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Sichuan Haidilao Catering Co., Ltd. (Haidilao) was the leading hot pot company in the Chinese market and the largest hot pot chain of restaurants in the world. Haidilao was famous for its extraordinary customer service, which had made it a legend in the catering industry. However, on August 25, 2017, a news report with online videos revealed that mice were in the kitchen of one of Haidilao's restaurants, that dustpans and tableware were washed in the same sink, and that spoons intended for customer use were used to unclog blockages in the plumbing. How could Zhang Yong, the founder and chair of Haidilao's board of directors, respond to the crisis, turn threats into opportunities, and prevent the recurrence of such a crisis?

In 2014, Yildiz Holding, a Turkish conglomerate, had just acquired the UK-based biscuit maker United Biscuits, the premium chocolate maker Godiva Chocolatier Inc., and the US-based company DeMet's Candy Company. As Yildiz Holding moved forward in pursuit of its goal of dominating the global confectionery market for biscuits and snacks, senior management members were questioning whether the company's business model (which had brought it success for many years) would continue to be viable, and particularly, what the implications of its global expansion were for its diversified business model.

Founded in 1969 as a small operation, Otsuka Kagu, Ltd. became Japan's largest furniture retailer and was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1980. A membership program in 1993 managed to revitalize the company's sales at a time when Japan was in a recession. Years later, after sales began to decline and the founder was convicted of insider trading in 2008, the presidency was transferred to the founder's daughter, who applied a more customer-centric model to the business. This change infuriated the founder, who removed his daughter from the company's leadership. After persistently poor performance, the company's board of directors reinstated the founder's daughter; she then launched a notorious public battle for control of the company. Despite new environment-responsive strategies, revenues continued to decline to the point of the company declaring its biggest loss by the end of 2017. In August 2018, the company reported a net loss of ¥2.3 billion, with the company's shares trading at their lowest level ever. Facing financial distress, the company had to look both inward and outward to determine its next steps.

In January 2017, the online cake company Ohmycake.in, which was started two years earlier by a young entrepreneur in Kerala, India, ran into trouble after a series of successful experiments. Adding to the company's problems, customers were becoming more demanding and the competition was catching up. The entrepreneur had hired a new operations executive to help solve the company's business strategy and scalability issues, including a current problem: whether to accept or reject demanding custom orders that were appearing in the company's online order management system.

In 2015, the corporate affairs executive of the leading Swiss agribusiness company Syngenta Crop Protection AG (Syngenta) and founder of the next-generation innovation platform Thought for Food, faced a dilemma about whether to register Thought for Food as an independent non-governmental organization, or to keep it housed within Syngenta. The choice had implications for Thought for Food's potential for future growth and for its impact on global food-security challenges. To grow within Syngenta, Thought for Food would have to close the gaps between its open innovation practices and Syngenta's traditional operations. To grow independently, it would have to develop a business plan that assured financial security. In either case, Thought for Food had to continue growing in relevance to its non-financial stakeholders, like the student participants and expert judges in its annual innovation challenge and summit.

By August 2015, Swiggy, an on-demand food delivery start-up, had been operating for almost one year in Bengaluru, India. The exponential growth of the business was expected to persist. However, Swiggy was incurring a loss, or a cash burn, on each delivery it was making. The company's current cash reserves were also drying up, and its chief executive officer had been unsuccessful in attracting new venture capital funding to finance the cash burn estimated for the next four quarters. Swiggy must figure out how to pursue its growth without the injection of any fresh funds.

This mini-case set describes the challenges facing the new leadership of Richmond's Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) to revitalize and save the Museum. Alex Nyerges and Michael Taylor arrived in 2006 at a key point in the institution's history. Membership was flagging at around 5,000, and a major construction project was $20 million over budget. Residents of Richmond felt increasingly disconnected from the museum. Some even viewed its collection as irrelevant to modern life. Nyerges and Taylor faced difficult decisions regarding membership fees, museum hours, and the need to establish community engagement. As with other museums across the nation they also faced the daunting challenge of attracting younger patrons and families while preserving the older donor base. This case set is suitable for a class in Change Management, Designing for Growth, or any Nonprofit or Leadership class.

