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This case examines the strategic choices and business model with regards to branding at Mavi, a leading Turkish apparel retailer. The case is presented from the perspective of the company CEO and its global brand director who is also part owner. In 2015, Mavi had sales of $419 million, up 20% from the previous year. Growth rates like these were becoming routine at Mavi. But, the path to growth was getting more challenging, and Turkven, Mavi's private equity partner, was planning its options after seven years of investment. There were four growth levers Mavi could pull, but each involved selecting one growth path while neglecting another. Should the company invest in growth domestically or internationally? Should they change the price positioning of the brand to move upmarket or down market? Which value proposition offered the most future promise: functional differentiation, lifestyle differentiation, or celebrity endorsement? Should the company continue to serve both men and women of all ages, or were there specific consumer targets that offered the most promise? Managers realized that these choices would not only determine the company's short-term growth trajectory, but also shape the longer-term value of the Mavi brand.

This case study discusses Magic: the Gathering (Magic), a collectible card game that is owned by Wizards of the Coast (Wizards), a subsidiary of Hasbro. In particular, it focuses on how Wizards manages the Magic player community and its need to learn how to respond to various kinds of consumer-generated content (CGC) created by players. Magic is a collectible card game that has seen tremendous growth since its inception in 1993. By 2015 it had 20 million players worldwide and generated annual revenue of $200 million USD. Its primary revenue stream comes from selling sealed packs of Magic cards, and it releases a new set every three months. There are various types of packs available; each contains about 15 cards. Players must use these cards to construct a 60-card deck, which they use to play head-to-head against an opponent's deck. The case study describes in detail how Wizards interacts with its community. Predominantly, the company uses social media to release news, gather feedback, and respond to issues. Particularly noteworthy are how Wizards uses Spoiler Season to increase the anticipation for new card sets, and Friday Night Magic, casual tournaments at local game stores to connect players with vendors. The player community is very diverse, both in terms of age (roughly from 12 to 45 years old) and level of engagement (from occasional/casual to tournament-level, competitive players). In addition, Magic players are drawn to the game for a variety of reasons, which is illustrated by the three player types (or personas) Timmy, Johnny and Spike. This diversity is important for Wizards to keep in mind when the company develops new products, promotes its products, organizes events, and interacts with the community.

Gerald Chertavian, an HBS graduate and successful tech entrepreneur, founded Year Up in 2000. He sought to provide opportunity via education and job training to disaffected American youth, focusing on young people in urban areas. In 10 years, he built the company from one site with 22 students to 10 sites, successfully training 1,300 students a year. However, after three years of high unemployment in the United States, Chertavian became concerned about the growing opportunity gap and wondered whether Year Up would ever make enough of an impact. In 2011, he and his board wrestled with the question of how to address this issue, and they weighed the fate of the small but highly successful Year Up program. Chertavian and his team were considering options for scale and how to maintain the organization's model.

In November 2015, U.S.-based biopharmaceuticals company Pfizer [NYSE: PFE] and Ireland-based pharmaceutical company Allergan [NYSE: AGN] announced a $160 billion merger to move Pfizer's domicile out of the United States to Ireland in the largest inversion deal ever. The announcement came just days after the U.S. Treasury Department laid out a set of restrictions on tax inversions; however, the deal was structured to avoid those restrictions. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, "By undertaking an inversion transaction, companies move their tax residence overseas to avoid U.S. taxes without making significant changes in their business operations." Two primary benefits provided by inversions were: (1) the removal of a company's foreign operations and income from the U.S. taxing jurisdiction to achieve pure "territorial" tax treatment (in which income was taxed only in the country where it was earned); and (2) the reduction of U.S. taxes on income from U.S. operations through the use of various "earnings stripping strategies" (e.g., making payments of deductible interest or royalties from the U.S. entity to a new foreign parent). According to Reed College economist Kim Clausing, inversions and other income-shifting techniques reduced Treasury revenues by as much as $111 billion in 2012.

The case discusses a non-governmental organization, Udayan Care, founded in 1994 by Dr. Kiran Modi to raise orphans in a family environment and re-integrate them into society through its Udayan Ghar program. Udayan Care diversified into providing a variety of other services over time, including education to underprivileged girls through the Udayan Shalini Fellowship (USF) program, which began in 2002, and vocational skills to disadvantaged youth through its Udayan Care IT and SD (Information Technology and Skill Development) centers in 2003. By 2015, the organization had grown to include 13 Udayan Ghars and seven IT and SD centers in and around New Delhi in North India, while the USF program had spread to 10 cities throughout India including Kolkata, West Bengal, in East India, Jaipur, Rajasthan, adjoining New Delhi and Hyderabad, Telengana, in South India. Since 2008, Udayan Care had also established affiliates in Australia, the United States and Germany. While the founder was charismatic, enthusiastic and untiring in her efforts to build resources, generate commitment from the mentor parents who provided support to the children in the orphanages, and forge relationships with the community as well as with multinational organizations, scaling up was a challenge. Key issues involved hiring and retaining top level staff and paying more attention to fund-raising to administer a larger organization and enable continued growth.

