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The accounting industry is being disrupted by the introduction of cloud-based accounting information systems (AIS) that allow for a more efficient allocation of work between the accountant and the client company. In cloud-based AIS, the accountant and the client company as well as third parties such as auditors can simultaneously work on the data in real time. This, in turn, enables a much more granular division of work between the parties. This teaching case considers Kluuvin Apteekki, a small pharmacy business whose owner faces critical management decisions on how to embrace this new opportunity to move to the cloud. Students are guided to evaluate the advantages and drawbacks of cloud computing in the specific context of accounting services. Also, the owner must make a set of critical decisions concerning which tasks to outsource. The accounting process comprises of several tasks and sub-tasks, adding to the complexity of the decision making problem. The main learning outcome of the case is related to the development of the skills and competencies needed in creating a strong business case for implementing IT-enabled business processes.

When KBC Bank introduced their mobile banking application in 2011 they delivered much more than a piece of software. Mobile banking was a way to focus on their customers and rebuild trust. Yet, this case is not so much about what they delivered but how they delivered it. Agile development brought along both challenges and opportunities for KBC. The case explores how agile compares to traditional ways of ICT development. Can banks, given the new digital challenges, really build their future ICT portfolios on agile development?

Southern Bell Corporation, now AT&T, decided to upgrade its existing networks by extending its optical fiber network only to the neighborhood nodes and use existing telephone twisted pair copper wires to connect nodes with households. Leaders of Verizon Communications, on the other hand, decided to extend their optical fiber network all the way to homes at much higher cost. The choice of which of the two approaches was a better business decision is the main dilemma in the case. The network upgrades were necessary to keep telecommunication operators competitive with cable television companies, which after they upgraded their networks started offering the 'triple play,' a combination of video programming, telephone, and Internet services. The case reviews the history of telecommunication and cable industries in the United States, which leads to exploration of the key issues including (i) whether, and if so how competition in the telecommunication industry is even possible, (ii) how much bandwidth do we really need, and (iii) what is the effect of various compression techniques, convergence of digital technologies, and what other countries are doing. The case (describing the state of the industry at about the start of 2011) addresses an issue affecting all of us as we decide what services to select for our entertainment and communication needs.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF), a Bangalore-based non-governmental organization (NGO), has been hailed globally for running the world's largest school meal program. It operated through 16 centralized and 3 decentralized kitchens across 9 states of India; it states its Mission 2020 as being able to reach out to 5 million children by 2020. The challenge that the foundation faces in achieving its stated mission is not only of scaling up by 2020, but also of maintaining the economic sustainability of its operations in view of increased government spending on alternative social sector schemes such as Right to Food, which may reduce or limit allocations to the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme. The case aims to study the critical challenges that Akshaya Patra faces in sustaining its operations and the several sustainability initiatives undertaken by the NGO to meet the various challenges it faces and the opportunities that it could further take to innovatively fulfil its mission of feeding 5 million children daily by 2020. It looks at the interrelations between the different dimensions of sustainability and uses frameworks to assess these sustainability initiatives at Akshaya Patra.

The ''Taxi For Sure: Technological Innovation in the Radio Cab Industry'' and ''The Radio Cab Industry (August 2014)'' cases present an example of the services industry arguably experiencing disruption owing to technological innovations. This case is set in the radio cabs industry in a developing nation (India). The case takes the perspective of the management of TaxiForSure, a Bangalore-based startup operating in the radio cab industry in India, whose management team has to chart its growth strategy as well as review the operating model in order to ensure that they maintain a competitive edge. Introduced in India in 2000, the concept of radio cabs took off only around 2006-2007 when Meru Cabs entered the industry. Since then, the industry has evolved rapidly with several startups entering the market owing to its huge potential for growth. The strategic and operational decisions made by these companies play a major role in deciding their future as they vie for the same set of customers and drivers in somewhat similar cities across India (with some companies planning overseas expansion). There are two key operating models followed by companies in the radio cab industry - the ''owner operator model'' and the ''aggregator model''. The cases explore the benefits and consequences of choosing either of the two models as well as trigger a debate on adoption of a "hybrid model".

