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The Electronic Works Amberg (EWA) was Siemens' most advanced factory. The plant built industrial automation equipment using state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques. Siemens was considering creating a consulting business for its manufacturing clients. Given the EWA's well-known expertise, the facility would be heavily involved in the consulting business. What was the best way for Siemens to operate its consulting business? What else could be done by executives at the EWA to improve their time-to-market and market share?

This case describes the renewed growth of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi in 2017, after suffering bruising setbacks at the hands of local competitors during the past two years. In 2017Q2, the company rejoined the top five rankings of the global smartphone market share. It also matched Samsung's market share in India market in 2017Q3. The case highlights the company's strategic adaptation in the two-year recalibration, with regards to global expansion, R&D accumulation and online business model redefinition. By releasing its own in-house developed chip, the case shows how Xiaomi attempts to fortify its intellectual property position and increase freedom of action in anticipation of entering new geographies, product markets, or technology areas. Besides, the case also presents the company's combination of the online and offline channels, by opening more than 200 Mi Home stores both in domestic and overseas. As Xiaomi embraced a new strategy to fuel growth, this case emphasizes Xiaomi's ecosystem strategy that seeks and invests partners in different niche markets with sizable market and strong user demand. In the end, the case questions the sustainability of the strategy and the internal organizational challenges facing Xiaomi.

In March 2016, Ontario-based Cara Operations, a company that operates several restaurant chains, including Swiss Chalet (present throughout Canada, except in Quebec) - acquired Groupe St-Hubert, one of Quebec's largest restaurant chains. With the acquisition of St-Hubert, Cara became the proud owner not only of its restaurants but also of its manufacturing plants and distribution centres. The purchase of Quebec's iconic rotisserie chicken chain thus opened many doors for Cara. The case describes the situation immediately following the acquisition, when CEO Bill Gregson is wondering how to optimize its impact on his company. It ends with the five options that Gregson plans to present to his board of directors: 1) allow St-Hubert to operate as an independent division at the national level, 2) use St-Hubert to introduce Cara-branded products to Quebec, 3) have Cara and St-Hubert combine locations, 4) adopt St-Hubert's procurement process for Cara brands, or 5) simply cut costs by implementing Cara's best practices and know-how.

In early 2013, the founder of Shandong Aspop Clothing Apparel Group Co. Ltd. faced the annual "post-holiday recruitment dilemma." His challenge was typical of the growth challenges that many labour-intensive original equipment manufacturer clothing enterprises in China encountered. Facing rising domestic labour costs, a change in attitudes among workers, the gradual shift of labour preferences from manufacturing industries to service industries, and a market environment in which international orders had shifted to Southeast Asian countries, the founder needed to make a decision. Should he strive to attract and retain more skilled front-line workers, replace personnel via automation, or set up a factory in a neighbouring country to transfer part of the enterprise's production capacity?

In 2012, a pilot study undertaken by the data services team of the Dow Chemical Company in the polymer division of the multinational company's Midland, Michigan, plant had revealed an uncanny trend on the company's shop floor. Plant engineers were working for the data; the data was not working for them. The data services director saw an opportunity to reverse the trend through the deployment of big data capabilities and, more specifically, enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI), a subset of big data. How should he gain user acceptance of the proposed EMI?

This case, along with its B case (UVA-QA-0865), is an effective vehicle for introducing students to the use of machine-learning techniques for classification. The specific context is predicting customer retention based on a wide range of customer attributes/features. The specific techniques could include (but are not limited to): regressions (linear and logistic), variable selection (forward/backward and stepwise), regularizations (e.g., LASSO), classification and regression trees (CART), random forests, graduate boosted trees (xgboost), neural networks, and support vector machines (SVM). The case is suitable for an advanced data analysis (data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence) class at all levels: upper-level business undergraduate, MBA, EMBA, as well as specialized graduate or undergraduate programs in analytics (e.g., masters of science in business analytics [MSBA] and masters of management analytics [MMA]) and/or in management (e.g., masters of science in management [MScM] and masters in management [MiM, MM]). The teaching note for the case contains the pedagogy and the analyses, alongside the detailed explanations of the various techniques and their implementations in R (code provided in Exhibits and supplementary files). Python code, as well as the spreadsheet implementation in XLMiner, are available upon request.

