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Daiso Industries Co., Ltd. was the largest 100-yen (or one dollar) shop operator in Japan, with nearly 2,900 stores in Japan and 1,400 stores in 26 other countries. The privately owned company featured nearly 50,000 products, ranging from office supplies to cosmetics and seasonal holiday decorations-most items (98 percent) were priced at 100 yen, with some exceptions. Some 99 percent of Daiso's products were privately branded, but only a small fraction were internally manufactured. As of January 2016, Daiso operated 2,900 stores in Japan and 1,400 stores in 26 other countries. To transform from a truck-based pop-up operation into an extensive global chain of stores that generated $3.5 billion in sales for the fiscal year ending March 2016, Daiso made three major strategic decisions. The case study takes students through these decisions, and includes an in-depth look at the point-of-sale (POS) technology that helped Daiso create a highly efficient delivery and restocking system, as well as streamline the treasure hunt or discovery retail model-a store where people shopped for the sheer fun of discovering surprise items.

In 2014, after nearly 150 years as one of Portugal's most wealthy and powerful families, the Espírito Santo family completely lost control of its empire, which included Banco Espírito Santo, Portugal's largest bank by market capitalization and second-largest private-sector bank in terms of assets, along with stakes in numerous financial, non-financial, privately held, and publicly traded companies. During the European financial crisis of 2010 to 2014, many of the family's companies required capital investment. To avoid family equity dilution, the family's patriarch, Ricardo Espírito Santo Silva Salgado, engaged in a creative money-go-round structure whereby Banco Espírito Santo would legally raise short-term commercial paper with high interest rates and sell them to third parties that were partially owned by the Espírito Santo family. These third parties then would sell that paper back to the bank's retail clients as safe investments similar to Portuguese deposits. The plan failed, and the house of cards that was the Espírito Santo empire collapsed. Students will consider whether Salgado and the board of Banco Espírito Santo acted appropriately or if they failed their fiduciary duties to the non-family shareholders of the bank.

This is an introductory case with a simple narrative designed to teach students the basics of designing a simple financial spreadsheet. The follow-up B case may be used to teach the basic steps for creating pivot tables. The topic is based on a new student trying to budget for the academic year expenses.

In July 2015, the largest automobile company in India, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), took the initiative to improve its market penetration in a particular category of the passenger car market-the premium segment. Although MSIL was the current market leader in India's entry-level car segment, the company had not been successful in establishing itself as a dominant player in the premium segment-a segment that had seen intense competition since 2008. By launching Nexa, a new nationwide premium dealership, through its existing dealer network, MSIL was attempting to create a differentiated car buying experience. MSIL planned for all-new premium models to be launched exclusively from Nexa outlets. Would the launch of Nexa help MSIL attain its desired objective of becoming a major player in India's premium car market?

Indian Oil Corporation Limited was a large public sector company operating in the downstream segment of the highly regulated oil and natural gas industry in India. It made large investments in the segment-specific assets in refining and distributing petroleum products. In fiscal year 2014/15, the annual turnover of Indian Oil Corporation Limited was ₹4,507 billion (US$73.7 billion), and its net profit was ₹52 billion. The strategic positioning of the company was heavily influenced by its social agenda and supported by the Indian government. After the liberalization of the Indian economy, the company was faced with serious competition from the private sector, and had limited access to the upstream segment. In 2015, Indian Oil Corporation Limited attempted to vertically integrate in order to become an integrated energy company. The senior management team evaluated the challenges and strategic choices available to Indian Oil Corporation Limited in terms of integration and exploration, brownfield investment in the petrochemicals sector, and modernization of refineries. The key question before the team was how to distribute Indian Oil Corporation Limited's resources among these three strategic choices.