The case on IndiaMART enumerates important decisions that are made in platform business models with regards to the pricing of the different sides of the platform. Discussions on the case would encompass the role of pricing in creating and leveraging network effects analyze the ''penguin problem'' and how firms could overcome manage and resolve the same. The case is set in 2013-2015 and describes the evolution of IndiaMART, the challenges they faced while addressing four major concerns at the turning point at which the organization was: namely, the speed of customer acquisition, arresting customer churn, responding to the opportunity of the increasing penetration of mobile phones for a platform such as IndiaMART and the decision to venture into new markets such as the B2B business.

VW understood the customer funnel and worked backwards on planning ad inventories. ''Cost per lead'' was the key metric to measure any campaign performance. After brand awareness was built through display ads, VW invested in search engine marketing for organic and paid searches which led to ''Planet Volkswagen,''(PV). PV represented VW activities on a revolving circular globe with each section designed around a specific theme. PV received good response; however, owing to recession in industry in 2012, marketing had to lead to test drives - hence efforts towards PV were reduced. Two campaigns were launched one after other towards increasing leads. VW launched New Jetta in 2011 with a social media campaign called ''#AnythingforJetta''. It revolved around the concept that Jetta gave so much driving pleasure that people would do anything to own Jetta. Twitter was chosen for the campaign to get instant responses and to tap into specific customer segment. VW prepared video content showing people doing quirky stuff for Jetta. Full front page ads were published in leading newspapers, which gave the campaign a big push. #AnythingforJetta became the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter and it also led to 15% increase in Twitter users in India. "Jetta TSI YouTube Test Drive" campaign was launched in 2012, which took test drives drives from roads to viewers' desktops, tablets, and mobiles. The idea behind the YouTube test drive was to engage users and let them ask any questions about the car just as they would in a real world test-drive. The campaign, reached 21 million unique users against planned reach of 10 million. The challenge facing VW was how to break the clutter and engage fans to generate positive word-of-mouth.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has been a 75-year-old technology leader with operations across 170 countries and an employee strength of over 3,20,000 employees. In 2013, HP launched Actionable Analytics Services (HAVEn) a Big Data analytics platform, leveraging the capabilities of Hadoop, Autonomy, Vertica, Enterprise Security, and n applications. HP enterprise wanted to mobilize the prospective and existing customer base to embrace the HAVEn offering. Historically, large organizations had a fair coverage and influence on the entire sales cycle with them driving need identification all the way through to influencing the purchase decision and purchase. However, recent studies started showing that this was changing, and nearly 70% of the purchase decision was made before engaging a sales representative independent of the offering. The HAVEn team was aware of this shift in trend, and for an enterprise class product, with high initial investment needs and relatively new outlook to how businesses could extract value; the need to influence sales cycle right from stage-one to drive adoption was an important task. Pramod Singh, Director of HP digital analytics and Ayush Jain, manager of HP social media analytics were approached by the HAVEn team to help them identify the most relevant influencers in the Big Data space and help device a strategy of engagement with the same. Topic relevant influencer identification was tough considering the volume, velocity, and complexity of social media content. Quantifying the influence of the brands, thereby enabling comparison and competitive benchmarking was even more difficult. The problem of firstly defining influence, and then identifying influencers relevant to a topic of interest, in real time, using a data source that was high volume, high velocity with little or no structure, was a challenge that enticed Pramod and Ayush to group their best talent pool together.

The management of the Youreka Hotel in Amritsar, India, was concerned about the hotel's overall returns relative to its annual operating cost and large initial investment. The new five-star hotel was now up and running and customers had started checking in, but occupancy levels were low. The hotel industry in India was making double-digit margins, but the hotel had not even achieved operational breakeven yet. Of key importance for the operations head was choosing the best seafood supplier - based on selling price, transportation cost and other factors - for supplying the hotel's restaurants. A poor decision could have a negative impact on room occupancy and profitability. Among management, there were also concerns that the location of the hotel might be unfavourable. When could the operations head expect the hotel to match the profitability of the industry? What could he do to improve the hotel's profitability?

