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In 2005, Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) invested in oil exploration leases in the Beaufort Sea in the Alaska Arctic. A few years later, additional leases were acquired in the nearby Chukchi Sea. After years of delays, Shell began drilling in the summer of 2012 with two drillships. More delays and the short drilling season resulted in only two partially drilled wells. On the journey south after drilling was completed, one of the ships had an engine fire and the other one ran aground. The Kulluk, the drillship that ran aground, was eventually scrapped. After spending more than $5 billion on its Arctic exploration program between 2005 and 2015, the company had very few results for its efforts, raising questions about Shell's and the industry's ability to manage large complex oil and gas projects in the Arctic.

Nigeria's oil industry was in decline. Nigerian crude was having trouble finding customers, fuel shortages plagued the domestic economy, and power plant outages were rising. NNPC had failed to develop one of the world's largest reserves of natural gas, Nigeria's four refineries were operating at a fraction of capacity, and the company was considered inefficient and corrupt. Many voices were now calling on President Muhammadu Buhari, newly elected in May 2015, to reform Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or sell off the national treasure for an estimated $75 billion.

This case comprises four scenarios that exemplify some of the benefits of a very brief, very inexpensive educational program, El Gran Proyecto Salta (The Big Leap Project). Salta was designed to assist female micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries by teaching them basic business knowledge so that they might make the leap to the next level of success. Salta instruction was provided free of cost to more than 100,000 Peruvian women in very brief stand-alone sessions (three hours per session) at exceptionally low cost to sponsors ($38 per participant). Four women who participated in Salta are featured in this case. Each of these micro-entrepreneurs' stories includes their personal backgrounds, their adaptations of Salta lessons and experiences, and the benefits derived for their businesses, families, communities, and for themselves.

Meizhou Dongpo is a large catering group in China. On June 6, 1996, the first Meizhou Dongpo Restaurant was opened in Beijing. The enterprise entered the stage of rapid development in 2000, and set up Beijing Meizhou Restaurant Management Co., Ltd. In June 2003 the business mainly covers restaurant management, catering services, food processing and sales, with its headquarters in Beijing including logistics center and central kitchen. By the end of 2013, Meizhou Dongpo Group covered six business types. Meizhou Dongpo Group has annual operating revenue of over RMB 1.8 billion, accumulative consumers of over 20 million persons-times and more than 8,000 employees. This case focuses on the starting-up process of Meizhou Dongpo Group by Wang Gang. Meizhou Dongpo has grown from a small restaurant into one of top 100 catering companies in China. This simple and arduous entrepreneurship story has been happening over the past decade in the highly competitive traditional catering industry. High technology, well-educated talent, employed manager, brand-new business model and financial support from bank or venture capital institutions cannot be found in the entrepreneurship history of Meizhou Dongpo. The case is a good attempt to analyze how did Wang Gang create and rule a catering empire by his unique leadership?

Since the establishment of the first Meizhou Dongpo Restaurant in Beijing in 1996, Wang Gang and his wife Liang Di have opened more than 100 chain restaurants in China and foreign countries, and set up the group headquarters, logistics center, R&D center and central kitchen. Meizhou Dongpo has grown into one of the most stable large catering enterprises in China. The enterprise entered the stage of rapid development in 2000. Meizhou Dongpo Group has annual operating revenue of over RMB 1.8 billion, accumulative consumers of over 20 million persons-times and more than 8,000 employees. Meizhou Dongpo has transformed its small-restaurant operation model at beginning into present operation model of large catering group chain. Wang Gang believed Meizhou Dongpo must take the path of standardization to become a large-scale Chinese cuisine chain enterprise. Standardized management has always been the most important development strategy at Meizhou Dongpo. Wang Gang accelerated the standardized management of Meizhou Dongpo after 2000, realizing production and processing standardization, management standardization and service standardization. The year 2013 was important to Meizhou Dongpo. On December 18, 2013, Meizhou Dongpo Beverly Restaurant in Los Angeles was opened, and "Wangjiadu" series products of Meizhou Dongpo were also sold at various supermarkets in the U.S., marking a step of internationalization taken by Meizhou Dongpo. Regular chain, standardization strategy and international development are priorities of this case.

This case presents the history and recent governance challenges of Carvajal, S.A., a Colombia-based, family-owned, billion-dollar-plus holding company that had offered printing-related (e.g., Yellow Pages, notebooks) and other products and services across and beyond South America for more than a century. Specifically, the case details the company's state of affairs in early 2011, a time by which Carvajal's flagship businesses had matured rapidly with the emergence of digital technology and diminished demand for paper/print-based products. Though profits and growth remained positive, Carvajal's leaders knew that upholding the business's legacy of returns, dividends for all family members, and extensive philanthropy would take significant strategy and execution. Compounding the strategy issues, Carvajal faced these market challenges with new leadership: the first non-family CEO since the company's inception. Well-established Colombian executive Ricardo Obregon had been hired in 2008 over two family candidates to lead the business. Obregon was to oversee a complex governance network that included a holding company with seven operating companies, their management and respective boards, a family council, and 280 members (including spouses) of a shareholding family in its sixth generation. Carvajal's business and family leaders had to face market issues and decisions that included the possibility of taking public the operating companies and/or the holding company while maintaining the business's long traditions of unity, respect, strong ethics, and philanthropy. That meant optimizing several crucial relationships: between the family and the new CEO; between the family and the board; between the operating companies and the holding company; and between members of the large Carvajal family, many of whom now resided outside of Colombia and Latin America.

