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As it approaches its 20th anniversary, Major League Soccer (MLS), the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada, has the wind in its sails. Whether it's new TV deals, the massive hiring of European and South American stars, or club and stadium expansions, the league is seeking to build momentum to compete with the major European and Mexican leagues as well as with rivals in the other professional sports leagues in North America, where the market is undergoing a radical demographic shift. However, MLS still has a long way to go to fulfill its ambitions: there is a high level of competition, the league's financial situation is shaky, its governance structure is complex, and the quality of play remains inferior to that of the major soccer leagues. This case traces the evolution of the league since its creation and draws a portrait of the business context within which MLS is seeking to make its mark.

Louise Dejan was a successful real estate developer operating throughout northeast England. The city council of her hometown of Newcastle faced a problem common to many areas: how to encourage private investment into less attractive areas. In August 2012, Newcastle's East Pilgrim Street neighborhood remained an eyesore, despite its great location between the city's Central Station and city hall. It was a natural place for Dejan to build a typical urban office building over street-level retail building. On a particularly attractive site sat an asbestos-contaminated building, which was a former home to the Bank of England. The costs of remediation had kept developers like Dejan away for many years. To encourage redevelopment, the Newcastle City Council had recently designated the East Pilgrim Street neighborhood an Accelerated Development Zone (ADZ). This gave Dejan access to Tax Increment Financing (TIF), a method by which public funds could be spent to encourage private sector redevelopment of designated parcels of land. After studying the details of TIF and the financial projections of a potential new development, Dejan had to decide whether she should be the first to redevelop property in this well-located but seemingly forgotten neighborhood.

Near the end of 2008, Tyler Gage and Dan MacCombie enrolled in an entrepreneurship course at Brown University. During the class, they refined the business plan for Runa, a beverage company that would make drinks from guayusa, a little-known leaf that grew in the Amazon. Beyond the potential of the business to make money, the two believed in Runa's social mission―respecting the cultural traditions of Ecuadorian Kichwa communities, providing sustainable income streams to small farmers, and helping the Amazon rainforest thrive. Just months after delivering their final classroom presentation for Runa, Gage and MacCombie found themselves in Ecuador, pursuing the idea full time. "Runa: Driving Social Change through Passion and Profit" explores Gage and MacCombie's journey from class project to a fast-growing start-up. More specifically, the case explores the myriad challenges Gage and MacCombie faced in building Runa: raising money to launch the venture; establishing successful partnerships and overcoming deep-seated skepticism among Ecuadorian communities; building a supply chain from scratch; developing a successful go-to-market strategy; and maintaining their focus on social impact while simultaneously generating financial returns.

Chocolate Remedies tells the story of an African American couple working together to build their own retail business specializing in sales of high-quality, hand-made, chocolate truffles. The case follows their path as they launch two coffee shops that fail after five years of slow growth and limited revenue, leaving them in debt. The couple returns to corporate positions and rebuilds their financial security. Next, they decide to invest their savings to develop a retail chocolate business. They establish a retail location but watch sales plummet after the first year, leading them to move to a new location and seek a business model that will bring them success. The case addresses the following topics. • The factors involved, personal as well as financial, in the decision to build rather than buy a business. • The relationship linking market research and analysis, to their choice of location, as it impacts the success of a retail business. • The importance of product lines, sales channels, and accurate financial monitoring in crafting a business model that produces revenues and profits.

SIGFOX is a provider of infrastructure services to the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) industry. The company has a homegrown solution to the problem of high energy consumption networks. Their low power consumption wide area network (LPWAN) will unleash the IoT industry by allowing companies to build viable solutions using IoT. Just as with operating systems, an infrastructure is only as valuable as the solutions that are available on them. A basic challenge needing to be overcome before gaining traction within IoT is that their infrastructure must become widely available. In one approach, the company can get third parties to buy their technology and use it to provide coverage. In the second approach, SIGFOX has to raise capital and do its own expansion of the infrastructure. In addition, they have also chosen a mixed approach: to deploy and operate by themselves in a minority of countries (France, Germany, US) and to deploy/operate via partners (SIGFOX Network Operators) in the rest of the world.

In September 2013, Sanjit "Bunker" Roy was honoured with an award for his vision and leadership in addressing global problems through his novel organization, Barefoot College (Barefoot). Barefoot's mission was to improve the lives of impoverished rural residents by upgrading their existing skills with training so the villages and their residents were self-sufficient. When he started the college in the state of Rajasthan, India, in 1972, Roy never dreamed that Barefoot would be able to affect the lives of millions of people in 24 countries. Barefoot's global footprint was spreading at a rapid pace with requests for even more locations. Roy wondered whether he should freeze the organization in its present state or continue to increase its presence with a centralized headquarters. Alternatively, he could replicate the autonomous model on a smaller scale, still adherent to the beliefs, values, and assumptions that were the foundation of Barefoot College. This case won second prize at the ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition 2016 in the overall category.

