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This case follows the evolution of Tony’s Chocolonely (Tony’s)—a Dutch chocolate brand dedicated to eradicating child and forced labour in the chocolate industry supply chain—focusing specifically on the tensions inherent in any sustainable entrepreneurship. From its humble origins as a journalist’s protest over the use of child and forced labour, Tony’s grew into a globally recognized, sustainable brand with a mission to change the chocolate industry and abolish the worst forms of labour abuse. Along the way, Tony’s faced critical decisions where it had to balance conflicting social, environmental, and financial goals across the individual, organizational, and systemic levels—including in its own value chain. Tony’s chief executive officer (CEO) Douglas Lamont must make two key decisions about how to best address these labour practices: 1) what premium should be paid to cocoa farmers to support their livelihoods and thereby remove the need to resort to child and forced labour; and 2) whether to keep working with the Swiss chocolate producer Barry Callebaut AG, which had recently been accused of supporting forced labour in its own supply chain. Was it possible to change the system in the chocolate industry?

In 2023, Bud Light and its parent company, Anheuser-Bush InBev (AB InBev), faced a backlash following an advertising campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. A marketing post by the influencer sparked a national outrage, throwing Bud Light into the centre of a national transgender debate. AB InBev’s stock price dropped by 18.4 per cent and sales of Bud Light plummeted as politically right-leaning drinkers publicly boycotted the brand in protest of the company’s “woke” advertising. The advertisement was part of an overall initiative to revive Bud Light’s popularity, as younger drinkers were moving away from beer toward seltzers, cannabis, and nicotine. Marcel Marcondes, global chief marketing officer of AB InBev, had been tasked with repairing Bud Light’s brand image by creating a new marketing strategy to appeal to all its drinkers amid the backdrop of declining beer consumption. Marcondes needed to determine how to rebuild the brand’s equity and customer loyalty in the year ahead.

Xiaomi India, the subsidiary of Xiaomi Group (Xiaomi)—a world-leading electronics giant from China—had grown explosively since entering the country in 2014. However, in April 2022, the Indian Enforcement Directorate accused it of illegal remittance of profits out of the country and, in response, seized a fund of US$669.95 million in the company’s account. This seizure was record-breaking in Indian history, equivalent to nearly half the annual worldwide profits of Xiaomi. To unfreeze the fund was obviously urgent. More importantly, the company had to formulate effective strategies to navigate an increasingly hostile, foreign context that had been strained by the escalating geopolitical conflicts.

In December 2023, McDonald’s Corporation (McDonald’s) announced an ambitious growth plan that involved reaching 50,000 restaurants by 2027. In order to reach this unit count goal, McDonald’s planned to open approximately 7,000 new restaurants in China. The Chinese fast-food market was one of the world’s largest and was expected to grow in 2024 and beyond. Yet, it was littered with strong competition from both large US chains and local competitors. To further complicate matters, there were rising geopolitical tensions between China and Taiwan. Should McDonald’s chief executive officer Chris Kempczinski have expanded the company’s operations in China? If so, where should McDonald’s have opened its new restaurants?

Instacart is an online grocery delivery platform that is seeking to go public through an initial public offering (IPO). Instacart has hired an investment bank to be its lead bookrunner, and the bank is responsible for coming up with an IPO price range. Maya Martinez, an investment banking analyst at the firm, has been tasked with building financial models to come up with an appropriate share range for the firm’s managing directors to present at the IPO roadshow.

In April 2023, an issue emerged around the elevated level of sugar found in Mondelez India’s nutritional beverage, Bournvita. The sequence of events began with the posting of a 90-second video by a prominent social media influencer, which rapidly gained widespread attention, accumulating more than 12 million views within a short period. The video emphasized the high amount of sugar in Bournvita and brought attention to the company’s transparency procedures. Mondelez India, owner of the Bournvita brand, promptly refuted the assertions put forth by the influencer and categorized the video as “unscientific.” In response to the accusations levelled against it, Mondelez India opted to issue a legal notice to the individual responsible for creating the video. The company’s legal action yielded positive results, as the influencer ultimately removed the video and issued an apology to the company. Nevertheless, public opinion remained mostly unaltered, and the dispute persisted on many social media sites. The leadership team faced a series of inquiries in the following weeks on the wisdom of issuing a legal notice to the social media influencer. Did Mondelez India effectively address the crisis and utilize the appropriate communication channel? What message should Mondelez India have conveyed and what was the most effective method to do so?