A new managing director of Microsoft South Africa was appointed in 2007 at a low point in Microsoft South Africa's dominance of the software industry. He set out to address the issues by focusing on four pillars: people (employees), partnerships, revenue and local relevance. The latter included regulatory compliance requirements regarding social transformation and meeting the stringent Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment codes. The managing director knew that targets had to be met in order to build the relationship with head office and that once this was in place, it would be easier to manage the requests that were to come related to local relevance.

The Broadway Angels investment group represents one of the few women-run angel groups in Silicon Valley. The group was founded by some of the most illustrious investors and operators with the mission to generate strong returns to members and inspire women in tech and investing. The case begins during the April 2014 investment meeting of the Broadway Angels. The members are evaluating an investment in Other Machine Co (OMC) and contemplating the structure of the angel group. Through the lens of these two key decisions, the case illustrates the factors that impact the angel fund's success and its ability to support entrepreneurs.

Two groups of orthopedic surgeons form a joint venture with a community hospital to establish Hoag Orthopedic Institute, a for-profit hospital and two ambulatory service centers. By controlling and integrating all aspects of the patients' medical treatment, the physicians deliver superior outcomes, which they communicate with an annual public outcomes report. They also introduce bundled payment contracts with three insurers for orthopedic surgeries, and join a multi-hospital study for applying time-driven activity-based costing to identify process improvement and cost reduction opportunities. The case concludes with HOI leaders examining several options for expansion and growth.

Codecademy, an open-platform, online community for learning computer programming, launched in 2011. By 2014, the company had raised a total of $12.5 million in funding and was, on many fronts, an overwhelming success. However, there were still no revenues. The founders decided it was time to experiment with different monetization strategies before deciding on a way forward. Although they wanted to avoid being prematurely pressured into decisions that went against their open-platform philosophy, they also knew that in order to fulfill their mission to democratize education, they had to eventually build a revenue-generating business. But what business model should they pursue and what monetization experiments should they run?

Yantra Harvest Energy Private Limited (YHEPL), an energy service company, has sought a term loan of INR100 million to fund its growth and expansion. The Small Industries Development Bank of India, though convinced of the company's credit worthiness, is concerned about the fact the loan will be used to create assets at the premises of YHEPL's clients and YHEPL has mortgaged all its existing assets to the Urban Cooperative Bank towards working capital. Considering the nature of YHEPL's cash flow and other issues, the bank wants to design an appropriate financing product and determine whether or not financing energy efficiency projects like YHEPL's is a good business strategy.

In 2014, the owner of a family business that includes two fast-food restaurants, a highway restaurant and a catering services operation located in Pune, India, is confident that his business is at the cusp of taking off on a path that will make it significantly larger in scale. He is evaluating three alternatives: setting up a chain of small restaurants with a central kitchen facility, creating a couple of large restaurants similar to those that he has at present or investing in new highway restaurants. He also must consider whether he is ready to expand to other cities in India or globally and whether to develop family-owned land, buy new property or lease facilities for his planned ventures. He needs to come up with a strategy that best meets the needs of a changing business environment and also leverages his company's existing resources and capabilities. Before the next management meeting, he must decide what to do, in what sequence to take up the opportunities available, how to go about operationalizing the plan and also what design fallback options can be designed in case things go wrong.

Vizio has grown in the U.S. flat-screen television market with a focused low-cost strategy. The roles of Vizio and its partners along the value chain are described to understand the sources of its competitive advantage. Vizio's fast growth in a dynamic industry raises the question of what its strategic priorities should be going forward.

The focus of the case is on Enterprise, a firm operating within part of the UK facilities management industry. Set in 2012, the focus is on how Enterprise should respond to changes in market conditions, including the ongoing effects of the 2008 financial crisis, and competitor strategies.

The case examines the factors that influenced the founders' decision to establish Bayt.com in Dubai, and how the online job site transformed recruitment practices in the Middle East by facilitating access to skill and talent throughout the MENA region. Among the locational drawbacks the company had to overcome were low internet penetration rates, cultural barriers, and diverse legal and regulatory systems.

The focus is on the flat-screen television industry from the early 2000s to the early 2010s. Aspects considered include consumer purchase behaviour and the role of retailers, diverse approaches taken by TV manufacturers, examples of entry and exit, and changing sourcing arrangements, which supports discussion of the industry structure and dynamics.

The case considers the evolution of the Indian pulses market and the ensuing opportunity in the branded pulses segment. India was the world's largest producer, importer and consumer of pulses because of the high percentage of vegetarians in the local population. The Indian food industry is expected to reach US$65.41 billion by 2020 owing to the rise in middle class income, changing urban lifestyle and modern retail trade. Agro Tech Foods, the Indian arm of ConAgra Foods, USA has an opportunity to enter in the Indian branded pulses sector. The decision that Agro Tech has to make was whether to go ahead and gain the prime mover advantage or wait for the other players to cultivate the market and reap the benefits later. Company also required to see whether the Indian market was demographically, economically and psychologically ready to make investments in branded pulses and to pay a premium for the same.