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Wang Jianlin, founder and Chairman of the Dalian Wanda Group (Wanda) kept close tabs on one of his flagship projects going up on the shores of the Yellow Sea. There construction was underway on Wanda Studios Qingdao, the largest film and production facility in the world. The studio was a key initiative of Wang, a central player in the country's rapidly growing movie business. Wanda was already the largest theatrical exhibitor in the world, but the studio represented an enormous bet on a less familiar part of the value network of the film industry. Its vertically-integrated approach was also quite different from the Hollywood of today, which has evolved to a much more specialized division of labor.

On March 31, 2014, the vice-president of Sales & Marketing at Xiamen Airlines Co. Ltd. (XiamenAir) was reviewing the minutes of the month-end meeting with his team. The meeting had focused mainly on the rapid spread of high-speed rail in China, especially along the popular and profitable routes served by his company. The new train service might become an indirect, albeit potent source of competition, redirecting existing passenger volume from airlines to a much cheaper travel option. How would its growth affect the positioning of XiamenAir as a premium service, high-priced airline? How should the company respond to this development?

Beijing has a huge second-hand housing rental market, while the tenants are often unable to get satisfactory properties. Because the real estate brokerage companies only assist with handling procedures, the tenants' requirements for quality, furnishing and services of properties are inadequately considered. Therefore, traditional modes of leasing have been significantly out of date. In this context, Homelink launched Ziroom business in May 2011, beginning its new exploration in the rental industry. Under the leadership of Mr. Xiong Lin, general manager of Ziroom, who had rich experience in this field, Ziroom created Ziroom Friendly Home and Ziroom Apartment under the same brand of Ziroom and operated them in a B2C mode. Ziroom owns the properties and processes them into standard products before selling online at Ziroom.com and providing various follow-up services during the lease term. Ziroom focuses on product, service and O2O, covering all the key links of tenants' rental experience. By the end of 2013, Ziroom had collected a total of over 20,000 properties, including over 60,000 Ziroom Friendly Home rooms and 6 stand-alone buildings of Ziroom apartments that are distributed in more than 2,000 real estates in Beijing. With the cumulative occupancy rate remaining at 90% and the renewal rate at over 60%, Ziroom provides rental services to 10 million Ziroomers. At present, Xiong Lin is faced with a number of challenges. For example, Ziroom's rent is a little bit high for a portion of young people in need of shared leasing; the future development of Ziroom may be affected by the changes in rents, real estate purchase restrictions, and the increase of Ziroom properties. Ziroom aims to establish a super-large enterprise based on O2O platforms that integrate asset management, housing and extension services, as well as information and data services, managing tens of thousands of properties in China. Today, Ziroom is continuing its entrepreneurial efforts.

This case presents the perspective of a Malaysian company, Nora Bhd, which was in the process of trying to establish a telecommunications joint venture with a Finnish firm, Sakari Oy. Negotiations have broken down between the firms, and students are asked to try to restructure a win-win deal. The case examines some of the most common issues involved in partner selection and design in international joint ventures.

Is government the biggest, worst customer in the world? And is that a reason for venture investors to back companies that sell to government or to stay away? It had been seven years since Scott Burns joined his friend Zach Stabenow to get a company called GovDocs off the ground. In that time, they had evolved from a provider of government-mandated labor law posters to the country's largest sender of government-to-citizen emails. GovDelivery, as the company became known, was one of the first companies to move governments into the cloud, one of the first to sell them software as a service (SaaS), and in 2007, the only one with 3 million registered citizens using its platform to receive communications from federal, state, regional, and city governments and public authorities. In those seven years, Burns had raised capital from many sources: friends and family, angel investors, strategic partners, banks, and the investment arm of a major family fund. He and Stabenow had also grown the business through operating revenue and by keeping a tight watch on costs. They had to. Because growth capital had come in from almost all corners, expect one: major venture firms. Now, with roughly $6 million in annual revenue and projections to double that within three years, Burns was prepping for discussions with half a dozen Tier 1 firms. In doing so, he was anticipating what he thought would be the "elephant in the room." GovDelivery's business-to-government revenue model had been a conversation-stopper with major investors looking at Burns' company and companies like it. What would he tell potential backers?

