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The head of the branded private investment company owner of the Virgin brand reflected on the group's new pillars of growth. Since the 1970s when Richard Branson created the Virgin record retailing company, Virgin had developed from scratch six companies worth more than $1 billion each and changed their focus from record retailing and music production to a broader one based on airlines, health, financial services, mobile and media businesses. In addition, Virgin had been able to apply the Virgin brand to several different products without harming the brand. Their challenge had been finding the capital to finance the new ventures rather than the brand. Since 2005, Branson was dedicating more and more time to a charitable organization, Virgin Unite, and had appointed Stephen Murphy the new CEO of the Group. As Murphy contemplated their growth strategy for the next decade he faced a number of difficult decisions. First, how should he fund new ventures? While growing, the Group had sold stakes in its companies and had signed with them licensing agreements for the use of the Virgin brand name. The Virgin Group was today a loose group of companies some linked to Virgin only by brand licensing agreements. Should they expand by signing new licensing agreements? Second, what kind of opportunities should he seek? Should they keep acting as a venture capital firm, nurturing new ventures as in the past or should they invest in larger and more established companies? What would be the consequences of their choices on the brand and on the Group? Would they always be able to inject the Virgin culture and turn around companies?

This case narrates the development of the Republic of Korea from 1960 to 1990. The case discusses three broad issues. First, the case provides a discussion of industrial policy in Korea. Second, the case explains the relationship between industrialization and inequality and how Korea developed without increasing inequality. Finally the case has a brief discussion of the role of education in industrialization and development.

The case is about a software development company, Telerik, which was based in Sofia, Bulgaria, with offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany. The company was founded in 2002 and had become a world-leader in user interface (UI) components for Microsoft's .NET framework. The company was still managed by its original four founders and had grown to 400 employees. In response to rapid growth and to retain its rapid development product process, Telerik adopted agile development in 2006. Agile development is a values-driven process that includes the elements of decentralization, rapid development cycles, intense customer service, teamwork and face-to-face communication. Telerik has fully implemented this process, including the software development components, communication, coordination and management tools that are collaborative and rely heavily upon communication and widespread team interaction and responsibility. Telerik had moved into a new and modern building that included game and quiet rooms, and its physical environment was designed specifically to facilitate agile development. The company's management style was informal, hands-on, consultative and development-driven, and their culture was youth-focused. Telerik's human resource ("human capital") practices were innovative and flexible and its benefits and compensation package had allowed Telerik to attract a high quality workforce. Its recent innovations in benefits, including concierge services and stock options, had given Telerik an edge in human capital with an employee turnover rate of under five per cent. The founders had worked diligently to create a high performing, cohesive organization that was an exciting place to work. They had built a company with an excellent reputation, both in technical achievements and product development, and as an employer. Their success was based upon the rapid deployment of committed human capital in a culture of teamwork and custom.

This six part video case series features social entrepreneur Craig Kielburger as he faces pivotal moments in his life and the remarkable evolution of his organization. The primary dilemmas are strategic in nature and the solutions rely on leadership character and social entrepreneurship. Students are able to walk in the shoes of Craig Kielburger in each case which begins with a video set up, followed by a short one or two page case and associated discussion and concluding with Craig describing what happened in a video clip.

Within months of its launch in December 2009, Angry Birds, a mobile game created by a small Finnish company, Rovio Entertainment Ltd., became an international hit. By late 2011, Rovio was not only making Angry Birds games for the iPhone, Android and other mobile platforms, but it had also expanded into plush toys, cookbooks, animation videos and licensing arrangement with major brands. With the goal of making Rovio the next Disney, Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio, was planning to create an Angry Birds movie. Was Angry Birds a fad that would fade away or was Rovio on a path to build a media empire?

This case examines negotiations between a company and government over natural resources. The Fijian government proposed a substantial increase in its water extraction tax that would only apply to large extractors and thus to FIJI Water and not to its competitors. FIJI Water responded by calling the increase "discriminatory" and threatening to shut down its operations, but in the end its negotiations resulted in its agreeing to pay the tax increase.

On December 22, 2010, the chief executive office (CEO) of Al Hilal Bank was preparing to address a group of international banking executives who were interested in understanding what decisions had contributed to Al Hilal's success thus far, and what challenges the bank would face for 2011 and beyond. In two and a half years, Al Hilal had developed a respected and fast-growing Islamic bank. The Al Hilal team had combined a foundation of strong corporate governance practices, a strong risk management framework and an innovative customer service culture. As concrete proof of its success, it had become profitable in the third quarter of 2009, and profits were rising rapidly.

The owner and director of a residential summer camp for children recognizes the need to make some changes for the upcoming off-season. His primary objective is to increase the number of campers. Specifically, marketing initiatives are needed to bolster the August sessions, a month when the camp experiences declining enrolment. He has some key decisions to make, including which group to target, how to promote the camp sessions and what to charge for any new product offerings.