In 2015, Aro Granite Industries Limited, a successful granite company in India, competed against rivals in Brazil and China to win a coveted, large order from the United States. The order was particularly meaningful because the United States was the most valuable market for Indian granite exporters. Aro Granite Industries had a good reputation and was both financially sound and technically advanced; however, like all granite companies in India, it faced a lack of raw granite despite India having one of the world's largest reservoirs of good-quality granite. The Indian granite industry was also challenged by poor infrastructure for moving the granite, an inconsistent power supply, and an inadequate supply of skilled labour. The company's promoter and managing director needed to ensure the company could overcome these challenges and deliver the order. How should he resolve the challenges and improve the overall import and export conditions for the Indian granite sector?

In 2016, the executive vice-president of commercial services for Sibanye Gold, Westonaria (Sibanye), the largest gold producer in South Africa, faced a challenge. The company's latest acquisition had been particularly difficult, with much resistance from the acquired management team. Although the executive vice-president tried to empathize with the management team who had done things a certain way for decades, he was frustrated with their lack of co-operation and lists of concerns. The management team needed to internalize and learn to live by Sibanye's values, encapsulated in the acronym CARE-commitment, accountability, respect, and enabling. How could the executive vice-president help the management team to change their traditional mindset so they could effectively manage mining operations under the new company?

Explores strategies to achieve system-level impact for a nonprofit focused on addressing patients' basic social needs through healthcare institutions. Founded in 1996 with a volunteer-staffed help desk at Boston Medical Center connecting low-income patients with basic resources like heating assistance, job training, and childcare programs, by 2013 the nonprofit had grown to 6 cities and 1,000 volunteers serving over 11,000 patients annually. At the end of a successful "proof plan" period, Health Leads Co-Founder and CEO Rebecca Onie and her team faced the question of how to make meeting patients' social needs a standard part of health care in the U.S.: replicate Health Leads' proven model or instigate a social care movement?

A nonprofit in the healthcare arena explores strategies to achieve system-level impact. Founded in 1996 with a volunteer-staffed help desk at Boston Medical Center connecting low-income patients with basic resources like heating assistance, job training, and childcare programs, by 2013 the nonprofit had grown to 6 cities and 1,000 volunteers serving over 11,000 patients annually. At the end of a successful "proof plan" period, Health Leads Co-Founder and CEO Rebecca Onie and her team faced the question of how to make meeting patients' social needs a standard part of health care in the U.S.: replicate Health Leads' proven model or instigate a social care movement?

A case on scaling social impact for nonprofits. Founded in 1995, KaBOOM! quickly became a nationally recognized nonprofit in building playgrounds with strong corporate partnerships and volunteer-organizing capabilities. Over the years, KaBOOM! developed new programs, including a new web platform to enable individuals and communities to do build-it-yourself playgrounds which increased KaBOOM!'s total annual number of playgrounds built by as much as a factor of 10. The case explores how KaBOOM! evaluated its goals and determined a strategy to achieve the scale required to meet its social mission and vision of every child having a place to play.

The chief executive of Barry-Wehmiller, a large maker of industrial equipment, has resolved to run the company via "truly human leadership" in which "success is measured by the way we touch the lives of people." With unusual people practices and a distinctive strategy, the company has generated enviable financial results. During the Great Recession of 2007-2009, the company went to great lengths to avoid layoffs. But as the case opens in 2013, one division of the company faces a sharp downturn, and the head of the division must decide whether to let employees go. In light of Barry-Wehmiller's people practices and strategy, what should he do?

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a federally funded research institution within NASA, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has played a large role in many space and planetary explorations, particularly to the planet Mars. As a project-based organization, JPL has many opportunities to learn between successive missions, but there are many cultural, structural and incentive-based challenges to the development and exchange of experience-based knowledge. The main case decision point focuses on one such challenge in particular: how to instill in junior engineers the practice-based experience of their seniors. Jennifer Trosper, project manager for the Mars 2020 mission, is trying to decide whether or not to seek funding for a hands-on training program building miniature, educational versions of a Mars surface vehicle. However, the cases address a number of other managerial decisions, such as determining the balance between innovation and replication of prior solutions, given that Trosper has been charged with re-using engineering designs from prior projects, but for an expanded mission. The cases also explore generic knowledge-transfer issues faced by JPL's Chief Knowledge Officer, David Oberhettinger, such as the role of documentation, uses of formal "lessons learned," and how best to use the scarce time of the most valuable JPL engineers.