Starting with a small pilot centre in Hyderabad in 2010, a chain of quality dialysis centres had grown to 25 centres by mid-2014, with plans to expand to 100 by 2017. As they planned for this growth, the three co-founders had several questions with respect to NephroPlus's business model, partners, staff, systems, processes and culture playing on their minds. With the threat of competition looming large, they knew that they had to work hard to achieve both high quality and affordability as they continued with their fast-paced growth.

This is a case organized around the theme of preserving an entrepreneurial culture in the face of rapid growth, including over 800 employees and several offices. Founded by four friends, all still under age 30, the company has reached over $124 million in annual sales. As of January 23, 2015, when the company went public, its market valuation was over $1.5 billion. The company is particularly conscious of wanting to preserve the open, action-centered, fun culture that has been created. In some ways it is a highly representative Silicon Valley technology company, and the case tries to capture the flavor of such an organization. There is an excellent video available that was made for Inc. magazine when it named Box CEO Aaron Levie as entrepreneur of the year in 2013,[1] as well as several video interview clips done for the case with Dan Levin, COO.

The Columbus Partnership, a civic alliance bringing together the heads of roughly 50 leading organizations in central Ohio, has made strides in developing the region's economy. But a stinging defeat at the ballot box has set back the Partnership's efforts to improve local public education. As the case opens in May 2014, the Partnership's leaders must decide whether to continue to try to improve public education and, if so, how.

The head of Performance and Rewards at Tata Motors Limited (TML) was reviewing the reports before him and deliberating their implications. The company had just embarked on a major initiative to identify employees' concerns and the results were not good. Employees across all levels, including senior leadership, were unclear about their compensation. The employees were not the only ones who were puzzled; even the recruitment team at TML had no clear basis for determining and comparing the salaries of new recruits. It was obvious that something needed to be done. Should it be a major restructuring of the compensation or could the matter be solved by simply educating the employees? Should the company remove some of the components from its compensation structure to make it simpler? If so, which components could be dropped and which should be retained?

In 1995, Titan launched the first branded range of jewellery - 'Tanishq' - in India's highly fragmented and disorganised jewellery market. Tanishq performed exceedingly well, attracting a large customer base that was assured of quality and purity. However, the jewelry business faced challenges on account of customer sentiments being impacted by inflation, uncertain economic conditions and rising gold prices. There was also concern that the young Indian woman was disinterested in jewellery. To address these issues, as well as expand the company's reach and customer base, the Tanishq team identified a hitherto neglected segment - working women. Within 12 months, it conducted activities ranging from customer segment identification and understanding, as well as defining the proper distribution channels, and launched 'Mia' - "the Tanishq for work wear, for the working women". Mia's design and retail strategy continues to evolve three years after its launch. But despite its growth, it is almost impossible to identify the market size of potential Mia customers. Moreover, the needs of these target consumers' are changing rapidly, and so, refreshing the range, while maintaining its affordability, is a challenge. How large would Mia's market be? Can it become a brand in its own right? Could it be the next Tanishq for Titan?

