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In September 2023, Brighter Bites, a Houston-based non-profit that distributed fresh produce and nutrition education in underserved communities across 11 cities and 5 states, grappled with identifying the best path forward for continued growth. Brighter Bites proved that their program effectively changed behavior with participating families developing and sustaining healthier eating habits and consuming more fruits and vegetables each week, two years after they completed the program. Brighter Bites wanted to change the trajectory of health across low-income and food insecure households and had to navigate the program's dependency on produce and logistics partners and restricted funding sources.

Already a leader in the edtech space since its 2008 launch, Khan Academy was now one of the first edtech organizations to embrace generative artificial intelligence ("genAI"). In March 2023, Khan Academy began beta testing Khanmigo, a genAI "guide" and tutor built with ChatGPT, a technology developed by the San Francisco-based AI research lab OpenAI. In addition to simulating historical and fictional characters, Khanmigo assisted students with learning math, debugging code, writing, and completing other learning exercises. Khanmigo was also designed to help teachers develop lesson plans and quizzes, brainstorm creative teaching approaches, and evaluate students' progress, among other tasks. As the Founder and CEO of Khan Academy, Sal Khan felt that Khanmigo might just be "that holy grail we've all been reading about in science fiction for years, about an artificial intelligence that could emulate a human tutor." However, he pondered what the societal-and, for Khan Academy, organizational-risks might be of using OpenAI's ChatGPT. Was it possible that Khanmigo would introduce new problems or exacerbate existing problems in classrooms around the world? If so, what more could Khan Academy do to prevent such outcomes? How might Khan Academy itself need to evolve to support and shepherd this new tool? At the most extreme, might genAI increase Khan Academy's impact manifold, or might the new technology diminish its impact?

In 2023, the co-CEOs of Team Liquid, one of the world's most prominent Esports organization, are deciding whether and how to evolve their business model to include (1) a greater focus on enterprise revenue; and (2) more direct-to-consumer activity. Team Liquid has one of the largest global fanbases in the world. The case is an exploration of how an organization can build a business that is anchored by its FANS, as opposed to customers per se. The learnings are applicable to any organization with a strong fanbase--including sports teams, social media influencers, and the like.

Over a 105-year span, the Ermírio de Moraes family built Votorantim, one of Latin America's largest industrial conglomerates, and among Brazil's topmost businesses, also credited for helping "build" the country over decades. By early 2023, Votorantim included diversified operations in 19 countries worldwide, with a net income above $1 billion. The conglomerate was privately owned by the Ermírio de Moraes family, with its ownership evenly split across four family branches. Over time, the family established a corporate governance structure with separate boards for ownership, business, and family affairs, leaving business operations to a professional management team. At the heart of this governance structure was the family board, viewed by many family members as the "glue and honey" bringing them together. Despite running multiple initiatives, Luciana Domit chair of the family board and a fifth-generation member, acknowledged, it was becoming increasingly hard to get its over 170 family members to spend time together and to engage in the activities they promoted. As the family enlarged and interests diverged, fostering its long-term unity could become more challenging. Were the family board's current strategies and overall governance structure at Votorantim conducive towards keeping the family united in its values and preserving its legacy? Or would a transformation be needed if the Ermírio de Moraeses were committed to remaining at the forefront of the Votorantim's governance structure?

The Human Resources and Social Development Ministry (HRSD) was one of the largest and most important ministries in Saudi Arabia, with 22,000 employees serving more than 30 million customers and beneficiaries. The ministry consisted of four sectors - labor which served and regulated the private and non-profit sectors; civil service which served government entities and employees; social development which served disadvantaged groups; and shared services which served the three customer-facing sectors. The three customer-facing sectors had been separate ministries until they were merged, and still operated mostly in silos. A new minister appointed in 2018 determined that the ministry had to be transformed to allow it to play its part in meeting Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 roles. He brought in Mohammed Al Jasser in 2019 as Assistant Minister for Shared Services to spearhead the transformation. Customer experience (CX) transformation was a key part of this. The case describes the initial phase of the ministry's CX transformation. It included creating a CX deputyship, putting CX strategy and governance in place, and carrying out pilot projects to address immediate problems and build support within the organization. The next phase of the CX transformation would be scaling up and implementing it across the ministry. The case discusses the challenges the ministry will face in this phase, including initiative fatigue, limited interest in improving CX, policy changes not aligned with CX, and fragmented service ownership. The case ends by mentioning two important issues for a successful CX transformation: Ensuring that the outsourcing of customer-facing activities, which was happening in parallel, supported this; and engineering a mindset and cultural shift among ministry officials. Although the first phase of the CX transformation had been successful, scaling up across the ministry would be challenging. How should Al Jasser and his team proceed to achieve this objective?

