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This case demonstrates the growing importance of water policy and water scarcity on key business decisions. It uses the merger of two drip irrigation companies to show how the business models of multinationals were shifting to accommodate current and expected water crises in many parts of the world. In 2012, Jain Irrigation Systems, a multinational founded in India, became sole owner of the Israel-based NaanDan Joint Venture, a privately held, well-respected irrigation technology firm. The creation of NaanDanJain evidenced the increasingly visible role of India as a global player whose multinationals acquired high-tech companies from more advanced economies. But more important for this case, when considering demographic and economic variables for each country, the merger illustrated the challenges of providing irrigation to small farmers. This case situates the formation/establishment of NaanDanJain within the divergent water policies and water practices of both Israel and India.

North Sails is the world's leading sailmaker. The company commands a global market share of more than 50% and is largely responsible for the rapid technological progress in the sailmaking industry over the past 30 years. CEO Tom Whidden needs to consider how to best defend the company's leading position. Specifically, North currently uses neither patents nor copyright to protect its technology. The company even allows its designers to use its software when they do independent work. The case encourages a discussion of the role of intellectual property rights in safeguarding technology and know-how. By highlighting the costs and benefits of patents and copyright, the case points to a challenge that is common across many companies: Their most valuable assets are largely intangible, and these assets cannot easily be pinned down and protected. North's solution to this challenge is highly unusual and creative.

After the successful launch of their virtual grocery stores in South Korean metro stations, Tesco UK is trying to determine whether the virtual grocery store concept should be launched in their home market. In order to make this decision, Tesco needs to determine the role of the virtual store(s), the location(s) of the store(s) and the product range. At the same time, Tesco needs to compare the Korean and U.K. markets in order to determine whether the virtual store concept is viable.

During the summer of 2013, the company founder and operations manager of Hockley Valley Brewing Co. Inc., a microbrewery situated in rural Ontario, were reviewing the company's product mix. Sales at a recent summer festival showed a strong demand for light beers, rather than the dark ales that made up the majority of Hockley's sales. Not only did the company compete with large multinational brewing companies, but they faced stiff competition from the established and new microbreweries that were springing up all over Ontario to meet consumer demand for fresh, local and unique beers. They had to decide whether the company should launch a new lager to further penetrate the light beer market; if so, they also had to make recommendations on pricing, distribution and promotional strategies for the new brand.

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the not-for-profit sector in Ontario was forced to shift from a provider of social needs to a creator of social opportunities for communities doubly hit by rising unemployment and falling social supports. The Ontario Trillium Foundation moved to fund innovative, collaborative programs involving not-for-profit organizations, businesses and governments in creating viable social enterprises. Ottawa, London and Sarnia were three communities faced with different, but still difficult economic times, and each had responded to the crisis by proposing alternative models of social transition. In 2013, representatives from the not-for-profit sector in these cities joined with the Richard Ivey School of Business to present a proposal that promised they would work collaboratively, learn from each other, document the entire process and develop tools to prepare and guide many others. Would the Trillium Foundation support such a creative and ambitious project?

Dicore, the third largest supplier of drilling services in the world, must increase its profitability. To do so, the executive committee is considering an expansion into the southwestern United States. The senior vice-president and general manager must create a plan that outlines whether or not Dicore should enter the southwest drilling market and, if so, if it should enter this market organically or through an acquisition.

More than one-third of India remained without electricity or received less than eight hours of electricity per day. To fight energy poverty, Boond was in the business of providing lighting solutions to the low-income population in rural India. By 2013, it had created a network of four hubs (energy centres) and impacted the lives of more than 50,000 people across two states in India through its solar energy systems. It had forged non-traditional partnerships with regional rural banks and community-based organizations and its plan was to shift from the inception phase to the growth phase in 2013-2014. The aim was to set up 30 hubs covering more than 50 districts in the states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh by 2015. This required evaluating the transformational challenges and creating an action plan to address them without losing sight of the social mission. Key obstacles included attracting social investors, extending its reach, and finding and retaining skilled employees willing to operate in small towns and villages.

EADS N.V. (EADS), Europe's leading aerospace and defence company, is reviewing its strategic positioning. EADS had planned to merge with a British company to form the world's largest aerospace company, but the merger failed mainly due to resistance from government shareholders. As a result, the firm cannot achieve its major strategic goals that were tied to the merger. In the highly competitive aerospace industry and despite also facing production issues and a corruption investigation, the firm's management must revise both its short-term goals and future action plan.

