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Roposo founders from their original days as founders of Giveter learnt about sustainable ways of doing business in the e-commerce world and therein lay the roots of Roposo. Over time, they acquired new knowledge about user behavior and exhibited agility in acquiring new functionalities and setting up of new teams to respond to evolving user behavior on the internet both using product development skills and by creating network effects. In doing so, they seem to be stepping on new competitive realms with existing competitors from the Silicon Valley or even from Asian entrepreneurial firms. The question now arises for Roposo founders on what to do and what not to do so that the firm can continue creating competitive advantage both in its original niche space of fashion social networking and more in fashion social e-commerce going forward. At a broad level, this case is ideal to teach MBA students: 1) How firms dynamically acquire capabilities over time responding to the market and external conditions and build competitive advantage. 2) In addition, it also addresses the issue of entrepreneurial pivoting that is essential to entrepreneurial survival. 3) Finally, the case also raises the issue of focus as a key construct in strategy - where firms need to decide whether it wants to build and/or acquire new capabilities keeping in mind anticipated competitive responses from the market.

Dynamic Technologies (DT) is a India-based aerospace manufacturing company which is supplying sub-systems to a Tier 1 aerospace vendor. Owing to superior performance the aerospace OEM offered to directly source the entire system from DT. As a supplier to the Tier 1 vendor, DT was engaged primarily in labor-intensive assembly operations. However, as a direct supplier to the OEM, it will also involve complex precision manufacturing. The question is whether DT will be able to conduct this critical operation in-house or depend on a European company which was engaged in the precision manufacturing when DT was supplying to the Tier 1 vendor. There were other complexities, such as, the vendors for special grade metals were not available in India and these have to be sourced from Europe. The CEO of the company was grappling with two options suggested by his deputies and the inherent risks involved. Can he come up something different?

GoCoop is a four-year old start-up that is creating an international market for Indian artisanal products such as handlooms through a B2B e-commerce platform. The company, founded by Siva Reddy, a former technologist with managerial experience in India as well as abroad has received a round of angel funding, followed by a Series A round recently. It has pivoted (i.e., changed its business model) twice and is now poised for a phase of rapid growth. The case traces the history of the company and examines some of the critical choices made by the entrepreneur and his key learning experiences. The case is anchored on the next steps that GoCoop will have to undertake to meet its growth aspirations. It also provides an opportunity for the class to deliberate and reflect on the choices made by the company and the entrepreneur so far. The case is accompanied by a background note on the marketing of Indian handloom products from an earlier period prior to the advent of electronic commerce. Company videos and those of Indian artisans are also available on YouTube.

In February 2017, a purchasing manager for General Motors Company (GM) needed to come up with a sourcing proposal to source e-boost modules, which were required to support the enhanced 2020 Chevrolet Bolt Electric Vehicle and the new 2020 Chevrolet Bolt Autonomous Vehicle. GM had four possible international suppliers to choose from. Each supplier had its pros and cons in terms of price, product development capability, and the architectural nature of the braking system. GM wanted to be a disrupter to the autonomous vehicle industry. Its top priorities were public safety and defect-free quality. In order to continue to maintain the market leadership position, GM wanted to retain the intellectual property of the e-boost modules. Which supplier would best meet the needs of the company?

In January 2016, the 113-year-old tea brand Brooke Bond Red Label (Red Label), a sub-brand of Hindustan Unilever Limited, created a groundbreaking advertising campaign that launched India's first transgender pop band, 6 Pack Band. The campaign comprised six videos, which reached over 25 million people in a short span of time and won numerous awards. By mid-2016, Red Label's 6 Pack Band was clearly hitting the right notes with its target audience, but questions began to be raised about the future of the campaign. What should Red Label do next? Should it create more content around 6 Pack Band or abandon it altogether? Should it seek out other relevant and thought-provoking social issues for advertising purposes? If so, which issues should it address, and how?

With the quarter ending December 2016 closing on a sour note after a loss of ₹79.7 million, Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Limited found itself reassessing its business expansion strategies. The company's stand-alone net profit in fiscal year 2015-16 was down 35.73 per cent from the previous fiscal year. Its launch of a new range of imported air purifiers in 2015 as part of its expansion plan may have hit an obstacle with the dip in profits. Should the company enter into new segments such as air coolers, water dispensers, and water purifiers to increase its product portfolio and revenue? Considering that competitors were already fighting it out in these segments, would the timing be right? What strategic capabilities could the company leverage, and what were the possible obstacles to success in the new segments?

Yogo Game, Inc., a successful Japanese social media company, had launched a subsidiary in the United States. In spring 2016, the parent company directed the subsidiary to expand its U.S. operations. Yogo Game America projected that it would need to triple its workforce by the end of 2017, which required that the U.S. subsidiary decide whether to hire locals or expatriates, and whether to adopt the company's home culture of Japan or its adopted culture in the United States. These decisions were complicated by the fast-paced, highly competitive gaming industry targeted by the subsidiary. Employment in the high-tech sector had its own subculture within the broader U.S. culture. What policies and practices would help the company adapt to the U.S. culture without sacrificing the Japanese policies and practices that had already made the parent company so successful?

