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Zhejiang Meorient Business Exhibition Co., Ltd (Meorient) was founded in 2010 with the vision of building the world’s leading digital exhibitions company and establishing China’s first-class national exhibitions brand. This case examines Meorient brand’s internationalization platform construction and growth by embracing and harnessing digitalization. With years of experience in overseas markets and accumulated resources in various industries, Meorient has served more than 200,000 Chinese enterprises and helped Chinese manufacturers connect with the global market. Under the leadership of co-founder Fang Huansheng, Meorient established a research and development team in Hangzhou in 2018 dedicated to the integration of big-data analytics and foreign trade matchmaking systems. In 2019, Meorient Exhibition was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and became the first Chinese exhibitions company to be listed. Over three years, the company continued to refine its digital services, culminating in the creation of a distinctive digital service matrix.<br><br>A business expansion avenue emerged for Meorient following the shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. With precautionary measures and travel restrictions severely limiting offline (in-person) exhibitions globally, Meorient harnessed digital infrastructure to launch a digital exhibitions platform. To facilitate business growth in the face of substantial uncertainty and establish a global competitive edge, Meorient needed to promptly devise strategies to launch and facilitate the online exhibitions platform, and had to convince exhibitors and buyers to embrace its innovative digital products.

Street Business School (SBS) employed an innovative social-franchise model aimed at providing entrepreneurship training to one million impoverished women worldwide. Originating as BeadforLife, a non-profit organization that connected women in Uganda who produced recycled paper jewellery with international markets, SBS developed a tailored entrepreneurship program while working with small groups of bead producers. With aspirations to expand globally and impact more women, SBS adopted a social franchising model and certified other organizations to implement its valuable approach and curriculum. However, generating earned income proved challenging, and SBS relied heavily on funds raised from individuals and philanthropic organizations. In addition, the organization faced the dilemma of balancing its focus on scalability and global expansion with the depth of impact it aimed to achieve. In January 2023, the chief executive officer (CEO) wondered what she should recommend to the board as the most appropriate business model for scaling SBS’s impact.

CenturyPly India Limited (CPIL), a large wood panel products company with a supply network spread across India, had four main product lines, including laminates. In April 2020, the company’s laminates range was a growth focus for management on account of its profitability and expected growth. Despite the availability of capacity, good demand, a range of designs, and inventory at the distribution centres, CPIL’s order fill rates were less than satisfactory. The management team decided to look at its supply chain and identify solutions that could help. Based on the available data on sales, inventory, and lost sales, the management team needed to identify crucial insights that would help them take the best decisions. One important question was, How could the company adjust its current make-to-order supply chain to ensure it could meet order demands in a timely fashion and avoid losing potential sales?

Zibusiso Mkhwanazi, chief executive officer of Avatar South Africa, looked out of his office window in Johannesburg. Mkhwanazi was contemplating whether he should stay at Avatar or move on to new things. This question was triggered by a media briefing that South Africa’s Minister of Health had just given in which he outlined the rollout for the COVID-19 vaccine. Avatar had been directly involved with the communication strategies the president of South Africa and the Ministry of Health used to reach the majority of the population in a country in which access to the internet was not equal. The work had been innovative, challenging, and a matter of life and death. Mkhwanazi had enjoyed and thrived on the work, and felt it had been the outstanding achievement of his career. Mkhwanazi had never stayed in a job when the job had stopped challenging him. He started his career when computer technology was disrupting the way organizations worked and communicated. Initially, he was motivated by money. However, he had achieved his goals and now had different motivations. At Avatar, he had helped develop a culture through faith-driven leadership, but Avatar no longer gave him the joy and fulfilment of working on the cutting edge of technology. His dilemma was whether he should stay at Avatar with the people he had come to love and care about, or leave to find something that would satisfy his passion for innovative and creative work.

Amid rising online content, modern consumers want a personalized online shopping experience and to be presented with products, services, and deals that are relevant and specific to them. Anil Bains launched Attryb to create a hyper-personalization stack to deliver a meaningful experience to each website user. Using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and statistical models, Attryb’s predictive intelligence model could assess thousands of customer signals to create meaningful segments that increased acquisition, engagement, and sales for online sellers. However, small and medium companies establishing direct-to-consumer websites often lacked strong technological capabilities and were preoccupied with starting their businesses. How could Attryb convince these prospective clients about the economic benefits of its solution and communicate the value without being overly technical?

Maria took a final glance at the company accounts, then closed her laptop. On New Year’s Eve of 2022, she had mixed emotions reflecting on the journey of the past two years. In just fifteen days, it would be Merafuture's two year anniversary as a registered company. 2020 and 2021 were anything but normal for the world, and it was no different for Merafuture. In August 2021, after struggling for the first year and a half, the company began to show progress by picking up sales when schools and colleges reopened across Pakistan. Yet, still operating at a loss, she wondered if the company could afford to stay afloat for another year while waiting to make a profit.