A senior account manager at Boise Automation Canada Ltd. was disappointed with the news that he had just lost the $1.2 million opportunity with Northern Paper Inc. (Northern), a paper mill in Rocky Falls, Ontario.The opportunity was to design, supply and install an automated control system for Northern's wood-chip handling system. With over 20 years experience selling automation systems in heavy industry, had he won the order, it would have easily put him over his target quota for 2011 and significantly boosted his incentive payout. Now, with less than 3 months before the end of the year, he was unlikely to meet his target for the year. The senior account manager wanted to understand what had gone wrong, and to learn from the experience, to avoid repeating it. What should he have done differently?

From 2002 to 2011, coffee-machine manufacturer Keurig Incorporated had grown from a privately held company with just over $20 million in revenues and a plan to enter the single serve coffee arena for home consumers, to a wholly owned subsidiary of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., a publicly traded company with net revenues of $1.36 billion and a market capitalization of between $8 and $9 billion. In 2003 Keurig had introduced its first At Home brewer. Now, approximately 25 percent of all coffee makers sold in the United States were Keurig-branded machines, and Keurig was recognized as among the leaders in the marketplace. The company had just concluded agreements with both Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks that would make these retailers' coffee available for use with Keurig's specialized brewing system. The company faced far different challenges than when it was a small, unknown marketplace entrant. John Whoriskey, vice president and general manager of Keurig's At Home division, had to consider the impact that impending expiration of key technology patents and the perceived environmental impact of the K-Cup® portion packs would have on the company's growth. Whoriskey also wondered what Keurig's growth potential was, and how the new arrangements with Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts could be leveraged to achieve it.

A young entry-level employee starts work in the hotel industry in a Central East European country. The case describes her experiences and, through these, shows the HRM practices in the particular hotel in which she works. The issue here is not really that this employee should stay or leave, but rather finding out about the nature of HR operations in the light of ethics and sustainability.

The director of warehousing and logistics at Volkswagen Group Canada (VGCA) had been tasked with analyzing the capacity of the Toronto parts distribution center to support an aggressive growth plan that involved a series of new product launches and product facelifts. Expecting that expansion of the facility would be necessary, the director needed to establish the additional warehouse capacity required, when it would be needed by and which expansion option made the most sense.

The Apple A and B cases provide two perspectives on the evolution of Apple and are designed to evoke debate about models of strategy, organization and leadership.

TwinMed was a nursing home supply business located in Los Angeles. This case details its humble origins and its development, and raises several strategic issues prevalent in Medicare-reimbursed businesses, business-to-business selling, and what to do when there is a sea change in government billing as there was in 1999, with the advent of Medicare's "PPS" model.

For some time, 1366's co-founders, Frank van Mierlo and Ely Sachs, had faced a choice, which was now made all the more stark: 1366 could expand to produce silicon wafers itself, raising the required capital from "friendly" investors and building shipment volume slowly, or 1366 could accelerate its market entry dramatically by partnering with the Asian manufacturers that had begun to dominate the world-wide solar industry. While accelerated growth was attractive to 1366 and its current investors, the company believed that it would face considerable risks if it were to expose its intellectual property to the "wrong" partners. 1366 had no intention of losing control of its technology, but given the pace of innovation and the active role of governments in the solar industry, van Mierlo and Sachs feared this might not be a race that could be won by the cautious.

Infosys, which had achieved meteoric growth by providing software outsourcing to US companies, had continued to hire despite the slowdown sparked by the 2008-09 credit freeze. In 2011, facing higher costs and emerging technological challenges such as cloud computing, its new management embarked on Infosys 3.0, a plan that included restructuring along several industry verticals. In this case students examine Infosys' historic growth; its culture, services and financial statements; and its 2011 strategic plan in order to discuss what strategy would fuel continued growth.

In January 2005 Dr. Mean Chhi Vun, director of the Cambodian National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STDs (NCHADS), needed to decide how to control the spread of HIV/AIDS and save the lives of thousands of Cambodians who were dying from it each year. In the seven years since Dr. Vun had been appointed director, NCHADS had built an organization that was transparent and efficient, had implemented a nationwide 100 percent condom use program, had established a system that allowed individuals to voluntarily seek confidential counseling and testing, and had instituted a set of guidelines and procedures for staff at health facilities to refer HIV-positive patients to treatment clinics and link them with NGOs providing financial and psychosocial support. Now, however, Dr. Vun faced decisions about three initiatives that were critical to expanding care and treatment programs in his country. First, he needed to decide how to quickly and cost-effectively improve the national HIV/AIDS laboratory support infrastructure. Second, Dr. Vun needed to improve logistics and supply management in order to get the best prices and ensure patients had access to life-saving medicines. Finally, he needed to figure out how to provide sustainable care and treatment to the thousands of Cambodian children living with HIV/AIDS.

Mobile C.A.R.E. Foundation is a Chicago-based nonprofit that provides chronic asthma care to inner-city public school students using a community outreach model. The organization faces a lot of uncertainty in future funding, and executive director Steve Samuelson wants to undertake an operational improvement drive. Samuelson now faces the challenge of deciding which operational metrics most closely correlate with the organization's mission metrics and also have the usual desirable properties of process measures: actionable, real-time, and disaggregate.