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John Davidson, a partner at Ware Street Capital (WSC) and a board member at Fast Ion Battery, had just received a phone call from Don Lerner at Bluelock Ventures telling him that Bluelock would not participate in the $ 5 bridge financing for Fast Ion Battery. Lerner's call could not have come at a worse time. Fast Ion was running out of cash and needed another round of financing urgently to continue developing its revolutionary battery. Davidson faced a real dilemma. On the one hand, the company was finally gaining traction with developing its technology and the search to replace the current CEO had yielded two prospective candidates who were extremely well-suited to drive the company forward with a more capital efficient business model. On the other hand, Ware Street Capital and the two other investors had already invested $10 million into a company that had not performed up to investors' expectations. Would they be throwing more good money after bad by providing the bridge financing? Moreover, would other, later stage, investors be willing to provide the significant amounts of capital required to get the company to an exit event given the changing climate for clean tech investments? These questions became more pressing following Lerner's call that Bluelock had chosen not to continue backing Fast Ion. Was Fast Ion Battery worth saving?

In 2010, Pfizer established four small research units in New York, Boston, San Francisco, and San Diego located close to several premier Academic Medical Centers (AMCs), or hospitals with adjoining medical schools. The goal of these units was to redesign collaboration with Pfizer and academic medical researchers with the purpose of developing new, innovative drugs candidates for testing in patients. Project teams consisted of Pfizer scientists and academics working side-by-side to reduce the time needed to bring a therapeutic drug from the lab to a patient's bedside. This case explores the academic collaboration model developed by Pfizer. What were the strengths of and challenges facing this model? How would the model evolve in the future? And how would new, similar collaboration models surfacing at other major pharmaceutical companies pose a threat to the Pfizer model?

Cree, a North Carolina-based maker of light emitting diodes (LEDs), has just introduced its first consumer product - an LED light bulb. It is designed as an energy efficient replacement for the ubiquitous incandescent light bulb. But given that it is an unfamiliar technology and that it costs ten times what an incandescent bulb costs, there are questions about how best to promote adoption and what sales level might be expected.

By 2014, IKEA Group was the largest home furnishing company, with EUR28.5 billion of sales, and planned to reach EUR50 billion by 2020, mainly from emerging markets. At the same time, IKEA Group had adopted in 2012 a new sustainability strategy that focused the company's efforts on its entire value chain from its raw materials sourcing to the lifestyle of its end consumers. The plan especially centered on wood, which represented 60% of IKEA Group's total procurement in volume and constituted a key lever for the company to increase its positive impact on sustainability. IKEA Group Management therefore had to decide how to manage its portfolio of wood sustainability initiatives, especially in the context of the company's aggressive growth plan.

A student must decide whether to break his promise and leave the company that sponsored his MBA when he is offered a dream job by a Silicon Valley start-up. Expert commentary comes from Carolin Oelschlegel, a principal at Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company), and J. Frank Brown, managing director and COO of General Atlantic, a global investment firm, and former dean of INSEAD.

A student must decide whether to break his promise and leave the company that sponsored his MBA when he is offered a dream job by a Silicon Valley start-up. Expert commentary comes from Carolin Oelschlegel, a principal at Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company), and J. Frank Brown, managing director and COO of General Atlantic, a global investment firm, and former dean of INSEAD.

A student must decide whether to break his promise and leave the company that sponsored his MBA when he is offered a dream job by a Silicon Valley start-up. Expert commentary comes from Carolin Oelschlegel, a principal at Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company), and J. Frank Brown, managing director and COO of General Atlantic, a global investment firm, and former dean of INSEAD.

The case describes a situation faced by the Starter Motor and Generator (SMG) Division of Bosch Limited in India as a consequence of the global restructuring of the Bosch Group in 2007. The SMG division had not earned profits for 22 years since its inception, but was accommodated as part of the India operations of Bosch Limited as other divisions cross-subsidized the division. However, after the restructuring, the division became part of the global product division which had no incentives to tolerate the continuation of a loss-making division. The local management was forced to make strategic and operational changes to make the division viable to avoid the harsh decision of closing down the operations of the business. The case briefly describes the operational changes that were implemented to improve profitability, and then focuses on the strategic decision related to choice of a new business model which had consequences for the organizational structure that was adopted.

