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Alibaba Group (Alibaba) had grown from its founding in 1999, in an effort to help Chinese manufacturers and exporters reach global markets, to become a global leader in e-commerce, big data, and cloud technology. The company’s 2014 initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange had been the largest to date. The company’s founder and chairman, Jack Ma, had used the funds to globally expand Alibaba’s operations and its hold on diverse markets. Ma’s aim was to have Alibaba exist in three centuries and to not only generate profits but also improve lives and societies in China and beyond. How could Ma ensure long-term success for shareholders and prosperity for China and the world?

In March 2016, an investor wanted to evaluate the strategy and stability of Cisco Systems, Inc. by using historical income statements to predict future cash flows. He knew that he might be able to use time series analysis to evaluate the company’s performance in the near future, but he was unsure how to proceed if the historical data would not be predictive of the future performance. In particular, the investor wondered, how would he determine the likelihood that the company’s next quarter would yield similar net income to the previous quarter?

In 2014, Kraft Foods Canada was working on an action plan for Kraft Singles, the company’s brand of processed cheese slices. Although the product had been targeted at Canadian families for decades, Kraft Singles needed to be repositioned toward Canadian millennial moms (those born between 1980 and 2000). The company faced three dilemmas. How should Kraft Canada make the brand messaging of Kraft Singles compelling to Canadian millennial moms? What product innovations should coincide with the new messaging? How should Kraft Canada ensure that it would not alienate its traditional customer group?

In January 2007, Metro do Porto, a light rail network, entered into an interest rate swap agreement with Banco Santander Totta on a notional principal of €89 million. The intent was to reduce the interest costs that Metro do Porto was incurring. This was a complex swap agreement that brought immediate benefits to Metro do Porto but proved catastrophic in the long run. Two years after the swap commenced, a “snowball clause” in the swap agreement took effect, increasing Metro do Porto’s liability beyond 60 per cent per annum at a time when market interest rates were low and expected to drop even lower. It was unclear whether the company entered into this agreement out of ignorance, political pressure, or both, but the end result was a lawsuit. Students are expected to analyze the terms of this swap and decide whether the swap constituted good practice from a risk management perspective and whether Metro do Porto should have been able to anticipate the possible losses.

In April 2015, Bharti Airtel — India’s largest telecom provider and a leading global telecommunications company — launched Airtel Zero, an open marketing platform that would allow Airtel customers to access mobile applications with zero data charges. Application developers would pay Airtel to join the platform, but would in turn attract more users to their products. Immediately after its launch, Airtel Zero was subjected to severe criticism on the grounds that it violated the net neutrality principle, which advocated that content should be available to customers without any form of prioritization. Subsequently, in support of net neutrality, Flipkart — a prominent Indian e-commerce company — pulled out of the platform. Was Airtel Zero a potential threat to net neutrality? With the pending decision of the government of India on the regulatory framework for over-the-top (OTT) applications and services, would Airtel Zero stand out as a viable platform?

<p>Nissan&rsquo;s Strategy in Operations Management&nbsp;</p> <p>Nissan's resilience strategy&nbsp;in&nbsp;international&nbsp;business&nbsp;had been considered an exemplary response to the triple disaster in Japan in March 2011. The Japanese automobile industry made their respective recovery efforts to resume production and delivery of vehicles after suffering damage from an earthquake, tsunami, and a nuclear crisis, but it took months before they could reach pre-disaster levels of operations. Nissan's resilience practices,&nbsp;operations management,&nbsp;and supply chain disruption management were acknowledged as superior to those of their peers and were appreciated by experts and analysts. Nonetheless, it took Nissan more than a month to resume production, and each day of lost production cost Nissan $25 million.&nbsp;</p>

Sprint Corporation, a major U.S. wireless carrier, had been losing customers and suffering financially since its merger with Nextel in 2005. Sprint was also ranked the lowest among major U.S. carriers in terms of network speed and data performance. But a new opportunity emerged when the SoftBank Group acquired Sprint in 2013. The new chief executive officer (CEO), appointed in August 2014, publicly gave himself three to five years to turn around this major telecommunication company. The new CEO had a plan; however, he faced many challenges. Sprint had national brand recognition, but customers demanded improvements in network quality and service reliability, and the turnaround plan needed to be implemented in a capital-intensive industry with a saturated market. The optimistic CEO admitted that he faced the biggest challenge of his career. Would he be successful in turning around Sprint’s fortunes in this competitive industry?