Fastenal was one of the largest U.S. industrial supply companies, with the highest operating margin among its competitors. It was known and awarded for its innovative industrial vending solutions. With the launch of Amazon Business in the industrial distribution space in 2012, Fastenal's performance began to decline. In 2017, Amazon Business obtained patents for a drone-based delivery system. This, combined with Amazon's power of low cost, raised critical challenges for leading players like Fastenal. How should Fastenal respond to this competition: should it focus on low price or pursue a differentiation strategy?

Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods, offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3.00 price point that promised an average savings of 40% versus national brands through the elimination of the BrandTax, the hidden costs the company claimed consumers paid for a national brand. As the venture funded startup entered the fiercely competitive CPG industry, it was simultaneously taking on both the world's greatest brands and the world's most dominant retailers. Could Brandless change the way consumers bought the essential items that filled their pantries and medicine cabinets? Industry pundits had long predicted both the death of brand and the death of brick and mortar retailing in the contemporary marketplace. Would Brandless be the final nail in the coffin?

Faced with a persistent robbery problem at his convenience store company, Sean Sportun, security and loss prevention manager at Mac's of Central Canada, looked to standardize safety measures and devise a new way of preventing employee injury. But as a 32-year old with just one year on the job, Sportun had to tailor his message for change carefully to his colleagues, many of whom had worked for Mac's for decades. The case provides an overview of the convenience store industry and examines the challenges of crime prevention in a late-night retail environment.

In the decade starting in 2000, a new mayor focused on infrastructure and leadership from a foundation investing in arts and culture helped the Miami region transform and attract younger people to a newly vibrant central city and arts district. In 2011, the Knight Foundation targeted entrepreneurship as its core Miami focus-to build tech jobs of the future-drawing on the rapid growth of higher education and a large immigrant population. But should a private philanthropy promote for-profit businesses?

AB InBev, the world's largest beer company, faced serious challenges in 2017. First, large food and beverage companies were under-pressure due to shifting consumer preferences towards healthier products and increasing price pressure from retailers. The beer category, in particular, showed signs of stagnation in developed markets, such as the United States and Europe. Moreover, several major trends - e.g. localization of consumption and rise of craft beers- were quickly transforming the industry. Finally, technological innovations, such as e-commerce platforms and deep data-analysis enabled new players and emptied the effects of mass-marketing. The strategy designed by the owner of legendary brands like Budweiser, Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra, was multifaceted. On the one hand, the importance of renovating the core business was undeniable, especially via improvements to the portfolio and modernization of sales capabilities. On the other hand, the company needed to catch up on the new trends and become a disruptor itself; craft beers, e-commerce, home-brewing, and innovative business models were some of those. All while preserving its powerful internal culture and keeping its shareholders satisfied.

"Stanford Medicine: Health IT Purchasing Decisions in a Complex Medical Organization" examines how a complex medical organization evaluates new health information technology products to pilot, purchase, and utilize. Every year, hundreds of companies pitched their health IT solutions to Stanford Medicine and its associated entities: the Stanford University School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, and Stanford Health Care. However, Stanford Medicine would only select a few of these IT products to purchase and implement. Highlighting a few specific health information technology companies and products, this case explores the organizational decision-making process at Stanford Medicine and the criteria used to evaluate new technologies.

In 2015, Reynir Indahl left top Nordic private equity firm Altor Equity Partners to found Summa Equity (Summa). After long contemplation following the financial crisis, Indahl was convinced the financial system was producing negative externalities and that the current private equity model adopted by most firms would no longer be successful. Summa was developed under a new private equity model that sought to "future-proof" businesses by focusing on long-term value creation and growth, in addition to traditional private equity practices of implementing best practices and productivity improvements. To find businesses best suited for long-term growth with disruptive potential, Summa invested in four thematic areas that were mapped to megatrends outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-trends Summa believed presented long-term growth opportunities for businesses that presented commercial solutions for these challenges. In addition, Summa integrated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues to create value during the ownership phase and expand multiples. While ESG investing was practiced by many firms with a focus on compliance and reporting, Indahl wanted ESG to be a tool for value creation and growth. After a period of successful recruiting, fund raising, and deal completion, Summa needed to develop a set of practices and expectations across portfolio companies and partners. The case concludes with Indahl contemplating exiting Summa's first company. What should Summa look for in a buyer? Is sale price all that matters, or should a potential buyer share Summa's focus on building purpose-driven organizations with a positive social impact on the world? How can Summa maximize its impact, both through investment and voice? With impact investing taking off a critical question also was how to measure and report impact to its Limited Partners (LPs).

