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Armed with an air operator's permit, Air Asia, a Malaysian low-cost carrier airline, is preparing to enter the Indian aviation market. AirAsia is known as an aggressive player globally. It plans to use aggressive pricing strategies to revolutionize air travel in India and gain competitive edge in the aviation market through highly competitive operational targets. How will AirAsia India's entry and its aggressive pricing decisions work in the oligopolistic Indian aviation market? How will the barriers to entry affect its operational targets? Will its entry cause a clash in Indian skies and disrupt industry equilibrium? What strategies should AirAsia India pursue in such a market for long-term survival and growth?

This case describes how Codensa, an electricity company in Bogotá and Cundinamarca (Colombia), developed an easy-access consumer credit business model for low-income populations leveraged by the cost structure of its core business. Codensa offered consumer credit to low income populations through the Codensa Hogar business unit, by linking together a value chain of large retailers and manufacturers of household appliances. Codensa entered into this business as part of its commercial branding strategy, contributing its billing structure as credit collection instrument. During the first five years of the program, 95% of the 450,000 people who took out one or more loans belonged to the lower economic strata, and were between 25 and 45 years old. Sixty-six percent of Codensa users were people who did not participate in the formal banking system. After obtaining a credit history with Codensa, 45% of this population gained access to other financial services. Over the course of five years, Codensa Hogar surpassed the US$250 million mark in its credit portfolio, issuing loans up to three times the salary of electric bill holders. Nearly 50% of clients asked for new credit upon completing their payments. In 2006, the unusual growth rates of Codensa Hogar aroused concern among shareholders. If it were to sustain this rate, the surplus from the electric energy business would not be enough. Growth funds should be sought from within the company or from an outside source. However, members of the financial division disagreed. They argued that the funding cost that Codensa had to pay the electricity company should include an analysis of the risks assumed by the company. The difference between the commercial and financial visions posed a variety of challenges for general management. This case may be used in intermediate courses on financial management and strategy, financial strategy and corporate strategy or courses on business models oriented towards a "double bottom line."

This case illustrates the tragedy of the commons through an interactive game to be played by students. At a United Nations world climate conference, students are divided into 10 regional blocs. With less than a day to go and no agreement among the regional blocs in sight, students use data in the case to advise the countries in their bloc regarding the collective level of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions they should adopt. When a last minute carbon tax proposal circulates, students must also recommend whether or not their bloc should sign onto the proposal. This case package includes an Excel Spreadsheet that students can use to understand the impact on Net Domestic Product (NDP) of different carbon emissions levels. Due to the need to work in groups, the case can also serve as an icebreaker.

Ankur Arora Murder Case (AAMC) was billed as the first medical negligence drama coming out of the Hindi movie industry in Mumbai (popularly referred to as Bollywood). Inspired by true events, the film received good critical response even though it was not the routine song-and-dance fare produced by most production houses. The project was beset by certain constraints, both external and intrinsic to the team. The producer of the movie was convinced that he would have a very good product once the hurdles created by legalities and other marketing-related issues were sorted out. His team had created a comprehensive marketing communications plan for the release of the movie to exploit the emotions evoked by such a sensitive subject. The box-office failure of the movie made the producer consider whether his strategy of arranging the finances of a project would work well or whether he should attempt to manage all future projects in their entirety, including production and marketing.

This case works well to provide experience with developing a revenue growth forecast using time series analysis. Students are asked to run several exponential smoothing models to predict the growth in a high-profile social network's traffic from three years of monthly history. The model students select is used to forecast a stream of future revenues in a pro forma cash flow statement. This case is supported by a teaching note, an Excel spreadsheet, a .csv file, and an R file.

This case describes the design and implementation of an IT-multi-sourcing strategy at a large global sportswear company, the adidas Group, which is headquartered in Germany. To help increase the benefits and reduce the risks of its sourcing arrangements, adidas carefully selected two tier-2 vendors to work with its primary tier-1 vendor, a large Indian outsourcing firm that it had worked with closely for over a decade. The management of the multi-sourcing arrangement is posing a number of challenges. The Chief Information Officer is considering a number of options to ensure the continued success of the multi-sourcing strategy, including restructuring the IT group, developing the skills of its staff, and starting a captive center.

Colorado's 2014 legalization of marijuana for adult recreational (not just medical) use created a new market that entrepreneurs rushed to enter, channeled by regulations that aimed to minimize marijuana's access to minors while not stifling the emergent new industry. The case describes Colorado's initial experience with marijuana legalization and asks students to assess the resulting business opportunities, regulatory efficacy, and public health implications.

