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Set in 2008, the case details Tech Mahindra, an information technology (IT) company within the Mahindra Group, an Indian multi-industry company with a diverse stable of businesses including automotives, farm equipment, and financial services, and its decision to acquire controlling stake in Satyam Computer Services Ltd. (Satyam), a troubled Indian IT company managed since January 2009 by a six-member government-appointed caretaker board. Anand Mahindra, Chairman and Managing Director of the Mahindra Group, saw the acquisition of Satyam as a strategic opportunity to move to the next level of growth. The acquisition would allow the Group to diversify across verticals, customers, and geographies, market a wide range of services to Satyam's strong customer base, and capitalize on common support systems in order to reduce operating costs and secure operational synergies. His brief to Vineet Nayyar-the vice chairman and managing director of Tech Mahindra and the vice chairman of Satyam-and C.P Gurnani-the CEO of Mahindra Satyam-was based on a set of clear principles: rectify the issues related to corporate governance; ensure an environment of trust where ethical conduct was valued; manage reputation risks by meeting customers and demonstrating the Mahindra Group's commitment; and restore faith within customers through newfound business models of delivery and engagements. As Nayyar reflected on Anand Mahindra's words, he wondered what series of business decisions he would have to make in order to retain the good elements, throw out the bad pieces, regain trust, and trigger change within the newly anointed Mahindra Satyam.

The MIT Mystery Hunt is an annual puzzle-based scavenger hunt at MIT. It is run every year by a different team, and every year is slightly different as teams try new ideas and decide whether to keep or ignore new ideas from previous years. As the Mystery Hunt has grown, organizers face the challenge of balancing efficient administration while keeping it free of excessive administration.

E+Co, an award-winning impact investment focused on the introduction of clean-energy technologies in developing countries, made 287 investments totaling over USD45 million since its 1994 inception. However, in 2011 new board members Dan Abbasi, Russell Diamond, and Bruce Usher had concerns about the financial health of E+Co's operations. In this case, students will be asked to review qualitative and quantitative material from the organization's business plan in order to determine whether its business model was fundamentally flawed.

International healthcare and reimbursement systems underwent a radical transformation in the 2000s, resulting from growing financial pressures incited by economic depression and a steady rise in healthcare spending. This phenomenon was most pronounced in the United States, where the health-spending share of GDP rose from five percent in 1960 to 17.9 percent in 2011. In Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries on average, healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP grew from four percent to 9.6 percent over the same period. Although specifics varied by country, the systemic evolution of international healthcare and reimbursement standards was characterized by two main trends-a shift toward value-based pricing; and more stringent reimbursement standards for new drug evaluations. With this in mind, each country developed its own methods and decision-making processes for reimbursing companies looking to penetrate its market with new innovations. The United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan exemplified this dynamic.

StepSmart Fitness, a manufacturer of exercise equipment, is undergoing a sweeping reorganization. The new CEO has terminated the District Sales Director and Regional VP and promoted 30-year-old Benjamin Cooper to manage the underperforming New England district. A first-time manager with no one to train him or explain the causes of the district's underperformance, Cooper has 10 weeks to diagnose the problems and make recommendations that will ensure a turnaround in the territory in less than 16 months. Left to his own devices, Cooper must review the sales data, the incomplete notes left by his predecessor, and his own thoughts after spending a day in the field with each sales person. Then he must make decisions about termination or probation for current employees, the hiring of additional salespeople, ways to increase productivity, and potential new methods of evaluating salesperson performance. He is set to present his conclusions to his also-newly-appointed manager, the Regional VP for the Northeast, in a few days.

In 2013, Nokia sold its Device and Services business to Microsoft for €5.4 billion. For decades Nokia had led the telecommunications (telecom) industry in handsets and networking. By the late 2000s, however, Nokia's position as market leader in mobile devices was threatened by competition from new lower-cost Asian manufacturers. Apple's 2007 release of its iPhone established an entire new category-the smartphone-immediately popular with users. What were Nokia's missteps over the years? What should Nokia have done differently?