Hemant Luthra, Chairman and Arvind Mehra, Executive Director and CEO, Mahindra Aerospace needed to examine the prospects of the aerospace industry in India and decide on the organization's growth strategy. Mahindra Aerospace was a leader among private sector organizations in India that, in addition to building capacity outside the country, had established manufacturing capacity in India for the aerospace industry. The top executives needed to take stock of how the situation had evolved since its entry into the industry to decide on the next major strategic moves. Luthra and Mehra had to decide the next major strategic moves for the company. The Mahindra Group had already established some relevant capabilities, and Mahindra Aerospace added some focused capabilities by acquisitions, and was well-poised to participate in engineering design, and also be a supplier to some majors. With strong technological capabilities relative to other new players and a relative cost advantage over traditional American and/or European players, Mahindra hoped to be able to chart a strategy that allowed them to move up the value chain. However, the top executives were sensitive to the unique features of the sector - long gestation periods for product development and production and high volatility in the market. Hence, prudent capital investment decisions were very critical for the long-term health of the organization.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF), a Bangalore-based Indian non-governmental organization, is hailed globally for running the world's largest school meal programme. It has grown from serving five schools in Bangalore in June 2000 (1,500 children) a day to its current operations of 19 locations in nine Indian states, providing lunch meals to approximately 1.5 million school children every day. This case looks at the operations of one of its larger kitchens, which is located at Vasanthapura in Bangalore. It describes the complete range of activities: procurement, pre-processing, cooking, and finally packaging and dispatch, at this center. The case is rich in data and helps generate discussions around the material planning, procurement, and production planning activities at this kitchen.

SSISM is the case of a missionary organization, founded by an upwardly mobile IT professional Pranjal Dubey, who leaves the trappings of a successful career to pursue what he felt was his life's calling, to make a difference to the community around his ancestral village, through providing better education to the youth. The case highlights the effort and evangelistic zeal of Pranjal as he battles multiple hurdles on a daily basis to try and make a difference at the grass root level. However, what clearly needs to be defined is how he can establish a viable business model, in the absence of which the organization is unlikely to achieve its vision. The case discusses the various challenges SSISM faces on multiple fronts including motivating people, ensuring quality of education, financing, and changing social mind-sets. It also addresses the issue of society's involvement and responsibility. From the perspective of Pranjal, the main protagonist, the case provides several rich pastures of discussion including, should he manifest a local or global perspective, and how should he sustain the movement, going forward? The case touches upon several processes that are fundamental in Strategy and entrepreneurship in terms of developing a sustainable business model for an entrepreneurial missionary organization. As an entrepreneurial missionary firm in its growth phase, SSISM needs to manage the fine balance between growth (current revenues, clients, etc.) and sustaining and disseminating its evangelistic vision.

Grameen Koota had escaped any direct impact of the crisis faced by the microfinance industry due to new legislations introduced by the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh in 2010. External sources of funds had dried up for the microfinance sector thus impacting growth. While evaluating his organization's performance during the last two years, Suresh Krishna, Managing Director of Grameen Koota was concerned about the imminent shortfall in the growth envisioned in 2010. The tumultuous industry condition was accompanied by an uncertain regulatory environment. While exploring options for growth, Krishna wanted to assess whether to expand operations to new districts and new states or consolidate and grow in the existing regions of operations. Concentrating operations implied risking too much in too few states in a shaky regulatory environment while expansion to nascent geographies could potentially erode the low margins. It was a difficult choice, so Krishna wanted to make sure that he arrived at the decision after a thorough evaluation of the opportunities, costs, and risks associated with expanding the distribution reach.