The La Ribera case studies depict an innovative low cost/high quality privately financed hospital model struggling to achieve alignment with the Six Factors. It is reimbursed by the public sector in a Spanish environment whose Consumers, Structure, and Public Policy favor public health care. But the Accountability factor shows it to be the highest quality hospital in the region with 25% lower costs and Spain's Financing is weak. The A case (9-315-006) asks: What Business Model elements enabled La Ribera to achieve this level of value? How can it improve on its 1% profit margin and better align itself with the Six Factors? The hospital hired a consulting firm that presented four new options that could potentially increase returns. Which, if any, best fit with the ten elements of its Business Model? The B case (9-318-134) contains the dénouement for La Ribera.

After struggling through the country's longest recession since 2008, the U.K. was expected to grow faster than any other G7 nation in 2014. Analysts wondered whether the return to growth was because, or in spite of, Prime Minister David Cameron's controversial £113 billion austerity plan introduced in 2010. Despite the positive upturn in the economy, U.K. policymakers still faced challenges with rapidly rising income inequality, an economy dominated by the financial sector, a possible housing bubble, and an approaching referendum on Scotland's independence. Moreover, many claimed the U.K. was at risk of secular stagnation, a slowdown in economic growth caused by a structural deficiency in demand. What could the government do to put the country on a sustained and balanced growth trajectory?

The SurveyMonkey case portrays the evolution of the company from its founding in 1999 through to 2014. SurveyMonkey was launched by Ryan Finley, a young computer science graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to address the dearth of easy-to-use, affordable online survey tools on the market. In 2009, Finley sold the company to Spectrum Equity and Bain Capital Ventures, having recognized the need for a partner to help the company achieve its full potential. David Goldberg, an entrepreneur and former Yahoo! executive, took the helm as CEO and immediately put in place his plan to set the company on track to scale at a consistent and rapid pace of growth. Goldberg's primary initiatives in the early days were to hire a strong management team, rebuild the entire technology platform, and expand internationally. As it made substantial progress on these fronts, SurveyMonkey completed several acquisitions and began to expand its feature set and product offerings to include SurveyMonkey Audience (panels of survey respondents) and survey templates, among others. The company completed an $800 million secondary financing raise in 2012 to provide liquidity to employees and investors in lieu of an IPO and charged forward in its efforts to transform its survey tool to a full-blown platform. Though SurveyMonkey had established itself as the dominant player in the direct-to-consumer market by 2013, it began building out an enterprise offering to compete against the other large players in the growing enterprise feedback management space. Having achieved tremendous growth in its 15-year history, the majority of which took place since the 2009 acquisition, as Goldberg and his team looked ahead to 2014, they faced the critical question of how to prioritize SurveyMonkey's avenues for growth-international expansion, quality initiatives, enterprise, platform growth-so as to best position the company to achieve its full potential.

Ledals, one of the premier redistribution firms in the United States, had determined that whenever backorders occurred, the additional trips being made by delivery trucks were killing margins. Therefore, management imposed a new policy, whereby backordered items would be held until the next customer order was received and prepared for shipping.<br><br>This arrangement led to repercussions, with both customers and Ledals' salespeople frustrated with the new policy. Muted at first, but growing in volume, many members of the sales force were clearly disgruntled. What remained was figuring out how much damage was actually being done. Was it simply a predictable resistance to change that would resolve itself in the coming months? If it was a genuine problem, Ledals' management needed to consider what, if any, actions should be taken. Ledals also had to determine whether the problem was with the policy itself or its implementation. Regardless of the cause, management had to make a decision as soon as possible about how to move forward.

This teaching case presents a situation confronting Garfield Sinclair, the Managing Director of LIME Jamaica, a telecommunication provider, in March 2011, learning of a possible swap deal between the market leader, Digicel and its closest rival Claro (LIME's two biggest competitors). The unexpected deal threatens to create a new monopoly in the Jamaican telecommunications market. Ironically, LIME held a monopoly position in Jamaica until 2000, when new licenses were offered in the country. Now, LIME's very existence is threatened and Sinclair must decide what to do. This case supports debate on whether the telecommunications industry is a natural monopoly, and can serve as a vehicle that improves students' understanding of the complex interplay among technology, business strategy and the law.