Niraj Sharma, Director of Marketing at Airtel, located in India, and his team prepared to launch India’s first telecom convergence product – a single telecom plan that provided mobile, paid TV, and WiFi services under one bill plan. Telecom convergence was expected to be the next big battle against the deep-pocket competitor Jio Telecom. In January 2023, there were three branding options on the table: positioning this convergence plan as a premium offering under the current Airtel brand; using the Airtel Xstream brand; or launching an entirely new brand – Airtel Black that encompassed Airtel mobile and Airtel Xstream services. The company wanted to drive its business growth across different products, including the proposed convergence.

MergerWare, a company with proven expertise in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) space, helped its clients to decide on the right approach while contemplating M&A. Led by its chief executive officer, Dharmendra Singh, the company had made phenomenal growth since its inception. When MergerWare was approached by a US-based pharma company to help finalize an M&A deal, Singh thought about how MergerWare could help the pharma client with deal simplification, value creation, and tapping into the market, leveraging alternative growth strategies while positioning the differentiated offerings to compete with rivals.

By October 2024, Andriy Nemyrovskyy, the chief executive officer and co-owner of Regno Italy UA LLC had spent 10 years growing his company into western Ukraine’s largest importer and distributor of food products and wine from around the world. As news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spread on February 24, 2022, Nemyrovskyy and his wife Marianna mobilized Regno staff members and hundreds of volunteers to rapidly create and scale a new organization called the Volunteering and Help Center. The new organization would receive, manage, and distribute aid to people in need throughout Ukraine. However, as the war dragged on, the flow of international aid and support gradually dwindled and Nemyrovskyy considered shutting down the Volunteering and Help Center. As a potential solution to the desperate need for funding, Nemyrovskyy created Mylanka, a social enterprise designed to provide financial support to the Volunteering and Help Center. Could the new business help the Volunteering and Help Center maintain its attention and focus on providing aid, by engaging partners and collaborators to join the effort?

When Russia invaded Ukraine, on February 24, 2022, it disrupted the life of every person living in the country. In the hours following the initial attacks, Marianna Bilyk drew upon her purpose-driven leadership skills, medical training, and deeply felt passion for providing health care to her patients to help launch Volunteering and Help Center, where she was appointed head of the medical aid division to secure, organize, and distribute war-specific medical supplies to front-line military personnel, people in devastated communities, and displaced Ukrainians. Bilyk also continued fulfilling her responsibilities as head surgeon at her own dental clinic with 48 employees, as well as overseeing the construction of a second clinic. Additionally, in July 2023, Bilyk founded the non-governmental organization Dental Front to provide free dental care services to army veterans and people serving on the war’s front line. Managing all of these commitments within the extreme volatility and uncertainty of a war with no end in sight required an immense amount of energy, leaving her without time to spend with the family members she deeply cared about. As she sat for a few minutes alone to consider her options, Bilyk was wondering how to keep going and avoid burnout.

In July 2024, a 38-year-old vice-president at a leading consulting firm in San Francisco was grappling with increasing dissatisfaction despite his professional success and substantial income. The high-pressure demands of his job and the strain on his personal life led him to contemplate a major career shift: returning to India to become a professor of practice at a prestigious private university. His reflections on this potential transition were deeply influenced by two compelling classic short stories recommended by an old friend: Anton Chekhov’s “The Bet” and D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner.” After reading the two narratives, which offered valuable perspectives, the 38-year-old vice-president was considering leaving his high-power career for a more balanced and personally fulfilling life.

In September 2022, the chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of Maximum Quality Equipment (Maximum), was trying to decide whether to invest in a joint venture company to operate a quarry that would extract and sell rock armour. The joint venture company, Island Development Corporation (IDC), had secured a 25-year mineral production sharing agreement with the Philippine government. IDC would purchase equipment and extract rock armour in Chiquita Island and then sell the rock armour to San Miguel Corporation (SMC), a major Philippine corporation. The contract was currently under negotiation, with SMC offering a two-year contract and IDC asking for a five-year contract. The CEO asked his chief financial officer to run a discounted cash flow, estimate the cost of capital for the project, and determine the net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and project payback. He needed to decide whether he would invest in the project.

At the end of 2019, Walid Madi, managing director of Talabat, a leading delivery company in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, was assessing the company’s performance of its non-food vertical division, and in particular the grocery segment. He identified recurring customer complaints regarding grocery delivery times and product unavailability, which could impact the company’s successful food vertical. Madi decided to explore the feasibility of offering customers a 20-minute grocery delivery time while ensuring full product availability.

In March 2023, the founders of Naturals Salon, the largest salon chain in India, faced crucial decisions regarding the company's future growth and expansion. With over 750 salons and more than five million customers, primarily in southern India, Naturals Salon had solidified its leadership in a previously unorganized market through innovations such as franchising. However, increased competition from both international and Indian brands had intensified. The founders of Naturals Salon contemplated strategies to maintain their competitive edge and realize their vision of expanding to over 3,000 salons by 2029. They considered several options: reinforcing their dominance in the southern market, venturing into northern India to capture new regions, or exploring international markets to leverage the growing Indian diaspora and potentially higher profit margins. The founders would have to carefully consider the risks and opportunities of each strategic choice.