Henry Wu, the Programme Director of the Transformation Office at Alexandra Health System (AHS), conferred with his team on the status of the Population Health programme, a joint initiative between AHS and Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH), in May 2015. The programme sought to increase health awareness and encourage a targeted population of the island city-state's residents to make positive lifestyle changes. The centrepiece of the programme is a systematic effort to attract residents to voluntary screening events to assess their health and lifestyle habits. The programme also provides a clear path co-developed by residents, community nurses and intervention specialists for unhealthy or high-risk residents to seek medical treatment or participate in lifestyle intervention programmes. The most critical outcome would be encouraging them to take appropriate follow-up actions and be able to measure their habits and behaviour. In the longer term, the Population Health team faces the task of scaling up the program from an initial target population of 16,000 residents to cover the entire population of 220,000 residents over the age of 40 in the north of Singapore. The stakes are high for Singapore's healthcare system and in particular for AHS, a healthcare cluster in the north that manages Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH). KTPH has only been open for less than five years and is already experiencing serious capacity constraints. Most incoming patients are residents over the age of 50 who suffer from chronic diseases. Doctors and hospital administrators believe that a population health programme targeting people over the age of 40 could mitigate hospital resource strain by averting chronic diseases before symptoms became more acute as people age. By encouraging middle-aged residents to live healthier and more active lives, the anticipated rise in healthcare demand (and associated costs) for the next generation of elderly Singaporeans could be stabilised.

Optima Business Group (OBG), a consumer packaged goods firm, achieved significant improvements in its sales and distribution processes through the implementation of sales force automation (SFA). The implementation was carried out in the urban markets of OBG, but it was not an easy journey. The chief technology officer has to decide whether OBG should implement SFA in its rural markets and, if so, how it should be executed. What are the risks and benefits of implementing the system? Competitors are fast leveraging information technology in other functions such as finance, HR and vendor management and OBG needs to catch up. Finally, competitors of OBG are adopting innovative methods to share the costs of IT implementation (e.g., handheld devices) with their partners. Faced with different options, and a unique terrain of conducting business in the emerging economy of India, the chief technology officer has to decide on OBG's future IT strategy.

This case illustrates some of the complexities involved in teaching in a participant-centered learning process. Specifically, it focuses on the learning process components as well as the tensions and barriers that hinder teaching practice changes. It describes an actual teaching experience with a couple of former Colombian combatants -one from a paramilitary group and another one from a guerrilla army- who are invited to an undergraduate public management course to share their life experiences with students in an innovative attempt by the teacher to bring the reality of this conflict closer to class participants. Students' reactions in class and their subsequent analysis build up a tense atmosphere that drives the professor to question her own teaching methods. On account of the specific issue addressed by this case -students' attitude towards Colombia's armed conflict as a result of their social status- this case may be used to discuss the impending challenges faced by a society after a conflict like the one experienced by Colombia.

The 2010 Harvard Business Review (HBR) article made the term "entrepreneurship ecosystem" prominent for the first time, reflecting this dynamic and largely self-regulating system. The SE (formerly, Southern Energy) case enriches this dialog on engaging larger corporations in fostering entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship ecosystems and helps the discussion transcend polemic prescription and overly simplistic stereotypes of what larger corporations should or should not do. The case also highlights the potential benefits for larger corporations by engaging with entrepreneurial ventures. The case describes SE's development from a small local utility located on the far western coastline of Denmark to an increasingly global player in electricity distribution and sales, telecommunications, including broad band internet, cable TV, renewable energy, and related fields. Although admittedly lacking a coherent strategy, SE has launched several entrepreneurial programs. The most prominent and visible activity is the Next Step Challenge, a new-as of the time of the case-global startup competition initially targeted to startup ventures in fields closely related to energy and telecommunications. Eight ventures from Denmark, the United States, Chile, and Serbia participated in the first three-month long program, which took place in Esbjerg, Denmark. The case outlines the program details, and participants' views of the benefits and drawbacks of the program. SE is committed to, and has budgeted for, three iterations of the Next Step Challenge. Whereas most discussions of how corporations may programmatically engage entrepreneurship would focus entirely on this startup competition, the case also describes two additional programs with later stage entrepreneurial ventures. One is SE Blue Equity, a DKK 640 million, about $120 million, private equity fund managed by SE and three large Danish corporations and funds.

This case describes the events following an incident of a rape in a taxi associated with Uber, by its driver. Uber was an application based taxi operator. The events raised several issues for government systems and processes, such as need for regulation of new formats of business like application based taxi services, integrated databases, checks against forgery and holistic approach towards women safety. The case also brings out how an e-commerce business raises regulatory concerns.