This case concerns the Patient Care Intervention Center (PCIC) a values-based health technology social enterprise in Houston, Texas. This organization was founded to tackle fundamental problems in social and health services in the United States. It was initially focused on homeless superusers of the health system, that received inadequate care at high cost, notably through frequent use of emergency rooms. However, it became clear that this was only a symptom of broader system issues, especially around coordination failures across siloed health and social services and failures in case management. PCIC designed an approach that integrated two innovative features: values-based client diagnosis and case management, based on the values, concerns, and aspirations of individual clients, and a platform-based approach to sharing data both on clients and services, with tailored technological solutions for individual health and social organizations. It has been highly successful both in outreach and contract growth. By 2022, 850 agencies were providing data, involving six million individuals, with some 1,500 referrals within the system each month within the Houston area. However, PCIC faced challenges in further scaling, with respect to finance for developmental needs, human resources, and the threat of competition from large private players that offered platforms that were significantly inferior in terms of tackling the underlying system failures, but potentially attractive to health and social organizations. The case frames both the strategic questions for PCIC and the challenges of changing an essentially dysfunctional system. HKS Case No. 2271.0

RideAlly, a ride-hailing platform headquartered in Bangalore, India, catered to the business-to-consumer and business-to-business segments. It operated in Bangalore and Hyderabad. Hariprakash Agrawal, the chief executive officer and founder, needed to devise a plan to sustain the business in India's highly competitive ride-hailing market. It was time to think about scaling up the business, which needed significant investment and the right strategy to gain a solid foothold in the industry. Agrawal's team needed to prepare a pitch for investors and present a strategy for penetrating the market and expanding the business.

Acen Haitao Jiang, founder and chief executive officer of Aomi, faced a dilemma. Founded in 2016, Aomi was an online food delivery platform in Macao with a local market share of over 90 per cent. Nevertheless, Macao was a small market with a population of about 680,000 and an area of 32.9 square kilometres, which was becoming a bottleneck for Aomi's growth. Jiang was considering a Y-strategy, composed of three business development strands: food delivery (i.e., maintaining the core business); business diversification (e.g., livestream commerce and online supermarket services); and international expansion to new, larger markets (e.g., Hong Kong). With limited resources and potential risks, however, Jiang was struggling to choose between diversification and market expansion. June 1, 2022, would mark Aomi's sixth anniversary and Jiang had to decide on a growth strategy before then.

On July 2022, Signify Health, a health care services company that was disrupting the US health care market with its value-based care provision, announced the opening of a new technology centre outside the United States. This was a significant first step for the company beyond its home country. The company had an ambitious plan to develop an international centre of excellence for innovation that it expected would grow to employ more than 125 people by the end of 2023. The new technology centre was seen as a critical step to develop new solutions and provide technologies that would enable the platform to scale up its business. However, the company had to make some important and urgent decisions, including where to locate the international technology centre and how to integrate the new centre into the wider domestic organization.

After importing three hundred bags of ground sacha inchi, a seed with promising nutritional benefits, from Peru, Kayla Gray has important decisions to make. Her new venture, Sachi Superfoods, is ready to launch; however, she does not have a clear plan on how to best market her product. Gray must decide on the best market segment to pursue in addition to the most effective marketing channel for her product.

Hope Medicals owner, Shiva Aruguman, was considering entering the online pharmacy market. Hope Medicals was a local pharmacy in Madurai, India's Tamil Nadu state, and Aruguman was at a strategic crossroads-he had to decide whether to expand into the online pharmacy market. With the challenges (financial and non-financial) of integrating the "brick" and "click" modes of his pharmacy business, Aruguman had to conduct an analysis based on capital budgeting and run a Monte Carlo simulation to determine the potential profitability and risks of such a venture.

In March 2021, the wholesale distributor of home décor products SBO Distributors Ltd. (or SWISSBO), based in Vancouver, Canada, was considering an opportunity for strategic analysis. The firm was at a crossroads in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic had led to a setback in the company's revenues and margins-seemingly, a temporary setback. The wholesaler was now facing a make-or-break dilemma that involved a new growth opportunity to move up the value chain toward retailing.

Lisa Mitchell, Deputy Vice President of Tech Operations at Albright Cancer Centers (ACC), is confronted with significant customer service issues. The current cloud system often malfunctions, causing disruptions for patients and their families. Founded in 1988 by Robert L. Albright after the heart-wrenching loss of his daughter to cancer, ACC has always prioritized compassionate care. By 2023, the center had expanded to over 2,000 staff across various cities. Their unique Guardian Standard combines traditional medical care with therapies aimed at enhancing the overall well-being of patients, emphasizing empowerment throughout their treatment journey. However, the present call system falls short of these standards. Recognizing this gap, Mitchell advocates for the exploration of advanced AI solutions. She launches the "Guardian Level of Call" initiative, aiming to transform the calling experience. With the help of consultant Alex Sanches, they undertake a thorough analysis of the customer journey. ACC's CEO, Dr. Fernanda Rivera, later introduces Air.ai, a state-of-the-art AI system, believing it could replace customer service reps and redefine ACC's customer service approach.

