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In 2015, LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network, was experiencing explosive growth, and it needed to hire the very best people quickly to support and fuel that growth. This case discusses LinkedIn's hiring approach and details how the company used its own online recruiting products, such as LinkedIn Talent Solutions, to attract and retain talent. At the same time, the company was creating new recruiting models that put it at the forefront of modern recruiting. LinkedIn had done well so far in bringing in top talent. Nevertheless, as it rapidly scaled, the challenge was making sure the company could compete with other tech firms to attract enough highly skilled engineers. The case explains specific techniques that LinkedIn's recruiting team of over 100 people used to attract talented candidates for positions in engineering, sales, and other departments. Those techniques included: 1) replacing cold calling potential candidates with finding "warm connections" to them through their LinkedIn networks; 2) using a data-driven approach to identify the best candidates to pursue; and 3) developing personalized online relationships with top candidates. LinkedIn made internal hiring a priority. For external hires, the company focused heavily on recruiting passive candidates-people were who already gainfully employed and not necessarily looking for a new job. The case also discusses LinkedIn's employee value proposition, focusing on the extraordinary opportunities employees were given for "transformation" once they joined the LinkedIn team. These opportunities included personal advancement through a smooth path to change jobs within LinkedIn if they wished, as well as formal and informal programs designed for employees to pursue their passions-and share their experiences. "LinkedIn and Modern Recruiting (B)" goes into more detail about LinkedIn's data-driven approach, new recruitment innovations, and diversity scorecard.

This 2015 case focuses on the evolution of Box's management practices as the company grew from a small start-up to an organization with over 1,000 employees in five major locations. The online file sharing and cloud content collaboration service company was founded in 2005, and a decade later it was valued at $2.4 billion. During that time, Box was evolving its approaches to and processes for hiring, compensation, promotions, and performance evaluations. A driving factor in its management practices was the need to attract and retain top-quality entrepreneurial employees. However, as the company pivoted strategy to focus more on the lucrative enterprise market, its management practices had to evolve to be able to attract and retain more experienced employees with specific expertise in that segment. Box found it need to address tensions that arose as the company grew, including the slower speed of promotions, the changing compensation mix (cash versus equity), and the changing company culture as more seasoned employees joined the Box team.

This document is one of three available case-based simulations used as the basis for a multisession course on design thinking. The course emphasizes deep user understanding, iteration, and a focus on the possibilities as a way to enhance value creation for stakeholders. Please refer to the course teaching guide to view the additional essential pedagogical tools available to the course instructor-including several hours of video content and a set of posters that summarize ethnographic interview findings for each simulation scenario. In this case, the CEO of Great Lakes (GL), a Fortune 200 company and one of the world's largest dairy cooperatives, reflects on the challenges and opportunities the company faces as it considers how to tap into a bigger slice of the lucrative market for snack foods for Millennials, an area GL's research had identified as a promising first target. Students play the role of members of a handpicked innovation team chartered to explore and develop profitable revenue growth opportunities.

In May 2013, Jack Russo, a Chicago-based tech entrepreneur, had to choose one of four possible product concepts to use as the starting point for his new K-8 educational learning company, TabletTeach LLC. At the time, the K-12 education market in the United States was experiencing major disruption due to print-to-digital transformation, new Common Core State Standards (CCSS), new standardized tests aligned to the Common Core (rolling out in most states in the 2014-2015 school year), and increasing pressure from parents for schools to incorporate technology in their children's learning. Based on his first-hand experience and research, Russo knew there was a significant opportunity for a company that brought to market a tablet-enabled learning solution focusing on grades K-8, which made learning Common Core math and/or language arts fun for every student and engagingly simple for all teachers. This case provides an interesting example of something typically hard to teach: transitioning from the fuzzy front end of a market opportunity analysis to a specific product opportunity. The case bounds the problem by outlining four potential product concepts, which students will then evaluate and rank using their own sets of criteria.

