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In 2010, EPCOR Utility Inc.'s application to implement new metering technologies was denied by the Alberta Utilities Commission. By 2014, however, several key changes had taken place in regulations and in the cost of smart meters. With another application to the Alberta Utilities Commission due in just four months, the director at EPCOR Utility Inc. was contemplating several options, all of which involved carefully considering the interests of many different stakeholders and the development of a thorough and thoughtful implementation plan.

In 2018, Neat and Clean Solutions (Neat and Clean), a cleaning services start-up in Gurgaon, India, had grown steadily in its 10 years of operations. Its founder realized the importance of building trust with clients and knew that modifying the cleaning process to suit Indian market conditions and the skill set of his team was critical to outsmarting the mounting competition in his industry. However, with an increase in population and the number of residential complexes in the business's target area, there was a huge market of potential clients available. Although Neat and Clean had managed over the years with the same set-up, its founder wanted to expand so that he could have an office, buy new equipment and more vehicles, operate in multiple strategic locations, and employ more people. Unfortunately, he lacked the necessary funds to make these changes himself. Now he must decide whether to expand the scale of his operations and who to approach for the necessary funding.

In March 2017, Inderjit Baboota, head of Sales and Marketing at Genspec Lifesciences, was preparing to meet with his team to craft the brand launch strategy of the company's product CQ Max. Although natural therapy was recognized in India for various ailments, few scientific formulations were available. Turmeric was used in various forms in India for the treatment and prevention of a variety of conditions due to its main active ingredient, curcumin, but there was no curcumin-based formulation readily available in the Indian market. In response to this opportunity, CQ Max, the first nanocurcumin product in India, was developed and pilot tested. Though the product played a role in the treatment of a variety of conditions, it primary target market was cancer patients. Now Baboota had to determine whether to position CQ Max as a prescription-based product or an over-the-counter product. He also faced the challenge of an underdeveloped market for cancer wellness products in India.

IKEA, the world's largest furniture retailer, entered the Chinese market in 1998; however, it did not turn a profit in the first 10 years. Although anticipating lower profits, IKEA did not anticipate that Chinese customers would be confused about IKEA's value proposition. After 2007, IKEA adopted several strategies to adjust for the Chinese market and achieve a better performance. These adjustments made IKEA more profitable in the Chinese market. IKEA accelerated its expansion in China with a plan to open three stores every year for a total of 40 stores before 2020. Still, in 2017, the Chinese market presented IKEA with challenges, such as cheap imitations from competitors and increasing interest in e-commerce by consumers. Could the strategies IKEA used to improve its performance in the past sustain the company in the years ahead?

In early 2014, Paul Bills, CFO of Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), sat down with David Wan, the company's CEO, to discuss budget preparations for the coming year. Bills noted that the performance of Corporate Learning, one of HBP's three business units, would be affected by a business model change for its largest product that required a change in the timing of revenue recognition. Corporate Learning was in the process of revamping its flagship product, Harvard Manage-Mentor (HMM) from version 11.0 (HMM11) to version 12.0 (HMM12). The revamped software would be hosted exclusively on HBP's server rather than on its clients' servers, allowing updates to take place continuously. Given the change, accounting standards required HBP to change the recognition of revenue from the date of software delivery (for HMM11) to ratable recognition over its contract life (for HMM12). As Bills and Wan discussed the accounting change, they recognized that its impact on Corporate Learning's and HBP's performance could be material and would have to be reflected in the budget. In addition, they wondered how the new accounting would affect the company's policy for awarding sales incentive compensation on HMM, as well as how they communicated with employees and the firm's sole shareholder, the Harvard Business School.

This case examines a series of challenges facing the Wikimedia Foundation as it sets its strategic course for the next decade. Topics include mission alignment, non-profit revenue models, technology evolution, regulation and the freedom of knowledge, and building and managing web ecosystems.

Since its founding in 2004, Facebook has built a phenomenally successful business at global scale to become the fifth most valuable public company in the world. The revelation of Cambridge Analytica events in March 2018, where 78 million users' information was leaked in a 2016 U.S. election cycle, exposed a breach of trust/privacy among its user community. In the past, growth at any costs appeared to be the de facto strategy. Now many voices such as regulators, advertisers, ethicists, shareholders and users argued for a more responsible approach to addressing their concerns. Mark Zuckerberg (CEO/Chair/Founder) and Sheryl Sandberg (COO) mapped out their six-point plan to address this existential threat. Could they continue to grow and rectify the breach of trust/privacy? Did other stakeholders have some greater responsibility too? In addition to issues of privacy and trust, there is a growing chorus of concern about "content moderation"-not for the easy topics like spam or copyright material-but for the hard things revolving around political points of view, hate speech, polarizing perspectives, etc. How will Facebook strike the balance between free speech and corrosive content across billions of users and dozens of languages? Are they the arbiters of truth/censorship in the digital world?

In 2008, Starbucks was in crisis as a result of undisciplined growth and loss of focus, and its stock declined almost 70%. In August of that year, Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, came out of retirement to take over as the CEO. The company regained its footing by refocusing on its core and driving strong organic growth. By 2014, the stock price had reached $40, an all-time high. To prevent history from repeating itself, Schultz wanted to ensure that Starbucks' growth strategies not only addressed market opportunities, but also were aligned with the company's brand image, assets, and capabilities. Starbucks announced a five-year growth plan in December 2014 with ambitious goals that included nearly doubling its revenues from $16 billion to $30 billion, doubling operating income, and expanding its footprint to more than 30,000 stores globally by 2019. The growth plan consisted of seven specific growth strategies, one of which was the New Occasions strategy. The objective of New Occasions was to drive growth by diversifying Starbucks' revenues beyond breakfast to the lunch, afternoon, and evening dayparts. Starbucks created specific offerings for each daypart, called the Lunch, Sunset, and Evenings programs. The case focuses on evaluating these three occasions-based growth opportunities and identifying the best path forward.