The largest consumer of gold in the world in 2012-2013, India was a growing market for gold jewellery, largely owing to its importance in the cultural and religious traditions of the country. Gold prices in international markets had been increasing, but this had little impact on India's voracious appetite for gold. Heavy gold imports had led to an increase in country's fiscal deficit above the sustainable level of 2.5-3% of gross domestic product (GDP) and touched 4.2% in FY2012. Velvetcase, a made-to-order jewellery company in Mumbai, had started operations in the beginning of 2013 and was concerned by the government's recent policies on gold imports. Among many other measures, the Indian government had raised import duty from 4% to 10% during the year. The increase in import duties raised input prices, consequently slowing the demand for gold jewellery to some extent. Velvetcase believed that its unique business model of making jewellery using low karat gold would not only satisfy India's passion for gold, but also result in improving the current account deficit (CAD) of the country by lowering the amount (in grams) of gold used in the making of jewellery.

Describes Google's history, business model, governance structure, corporate culture, and processes for managing innovation. Reviews Google's recent strategic initiatives and the threats they pose to selected competitors. Asks what Google should do next.

Describes Google's history, business model, governance structure, corporate culture, and processes for managing innovation. Reviews Google's recent strategic initiatives and the threats they pose to Yahoo, Microsoft, and others. Asks what Google should do next.

WHDH's Channel 7 News rose to the #1 position in Boston-area news broadcasting through its embrace of an innovative format and affiliating with NBC. Since the early 2000s, however, other news programs had copied their format, and young audiences had begin to use the Internet to get their news, dramatically cutting ratings and ad revenue. Station owner Edmund Ansin and general manager Chris Wayland faced a choice of whether to use the TV news to push viewers to the station's website and monetize online, or use an online presence to build loyalty to Channel 7 and thus drive viewers to TV.

The Thunderbird website had become very difficult to manage. The ability to change content in a dynamic manner was increasingly limited. The website was not resource or SEO friendly. The Web crawlers (e.g., Googlebot, Bingbot) had difficulty finding the correct key words because of the junk code embedded in the HTML pages. In November 2012, after a broad institutional effort, a new website was launched. The new website ran on an open source technology, the code was cleaner, and offered much better access to crawlers. It made SE0 management more effective. As the MBA recruitment process becomes increasingly dependent on its online marketing strategy, the ability to buy media effectively, measure performance, and adjust its plans quickly acquire incredible relevance. The performance of the new website and the school's online media buying must be evaluated. Data on the first four months of Web traffic is available from Google Analytics. The data has been downloaded and is available as an Excel file. Thunderbird's online marketing goals are defined as (a) to improve the effectiveness of display/sponsored ads placement, (b) to increase traffic to the programs pace by 25%, (c) to improve conversions, measured by the downloading of an application form, by 30%.

Although most cases on the sustainability of supply chains focus on environmental impacts, this case assesses the role of producers and the social impact of value chains by focusing on the argan oil sector. As scientific processes proved the significant health and beauty benefits of argan oil in the 1990s, demand stirred in European and North American Markets. Dr. Zoubida Charrouf founded the first argan oil cooperative in 1996 to provide jobs to the under-privileged female producers in rural Moroccan areas. While cooperatives paid three-times more than their private competitors, women still earned a fractional share of the final retail value of the oil they worked tirelessly to produce. The question addressed in this case is: how can producers gain a greater percentage of value in the argan oil sector? Is ethical labeling, such as Fair Trade, the solution? Alternatively, could the value chain be transformed more significantly by increasing the role of certain actors (such as producers) while eliminating some actors altogether? By investigating the current value chain of argan oil cooperatives, readers are called upon to contrast the value provided by actors with their economic costs to determine a more sustainable value chain.

Multinational, multi-brand hotel corporations serve almost all segments of the market. They own hotels and work with other hotel owners through leases, management contracts and franchise agreements. In the hotel business it is widespread to receive contracts for management, but many well-known players use franchising agreements during their global expansion. In 2011, Hyatt Hotels Corporation has announced that its select-service brands are expanding internationally. Among other issues, the leadership of the corporation now needs to find answers for several questions: What modes of entry should be used in brand internationalization? How should new internationalization opportunities be pursued for the lower-category Hyatt Place while maintaining the company's premium brand?

The Caribbean Information and Credit Rating Services (CariCRIS) cases depict the strategic dynamics of setting up a first-of-its-kind international venture by an Indian credit rating agency in an emerging market. The cases trace the institutional and market development challenges in the evolution of this international joint venture (IJV) in a multi-country setting in the Caribbean and the strategic dilemmas faced by the expatriate chief executive officer (CEO) in setting up the new venture by leveraging home-country experience. Case (A) focuses on the unfolding events and the business environment that define the strategic context for the IJV's formation and up to a point in time when the management is poised to make critical market entry-related decisions.