatory control system and a new regtech system to manage non-financial risks. Non-financial risks failures such as money laundering and tax evasion had cost HSBC billions of dollars in fines and settlements over the previous decade. In response, HSBC had hired thousands of risk and compliance staff and invested billions in traditional control systems. Cooke, however, could not be sure HSBC's traditional methods were sufficient and he was worried they were not sustainable. Cooke recently ran a pilot test of a regtech solution that promised to warn of problem areas in advance, and do so at a much lower cost than traditional systems. The regtech solution provider was a small startup and the technology was not fully developed. Cooke wondered how much he could trust a technology from a startup company with a handful of employees and almost no revenue to meet the needs of a world-leading bank with global operations.