Mylan and it's CEO, Heather Bresch, were under attack for a multitude of large price increases in their life saving pharmaceutical, the EpiPen. The U.S. Congress, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), and millions of people considered at risk and in need of access to EpiPen injectors, wanted to know why and how those price increases had happened.

Wei Song oversees Greater China for Rochat & Schmid, a 100-year-old Swiss maker of luxury timepieces. China is a critical market for the firm, but sales of watches have stalled there. The firm's competitors are going after China's luxury shoppers, who are younger and flashier than the traditional customer base, with new gem-encrusted products that offer "bling." To compete with them, Pearl Zhang, Song's VP of marketing, wants to launch a campaign featuring a Chinese singer with a huge social media following among Millennials. But Simon Carbonnier, R&S's chief creative officer back in Switzerland, is dead set against celebrity endorsements and anything that deviates from the brand's long-term value of "understated elegance." Should Song fight for Pearl's new campaign--or not? Expert commentary on this case study is provided by Kent Wong and Martin Ganz.

Wei Song oversees Greater China for Rochat & Schmid, a 100-year-old Swiss maker of luxury timepieces. China is a critical market for the firm, but sales of watches have stalled there. The firm's competitors are going after China's luxury shoppers, who are younger and flashier than the traditional customer base, with new gem-encrusted products that offer "bling." To compete with them, Pearl Zhang, Song's VP of marketing, wants to launch a campaign featuring a Chinese singer with a huge social media following among Millennials. But Simon Carbonnier, R&S's chief creative officer back in Switzerland, is dead set against celebrity endorsements and anything that deviates from the brand's long-term value of "understated elegance." Should Song fight for Pearl's new campaign--or not? Expert commentary on this case study is provided by Kent Wong and Martin Ganz.

Wei Song oversees Greater China for Rochat & Schmid, a 100-year-old Swiss maker of luxury timepieces. China is a critical market for the firm, but sales of watches have stalled there. The firm's competitors are going after China's luxury shoppers, who are younger and flashier than the traditional customer base, with new gem-encrusted products that offer "bling." To compete with them, Pearl Zhang, Song's VP of marketing, wants to launch a campaign featuring a Chinese singer with a huge social media following among Millennials. But Simon Carbonnier, R&S's chief creative officer back in Switzerland, is dead set against celebrity endorsements and anything that deviates from the brand's long-term value of "understated elegance." Should Song fight for Pearl's new campaign--or not? Expert commentary on this case study is provided by Kent Wong and Martin Ganz.

The consumer banking industry is notoriously hard to enter. Customers rarely switch banks (switching costs are high) and there are considerable barriers to entry to new players. Traditionally, banking products can be complex, often accompanied by non-transparent cross-selling practices and hidden fees and commissions that seem designed to extract as much money as possible from customers, rather than serving them in a customer-centric way. The case is set in South Africa, where around the turn of the millennium the banking sector was dominated by four major players who collectively had a market share in excess of 80%. The established players differentiated customers according to income bracket, rather than the value of the service being provided, and tended to overlook those on lower incomes. There was a large 'unbanked' or underserved demographic who lacked almost all access to financial services. The case details how Capitec entered and disrupted the industry by targeting the mass market, including the hitherto unbanked, and by becoming a bank that was open to customers from all income groups and which treated all customers alike. By focusing on three key principles - affordability, accessibility and simplicity - and with a clear customer focus, Capitec was able to stimulate much broader financial inclusion and capitalise on it accordingly, establishing a position in the top four banks and enjoying year-on-year growth in terms of new customers and revenue that far outstripped its competitors.

In 2014, the general manager and a director of an Australian building company were seeking an outside investor to provide the company with the needed resources to recover from a disastrous takeover. The two found such an investor in a Chinese entrepreneur and Sun Tzu master based in Hong Kong. To the shock of those involved with the Australian company, the Chinese investor used Sun Tzu war strategies to take over and destroy the smaller Australian company, while flouting ethical business practices and Australia's standards of corporate governance. The Australians' naivete and their desperate need for capital made the investor's tactics possible. With the benefit of hindsight and omniscient narration revealing the thoughts and actions of both parties, students can evaluate how the events in the case led to the shocking conclusion in 2015, leaving a shell of a company worth penny stock.

My Kind of Cakes (MKOC), a cake boutique in Ghaziabad, India, had carved a niche for itself with its unique bakery products, quality food, and excellent service, all offered at a reasonable price. Within five years of opening, the business had flourished, growing in worth from 7.2 million in 2012 to 19.5 million in 2016. In January 2017, the owner of the cake shop pondered his strategies for achieving his target revenue of 50 million by 2020. He wondered if he should expand geographically and open franchises in nearby towns or if he should increase his product range. Should he build a digital platform to increase awareness of his brand or launch a loyalty program to strengthen MKOC's customer relationships? If so, how should he build such a program? Since he had also been asked to photograph special occasions such as baby showers, he wondered whether he should add theme photography to MKOC's offerings.

