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While donating blood on campus, a management science graduate student noticed that the mobile blood donor clinic set up at his university's community centre was a congested tandem queuing system. Finding one-and-one-half hours too long for donors to wait, the student considered how the process could be reduced by at least half an hour. He needed to devise a reasonably precise model to represent the donor flow in the clinic. Using either the mode or the average service times supplied by the nurses, the student could build a relatively straightforward discrete-event simulation model to identify bottlenecks and improve the donor flow.

BrightView Plumbing and Heating (BrightView) was founded in 1997 to provide plumbing services for both residential and commercial customers. The founder's son joined the company in 2008 and implemented a new operational strategy. However, he soon discovered problems in the process and procedures. Although he was able to apply an effective system for warehousing products internally, by 2015, the day-to-day policies and operational activities were not proving to be efficient, and the cost of goods sold was rising at a higher rate than the increase in sales. The company encountered miscommunication between the appointment scheduling (dispatching) and the availability of parts. BrightView needed to resolve the issues by analyzing the current situation and developing recommendations for improvement.

On January 3, 2011, the Canadian Competition Bureau was reviewing a recent business merger. CCS Corporation Inc. (Tervita) had acquired Complete Environmental Inc. (Complete). Prior to its acquisition by Tervita, Complete had received regulatory approval to operate a secure landfill site in Northeastern British Columbia (NEBC). However, a complaint about the purchase was filed by SECURE Energy Services Inc. (SECURE), one of Tervita's competitors. The complaint claimed that the price Tervita paid for Complete was well above fair market value, and that the purchase would eliminate a competitor in the NEBC market. At the time, only two secure landfills operated in NEBC. Both were owned by Tervita, which provided a wide-range of waste management, recovery, and disposal services to the North American oil and gas industry. The Canadian Competition Bureau had to evaluate the economics underlying Tervita's decision to pay a premium price for Complete. It also needed to determine whether the acquisition violated the Competition Act, or whether the complaint was merely a frivolous case of "sour grapes" stemming from SECURE's own failure to acquire Complete.

The case briefly describes the 112 year history of the organization, and focuses particularly on the changes wrought by its new leader David Yarnold who was brought in by the board in 2010. Under Yarnold's leadership the organization went through two strategic plans (2012-2016 and 2016-2020), and brought about many changes. At the start of 2017, Yarnold declared his goal of making Audubon the most effective conservation network in America. What actions should Audubon take to get to that goal?

This case was written for the EC course "Managing with Data Science." The course provides MBA students with no programming experience an introduction to the field of data science and its applications in business. Students learn to (1) carefully articulate the business ask, (2) reason carefully from the ask, through metrics and models, and outputs; and (3) evaluate outputs from models to (4) develop a plan for action. The case features the work of LP Maurice (HBS '08) as he decides to launch an online business to unify the scheduling data of a fragmented bus industry, only to find that the data he needs simply does not exist. The case follows him and his team as they take on challenges as the start-up evolves and develops. Topics include acquiring data, web-based prototyping to understand customer preferences, and customer acquisition and retention metrics (SEO & SEM).

Narayana Health, an Indian private healthcare provider, was established with the aim of providing affordable healthcare services without compromising quality. Over the years, its growth and expansion was financed by private equity investors. In August 2015, private equity investors of the company decided to go public through the offer for sale route. Private equity investors had to decide the value of the initial public offering (IPO) and whether the time was appropriate for Narayana to go public. To do so, they needed to consider the company's financial performance, the pros and cons of the company's strategy and business model, the industry's future growth potential, and macroeconomic factors.

In August 2016, the director of UdaipurTimes.com, a hyperlocal news website, and his partner were faced with a problem. Their start-up venture had thus far grown without any explicit strategy. Despite a steady readership of nearly 200,000, achieving further revenue growth and sustained profitability were ongoing issues. UdaipurTimes.com needed to come up with a comprehensive strategy by evaluating various alternatives (such as creating a mobile app and soliciting user-generated content) to increase the frequency of customer visits and attract new readers to the website. Given its limited financial strength and its focus on speedily growing its customer base while leveraging current resources and capabilities, what strategy should UdaipurTimes.com choose?

