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Ruwwad was a youth-centric community development organization aimed at empowering and supporting marginalized and underdeveloped communities in the Arab world. It had launched numerous programs revolving around three main components: 1) youth empowerment, 2) community empowerment, and 3) child development. Samar Dudin, regional head and program manager of Ruwwad, was reflecting on the key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges that Ruwwad faced in its home operation so that she could present her recommendations to the board of directors (BOD) on Friday. Her main concern was to present to the BOD a reasoned plan on how to expand the Ruwwad model and how to strengthen the partnerships required to scale up the impact of the model in the future.

Alchemist Accelerator follows the story of Ravi Belani, founder and Managing Director of Alchemist Accelerator, as he leads one of the leading enterprise-focused accelerators in Silicon Valley. The case discusses the origins of the program, as well as the many challenges faced by Belani and his team as they seek out potential methods of scaling the program. The management team debate difficult choices, such as how to preserve the quality of the Alchemist program while also reacting to rapidly changing market dynamics. This case prepares students who are interested in learning more about venture capital, enterprise startups, and enterprise-focused accelerators.

When Tony Tan Caktiong had stepped down as president and CEO of Jollibee Foods Corporation in mid-2014, he had been succeeded by his younger brother, Ernesto Tanmantiong. In 2016, the brothers were working together to realize the company's vision of making JFC a truly international organization with a significant global presence. As they positioned the company for expansion, they thought perhaps the company's eight values should become more succinct, memorable, and aligned with the company's vision. Tan Caktiong was aware, however, that some company executives would view pausing to contemplate values a waste of time; they would argue that values are essentially identical at every company and irrelevant to performance. Others would assert that values should not change. Was it the right time to reassess the company's values? How could Tan Caktiong persuade skeptics that values make a difference? And as the company grew, should values be articulated at the corporate level, or should they vary among JFC's brands?

Cameron (Cam) Barker, founder and CEO of Blake Sports Apparel and Switch Activewear, manufacturers and distributers of sports apparel and accessories, was facing a challenge with his executive team. Their inability to work together on seemingly simple issues was a chronic problem. Although they were a competent group of executives, most of whom had been with Barker for a number of years and had played an integral role in the growth of his company, the team's dynamics were dysfunctional. Lack of communication, mistrust, and refusal to collaborate were some of their biggest challenges. Barker had had enough and was ready to take action, but what action should he take? How could he teach the executive team to work together? Did he have the right people in the right roles? Was the team appropriately structured and managed? How could Barker bring his executive team together in order to maximize performance and face the challenges and opportunities that would be presenting themselves to his young company in the months and years ahead?

Between late 2014 and late 2016, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk undertook several major, and risky, initiatives that would dramatically expand the scale and scope of Tesla's business. In late 2014, Tesla began construction on a $5 billion "gigafactory" that would manufacture lithium-ion batteries used in Tesla's electric vehicles on an unprecedented scale. In early 2015, Tesla announced a new product line of battery packs designed for large-scale energy storage for residential, commercial, and utility-scale installations. In 2016, the company acquired SolarCity, a leading solar energy firm, creating what Musk called "a vertically integrated energy company." These moves, representing billions of investment and extension into new industries, came at a time when Tesla was still losing money and struggling to scale up production of its electric vehicle lines to meet ambitious delivery targets. Meanwhile, Musk was also CEO of SpaceX, which was, while growing its business of launching satellites and cargo into space for commercial and governmental clients, preparing to take astronauts into space, pioneering the use of reusable rockets, and announcing plans to colonize Mars. Would Musk be able to realize his ambitious goals or was he taking too many risks with his investors' money?

In April 2015, Ian Shakil and Pelu Tran, co-founders of Augmedix, are discussing how to grow their emerging health care startup. The company's sole product, also called Augmedix, streams video of doctor-patient interactions to remote medical scribes, thus freeing doctors from the burden of having to manually input information into an electronic medical record (EMR) and giving them additional time to focus on patients. Shakil and Tran had grown the company by allowing any qualified doctor or health system to use the service, but are now discussing whether they should segment the market and focus on a particular type of client. They also wonder whether Augmedix's current pricing appropriately reflects the value their service provides. Lastly, the two want to discuss how to staff and structure the company's nascent sales function as Augmedix grows.

Fola Laoye is the Group Managing Director of Hygeia Group, a Nigerian healthcare insurer and provider, and she is deciding on the optimal strategy to grow the provider arm of her business. Hygeia Group was founded in the 1980s by her physician parents, and although operating a healthcare company in Nigeria offered challenges particularly in human resources and infrastructure, by 2011, it had expanded to include three hospital and clinic sites and a large insurance company. The company has just received a large equity investment from an international private equity company, and it has decided to focus on expanding tertiary care capabilities in its hospitals. A consulting team has identified cardiology, oncology and advanced surgery (orthopedic and minimally invasive) as areas with strategic potential. However, Ms. Laoye must decide which of these options offers the greatest growth opportunities. In addition, as her company grows, she must decide the how best to structure the payor and provider aspects of her business in a way that maximizes synergies for both.

