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It was the waiting that drew the attention of the Stockholm County Council. In 2008, patients seeking a hip or knee replacement in Stockholm County faced wait times of up to two years of sometimes debilitating pain, intermittent missed work and income, and the trials of disability. Seeking a new model to lower wait times, but also improve patient choice of care, County Council Senior Medical Adviser, Dr. Holger Stalberg, set out to create a bundled payment system for hip and knee replacements in the County. The new model, called OrthoChoice, was set to go into operation on January 1, 2009.

Riverview Law, run like a business rather than a traditional law firm, wants to expand its unconventional concept from the UK to the US. The firm's approach includes performing all legal work for annual fixed-price contracts, using data and analytics to advise clients on ways to reduce their legal problems (and spending), and evaluating lawyers' performance based on client satisfaction surveys rather than typical metrics like billed revenues. With detailed information on the firm's financial performance, service teams, pricing, culture, and business model, students can debate whether Riverview poses a truly disruptive threat to traditional law firms.

Alibaba is the world's largest online trading platform, with higher revenues than Amazon and eBay combined. Its 2012 syndicated loan was the first sizable loan for a Chinese technology company with few tangible assets. Creative loan covenants stated that the subsidiaries would repatriate 100 per cent of the distributable profits for debt service. The loan was partially used for the buyback of Yahoo!'s stake in Alibaba. In the agreement, Yahoo! would sell half of its stake back to Alibaba immediately and an additional 10 per cent during Alibaba's IPO in the next few years, and divest the remainder sometime after that. Now, Alibaba thinks it is time to tap the debt market in order to pay off the $4 billion in loans it received in 2012 and to finish the payments owed to Yahoo! for the stock repurchase.

An investment analyst needs to recommend whether her firm should become an institutional investor in HudBay Minerals Inc., which is nearing completion of an acquisition to purchase another mining company, Norsemont Mining Inc.

Green Freight Asia (GFA) is a three-part case. Part A chronicles the formation of GFA, a private sector initiative that grew out of a network of companies that came together in 2011 to reduce air pollution and CO2 from road freight emissions in the Asia Pacific region. GFA's primary goal is to incentivise the adoption of green freight practices by creating a label that recognises and rewards companies for their commitment to improving fuel efficiency and reducing vehicle emissions. GFA's label programme, finalised in March 2014, establishes four levels of recognition, each represented by a logo with a corresponding number of 'Green Leaf(s)'. However, GFA lacks the necessary data management systems and processes to run the programme. This means that GFA needed a mechanism to collect, verify and incorporate company reported data into the labelling programme. To address this issue, in May 2014, Stephan Schablinski, the chief executive officer of GFA, seeks potential partners to collaborate with GFA on a comprehensive IT solution for the programme. He is not interested in a typical IT services arrangement but also because he believes that working with GFA could provide ample business opportunities for an entrepreneurial partner. Part B of the case series explores how a collaborative partnership between GFA and an IT solution partner could work. A workable partnership must consider alternative models for financing, since GFA lacks the financial resources to pay for the development, implementation, operation and maintenance of the data management system. The partner must provide a feasible, innovative and creative means to commercialise at least some aspect of the GFA partnership. Part C of the case series takes a look at the capabilities of what a successful data collection, analytics and reporting platform could do. And how the platform could potentially influence policy and expand collaboration into more wide-reaching spheres to mitigate global climate change.

At the close of open-enrollment in March of 2014, Kevin Counihan, CEO of Access Health CT, Connecticut's state health insurance exchange, stops to consider the success it has experienced so far and think about how to ensure its long-term sustainability.

When Reckitt Benckiser (RB), a leading consumer goods company, first entered China, it encountered significant challenges. RB's strategy relied on selling high margin products supported by cost-effective advertising and distribution, but the highly competitive Chinese market made it hard to sustain high margins, inflated television advertising rates made marketing expensive, and an inefficient distribution system increased costs further. In 2010, RB managed to overcome these constraints for one of its brands, Durex, the best-selling condom brand in the world, by leveraging Chinese social media platforms and investing in offline and online distribution. The new strategy paid off - Durex condom sales increased threefold in China and market share increased by over 10%. RB now wanted to generate the same results for its other brands in the country, and needed to decide how to balance investments in offline distribution, social media campaigns, and e-commerce in order to keep growing not just in China, but in other emerging markets as well.

Starbucks Coffee Company: Transformation and Renewal analyzes the turnaround and reconstruction of Starbucks Coffee Company from 2008 to 2014 as led by CEO and co-founder Howard Schultz. The case offers executives and students an opportunity to examine in depth how Schultz and his team saved Starbucks from near-collapse, by both executing a deep, comprehensive return to its core values and, at the same time, investing in a range of new products, customer experiences and organizational capabilities designed to make the company fit for enduring success in a turbulent global economy. Set against the backdrop of the Great Recession, the case also considers the impact of unprecedented important shifts in consumer spending and confidence as well as new competitive forces on Starbucks' transformation. The case concludes by examining Schultz's own leadership journey, the lessons he learned personally during Starbucks transformation, and how he is using these lessons-within Starbucks and on the national stage-to redefine the roles and responsibilities of a public corporation in the 21st century.

This case series deals with an executive education institution and its entrepreneurial-minded leader on the 25th anniversary of the institution. Central to developing a strategy for the future is a decision about leadership capacities that need to be developed for the school's participants, and what kind of education will be needed. The central figure of the case believes strongly in parallels between arts and management and in innovative experiences which inspire leadership. How far to go with these relative to the usual "boiler-plate" of leadership teaching is major feature of these cases. The A case takes the perspective of the school's president. The B case takes the multiple perspectives of eight contrasting stakeholders. The C case takes the perspective of the Board. The D case brings the participant up to date on what actually happened.