In 2015, Nissan was third place in the Japanese auto market, behind Toyota and Honda. The challenge of increasing market share was that 80% of car shoppers who were non-Nissan owners did not consider Nissan during their purchase process. This process involved three main consumer touchpoints: mass media advertising, internet auto websites and the physical dealerships. In the last 5 years, the importance of the dealers in influencing car sales had greatly diminished as consumers researched and chose which make and brand of car to buy online, going to the dealer only to negotiate price, purchase and receive the car. Given this trend, how should Nissan's top marketer make changes in how Nissan manages these three key consumer touchpoints? And how to better integrate them to maximize sales.

Cookie Man, an Australian bakery chain, ventured into India in 2000 with the unique promise of providing "freshly baked premium cookies" on the spot. Opening with a manufacturing unit and its first outlet in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it bought raw materials and most of its packaging locally and used a local refrigerated trucking firm to distribute its goods. By 2015, it was operating 70 company-owned and franchised stores in newly designed malls and high fashion streets in 25 cities across the country. Increasing competition, a move by competitors towards Internet distribution, and the changing tastes of consumers have hurt the financial health of the brand, and some drastic and quick strategic choices need to be made. Should the company grow horizontally and open more stores in India and/or expand into neighbouring countries? Should it look at new channels of delivery or new offerings? What is the right path for survival and growth?

In June 2015, Peter Phillips, Chief Operating Officer of Frontier Services Group (FSG), was preparing an update for the board on how operations would support the company's new strategy. Given the ongoing decline in the price of oil and the extractive industries, the outlook had changed for FSG. His aim was to steer a new course to becoming the leading pan-African logistics provider. Founded in March 2014 by Erik Prince, a former U.S. Navy Seal and ex-CEO of Blackwater, a private security firm, FSG was a logistics and transportation company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with a market capitalization in excess of $200 million. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, the company employed more than 340 staff in its head office and regional subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Beijing, Dubai, and Malta. In addition to traditional logistics solutions like transporting personnel, materials, supplies, and humanitarian aid, FSG provided civil engineering and support services such as in-house construction, facilities management, and workforce accommodation. Its mission was to build and maintain the infrastructure, installations and platforms its client organizations required to operate in Africa. Although the new approach would open up significant growth opportunities, a number of operational challenges remained. The lack of trained and skilled labor in Africa, coupled with the limited competence of the logistics sector would, if not addressed, impede the future growth of the company. The case traces the evolution of FSG since its inception in 2014 as a Kenyan air charter and freight services company. It offers an overview of the company's recent development and current strategy, notably how it handles the logistics needs of customers across the vast and very diverse African continent.

This case tracks Turkish Airlines' transition from regional player to global powerhouse. With an order for 212 aircraft in the first half of 2013, the airline had moved to double its size and become one of the industry's top-ten players. Growing its fleet would allow Turkish Airlines to fly many more destinations, boost revenues, increase aircraft utilization, and achieve higher cost efficiency. But it would also increase the already intense competition with European giants like Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways, and the fast-growth Gulf airlines Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways. Critical questions faced CEO Temel Kotil and his team: How would Turkish Airlines keep growing without jeopardizing profitability? How would it manage the operational complexities and other external factors? Recruit the best people? Continue to differentiate itself in a fiercely competitive industry?

A joint venture company that started its operations in 2004 in India was in the business of growing, processing and marketing fresh fruits and vegetables, both in India and abroad. As new market opportunities emerged in response to the growing demand for frozen products in the domestic market, the company launched frozen vegetables in the Indian market in 2011 and successfully established the supply chain covering contract farming, processing and distributing the product. The following year, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the company was reviewing the first year's performance of frozen vegetable business as part of the annual business plan process. The business was still small and not profitable. The CEO had to decide how to scale up and make the business profitable.