Online grocery shopping and two-sided platform businesses are on the rise in South Africa. In 2020, shortly before South Africa went into lockdown as a result of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sadaf Vahedna established a digital venture called Hoodgoods with seven cofounders. As the company name suggests, the business aimed to connect customers with small retail businesses around their neighbourhoods. Three years later, the cofounders faced the dilemma of whether to try to relaunch the platform business or sell it to a potential buyer. On what basis should they anchor their decision? If they decide to relaunch Hoodgoods, what aspects of the business should they try to improve, and how should they go about doing so? If they decide to sell the business, which nonfinancial factors should they take into consideration?

The microbiology team leader at pharmaceutical manufacturer VitalBlend Pharmaceuticals was facing an ethical dilemma. VitalBlend Pharmaceuticals was urgently trying to ship its latest product, baby vitamin drops, to its customer. In her role as team leader of the company’s microbiology testing laboratory, she had discovered that the entire batch of the new product might be contaminated by a harmful bacterium that could be particularly dangerous for babies and young children. Despite having expressed her suspicions, the team leader was pressured by her supervisor and other managers to sign off on releasing the product to the customer, since it had passed all of the standard quality control tests and management did not want to delay the shipment. She now had to decide what to do.

Next Skills 360 EdTech Private Limited (Next Skills 360) was founded by Suraj Meiyur and Sowjanya Suraj in 2020 to teach computer skills to low-income schoolchildren, particularly those from remote and rural areas who did not have access to electricity, computers, or the internet. By May 2022, around 160,000 students and 3,500 teachers across India had used Next Skills 360’s products, ProGame and Life Skills 360. The company had also been recognized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of the 2021 Solve team. Meiyur felt happy that he could impact the lives of so many poor schoolchildren across the country, particularly those who had never had access to computers or the internet. Next Skills 360 had ambitious plans to reach one million students by the year 2025. However, Meiyur wondered if this business was sustainable and scalable. Did a market of one million students exist for this innovative disruptive and product?

This case follows the situation arising from the difficulties faced by Rakesh Sharma while trying to expand the market reach of his entrepreneurial venture, Om Technologies. Sharma had established a team of competent and skilled professionals whose joint efforts were able to design, develop, manufacture, and offer a range of products in industrial robots and automation-related machinery, along with providing related maintenance services. However, he was experiencing challenges in marketing and branding the business. The case also reflects on the importance of balancing excellent products and services with effective marketing. This case explores critical concepts in entrepreneurship, strategic planning, and crafting a suitable marketing strategy.

<div style="font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.4;"><p align="justify">In late 2023, Sylvia Mackay, founder of New Beginnings Architecture, found herself facing a challenging dilemma. Isabelle Goodwin, a junior associate who had joined the firm in 2022, had shown significant talent and potential. However, she quickly earned a reputation for her combative demeanor, straining her relationships with her colleagues and mentor. The situation escalated when Mackay received a call from a trusted subcontractor, Miriam Collins, who was the interior designer on Goodwin's project. Goodwin had yelled at Collins during a meeting, leaving the designer angry and the firm's reputation for professionalism bruised. How was Mackay going to handle this talented yet problematic employee?

Ashish and Ranu Surana, a husband and wife team and co-owners of Go Pure Ice Cream (“Go Pure”), had managed to turn their passion for developing and selling fruit-based ice cream into a successful business. Having crossed the milestone figure of INR 10 million in sales with their network of 20 franchisees, mostly in Tier 2 and 3 cities, they dreamed of taking the Go Pure brand to the national level, which would require them to launch in metro and Tier 1 cities. However, they knew that this was not going to be easy. Managing existing franchisees in terms of their adherence to standard operating procedures was proving a challenge, as some franchisees were neglecting to wear headgear or gloves or not using branded cups. The founders were worried that these small but significant lapses were diluting the brand. Their current franchise model involved charging franchisees a once-off franchisee fee and billing them on an ongoing basis for the products they delivered. The Suranas wanted to identify the correct strategy to make Go Pure a national brand, but were having trouble selecting the right approach.<br><br>The first option they considered was trying to get the right franchisees on board. If they could achieve this, those franchisees could act as influencers for them in prime locations in metro and Tier 1 cities, making their brand look fantastic at the national level. The second option they considered was to continue to expand in Tier 2 and 3 cities and to try to become an aspirational brand for the majority of urban and rural Indians. The other option they were looking at was getting an infusion of venture equity and opening professionally managed, company-owned, company-operated outlets in metro and Tier 1 cities. They engaged the services of a brand consultant to help them understand how their brand was perceived and valued in the minds of their target audience and to advise them on how to leverage this information to fulfill their dreams.