In June 2016, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the United Kingdom-based Time Out Group PLC (Time Out), had just taken the company through an initial public offering, raising much-needed capital for investment and growth. Time Out, which provided consumers with information, tickets, and access to theatre, concerts, and events, as well as food, drink, and cultural experiences in its Time Out Market, had reported significant losses in 2014 and 2015. However, there was momentum in new market areas, and the recently launched Time Out Market in Lisbon, Portugal, had seen revenue growth of 67 per cent between 2014 and 2015. Now, with £59 million to invest, the CEO had to lead the company back to profitability. He needed to balance foreign direct investment in physical Time Out Markets with digital transformation of the company's offerings. At the same time, he had to find ways to reinforce the new organizational culture he was building at Time Out as a way to help fulfil his corporate vision of Time Out as a disruptive force.

The Awethu Project (Awethu) was a South African-based social enterprise that operated as a venture capital and investment firm for small, medium, and micro-sized enterprises. The company was widely acknowledged for its social mission of creating jobs and benefiting society while maximizing profit. In March 2016, Awethu's leaders signed an agreement with a prominent South African corporation, which could allow Awethu to operate within a higher segment, bringing the company closer to fulfilling its strategy. But Awethu continued to wrestle with a number of challenges, such as its socioeconomic environment and strategic focus decisions, and the question of how to continually attract capital and deliver on the company's vision. Finding themselves at an important moment in their company's history, Awethu's leaders considered how the new partnership could help Awethu address these looming challenges, while creating sustainable profit and value.

Ratan Tata began his journey with the Tata group on the shop floor of the Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited and eventually rose to become chairman of the Tata group-a conglomerate with operations in more than 80 countries across six continents. Known as a value-based, principled, and visionary leader, Ratan Tata helped the Tata group grow immensely over two decades of leadership. When he retired in 2012, he passed the leadership to a new chairman. However, four years later, on October 24, 2016, the Tata Sons board, which controlled the Tata group, decided to replace the chairman. His ousting led to a public clash over ethics and corporate governance at the top of the Tata empire. Ratan Tata was asked to return as interim chairman and help find a new successor. How could he succeed in this task and help the Tata group retain its glory, without compromising its values and beliefs?

In 2014, a Hong Kong-based chartered accountant inadvertently started a social enterprise called Ana by Karma. The initial intent of helping an illiterate Bhutanese woman soon evolved into a journey to empower women in Bhutan to use their creative talents to become financially independent. As a result of her own charming personality and communication skills, the chartered accountant mobilized a team of volunteers to promote scarves that were handwoven by Bhutanese women and thereby bring hope to an increasing number of Bhutanese families who were living in poverty. In early 2016, while relishing her experiences over the previous 18 months, the chartered accountant mulled over the future development of Ana by Karma. How could the venture evolve sustainably? Was it realistic for her to operate Ana by Karma on a full-time basis?

In February 2013, the vice-president of human resources at PowerTech India Private Limited (PowerTech India), was in his office at the company's Gurgaon headquarters studying the organizational chart of his firm with interest. In his seven-year tenure with the company, he had watched the organization grow considerably. What he loved most about his job was the company's commitment to follow best practices in human resources management and the people-oriented approach that made the work a creative, feel-good, and dynamic process. In this highly competitive power sector, expansion had been the catchphrase of the organization as it strove to carve a niche for itself; now retention of talent was more crucial than ever. But after meeting with PowerTech India's managing director, the vice-president wondered if the expected turbulent times required a reconsideration of the company's key human resource policies, which had become a hallmark of the organization. Redesigning the workforce at PowerTech India would be a delicate balancing act.

DJI, founded by 24-year old Frank Wang Tao in 2006, grew rapidly from an unknown startup in China to a leading global player in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) market for hobbyists within seven years. DJI saw its revenue soar 79 times in three years (2010-2013) and its staff grow 50 to 1,500 across Asia, Europe and the USA. The case describes how a tech entrepreneur started serving a niche segment moved towards a broader consumer market, by opening up new horizons for aerial photography and videos enabled by its innovative products. The case outlines DJI's product development strategy to establish its competitive advantage and the entrepreneurial process for taking a technology concept from initial idea to developing the prototype, and subsequently launching the new product in the market. The post-startup issues encountered by a growing technology venture and the challenges faced in an evolving marketplace.

In 2008, a team of students from Harvard, MIT, and Wellesley College in the US and Qinghai Normal University in China worked together as One Earth Designs ("OED") to create technologies to help off-grid communities in western China. These communities often have no access to readily available energy sources, nor clean air and safe water. The initial success of OED's first product in China - SolSource, a solar concentrator for clean cooking -encouraged the organization to build a global business to bring efficient and affordable solar energy to the world. OED has a unique business model for a social business: while many businesses with social goals cooperate with charitable foundations at arm's length and through partnerships, few have set up a non-profit and for-profit integrated group structure with technology licensing business relationships between the two distinct arms. Scot Frank and Catlin Powers, the co-founders of OED wondered how they could scale their business model and keep their vision.

This case scenario is based on a real company (with name disguised and artificial but representative data) that uses search engine advertising, running paid search ads on the two major search engines, Google and Bing. Students are presented with weekly traffic data for both Google and Bing and are asked to perform an ROI analysis for the company. Solution Notes are available for both student and instructor use for this case.