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Vertu Corporation Limited (Vertu), a manufacturer and retailer of luxury mobile phones, was founded as a subsidiary of Nokia in 2000. It was later acquired by a Swedish private equity firm in 2012, and then sold to Godin Holdings in 2015. Despite these multiple corporate ownership transitions, Vertu had remained uniquely positioned, differentiated by its phones' bejewelled embellishments and a worldwide concierge service available at the touch of a button. The luxury phones were sought after by ultra-high net worth individuals as instantly recognizable status symbols akin to luxury watches. However, in the early 2000s, the introduction of luxury-priced, full-featured iPhones; the decline of conspicuous consumption among ultra-high net worth individuals after the financial crisis; and the anticorruption movement in Asia rendered Vertu's business model unsustainable. Or was it? In July 2017, Vertu's new owner faced a critical decision upon the liquidation of Vertu. Should he sell or license the remaining brand assets to a luxury brand owner or retrench in China to focus on existing customers without taking into consideration the ethical and reputational implications to the brand in the rest of the world?

In April 2017, BMW AG (BMW) faced a big decision regarding which plant should receive the mandate to produce the first electric version of BMW's iconic Mini car. The leadership team of BMW's UK operations was determined to keep the Mini at its historical home base in the United Kingdom. However, given the uncertainty arising from the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union-a move commonly known as "Brexit" -how would the team be able to convince corporate headquarters?

In early January 2018, a leading non-governmental organization in the Indian state of Rajasthan was considering an alliance with Airtel Payments Bank Limited (Airtel Payments), the first "payments bank" in India. Although India showed economic growth in key areas, financially inclusive growth was poor. Airtel Payments and its competitors were expected to strengthen financial inclusion with technological expertise, wide distribution networks, and substantial revenue to sustain losses during initial start-up phases of the payments banking Industry in India. Airtel Payments paid a 7.25 per cent interest rate for customer deposits, the highest among the payments banks. However, the non-governmental organization needed to address several questions before initiating an alliance with Airtel Payments for financial inclusion: Could Airtel Payments play a significant role in financial inclusion and help solve India's persistent age-old issue of last-mile connectivity? Was it viable to offer higher interest rates than competitors? Did the environmental factors favour Airtel Payments? Was the payments bank industry competitive? What would be the impact of Airtel Payments's previous unethical practice of opening bank accounts without informed consent?

Outfit7 is a digital entertainment firm that develops and publishes animated video games for mobile phones, tablets and desktops. It's flagship product is a series of mobile apps called "Talking Tom and Friends", with close to 10 billion downloads globally. Outfit7 is one of only 46 European unicorns, i.e., privately held companies valued above $1 billion, topping the global ranks of most downloaded mobile games. In 2017, according to App Annie, a leading app-ranking platform, Outfit7 was the sixth most downloaded mobile publisher, and My Talking Tom was the second most downloaded mobile game globally, putting it in the company of tech giants like Facebook, Google, Tencent and Alibaba. Part A describes the growth stage from 2009 to 2014, along with the story of founders Samo and Iza Login. The focus is on setting up the startup and developing a unique organizational culture, leaving the hiring decision (fit or misfit) to students. In Part B, from 2014 to 2017, the start-up moves into scale-up phase after the founders' exit/appointment of a new management team, the focus is on entrepreneurial leadership. In Part C, as tensions emerge from scaling up a unicorn, students must decide what to keep and what to change (how to balance continuity and renewal) as expectations for growth soar.

This case illustrates the challenges for a non-digital player adjusting to digital disruption in the travel and tourism industry. The rise and fall of Kuoni illustrates the 'boiling frog' syndrome - i.e., while threats to its business multiplied, there was no 'wake up' moment where managers made decisive changes before it was too late. More generally, the case considers the challenges of digital disruption: leading transformation and change-management skillsets, and the mindset/culture required to embrace new technology. By identifying what Kuoni did and did not do, students understand what it takes to transform into an agile organisation by leveraging digital trends and technologies.

In 2015, Costco Wholesale Corporation (Costco) was ranked as one of the world's largest global retailers based on sales revenue, second only to Walmart Inc. It had successfully expanded into eight international markets: Canada, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Mexico, Taiwan, Australia, and the United Kingdom, managing to grow despite the turbulent economic conditions prevalent in these countries. Costco challenged stereotypes and employed unconventional business strategies to position itself as a leading transnational retailer. Costco's business model was crucial to the company's financial success and expansion over the years. Key company success factors included its membership-based operating model, its focus on low-cost efficiencies, the perceived quality and value of the Kirkland Signature brand, and its philosophy of rewarding human capital. However, as Costco made plans to expand its operations, it faced challenges due to intensified competition in the global retail industry and policies and regulations in local markets that restricted big box retailers. In this context of uncertain international markets, which markets should it enter next? What was the best entry method for each individual market?