On July 24, 2013, the management of Ambuja Cements Limited announced the merger of Holcim (India) Private Limited with Ambuja Cements in a two-stage process. First, Ambuja Cements would buy a 24 per cent stake of Holcim (India) from Holderind Investments Ltd. of Mauritius for ₹35 billion. Subsequently, Holcim (India) would be merged with Ambuja Cements. The management of Ambuja Cements projected huge synergy from the merger, whereas proxy firm advisors called it corporate misgovernance. The case gives students an opportunity to analyze this two-step transaction to determine whether it compromised the interests of minority shareholders. The case also presents an opportunity to estimate the marginal impact of the transfer of cash and the cancellation of shares on the stock price of the acquiring company.

OYO Rooms had been growing exponentially since its inception in 2013. By January 2016, it had registered 1 million check-ins and was set to become India's largest budget hotel chain. The venture's unique business model helped it to offer effective solutions for the difficulties that were faced by customers seeking budget hotel accommodation in India. OYO Rooms' potential for rapid growth made it a candidate for even greater expansion in the global arena. However, OYO Rooms needed to prove its ability to sustain growth in the Indian budget accommodations market. The company's success and the opening of a huge untapped market had led to a flurry of competition. Would the entrepreneurial founder be able to sustain his company's early momentum in the wake of increased competition? What would be the best strategy to achieve growth and monetize the company's operations? Should OYO Rooms diversify into allied services or apply a more focused strategy? The founder needed to answer these questions to retain the company's dominant position in the market.

In October 2015, a low-level staff accountant was suddenly ecstatic about his career prospects. The Chartered Professional Accountant recruitment process had been gruelling, but the end result made it all the more satisfying. After nearly two years of networking and getting to know firms while they closely evaluated him-and which concluded with seemingly endless interviews-the staff accountant had finally received job offers from his top choices. However, thrilled as he was with the result, he now faced a whole new challenge: what approach would he take to deliver the news to his current employer, where he planned to remain employed with for the next 11 months? Should he tell his employer immediately and risk termination and/or a tense work environment? Or should he keep it a secret as long as possible?

In February 2016, the owner of Moonka Automobile was struggling with the strategic decision he needed to make to increase revenue and improve profitability. Moonka Automobile had been in business as a full-service, two-wheeler dealership for eight years in India, had a strong customer base, a good reputation, and a positive relationship with the manufacturer, Honda. But, competition was increasing and business growth was slowing. The owner identified various alternatives for growth, but given the changes taking place in the two-wheeler market, the owner's limited resources, and his excellent relationship with Honda, he needed to make some difficult decisions.

Spin Master, a children's toy and entertainment company, was getting ready for an initial public offering (IPO). Its founders were weighing their options with regard to some core issues: What was the right positioning for Spin Master with potential investors? What was the right approach to valuing the business? How did that approach translate into enterprise value, equity value, and share price for the IPO?

In June 2013, the senior vice-president of talent management of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), recognized an organizational need at the bank. He realized that, to build a strong workforce, CIBC needed to move from simply filling diversity targets through recruitment to a focus on the development and advancement of a leadership talent pool. Towards that goal, he appointed the vice-president of executive talent management to lead a new diversity and inclusion department. CIBC had an even representation of women at an aggregate level, but the company wanted to improve the level of representation at the executive level. The vice-president of executive talent management conducted an internal and external analysis of gender diversity and inclusion in the financial sector. She then wondered how to continue the momentum by leveraging CIBC's strong track record as a company committed to diversity, hoping to evolve the strategic focus on gender. She also wanted to determine which key leaders to engage and how best to secure their sponsorship.

David Hamilton has opened Hamilton's Electronics Services, Inc. During the first year, he was too busy to keep much in the way of accounting records. Early in January of the following year, he hired a local CPA to reconstruct, in summary form, all the transactions that had occurred in his business during the previous year.