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The case analyses an opportunity of risk arbitrage associated with stock buy-backs (repurchases) available to retail shareholders in India. The opportunity arises from a differential treatment of small (retail) and large shareholders by Indian stock buy-back regulations. There has been strong anecdotal evidence of individuals taking advantage of this opportunity to make significant returns. The case illustrates the mechanics of the transaction, explores various sources of risks that differentiate it from a pure arbitrage play and the impact of these risks on the profitability of the transaction. The case also analyses the systemic checks that prevent arbitrageurs from making large abnormal profits using this opportunity. Finally, the case touches upon the motivation underlying this regulation and the regulatory considerations involved in remedying the risk arbitrage opportunity.

The case describes the contract selection issue by an embedded product manufacturing company towards the procurement of a component. The manufacturing manager is evaluating various procurement contracts. Currently, the company sources the component through a long-term wholesale contract combined with sourcing it from an alternate online platform. The supplier firm has suggested an options-based contract. The manufacturing manager is also planning to discuss buyback-based sourcing contract with the supplier.

After finishing a PhD in immunology and working for a few years for a large pharmaceutical company, Eric Lafferty entered an executive MBA program intending to reorient his career toward more meaningful work. Thus he leapt at the chance to work in a significant leadership position at a government agency where he would be in charge of a group that vetted academic proposals to work toward experimental vaccines and drugs. However, he begins to reconsider it all after a series of bad experiences with a direct report whom he cannot fire. The case is designed to surface and explore students' instinctive decision-making and action tendencies around a complicated problem. Thus it is short enough to be read and responded to in class. Students are assigned readings and assignments related to the case after class discussion in which they are encouraged to reflect on their initial responses. The case is quite flexible and would work in any course that deals with leadership, difficult conversations, decision-making, organizational behavior, human resources, and related topics. It is appropriate for a range of levels and audiences, including undergraduate, MBA, and executive education.

How do our senses affect which products we like and don't like? How can products be made more sensorially engaging? What should managers consider when devising sensory marketing strategies? As companies are becoming more aware of consumers' subconscious responses to products and services, they are relying less on traditional advertising and marketing and more on the products, themselves, to influence customers by stimulating an emotional response. This conceptual note defines sensory marketing, its theoretical foundations, and how it can best be used to shape consumer perception and behavior. It explores how deliberate sensory inputs can impact customers on a subconscious level by triggering positive emotional responses to products and brands through sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. The note also discusses advances in neuroscience and neuro-imaging techniques that have enabled more effective use of sensory marketing.

"It's a celebration of the diversity and inclusion this project represents from its design, to its contracting, to its nonprofit partners," he said, referring to the process that Massport, the land's owner, had undertaken to select a developer for the hotel. Massport required that bidders incorporate diversity and inclusion (D&I) plans into their bids and announced that the plans would be considered alongside more traditional evaluation criteria such as building design, construction experience, and financial capabilities. On May 22, 2018, executives from the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) along with Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh gathered in the Seaport District of South Boston for a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of construction on a new hotel in Boston's Seaport District. The hotel, when completed in early 2021, would be the fourth largest in the state. "Today marks more than just a groundbreaking," said Mayor Walsh. "It's a celebration of the diversity and inclusion this project represents from its design, to its contracting, to its nonprofit partners," he said, referring to the process that Massport, the land's owner, had undertaken to select a developer for the hotel. Massport required that bidders incorporate diversity and inclusion (D&I) plans into their bids and announced that the plans would be considered alongside more traditional evaluation criteria such as building design, construction experience, and financial capabilities. The move was so unusual that some in the Boston development community doubted Massport was serious about giving so much weight-25%-to bidders' D&I plans. Nevertheless, at the groundbreaking of the $550 million hotel, Massport CEO Thomas Glynn told a Boston Business Journal reporter that Massport intended to use the new selection model for future projects.

When the Hong Kong billion-dollar revitalization of a set of derelict cotton mills in Hong Kong was first conceptualized by property heiress Vanessa Cheung, the project had a clear direction around which it was to be oriented. The Mills was to be a social institution: a space in which an otherwise poor and fragmented local community could connect with both its past, as a center of textile production, and its future. Financed by Nan Fung Group, Vanessa's multigenerational family business and one of Asia's most valuable property development companies, the Mills was underwritten without the diligence that might proceed projects of a comparable scale. Three years from project inception but still several months away from the facilities opening to the public in late 2018, the Mills struggled to operationalize the three business models it had evolved to encompass, namely, an incubation platform including co-working space; shopping space targeting pop-up stores and smaller retailers; a heritage center to operate as a non-profit museum. Vanessa also wondered how her project will deliver on its original vision of creating shared value for its stakeholders.

Memaksa Steel, an Indonesian steel products manufacturer, has recently developed a new finishing process that reduces the wear time on steel by 60% for products that are subjected to intense abrasion during use. The marketing department believes this innovation should be applied to steel saw blades for use in Indonesia's lumber mills. Saw blades manufactured using this new finishing process would sell for 35% more than the older blades, but would drastically increase the cutting time before needing replacement. Santi der Majoido, the CEO, must examine the channel structure and decide whether or not to launch the new product.

This case, Amara Raja Group (B): Vision 2025 is set in 2019 where the HR department has gone through multiple interventions commencing in 2017, including building a business specific recruitment strategy, making HR digital, and development of an employee value proposition. With changes in external environment including increased digitisation, automation, and industry 4.0 along with the internal shift of leadership of ARG from the founder RNG to Jay Galla to the newer generation, Jaikrishna ponders upon the way forward for the HR function of the group.

