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Philippines-headquartered cloud kitchen CloudEats harbored the ambition of becoming the largest cloud kitchen in Southeast Asia, but it was considering several strategic paths forward.

Rodney Yap, co-founder and CEO of Usertip, a digital adoption platform tech start-up, had completed a pre-seed funding round for the company. Yap and his co-founders had leveraged Singapore's tech hub status and government support for digital innovation to develop software that would help train users on new technologies, thereby improving a firm's productivity. Along with private individuals, venture capital firm Protégé Ventures was one of Usertip's early investors. Protégé Ventures was founded by the Singapore Management University's Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Kairos ASEAN to allow students at tertiary institutions in Singapore to try their hand at venture investing. With Usertip asking for a S$3 million (US$2.22 million) post-money valuation, Protégé Ventures invested S$30,000 (US$22,000) using a Convertible Agreement Regarding Equity (CARE). While the individual investors chose to take a direct equity stake, Protégé Ventures' CARE included a 20% discount rate but without a valuation cap. Did Yap get a good deal?

In July 2022, the joint general manager of personnel and administration at the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO)'s Paradeep unit received a call from the Delhi corporate office informing him of a complaint filed by the wife of a deceased employee against a current employee of the unit. The complaint alleged that the employee had defrauded the widow of approximately US$40,000-the sum total of her husband's terminal death benefit. As the joint general manager worked to investigate the matter and prepare a report for senior management, he found himself struggling with the managerial need to safeguard the organization's image. As a human resources manager, he contemplated several questions: How could an ethical culture be established and sustained in IFFCO? What strategic human resources measures should be adopted to avoid such situations in future? How could communication be used as enabler in this critical situation? Despite his mixed emotions and the limited time available to present his findings, he knew that he needed to ensure a fair and thorough investigation to resolve the issue.

In June 2020, Steven Zwane, founder and chairperson of the Youth Leadership and Entrepreneurship Development (YLED) program, based in Johannesberg, South Africa, faced managing the uncertainty of COVID-19's impact on the program's long-term sustainability. YLED, a non-profit social enterprise aimed at empowering underprivileged youth, relied on donors and sponsorships to deliver its face-to-face entrepreneurship and leadership training program to grade eleven learners from township schools around Gauteng Province, South Africa. YLED's funding sources were affected by their sponsors' and donors' economic constraints during the pandemic, leaving uncertainty about the program's future. Should Zwane suspend YLED's operations until the end of the pandemic or find an alternative means of delivery? If he suspended operations, what would happen to the young people, whose hopes and dreams could be crushed? If Zwane continued and found other means of delivery, how would he be able to do so without support from donors and sponsors?

Nestlé SA (Nestlé), as a multinational company, engaged strategically with societal issues at the local level and had tasked Nestlé East and Southern Africa Region (ESAR) with evaluating its shared value initiatives. Nestlé ESAR's chairperson and managing director had to determine whether to take forward one of the of the organization's strategic initiatives, the Makhoba Trust initiative. The managing director believed the model that he and the team had created through the work developing the Makhoba Trust initiative could be a sustainable framework for future Nestlé stakeholder collaboration. He was keen to share the progress with the global leadership team, but he knew hard questions would be asked. Was the project a successful shared value partnership and therefore worthy of more investment? Any decisions would have widespread implications for the company and the community of 1,400 rural households and 7,000 people.

Creditas Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (Creditas), a debt-collection and recovery start-up, had revolutionized the loan recovery process in India by combining data and technology to educate and empower its consumers. Ethera, its software-as-a-service platform, was a great success, and the company was on track to make $7.39 million in the financial year 2021-22. In order to increase its customer base and profits, the company was now faced with two challenges. First, it needed to determine how to convince its clients to accept a new fee structure. To establish additional and consistent revenue streams, the company was attempting to implement a licensing-based monetization model rather than its current recovery amount-linked model. Second, it needed to determine how it should plan for business expansion. The company had received queries from banks in west and southeast Asia, creating expansion potential abroad, and it was also contemplating entering other banking operations, such as lending and insurance. The chief executive officer wondered which of these growth strategies made the most sense for the business at this moment. Should the company increase its services in the areas of lending and insurance or expand to a global market?

