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Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) uses an innovative new approach to procuring outside legal counsel: it replaces relationship-based selection and law firms' traditional time-based billing with data-driven decision making and an online reverse auction. In the case, GSK is hit with a potentially devastating suit and must hire a firm in time to respond. The recently hired managing attorney, Sophia Keating, grapples with GSK's approach. The GSK veterans assure her that the approach drives down costs and improves the quality of work by systematically increasing the rigor in the procurement process. Still skeptical, Sophia runs the process of systematically analyzing and comparing the competing firms' bids. This case also describes the process by which these tools were created and adopted. Beyond the implications for law firms and other service providers, lessons from this case are applicable for teaching about institutional change, procurement processes relevant to many fields, and how to increase rigor in typically informal business processes.

This case concerns the proposed buyout of Acibadem, a leading hospital chain in Turkey. Abraaj, a MENA region private equity firm, proposes to make its first investment in Turkey. The case highlights the role of Turkish health care reform in driving the value. The case provides an opportunity to estimate the potential return on investment as well as evaluate the structuring of the transaction.

This case takes students through the evolution of LEGO's business model from a traditional product-centric "make and sell" model to a more customer-centric "anticipate and lead" model in which products are co-created with customers, and customers are leveraged as a key factor in the company's innovation strategy. It begins with LEGO's struggles in the late 1990s to early 2000s, as competitors and imitators posed threats to LEGO as did the increasing alternative modes of electronic and Internet-based play. LEGO posted losses for a handful of years, and the company's culture waned. The case then takes students from the early 2000s into 2013, a period through which LEGO underwent significant transformation, which began with a new CEO, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp. The case highlights the company's evolution through three lenses - its organizational evolution, community evolution, and technological evolution.

This case was a finalist for NACRA's Curtis E. Tate Award for the best case published in the Case Research Journal in 2013. Caffébene founder Sun Kwon Kim has achieved phenomenal success in a highly competitive South Korean coffee industry dominated by American and conglomerate-founded brands. The case illustrates Kim's strong entrepreneurial orientation and describes the unusual decisions he has made to differentiate Caffébene and achieve rapid growth. Kim's success in South Korea continues to fuel his global ambition and causes him and his management team to consider entering either China or the U.S. as its next target market. The case introduces a wide range of topics relevant to entrepreneurship as well as franchising, including developing a new retail concept, creating and sustaining competitive advantage, managing rapid growth, and new market entry strategies. Kim is faced with a difficult stay-the-course vs. abandon decision when he experiences a major slipup with Caffébene's flagship store in the U.S. The discussion should raise fundamental questions about what made Caffébene successful in the first place, if those success factors are transferable to the U.S., and how Kim's strong entrepreneurial orientation affects his decision making process. Unique aspects of the case include(1) presents a rare story of an entrepreneurial service concept of Asian origin attempting to expand internationally and enter the U.S. (most cases of this sort are about companies going the opposite direction); (2) describes the process of developing and refining a new retail concept in a highly competitive market; (3) explains strategies for stimulating and managing remarkable growth in a short period of time; and (4) exposes students to Caffébene management's unorthodox thought process in the company's international expansion strategy.

This is part of a case series. The case focuses on how a senior executive assesses the opportunity to drive innovation in his division. Jim Slater, Managing Director of Costa Enterprises, is thinking about a management consultant's offer to build the next generation coffee machine for his division. The company's business model has historically been built on incremental improvements, but this proposal would involve a 'step change' in how new products are developed. Costa Enterprises rolls out self-service vending machines ('concessions') that deliver quality coffee to customers in areas not served by premium high street cafes. The proposal Slater is considering is to build the next generation concession. However, handing over control of such an important, venture to an outsider seems like a significant risk for Slater to take.