The Esquel, one of the world's largest cotton-based textile and apparel manufacturing companies, produces shirts for from scratch through a vertically integrated supply chain for many major brands, including Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, and Nike, and department stores around the world. Its leadership, comprising Chairman Marjorie Yang, Vice Chairman Teresa Yang, and CEO John Cheh, had made significant strides over the past two decades, fostering and developing sustainability practices across their supply chain. Set in the early part of 2012, this case tracks their decision-making process as they saw an opportunity to develop a greenfield site in the city of Guilin in Guangxi Province, China. They named this new development project "Integral", following the Buddhist concept of harmony between the natural and surrounding environment, the workplace and the workforce culture, and the pursuit of innovation, community, and excellence. The main issues the Esquel leadership faced were to define the vision and mission for Integral around the short and long-term value proposition of the Integral site. What could be the contribution of the Integral site to the Esquel network, and in what ways could they make the Integral site a showcase for the sustainability focus of the organization?

The Esquel, one of the world's largest cotton-based textile and apparel manufacturing companies, produces shirts for from scratch through a vertically integrated supply chain for many major brands, including Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, and Nike, and department stores around the world. Its leadership, comprising Chairman Marjorie Yang, Vice Chairman Teresa Yang, and CEO John Cheh, had made significant strides over the past two decades, fostering and developing sustainability practices throughout their manufacturing network. Set during the summer of 2017, this case tracks their decision-making process during the development of a greenfield site in the city of Guilin in Guangxi Province, China. They named this greenfield site "Integral", following the Buddhist concept of harmony between the natural and surrounding environment, the workplace and the workforce culture, and the pursuit of innovation, community, and excellence. The case explores the leadership and managerial crisis precipitated by technical problems discovered in the construction of the greenfield site. The company's high standards and commitment to its 5E-Culture had clearly not translated to the ground operations at the project site, and Vice Chairman, Teresa Yang was tasked with guiding the project development through the crisis, and examining why the problems occurred in the first place.

Zheijiang Geely Holing Company's acquisition of Volvo Cars was widely viewed with skepticism because of the poor track record of cross-border auto industry acquisitions. This case looks at the acquisition and post-acquisition integration from the point of view of Sweedish managers at Volvo. A companion case, 613-041 Zheijiang Geely Holding Group: Acquisition of Volvo Cars looks at the acquisition from the point of view of Chinese managers at Geely.

Case A is set in 2008. Tong Yee is a co-founder of The Thought Collective (TTC), a group of social enterprises that aimed to enhance the social capital of local society. His background in education led him to provide private lessons to underprivileged children. In 2006, he worked with his partners to launch School Of Thought (SOT), a tuition centre that focused on public welfare and charged affordable fees with the goal of maximising social impact instead of profits. TTC subsequently branched into the restaurant business in 2007 with Food For Thought (FFT) when the opportunity fortuitously arose. FFT began by donating 10% of its profits to the community. Later on, in collaboration with the National Heritage Board (NHB), a statutory board charged with preserving the shared heritage of Singapore's diverse communities, FFT would also be a place where people gathered to share stories of their local life experiences. FFT hence aimed to provide good food for a good cause. At the end of the year, Tong and his team had to decide if a much larger restaurant location at the Singapore Botanic Gardens was worth bidding for. The area was popular with tourists and locals alike and fit their goal of bringing people together in community areas. A dynamic rental model would also allow their rent to fluctuate with sales. However, the costs would be a lot higher than at their other outlets and demand was uncertain. Case B continues in 2011. After FFT decided to rent the space at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, they suffered huge financial losses in the first few years. The team started to face new operational and staffing issues and had to figure out how to move forward or cease operations. The case also explores what the team could have done differently.

In late March 2017, Clara Miller, director and president of the F.B. Heron Foundation ("Heron"), a philanthropic institution focused on helping people help themselves out of poverty, sat down to put the finishing touches on her President's Letter. In previous years, the letter included Miller's lucid thoughts regarding major changes within the organization and advocated for movement toward a "philanthropic world"-a world in which "all sectors-public and private companies, partnerships, nonprofits, government-[were] actively and broadly philanthropic in their regular operations." In her 2017 letter, however, Miller had more to talk about than ever. Over the prior five years, Miller, who joined Heron in 2011 with over three decades of nonprofit management experience, had led the organization through a strategic and operational transformation. In 2012, she launched a five-year plan to invest 100 percent of the endowment toward better fulfilling the organization's mission. By December 2016, Heron had done just that. In the process, Heron's board and staff reset the organization's investment policy statement and unified the investment program functions to create a new operating model. Miller realized that there was still more work to do. The board and staff saw 100 percent as a "false summit" and looked ahead to optimizing an endowment that was 100 percent aligned for mission. And while Heron had been influential over the years in encouraging others to adopt the organization's original vision of being more than a private investment company, the practice was still rare in philanthropy. It seemed that the goal of a "philanthropic world"-one going beyond the walls of the foundation or philanthropy alone-was more urgent than ever. This case describes how the Heron board went about visualizing the future in terms of leadership, strategic direction, and Heron's own leadership within the philanthropic world.