This case examines design choices in the construction of flow lines. Flow lines are a popular way of arranging production because they are simple and inherently efficient. Equipment or workstations are arranged according to the sequence of steps in which a product is made. Each step consists of a set of tasks that individually are minimum rational work elements. These are combined to form the work assignment associated with the step. The work follows the same sequence of operations as it moves down the line, and the sequence is fixed from batch to batch. The case setting is a production site in Hungary that is starting up the production of a personal beverage maker. Should the team implement a conveyor-paced line in preference to a manual pull system? An analysis of process steps and times gives students an opportunity to debate this question.

Paktor is a popular mobile-based online dating app from Singapore, where a user can swipe right or left on a profile to indicate her interest in a potential match. The case is designed to explore issues related to pricing, market design, and launch strategies in the context of online marketplaces. Students are asked to evaluate Paktor's existing design features and pricing, and formulate recommendations on design choices, pricing, and global expansion.

In July 2016, the founder and president of Lockbox Social Inc., an American social media management company for real estate agents, was contemplating whether to offer search engine optimization (SEO) as a new product. He needed to decide whether to pivot his business to pursue SEO exclusively, include SEO with the current product mix, or stay with the status quo and reconsider SEO at a later date. How would the two products-social media management and SEO-meet his customers' needs? Would they provide a good fit with his business and personal goals? He also needed to determine how much to charge for SEO and whether the company's current pricing model was appropriate for social media management.

Yi Hua, the leader of an impact-investing initiative at Goldman Sachs, was examining a new financial arrangement in a proposed public-private partnership called the Rikers Island Social Impact Bond (SIB). The proposed SIB was the result of a partnership between Goldman Sachs, the New York City (NYC) Department of Correction, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and three nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)-MDRC, Osborne Association (Osborne), and the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera). The investment that Goldman Sachs was considering would finance the implementation of a cognitive behavioral therapy program for teens (aged 16 through 18) incarcerated at Rikers Island. The goal of the program was to lower the likelihood of those teens returning to jail following their release (i.e., recidivism). If predetermined outcome-based metrics, which focused on lowering recidivism, were reached, the NYC government would repay Goldman Sachs its contributed capital along with a return. The case helps students develop an awareness of the growing innovative financial structure that attracts private capital to finance governmental efforts to address social issues: SIBs. Alongside SIBs, the following related issues could be discussed: financial and social returns, models of investing for social impact, measuring social impact, private-sector financial resources used for public benefit, and private debt vehicles. This case can be used as an introduction to SIBs in an MBA course or in undergraduate electives dedicated to impact investing, public-private partnerships, or other related courses covering the role of business in society. The material can also be used in executive education around issues of cross-sector collaboration to address social issues.

Thai Union had come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1977 as a Thai private label supplier of canned tuna to US importers. In four short decades it had become one of the leading seafood companies in the world with a turnover in 2016 of US$3.8 billion. Thiraphong Chansiri, the CEO, had led Thai Union brilliantly to make it a true multinational company operating in three continents, delivering value added branded products covering multiple fish species and distributing these under ambient, chilled and frozen temperature conditions. The company planned to more than double its turnover by 2020 to $8 billion while also raising its gross margin from 15.6% to 20%. It sought to do this by growing its existing business; launching innovative, high-margin products; expanding its presence in the food service sector; building a significant emerging market presence; and making more acquisitions. In October 2016, Thai Union announced that it had effectively acquired a 49% ownership stake in Red Lobster, the leading seafood restaurant chain in the United States. This diversification was viewed as an important growth opportunity for the company. The question for Thai Union's leadership team was whether diversification and growth were still the right mantras for the company in 2017, when it had already become the industry leader? A related challenge was in building a global organization that could effectively manage the company's growing and diverse international footprint.

In 2015, the Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship (CSE), the largest business incubator in Denmark, was admitting 100-125 new start-ups each year and attracting external funding of US$33 million from both public and private sources-all with an annual budget of US$435,000, funded exclusively by the Copenhagen Business School. Like most business incubators, CSE worked to provide entrepreneurs with training, mentorship, and investors, and to enhance their visibility in the market. It required all admitted start-ups to participate in a screening/selection tool and a set of incubation activities over three specific stages. The school measured success in terms of the number of incubator participants who had both a business customer and a sustainable business model at the end of a nine-month incubation period. In 2015, CSE's success rate was 53 per cent. At this point, CSE's leaders recognized a need to question how they measured the benefits of the program. How should the 53 per cent success rate be compared to the Copenhagen Business School's investment? What changes could the CSE leadership make to create more value for Danish society?

