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Zomato, a leading restaurant discovery and review platform, entered the highly competitive hyperlocal food delivery space in 2014. Though Zomato was a leading platform for search and discovery, it trailed behind the market leader in the delivery landscape. While Zomato’s attempt to increase profitability by implementing a subscription model proved popular among customers, it antagonized a significant segment of its restaurant partners. As December 2019 drew to a close, the key decision-makers at Zomato wondered whether entering the growing delivery market and the subsequent transition would be worth the cost of competition. The startup would have to make a strategic decision with respect to its market dominance and competitive moves in the delivery market. Should it focus on the large, hypercompetitive markets in major cities to build high-density delivery networks, or should it focus on pre-empting the competition by nurturing small-town markets? Would acquiring its competitors help in rapid scaling, or should Zomato engage in another round of business model innovation by focusing on cloud kitchens and private labels?

Primark was a low-cost, fast-fashion clothing retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom. The company’s low-priced clothing enticed consumers, but it also attracted criticism for exploitative labor practices in the low-cost economies where Primark’s manufacturing was outsourced. However, Primark believed that it created jobs in low-cost economies, and its low prices were the result of efficient initiatives such as no online presence and limited advertising. Experts suggested that the absence of an e-commerce division was a strategic mistake. In October 2019, the company’s chief executive officer was challenged with synchronizing Primark’s low-cost strategy with its sustainability initiatives and deciding on the company’s online presence.

In 2018, China was the biggest market for Internet services in the world. Along with the country's huge market size, its comparatively low penetration made it an immensely attractive market for search engine services. To capture this market, Google was planning to re-enter the Chinese market—after leaving in 2010—with a censored search engine codenamed “Dragonfly.” The move was opposed by human rights activists, Google’s own employees, and the U.S. government. Google had the opportunity to improve its share in the global search-engine segment if it could somehow tap into the vast Chinese market. But the tight control over Internet services by the Chinese government on one hand, and the protests by various interest groups on the other, had put Google in a tight spot. Google had to decide if it should go ahead with the plan to offer Dragonfly in China. Should Google instead explore other market and non-market strategies to re-enter the Chinese market?

In July 2017, the government of India implemented goods and services tax (GST), which brought uniformity in the tax rates on all types of biscuits. Compared to the pre-GST regime, the uniform tax rate resulted in a higher tax rate on mass-market biscuits and a lower tax rate on premium biscuits. Parle-G, the most popular brand of Parle Products Private Limited (Parle), fell into the mass-market biscuit category. The Parle-G brand had 75 to 80 per cent market share in the mass-market biscuit category, and it contributed nearly 33 per cent of Parle’s total revenue. The brand was sold at a very low price point and was highly price sensitive. To mitigate the tax rate increase, one option was to raise Parle-G prices; however, any price increase or change in package size for a product in the highly price-sensitive category could reduce company revenue. Therefore, new business strategies were needed under the new tax regime and amid the country’s overall changing business and economic scenario so that Parle’s margins and leading position were retained.

Unlike any other European airline, Ryanair DAC had long experienced impressive growth and performance thanks to its well-designed and ruthlessly executed low-cost carrier business model. However, the limits of growth did begin to appear, at which time the company adjusted its business model with an increased emphasis on customer orientation. As a result, cracks in the business model appeared and labour issues came to the fore. While the media and industry analysts were focused on these challenges, Ryanair was undergoing a quiet digital revolution, shifting the airline’s business model toward a technology-based travel platform. With the problems in the business model and a shifting business strategy, could Ryanair achieve the ambitious growth targets it set for 2024?

MoviePass provided a subscription-based service that allowed its users to see films in theatres for a monthly fee. The company rose to stardom between 2016 and 2017, but in mid-2018, it suffered crushing financial losses when operating costs increased and ancillary revenues were too slow to materialize. The company’s subscription base shrank sharply following the introduction of restrictions on its service and an announcement of a price increase. Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. (H&M), MoviePass’s parent company, would be de-listed if its stock price remained below the threshold stipulated by the NASDAQ Composite Index (i.e., US$1 per share). The chief executive officer of MoviePass and its management team had to keep the company afloat while trying to regain MoviePass’s lost momentum. How could they revitalize the once-promising upstart and prevent H&M from being de-listed?