Abstract (Maximum of 2,000 Characters): Briefly describes content of case. There is an emergence of a new segment in the Indian context - Young women in urban India, who are educated, independent, driven towards professional goals adopting a modern lifestyle, even while retaining their ethnic cultural values. This segment is enthusiastic about using brands whose symbolic meanings are aligned with their self-concepts, as it would enhance their very unique self-expression. Raga was the first ever watch brand in the world that was exclusively launched for women, by Titan Industries Limited. Raga was positioned as an ethnic watch for the sophisticated Indian woman, embellished with striking symbolism from the culture of India. Beauty, Sensuality and Feminity were the core values of Raga that were reflected in the brand's positioning .Tanishq was another pioneering brand from the same company that entered as a branded player in a context where the Indian jewelry market was highly unorganized. Tanishq offered professional work-wear jewelry as well as traditional jewellery that women wore for Indian rituals, capturing the evolving women who wore professional as well as traditional jewelry based on the context. Women associated appropriate as well as beautiful looks with Tanishq jewelry. The case explores if the application of psychographics to brands could be taken to the next level - how can a company with similar symbolic brands (Raga watches and Tanishq jewelry) in different categories appeal to the target segment that may have a similar psychographic profile. Some of these challenges include - Should similar appeals be sustained and strengthened? Would such an appeal be favorable to both the brands? Should the positioning of either brand be modified? How do the appeals impact the formation of groups (reference groups) involved with these brands? Can behavioral theories be useful for such challenges of synergizing the appeals of Raga and Tanishq?

The case describes an entrepreneurial firm, CoCubes, which has instituted a paradigm change in the way campus recruitment is done in India. In a paradoxical environment of high availability of formally educated, yet not readily employable talent pool in a growing economy and a concomitant challenge faced by all recruiting firms in being able to identify and attract high quality talent, CoCubes offers unique value propositions to a dual set of customers (viz., the colleges and the companies that are recruiting from campuses), only one of which is a paying customer (colleges). Within such an environment, it is critical for CoCubes to effectively manage the engagement with the recruiting companies and try and change their mindset to recruit from non-established non-premier institutes. On the other hand, the colleges have conventionally never paid to get their students placed. Getting colleges to pay is critical for CoCubes to succeed and grow. This necessitates colleges to see value in CoCubes' offerings. In this context, one of the challenges for CoCubes is to find ways to increase the value of its offerings, especially given the emergence of significant competition that is attempting to mimic the CoCubes business model. CoCubes also partners with various companies in enhancing skills of the candidates. With these partners, CoCubes faces the additional challenge of managing partner relationships and developing new product offerings, in order to stay ahead of the competition. All this calls for continual innovation and flawless execution in order to maintain its initial lead over current and emerging competition. The case is ideal for elective courses on Business-to-business Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Product & Services Marketing.

SEL was set up by Mr. Ajith Kumar Rai, (who serves as its Managing Director), returned as a fresh graduate from Canada. Foreseeing a boom in the country's automobile market, Ajith decided to establish an automotive cable manufacturing unit. His clarity of vision convinced TVS Motors to invest in setting up Suprajit Engineering as a small, one-unit firm in Bangalore, a fast-growing Indian metro. Beginning in 1987 as a small-scale automotive cable manufacturer, Suprajit is now a public listed company, with some of the world's biggest automobile companies as clients, products spanning a wide range of automotive and non-automotive parts, and eight manufacturing units. This case traces the inspiring story of Suprajit Engineering Ltd., the case aims to highlight the reasons behind Suprajit's success, and is intended to demonstrate rapid growth strategies of entrepreneurial firms.

The case traces the evolution of laundry detergent market in India. Although the entry of Lever brothers was the starting point, Nirma made detergents a product of the masses by targeting the economy segment. When P&G entered the market in 1985, the market was already well-entrenched by existing players. P&G started Project 2-3-4 to crack open the Indian market - by 2015, P&G wanted to double the number of Indians who used its products, treble per capita spending by Indians and quadruple net sales of its India operations. The case analyzes a series of marketing innovations - product line expansion, product line pricing to brand expansion - that the competing players resorted to. With a host of little differentiated products in the market, the companies had to think through positioning the offerings well. The era of price wars and increased marketing spends to obtain customer attention and garner increased market share significantly strained profitability. After making successful inroads in the mid-segment with Tide and Tide Naturals, P&G wondered if it should launch a brand for the economy segment too. P&G was lagging behind in capturing the Indian growth story. How could it realistically play catch-up with HUL when it operated in far lesser categories than HUL? Does it have a choice but to take HUL head-on in big categories such as detergents?