In the summer of 2015, India-based Amtek Auto Ltd., one of the country’s largest companies in the manufacturing of automotive components, was on the brink of financial ruin. After more than a decade of being immersed in a spending spree on acquisitions to build capacity and expand its clientèle in both the European and Asian auto markets, Amtek’s stock plummeted by 50 per cent within two days as nervous investors worried about the company’s ability to make its scheduled debt payments. Tensions were high as the company faced mounting pressure over its liquidity issues, and after reporting a net loss for the first time in two decades. With rumours of bankruptcy on the horizon, what steps could the company take to decrease its debt burden at a time when the automotive industry was in a slump? Should Amtek consider selling off some of its assets to raise the needed cash, or should it look to banks and investors?

In 2015, the City of Montreal issued an international request for interest for the implementation of an all-electric carsharing service. This situation represented both a threat and an opportunity for car2go, a carsharing service company and a subsidiary of Daimler that had successfully operated 29 carsharing systems across Europe and North America. Would it be worthwhile for car2go to respond to the request for interest and, in doing so, adapt its successful business model to fit the needs of the local market? If so, what would be the implications for the overall competitiveness of the firm? Would it be worth the cost to develop a new four-seat vehicle to meet the City of Montreal’s requirements?

The number and value of Chinese enterprises’ cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are increasing, but their success rate remains very low. The failure of cultural integration is one of the most important reasons. In 2005, Lenovo Group Ltd., acquired IBM’s PC division in what was called a “snake swallows elephant” acquisition that caused a sensation worldwide. During the ten years after the M&A, Lenovo integrated IBM’s PC division’s culture through several stages of acculturation, which ended with great success. In 2014, Lenovo acquired IBM’s x86 Server. Lenovo faced a challenge: Should the first acquisition’s cultural integration be replayed and copied for the x86 Server acquisition? Or should Lenovo look for a new approach?

In May 2016, Target Corporation was one of America’s largest retail chains, with nearly 2,000 well-located general merchandise stores and a reputation for being stylish and chic. However, in the wake of the 2008 U.S. financial recession, profitability had weakened as a result of allocating more space to low-margin groceries in an attempt to continue to attract customers. Once the recession was over, Target Corporation had to decide whether to reduce or even eliminate the grocery category in order to offer a broader selection of clothing and household goods.

Bank of Baroda was the second-largest commercial bank in India, but it was struggling with a decline in profits and an increase in non-performing assets. Only a week before the new chief executive officer's term commenced, Bank of Baroda was in the news due to reports of fraud occurring at the bank’s Ahmedabad and New Delhi operations. The frauds involved bill discounting schemes and money laundering. The bank’s violations of its know your client and anti-money laundering standards raised concerns about its risk management practices—or lack of such practices. The new chief executive officer was only the second executive from the private sector to head a public sector bank. He needed to prove his value in the world of public sector banking by managing the crisis, implementing a strategy to stabilize the bank’s financial health, and preventing a recurrence of the problems.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - John Molson MBA Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>When Etsy proceeded with an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2015, it was the second U.S. company to go public as a certified B Corporation. Etsy’s status as a B Corporation meant that social responsibility was ingrained in its mission. However, as an online marketplace for artisanal goods, Etsy faced a number of challenges. Principal among them was the launch of the new online store Handmade at Amazon, a direct attack on Etsy. Etsy had a core base of merchants and buyers, but Amazon had significantly more as well as a greater level of financial security than Etsy. Etsy’s fast growth had also put pressure on its merchants’ ability to offer larger quantities of handmade goods. Many merchants were pressing the company to allow sales from large-scale manufacturing, a path the company had eschewed since its start. Could Etsy find a way to successfully confront these challenges while maintaining its B Corporation ethos?