Friends Parker and Miles are brainstorming the possibilities of a local start-up-a landscaping venture that leverages their love of the outdoors and their self-taught green thumb skills in planting, mowing, edging, trimming, landscape design, and the like. Without any formal professional or business training, however, they strategize and slowly work through their "next steps," taking into account the cost of their initial investment, potential competitors, target customers, and the type of budget-friendly advertising that will gain them a share of the local market. As they conceptually differentiate themselves in a way that creates business and customer value, are they ready to launch?

Character House Entertainment was a small entertainment company in the Greater Toronto Area that provided Disney and cartoon-character performances for children's birthday parties and corporate events. The company's customizable services featured musical performances, meet-and-greets, games, dances, stuffed animals, and cotton candy. In April 2017, the company's founder and chief executive officer anticipated an influx in demand for a recently released movie that had achieved worldwide success and critical acclaim. She wanted to offer this new theme in the company's event options in order to contend with competitors and stay current with customers. In addition to customer and competitor indicators, she wanted to assess the return the company could expect if it expanded into offering those characters.

In December 2017, during the celebrations of the third anniversary of his company, the founder and president of Dami Technology Co. Ltd. (Dami) reflected on the success of his entrepreneurship efforts since 2014. Using mobile Internet, Internet of things, and artificial intelligence technologies, Dami implemented a new rice supply chain from farm to table by developing smart kitchenware, such as rice buckets and rice cookers. Dami was the first company to accomplish this goal in the Chinese rice industry. By the end of 2017, Dami had created its own market in more than 30 of China's major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. Having achieved great success, Dami had two main options for its next phase of growth: (1) build a complete smart kitchen ecosystem using all available resources, or (2) partner with a Chinese home appliances giant and join a smart kitchen ecosystem.

Shortly after entering the kombucha market in Calgary, Alberta, True Büch Kombucha (True Büch) experienced significant growth. True Büch was sold from reusable kegs and in single-serving bottles at local markets and retailers. However, with such high demand for its product, True Büch was struggling to keep up. The reusable kegs that were on site at retailers required maintenance and refilling, and the maximum output of the homemade bottling line was only 1,000 single-serving bottles per day. In addition, True Büch's production space was at capacity, and the owners had nothing left to invest. They had yet to take on any additional financing, but they knew some capital would be required to keep up with demand. In 2017, three years into the business, the owners were at a crossroads and contemplated the best approach to maintain their growth and expand.

Since its founding in 1989, Mejzlík Modellbau, a propeller manufacturing company based in the Czech Republic, had gained high visibility in the remote-controlled plane market. It had achieved a strong position by maintaining product quality and providing excellent customer service. The company had a strong cash position and an excellent credit rating; however, by mid-2018, the market for remote-controlled planes was reaching its saturation stage, as evidenced by Mejzlík Modellbau's declining profits. If the company continued to rely solely on the remote-controlled plane market, it might soon face bankruptcy. The founder decided to explore various other markets wherein he could utilize his expertise of making high-quality carbon fibre propellers. But how would he strategically determine which market to pursue?

On October 5, 2017, the chief executive officer of Sony India Pvt. Ltd. (Sony), in Mumbai, India, was concerned about the future of the television show Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah (TMKOC), which aired on the television channel Sri Adhikari Brothers Television (SAB TV), a general-entertainment channel owned by Sony. TMKOC was a flagship, family-friendly comedy show that had enjoyed top ratings for years. However, new comedy shows that featured more hard-edged and less family-oriented content, with jokes at the expense of characters rather than at situations, were gaining new viewers. Current viewers were also using mobile devices rather than traditional television sets to watch content. The chief executive officer wondered how he could sustain SAB TV as a market leader, despite the growing popularity of less family-friendly content from new comedy shows and emerging digital platforms.

PFA a leading Danish insurance and pension company administrating pension funds for approximately 75 billion Euro and having more than 1,1 Million customers has over that past years started a huge digital transformation journey. For a number of years PFA pursued an aggressive growth strategy and was able to grow more than 10% primarily by taking customers from competitors. Though, the aggressive growth strategy has led to non-profitable business. Too little focus has been given to the internal processes and IT landscape leading to high costs. To turn the development PFA decided to hire a number of experienced senior managers who had been through a digital transformation journey in other Scandinavian service companies. To kick-start the digital transformation journey PFA decided to allocate 42 FTE's to this project during the summer of 2016. The team was moved away from their existing business environment and into an environment integrating various functions. Breaking down silos improving agility to transform processes and systems was core to the success of the transformation. As LEAN had successfully been used in PFA for a number of years the agile business transformation was combined with principles of LEAN. While the first results from the digital business transformation team were positive, the change of this more than 100-year-old company is enormous. Core stakeholders are skeptical about whether the 2 schools; agility and LEAN can be combined or whether the company should continue with only LEAN principles to push the transformation through. Though, one thing is in common - senior management has realized the need for a digital transformation in order for PFA to keep its leading market position - whether digital LEAN or a combination with agility is still to be finally decided.