In August 2013, the research director of Superb Trucks LP, a large Ontario-based trucking transportation company, is expected to prepare a recommendation to top management on how to improve the efficiency of the company's trucks. He had made a decision that an innovative fuel additive might serve this purpose and subsequently conducted two studies to assess its effectiveness. What considerations should be made when designing such a field experiment? How can these considerations affect interpretation of study findings and inform business decisions?

Kingfisher Airlines, a leading airline company in India, had incurred substantial losses and its net worth had been eroded. This news was widely covered by Indian and international press. Analysts and media were of the opinion that Kingfisher needed equity infusion to steer it through the distress. Because of its financial difficulties, the company's stock was trading at near-historic lows and its equity value was, in fact, negative. Yet company management was emphatic that Kingfisher was on the road to recovery although it was negotiating a second debt restructuring with banks. Would this restructuring prove more successful than the last? Could anything save Kingfisher from this dire financial situation?

A homeowner and his family finally have an offer on their residence. The terms negotiated with the buyers require the homeowner to build a detached garage on the property before the closing date on August 30, 2013, which is in 16 weeks. The homeowner's family has also made a conditional offer on another home, and the condition must be removed in two days if they would like to finalize that purchase. Although proficient at construction, the homeowner has encountered a major addition to his timeline on May 1. The city is requiring that he obtain a variance approval before the building department issues the building permit, thereby delaying the start of construction by between nine and ten weeks. The homeowner must decide whether to go ahead or cancel the sale of the residence and the purchase of a new home.

Trionym Systems, a designer and manufacturer of 3-D printers, was enjoying soaring sales. Trionym's chief executive officer (CEO) presented a plan for acquiring a new production facility to address the expected demand for the firm's latest 3-D printer, the RB-5000, which was presently under beta testing. He expressed reservations with respect to considerable uncertainty both in terms of market size and production costs. Accordingly, he wished to use the latest prescriptive analytics techniques to ensure that the decision to expand was the right one. The chief analytics officer was tasked with assessing the proposed project and had to report his findings at the next board meeting.

In an effort to save his business, Paul Marciano, the owner of Italian family restaurant Maria's Ristorante, runs a number of experiments focused on improving the customer experience around his target customer segment. These experiments lead to a better understanding about his business and cause him to make specific changes to his business model that ultimately improve things across the board. The experiments are based on research from the academic literature on the use of behavioral variables to manage customer perceptions.

Dr. Felton Wayne, the chief medical officer for North Carolina operations at Valley Health (VH), had been working incredibly hard for the past nine months trying to motivate and empower his medical staff, who had become disillusioned by VH's management practices. But he had little to show for his efforts. He felt unappreciated and ineffective in his role. After a tense meeting with his director, during which Wayne was called a "cowboy," he wondered whether he should just go back to doing what he was good at-taking care of patients. This A case is accompanied by a B case.

This case describes the financial and non financial performance of Starbucks, a large organisation provided as on 2007. Howard Schultz, the promoter and chairman of the corporation is disturbed by the decline in the performance of Starbucks, especially the dilution of customer experience. He is required to analyse what happened and adopt a course of action to strengthen Starbucks' performance vis a vis competitive attacks. The participants are required to analyse the situation, generate options for Starbucks and make recommendations for the future, including whether Jim Donald, the current incubent, needs to retained as the CEO of Starbucks.

In the summer of 2011, Jim Frates, CFO of Alkermes faced choices about how to finance the acquisition of Dublin, Ireland-based Elan Drug Technologies (EDT) - a deal that was expected to close in the fall. The case describes the history of Alkermes, provides information about the planned merger, and details the funding options. The case gives students the opportunity to analyze the role CFOs play in biopharmaceutical firms, to evaluate the attractiveness of the merger, and to select a funding option.

At the end of 2014, Apple Inc. recorded the most profitable quarter of any firm in history, and its market capitalization soon topped $700 billion. 'Apple Inc in 2015' explores the history of Apple, its successes under Jobs, its continued growth under Tim Cook, and the challenges facing the company in 2015. With iPod sales continuing their freefall, tablet sales in decline, and the Macintosh's market share remaining small, Apple was increasingly dependent on the iPhone to drive its growth. Could Cook continue Apple's dominance in the smartphone market in the face of growing competition? Could he revitalize the iPad business, become a leader in payments, with Apple Pay, and replicate Apple's success in other device categories, such as the Apple Watch, the first new product the company had released since 2010?