By December 2018, entrepreneur Joe DeLoss's fried chicken company, Hot Chicken Takeover, has opened three restaurants in Columbus, Ohio using an unconventional employment model that helps people with criminal records get back on their feet. DeLoss is proud of the supportive employment environment he has cultivated, but wonders how to scale it beyond Columbus.

As 2018 drew to a close, India prepared to once again carry out the largest democratic exercise in human history, as in less than six months more than 850 million eligible voters would have the chance to choose their representatives to the Lok Sabha-the country's lower house of parliament-and, thus, their country's Prime Minister and cabinet.[i] The election would pit the ruling party-the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party, known as the BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-against a collection of parties that included the once-dominant Indian National Congress party (Congress). The 2019 elections would serve as a referendum on Modi's first term in office and, therefore, on a high stakes question: had India's implausibly robust democracy produced the right leader for the right moment, or had it taken the wrong path?

The CEO of OLX Brazil, an online classifieds platform business, is debating among multiple paths to grow sustainably (i.e., profitably) without the need for investor money. The options under consideration are: (1) penetration growth by focusing on the core, (2) new markets growth by entering adjacencies, or (3) new products growth by developing new services. Each of these options caries a series of benefits and risks. How should OLX's CEO compare the options and choose the best path to grow his platform business?

The case is set in 2015, when DBS Bank applied to the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a locally incorporated subsidiary under the wholly-owned subsidiary (WOS) scheme. DBS had a presence in India since 1995 and had grown to become the fifth largest foreign bank by assets. Upbeat about the growth prospects, it was the first foreign bank to apply for the conversion from branch operation to WOS. The scheme would extend near-equal treatment to locally-incorporated foreign banks as with national banks, and it aimed to incentivise them to scale up their operations in return for opening new branches in under-banked and unbanked cities and issuing credit to companies categorised under the priority lending sectors. However, the past year had been challenging for DBS India. Its profitability had taken a hit as bad loans rose more than four-fold, climbing to the top of the list among all private banks in India. The bad debts were primarily due to delayed servicing of loans by construction companies, which were granted credit during a previous period of aggressive lending. The case discusses the opportunities and challenges the WOS brings to DBS India, leading to its final decision to apply for the scheme.

This case examines gender challenges confronting women leaders, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-related sectors through the lens of Wendy Chan, a data science team leader in Europa a multinational insurance company, and the challenges she encountered in her role, as well as the steps she took to address her situation. It highlights issues concerning bias against women leaders, gender differences toward work issues, and work-life balance. This case caters to undergraduates and graduate courses on management and/or entrepreneurship that focus on diversity and leadership issues, especially those covering the topic of gender. It is also suitable for gender studies and women's studies courses with a focus on diversity and leadership issues.

Wade Watts has won control of the OASIS - a futuristic, immersive virtual reality game world. He must decide on rules, rights, and marketplace design, balancing the founding principles of the OASIS with the platform's potentially negative externalities.

Francesco Cavarero, chief information officer of Miroglio Fashion, Italy's third-largest retailer of women's apparel, was trying to bring analytical rigor to the company's forecasting and inventory management decisions. But fashion is inherently hard to predict. Can artificial intelligence and machine learning replace human intuition in this industry?

Nobel Ilac was a Turkish generic pharmaceutical company marketing more than 100 drugs in 20 countries and, as of 2017, had over 2,500 employees worldwide. Nobel had implemented a transformation strategy-more specifically, a customer segmentation plan-whereby the sales force had begun to use data to determine their call plans. As a result, it had improved sales performance, and its previously negative EBITDA had reached double-digit positive figures. Two key issues remained: 1) growth was not as high as desired; and 2) the sales force's voluntary turnover was very high. Given that the sales force was the only go-to-market channel, Nobel needed to do something to reduce employee turnover without affecting the positive trend in sales and profits. For many industries, personal selling is the primary and sometimes the only way that a firm can go to market. Hence, properly managing the sales force is a key to a firm's success. The case outlines the challenges of managing a sales force-in particular, how to decrease salespeople's attrition while also increasing growth.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Company's acquisition of Volvo cars was widely viewed with skepticism because of the poor track record of cross-border auto industry acquisitons. This case looks at the acquisition and post-acquisition integration from the point of view of Chinese managers at Geely. A companion case, 613-042 Volvo Cars: Acquisition by Geely looks at the acquisition from the point of view of Swedish managers at Volvo.

Dr. Brad Worthington, surgeon and anesthesiologist, has created BKK, a nonopioid surgical pain reliever. A combination of three FDA-approved drugs, BKK has beneficial properties beyond those of the individual medications of which it is made. Having obtained a patent for BKK, Worthington and his business partner, Thurman Ballard, are evaluating three paths to market, each with its own risks, costs, timelines, and possible outcomes: 1) seek venture capital investment to fund a New Drug Application for FDA approval; 2) partner with a compounding pharmacy that can manufacture and distribute the drug wholesale; or 3) develop a relationship with a manufacturer that can produce convenience kits containing all three drugs, bottled separately, with directions for mixing and administering them. This case provides a close look into the barriers to entry for new drug commercialization for an individual or small business. Innovations in healthcare delivery, medical technology, and even new drug development or new uses for existing drugs are often generated by those closest to patient care-nurses, doctors, and other medical personnel. But without significant resources, even the most ingenious new ideas require entrepreneurial thinking to bring them to market. Students have the opportunity to build a decision tree and explore the qualitative and quantitative data presented to justify all three options. Which should Worthington and Ballard choose?

Mitch Lowe, the CEO of MoviePass, was having trouble convincing people of the viability of the company's business model. The company was building a multi-sided platform, and was planning to extract value from increasing traffic to movie theaters through a number of mechanisms. It also appeared to making assumptions around its flat-rate pricing model. By making some assumptions, this case affords an opportunity for students to practice with discovery-driven planning.