In 2021, an investment management firm analyst needed to convince his portfolio manager that technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon) could have a strong investment thesis since they improved upon existing business models. To make his argument, he used financial ratio analysis to compare one of the portfolio manager's favourite companies, Walmart Inc. (Walmart), with a more technologically focused competitor in the retail space, Amazon. By analyzing the two companies using ratio analysis to highlight their similarities, the analyst sought to show his portfolio manager that Amazon was not only a technology company, but a better version of Walmart.

In June 2023, Zerodha, a leading player in India’s discount brokerage industry, was at a crossroads. Founded in 2010 by Nikhil and Nithin Kamath, who were avid stock traders from a young age, the company had grown significantly by putting customers first. The pandemic and low-interest environment had provided a strong tailwind to the sector as well as the company, especially in terms of the number of customers and revenues. However, the competition was nipping at Zerodha’s heels. Many start-ups offered similar technology interfaces, and some were funded by venture capital. A few were spending aggressively to court customers as well as tech employees. With a debt-free balance sheet built through several years of profitable operations, Zerodha could pursue strategies that required large spending, but the key question was: should Zerodha deviate from its time-tested strategy of being a cost leader and not following the herd in the new post-pandemic environment?

As she prepared for the Hershey Company Investor Day, CEO Michele Buck knew the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI); the importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices; and that EDI within corporate social responsibility (CSR) was key to Hershey’s valuable brand image, engaged employees, and effective business relationships. “Children’s wellbeing is at the heart of who we are as a company. This goes back to our founder, Milton S. Hershey, who cared deeply about children.” However, the company depended on cocoa beans from West Africa and had not yet honoured a 2001 industry-wide pledge to uproot child labour in global supply chains. Hershey was committed to improved practices but had not yet reached its goals. What if Hershey’s largest customer in its largest market decided to drop Hershey products? What if socially conscious institutional investors decided to sell their shares? How could the CEO avoid these disastrous scenarios and reassure both customers and investors?

Tata Motors Limited (TM), a subsidiary of Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd., was the market leader in the passenger electric vehicle (EV) segment in India. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chair of Tata Sons, was pleased with the work of Shailesh Chandra who, as managing director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility (TPEM), had been instrumental in TM’s successful turnaround. Chandrasekaran wanted Chandra and his team to capitalize on the robust demand for passenger EVs in India to reach 25 per cent of TM’s total sales by 2029, up from 8 per cent in December 2022. However, attaining it was not easy because he would face an onslaught from multiple competitors that would threaten TM’s existing market share. To enable TM to maintain its leadership position in this segment in India and to grow over time, Chandra and his team had to ensure they correctly assessed the passenger EV industry’s competitive forces. From this analysis, Chandra would then have to evaluate his competitors’ strategies and formulate TM’s defence and growth plans.

NEIWAI, a popular Chinese lingerie brand, was founded in 2012. The brand was able to rapidly adapt to both online and offline channels and attracted investment from several top venture capital firms. Being a direct-to-consumer brand, NEIWAI faced various issues like sustainable growth, creating intellectual property protection, and setting pricing limits. To overcome these issues, NEIWAI created offline channels and, at the same time, also planned to enter international markets, starting with the United States. In this scenario, would NEIWAI be able to make its mark in the US market?

This case examines the fundamental transformation challenges facing Volkswagen Group as it navigates the intersection of deglobalization and industry disruption. Through chief executive officer Oliver Blume’s perspective, we see how traditionally successful global strategies can become vulnerable when the underlying assumptions of globalization are challenged. The automotive industry was transforming due to technological changes, new consumer preferences, and environmental regulations, while the rise of electric vehicles (EVs), particularly from Chinese competitors, reshaped the market. Geopolitics complicated this transition, including the US–China and European Union–Russia decoupling tensions and the Ukraine War, which disrupted supply chains.

This case examines the decline of Nirula’s, a once prosperous fast-food chain in India. Nirula’s, founded in the 1970s, introduced Western-style fast food in India. The firm tailored its menu to suit the regional tastes and preferences. The brand’s pioneering method of combining several culinary traditions led to a loyal consumer following, especially among the millennial demographic in Northern India. However, Nirula’s had enormous challenges due to the emergence of international fast-food chains like McDonald’s. It also faced issues related to availability and ambiance and struggled to stay relevant among younger customers. This case relates to rejuvenating and reviving a declining brand.

In September 2015, Erika Cheung, a former employee at the private biotechnology company Theranos, must decide if she will blow the whistle on the company’s unethical practices, including inconsistent test results, data manipulation, and mishandling of patient blood samples. She must decide whether to contact the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, an American federal health regulator, with this information. However, she could also face significant legal consequences due to the non-disclosure agreements she signed with Theranos. Personally, Cheung is wrestling with how to act in accordance with her commitment to improving the quality and affordability of health care and working in service of others.