T Nexus was incorporated in 2000 and in 2013 became a leader in cloud-based supply-chain management solutions. Born as a technology platform dedicated to the shipping industry and in particular to facilitating supply-chain management for major international carriers, in 2002 GT Nexus became in an SaaS (software as a service) provider, integrating analytics software on its platform. The Global Trade Platform introduced by GT Nexus was a major innovation in the shipping industry: it offered a standardized interface to shippers seeking to book cargo space with major carriers and allowed carriers to manage a far larger customer volume. Over time, the GTN platform became a non-industry specific supply-chain solution, used by some of the largest MNCs (multi-national corporations). GT Nexus expanded its product offering and platform, designing its own software solutions, such as the Trade Solution platform for financing, by partnering with other software companies, such as MicroStrategy and Flagship Custom Service, or by directly acquiring competitors, in the case of Metaship AG in Europe. A final merger with TradeCard in 2013 made GT Nexus the market leader in cloud-based supply-chain management software with over US$100 billion of international trade transactions managed on the platform. After the merger with TradeCard, GT Nexus offered a complete procure-to-pay solution on the cloud, covering every aspect of supply-chain management. The company experienced brisk growth as a pioneer of cloud-computing technology applied to supply chains.

In June 2015, FC Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu sees his team lift the UEFA Champions League trophy, completing an impressive trophy haul in the 2014-2015 season. Unique for a club of its caliber, five of the starting eleven are products of FC Barcelona's youth academy, La Masia. Yet none of the trophies and accolades guarantee future success. Bartomeu faces pressing questions about the club's business model-and in particular about the tensions between local and global activities-as well as decisions about the ongoing investment in the youth academy, funding for the club's Foundation and other sports, and its relatively low ticket prices. How could Barça continue to win on and off the field in the increasingly competitive and global world of European football, while still protecting its local focus and traditions?

Helps students to understand how the characteristics of a business are reflected in the firm's financial statements. In this exercise, students are given balance sheet data in percentage form (common-size balance sheets) and other selected financial ratios for a set of 12 unidentified firms from 12 different industries (all 12 companies are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, ASX). Students must use the balance sheet data and the financial ratios along with their basic knowledge of the operating characteristics of these various industries to match each firm to the correct industry.

The purpose of the Manizales-Mas case is to show the inner workings of the first three years of a comprehensive economic development project that uses entrepreneurship-extraordinary company growth -as the driving wedge. The BEEP project started in 2010 with a contact by the general director, Ana Maria Gonzales, of the Luker Foundation, a non-profit foundation established by the local Restrepo family that owns Casa Luker, which had focused on education promotion since its inception in 1995. Gonzales approached Babson and BEEP, who together conducted a two-month pilot. Between 2010 and 2012 Gonzales worked hard to coalesce a group of funders and stakeholders to back the project, both financially and in terms of non-financial involvement. Having created a consensus among 11 local organizations, Gonzales then negotiated the project with Babson, yielding numerous conflicts and misunderstandings. Marcela Escobar was hired in late 2011 as project team leader, and conducted the project from that time onward, during Phases 2-3. The case takes place as Phase 3 is transitioning to Phase 4, with several acute problems, such as conflict among the stakeholders and an important staff member, the director of communications, who has just announced her resignation.

In March 2015, Amazon unveiled to its selected Prime members a wi-fi connected Dash Button that could be attached to home appliances and allowed consumers to make online orders automatically by simply pushing the button. In April 2015, Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, established "smart living" business unit, taking another step in deeply exploiting the Internet of Things (IoT) business opportunities. Internet of Things was defined as a worldwide information infrastructure in which physical and virtual objects were uniquely identified and connected over the internet. These inter-connected devices would generate and communicate big data dynamically, enhance operational efficiency and create new business opportunities for various industries. The e-commerce sector was no exception to the booming IoT development trend. The IoT would expand the scope and depth of e-commerce by linking people, smart devices and objects that were offline in the current e-commerce business model, generating unprecedented big data on product performance and customer behavior and experience, involving more communication and action, and ultimately shaping the future of e-commerce. How would the IoT change the current e-commerce model? What business transformations could companies undergo to integrate the IoT with existing e-commerce platforms and create new business models and competitive advantage?