This case features a company in China's booming delivery industry. Students are asked to step into the shoes of an equity analyst at an IPO consulting firm and recommend a listing strategy and IPO price for a fast growing express delivery company. The authors have successfully used the case in a business valuation course.

This case asks students to consider questions about where and how to implement Statistical Process Control (SPC) within the fictional Topco Pharmaservices company. Topco's documentation process for outsourcing clinical drug manufacture was experiencing high rates of errors. By constructing and interpreting a p-chart for SPC, students can begin to address Topco's challenges.

This case is based on a negotiation that took place in the fall of 2018 between a BMW customer and BMW Customer Relations over the continued and repeated failure of Bridgestone Potenza Run-Flat (RF) original equipment (OE) tires. The case provides an in-class experience for students to discuss and learn multiple facets, strategies, and tactics of negotiations. It can be used within any undergraduate or graduate negotiations class or in a course that explores elements of marketing and customer service. The role of social media in this case adds an interesting and unique discussion point. In this case, the negotiation is presented in five rounds. Students should read the five rounds one at a time and sequentially, with a pause at the end of each round for an instructor-led discussion.

Focused on injury prediction and prevention in elite sport, the Melbourne, Australia-based KangaTech prepared to launch a new model of their core product, an integrated exercise frame and software system that used strength exercises to identify and mitigate the risk of soft-tissue and ligament injuries (see Exhibit 2 for overview of product). The team was excited about the new product and was confident that it improved upon many of the features of the previous model. However, Saunders and his co-founders couldn't help but think about the long-term strategy of the company. Spun off in 2015 out of an internal R&D initiative at the North Melbourne Football Club, KangaTech spent the past four years squarely focused on product development and gaining early traction in the elite sports markets in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia (see Exhibit 3 for company timeline). As of 2019, KangaTech had users across 15 different sites, including professional teams in the National Basketball Association, the English Premier League, and the Australian Football League. The company also underwent a successful round of financing recently, and the proceeds of which were used to fund the new version of the KangaTech product. Off the back of this recent success, the co-founders were focused on how they might be able to navigate the future ahead of them. Dilena explained, "We are going through a pretty robust strategy discussion at the moment. It is one of those decision points for us as to how we best proceed.' Dilena continued, "We've been largely product-based and product-development-based until now. How do we scale up? How do we take that next quantum leap as an organization? So part of that has been looking at where do we see the market opportunities?"

In 2011, Canibal launched a machine that could sort and compress aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and cups. Users could play a jackpot-style game on the machine's digital display, while disposing of their beverage containers and earning coupons or other rewards. The machine could also display advertising or serve as a communication tool. In 2016, the company's new machine, the i3, had more potential than earlier models, due to enhanced reliability and displays that could allow Canibal to pursue new markets. Benoit Paget, CEO and founder of Canibal, must choose a growth path: which customer segment should he focus on? How should he position his product? What would be the implications of these choices for marketing and sales requirements, pricing, and funding?

This case (A), and its related cases (B-E), establish a setting to discuss an M&A transaction and some of the key legal contracts that are associated with it. In 2010, private equity backed food manufacturer Pierre Foods is contemplating the acquisition of a key competitor, Advance Foods. The acquisition would be debt financed, and would involve the "rollover" of an equity stake by the selling shareholders. There are five key documents to be negotiated: The Stock Purchase Agreement (Cases B-1, B-2), the Stockholders' and Registration Rights Agreements (Cases C-1, C-2), the Credit Agreement (Cases D-1, D-2), and the Employment Agreement (Cases E-1, E-2). These agreements have been drafted, but each contain a handful of open business points which the parties need to resolve. The cases look at these open points from the perspective of each of the key parties involved, including Pierre's majority shareholder, Oaktree Capital Management, the selling shareholders, the target's management team, and the lenders to the acquisition facility. Overall, these cases can be used to understand the unique elements of a complex corporate transaction, how the key documents allocate risk and value, and how parties may make trade-offs to achieve outcomes that best match their priorities.