In 2015, Elaine Paul, CFO of Hulu, and the rest of the senior leadership team, must decide if they should offer a new, advertisement-free subscription service. At the time Hulu distributed a wide variety of content including in season current programming and earned significant revenues from advertising revenues. This choice had strategic implications and required formulating a view on how the video on demand industry would evolve. It also had value implications that can be analyzed in a subscriber valuation model. The owners of Hulu, which included Disney and Fox, would ultimately need to approve whatever decision was made.

With 195,000 employees, operations in 45 countries, and $55 billion in annual revenues, Disney is the largest media and entertainment company in the world. The strategic leadership of Walt Disney, Michael Eisner, and Robert Iger was critical in turning Disney into such a colossus empire. The case covers the epic journey of Disney from its inception in 1923 to its record performance results in 2016. The case examines how Disney grew through the corporate strategies of vertical integration, diversification, and geographic expansion by leveraging the following core competencies: creative content, technology, synergy, and branding. The case opens with Robert Iger, the current CEO who is facing four major challenges: acquiring creative content, technology disruption, global resistance to Disney's association with "American imperialism," and finding a successor by 2019. These challenges involve further broadening the scope of Disney, having to face even more formidable competition from international companies as well as former customers such as Netflix, and possibly hiring an "untested" CEO who could derail Disney's past success.

Although Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) was the leader in passenger vehicle sales in India in May 2015, it was having difficulties breaking into the high-end car segment. There were multiple strategies that MSIL could have used to deal with this problem, such as; changing its brand image from small automaker to high-end automaker; staying in the small car market; penetrating the market further by introducing new models and their variants in the same segment; or striking a balance between both of the other suggestions (i.e., a mixed strategy). A sudden change in MSIL's image could harm the company's existing share of the small car segment. At the same time, remaining firmly in the small car market could be detrimental for MSIL's market leader position in the years following, as the small-car-dominated market was gradually moving towards segments such as mid-size and executive cars in India. Which strategy (or combination of strategies) should the company pursue?

In 2016, Kurt Summers, the Chicago City Treasurer, considered his future in Chicago politics. With an unpopular governor and mayor soon up for reelection, should Summers consider running for higher office? Summers reflects on his time growing up in gang-controlled neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago, and career experiences in both the public and private sector. These include stints at Harvard Business School, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, the Chicago Olympics bid, and in local government. He tries to assess what he should do in this situation and what the best next steps would be in terms of his career. The case also discusses his work and leaderships styles, his personal life, including his relationship with his wife, and how he has adjusted to the new role of being a politician.

BeiGene was a biopharmaceutical company founded on exploiting a temporal regulatory policy discontinuity. Because of regulatory challenges in China, most innovative new drugs launched there four to six years after their initial U.S. launches. This gave BeiGene a window of opportunity to develop drug candidates toward known targets with known mechanisms of actions that would allow it to become first-in-class in China. But how well would the company's strategy hold up to the 2017 regulatory reforms?

In the early 1960s, a popular drug taken by patients worldwide for a range of maladies was found to cause severe birth defects and other health problems in babies born to mothers who had taken it during a certain stage of fetal development. As many as 10,000 children may have been affected. Just a handful of these children were born in the U.S., where safety concerns were raised by Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey, the medical officer handling the thalidomide application at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. However, the company hoping to distribute the product in the U.S. had already given away thousands of pills for doctors to run clinical trials. Once the full extent of the global thalidomide crisis became generally known, the U.S. Congress significantly reformed the country's drug approval process, to ensure that all new products were both safe and effective. It subsequently became much more arduous for pharmaceutical firms to bring new drugs to market. Some critics therefore argued that the new regulations were actually detrimental, as they prevented or delayed good drugs from coming to market. What was the right balance between consumer protection and access to potentially life-saving drugs?

The case focuses on Irene Rosenfeld's tenure as CEO of the global snack food company Mondelēz International. Beginning in 2006, she had led the company through many acquisitions, including France's LU Biscuit and British confectionery company Cadbury, before, in 2012, boldly splitting the company into two: Kraft, a North American grocery business, and Mondelēz International, a global snack food company.