In February 2016, Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer, challenged a U.S. Federal Court order for Apple to assist the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a case involving suspected international terrorism. The government wanted Apple to provide the FBI with access to encrypted data on an Apple product, the iPhone. Cook's refusal to acquiesce to the government's demands drew strong public debate, pitting the proponents of national security against those in favour of customers’ digital privacy and security. The case invoked an ethical dilemma faced by management in issues involving right-versus-right decisions. Which right should Cook choose? What are the ethical dilemmas involved in making this decision? How should Cook resolve the dilemma?

In 2012, Li-Ning Co. Ltd. (LNCL) was the third-largest sportswear company in China in terms of revenue, after international brands Nike and Adidas. Following its highly successful founding in 1990 by China’s Olympic champion and company namesake, Li Ning, the firm attempted to formalize its organizational structure and establish a professionally managed organization, while dealing with the rise of well-established international sportswear brands in China like Nike and Adidas. By 2013, however, the company’s performance had started to decline. LNCL found itself caught in a tough spot, with profit margins falling as the company was squeezed between international and local sportswear brands. Furthermore, its aggressive past expansion had resulted in heavy expenditures in market promotion, large unsold inventories, and low operational efficiency. What should the new leadership team do to turn around the company’s performance?

Netflix adopted an aggressive growth strategy to establish itself as a global force in the video streaming industry. To solidify its position as an industry leader, Netflix invested heavily in the production of in-house content. In January 2016, to deal with slow growth in the domestic market, the company announced an aggressive expansion of its services into a total of 190 countries, thereby giving Netflix coverage over nearly the entire world. International expansion did not come without its challenges. Netflix faced regulatory compliance issues in its targeted markets, competition with domestic competitors, and the need to satisfy local preferences. Was the enormous cost of such an aggressive expansion strategy the right direction for the company?

Bisleri International, a household name in the bottled water segment in India, launched a new energy drink called Urzza in 2014. The energy drink market in India, dominated by Red Bull, was in a nascent stage but was growing at a rapid pace. Recently, energy drinks had been the subject of grave health concerns owing to the harmful effects of excessive caffeine. Urzza, an energy drink without caffeine, had been launched with the intention of creating a new category of drinks that could appeal to everyone. However, it remained to be seen whether Urzza could succeed in creating mass appeal and could meet ambitious sales targets. Was its unique positioning correct, or was it better off marketing itself as a more traditional energy drink?

When Margaret A. Cargill passed away in 2006, her 17.5 per cent stake in Cargill went to Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies (MAC). MAC lobbied for her stake to be liquidated. Cargill proceeded to shed its 64 per cent stake in Mosaic, North America’s second-largest fertilizer company, in exchange for Margaret Cargill’s stake in the company, in order to maintain control over the company. Like many second- and third-generation family businesses, Cargill’s current family owners were not actively involved in the day-to-day running of the company. Was spinning off Mosaic in the best long-term interests of Cargill? Were there other feasible ways in which Cargill could have better facilitated the liquidation of Margaret Cargill’s stake?

The American clothing retailer American Apparel recently experienced a loss of $106 million and faced huge debt repayments. In addition, the chief executive officer (CEO) and founder was dismissed because of personal misconduct. Students must evaluate the financial status of the company and address the impact of the CEO’s termination on the financial performance of the company.

In 2002, a joint venture, Hess LNG, proposed a liquid natural gas import terminal in the city of Fall River, Massachusetts. The community led by the city’s mayor, who built a coalition comprising concerned citizens, non-governmental organizations, and politicians at multiple levels opposed the project. From early 2002 to June 2004, multiple issues emerged, and the opponents used various tactics to challenge their adversaries. Hess LNG's chief executive officer needed to deal with the community opposition, which was further complicated by the need for regulatory approval from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.