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Heading into Old Street Tube station in London on a chilly January day, Freddie's mind was racing with ideas. He had just come out from another meeting with Forward Partners, a well-known, London-based venture capital firm, and it was clear the conversation had gone well. The team at Forward Partners understood his vision and saw value in the opportunity he had identified: a personalised solution to the urban gardening market. Moreover, Forward Partners brings a unique value proposition, with a team of in-house technical and marketing experts that work closely with the entrepreneurs. But is that the right fit for him?

Initiated in 2001, 100 Women in Finance (100WF) has evolved over the years from a small, informal networking group of women working in hedge funds in New York City into an international, non-profit networking organization with more than 15,000 members in 23 locations in 2018 with a broadened focus on the entire finance industry. In June 2018, CEO Amanda Pullinger visited Hong Kong to deepen her understanding of issues in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, particularly the organization's reliance on volunteers in Asian cities which lacked a culture of volunteerism. Some APAC members also felt disconnected from the organization's New York and London centers because of the geographical distance. The APAC head, Sarah Dyer, needed to ensure that APAC members' needs were met. She wanted to decide about the organization's future strategy for the region which might differ from the strategies for other regions.

This case describes how a small business venture started by five friends turned, over a 20-year span, into a company with sales of USD 49 million and a renowned, sustainable and innovative business model that had a high social and environmental impact. It also illustrates impact entrepreneurs' calling and motivation, as well as the dilemmas and challenges faced in order to stay true to their principles as the business grows and consolidates. The key question confronting these entrepreneurs at the end of the case is whether Guayakí should continue to grow at its current pace, or whether it should moderate its growth in order for its founders to gain a better understanding of the negative environmental impacts that the business creates and to find ways to manage those impacts.

Drone Racing League (DRL) sees itself as the world's preeminent professional drone racing league. The company is in its third season of racing and is focused on future seasons and the negotiation of a new media agreement. How should the company proceed?

Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF) is a venture capital (VC) fund plus start-up accelerator launched in 2013 by Russia's Agency for Strategic Initiatives at the behest of the country's President. Kirill Varlamov is the Executive Director of IIDF. The case covers the launch of IIDF, its acceleration model and key strategic challenges.

K-pop is thriving for industry veterans and entrepreneurs alike, but is a complex industry. This case is about launching a disruptive media brand that helps artists secure lucrative sponsorships and partnerships through strategic integration and content marketing. How should a start-up in the K-pop industry strategize to cater to A-listers and/or the under-served part of the market? Is catering purely to the under-served market a better strategy? While disrupting the existing business model and trying to create a two-sided marketplace, how important is communication and research in the K-pop industry?

Constance and Gopal have both quit their jobs at reputed organisations to join the Entrepreneur First (EF) programme to realise their entrepreneurial ambitions. They bring different sets of skills to the table but are united in their desire to do something meaningful at the forefront of technology. They have been admitted to the EF programme in Singapore, which is where their paths first crossed and where they co-founded AIMLedge.

The case explores the possible acquisition by McKinsey &Company of design company LUNAR in response to the new directions management consulting is taking. As of 2014, a new internal unit included 'McKinsey implementation' and 'digital labs', which explored new opportunities for the Firm and soon became major growth vectors for the consultancy. Targeting new capabilities and expertise, senior leadership asks the heads of the Product Development Practice (PDP) to "shoot big" if an opportunity arises. Design is one such capability, but how should they bring it on board: A partnership with an existing design company? An outright acquisition? Or by developing organically, hiring designers to work within the company? Ultimately, the acquisition option is chosen as a way to secure proven design talent, a brand, a portfolio, infrastructure and culture. A team within the PDP pitch a proposal to acquire a design company to the McKinsey advisory board, which gives the green light for a pilot test. McKinsey&Company asks LUNAR to host a workshop (for the redesign of a storage cabinet for laptop computers) and is more than impressed with the result. Discussions to acquire the design firm begin, but strategic, organizational and operational issues must be ironed out first. Students are required to assess whether the acquisition option will succeed, whether there is a better route (with respective advantages and disadvantages), and what organizational levers can be used to optimize LUNAR's integration.

The case reviews how the Japanese company Park24 reinvented the short-stay parking industry in Japan and expanded it over the years, establishing itself as the unchallenged market leader. Hitherto short-stay parking in Japan was largely provided as a public service. Shortage of land and the high price of real estate explained the severe shortage of city parking space was due to land scarcity and lofty prices of land resources. Park24 saw that the solution was not building gigantic multi-storey car parks but making parking lots available everywhere people went and accessible anytime of the day. Drawing insights from the convenience store industry, Park24 looked for small plots near popular destinations and launched a low-cost, secure and automated parking service called Times. Rolled out rapidly across Japan, it fundamentally redrew the landscape of the short-stay parking industry. Park24's blue ocean move shows how a nondisruptive market-creating approach can open up new value-cost frontiers, new demand and high growth. The case comes with a teaching note, a first-hand interview with Koichi Nishikawa, Park24 President, and lecture slides. The slides and videos can be downloaded for teaching purposes from https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/park24/

For over 60 years, Bluebell, a major actor in the luxury B2B ecosystem, has been helping Western luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Davidoff, Moschino, Manolo Blahnik or Jimmy Choo enter key Asian markets. However, the luxury industry is experiencing digital disruption and increased competition fuelled by the rise of online e-commerce and international travel, along with increasingly connected consumers. While Bluebell's role as a link between the brand and the local consumer is still vital, it needs to alter its business model to remain in the game. Its adaptability has been the reason for its success so far, but to add value in the future it needs to evolve from a predominantly transactional role centred around distribution to one with greater connectedness, integrating new channels such as social commerce, and anticipating evolving customer tastes.