In April 2014, a research analyst for UR Investing, an investment group from the University of Regina, in Saskatchewan, Canada, was contemplating the decision of investing in a real estate investment trust (REIT). The decision had strategic implications because it would affect the risk profile of the student-managed fund. The analyst was given the task of evaluating the H&R REIT in particular and estimating a target price for H&R's units. He had to carefully weigh the benefits in terms of returns generated against the risk of taking a position in the REIT. He had to analyze the strategic value of investing in REITs and decide whether to recommend that UR Investing should buy H&R units.

In late 2011, Netflix was migrating from its highly successful business model of delivering DVDs by mail to streaming movies and other media content directly to subscribers' televisions. To be profitable, Netflix decided to charge more for receiving DVDs by mail-a service that its existing customers had come to expect as a minor add-on to their original subscription arrangement. This charge led to a huge backlash: subscribers defected and Netflix's stock price dropped. Netflix faced the dilemma of remaining profitable in the video streaming business while paying much more for content and dealing with competition that had been absent in its DVD-by-mail business model. The company was at a crossroads; the path it chose would affect its future. Should it return to combining the two services or continue with two separate services and live with the consequences?

Netflix, a subscription-based movie and television show rental service, offered content to subscribers either via DVDs delivered by mail, or through Internet-based streaming. After splitting the two services, the company lost subscribers, and its stock price plummeted. Most observers were skeptical that Netflix could maintain its profit margins, given the increased cost of acquiring streamable content. However, Netflix not only reduced its cost per user but also increased its subscriber growth both in the United States and internationally. Were these moves sufficient to deliver the growth needed to support its rising stock price? Netflix also faced increased streaming costs because it used disproportionately more bandwidth than other streaming companies. Would these costs mean that the Netflix business model was no longer viable? This is a follow-up case to "Netflix," which describes the company's innovative business model of delivering DVDs by mail, and "Netflix Inc.: The Second Act-Moving into Streaming," which describes the after-effects of the dual-subscription model.

Infinity Life Insurance Company was a joint venture between two Indian public sector banks and a U.K.-based insurance firm. The company began its operations in November 2009, as the youngest entrant in the life insurance market in India. Within three years of launching operations, it ranked among the top 10 private firms for new business premiums. When the joint venture project started, the senior leadership group identified numerous challenges and various strategies to address those challenges (detailed in this case). The company connected its basic business strategies to a set of human resource strategies, which were then applied through various human resource processes. With the Indian government focusing on further liberalization in the insurance sector, the joint venture needed to be ready for the next leap. Which processes should it continue, and which needed to be changed?

In May 2015, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Valspar Corporation (Valspar) contacted the CEO of an industry competitor to discuss a potential strategic combination of the two companies. As discussions continued, Valspar's board and senior management realized that an alternative strategic collaboration might be more beneficial, so Valspar then contacted the CEO of the second-largest comparable firm in the industry, Sherwin-Williams, which had previously expressed an interest in a business combination with Valspar. Valspar was awaiting a "compelling and pre-emptive" offer from Sherwin-Williams on an "accelerated timetable." However, several questions remained. What maximum price could be justified in a bidding contest? What was the probability that antitrust regulators would eventually block the deal, resulting in a waste of time and resources to structure a deal that would later collapse? Could the negotiating teams for Valspar and Sherwin-Williams structure the merger agreement to allow for a potential consent decree?

In October 2014, the chief executive officer (CEO) of a high-end, invite-only digital branding firm was contemplating which (if any) web analytics service the company should offer to its clients. The CEO knew that in order to justify the high price his firm charged its executive and celebrity clientele, all ancillary services like web analytics reporting would have to be just as extravagant and just as functional as the core product-branded website design. With three web analytics options on the table, all with relatively similar characteristics yet vastly different price points, the firm had to identify the differentiated advantages of each option.

The Haifei Bus Company (Haifei), the leader in bus manufacturing in China, specialized in research and development, production, and sales of passenger buses. In 2010, Haifei's general manager was concerned with the business process re-engineering project the company had launched in 2009. The goal of this project was to transform Haifei's standardized production mode to one of mass customization. The new mode would deliver a competitive advantage for Haifei. However, the vice-general manager in charge of the project failed to create any improvement in the company's performance. Instead, he had managed to intensify the existing internal conflicts within the company. The resulting decrease in production output, production inefficiencies, shrinking market share, and deteriorating financial position meant the general manager had to find a solution to deal with his vice-general manager's performance. He was also responsible for assisting the various departments such as sales, procurement, logistics, and technology during the re-engineering process. How would the general manager direct Haifei, the former bus-industry leader, back to a position of prominence?

