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The case illustrates an aspect of board work that is seldom witnessed: a board's self-reflection exercise and the subsequent recognition that its governance practices need to be transformed. It also offers a great opportunity to engage in discussion about major theoretical issues, such as the debate about the effectiveness and positive impact of independent directors vis-à-vis shareholder/stakeholder board representation. At the practical level, the case opens a window on the efforts of progressive boards in building and establishing processes conducive to sound governance practices. The case provides a platform for organizations considering the transformation of their governance practices and is relevant to both non-profit and for-profit organizations. It encourages reflection about governance whatever the nature of the organization and thus illustrates the applicability of principles of corporate governance to non-profit/humanitarian organizations. The lessons drawn from this case- should also appeal to private companies since they highlight the challenges and opportunities that governance transformation presents. Some elements of the case have been disguised for reasons of confidentiality.

A couple who had moved to a new home in Toronto noticed that the area did not offer any dining options similar to the New York diners they had loved in their four years of living there. The couple, who had two young children, could not find a place nearby that was child-friendly and served chef-quality food. Rather than waiting for someone else to fill the gap in the upscale neighbourhood, the couple opened Uncle Betty's. The restaurant was successful from day one. Now the owners want to grow Uncle Betty's but they have some key questions. What growth options are realistic in light of their current resources and capabilities? What would be the right pace for growth to prevent others from copying the Uncle Betty's experience?

In 2012, Abu Dhabi National Hotels had been struggling and the performance of the company had significantly declined, especially that of its main hotel business. Net profit had been decreasing since 2009 and, with this shrinking profitability, shareholders were losing confidence in the company. The share price of the company had also deteriorated and was expected to decline further. With the drop in net profit year after year, investors were very concerned about the company's performance and the direction of its future growth. The company had five business segments - hotels, retail services, catering, transportation and holding - and a deep analysis of the company's performance areas and plan to improve these were needed.

The entrepreneur and founder of Sonnentor, an organic food production company, has grown his business by focusing on unusual strategic and operative choices. Sonnentor emphasizes socially and environmentally responsible behaviour in all its actions and has built its business on fair partnerships with employees, suppliers and other partners. The case highlights the role of "embedded sustainability" in the success of the business and presents the challenge of transferring the founder's unique business philosophy, both to other domains and to a new managerial generation.

The general manager of GlaxoSmithKline India has been tasked to increase annual sales of the health food drink Boost to upwards of 18 per cent, without any significant change in contribution margins.<br><br>Repositioning the brand could increase the size of the target market, but may also jeopardize the brand's sharply defined positioning. Attempting expansion of the distribution network, where the competition is strong and deeply entrenched, might strain company resources and may even be counterproductive. Executing the two strategies will require entirely different skills and the deployment of diverse resources. The general manager needs to make a firm and calculated choice.

Better World Books (BWB) was founded as a for-profit "B corporation" committed to a triple bottom line of financial, social, and environmental performance. Early success with an innovative business model leveraging social entrepreneurship allowed BWB to grow revenue to over $80 million in 2014. BWB now faces challenges expanding further while sustaining their social-entrepreneurship business model. BWB currently faces such issues as narrow margins, shrinking supply, low brand awareness, and even copycat competitors. Chief Executive Office Mike Miller must decide how to handle these issues in a way that keeps BWB competitive in the crowded used-book industry and also creates value for all BWB's stakeholders.

The firing of Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas by his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, and directors affiliated with Arthur set off employee protests throughout the grocery store chain. Industry specialists estimated that Market Basket was losing close to $10 million each day in lost business and inventory, due to the protests. A long history of legal battles had destroyed the relationship between the families of the 2 cousins. This case describes the complexities of corporate governance for a family-owned organization.