When Alibaba, China's leading digital platform and cloud-based services company, fails to acquire the US firm Moneygram, CEO Jack Ma decides to go it alone and develop a digital strategy using blockchain technology as the basis for a global remittance service, GCash, within its cloud services business. Alibaba's financial services affiliate Ant Financial, begins by targeting cross-border money transfers made by domestic workers in Hong Kong who routinely send money to their families in the Philippines. It subsequently forms a strategic alliance with Globe Telecom and Standard Chartered Bank which provide market access and financial intermediation. The case focuses on the value proposition of blockchain in cross-border financial services, particularly in Southeast Asia, and how it fits into Alibaba's "iron triangle" cloud services strategy in the region where there is fierce competition from Google and Digital Ocean. Blockchain technology is utilized to disintermediate the US-based SWIFT system and the dominant remittance service providers, Moneygram and Western Union, that charge high fees. As an illustration of how to launch proprietary cypto- and blockchain-based networks, the case explains how they differ from digital platforms, and how they are complementary, such as network effects and synergies with Alibaba's installed customer base.

The case, and its accompanying pedagogical material, offers a unique perspective on CSR-based transformational entrepreneurship, looking at a startup company with a strong ethical purpose and objective, in this case the transformation of the cocoa supply chain towards a child-labor free, fair-trade, organic agriculture-based sourcing. The case follows the history of Tony's Chocolonely, a Dutch producer of premium chocolate bars with a strong responsible footprint. It follows the footsteps of its founder, Teun van de Keuken (a.k.a. Tony) from journalist to social activist and ultimately entrepreneur with a strong sense of purpose and defined impact objectives. The 12-year journey led Tony's Chocolonely chocolate bars to claim the number three spot in the Netherlands's chocolate markets, with the products also sold in many other countries around the globe. Learning objective: Scaling up, growth with purpose, social and environmental responsibility, CSR, child labor, materialities, mixed motives firms, ethics, transformational entrepreneurship, social ventures, impact investment, leading change, standard setting, ESG criteria, work-life balance.

The case explores the decision of a financial advisor in Hong Kong whether to recommend leveraged and inverse ETFs (L&I ETFs) to her clients. The case introduces unique features of L&I ETFs, methodologies of performance calculation, their relative merits and risks comparing with alternative products available in the market including derivative warrants (DWs), Callable Bull Bear Contracts (CBBCs), traditional ETFs, futures and options. Thinking from the perspectives of a financial advisor, students should combine the knowledge of L&I ETFs, the given market data, the market views of the financial advisor, as well as the clients' characteristics (age, educational backgrounds, future investment goals, etc.) to come up with tailor-made recommendations for each individual client.

This case illustrates how exchange rate shocks affect international businesses. The focus is on one recent stark example: the effect on Swatch Group of the Swiss National Bank's January 2015 decision to end its policy of putting a ceiling on the euro/Swiss franc exchange rate. It is useful for an introductory class that defines different exchange rate concepts, illustrates why managers should care about exchange rates, and motivates/previews the study of the macroeconomics of exchange rates, capital flows, and monetary policy. This case is appropriate for use in a first-year MBA course that deals with international economics or finance, though it is written to be standalone and thus could also be employed in an advanced undergraduate or master's level course on international macroeconomics or finance.

In early 2018, the time seemed right for Zenefits investor and director Lars Dalgaard to reflect on whether Zenefits had the right board of directors to shepherd the company through its next stages of growth. For the company whose name combined the words "benefits," reflecting its human resources technology products, and "zen," loosely defined as a state of calm, the past few years were not entirely zen. Once heralded as one of the fastest growing software start-ups ever, the 5-year old company quickly achieved "unicorn" status-a term given to an elite handful of privately-held start-ups valued at $1 billion or more. But leadership and legal issues that emerged in 2015 had threatened to undermine its success and compelled Zenefits to appoint new board members, hire new executives, reformulate its business model, and transform its corporate culture and philosophy. With those changes in place, Dalgaard now turned his attention once again to the board. Did Zenefits have the board it needed to navigate the next stages of growth as it sought to further distance itself from its rocky past and focus on its future potential?

Fairview Capital is a pioneering alternative assets investment manager, as it is the first U.S. private equity fund of funds that focused on investing in private equity and venture capital funds managed by African-Americans and other minority investment managers. This case study focuses on Fairview's strategic decisions that ultimately led to the growth and expansion of its investment portfolio to over $3 billion.

A senior industry analyst focused on aviation and aerospace at an investment advisory firm in Northern Virginia, pondered the potential implications of the acquisition by United Technologies Corporation of Rockwell Collins for aviation around the world. It was certain that the deal would impact not only the two companies involved, but it would also have a substantial impact on their customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, and others.

Chatar Patar was a quick service eatery in India that prided itself on serving tasty panipuri that was prepared hygienically from healthy ingredients. The venture was started in 2012 with the plan to first develop a popular and established brand, and then to expand to a multi-store outlet in 2018. The team had prepared expansion plans, favouring franchising as the mode of expansion. Despite their research, in 2016, the team was still undecided about which expansion route to take. The managing director wondered whether it was too soon to expand, and whether the team and the company were sufficiently prepared. Should the company proceed with expansion? And if so, how should the managing director and his team proceed?

In April 2017, an entrepreneur in the tour operator industry faced a potential investment decision. Her company, Extraordinary Journeys (EJ), created custom luxury African safaris for a US-based clientele. While EJ had enjoyed dramatic growth since its founding in 2009, the entrepreneur worried that competitive pressures were increasing, as resource-rich companies had entered the market, drawn by the industry's rapid growth. In response to this growing competition, Gordon considered taking on one of three possible strategic opportunities: a public relations campaign, a direct marketing campaign, or a firm-optimization campaign that would use custom-built software to enhance employee productivity.