This case describes the evolution of Rural Health Care Foundation (RHCF), which provides primary healthcare services to the economically underprivileged in rural India, its various alliances with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and for-profit organizations. RHCF centers attract large number of patients every day from as far away as 100 km, due to low charges (INR 40, which is less than 1 USD, for consultation and a week's supply of medicine) and availability of reliable doctors. The case discusses the scale up challenges RHCF is facing to expand their centers to other locations as well as to provide other services within each center. The case also highlights the role various alliances, between NGOs and for profit organizations, play in delivering healthcare services to the bottom of the pyramid, especially those living in rural localities and can neither access nor afford proper medical facilities.

Ami Shah, founder of IntelliAssist, helped clients to create social media marketing strategies for their products or services and assisted them in the execution of these campaigns. In 2012, Shah had designed the social media marketing campaign for the Bollywood movie ''1920 Evil Returns'', which was a sequel to the movie 1920 that was released in 2008. The next movie in the 1920 franchise was expected to be released in 2014. She was analyzing the impact of the campaign and wondered whether the right social media mix had been used. The social media campaign for 1920 evil returns was very successful and she had the numbers to show for it. Active fan engagement and positive word-of-mouth also validated the success of the social media campaign. However, Shah wondered whether she could have done it differently. Was the spending-mix effective? What strategy should she adopt for the next movie in the franchisee tentatively titled, ''1920 London''? Ami had used a mix of social media for running the 1920 Evil Returns campaign which ran for 45 days. Facebook and YouTube were primarily used for the social media campaign. Google Ads were used on popular Bollywood websites such as Bollywood Hungama, SantaBanta along with news websites such as India times, Hindustan Times and Rediff.com. Total social media spend was INR 0.95 million. Ami had to decide on the next movie's 1920 London digital marketing strategy based on the analysis of 1920 Evil Returns.

Scoot is a new subsidiary airline of the Singapore Airlines Group (SIA) launched in November 2011. It is a low-cost, medium to long-haul carrier that is independently operated and based out of Changi Airport in Singapore. The low-cost carrier model is thriving as income levels continue to rise throughout the Asia-Pacific region, where more people are travelling by air for the first time. However, this phenomenon has led the airline industry to experience commoditisation and greater price-based competition. Full-service Singapore Airlines - an established premium brand with a long history - has a business model inappropriate for this kind of environment. Scoot's raison d'être is to take advantage of opportunities in the rapidly growing budget-travel segment. Campbell Wilson, a 17-year veteran of Singapore Airlines, is seconded as CEO to startup Scoot. In the year following the launch, criticisms of the new airline begin to appear. In October 2012, an editorial in a prominent publication claims that Scoot will contaminate the Singapore Airlines brand and cannabalise sales. How should Wilson address these claims?

Brazilian medical-devices maker Bosi e Faora has seen its prices decline as its sales reps scramble to sign up clinics by offering steep discounts. The company aims to turn things around with a "solutions" strategy that, along with medical equipment, offers ideas and training to health care providers that want to improve patients' overall health, not just purchase hardware. When one semirural but influential customer resists the upsell at a high-stakes meeting, blood pressures flare and a 15-year business relationship is on the line. This fictional case study is written by Eric T. Anderson and features expert commentary from David Mok, of DePuy Synthes Spine (a Johnson & Johnson company), and Nandakumar Jairam, MD, of Columbia Asia Hospitals.

Brazilian medical-devices maker Bosi e Faora has seen its prices decline as its sales reps scramble to sign up clinics by offering steep discounts. The company aims to turn things around with a "solutions" strategy that, along with medical equipment, offers ideas and training to health care providers that want to improve patients' overall health, not just purchase hardware. When one semirural but influential customer resists the upsell at a high-stakes meeting, blood pressures flare and a 15-year business relationship is on the line. This fictional case study is written by Eric T. Anderson and features expert commentary from David Mok, of DePuy Synthes Spine (a Johnson & Johnson company), and Nandakumar Jairam, MD, of Columbia Asia Hospitals.