Late 2015. E-commerce was changing the face of retailing, and ALDO, a Canadian shoe retailer with a global presence, was not immune. The effects of e-commerce were felt not just in the sales channels, but in the whole customer experience and the customer journey. To successfully execute a compelling online and overseas strategy, there were a few things that ALDO needed to consider: 1) How could it build its online presence overseas given its historical expansion via a franchise model? 2) Given the rise of e-commerce, should ALDO reconsider its internationalization business model? 3) What does a truly omnichannel business look like for ALDO, and what does the company need to do to make it succeed?

Jayalaxmi Agrotech (JAT) is a company based out of a small village called H.B. Halli in Bellary district of Karnataka, which helps farmers in availing correct and timely information at their fingertips using mobile technology. JAT created a mobile app which can be used to access information about various crop varieties, diseases, fertilizers, and pesticides and other details on irrigation, micronutrients, etc. This app pushes data on almost real-time basis to a server regarding the features accessed by the farmers from the app. This data can be analyzed to assess the usage of the app and some of the attributes can act as proxy data to understand prevalent diseases and the varieties of crops grown in specific areas. Anand, the founder of JAT, wanted to understand this data and gain some valuable insights which could help farmers with decision making. The major dilemma for Anand was to either prove or disprove several claims about plant diseases that were prevalent among the farmers.

When Stefan Oschmann became CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in 2016, the company had started its transformation from a mid-tier traditional German industry player to a global modern science and technology player. The restructuring and portfolio overhaul led by Oschmann's predecessor Karl-Ludwig Kley since 2007 had been approved by the Merck founding family in its 13th generation, which still owned the majority of the shares. Its intermediate results had been encouraging. After three large acquisitions (Serono, Millipore, and Sigma-Aldrich) that broadened its reach from healthcare and pharmaceuticals into life sciences and performance materials and an internal optimization program, revenues and profitability had doubled in the decade leading up to 2016. But more needed to be done. Preparing for the company's 350-year anniversary in 2018, Oschmann had kept up the pace of change, and announced further divestments and restructurings, sparking reactions from employees who expressed increasing exasperation about the new measures. In the fall of 2017 Oschmann and his Executive Board had to decide on the best strategic option for the company's consumer health division. Should they divest a division that lacked scale but that with its consumer brands in pain and cold remedies was viewed as a symbol of the company's origins? Was more change too much change in such a short time?

In December 2018, the blockchain startup Fluidity was about to participate in its first tokenization deal, which would create digital access to property rights in a 12-unit Manhattan condominium complex. The deal was proof-of-concept for Fluidity, which hoped to develop a business digitizing securities issuance for other real estate assets on the basis of its technical facility with blockchain technology, and in conjunction with its broker-dealer partner, Propellr. A successful transaction would only prompt larger and more urgent strategic questions, however. Among them was the appropriate revenue model for Fluidity-whether to grow by providing its technical services to broker-dealers, by going into tokenized securities issuance, or by harnessing its trading technology to facilitate a secondary market in tokenized securities.

Vittorio Colao, CEO of telecommunication giant Vodafone, must respond to reports of disturbing accounting practices at two of Vodafone's operating companies. In one case, €60 million have been misreported due to a series of failures to check manual accounting processes. The situation has been escalated to Vodafone's audit committee, which expects Colao and his team to act drastically. In the second case, €7 million have been misreported through deferred recognition of costs into the future. The two cases challenge Colao's organizational model of International Values and Local Roots that aims to maintain productive tension between global mandates and local practices. Colao meticulously designed his model based on the key value of trust, his unwavering convictions earning him the moniker of the 'benevolent dictator.' Colao is acutely aware that his response to the accounting discrepancies will be a referendum on his leadership for over 120,000 employees worldwide. If he doesn't make the right decisions, the consequences will reverberate throughout the organization and erode confidence in the value of trust that he relentlessly worked to establish.