Henry Schein Inc., a distributor of supplies to dentist, physician, and veterinary practices, had sales approaching $9 billion and employed nearly 16,000 people. The company had experienced impressive growth under the leadership of Stanley Bergman and his executive team, many of whom had been with Schein for decades. Besides organic growth, the company relied heavily on acquiring small family-owned businesses to grow, both inside the U.S., and abroad. Bergman and his team invested a great deal of their time on building and sustaining a culture based on care and respect and considered it pivotal to the company's success and a key competitive advantage.</p><p> The case explores the principles behind Schein's culture and presents challenges to maintaining the culture as the company continues to expand internationally, including its goal to be the first national distributor of dental supplies in China. At the same time, Schein was evolving from being primarily a logistics company with a value-added services component to becoming a company with a primary focus on value-added services and the sale of specific products that the company might need to manufacture directly.</p><p> As Schein moved into new market segments and new executives were brought in, a new challenge to the culture would be posed.

It is impossible to discuss national competitiveness without considering cities and the regions they anchor. Cities are transportation hubs, centers of commercial exchange, and the locus of lives. They thrive by the ways they connect to the world. Demographic changes in recent years-such as the decreasing popularity of cars and increasing urban populations-have implications for 21st century transportation and infrastructure. This is apparent in the case of Chicago, a global city in the vanguard of change. This paper focuses on five major 21st century transportation and infrastructure projects in Chicago: rail decongestion; airport modernization; mass transit modernization; a complete streets plan; and an infrastructure trust as a financing innovation. It also discusses leadership by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to create an integrated strategy that includes technology and education, and how he executes on it.

New CEO David Kenny transformed The Weather Company in less than two years from a primary identity as a cable television channel to a multi-platform digital company innovating in the uses of weather data. He assesses progress and considers strategic choices and organizational challenges ahead. He created a new narrative for the company in the era of Big Data, putting science at the center (great forecasts) and stressing services, stories (the ability to communicate the data to users), and safety (preparation for severe weather, including using social media). Now he has questions about how much to invest in the declining but still important television business; how to build and hold audiences beyond severe weather events, when audiences spike; how to stay ahead of growth of digital platforms, especially mobile, when current partners (such as Google) could easily turn into competitors; and how to build organizational capabilities, culture, and talent to be ready for ongoing and future change, including global growth. Kenny grapples with a number of strategic tensions: between innovations and the traditional business, between global and local, and about increased partnering or proprietary advantages. He must continue to lead and develop the team to support a vision that is still unfolding.

In the early morning of Saturday, July 6, 2013, the chairman of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Limited faced a catastrophic situation when a company train carrying crude oil derailed in the small town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada, causing a series of explosions that decimated the downtown core. Emergency crews fought to put out fires and search for survivors; residents were relocated to a local school to escape the noxious fumes, but the death toll and number of missing continued to rise. In the days that followed, as the provincial police and federal agencies began to investigate and suggested they might lay charges of criminal negligence, the company, which had no permanent public relations staff, needed to devise a communication strategy to reassure various stakeholders who were looking for answers as to why the derailment occurred, who would be held accountable and ultimately what action would be taken in the aftermath of such a deadly event. Also available is the supplement case 9B13M136.