In April 2023, Will Anderson, managing partner of SummitStone Capital, LP (SummitStone), received a copy of the management service agreement (MSA) between Artemis Capital (Artemis), a private equity firm, and Lucky Dice Casinos Inc., one of Artemis' recently acquired portfolio companies. SummitStone had invested in Artemis buyout funds since 2011 and was in the due diligence phase of allocating $75 million to Artemis' newest vehicle, Artemis Fund VII. But before Anderson could recommend the fund to his investment committee, he needed to understand the implications of the MSAs that Artemis was forging with its portfolio companies. The case allows students to (i) evaluate a typical MSA contract; (ii) analyze the existing evidence and academic research on MSAs; and (iii) explore possible avenues to adjust limited partnership agreements (LPAs) to align limited partners' (LPs') and general partners' (GPs') incentives in the presence of MSAs. Students can analyze the qualitative and quantitative implications of MSAs on all private equity fund stakeholders and develop a recommendation to an LP investment committee.

The YouTube channel Digital Vidya Kendra (DVK) was launched by J. Singh in 2011 with a mission to develop future managers and researchers. However, the company soon encountered hurdles in its goal to fulfill its mission. DVK maintained a high level of quality in the content of its videos, but increasing the number of subscribers proved difficult. By November 2019, DVK had registered only 500 subscribers-half the minimum number needed to start earning money on YouTube. Its unique videos helped it to gain viewership from scholars, researchers, and academics. However, despite a potential for rapid global growth, DVK's growth rate started dropping in 2020. Something needed to be done to save the company; therefore, Singh tasked his digital marketing team to conduct surveys and research, using 67 of the company's videos, to investigate the issues and problems that had arisen. The DVK research team had to determine what information the numbers were revealing, what factors were affecting DVK's performance, what demographics were affecting business performance, and how cost effective Google Ads were in terms of user traffic, revenue, and hours watched.

In January 2022, Nicholas Chen had to decide whether to invest in one of two solar power systems to reduce the energy cost of the manufacturing company, Jamaica Macaroni Factory Ltd.'s (JMF). He could purchase a 100kW solar power system and generate some of the energy JMF used while also selling back electricity to the grid when the factory was not operating, or he could purchase a 230kW system, which would produce more energy but, due to regulatory restrictions, would not sell electricity back to the grid.

In 2015, Hubang chili sauce was launched in China's highly competitive emerging condiment and sauce market. Instead of undertaking direct competition and a costly price war in traditional retail channels already dominated by a market leader, Wenjin Lu, a local entrepreneur and the chief executive officer of Hubang, developed a unique strategy to achieve breakthroughs via online-to-offline (O2O) food delivery platforms, whose consumers were made up of a fast-increasing consumer base of Internet and mobile users. By 2020, Hubang had achieved an annual sales milestone of US$29 million and secured series A financing. Lu faced a new dilemma: Should Hubang keep strengthening its unique O2O channel through market penetration and product expansion, or should it reposition to enter the retail market with its existing products?

This case is about the dilemma faced by Elisabeth Vardheim, a C-level executive at Statnett, Norway's transmission grid operator. As a result of its participation in the Paris Agreement, Norway decided to greatly accelerate the national energy transition. An increased reliance on electricity, however, brings with it a pressing need for more high voltage power lines. As executive vice president for construction at Statnett, Vardheim must choose between two ways of increasing Oslo's electricity transmission capacity: string power lines on 40-meter-high towers or bury them underground. However, although the upgrade is indispensable, neither solution seems to have any chance of being approved. Vardheim has to contend with powerful stakeholders. There is the local population, which opposes overhead power lines due to their impact on the landscape - the "not in my back yard" effect. There is also the regulator, who must act in accordance with regulations that favor the most cost-effective solutions to keep electricity prices low for all Norwegians. The case is not just about choosing between two solutions. Obtaining the construction license also means having a good understanding of the forces involved, the licensing process and the applicable regulations. The student is taken on a journey that includes stakeholder management analysis, the decision-criteria perspective and real option valuation. Students are subsequently divided in two groups, each attempting to win the other over to their chosen option. This usually creates a stalemate and a lack of consensus which is then solved by an "Aha!" moment thanks to the use of an embedded option, an approach that will solve the case and lead to the attainment of the construction license.

Birth registration - considered a basic human right provided by government services - was still not working in many countries. One in four children worldwide is not registered. Yet, Zainab Siddiqui, head of sustainability at Telenor Pakistan, had a different idea. In 2013, she initiated the Digital Birth Registration Project in Pakistan in two provinces to replace the existing paper-based approach. Her entrepreneurial leadership was encouraged in Telenor, a global mobile network operator based in Norway, active in 8 markets with over 170 million subscribers. The company was an organization true to its original purpose of "promoting a country's prosperity" - by "empowering societies and connecting its subscribers to what matters most." What mattered most could be digital health, digital farming or digital banking services - several of the services that the company had launched over the years. Digital birth registration and its potential follow-on services - such as digital marriage certificates and digital driver's licenses - were considered good not only for what matters most but also potentially for the bottom line. After several years of successful implementation of the project, Zainab considered how Telenor Pakistan could take on full responsibility for the service from the Pakistani government. How would the company prepare and position itself for the eventual negotiations with the government for this potential growth opportunity?