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An exercise that takes students through five stages of growth in an entrepreneurial start-up in the medical devices industry: 1) founding, 2) growth, 3) push to profitability, 4) refocusing process, and 5) takeover by new management. At each stage, students must confront tensions in balancing profit, growth and control. Difficulties encountered in the business are due to management's attempts to design and use formal control systems to achieve profit and performance goals.

In 1999, three brothers opened a small fast food outlet in a small city in Eastern India. The geodemographics of the city changed markedly over the next few years, providing the brothers with an opportunity to redefine their business and grow. By focusing on who their customers were and what they needed, the brothers created a new market in the city's fast food sector, avoiding the entrenched competition in the existing market. The brothers' venture was not initially successful and they did have some problems along the way, but by 2016, they had established an unrivalled chain known for its biryanis and other food items. What led to the brothers' success? Could they continue to grow with this strategy? Were they established enough to consider international expansion?

In early 2016, LUX* Resorts & Hotels, a hotel group headquartered in Mauritius, needed to determine the room mix to sell to foreign guests to achieve a specific earnings target. The hotel group also intended to sell some of the remaining rooms to local residents at affordable (discounted) prices. The objective was to maximize the revenue stream to finance local corporate social responsibility projects. The case highlights the practical use of Microsoft Excel Solver, an optimization tool, to resolve routine planning challenges faced by a hotel group.

This case examines the history of the Lac Seul First Nation from first contact with Europeans through treaty negotiations with the Canadian government, timber trespasses by unscrupulous loggers, flooding by Ontario's hydroelectric provider, and development of mineral resources in Lac Seul traditional territory. The case provides details of settlements of past logging and flooding claims, and agreements with mining companies. The band's chief and council are faced with the challenge of determining the direction for economic development of the band and the use of resources from the settlements and agreements to improve the community's socioeconomic environment.

Andy Smith is the Transport Excellence Manager (Asia-Pacific) at GLC, a leading global logistics services company. In April 2016, GLC inaugurated the GLC Hub in Singapore, which is expected to boost cargo volume in Asia-Pacific. However, Smith faces issues further down the supply chain due to problems with road freight vendors. GLC utilises a hub-and-spoke method to transport cargo. Last mile deliveries are typically outsourced to small local transportation providers in the Asia-Pacific region who would complete the delivery by road. These vendors are usually small companies with only a few vehicles. They do not always make the best decisions about their operations, (e.g., deciding the type and combination of vehicles to be used in the fleet), or the type of resources (such as fuel, equipment on board) to be used. This inefficiency results in vendor bankruptcies and subsequent disruptions to GLC's delivery obligations. Smith wanted to devise a long-term solution to help his vendors manage their operations. He decided it would be best to help address their business needs and enable the vendors to make better managerial decisions. He started collating data in an Excel spreadsheet, but it soon became apparent that the spreadsheet was not ideal. He then considered other solutions such as developing a common platform, using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) visual analytics online tools or creating a customised application. He wanted a tool that would ideally allow vendors to analyse their financial health over a period of time, and perform scenario analysis to aid their decision-making.

Founded in May 2008 in India, Indus OS (previously known as Firstouch) understood the latent language needs of 90 per cent of Indian consumers, a need that prevented users from switching from their basic-feature phones to smartphones. Through incremental innovation of the open Android system, Indus OS launched the world's first smartphone operating system that had the ability to function in 12 of India's regional languages. Through strategic partnerships formed in 2015 with some of the leading smartphone manufacturers in India, by May 2016 Indus OS had become the second most popular operating system in the Indian market, following Google's Android and leading Apple's iOS. Moreover, Indus OS had firm strategic growth plans, not only for India but also for international markets like China and Bangladesh. The remaining critical issue was whether Indus OS could sustain its advantage over rivals or whether it was likely to be acquired by a large multinational corporation, a fate common to other successful start-ups in India.