GenapSys, a California-based startup, was soon to release a new DNA sequencer that the company's founder, Hesaam Esfandyarpour, believed was truly revolutionary. The sequencer would be substantially less expensive-potentially costing just a few thousand dollars-and smaller than other sequencers, many of which were large devices costing tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. GenapSys' device, named GENIUS, could also quickly generate large amounts of data, as it was capable of sequencing an entire human genome in less than eight hours. At this price, GenapSys' device would be attractive to customers that had been unable to afford sequencers, such as smaller laboratories or hospitals, and even expand the market to include industries such as agriculture and biofuels. As GenapSys came closer to releasing its product, Esfandyarpour and his Senior Director of Operations and Strategy, Leila Rastegar (HBS '11), sat down to decide which of three business models they would choose to bring this device to market. In the first model, the company would sell sequencers at a higher price to those entities which already purchased sequencers, primarily major research labs and pharmaceutical firms, but position its machine as a faster alternative to existing technologies. In the second model, GenapSys would sell its sequencer at a lower price but charge more for the cartridges necessary to run a sample, and earn its primary revenue from these cartridges. The third model would see GenapSys sell its device at or around cost, but use the data customers generated to create a proprietary database of genetic information. Customers could pay to access the database for research, to create genetic tests, or for many other purposes. GenapSys would also build an online store with the genetic tests customers created. Esfandyarpour's and Rastegar's decision would determine GenapSys' customer base and financial position for the coming years, and also impact develop

By 2013, Adobe had reinvented itself from a publisher of popular software such as Photoshop and Acrobat to a digital marketing and digital media company. In May 2013, the company decided to stop selling its software as a package in favor of Creative Cloud where consumers paid a monthly subscription fee. Within a few weeks thousands of consumers signed petition complaining against this decision. Should Adobe reverse its decision? More generally, what new skills and capabilities does it need to develop as it reinvents itself?

The case opens with Sheryl Sandberg finding herself in the role of chief operating officer for Facebook alongside the 28 year-old Founder/CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. She just watched Zuckerberg deliver a keynote speech about the company's latest product, Graph Search, which empowers users to search the social network for specific information regarding their connections.

Elon Musk's reputation as a serial entrepreneur has people wondering what will happen with his current focus, Tesla Motors. In the heavily-fragmented, alternative fuel vehicle industry, Tesla has established itself as the leader in all-electric car technology. Despite the Tesla Model S being named the Motor Trend 2013 Car of the Year and a soaring stock price, Tesla faces many challenges going forward.

Tim Cook took over as CEO of Apple, Inc. in August of 2011 after the resignation of the legendary Steve Jobs. Though Jobs left big shoes to fill, Cook saw early success with the launch of the iPhone 5 and the continued adoption of the iPad tablet computer. Apple's market cap peaked a year later in September of 2012. But as competitors gained parity with their software and electronics, Apple's market cap declined from $650 billion to $370 billion.

The case opens with the background of RIM and a description of the industry as well as technology upon which RIM based its success. It follows chronologically how the industry shaped up, including trends and competitive dynamics.

Don Thompson became CEO of McDonald's in July of 2012. McDonald's total shareholder fell from 34.7% in 2011 to -10.75% from 2011 to 2012. Thompson is under fire to turn things around in 2013. Former CEO Jim Skinner's "Plan to Win" had turned the company around in the last decade, and Thompson, Chief Operating Officer under Skinner, was looking to recreate that success. Thompson wanted to focus on improving the menu, customer experience, and McDonald's brand.

The case is written from the perspective of Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, as he ponders the company's strategy over the next several years. At one point, Bezos believed there was room in the marketplace for the Kindle as a dedicated e-reader alongside tablets and laptops. Since its introduction in 2010, however, Apple's iPad has become the all-in-one vehicle for digital content, and competition in the mobile device industry has risen sharply.

CEO Hubert Joly must devise a turn-around strategy that will enable Best Buy to survive in an increasingly competitive consumer electronics market. By year-end 2012, Best Buy's stock price had dropped roughly 60% over a two-year period and same store sales and overall profitability were showing a consistent, negative trend. On the plus side, revenues were increasing (at a marginal rate), while Best Buy continued to dominate its competitors in terms of sales volume and U.S. market share. In addition, Best Buy's online business was growing by 15% to 20% each quarter. Still, critics were doubtful that Joly could save the company, which seemed intent on following Circuit City down the fast-track to bankruptcy.

Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm Computing, wants software that "thinks" like the human brain. His latest company, Grok, has developed "Hierarchical Temporal Memory" (HTM), a cutting-edge pattern-recognition software that functions as the human brain does. Hawkins struggles with how to license Grok's software while protecting Grok's intellectual property.