An up-and-coming entrepreneur, Gil Lehner is looking ahead and deciding on his next move. But Gil's situation is unusual: He was just diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer and his prognosis is not good. His chance of surviving longer than five years is only 18%. So what should he do with his last few years? Should he return to his home country of Israel and spend the time he has left with his family? Should he continue to work at the promising and possibly lucrative tech start-up that he joined last year? Or should he join two of his former classmates in establishing a nonprofit initiative to award prizes for innovative research on the illness he was just diagnosed with? Expert commentary for this fictional case study is provided by Ben Munoz and Avichai "Avi" Kremer.

An up-and-coming entrepreneur, Gil Lehner is looking ahead and deciding on his next move. But Gil's situation is unusual: He was just diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer and his prognosis is not good. His chance of surviving longer than five years is only 18%. So what should he do with his last few years? Should he return to his home country of Israel and spend the time he has left with his family? Should he continue to work at the promising and possibly lucrative tech start-up that he joined last year? Or should he join two of his former classmates in establishing a nonprofit initiative to award prizes for innovative research on the illness he was just diagnosed with? Expert commentary for this fictional case study is provided by Ben Munoz and Avichai "Avi" Kremer.

An up-and-coming entrepreneur, Gil Lehner is looking ahead and deciding on his next move. But Gil's situation is unusual: He was just diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer and his prognosis is not good. His chance of surviving longer than five years is only 18%. So what should he do with his last few years? Should he return to his home country of Israel and spend the time he has left with his family? Should he continue to work at the promising and possibly lucrative tech start-up that he joined last year? Or should he join two of his former classmates in establishing a nonprofit initiative to award prizes for innovative research on the illness he was just diagnosed with? Expert commentary for this fictional case study is provided by Ben Munoz and Avichai "Avi" Kremer.

What is a dedicated, well-intentioned public health practitioner to do when it starts to feel like the science supporting her recommendations is hardly more persuasive to her community partners than the daily horoscope? Pile on more evidence? Not by a long shot, as our case story protagonists find out the hard way in the tale of the town of East Point, a diverse and hard-working community in the fictitious US state of Columbia. East Point and its high school are faced with hard choices at every turn: Offer comprehensive sex ed, but then have to cut afterschool programs to address the town's budget crisis? Accept serendipitous outside funding for abstinence-only education, but then deprive the town's youth of effective school-based sexual health education?

The case tracks the creation and growth of a social enterprise, Made By Survivors (MBS), founded by Sarah Symons and John Berger. Inspired by a documentary on sex trafficking and a visit to a Nepalese non-profit that helped women freed from sex trafficking (survivors), Symons conceived the idea for a business that would help survivors become financially independent and restore their lives. With Berger's help, she launched MBS to sell handicrafts, stationery, and home goods in the United States, all products that were made by survivors in several countries, thus providing them a source of income. To grow sales, the co-founders tried different means of selling, altering the product mix, partnering with suppliers, starting production on their own, and designing products to increase appeal to U.S. customers. The case ends with the co-founders wondering how to multiply revenue to benefit greater numbers of survivors. Should they modify their business model or adopt a new one? Modify their organization's mission and identity? The case asks students to generate ideas for high growth and determine MBS's strategic direction.

The target market of Citibank cards in India was aligned with the profitability objectives of the company. However, if it continued with its current strategy, it faced the risk of being a niche player in a growing market and losing the profit potential from other segments and geographies in the near future. The CEO needed to reconsider the target market and finalize a marketing strategy in the face of the changing composition of the marketplace, the competition and the commercial imperatives of the credit card business. This was a critical decision that would have a long-term impact on resource deployment and budgeting.

A manager, preparing for an interview with Visa Inc., seeks to understand the nature of the global payments industry and Visa Inc.'s position within it. The case outlines the industry's history and current practice through extensive use of publicly reported information. The public information allows answers to some important questions. What does Visa Inc. do? How competitive is the industry? And what is the source of Visa Inc.'s competitive advantage? Student spreadsheet is available, see <a href=https://www.iveycases.com/ProductView.aspx?id=66756>7B14A018</a>.

Mistral Energy is looking to build a $40 million power plant in close proximity to both the Alberta and Saskatchewan power markets. The Alberta market is deregulated and the price fluctuates hourly with supply and demand. The Saskatchewan market, on the other hand, is a regulated monopoly. Mistral Energy needs to understand into which market they should sell their power. Because the prices available in Saskatchewan are unknown, Mistral is particularly interested in what power price would make the company indifferent between markets. Additionally, because the power plant is roughly equidistant between Alberta and Saskatchewan transmission lines, it might be possible to choose between markets on an hourly basis. Mistral is interested in investigating the value of this inter-market connection. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, this switch is not instantaneous, and the plant must be shut down for 30 minutes before supplying power into the other market. Another challenge is predicting when the power price in Alberta will be greater than the contract price available in Saskatchewan. Because the future Alberta price is unknown and highly variable, the risk exists that high prices might not be sustained long enough for Mistral to realize any value.

It was 2005 and David Steiner, CEO of Waste Management (WM), had just received a report from an internal advisory panel created some months before to assess the future of the waste management industry and propose how the company's strategy should be adapted. The core of this report was the recommendation to create a special unit within the company, chartered with the central purpose of identifying ways to extract value from waste through new and innovative waste technologies.

Gaston Acurio, star chef and restaurateur from Peru, must decide whether and how to adapt his signature Peruvian cuisine to local tastes as he opens restaurants in new countries.