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The new business development manager for Evergreen Executive Education has been asked by the firm's CEO to develop a list of as many revenue growth ideas as he could over the next week. The COE saw this task as critical for the new services initiative that he had been hired to lead. The list would be an inventory of possibilities for ongoing consideration as well as a catalyst for other professionals in the firm to generate additional ideas. The CEO had described the task for him was to keep his primary business-development mission in mind, and to think big and out of the box.

The dean of a prominent business school has learned that the system that his-and many other-business schools use to help select and notify MBA students has been hacked. The hacker posted instructions for applicants to gain access to schools' decisions ahead of time. During the 10 hours MyMBA's system was compromised, several hundred applicants viewed their admission status at multiple top-tier schools. MyMBA now has offered the names of the applicants who took advantage of the hack, and the dean's phone is ringing off the hook with media queries. How should he handle this breach, and what public statement should he make? The case is designed to surface and explore students' instinctive decision-making 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, ethics, difficult conversations, decision-making, organizational behavior, moral disengagement, and related topics. It is appropriate for a range of levels and audiences, including undergraduate, MBA, and executive education.

This case recounts the journey of Evie.ai, a Singapore-based tech startup. Specifically, the case examines how founder Lee Jin Hian and his team developed and implemented Evie, an artificial intelligence (AI) personal assistant. There are very few teaching cases on AI and its impact on work and employment. Commercial applications of AI may promise substantial potential gains to individual and organizational productivity, but we need to be aware of their limits as well. This case introduces students to AI and how this technology can be informed by data analytics and applied to various tasks. It also offers lessons on the realities of running a startup: students will gain a deeper understanding of tech entrepreneurship (or "technopreneurship") from analysing the challenges and opportunities that confronted Evie.ai, and in navigating the decisions the startup needed to make in the face of mounting competition and rapid technological shifts.

This case presents the second phase of DBS Bank's internationally acclaimed digital transformation. Upon completing the first phase (2009-2014) of the transformation that radically "rewired" the entire enterprise for digital innovation, DBS initiated its second digital push in 2015 to address ever-emerging threats from fintech companies and institutional constraints on acquisition-led organic expansion. To DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets, this digital transformation was an on-going journey in building a next-generation enterprise. It centred on developing the core capabilities to be ready for a digital future, i.e., the agility to scale technology infrastructure, to delight customers, to connect with ecosystem partners, and to innovate in ways that are unimaginable today. The case details how DBS was preparing these capabilities by undertaking three fundamental "philosophical shifts": to reinvent DBS by becoming digital to the core, embedding DBS in the customer journey, and creating a 26,000-person start-up. The case also highlights the bank's methodology for measuring financial value created by digitalisation; DBS is believed to be the first bank in the world to have done so. Furthermore, the case describes DBS's latest strategic move to embark onto its next stage of transformation, i.e., to reorganise the company around (technology) platforms.

In January 2018, Manoj Sinha-founder and CEO of Husk Power-was contemplating raising $20 million to scale operations for a second time. From 2007 through 2013, Husk built 80 biomass waste plants that provided electricity to 250,000 villagers and shop owners spread across 350 villages in rural India and Africa. But in 2015, Husk underwent a major pivot. Rather than providing power through biomass gasification alone, Husk shifted to plants that used biomass gasification, solar energy and battery power in tandem, allowing for power generation nearly 24-7. And rather than serving households as their core customer demographic, Sinha shifted Husk's focus to village commercial centers. To bring this vision to reality Sinha ceased operations of nearly all of the existing plant locations and began the conversion to new locations built around the "new" hybrid plant. Thus in 2015, Husk was operating a mere 10 power plants and serving roughly 2000 customers, down from the 80 plants and roughly 250,000 customers they had prior to this shift. After downsizing and reorganizing operations, was Husk Power once again ready to scale? Would impact investors be interested in providing the capital? Traditional, value-neutral investors? And which type of investors should the founders of Husk prefer?

CropIn Technology Solutions (CropIn) of Bangalore, India, provided agricultural solutions to business-to-business clients that required a "smart" approach in solving issues related to farm productivity. In July 2015, the chief operating officer (COO) of CropIn, was approached by the chief executive officer of one of the world's foremost seed companies. He presented the COO with an ongoing problem faced by his firm: the seed rejection rate had drastically increased in the past decade, reaching 18 per cent in 2015, up from four per cent in 2006. CropIn was asked to devise a "smart" solution for addressing the issue, for which CropIn would have to customize its product portfolio according to the problem.

In 2014, Shenzhen Bauing Construction Holding Group Co. Ltd. (Bauing Group) decided to expand internationally, and successfully established subsidiary companies in several Southeast Asian countries. Based on this success in Southeast Asia, Bauing Group decided in 2016 to expand further by entering the US market. However, doing so entailed some challenges and difficulties, including cultural and regional differences, language barriers, and the need to become familiar with different construction standards and laws. Bauing Group also needed to address a pressing issue: determining its market entry strategy. Should it enter the market through licensing, greenfield projects, franchising, business alliances, exporting, turnkey projects, joint ventures, or acquisitions?