In September 2015, the Community and Protective Services Committee of the City of London, Ontario, needed to report on options for potentially regulating ridesharing services provided by Uber Technologies Inc. (Uber) and other "e-hail" services that were upending traditional taxi services in the city and across the country. The committee needed to investigate similar situations in other jurisdictions and present the available options to London City Council, keeping in mind the city's primary concerns of health and safety, consumer protection and quality of life, and effective and efficient service delivery. The key challenge was to make ethical recommendations that took all stakeholders into account. Fundamental to the report was whether Uber should be defined as a technology company or a taxi company.

The Mountain Musical Theatre Company (MMTC), located in Great Falls, Montana, was an important part of the local cultural scene. For many years, MMTC had performed a wide variety of shows that had been much enjoyed by local and visiting patrons, and it would have been easy to assume that the organization was a great success. However, significant organizational and financial problems had been brewing inside MMTC. In September 2015, these problems came to a head. The organization did not have formal financial statements, and the absence of these had recently led to major disagreements between MMTC's leadership team and its board of directors. The recently appointed board chair did not know if MMTC was making or losing money. Although she feared the consequences could be serious, the board chair needed to ensure that financial statements for MMTC were created and analyzed to determine the truth about the organization's financial situation.

Fundacion Inclusion y Desarrollo Laboral (IDEL) was a not-for-profit organization in Buenos Aires, Argentina, whose mission was to enhance the dignity of and improve the quality of life for people with intellectual disabilities by promoting their inclusion in the formal labour market. IDEL did this by providing a sheltered work environment, projects, and wages for participants in its programs. In 2016, IDEL was seeking to increase the number of individuals it served by developing its own source of earned income and securing additional stable clients to provide work projects and revenue for these individuals. The organization acquired a machine to produce garbage bags that it planned to sell in the Argentine market, and the organization's executive director was finalizing a plan to develop the manufacturing of garbage bags as a source of earned income. She needed to decide how to grow IDEL sustainably, by scaling its operations to serve a larger community while also addressing the needs of its stakeholders.

Soweto Gold was a premium microbrewery in the township of Soweto, South Africa. In 2011, one of its co-founders got the idea to start a craft brewery while on an advanced brewing course in London. After a period of soul-searching and research, in 2013, he found a partner to begin producing and marketing a new craft beer. They found early success by focusing their efforts on getting to know the craft beer market and creating a sustainable value proposition. However, by 2016, they faced questions regarding how to grow the market for their iconic brand. How could they better reach some of their untapped markets and cement the brand in the minds of consumers? Should they contract out the brewing to a larger company outside Soweto in order to expand production? The challenge was to act boldly but not make any mistakes.

nuTomomy was an innovative company spun out of MIT that sought to develop Automated Mobility on Demand (AMoD) services: fleets of highly automated on-demand vehicles or "robotaxis." The two founders had developed software and algorithms for autonomous vehicle operation in urban environments, but now faced a fundamental decision: Where should they conduct road tests to refine their models and make automated car services part of the actual transportation system? The critical problem was that the technology was well ahead of the regulatory environment, which meant that their efforts would involve legislative challenges, in addition to the technical work to make their vision a reality. The case study describes the origins and rapid technological innovations of the automated vehicle sector, and the founders' vision for a fleet of automated on-demand vehicles, hailed via a smartphone app, and controlled remotely through teleoperation. The founders could choose to remain in the Boston area to conduct the road tests, a critical part of the company's next steps. Or operations could shift to California, where other start-ups in the space were already pushing state regulators to greenlight testing of automated vehicles on public roads. A third option was shifting to Singapore, where the government was committed to realizing the benefits of vehicle automation, and seemed to offer all the conditions for a rapid path to testing and the deployment of nuTonomy's technology on public roads. Singapore also could offer excellent infrastructure, disciplined drivers, and mostly benign weather conditions.

"Noble and The Valuation of Its Investment Associates" focusses on the Noble Group's performance since 2011 and the impact of the adverse research report published by the independent outfit, Iceberg Research in 2015, on the company. The veracity of Iceberg Research's reports is analyzed. The case uses financial statement analysis, valuing companies through income, market and asset/cost approaches to assess if Noble Group paid purchase considerations in excess of the target firm's intrinsic values while acquiring associates, particularly Australia-based Yancoal. The case study also provides the setting to use macroeconomic factors in conjunction with valuation techniques and financial statement analysis to evaluate a potential investment.