In July 2014, the president and co-owner of Sunshine Fresh Inc. (Sunshine), a food service manufacturing company in Totowa, New Jersey, needed to make a decision about the best location for the company's new West Coast expansion. Sunshine had built a strong reputation on the U.S. East Coast for high-quality refrigerated kosher pickles. Among Sunshine's most valued clients were several casinos located in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. Recently, a food purchaser for one these casinos casually mentioned to Sunshine's vice-president that his casino's customers in Las Vegas would love to have Sunshine's pickles too. This brief exchange led to an expansion plan that required Sunshine to choose a location for its West Coast operation. The company's managers had visited several cities in the Western United States to explore their options, and had carefully weighed the pros and cons of the two main contenders-Los Angeles, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada-against five essential criteria. Now, they needed a firm decision: Which metropolitan area was the best location for Sunshine's new pickle plant?

In 2013, Street League Skateboarding, a professional skateboarding league founded in 2010, just concluded its annual Street League World Tour. The growing action sports property had purchased time on ESPN2 to air its events, and though ESPN was the most-watched sports television network in the U.S., Street League President Brian Atlas had become impatient with the network's lack of support. Atlas planned to meet with network representatives in the coming months to discuss their 2014 contract, but was recently approached by FOX Sports, which had just launched the new FOX Sports 1 cable television network and was working to sign sports properties. Atlas considered Street League's relationship with ESPN, the league's finances, and attempts to raise capital. For a new action sports property such as Street League, what business model made the most sense?

In 2013, Rio de Janeiro's main international airport, Galeão, was set to be privatized through a 25-year term concession. The Brazilian government set a minimum bid value of $4.8 billion for the airport. Five consortia submitted bids, surpassing the minimum bid value by at least 36 percent. The winning consortium of Singapore's Changi Airport and the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht surprised everyone by offering to pay R$19 billion, almost four times the minimum bid. The case lays out the assumptions used in arriving at the minimum bid value and discusses where the additional value might be coming from. Case number 2097.0

Focused ultrasound (FUS) technology is an early stage, noninvasive therapeutic technology with the potential to transform the treatment of many medical disorders by using ultrasonic energy to target tissue deep in the body without incisions or radiation. The technology had the potential to improve outcomes and decrease costs by serving as an alternative or complement to surgery, radiation therapy, drug delivery, and immunotherapy.

The case begins with Ed Bastian, Delta's CEO, reflecting on his one-year anniversary. Ed took over at Delta following its successful recovery from the 2008 "great recession" and then experienced multiple challenges, including: pilots demanding and receiving increased pay and multiple instances where thousands of flights were cancelled due to information technology issues. Delta Air Lines also faces a shift toward a more diverse population in the United States, and increased competition from rapidly expanding airlines from the Middle East such as Etihad Airways, Emirates, and Qatar Airways. More recently, European ultra-low cost carriers such as Norwegian Air Shuttle or Iceland's WOW have entered selected transatlantic routes, connecting the U.S. East Coast to Europe. Historically, Delta had focused more on activities associated with aircraft operations and maintenance, and customer service. However, Delta Air Lines' recent problems suggest a need to focus on Delta's technology infrastructure and human resource management. In considering everything going on internally at Delta and in its industry, CEO Bastian wonders-what other challenges have been overlooked?

Mariam Naficy (Minted CEO) and Melissa Kim (Minted COO) have grown the company to become a leader in the online printed cards, independent design and art market segments. As the business has continued to scale they wrestle with simultaneously growing their existing business while also looking at expanding into new markets, all the while keeping their existing customer base engaged. The case highlights the difficult decisions management faces in deciding where to pursue growth opportunities when choices might be overly abundant while also focusing on the importance of profitability