In September 2016, the leadership team at KritiKal Solutions Private Limited, a software product research and development company in Noida, India, was facing several challenges. The company provided product design and development services in computer vision and image processing, embedded systems, and the Internet of things, as well as web, software, and mobile applications. It was highly regarded by its clients and employees for its research orientation and technical competence. However, the leadership team was struggling with options for strategic growth and product mix. How much time and effort should go into services and how much into new product development? What kind of structure and funding would work for the company as it expanded? The chief executive officer needed answers to these questions in order to make the leap to high growth.

For 30 years, Mazda Motor Corporation (Mazda) partnered with Ford Motor Company (Ford), helping Ford in small-car engineering and lean manufacturing in exchange for finance and marketing know-how; however, this alliance was terminated due to the global financial crisis in 2008. In 2015, Mazda entered into another long-term partnership to share technologies and cope with cost pressures-this time with Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota). According to its 2016 Structural Reform Plan, Mazda aimed to achieve a global sales volume of 1.65 million units, an operating income ratio of at least 7 per cent, an equity ratio of at least 45 per cent, and a dividend payout ratio of at least 20 per cent by 2019. Given the highly competitive domestic and global automotive markets, to what extent could the partnership with Toyota and the Structural Reform Plan allow Mazda to achieve these goals? Would Mazda need to make any changes to its competitive strategies to keep the company driving forward?

This case is based on the real-life events of Mr Alan Chua, Executive Director of Concorde Security Pte Ltd, a private security firm based in Singapore. The case details his observations made during his many years of being in the industry. Excesses, inefficiencies and legacy practices that he felt no longer applied in today's changing security landscape bore the brunt of his dissatisfaction with the industry. Having seen first-hand the poor working conditions that front-line security officers (SO) had to go through, Alan was additionally motivated to make their lives better, primarily through the adoption of technology. However, the industry game changer lies in the complete revamp of the business model that private security operators are currently utilising. Having a good idea is usually not good enough. Alan faced negative reactions from his peers in the industry. Regulations by the authorities also did not help his cause. He sought to overcome these challenges and picked up some innovation awards in the process. He has seen far greater profit margins with his new approach. Although his revenue has taken a hit, it is projected that in the foreseeable future, as more organisations adopt his technologies, he will surpass his former successes.

In today's global economy, what are the factors that go into production location choice? This case is set in the world's largest automotive glass producer as it expands from China into the United States. To meet a very aggressive cost target, management is faced with the alternatives of fulfilling the contract from its new Ohio factory, which can only produce above the target cost currently because it is still on a learning curve, or it can fulfill from its Tianjin, China factory which can produce below the cost target but will incur extensive shipping costs and require a far great amount of inventory holding. This case examines a core question facing managers who want to produce physical products for world markets.

In August 2017, Cumplo's Founder Shea and CEO Kirberg meet to discuss growth and strategy issues faced by this Chilean fintech startup. What sales and marketing strategy will best foster the compny's growth? Are changes needed in the product lineup? How and when should Cumplo begin to expand beyond Chile, to other countries in Latin America? The company raised $1.4 million in its first three years, mainly from individual investors, and then issued new shares for $3 million in 2015. By June 2017, Cumplo was debt-free, had achieved break-even, and had raised an additional $2.3 million.

PFA Pension was the biggest commercial pension provider in Denmark. At the end of 2015, the company had decided to boost its investments into the alternative asset class, an area where it was lagging behind its competitors. The aim was to privilege direct investments and co-investments rather than allocations through funds. One year later, PFA could count on an expert alternative investment team, a defined investment process and a number of successful direct investments. Still, a number of questions remained: How could PFA better access attractive deal opportunities? Should PFA try to build a formal deal sourcing model? What resources and skills would be necessary to add to the alternative investment team?