For French watchmaker Pequignet, its return to the annual luxury watch and jewelry show, Baselworld, signaled a new page in the company's 40-year history. As the only "haute horlogerie" manufacturer in France since the quartz crisis in the 1970s, Pequignet had caught the attention of both the media and the watch collector community, despite going through receivership and a change of ownership. In addition to showcasing its Calibre Royal collection, Pequignet presented a new line of entry-level watches. Should the company invest further in its manufacturing processes to make high-end mechanical watches, as it had in the past? Or should it focus on producing more affordable, accessible products, as with its most recent collection? As an independent atelier, Pequignet had to address these questions in order to succeed in the highly competitive global watch market.

The project manager at a development company is contemplating the future of the firm's next innovative development project, which had originally been conceptualized in 2008, but for various reasons, had not yet come to fruition. The project manager wants to evaluate the venture from a financial viewpoint, including the company's ongoing cash position should the company go ahead with the building process; he also wants to assess other relevant qualitative considerations. Alternatively, the company could sell the land, which has appreciated considerably in value. All decisions would take into account the company's goals and reputation in the industry.

On June 6, 2014, the deputy general manager of the human resources department of Xiamen Airlines, based in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, discussed his company's "best practices" at China's first national forum on aviation security. Since 2009, a significant reform in the company's pilot compensation system had aimed to promote a stronger linkage between their pay and performance. Initial outcomes had been positive, with improved productivity and job satisfaction. Yet, there were ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining pilots due to increasing shortages of qualified personnel in the domestic and global aviation labour market and greater competition from both state-owned and new private airline companies in China. How could Xiamen Airlines become an employer of choice? Was the high compensation sustainable if the industry became less profitable? What else could the company offer to retain talented pilots?

The newly appointed director of Surgical Business Analytics has been charged with the task of improving predictions of surgical case volume at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. He is provided with 48 weeks of elective surgery schedule data that give the number of surgeries booked on specific dates prior to the surgery day and the actual number performed. Variation in daily operating room volumes is a major problem because of the mismatch in timing between when the staff schedules are made and when the final demand is known (usually the day before). This uncertainty creates staffing challenges for all support and ancillary services, including nurses, orderlies, anesthesiologists, the recovery room, pathology, radiology and the sterile cart centre. Can he develop a method to improve surgical case volume prediction that is actionable in a managerially useful time frame? How can he engage and approach stakeholders who may often consider "analytics," "data analysis" and "computations" as a black hole?

In December 2012, the management of Starbucks Canada, an autonomous subsidiary of the U.S.-based multinational coffeehouse chain, is trying to decide how best to implement mobile payments in its 1,350 locations across Canada. While the company has currently been using a mobile application to accept payments through its proprietary Starbucks Card, rival Tim Hortons has recently introduced a more advanced mobile payment solution. There are many new and emerging technologies to choose from, including Square Wallet, Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons, MintChip and Mobile Wallet/Credit Card Near Field Communication. Will these systems allow for an enhanced store experience? Are customers ready to start paying with their smartphones? And which payment service will be the Canadian lead going forward? The future of Starbucks and mobile payments is exciting, but the choices are almost overwhelming.

A university instructor mulls over the idea of partnering with six of his students to start a new business that would provide all-in-one starter kits for first-year university or college students moving into residences across Canada. To help with his decision-making process, the instructor wants to evaluate the product and the group's marketing strategy; he also wants to project the new venture's financial performance for the first three years of operations.

Organizational design can be complex, involving many different levers. But at its roots are a few fundamental formal structures or forms: functional, matrix, and divisional. This case tracks the early history of a (fictitious) start-up company in the software/mobile entertainment industry that rapidly expands and needs to consider the pros and cons of these various archetypes of formal structure.