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HDIF is one of the few Armenia-based organizations that falls under the vague definition of a social enterprise. HDIF is focusing its activity in three areas: selling handicrafts; tourism development through organizing festivals; and, empowering rural communities in Armenia. The founder, Tim Straight, is leaving the foundation and the executive director will have to assume responsibility for the emerging new strategy that she and the founder had begun discussing. Should she continue down the same path and remain heavily dependent on the continuing financial investments from Tim Straight, or should she shift to a new and economically promising area of eco-tourism in order to become financially sustainable?

Eden McCallum is a Management Consulting firm founded by two ex-McKinsey partners. It has offices in London, Amsterdam and Zurich, and is planning further expansion. The company is founded using a distinctive new business model, based on operating a pool of experienced, freelance consultants. Hence, it operates as a double-sided market. Eden McCallum's 15 partners secure client projects and then assemble teams of consultants to work on these projects. They screen consultants extensively before admitting them into their pool. Furthermore, the company provides office space, a team of analysts, and operational assistance (in terms of IT, legal, billing, etcetera). The case stimulates discussion in terms of how the company might grow, whether its value proposition can remain distinctive as it expands, and how it can attract and retain the people in the various markets - independent consultants, partners and staff - needed to make further growth a success. In particular, the case explores business model innovation by creating a novel value proposition for employees, i.e., by giving management consultants more control over their time and lives.

This case focuses on the Unilever Foundry, a platform for Unilever to engage with start-ups and entrepreneurs, providing them with access to Unilever's brands as a means of enabling their growth while bringing innovative technology back to the company. The case provides a brief description of Unilever's evolution from the mid-1990s to 2016, focusing on its various attempts to make the business more innovative and agile. With the arrival of Paul Polman as CEO and his "sustainable living plan", the impetus to innovate was once again very high and a number of initiatives were launched to help the company move beyond its traditional ways of working. In May 2014 the Foundry was launched to create commercial opportunities by connecting Unilever businesses with start-ups. Through a licensing mechanism, the start-up would make its technology available to Unilever to bring innovation to its brand or get the rights to use a Unilever brand within certain guidelines. The Foundry was essentially a platform for collaboration. The case explores how the Foundry functioned and evolved both within Unilever and in the collaborations with external start-ups. By December 2015 its leader, Jeremy Basset, had a team of seven people and operated in several locations across the world. The case closes with various issues facing Jeremy - whether to raise greater awareness of the Foundry within Unilever; how to scale it to make a difference within the huge organisation that was Unilever; and ultimately, where to go from here?

The CEO of Tots & Teens, an apparel company headquartered in New Jersey, learns at a company party that one of the factories in Bangladesh where T&T's clothing is made has just collapsed in the middle of a workday, killing more than 2,000 workers. She and her COO immediately fly to Dhaka to visit the disaster site and plan their response. Aside from finding a way to support the victims and their families and to tighten up oversight of the company's supply chain, they must decide whether to move production to a factory in China in order to get the fall line out in time. With expert commentary from John Manners-Bell, the CEO of Transport Intelligence, and Adam K. Kanzer, a managing director of Domini Social Investments.

The CEO of Tots & Teens, an apparel company headquartered in New Jersey, learns at a company party that one of the factories in Bangladesh where T&T's clothing is made has just collapsed in the middle of a workday, killing more than 2,000 workers. She and her COO immediately fly to Dhaka to visit the disaster site and plan their response. Aside from finding a way to support the victims and their families and to tighten up oversight of the company's supply chain, they must decide whether to move production to a factory in China in order to get the fall line out in time. With expert commentary from John Manners-Bell, the CEO of Transport Intelligence, and Adam K. Kanzer, a managing director of Domini Social Investments.