On April 24, 2019, the founder and owner of Lifely Wellness Ltd. in the village of La Jolla, near San Diego, California, received a call from a customer who wanted to purchase some Jordan's Oil, Lifely Wellness Ltd.'s best-selling product. Jordan's Oil was an activated hemp-based cannabidiol tincture named after the founder's son. However, the shop could not supply the product immediately to the customer because the delivery from its supplier was late-again. The founder had been investigating possible alternative sources of supply and wondered whether this was the right time to act. After sourcing two new suppliers, she faced a pressing business operations dilemma. Should she continue working with her current supplier, which controlled a significant part of the supply chain? Or should she develop a new relationship with one or two smaller suppliers? The founder knew that this decision could determine the future and survival of her operation; therefore, she needed to take an in-depth look at her business options, from a strategic perspective.

From "shots fired," this case traces the evolution of responses, treatments, and notifications following a homicide at a college campus, an event that always lures attention across diverse stakeholders within and around the campus, and far beyond. At the core are the challenges of getting a crisis under control, managing stakeholder expectations, and retaining control of information. There will never be a universally applicable playbook for managing crises. Responses must always evolve relative to the particular crisis, its contexts, and its impacts. This case is a rich tool for thinking about contingencies, best practices, and shortcomings from an authentic context. Here, sharp focus is put on crisis leadership specifics of immediate treatment and notification during the first days of the crisis. Approaches are told and exemplified through the words and actions of two leaders, the Chancellor and the University Police Chief.

Biryani by Kilo (BBK) is a Gurugram (Near New Delhi, India) based Quick Service Restaurant founded by Koushik Roy and Vishal Jindal in 2015. The company specializes in serving authentic Indian dishes. They offer both dine in and delivery options and have multiple locations in India. They are known for using high quality ingredients and traditional cooking methods to create delicious biryani dishes. They brought many innovations to their offering. Now they wanted to create a McDonald's for Indian food but were in a dilemma about how to proceed. How could they eventually build a national brand and then expand it globally?

The Royal Belgian Football Association was a non-profit organization based in Brussels, Belgium that had a goal to organize, develop, and promote all forms of football in the country. To achieve this goal, it regularly interacted with many stakeholders including fans, commercial partners, association members, referees, and brand stewards. In 2021, the association was eager to digitalize these interactions through the use of its mobile app and added many features to the app over the next two years to support a fluid road map. However, during those two years, the performance of marquee teams was disappointing. More than ever, it seemed important to engender continuous digital engagement with stakeholders as a basis for further commercial growth. In March 2023, the director of marketing and communication and the director of digital, innovation, and technology were reviewing and assessing the association's digital strategy, especially during the previous two years, and strategizing about the future. Their assessment revealed several important questions about how to prioritize digital initiatives in the future.

Campusutra was a leading information and partially transactional portal operating in India that helped aspiring higher education students select appropriate educational institutions. It was founded in 2011 and initially focused on supporting a student's choice of management education. It added support for engineering schools. It was known for offering distilled and unbiased objective information about offerings, fee structure, peer-level engagement, and placement opportunities, and potential students remained loyal to the portal. Later, a friend advised the founder to make a strategic alliance with an EdTech company to monetize the intangible value it had created. The founder's dilemma was whether to pursue such an opportunity and risk diluting its mission.

This case study focuses on the emergence of art finance, a way to provide liquidity to art collectors by structuring loans using works of art as collateral. Sayuri Ganepola, global managing director of Art Finance at Christie's, provides a view of art lending from Christie's perspective and describes Christie's competitive advantages in this new line of business. Ganepola has to decide whether to lend against a portfolio of art and what risks such a loan could entail, given her overall portfolio of art loans. Students receive information on the collateral and are asked to provide recommendations. The field-based case provides background on the history of Christie's, its businesses, and its art lending operations. The case also discusses the art market and its historical returns on investment. Students have the opportunity to consider art as collateral for a loan and to discuss the challenges of risk management in art lending. At the Darden School of Business, this case is taught in "Financial Institutions and Markets," a second-year MBA elective. It is ideally suited for a course on financial institutions, money and banking, and risk management.

In June 2023, Prerna Mathews, vice president of Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) Product Strategy at Mackenzie Investments (Mackenzie), was considering what ETFs to launch for the remainder of the year. As Mathews deliberated over the potential launch of a covered call ETF at Mackenzie, she had many things to consider. How would this product compare to existing investment solutions offered by Mackenzie? What should the underlying portfolio that the calls were written on be, and what percentage of the portfolio should be covered? What should be the expiration date and strike price on the written calls? Mathews knew that these critical product decisions would have significant consequences on how such an ETF would perform under various market conditions, as well as the costs Mackenzie would incur in managing the ETF.