On October 22, 2016, U.S. telecom operator AT&T Inc. and television media giant Time Warner Group announced that AT&T Inc. would acquire Time Warner Group for $107.50 per share, using half cash and half stock, to a total equity value of $85.4 billion. Although the chief executive officers from both companies were very confident about the future prospects for their shareholders once the transaction was approved and completed, there was much controversy surrounding the acquisition. A portfolio manager with a significant portion of her investment portfolios tied up in AT&T Inc. equity wondered if the price was fair. She needed to make a thorough valuation analysis to ensure that she could anticipate the future value of the merged firm and mitigate any possible loss in value for her investors.

TikTok was a short-video sharing app based in China. On November 9, 2017, TikTok’s parent company, the Chinese tech company Beijing ByteDance Technology Co. (ByteDance), announced a strategic acquisition of Musical.ly, a popular short-video sharing app based in the United States. With more than 100 million users and similar features to TikTok, Musical.ly was a powerful competitor for TikTok’s international expansion into the North American markets. For ByteDance and TikTok, the closing of the Musical.ly acquisition in August 2018 was not the end goal, as it would create another new challenge. Would it be better to keep Musical.ly as a separate platform, as Musical.ly had achieved a good reputation and millions of users in the United States? Or should Musical.ly be replaced to create a global app under the TikTok brand, which was relatively new to the US market?

In early December 2016, a student member of the Philippine Fund of the finance lab at the Asian Institute of Management was wondering whether to invest in the initial public offering (IPO) of Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc. (Shakey’s). Shakey’s was the market leader in the full-service chain restaurants industry in the Philippines and would be the fourth company to be listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange. The IPO period was from December 2 to December 8, 2016, and the company was offering a total of 306 million shares. The student member must decide whether to buy Shakey’s stock based on her estimate of the intrinsic value of Shakey’s relative to the IPO price, Shakey’s strategy and prior performance, and the attractiveness of the food service and restaurant industry.

For 160 years, Singapore Post had been one of Singapore’s main postal service providers, delivering trusted and reliable postal services to homes and businesses. However, in 2019, Singapore Post was plagued by recent service lapses and operational problems, which had elicited customer complaints and concern from various stakeholders. Singapore Post was also facing increasing pressure from rising customer expectations, surging mail volumes, and the growing popularity of e-commerce. In response, Singapore Post pursued several initiatives to improve service operations and maintain its competitiveness in the postal industry. However, the company needed to devise a long-term plan to address recent problems, market changes, and deeply-rooted operational issues—and to regain consumer confidence over the long term.

In October 2016, the board of Tata Sons, a company in the Tata Group, India’s largest business group, decided to remove Cyrus Mistry from the chairmanship of its board. Subsequently, Tata Sons appealed to the shareholders of the other Tata Group companies, including Tata Steel Limited, to also remove Mistry from their boards. The shareholders of Tata Steel were informed that an extraordinary general meeting had been called to vote on two resolutions that would decide whether Mistry and another independent board member should continue as directors of Tata Steel or be removed from their positions. How could the shareholders make a thoughtful and forward-thinking decision on the two resolutions?

In March 2016, the chief executive officer (CEO) of ICICI Bank Ltd. (ICICI), one of the largest private sector banks in India, was accused of non-disclosure and exploitation of conflict of interest by an investor. The CEO, who had successfully led the bank since 2009, had been featured in two Forbes lists of the most powerful women in 2017. Initially, the ICICI board of directors supported the CEO for two years, until March 2018, when Indian regulatory agencies including the Central Bureau of Investigation opened investigations. In January 2019, following the findings of an internal investigation report by ICICI, the newly appointed chairman of the ICICI board terminated the CEO over non-disclosure of conflict of interest. The board chairman also demanded the return of all bonuses and stock options received by the CEO since her appointment in 2009. Was the ICICI board chairman right to take strict action against the CEO for non-disclosure of conflict of interest? What could he do to improve governance practices at ICICI?

In 2018, Nestlé, the Switzerland-based, multinational food and nutrition company, faced an activist campaign by Third Point LLC regarding the company's passive stake in L'Oréal. In its June 2017 letter, which was followed up by a July 2018 reminder, the activist fund urged Nestlé to sell its L'Oréal stake and use the funds to strengthen its position in its core health and nutrition markets. L'Oréal was also asking Nestlé to clarify its position regarding the investment. Nestlé's recently appointed chief executive officer needed to make a decision regarding the L'Oréal stake. How should he address the activist fund and respond to L’Oréal’s request?