Easwaran Iyer, Dean of the Jain University's Business School, wanted to ensure that they admitted the right set of students to their Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, but he was not sure about the parameters that could be used to identify students who were ideal for the MBA program. Jain University received applications for the MBA program from across India and admitted approximately 400 students every year. There had been a steady increase in the number of applications received by Jain University over the years. Placement performance played a major role in attracting good quality students to the MBA program in India. In 2012, over 180 Business Schools in major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Dehradun closed down. Although, there could be many reasons for their closure, their inability to place their students played a key role. At the beginning of every admissions season, which began in April and stretched until July, Iyer thoroughly screened the admission seeking candidates and decided along with his admission committee which of candidates were admitted or rejected. Although there was no penalty if a non-placeable student was selected, it would weigh heavily on the institute's reputation. A wrong pick could eventually contribute towards an increase in the number of unplaced students as well as a reduction in the average salary. Moreover, there was the possibility of rejecting a placeable candidate. What made Iyer's job tougher was that he was expected to increase the batch size while also increasing the quality of the admitted set of students. He acknowledged that MBA admissions needed much more analytical reasoning, taking multiple criteria into consideration.

Efficiently and effectively providing flu shots on a college campus is the challenge that faces the school's director of health services. After a failed flu shot program the year prior and the resulting epidemic, the director must ensure students, faculty and staff receive the shot this year. Benchmarking reveals that a single day flu shot marathon has been successful on other campuses but lines must be managed to limit waiting time. The reader is introduced to basic queuing theory to determine how many shot stations are needed balancing line length and cost. They also explore the impact of peaks on line management.

International Services Group (ISG) serves global and local clients with accounting solutions. ISG has grown substantially over the last few decades, thanks to a very pro-active management culture at the local subsidiary level. While this growth has been good, it has also introduced certain inefficiencies. ISG's chief executive officer now wants to change the organization from a locally responsive structure to a globally integrated one by introducing a global accounting software program. The case describes how the implementation meeting, which was conducted in a video-conferencing format, failed. The case deals with boundary-spanning leadership issues across functional, cultural, hierarchical and geographic domains, and it highlights the managerial side of change.

LevelUp's mobile payments service lets users scan a smartphone barcode rather than swipe a credit card. Will consumers embrace the service? Will merchants? LevelUp considers adjustments to make the service attractive to both consumers and merchants, while trying to accelerate deployment at reasonable cost.

In December 2013, music superstar Beyoncé is about to surprise her fans with the release of her self-titled album. The team at her company Parkwood Entertainment, which general manager Lee Anne Callahan-Longo described as "a management, music, and production company that is owned and at the highest level operated by an artist," had chosen to release the entire album at once and exclusively via the Apple iTunes Store, without any prior promotion-a significant, and potentially very risky, departure from how music was traditionally released. Sony Music's label Columbia Records, with whom Parkwood partnered on recorded-music activities, shared the costs-and therefore also the risk-of the album, which had been one-and-a-half years in development and was a particularly expensive proposition because of the many videos. How would fans and music industry insiders react to the daring launch, unveiled via Beyoncé's Facebook and Instagram accounts? Would the album be able to find a large enough audience even without traditional promotional activities? And would there be any adverse reactions, for instance from traditional music retailers refusing to carry the physical album later?

A recent MBA graduate had been renting a condominium, and a similar unit next door had just been listed for sale. Now facing the classic buy-versus-rent decision, the young grad decided it was time for her to apply some of the analytical tools she had acquired in business school - including "time value of money" concepts - to her personal life.

The Chery Automobile case focuses on the Chinese company, which, in 2007, was the fourth largest automotive company in China. Chery was growing at enormous speed, and was already exporting to over 50 countries, primarily in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Chery was determined to enter the coveted U.S. and Western European markets, and in 2007 it struck a strategic alliance with the struggling U.S.-based Chrysler Company. The case explores the barriers that Chery was facing trying to enter these markets and asks students to evaluate if the strategic alliance was the best strategy for it to eventually establish itself independently in the mature and discerning U.S. and European markets.

The case tells the story of Chef Ferran Adrià and describes the transformation of elBulli, a renowned Michelin three-star restaurant located in Spain's Costa Brava, since the restaurant's opening in 1961 until its closing in 2011. Why would Ferran Adrià close elBulli? Was the iconic restaurant yet another financial crisis victim? Had the chef and his team tired of success or run out of creative juices, unable to keep up with the hectic innovative pace required to create new, ground-breaking menus year after year? What else could have possibly driven Adrià to turn away from the restaurant's huge, untapped demand, with some two million reservation requests a year and a seating capacity for 8,000? Why would he risk turning this "gastronomic success" -a restaurant that had been named the world's best restaurant five times- into a foundation yet to be formulated and shaped?