The senior director of marketing for Strength Pharma, an Indian sports nutrition company, was managing the November 2016 launch of the company's whey protein supplement, Muscle-RDX. This product would be the first protein supplement approved by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India for athletes who participated in high-endurance sports. Muscle-RDX would provide a domestic option for Indian athletes who competed in these sports and who wanted to purchase affordable supplements that delivered effective results. However, before the product launch, the senior director of marketing needed to develop demand forecasts, which would determine the most appropriate pricing strategy and package size for the new product.

Jumbo Group Ltd. (Jumbo) was among Singapore's leading food and beverage establishments. Founded in 1987, the group consisted of eight brands and operated 16 outlets-14 in Singapore and two in China. On October 28, 2015, Jumbo announced its initial public offering (IPO) of SG$22.06 million, consisting of two million retail shares and 86.23 million placement shares at SG$0.25 each. In this highly competitive market, the company's chief executive officer and chairman was motivated to list Jumbo so it would have a bigger platform and better exposure to grow faster. He hoped a softer IPO market would attract more long-term investors. Jumbo was clearly profitable, but based on its past financial performance, what would be a reasonable valuation for each of its shares? The case covers valuation using the discounted cash flow model, weighted average cost of capital, discounted dividend model, and relative valuation, as well as the computation of underpricing.

Erie Thames Powerlines, an electricity distributor in Southwestern Ontario, needed to determine the suitability of the company acquiring a hybrid truck as opposed to a conventional diesel utility truck. As of early July 2016, the truck suppliers (for both hybrid and diesel trucks) and the internal accounting department had provided substantial information with which to conduct a thorough analysis. The company also wanted to include some qualitative aspects, such as the reduction of noise pollution and the positive contributions of hybrid trucks both to the company's image and to its promotion of energy efficiency. The firm needed to build an appropriate business analysis that included both qualitative and quantitative elements to support a recommendation to the utility company's board of directors in August 2016.

In 2008, the chairman of the Zuellig Family Foundation and former Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the Philippines, asked the foundation's president to take up the challenge of providing health care for the poor of the Philippines. The foundation's president was particularly struck by the health inequities between the urban rich and the rural poor. The rich had a life expectancy above 80 and the poor below 60; the maternal mortality ratio was 15 among the rich but over 150 among the poor. The foundation's president had spent much of his career working to bridge fundamental divides within Philippine society. Within four years, he led the foundation to complete a health care program with remarkable success in selected areas of the country, which transformed the inert and broken health care system into a living, thinking, intelligent network of stakeholders. A dignitary praised the program and asked the foundation's president to roll out the program country-wide. Could the foundation succeed with such a broad undertaking while preserving the efficacy, soul, and sustainability of the program?

In early 2016, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Allergan South Africa had been leading his team through changes resulting from a number of mergers over the past four years. Allergan Inc. (Allergan) had been the third-largest generic drug maker in the United States after it combined with Actavis plc in 2015, and the company was depicted as an example of "merger mania" in the pharmaceutical sector. Operating in 40 countries, Allergan had gone through a total of five mergers between 2012 and 2015-a period that had included a hostile takeover bid, cost cutting exercises, and, eventually, an acquisition. The CEO at Allergan South Africa had been working with his human resources director to build a "supertribe" culture in response to the changes. Now, faced with the challenge of yet another anticipated merger, some of the executive team had resigned, unwilling to go through the turmoil of more acquisitions. How could the CEO keep his people engaged at the regional division? What leadership style would enable him to effectively make the needed changes?

In March 2016, Eveready Industries India Limited (Eveready) announced its intention to venture into the consumer-appliance segment. Eveready was the market leader in the batteries segment in India, with a market share of more than 50 per cent. The company's portfolio comprised dry-cell batteries, flashlights, packet tea, compact fluorescent lamps, and LEDs. Eveready was readying itself to take on the giants of home appliances in India. With India's home-appliances industry still underpenetrated, was Eveready's entry into this segment timely? If yes, what strategic capabilities could it leverage? How should it then differentiate itself at a time when the market was saturated with multilevel segmentation? What could be the possible obstacles to Eveready's success in the consumer-appliance industry?