Brazilian medical-devices maker Bosi e Faora has seen its prices decline as its sales reps scramble to sign up clinics by offering steep discounts. The company aims to turn things around with a "solutions" strategy that, along with medical equipment, offers ideas and training to health care providers that want to improve patients' overall health, not just purchase hardware. When one semirural but influential customer resists the upsell at a high-stakes meeting, blood pressures flare and a 15-year business relationship is on the line. This fictional case study is written by Eric T. Anderson and features expert commentary from David Mok, of DePuy Synthes Spine (a Johnson & Johnson company), and Nandakumar Jairam, MD, of Columbia Asia Hospitals.

John Leader, president of Simsbury Children's Hospital, was reviewing the recommendations put together by his senior management team to resolve the growing problems his hospital was facing. The recommendations, totaling some $10 million, could put the hospital back on a sound financial footing. But John was unsure which of the recommendations made sense and should be implemented. He was particularly interested in understanding the financial, operational and political impact of each one. He was due to meet with the senior management team that afternoon to develop an action plan.

City Developments Limited (CDL) has been publishing an annual dedicated sustainability report, in line with the Global Reporting Initiative's reporting guidelines, since 2008. In January 2016, Esther An, chief sustainability officer at CDL, produced the 2015 sustainability report using an integrated reporting approach. She saw the fundamental challenge of integrated reporting as communicating to stakeholders the business and financial impact of the firm's efforts in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) integration. The business environment was also changing as consumers demanded more transparency and regulators required more non-financial disclosure from companies. Leaving external pressures aside, CDL had always taken pride in being a socially responsible company. For over two decades, CDL had embraced sustainability in its corporate philosophy and business strategy. This focus is evident in the management of its operations both as a developer and landlord, and also through its building designs and construction methods. Adhering to the integrated reporting approach will allow a more holistic form of reporting that linked the impact of the firm's social and environmental performance to its financial bottom line.

Clearwater Seafoods, a Canadian shellfish enterprise, has four decades of experience in business-to-business (B2B) marketing. It harvests seafood, processes it and markets it in bulk to large restaurant chains worldwide. The company wants to pursue growth by marketing seafood directly to individual consumers (B2C) in China. The transition from B2B to B2C raises three fundamental questions. How can the company develop and deploy a go-to-market business model with Chinese grocery retailers? How can it balance its focus on margins with the Chinese retailers' focus on revenues? How can Clearwater establish differentiation as a source of competitive advantage in seafood retailing in China?

In July 2012, Michael Dell, CEO and founder of Dell, Inc., met with a representative of Silver Lake Partners to explore taking his company private. The company, which he had founded in his dorm room as a college freshman and which had made him the youngest Fortune 500 CEO in history, had been the market leader in PC sales in the early 2000s. In recent years, however, the company had been surpassed by competitors and, worse, the PC market was becoming less lucrative, due to overseas competition, longer turnover rates on PCs, and the rise of tablets and smartphones. Michael Dell hoped to respond to by changing shifting the company form its core to a "new Dell" based around "Enterprise Solutions and Software" (such as servers, consulting, and software-as-a-service) and now claimed he needed to take the company private to do so. By the summer of 2013, the Dell board and its shareholders would have to decide whether to accept his offer to take the company private for $13.65 a share. Meanwhile, Carl Icahn bought a large stake in Dell Inc., accused Dell of trying to steal the company, and urged shareholders to rebel and demand a "leveraged recapitalization" instead. This case presents the information the Dell board worked with as it debated its decision.

Craig Pitchell is a young executive who has become director of the board at a local childcare centre. He has discovered that other board memberships do not comply with the by-laws for the centre. He is presenting at a special meeting to oust the current board and replace them with an alternate slate of directors.