In 2016, Blue Apron was the leading meal kit delivery business in the United States. The initial registration form it filed in advance of its initial public offering (IPO) showed a successful business in a rapidly growing industry. Meal kit sales had grown to $5 billion in 2017 and were expected to grow at a 20% annual rate in the years to come and Blue Apron held a commanding 53% market share. But Blue Apron's customer metrics indicated long-term trouble. Focused on sales growth, the company was acquiring more customers but at a higher cost. Additionally, the new customers generated less revenue on average than customers acquired earlier in Blue Apron's history. This case focuses on measuring customer lifetime value (CLV) and using it to make customer management decisions. Students will follow new Blue Apron CEO Brad Dickerson as he tries to determine how to manage customer relationships to improve profitability. The case also presents customer retention curves and a segment-based approach to calculating customer value. Students can obtain the curves by using the estimates and financial data provided in the spreadsheets accompanying the case.

The case opens in 2017 with two of the five co-founders of MISHA telling the company's CEO Michal Portz that they believe it is time for the global venture to shut down its operations and cease investments. Portz and another co-founder believe MISHA can still work. The case describes the origins of the ready-to-use capsule solution for shisha smokers and the evolution of MISHA from idea to product design, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution. Consequent mishaps slow down the performance of MISHA, and after five years of the product being in the market and four financing rounds, numbers are far behind what they were in the business plan. The case explores the pivots the company goes through. The central dilemma is this: should the cofounders pull the plug on the company or invest more time and money to try to turn it around? When and according to which criteria should Portz make such a decision?

In the last decade, Noble Energy and the Delek Group have discovered almost 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, offshore of Israel. For Israel, this has been an extraordinary turnaround, from energy dependence on Arab producers to energy independence and exporter. For Prime Minister Netanyahu, this abundance poses a huge foreign-policy opportunity to lock in national relationships. For Noble, it poses significance operational challenges, funding issues, and long-term political risk.

Lord Hobo Brewing Company accounts for its inventory process at it prepares to create its first set of professional financial statements for investors.

Polaris Battery Labs was an Oregon-based startup that provided innovation services to companies in the lithium ion battery industry. Its operating philosophy and expertise in this fast-growing industry enabled it to provide great value to its clients, but as a startup that was seeking growth the company was subject to multiple risks. For Polaris, taking clients, developing new manufacturing capabilities to meet unproven battery technologies, and even extending credit to its clients posed real risk. Many of its clients were startups themselves and had a significant probability of failure. Others were established firms testing new and unproven battery technologies, many of which were unlikely to gain traction in the market. The case examines how a technology-driven firm managed the risk of working with startups, claiming appropriate intellectual property, and developing a sustainable portfolio of clients.

Işıl Akdemir Evlioğlu, executive vice president of marketing at Garanti Payment Systems (GPS), a subsidiary of Garanti Bank, is grappling with three questions. First, should GPS create its own mobile app for credit card customers or leverage the bank's already successful mobile banking app? Second, if a separate app was developed, then who should manage it? GPS managed the bank's credit card business and was as a separate entity, but the bank's digital assets were managed exclusively by the bank. Third, if a separate app was not developed, then would the required breadth and depth of functionality for the credit card customers be delivered? If a separate app was not developed, then would GPS be able to design one when they had never done so before? The credit card business included a popular loyalty program and GPS leadership was very focused on customer engagement and experience for program enrollees, but how best to do that was a critical question.

Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology, startup Tailor Brands set out to democratize branding by allowing small businesses to create their brand identities by automatically generating logos in just minutes at minimal cost with no branding or design skills required. As it sets out to raise its Series B, the founders make some critical changes to their business model, moving to a subscription model and adding additional products and services to automate other parts of the branding and marketing process. Can algorithms, machine learning, and artificial intelligence help Tailor Brands outperform graphic designers and branding agencies in developing brand identities? And, can Tailor Brands differentiate itself from the many other logo generators popping up in the market?

CEO Tom Siebel navigates his artificial intelligence (ai) startup through a series of pivots, market expansions, and even an elephant attack to become a leading platform ad service provider. The case describes his unusual management approach emphasizing employee testing and selection, customer testing and selection, and a high degree of professionalism. This case is accompanied by an eight-segment video series (preview below) that shows Tom Siebel discussing his management philosophy. A link to access the videos in the classroom is provided on p. 2 of the Teaching Note.

In May 2018, the De Beers Group shocked the diamond industry when it announced it was launching a new fashion jewelry brand of laboratory-grown (synthetic) diamonds. The reaction was swift as people sought to understand the company's motivations: was it a "huge gamble" or a "Machiavellian masterstroke"? What was the objective of the new product launch, would it succeed, and how would this new business affect the Group's core business of selling natural (mined) diamonds? This case is intended to be used in conjunction with and to follow a related HBS case: The De Beers Group: Exploring the Diamond Reselling Opportunity (HBS #717-430).