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In 2007, Twentieth Century Fox faced a number of issues in the production of Avatar—a movie that was widely anticipated but had raised concerns in the production studios. Studio executives doubted the appeal of the plot and worried that audiences would not like the story. The movie needed to create an emotional appeal to attract audiences and make sufficient box office receipts. If the movie could not do this, Avatar would become one of the biggest money losers in the history of the movie industry. The project encountered many challenges in development—particularly in terms of time, budget, and technology, and the decision about whether to continue to invest or to pull the plug was extremely difficult. At what point did the risk become too significant? How should the studio decide when to go forward with a project and when to cancel it?

Between 2016 and 2019, the India-based budget hotel start-up Oravel Stays Private Limited (OYO) expanded into nine countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. However, OYO faced several crises in its home country: contracted hoteliers of OYO threatened to file lawsuits against the start-up for breach of contract, and customers raised service quality issues. Critics believed that with such rapid internationalization, OYO’s founder was simply burning through the cash of venture capitalists. Nevertheless, the founder was determined to expand internationally while enhancing OYO’s service portfolio in India. Should he reconsider his decision to focus on international markets instead of the domestic market? Could legal issues in OYO’s home country create impediments to this growth plan? How should he deal with these issues?

In 2018, Game of Thrones, a widely popular television series, had inspired a significant increase in tourism to one of its filming locations: Dubrovnik, Croatia. The economy in Croatia, in general, and Dubrovnik, in particular, relied significantly on tourism. However, the popularity of the television series had led to overwhelming tourist traffic in the area. During the peak tourist season, the city now suffered from serious overcrowding. In addition, the city was at risk of losing its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In response, the city had begun to engage in demarketing efforts. Would these efforts be successful in both managing the high demand for tourism in the area and creating a sustainable tourism industry?

In 2018, Tesla Inc. was one of the highest-valued automobile companies in the United States—despite never reporting profits. Although Elon Musk, the founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., was appreciated for his vision, learning capabilities, active presence on social media, and dedication, he was also criticized for his leadership style and controversial tweets regarding the privatization of the company. Analysts and short sellers believed Musk’s narrative ability had caused Tesla Inc. to become overvalued and suspected that the company was actually on the verge of bankruptcy. Did Musk’s leadership do more harm than good? Would he be able to save Tesla Inc.?

The manager of Water Operations at the City of London wanted to reduce the cost of pumping water by optimizing energy use. Water Operations had been consistently experiencing higher operational costs, and electricity bills accounted for up to 30 per cent of its direct costs. If the manager could predict the future cost of energy, she could schedule the operation of the water pumps to benefit from periods of low energy prices, potentially saving up to 25 per cent of the energy costs. The manager obtained the hourly Ontario electricity prices from 2003 to 2015, and wanted to use that data to evaluate how accurately she could predict future electricity prices. How should she proceed?

In 2016, Chinese football club Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club (Evergrande), which had recently been crowned the most valuable football club in China by Forbes magazine, with a valuation of US$282 million, simultaneously had a market capitalization in China of over US$3.3 billion. The team had yet to earn a profit, so these valuations raised questions regarding how this team in particular was valued and how sports franchises were valued in general. Many sports teams tended to lose money as they built their talent base, and investors often valued such assets in a way that was similar to the valuation of technology stocks. A football fan who was interested in investing in the Evergrande club was concerned about the high price for its shares. He wondered whether the club was really worth this much money and whether its stock price could continue to rise in future. To answer these questions, he needed to understand how the team was valued.

In March 2018, an analyst at an investment management firm in Toronto, Ontario, had to decide whether or not to recommend that his firm establish a position in shares of Restaurant Brands International Inc. (RBI). Formed after the merger of Burger King and Tim Hortons Inc., RBI was led by the private equity firm 3G Capital. RBI was a powerhouse–the third-largest, quick-service restaurant chain in the world. Although RBI was performing well and seemed to present an attractive investment opportunity, the company was facing issues from disgruntled franchisees, who were dissatisfied with the cost-cutting measures implemented at Tim Hortons Inc. as part of 3G Capital’s acquisition. This led to class action lawsuits from franchisees as well as a business slow-down, as measured by same-store sales figures. With not much time left, the analyst had to determine and present a decision to the rest of his team on whether or not to invest in RBI.

Kellie Leitch, a long-time member of Canada's Conservative Party but a relative newcomer as an elected politician, ran in the party's 2017 election for a new party leader. Her platform addressed several issues, but the media focused on two: a commitment to institute screening of newcomers to the country for their adherence to Canadian values and a platform of anti-elite initiatives. By the time the election for leader was held in May 2017, Leitch had been singled out, criticized, and lambasted for a platform that was seen by many as running against not only accepted Canadian values but also her own experience and values. How had her reputation shifted from well-regarded physician and community leader to criticized political candidate? What strengths and experience would she need to rebuild her position?