In September 2022, the vice president of talent engagement at TBK Beverages met with the executive sponsor of a proposed mentoring program to discuss plans. A year earlier, employees had shared their dissatisfaction with the lack of access for under-recognized groups to executive-level mentorship and training, a dissatisfaction voiced in the context of rising awareness across the United States after the death of George Floyd. The vice president was reviewing survey data about mentorships and was responsible for developing an inclusive leadership mentoring program as part of the company's diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives. What approach should the mentorship program take and what elements should it include?

In mid-September 2022, Saumil Majmudar, the co-founder, chief executive officer, and managing director of Sportz Village faced a problem. The company, based in Bengaluru, India, was India's leading sports education organization, which provided a structured physical education (PE) curriculum to K-12 schools. Thirteen years after its inception, EduSports, a division of Sportz Village, was unable to reach its goal of penetrating 5,000 schools with its PE curriculum. Research had indicated that the low penetration rate stemmed from not offering inter-school sports competitions to showcase the ability of the students involved in the structured PE program. Majmudar had to evaluate between two funding sources to enable EduSports to offer inter-school sports competitions: pass on the increased subscription price to students or keep the subscription price the same but look for brands to offset the increased costs of running inter-school events. Given that the yearly sales cycle would begin in about two weeks, Majmudar's decision was urgent.

SAP's global approach of Pledge to Flex was the foundation for hybrid working for its employees. The approach empowers employees to balance when, how, and where they work best, considering business requirements and local legislation. The organization's people leaders co-developed a model with their team that considers customer and partner-specific needs. The case also describes SAP's strategic move in establishing the Future of Work (FoW) organization to continually evaluate and innovate in this direction. The case raises the following questions: How does a large multinational company with a research and development centre in India decide on a hybrid model? How does a large multinational with a presence in several countries introduce a change plan conceived in the global corporate office, what are the challenges to this approach, and will it impact people's experience and turnover? How much customization should be allowed? Will the true shift come with frequent assessment, experimentation, and application as per the changing needs?

As Lorena Scaloni sat in her office at Riverwalk Wealth Management, she was starting to get just a little nervous. The end of the week marked the day when she would be standing before a room filled with her peers and investment professionals, ready to present her vision for the future of Riverwalk's financial advisory practice. The audience had no qualms about challenging her ideas or casting doubt if her vision lacked persuasiveness or her action plan failed to convince them. As one of the three partners at Riverwalk, Scaloni had a reasonable understanding of the challenges confronting both the industry and her firm. Although not entirely clear, she knew that the financial advice industry was undergoing a significant reckoning. Scaloni identified her vision to ensure a thriving future for Riverwalk. Now she had to present that vision to her peers.

The case focuses on Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), a state-owned enterprise (SOE), and its decision to enter the ultra-microfinance segment. It starts with a brief history of the bank and the government's involvement, before discussing BRI's current position and how it engages with micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). After a brief overview of the microfinance sector in Indonesia and the opportunities this presents, it discusses possible ways for BRI to enter, and alternative strategies it could pursue.

This case discusses Toblerone chocolates' pricing strategy at duty-free shops in international airports and entails 15-20 minutes of reading time. It analyses how the world-renowned Swiss chocolate brand Toblerone created a successful market strategy for duty-free shopping, and why it is considered one of the most iconic brands in duty-free stores worldwide. Central to the case is the assessment of Toblerone's variable pricing strategy across different airports, and whether duty-free prices are lower than local store prices. What is the rationale behind Toblerone's pricing strategy? Is duty-free shopping actually cheaper? Adding depth to the analysis, the case also evaluates the pricing strategy of other products such as duty-free favourites like alcohol brand Johnnie Walker and electronics brand Apple iPhone, providing valuable comparisons. The Teaching Note supplements the case by comparing Toblerone prices to Dairy Milk, fostering a more comprehensive discussion. The goal is to offer insights into Toblerone's strategic approach to pricing within the unique context of duty-free markets and to stimulate thoughtful discussion on its sustainability and effectiveness in meeting consumer expectations.