This case highlights the initial challenges faced by LG Display when they opened a TFT-LCD Module Plant in Wroclaw, a small city in southern Poland approximately 340 km away from Warsaw. The Polish plant was important for LGD because it offered significant cutbacks in distribution costs. Furthermore, the geographical adjacency to target markets gave LGD a head start compared with the main competitors. The company had positive return on investment expectations from this plant. Soon the company started facing low employee productivity and high employee turnover due to cultural clashes between Korean managers and Polish workers. The results were exactly opposite to the initial expectations and the dream of making the polish plant a workplace of joy was shattered. This case shows the pressure faced by Ji-Hyung Kim, LG Display's country director of Poland plant, to improve the working culture of the plant in the next one year as his reputation and promotion was at stake. This case talks about some of the ideas that were considered to increase the cultural sensitivity among the two groups of employees and increase the employee engagement at work based on the employee satisfaction and engagement survey results and exit interviews.

This case was a runner-up in the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) 2017 case competition. Anna Pessah, process engineer at Summit Funding (Summit), a mortgage-loan-processing company, is reflecting back on her year at the company. Pessah had been hired to improve operations at the firm-to make the core operations cheaper, faster, and of a higher quality. She had addressed two key operations: loan closings and verifications of employment (VOE). Her next tasks involved improvements at the 28 branches and reaction to a corporate-wide improvement program entitled "Project Ninja." Pessah had implemented a system called "pods," similar to manufacturing cells, in order to address loan closings. Data is given for the student to analyze the implications of this approach and suggest alternatives. Data is also given for analyzing the VOE process and deriving an approach to the branch productivity problem. Finally, the Project Ninja memo is given, and students are asked to evaluate this initiative.

Pho Hoa is a traditional, family-owned Vietnamese restaurant in Dorchester, Massachusetts that opened in 1992. As he approached retirement in recent years, the founder-owner has scaled down his involvement in the day-to-day operations, leading to a number of operational and financial issues, including variable food quality and deficient wait staff service. The restaurant is about to transition from 1st to 2nd generation ownership, Tam Le, the son of the founder, realizes that major operational and financial changes are required to maintain the restaurant's long-term viability.

Two partners commence a rollup in the quick-service restaurant segment. They focus on operating improvements and spinning-off real estate.

In 2007, Jody Greenstone Miller founded Business Talent Group (BTG), a company that connected top independent professionals, including consultants and executives, with global companies for project-based work at a lower cost and with more precision than traditional consulting. From BTG's inception, Miller and cofounder Amelia Warren Tyagi believed that the way people work - and the way companies use talent - was changing for several reasons. High-end business professionals were growing weary of the commonly accepted notion that in order to succeed in one's career, it was necessary to work 60 to 80 hours per week. In addition, the increasing scope and complexity of business around the globe meant that firms were competing across multiple industries and geographies, with products and services launching at a faster pace than ever before. As such, companies demanded human capital with targeted skills and knowledge, as well as workers who could take on specific, time-sensitive projects. Moreover, improvements in technology, including the widespread use of e-mail, smartphones, cloud computing, and video conferencing, allowed individuals to work effectively from almost anywhere in the world. Given these trends, BTG's mission was "to bring together the world's top companies and independent professionals to enhance business performance and improve people's lives." Although BTG encountered some early resistance from companies that were skeptical about the idea - and quality - of independent talent, it did not take long for the BTG model to gain traction. Companies were increasingly convinced of the value proposition associated with utilizing high-end, independent business talent, and the market for independent professionals grew rapidly. Not surprisingly, this growth attracted an influx of new competition. "Business Talent Group: Growing the Market for Independent Business Talent" explores the challenges BTG faced as it pioneered the market for high-end business talent in

Social media company Buffer wanted to establish clear company values early in its growth. One of these values was a commitment to transparency in its company practices. Buffer openly shared its business strategies and fundraising decks, among lots of other information. Even when they were hacked, the company live-blogged updates to keep their users informed as the situation unfolded. Having internally released each employee's salary and equity details with no pushback, the company now contemplated sharing compensation information transparently with the general public.