New Zealand’s economy was based on agriculture, which comprised 50 per cent of the country’s national greenhouse gas emissions. In 2008, the government imposed a cap-and-trade system—known as the Emissions Trading System (ETS)—but had excluded the agriculture industry at the time. Recently, the government had been considering imposing a carbon tax at the farm level by 2025 to incentivize livestock farmers to reduce their emissions. However, there was significant backlash from the industry, and the government continued to delay implementing the tax. Would it be possible to propel the country into a new era of net-zero-carbon agriculture without destabilizing the meat and dairy industries?

The case of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) versus Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon) revolved around allegations of anti-competitive practices and monopolistic behaviour by the tech giant. Amazon, with its diverse portfolio of services and dominant market position in online retail, faced accusations related to its bundling of “Fulfillment by Amazon” with Prime Eligibility and its price parity rules for third-party sellers. The FTC claimed that Amazon’s bundling strategy stifled competition by compelling sellers to use its fulfillment services, thus limiting their choices and potentially driving up prices for consumers. Additionally, Amazon’s price parity rules allegedly restricted sellers from offering lower prices on other platforms, potentially leading to artificially inflated prices across all channels. However, Amazon argued that these practices were essential for maintaining service quality, preventing showrooming, and protecting its brand reputation. The company would have to evaluate the validity of the FTC’s claims and determine the best course of action in response to the lawsuit.

WeWork Companies LLC (WeWork), founded in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey, had redefined the global real estate industry with its innovative approach to providing co-working spaces. By 2019, the company’s valuation had skyrocketed to $47 billion, and its service offerings had extended to co-living and education. However, mounting financial losses, debt, and revelations about Neumann’s extravagant lifestyle and poor governance practices led to a failed initial public offering and forced Neumann to step down as chief executive officer (CEO) amid eroded stakeholder confidence. Sandeep Mathrani, the experienced real estate executive who was appointed CEO in February 2020, faced a crucial question: beyond rehabilitating the company’s financial prospects, how was he to restore employee morale and revamp confidence in its communal culture?

By March 2023, almost a year since its launch in 2022, Tata Digital Private Limited’s super-app, Tata Neu, was still struggling with low user adoption and engagement as users encountered frequent technical glitches such as tardy page load times and one-time-password errors. While the super-app had promised seamless shopping for consumers, user engagement levels had yet to touch the desired 40 per cent since the launch of the super-app. Tata Group (Tata)’s major challenge lay in differentiating Tata Neu from other super-apps currently used by consumers—especially as niche services in India reached a saturation point and competition increased—and in consolidating its ecosystem by integrating multiple services into the super-app. Tata Neu had to consider what steps and strategies could help it restore user trust, accelerate growth, gain a greater market presence, and realize better user adoption and engagement amidst its navigation of technical stability issues, varied user behaviour and preferences, and the need for hyper-localization.

Tanishq, owned by Titan Company Limited (Titan), was one of India’s largest and most iconic jewellery brands. Founded in 1994, Tanishq had become a household name, having instilled trust by certifying the quality of its gold and offering exquisite jewellery designs catering to consumers of all economic classes. As of the end of March 2023, Titan operated 763 jewellery retail stores covering its major brands. Despite its success in India, Tanishq had faced significant challenges in its first foray into international markets. In 2008, it attempted to enter the United States by launching two retail stores; both had to be closed, due to the global financial crisis and a lack of suitable investors in its US operations. In 2023, Titan, a Tata Group company, launched Tanishq’s first brick-and-mortar store in the United States and was aggressively aspiring to expand into Gulf Cooperation Council regions such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Why did Titan, a company that had a strong jewellery brand in India with a record of fast-growing sales, want to take Tanishq and its other jewellery brands global? Did the company’s resources support international expansion? If so, had it chosen the right countries to target? What should be the mode of entry?

The Women's Premier League (WPL) final was contested on March 25, 2023, the atmosphere at the crowded Brabourne Stadium mirrored the phrase for which the competition became famous: "Ye Toh Bas Shuruat Hai" (This is just the start). Fans filled stadiums throughout the event to support the best female cricket players in the world. But the event's organizers did not give themselves the best opportunity to enable the franchises to connect with local fan bases. What more measures could the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) undertake to increase attendance at WPL games? How could they market and position the WPL more effectively among viewers? How should they analyze the values created by the WPL for the viewers?