Narayana Health (NH) had been successfully delivering affordable high quality tertiary care to the masses in India through its chain of hospitals for over a decade. To encourage the adoption of the NH affordable care delivery model worldwide, Dr. Shetty, Chairman of NH, was keen to establish a hospital in the western hemisphere and believed that it was important to demonstrate the model to the US. Thus when the Cayman Islands Government was interested in developing the island as a medical tourism hub during 2008-09, Dr. Shetty agreed to develop the Health City Cayman Islands (HCCI), a 2,000 bed conglomeration of multiple super-specialty hospitals within a single campus located on the Grand Cayman Island. The first phase of HCCI, a 104 bed hospital focused on cardiac care and orthopedics, was developed jointly by NH and Ascension, the largest non-profit hospital system in US. The hospital was inaugurated in February, 2014 but there were open questions related to pricing of the procedures and the related target patient segment and volumes. Also, HCCI senior management realized the need to adapt the NH model developed in and for India to fit the new environment at Cayman and was open to experimentation in coming months.

Jeff Davis, director of Space Life Sciences Directorate at NASA, has been working for several years to raise awareness amongst scientists and researchers in his organizations of the benefits of open innovation as a successful and efficient way to collaborate on difficult research problems regarding health and space travel. Despite a number of initiatives, SLSD members have been skeptical about incorporating the approach into their day-to-day research and work, and have resisted Davis's and his strategy team's efforts. The (A) case outlines these efforts and the organization members' reactions. The (B) case details what Davis and the SLSD strategy team learned, and how they adapted their efforts to successfully incorporate open innovation as one of many tools used in collaborative research at NASA.

In 2012, Golan Heights Wines wanted to take advantage of the Chinese market. In recent years, China had demonstrated incredible growth in the wine market. Consumers' growing interest in wine products had made wineries and vineyards like Golan Heights hungry for entry. The CEO of Golan Heights Winery had gone to China with her products in 2009. She had chosen distributorships as the mode of entry because of their expertise and experience in the Chinese market, something she did not possess. Since she had entered the market, however, she had learned of the seemingly disappointing demand for Israeli wines. Sales were rather limited given the size of the market. Most Chinese consumers who sought imported wines wanted them from Europe, particularly France. Additionally, vendors and distributors did a poor job of pushing Israel products. The CEO needed to devise and execute a series of strategies to better take advantage of the impressive Chinese market, establish a brand for Golan Heights Wines and create a platform for future growth.

S. Vaseem, CEO of Shodh, a Bengaluru-based market research agency has learnt that his proposal for carrying out a market research study for a new client has just been approved. The proposal had described a study to assess the opportunities in the economy housing segment comprising apartments priced below INR 2.5 million. This segment was attracting attention from real estate developers and several big builders had announced economy housing projects. Vaseem's client wanted to enter the economy housing segment in a big way with a simultaneous launch of projects in 10 cities of South India. As the segment potential was as yet unknown, the client wanted to conduct a formal market research exercise on a pilot basis in Bengaluru to confirm the size of the opportunity and to understand consumer requirements and preferences. Shodh's proposal had included secondary research, expert interviews, focus group discussions, surveys, and conjoint analysis methodologies. Now that the proposal had been approved, Vaseem and his team had to design the data collection instruments for qualitative and quantitative research, develop the sampling plan, and begin the project.

This case traces Shenzhen-based AAC Technology's entrepreneurial journey, depicting their motivations, experiences, learning and foresight. It discusses the inter-generational transfer between the entrepreneur and his son, and their cooperation with VCs, thereby laying the foundations for a Chinese family business to transform into a first-source global supplier to several major mobile device manufacturers. Scoring wins in miniaturization and the mobile phone market, AAC continued to build its competitive advantages in high quality and fast response products. Case B examines the strategies undertaken by AAC for growth and expansion after its IPO in 2005.

In fall 2009, the new president and chief executive officer of PAR Springer-Miller Systems, based in Stowe, Vermont, is tasked with leading the most significant innovation effort the company has undertaken since its founding in 1984. The company is a leading provider of property management, point-of-sale and spa management systems for high-end hotels, resorts, spas and casinos worldwide, but its legacy products are based on outdated technology and subject to increasing customer complaints; at the same time, the global recession has negatively affected the high-end market. In his first year, the new president has made significant progress in restructuring the organization and shifting its culture to a more entrepreneurial one. He is ready to begin the development of an entirely new product but has to decide on strategy, in particular deciding on the best market on which to focus the new software product and then mapping out a plan to execute its development and launch. How can he elicit a radical innovation from a team of management and employees so culturally rooted in their past accomplishments and legacy products? Should he look for a technology partner and develop the new product in a different location? Can the legacy products be kept up and running long enough for the new product to generate sufficient sales that they can be retired? These are the issues that must be addressed or the company may well face a dire future. See B Case 9B14C023.