The CEO of Tots & Teens, an apparel company headquartered in New Jersey, learns at a company party that one of the factories in Bangladesh where T&T's clothing is made has just collapsed in the middle of a workday, killing more than 2,000 workers. She and her COO immediately fly to Dhaka to visit the disaster site and plan their response. Aside from finding a way to support the victims and their families and to tighten up oversight of the company's supply chain, they must decide whether to move production to a factory in China in order to get the fall line out in time. With expert commentary from John Manners-Bell, the CEO of Transport Intelligence, and Adam K. Kanzer, a managing director of Domini Social Investments.

In the seven years since Don Blanchon was hired as the Chief Executive Officer of Whitman-Walker Health, it had transitioned into a primary care-based community health center and a patient-centered medical home serving a diverse population in a rapidly changing area of Washington, DC. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 would, in Blanton's view, increase access to providers for WWH's patient population, thereby increasing the competition. The implications of this change left senior management with unresolved strategic questions. Should WWH pursue a "hybrid FQHC model," a new location, new services, or a future strategic partnership with a large health system? What should the next direction be for WWH, and how should it get there?

In early 2008, IndusInd Bank (A), which had been faring poorly for several years, decided to bring on board a team led by Romesh Sobti, then managing director of ABN Amro Bank in India. The case outlines the challenges faced by the new team in attempting to turn around the bank. Students are invited to think through a turnaround plan for the bank.

Coley Andrews could never have anticipated when he cofounded Pacific Lake Partners, a search fund investment firm, in 2009, that he would spend as much time managing people as he would the firm's investment strategy. Pacific Lake had grown its portfolio to include 30 operating companies plus 30 active search funds in the six years since its launch, and Andrews interacted regularly with many of the CEOs, either as a board member or as an informal advisor. Though several of Pacific Lake's transactions involved complex financial structures, Andrews had learned that few issues were more difficult than some of the interpersonal challenges that confronted him from time to time. In the first vignette, Andrews learns that a searcher with whom Pacific Lake has made a soft commitment to invest has falsified part of his resume. Andrews and his partner, Jim Southern, decide to withdraw their commitment from the searcher and send a letter out notifying the investor group of the news. Andrews must prepare for how to respond to what will inevitably be an onslaught of calls. In the second vignette, Andrews learns that a fellow board member has withheld knowledge about serious indiscretions committed by the CEO, including sexual harassment and relations with a female employee. Andrews must decide how to best confront his board member with this disturbing news.

Rural Tourism is an important feature in development of emerging states in India. This case study, an UNDP funded project with ministry of Tourism, GOI, focuses the problem faced by a NGO in developing a rural tourism in Jharkhand in India for a decade. The management issues are feasibility and financial viability, lack of project and infrastructure planning, role of government agencies. The case stresses need of project risk management in this type of private partner partnership.

Kunvarji Group was on its way to transform from a commodity trading business to a service-driven business. To become an integrated service provider in the agri-supply chain, Kunvarji was participating actively in procurement and trading, and is now eyeing options for providing agri-storage services. Their dilemma reeled around the choice of storage that should be preferred for better returns: warehouse, cold storage, or silos and what growth strategy they had to adopt.

This case highlights the tough choices, competing interests, and decision-making mechanisms involved in California's management of its severe drought, entering its fifth year in 2015. Stuart Woolf, CEO of Woolf Farming, a grower and processor of almonds, tomatoes, and other crops in California's Central Valley, must decide how to respond to the changing operating environment. Scarce water resources-and institutional constraints on the use of water-have forced many producers, including Woolf, to fallow farmland. Meanwhile, competing demands for water from municipalities and environmental interests have raised the public's scrutiny of agricultural water use. This case describes farming in California's Central Valley and reviews the state's complicated system for managing water rights and resources. It invites students to analyze the relative merits of competing perspectives on how to allocate water, the institutional mechanisms for doing so, and the potential responses of agricultural producers to the changing marketplace. Is now the time to double down on farming in the Central Valley, shift to a higher-value-added crop portfolio (e.g., organics), or retreat from this challenging business?