In July 2018, several employees of Yonghui Superstores stood outside the company’s headquarters in Chongqing, China to protest a pay cut that had been imposed on them. In 2012, the national supermarket chain had rolled out a performance monitoring system that periodically identified employees with inferior results. A broad-range profit-sharing plan was linked to the new performance system and calculated results based on team performance. Yonghui Superstores also applied organizational reforms to support the new system. All measures were intended to stimulate overall performance and increase labour efficiency. After the implementation of these measures, Yonghui Superstores saw favourable financial results and improved performance. Its new policies also helped increase personal income for many of its employees. However, the system also sparked anger among some workers who failed to meet predetermined performance expectations. Incidents such as employee protests had to be avoided because they could tarnish the company’s brand image. From an organizational perspective, the company also had to balance the interests of the various business divisions, which faced completely different competitive environments. Yonghui Superstores needed a systematic solution for its performance initiative.

Gun control is an important issue in American politics. In 2014, in light of recent gun violence, gun control advocate organizations lobbied retailers to prohibit customers from carrying guns into their stores. The organizations had successfully lobbied Target Corporation, then turned its attention to The Kroger Co. (Kroger), petitioning it to change its store policy allowing customers to carry guns where state law permitted it. However, Kroger elected to maintain its existing policy. Gun violence increased in the United States over the subsequent years and gun safety advocates increased their lobbying efforts, raising the question of whether Kroger should revisit its position from 2014, allowing customers to carry guns in its stores, and if so, what position it should take.

Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Fairfax), the Canadian insurance and investment company, made an offer in 2016 for a majority stake in the Catholic Syrian Bank Limited (CSB), a regional private bank in India. Despite its initial enthusiasm for the deal, the CSB rejected the offer because of low valuation. At the behest of the Reserve Bank of India, the CSB made a counter-offer to Fairfax for a majority stake at a substantially higher valuation. Should Fairfax take the offer?

In March 2018, Snap Inc. (Snap), based in Venice, California, and commonly known as Snapchat for its application that allowed users to send photos that disappeared, was looking for ways to grow its user base in the competitive social media platform industry and to differentiate itself from the other major platforms. To do this, it was trying to position itself as a “camera” company and to become relevant to a larger target market: adults aged 25 and older, a demographic that seemed already well-served by current social media platform options.

In June 2018, an intern at an investment firm was given the task of assessing the financial condition of Bon-Ton Holdings, Inc. (Bon-Ton), a leading US department store chain. In January 2018, it had entered into forbearance agreements with some of its lenders and announced store closures at 42 locations as part of its rationalization program. On February 4, 2018, it filed a voluntary petition for protection against bankruptcy and for reorganization. With the US retail industry already having witnessed more than 15 bankruptcies in 2017—the most in the last six years—would Bon-Ton survive? What measures could the company take to fight bankruptcy? What actions might put the company back on track?

In 2018, California-based Tesla Inc. (Tesla) seemed to be gaining momentum after a series of setbacks in the production of its mass-market Model 3 car. Tesla's partnership strategy, guided by founder and chief executive officer Elon Musk, had been key to its success, yet Tesla did not appear to be succeeding as a stand-alone firm. It continued to command a small portion of overall vehicle sales, it had not mastered mass-production techniques, and it had not solved its sales dilemma by receiving permission to bypass the car dealership network in the United States. Tesla would continue to need partners for growth even as the nature of its partnerships changed. The challenge was to determine Tesla's partnership strategy in the short to medium term.

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 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?

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 May 2018, Walmart Inc. (Walmart) announced its acquisition of a 77 per cent stake in the Indian e-commerce company Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd. (Flipkart). It was the largest acquisition of an Indian company and the world's largest purchase of an e-commerce company. The deal would provide Walmart with the opportunity to expand globally in competition with its old rival, Amazon.com Inc., and it would provide Flipkart with additional capital to operate in a hypercompetitive environment and an opportunity to leverage Walmart's omni-channel retail expertise. However, despite the strategic alignments, several factors could complicate the deal. Were Walmart's detailed analysis and due diligence prior to the acquisition sufficient to ensure a successful acquisition, or could human resources considerations affect the expected outcomes of the acquisition?

In December 2017, the corporate vice-president of Microsoft Corporation’s Devices division was considering two options to chart a strategic course for the next few years. Since first joining Microsoft Corporation in 2004, one of the vice-president's key roles had been to oversee the strategic direction of the personal computing hardware business. The company, which was headquartered in Washington State in the United States, had a multitude of products and services that presented both opportunities and challenges for its future. Microsoft Corporation had to decide between two project options that represented growth in different business areas in Asia Pacific. The first option was to launch new products from the company's Surface division in the Asia Pacific market. This could be Microsoft Corporation’s opportunity to showcase its holistic devices ecosystem to prospective customers in the region. The second option was to intensify efforts to market and sell the firm’s cloud solutions. This could further differentiate Microsoft Corporation as an early mover enabling enterprises to migrate to the cloud.

In August 2017, AMC Networks Inc. (AMCN), a New York City–based cable television provider, faced a lawsuit from the creative talent behind the hit show The Walking Dead. The lawsuit charged that AMCN used its vertical integration into content development to reduce the profits available for distribution to participants. For AMCN, which was originally a content distributor, expanding into content creation through its AMC Studios had several benefits. However, the industry was changing with the advent of online streaming services such as Netflix Inc., Hulu, and Amazon Prime, as well as an industry-wide shift among cable networks to offer proprietary content. These changes had an impact on the relationship between the business and the creative side of the industry. AMCN’s chief executive officer had to decide how to respond to the lawsuit.