Using raw, uncut footage, this video case asks students to evaluate the effectiveness of the first contact that took place in November 2016 between representatives from two technology companies-iQmetrix and Straker Translations. The two firms are contemplating a business partnership in which Straker will provide iQmetrix with translation services. First contact calls generally precede every business partnership and are normally completed only after the respective business-development or sales representatives have prepared for the call by learning the basics about the other side's organization-in particular, whether there is a good fit between what the buyer needs and what the supplier can provide in terms of quality, cost, and capabilities of service.

When Justin Thomas began as principal of Shining Star Academy, an elementary school in Alabama, the school had been failing for eight years and was in serious risk of state takeover. One of Thomas's innovations was to implement data-driven instruction, but teachers struggled to change their routines. As hard as everyone was working, progress was minimal after a year. Thomas was heartbroken, and he didn't know what else to try. This case is used at Darden in executive programs for leaders in education and second-year MBA courses on leading change. It would also be suitable in courses covering data-driven instruction, school transformation, leadership, and change processes.

Maxine Hall, the new principal at Northwest Middle School, knew when she started that the school was suffering from a sense of distrust between teachers and administration, as well as a high degree of student disengagement and absenteeism. To unlock student achievement and instill much-needed consistency and alignment across the school, Hall implemented data-driven instruction, but her efforts were stymied by an unwillingness to change among staff and teachers. This case is used at Darden in executive programs for leaders in education and second-year MBA courses on leading change. It would also be suitable in courses covering data-driven instruction, school transformation, leadership, and change processes.

In the A case, Rose Matthews, vice president for patient advocacy at University Hospital, must decide how to handle a startling discovery about patient risk. Weeks after a patient dies, lab results revealed the cause was prion disease, a deadly condition similar to mad cow disease. Since the diagnosis of this very rare condition was not known at the time of the patient's brain biopsy, surgical instruments used for the procedure were conventionally sterilized (rather than using special methods required to kill prions) and reused in up to 100 other surgeries. Now Matthews and her team must decide an ethical communication dilemma: (1) disclose the potential, though very low risk that patients may years later develop the disease; or (2) choose to protect patients from mental anguish related to worrying about a disease they most likely will not develop. The B case reveals that the medical team decided not to disclose this news to patients, only to have the news leaked to the media by a disgruntled hospital employee. The forthcoming teaching note offers three potential teaching plans for this case depending on the desired learning objectives: (1) writing a risk or crisis communication plan; (2) setting up a two-minute role-play of an oral statement delivered at the beginning of an internal meeting or for a press conference; and (3) responding to the media leak.

The manager of a rapidly expanding tax and accounting services franchise had been impressed by the performance his right-hand man, but also worried about the pressure he put himself under. Possessing an unusual and valuable skillset, this employee was able to anticipate his manager's needs exceptionally well. Unfortunately, his manager found out he had hacked into his email to do so. The case is designed to surface students' instinctive decision-making tendencies. 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, ethics, difficult conversations, decision-making, organizational behavior, human resources, or related topics. It is appropriate for a range of levels and audiences, including undergraduate, MBA, and executive education.

Eneco Group, the second largest utility company in the Netherlands, launched a smart thermostat, Toon, that served as a platform for energy management services. Toon quickly became the gold standard for smart homes in the Netherlands. In January 2017, top management needed to discuss the strategic priorities to keep Toon's lead and hold off the competition.

TokenFunder Inc. (TokenFunder) was a Canadian blockchain start-up focused on developing a platform to help companies perform token offerings in a legal and compliant way. The Ontario Securities Commission had granted the firm a sandbox that permitted it to bypass certain securities regulations for a brief window to test out its business model. TokenFunder's chief executive officer and chief operating officer knew that potential partnerships with various accounting firms, legal firms, incubators, and venture capitalists could be incredibly beneficial to the business. TokenFunder thus had to decide whom to partner with and how to get firms into its ecosystem.

Three brothers discuss the succession plans of their shares in the publicly listed family business.

Jiang Yong founded Tiantong & Partners in 2002, seeking to radically improve the level of litigation-related services in China. By 2015, Tiantong was the premier Chinese litigation firm with the highest per lawyer revenues. The firm focused exclusively on high-stakes litigation, particularly Supreme Court appeals, and enjoyed a 90 percent win rate. Building off its success, Tiantong also began offering Internet apps. Yong was betting that the tiny 23-lawyer firm would transform litigation in China. In 2014, Tiantong developed an application called Tiantong Litigation Circle on the WeChat platform with the goal of connecting lawyers across the legal profession. Within the first year, the program recorded 150,000 followers, one million shares, and 10 million page visits. The firm figured that more than half of all practicing lawyers in China were followers. By the end of the year, Tiantong had also released the first professional reading app for lawyers. In May 2015, Tiantong released an Internet tool to support case research, accessible to anyone who needed to find precedents. The firm faced significant opportunities in both businesses. Yong needed to decide whether to continue making efforts in both directions, or whether to prioritize one over the other.

In late 2017, Camber Creek, a real estate technology focused venture capital firm, had to evaluate a potential investment in Measurabl Inc. which provides real estate companies of all sized with a full SaaS solution for sustainability data.