DaVita had launched Paladina in early 2011 and the startup was struggling to gain traction: Paladina had already used a significant amount of the $40 million in funding committed by DaVita; the company's primary care clinics had not yet reached the number of patients necessary to sustain a profitable business; and it was in the midst of trying to integrate with another primary care clinic operator that it had acquired years earlier, but was just now merging into Paladina. Although the startup was young and still finding its way in an emerging industry, Thiry believed that Paladina would benefit from Golomb's experiences at Rx, which had also struggled in its early years. The situation at Rx became so precarious at one point that many of DaVita's senior leaders wanted to shut it down entirely. Rx made it through those challenging early years though, and was expected to exceed $600 million in revenues for 2013. However, Golomb wondered how relevant his Rx experience was to Paladina. Rx was closely tied to its parent company-DaVita provided dialysis services to patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and Rx supplied medications to ESRD patients-while Paladina's connection to DaVita was less obvious. If Golomb took the job, what could he do to make Paladina's clinics as efficient as possible in terms of service and its economics, without compromising on its value proposition? Was Paladina just too different of a business to be part of the DaVita family? This case offers an example of "intrapreneurship"-i.e. entrepreneurial ventures launched within large companies-at a Fortune 500 company. DaVita has already had a successful experience launching Rx (after some difficult early years), and the company is now even serving patients from some of DaVita's leading competitors. However, Paladina is the company's first intrapreneurial venture outside of its core focus of serving end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients-DaVita's main function is to provide dialysis se

In the spring of 2012, the Supreme Court hears arguments and releases its decision on the constitutionality of the ACA.

In 2015, the Chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications reflects on his four years leading the company and considers strategic repositioning for the future. Meanwhile, a rising leader within the organization, Marni Walden, leads change with a new, company-wide product development organization. Walden's group holds promise but must overcome cultural, structural, and technical barriers to innovating in a giant telecom. In the midst of change, executives debate the wisdom of Verizon's push into developing products and services that leverage its dominance in connectivity. Should Verizon go "above the network"?

Following a leadership crisis, the chairman of Tse Sui Luen Jewellery (TSL) had revitalized the company and now wondered which initiatives TSL should tackle next. An event showcasing TSL's newest designs had been the latest push in her campaign to renew the family business, which was renowned for its entrepreneurial and innovative spirit. With the upcoming year promising to be a busy one, the chairman and her management team must plan and implement new strategies to capture opportunities while maintaining TSL's core values and capitalizing on its revitalized brand.

The case looks at how The Abraaj Group has emerged as a global private equity firm and came to define its focus and strategy in this process. While the local knowledge and relationships is considered to be critical for value creation in the private equity industry, firms often seek to expand geographically as their funds and resources increase. The case explores how a global firm like Abraaj can balance the need to focus on local networks and knowledge with a global stretch. It tries to answer this question by focusing on how Abraaj creates value, how the firm differentiates itself from local and global competitors, and how local-global dynamics manifests itself through the different phases of the firm's business.

"Not another Bochum." Nokia Board Chairman Jorma Ollila was clear in the goals he set for the 2011 restructuring that Nokia's new CEO, Stephen Elop, had decided was necessary to address the dramatically changed competitive environment the company faced in smartphones and mobile phones. The strategy shift would include transitioning Nokia's phone operating system to Microsoft Windows, and closing phone R&D centers and factories in 13 countries, with layoffs that would eventually impact 18,000 employees. Yet with several important R&D projects still under development, and capacity needed in factories for many more months, Nokia's board and leaders wanted to avoid the mistakes the company had made in a plant shutdown in Bochum, Germany in 2008. EVP of Corporate Relations and Responsibility Esko Aho was mandated to develop a "Nokia way" to implement the restructuring that would reflect the company's values and allow them to maintain morale and commitment among the employees who would eventually lose their jobs. The case describes the development of Nokia's "Bridge" program, a comprehensive approach to helping employees find new employment opportunities and to replacing jobs in communities where Nokia had been a major employer. The case challenges students to make decisions such as when and how to tell employees about a layoff, how to manage local government leaders, and what support to provide in 13 different countries, each with its own legal and regulatory environment, cultural norms, and expectations and needs of employees and local communities.