On December 10, 2013 more than 90,000 South Africans gathered at the FNB Stadium in Soweto outside of Johannesburg to mourn the death of the country's first black president, Nelson Mandela. At the stadium, several dignitaries addressed the mourners, which included United States President Barack Obama and then-current or former heads of state or government from over 100 countries-one of the largest assemblages of world leaders in history. Obama took the podium to eulogize Mandela: "[His] passing is rightly a time of mourning, and a time to celebrate a heroic life," he said. "But I believe it should also prompt in each of us a time for self-reflection. With honesty, regardless of our station or our circumstance, we must ask: 'How well have I applied his lessons in my own life?'" This case provides students with a short history of South Africa followed by a contextualized biography of Nelson Mandela-from birth through death-that emphasizes the key events and actions that served to shape his life and reflect his values and leadership. Mandela demonstrated adaptability and malleability and many shifts in strategy, emerging from the impetuousness of youth to become a Zen-like elder statesman. Over the course of his life, though, his core values did not change. Mandela showed ability to navigate and negotiate with different stakeholders. How did he get power from both sides while maintaining legitimacy in both camps? How was he able to avoid the neither/nor that can alienate both sides? These are the key questions students will grapple with during the class discussion. Case number 2104.0

This case follows the conception and emergence of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF). In an already crowded and highly competitive industry, Abdulhamid Juma was attempting to define and establish a unique brand positioning for DIFF. Committed to its vision, Juma led the introduction of various initiatives over the years and was able to effectively grow the festival's profile amid emerging regional and well-established global players like the Cannes, Sundance and Toronto film festivals. By the end of 2016, Juma found himself at a crossroads. Could he continue to follow the historical strategy or was it time to consider a change in order to take it the next level? What would be the best strategy for ensuring DIFF's survival for many years to come?

CEO Art Peck was eliminating his creative directors for The Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic brands and promoting a collective creative ecosystem fueled by the input of big data. Rather than relying on artistic vision, Peck wanted the company to use the mining of big data obtained from Google Analytics and the company's own sales and customer databases to select the next season's assortment. Peck was betting that intelligence fueled by big data could outperform a fashion industry creative director at predicting the future fashion trends and tastes of consumers.

This case describes Kraft Heinz Company's (KHC) February 2017 unsolicited $143 billion takeover offer to acquire Unilever. The offer was made to Unilever CEO Paul Polman by KHC chairman Alexandre Behring, who was also co-founder and CEO of Brazilian-based 3G Capital (3G). Since being acquired by 3G in 2013, KHC profit margins had increased by more than half, to 28%, well above food industry averages, as its share price rose 24%. The case examines the divergent approaches to value creation embraced by 3G and Unilever, respectively. 3G had a well-earned reputation for immediate return to shareholders by cutting costs in its acquired companies, creating rapid increases in earnings and cash flow. Under the leadership of co-founder Jorge Paulo Lemann, 3G had teamed with Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway in recent years on the acquisitions of Burger King, which then bought Tim Horton's in Canada, and H.J. Heinz, which subsequently acquired Kraft Foods. Under Polman's leadership, Unilever focused on long-term shareholder value accretion with a multi-stakeholder approach that emphasized global growth in revenues and earnings through deep penetration in rapidly growing emerging markets and creation of competitive advantage through sustainability. In Polman's eight years at the helm, Unilever had delivered a 190% return to its shareholders. The case presents Polman's dilemma: a takeover of Unilever by KHC/3G could erode the company's commitment to sustainability and a multi-stakeholder model, and the 18% premium of KHC/3G's offer undervalued Unilever and its long-term value creation strategy. However, 3G's emphasis on efficiency could enhance Unilever's profitability, and Polman was obliged to give serious consideration to the KHC offer and whether it would drive near-term value creation for Unilever shareholders.

A well-known lingerie retailer in Colombia, Leonisa is a family-owned company that barely survived a second-generation succession crisis. Brothers Joaquín and Julio Ernesto Urrea founded the firm in 1956, and over 50 years built one of the most recognizable brands in Latin America. While they each had an equal stake in the company, their respective families were not of equal size: Joaquín had 11 children including nine boys, Julio had three daughters. While the girls were interested in design and fashion, the boys were keen to create satellite ventures around the core brand. When one of the co-founders died, a family dispute erupted over whether the dividends should be plowed back into the business or distributed to the shareholders. A mediator obliged the warring branches to reach a settlement that would allow Leonisa to survive. The ousted sisters eventually had their own success story by launching a new business based on their core competencies.

This case explores the changes wrought by the "sharing economy", examining the innovations and controversies surrounding the online ride-hailing service Uber. It provides a unique overview of the challenges posed by new business models like Uber's, which use the internet to link individual providers of goods and services to customers. Raising significant economic, social and environmental sustainability issues, it asks: what are the responsibilities of "sharing economy" companies? More specifically, are they merely "technological platforms" facilitating transactions for private individuals or do they have the same responsibilities as real-world companies such as transportation businesses, hotels and employment agencies?

This case examines how a drug price increase by one small company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, became the focal point of a controversy that engulfed the entire drug industry. Turing's decision to raise the price of its anti-infection drug Daraprim, from $13.50 to $750 per dose, is emblematic of the debate about the responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies and business more generally. The case asks: Do pharmaceutical executives have a responsibility to patients when setting drug prices, or are they beholden only to their shareholders? More broadly, what are the responsibilities of companies to shareholders relative to other stakeholders? And what role should be taken by public policy makers in this domain? While set primarily in the United States, the case raises questions of corporate social responsibility and public policy for the global healthcare industry and business more generally. It provides an opportunity to explore the potentially conflicting demands of shareholders and stakeholders, the limits of industry self-regulation and the need for government-imposed price controls, notably in the context of patent monopolies.