George Mitchell founded Mitchell Energy to prospect for gas in resource rich Texas. The company was imbued with a counter-intuitive, "can-do" culture right from its start as a scrappy independent player among the more formidable majors, many of whom had a large presence in the region. However, unlike the established rivals who were primarily competing to prospect and produce oil reserves, Mitchell focused on natural gas. The natural gas business was not a hospitable environment especially in the 1970's when Mitchell Energy was getting fully entrenched in the business. George Mitchell brought a new perspective to the gas business by implementing a blue ocean approach. Creating a culture of innovation that encouraged his crew to question received wisdom, fostering an environment helped his staff take well measured and well managed risks, he was able to oversee the advent of the shale gas revolution the United States. The case offers several important lessons on implementing blue ocean thinking in practice that can be used across industry settings.

In April 2015, BitGold, an international savings and payments service, was undergoing the final steps towards its historic initial public offering, which would take place on Canada's TSX Venture Exchange and sought to raise between $10 million to $20 million in funding. With its blending of blockchain technology and aspects of digital currencies like bitcoin, BitGold was paving the way to the legitimation of future "FinTech" startups by going public. The important questions include: How can BitGold continue to maintain its legitimacy and growth on the heels of a tumultuous year for digital currencies, blockchain technology and bitcoin? Given the complexity of the regulatory landscape, how can BitGold build its customer base and expand internationally?

In 2013, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of a lingerie business in India has recently moved his business from offline to online in order to reach a wider customer base. The company is one of the very few online lingerie stores in India that also has its own brand. Although the online business is profitable, the CEO cannot ignore the fact that offline stores still dominate the lingerie market in India. Since its key product is only available online, the company may be missing out on an opportunity. Because the shift from an offline business to an online one occurred in 2012, an immediate investment in actual stores will have financial consequences. Should the CEO continue to operate his online business and consider relaunching retail stores at a later time, or should he relaunch now and manage both business models at once?

On June 5, 2013, a London newspaper reported that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting the telephone records of millions of Verizon customers in the U.S. The story was the first of many top secret revelations about the NSA's spying programs, leaked by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor. The case examines Snowden's actions and motivations and asks students to consider the repercussions of whistleblowing/leaking on the general public, the U.S. government, the NSA and Snowden himself. Case Number 2018.0

This case study features ProsFit, a European start-up company founded in 2013 that used breakthrough technology - Computer Aided Design (CAD) and 3D printing - to transform the way in which sockets for prosthetic limbs are produced. It promised to reduce fitting times considerably, improve comfort and cut production costs, helping to meet growing demand. Companies were registered in Bulgaria and in the UK. Proof of concept was established in April 2014, and ethics approval in the UK was granted. Two successful rounds of fundraising were completed at the time of publication of this case study in late 2015, and there were seven employees. It is a family firm, having been co-founded by father-and-son team Alan and Chris Hutchison. The latter is a double amputee and user of prosthetic limbs. Alan Hutchison is an experienced business developer, with a degree in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford. The decision to start the company stemmed from concern about the pain and discomfort Chris was experiencing with a prosthetic limb fitted traditionally as well as the lengthy time-to-comfort of the fitting process. Software scanning and 3D printing technology replaced the artisanal approach used for sculpting sockets. The company was set up to be both commercial and philanthropic, using profits from developed countries to subsidize sockets in developing nations. First invoices were issued in 2015. The founders estimated they had an18- to 24-month first-mover advantage from mid-2015.

Haw Par Corporation's healthcare division produces Tiger Balm, the external analgesic rub that has gained global popularity. Despite delivering strong results, the division remains dependent on Asian markets, which poses challenges with regard to low affordability, weak protection of intellectual property and aggressive competition. To achieve sustained growth, the company's executive director is considering several alternatives: geographic expansion, by entering more markets; product expansion, through deeper penetration of existing markets with new products; and extending the brand into the highly competitive wellness space. He also needs to decide whether the division should pursue organic or inorganic growth.