In 2008, a retired farmer from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, was facing a challenging investment decision. He had recently met with a real estate investment representative about an opportunity near Edmonton, Alberta. The farmer understood land, but investing in real estate was new for him. The 11 per cent bond return that the representative enthusiastically described made the opportunity seem very appealing. On the other hand though, the farmer wondered if the return was too good to be true. On his farm equipment, a flashing red light usually meant something had gone wrong or was about to go wrong. Thinking about the investment, the farmer felt like a red warning light was flashing in his mind-something was not quite right. But perhaps his concern was unfounded. Should he make the investment?

In October 2014, the chief operating officer of ABC Shipyard was trying to decide how to respond to a request from a renowned marine logistics company for five large naval bulk carriers. The shipyard could manufacture the ships, but with its current layout and throughput, the ships could not be completed within the requested two-year delivery time. A modular approach was necessary to build large and complex products such as ships, complicating the required flow of material between the shops and affecting the spatial resources needed. Could ABC Shipyard's existing facility layout be improved, and would the change increase throughput, allowing the new ships to be built within the required two years?

In the spring of 2012, a U.S. Internet, cable television, and telephone service provider-owned by a private equity group-approached a bank holding company to participate as a co-manager in a highly leveraged transaction in the cable industry. The transaction was the buyout of a smaller publicly traded cable company. The deal would require additional equity investment from the private equity group and a restructuring of the debt of both companies. Although the involved companies' management teams were excited about the opportunity, they knew that executing the deal would not be easy; the level of leverage would be the highest of any deal in the cable industry-or any industry-since before the 2007 economic downturn.

Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) charted a success story starting out as the smallest new entrant in Hong Kong's highly competitive telecom industry in 1999 and went on to become the second largest provider of residential broadband within 10 years. State-of-the-art fiber network infrastructure allowed HKBN to offer high-quality high-speed telecom services at competitive prices. However, the company soon realized that its technological edge could be easily replicated. Its competitive advantage was actually vested in its 2,500 employees - all referred to as Talents. HKBN instituted a unique co-ownership scheme whereby employees were invited to invest up to two years of salary in the company. It also made sustained investment in talent development through well-designed learning programs coupled with significant empowerment on the job. The case outlines the importance of leadership and talent management as key drivers of growth for the company. HKBN listed in early 2015 and embarked upon its next phase of growth with the aim of becoming the largest broadband service provider by 2019, overtaking its largest competitor and entrenched incumbent, PCCW. HKBN looked to its Talents to rise to the challenge once again. Learning objective: - To identify ways of linking the talent management strategy to the business strategy - To outline different ways of embedding the talent strategy at the core of an organization - To build a high-performance organizational culture through people practices - To discover management models that not only result in returns for shareholders but also take into account employees as key stakeholders.

Nadir Godrej Chairman and B Yadav MD, Godrej Agrovet Ltd ( GAVL) grapple with the challenge of growing their cattle feed business - should they integrate vertically despite the challenges ofthe dairy industry, and risk the profitability of the current business ? The ban on cow slaughter in India adds to the dilemma.

BrightStar Care was a rapidly growing franchise of home health care agencies. Founded by husband and wife team JD and Shelly Sun as a single agency near Chicago in 2002, by 2016 nearly 300 BrightStar franchises were open across the United States, generating over $300 million in revenue. BrightStar was now a very different company from the one Shelly and JD had started up during their first year of marriage. Shelly Sun, CEO, had decided to franchise the business in 2004, believing that the franchise model presented a relatively low-risk and high-return approach to growing BrightStar. As franchises began to sell, Sun quickly set about building scalable operations and infrastructure, including a centralized technology function and custom software for franchisees. As more and more locations opened around the United States, she focused on growing BrightStar's national marketing profile and putting measures in place to distinguish BrightStar's services as higher-quality than that of its competitors. A shifting regulatory landscape and labor shortages posed challenge, but BrightStar continued to grow swiftly. As the company evolved and Sun attempted to spend more time away from headquarters, surveying the field and building relationships, she knew she needed a strong senior management team. Some members of her senior team had been with BrightStar for years, expanding their responsibilities as the company expanded, while others she recruited from outside. In the early 2010s, Sun was close to filling all BrightStar's crucial executive roles, but had to consider whether some longtime leaders were the right fit for the company's current needs. As she thought through the composition of her senior team, she also revamped her board of advisors and pursued international franchising opportunities and a debt recapitalization. By early 2016, Shelly was looking to the company's next phase of growth while handing management of her executive team to BrightStar's President and COO.