In 2016, Deutsche Telekom's CEO Tim Hottges was steering the 69 billion euro telecom incumbent in new directions and seeking to disrupt the industry from within. The company's tagline was "Life is For Sharing." Its goal was to be Europe's leading digital communication services company that was most trusted by consumers and business customers for safely sharing content. Hottges wanted to achieve this by having the best network, the best service, the best products, and the best customer experience. The company also aimed to be the preferred provider for business customers. A major part of Deutsche Telekom's strategy involved building up the company's core business-its network-by increasing infrastructure investment 20 percent. Hottges described this as his "big bet," saying the network was the basis for everything the company did. Even as it built out the network, an ongoing challenge was finding the right software talent to support the growing software IT components of the network infrastructure. With that in mind, Deutsche Telekom was also developing capabilities on top of network connectivity, such as security, device management, privacy, and global reach capability. While focusing its innovation on advanced network capabilities, Deutsche Telekom was shifting resources away from efforts to internally innovate in competition with Internet-based players. Instead, it was now intent on winning by partnering with companies like Microsoft, Spotify, and BMW to bring new capabilities, innovations, and services to customers. European and German regulations created significant constraints, and external competition remained fierce from both telecommunications companies and so-called "Over the Top" companies such as Google, Facebook, and WhatsApp. These companies had diverted billions of dollars away from traditional telecommunications companies, enabled by telco companies' infrastructures. To counter that, Deutsche Telekom needed to strongly align strategy and execution.

Sondologics, a manufacturer of video, audio, and gaming accessories products, was experiencing pricing and distribution problems in its channels. Numerous retailers were complaining about unfair price competition from unauthorized retailers, i.e., gray marketers, on standalone websites or Amazon's Marketplace, offering discounts of up to 30% off list price. The company estimated that about 10% of its retail volume in the United States was being generated by unauthorized retailers. Compounding the problem, gray marketers and authorized retailers alike were selling at below-list prices, which violated the Sondologics MAP (minimum advertised pricing) policy. Sondologics was considering numerous initiatives to address the MAP and gray-market problems, including retaining a third-party service to monitor pricing and distribution in the channel. Students are asked to develop recommendations that would promote sales while protecting the name-brand image and price points of Sondologics' products.

The case explores the attempt of Shervin Pishevar, a prominent Silicon Valley investor, to shepherd hyperloop, a futuristic pod-in-tube transportation technology, from concept to transformative reality via Hyperloop One and Sherpa Capital, both companies he co-founded. The case outlines the technology-first brought to widespread attention by Tesla and SpaceX executive Elon Musk-then follows Pishevar as he builds a team, develops prototypes, recruits investors and partners, and navigates the many obstacles in pursuit of this "moonshot." Students are presented wih historical parallels and precedents that may illuminate certain aspects of the challenge.

In 2015, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ran the largest healthcare system in the United States, with over 1,700 sites of care that served nearly 9 million veterans. One year earlier, a scandal had erupted over a cover-up of the excessive wait times veterans faced to get medical appointments in some VA facilities. The fallout led to the resignation of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, a criminal investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the eventual replacement of 14 of VA's top 17 leaders. This case documents the efforts of the new leadership team to improve access, regain trust, and transform the organization to address the broadening medical needs of the nation's growing veteran population.

In 2015, German football club Bayern Munich is considering how to enter the Chinese market. Should it build its own infrastructure or rely on third-party partnerships to reach this massive football fanbase?

Sewells Group, India, a leading provider of retail solutions to auto original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their dealers in the Indian market, developed an innovative engagement model for its clients. The model offered solutions based on the performance management of franchised automotive dealers using measurement, analysis, education and development. The first client for whom Sewells Group developed the dealer sales and service system was a late entrant into the Indian market and had about 100 dealerships across the country. It wanted to ensure that the brand promise communicated through its innovative and expensive marketing campaigns was supported at its dealerships when customers arrived to explore the cars. The client sought a comprehensive model of dealer management that did not suffer from the limitations of traditional models that were heavily focused on training and process compliance. In response, Sewells Group developed a novel 5-step dealer management model that applied principles of retail process efficacy to deliver three key outcomes: customer experience, productivity and profitability across all the departments of a dealership. As Jayesh Jagasia, CEO at Sewells Group, India, reviewed the impressive quarterly results of the model's implementation, he mulled over questions related to the sustainability, replicability and extendibility of this initial model to other firms in the automotive sector. What were the learnings from the first implementation of the model? Was it possible to effectively overcome the challenges that they had faced? Would the model work across the industry? Under what circumstances and for what brands or dealerships would the model work? What sort of consulting resources would the company need? Could some parts of the solution be automated? How would the IT departments of auto manufacturers respond to the automation of solutions?