SolarCity Corporation competed in the downstream segment of the U.S. solar energy industry. The company installed solar panels for residential and commercial customers, using a decentralized (off-the-grid) power generation and transmission model to compete with utility companies that used a centralized (grid-based) model. Solar energy was a renewable source (unlike fossil-based energy sources) and therefore scored highly on both environmental and sustainability factors. To overcome the high switching costs to customers, SolarCity marketed solar energy using a financing model in which the company owned the assets and the customer merely paid a monthly fee for the energy used. As a new player in a nascent industry, SolarCity had never been profitable. SolarCity's co-founder and chief executive officer had to develop a plan to make the company profitable despite the fact that utility companies were fighting back politically and the government was set to reduce tax subsidies for solar assets in the near future.

The general manager at the Seoul location of a European manufacturing company faces an ethical dilemma involving bribery and "facilitation" payments. A key decision maker in a local construction company's purchasing department has asked for a "facilitation" payment as a necessary condition for securing an order. If the expatriate manager decides to pay the money, he will secure an order that will lift his company to a new level of success for years to come. If he decides not to pay, the order and all the company has worked for over the last year will be lost. The expatriate manager must decide whether or not the payment would violate laws internationally, locally and in his home country. What are the real risks? Who can help him answer the many questions he has regarding this local practice?

Katie Kotkins, director of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's (MSKCC) Cycle for Survival fundraising event, had to determine the best avenue for continuing the event's success and momentum after its founder, Jennifer (Jen) Goodman Linn (HBS '99) passed away from MFH sarcoma. Jen and her husband, David Linn (HBS '00), had founded Cycle for Survival in 2007 as a way for Jen to give back to the community of doctors that had treated her since her diagnosis in 2003. The indoor cycling event had grown rapidly, and increased fundraising from $250,000 in 2007 to $4.7 million in 2011. After the event's second year, Jen and David made the decision to hand over control to MSKCC, partner with Equinox, and expand the event's fundraising efforts. At the time of Jen's passing Kotkins was focused on the 2013 event, but was faced with a series of strategic questions after losing the event's face and inspiration.

In February 2014, Michael Schrader, chief executive of Vaxess Technologies, Inc., was assessing the startup health care company's 2014 marketing plan. On December 31st, 2013, Vaxess had obtained an exclusive license to a series of patents for a silk protein technology that, when added to vaccines, reduced or removed the need for refrigeration between manufacturing and delivery to the end patient. Schrader and his colleagues had to decide on which vaccines to focus and whether and how to target the drug companies that manufactured the vaccines or the quasi-government organizations (such as UNICEF and PAHO) and nongovernment organizations (such as GAVI) that purchased large quantities of vaccines for the developing world.

Goldman Sachs, a longtime venerable financial institution headquartered in New York City, had a partnership culture that was known to value its clients. But when the financial crisis hit in 2008 and Goldman Sachs emerged relatively unscathed, its public image took a large blow as people questioned the inner workings of the bank. To address the situation, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein called for the creation of the Business Standards Committee (BSC) to carry out a rigorous introspection of the firm. This case explores the reactions of the executives at the bank over the short- and medium-term to public accusations and scrutiny and whether the implemented solutions devised by the BSC are sustainable. It details the themes of individual and collective accountability, reputational awareness, and client care.

Global Development Network (GDN), an international public organization, supports research in developing and transition economies to advance social and economic development. During April 2011 -August 2013, it conducted a communication project titled ''Supporting Policy Research to Inform Agricultural Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia''. The project group was tasked to design and deliver a communication program to inform policymakers and other relevant target audiences across a vast geography covering Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and the world at large. Now the team at GDN was evaluating the experience to learn and improve their communication program for the next project. Tuhin Sen, the lead strategist at GDN was wondering if the outreach strategy was appropriate and how it could have been better given the intangibility of a research output that was to be disseminated to unique users such as policymakers across a diverse geography of Asia and Africa.