The (A) case described the early days of Movile, a Brazilian mobile phone company, and debated the decision to open an office in Silicon Valley. The case went into the history of the firm and the mobile phone industry in Brazil. It discussed how the firm grew throughout Latin America through acquisitions and failed in earlier attempts to expand organically. The (A) case also outlined the unique culture of the firm, which blended a highly innovative culture with Movile's focus on achieving targets and results. The question of whether to expand into Silicon Valley raised the issue of the importance of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the growth trajectory of a firm. This issue was particularly significant at this point in Movile's life cycle when it needed to evolve from being a feature phone business to diversifying to include new smartphone technologies in their product offerings.

This case study describes how Fiat Brazil developed a collaborative platform that combines crowdsourcing, open innovation and creative commons in order to develop a "futuristic concept car" called Fiat Mio. Over 15 months, the Fiat Mio team managed interactions with 17,000 participants, from 160 different nationalities, and the selection and processing of more than 11,000 ideas. When Fiat Mio was launched in December 2010 at the Sao Paulo Auto Show, hundreds of people showed up to claim the prototype as their own.

In 2009, the Mahindra Group, a US$16.3 billion multinational corporation based in Mumbai, India, had introduced a new positioning called "Rise" to provide meaning to its brand and help unite its various businesses under a common umbrella. Successful integration and implementation of the new positioning required the company to re-examine its brand architecture, which was currently a complex, inside‐out arrangement that resulted in a diffused image. Aligning diverse and legacy businesses would be a complex task, and resources were limited. A clear brand architecture would not only help the company to efficiently allocate advertising dollars but could also help in identifying investment opportunities and risks among the different sub-brands. Landor Associates India, a global brand consulting firm, was tasked by the board to suggest a relevant brand architecture model that would be relevant across geographies. Should the Mahindra brand be used by all businesses, products and services? Should the company follow a conglomerate approach and create a "house of brands" as P&G and Unilever had done, or should it follow a hybrid strategy?

In the summer of 2013, the managing director of Tata Chemicals Magadi, Africa's largest soda ash manufacturer and one of the oldest and largest export earners in Kenya, was wondering how he was going to respond to a growing number of challenges. As a producer of a commodity product, the company was vulnerable to escalating energy costs, oversupply and economic cycles. Global growth had been sluggish since the 2008 economic recession and competition was intense, especially since the emergence of Chinese producers. Magadi Township, where the company's production facility was located, was one of the poorest in the country, subject to droughts and without many of the basic public services typically provided by government such as roads, health care, electricity, water and education. To address these needs, the company migrated from a top-down, paternal, ad hoc and resource-intensive approach to a bottom-up, collaborative, holistic and resource-sharing style that focused on community capacity building and self-governance. However, the issue now is how to best balance the strong need to reduce costs while remaining committed to the sustainability of the surrounding community.

Colburn University is the largest private university in the fictitious state of Columbia and is often recognized by people from distant parts of the country for its award-winning Division I athletic teams. That's why when athletic director Harry Ritchie makes an offhanded comment about Colburn student-athletes with eating disorders, the press pounces. This incident coupled with a complaint from a parent draws the attention of Dean Francis Reilly, who finds himself needing to peel back some of the layers embedding college athletics on the issue of eating disorders among athletes. Throughout the narrative, different perspectives on sports and eating disorders are revealed from top-level administrators, like Dean Reilly, to the student-athletes themselves. As the story concludes, the conversation about eating disorders has begun, but questions still remain on how to make Colburn University a healthy environment for its student-athletes.

At the start of 2014, Joanne Hill was preparing to present at a conference focused on alternative investments for financial advisers. Exhibit 1 provides selected slides from the presentation. Hill wants to showcase how Hedge Replication ETF (HDG) provided an exposure to hedge funds at low fees, with full transparency and providing daily liquidity. But she had to overcome some resistance in the audience because most hedge fund strategies had underperformed the overall stock market in recent years. Could 2014 be a comeback year for hedge fund strategies?