On April 12, 2018, the manager of a Philadelphia Starbucks Corporation (Starbucks) store called the police and two customers were arrested. The two men, who were black, were sitting at a table in the store without having placed an order. The incident sparked an online wave of protest over racial bias at Starbucks, a company that had long touted its social agenda of racial equity and diversity. The chief executive officer of Starbucks, quickly acknowledged the incident with a general public apology and a more specific follow-up statement later the same day. Amid outrage over the Philadelphia arrests and backlash online, the company also announced a half-day mass anti-racism training program for its employees. Experts were skeptical about the success of the training, claiming that a half-day training session could not eliminate racial bias. Was the company doing enough to train its front-line employees in providing not only the best service but also equal service to its customers? Did Starbucks truly represent the values it promoted? Would a half-day anti-racism training session effectively address the issue of racial bias, especially for front-line workers?

In 2015, three entrepreneurs in India decided to resurrect the 100-year-old iconic Keventers brand, which had stopped selling milkshakes in the 1970s. Although earlier generations had grown up enjoying Keventers' milkshakes, millennials had very little association with the brand. To connect with this new generation, the three entrepreneurs relied on both old and new brand associations. The three founders re-established the Keventers milkshakes brand; however, the milkshakes market became flooded with small and large competitors, and the company needed to find new ways to ensure the Keventers brand’s long-term sustainability. To sustain its growth momentum, the Keventers brand entered the subscription-based, premium-milk market in June 2018. As a result of increasing urbanization, rising incomes, and demographic changes, the consumption behaviour of Indian consumers was undergoing transformation. Demand for premium, organic, unadulterated milk was on the rise among affluent health-conscious consumers. Premium milk comprised less than 1 per cent of the dairy market in 2018, but it was expected to rise to 5 per cent by 2020. How could the three founders meet their goals of capturing 20 per cent of the premium-milk market and becoming a major competitor by mid-2019?

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) was founded in 1971 and focused on retailing items for customers’ “home and heart” life events, such as weddings, births, and moves. By the end of 2017, the company had over 1,530 stores distributed in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada, but its third-quarter earnings results revealed a 50 per cent year-over-year decline in net profits and a 45 per cent decline in stock price compared to the beginning of the year. BBBY was facing a steady decrease in physical store sales even as digital sales showed growth. BBBY was trying to catch up to competitors with digital initiatives, gain and retain customers through discount and membership programs, and keep a close control on costs, but the question remained: How could BBBY stay relevant and competitive in the long term?

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 November 2018, Five Guys, a fast-casual restaurant chain based in the United States, faced an important decision related to its future promotion strategy. Five Guys had started in 1986 as a small company with limited resources. The company had always avoided traditional advertising media, such as television, radio, print, and billboard advertisements. As a result of the company's success over the years, the founder and chief executive officer had a significantly larger promotional budget than ever before; he needed to develop a promotional strategy for the future. In particular, he needed to determine how to allocate the company's promotional budget. In which promotional media should he invest the company's promotional funds?

On Wednesday, March 1, 2017, Jean-Louis Chaussade, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Suez SA (Suez), a French utility company that primarily operated in water and waste management, had to decide whether or not to acquire General Electric Water & Process Technologies. During the negotiations between Chaussade and the CEO of General Electric Company (GE), there had been many drastic changes, including the January 2017 inauguration of a US president with no political experience and an agenda that did not favour international co-operation. The deal represented a significant investment of US$2–$3 billion, and Suez would have to rely on an external partner to have even a chance of winning the bid GE had launched only a few weeks earlier. The complex negotiations were also fraught with risks due to increasing political interference from the new US president. What should Chaussade do?

In early 2016, ChimpChange Limited, a financial technology (fintech) start-up, had started operations in California and already had more than 80,000 customers. The company needed capital to acquire more customers in order to become cash-flow positive, as was the case with most start-ups. ChimpChange Limited should have been able to attain the break-even number of customers within another year or so, but it needed capital to execute a marketing campaign to attract these customers. It had already undergone several series of funding rounds. At this point, should it return for a series C funding round or should it raise funds through an initial public offering (IPO)? If it were to opt for an IPO, where should this take place?