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In this fictional case, the CEO of a global pharmaceutical company based in Belgium with operations in Moscow is contemplating what to do in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The company is experiencing pressure from shareholders, Ukrainian and Belgium government officials, and the public to follow in the footsteps of many multinational corporations and cease operations in Russia. However, since the firm provides medically necessary products, the decision isn't straightforward. How can the CEO navigate the complicated political waters of this decision and make the most humanitarian decision? Should the company exit Russia completely, or should it continue to operate but on a smaller scale? Expert commentators respond.

In this fictional case, the CEO of a global pharmaceutical company based in Belgium with operations in Moscow is contemplating what to do in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The company is experiencing pressure from shareholders, Ukrainian and Belgium government officials, and the public to follow in the footsteps of many multinational corporations and cease operations in Russia. However, since the firm provides medically necessary products, the decision isn't straightforward. How can the CEO navigate the complicated political waters of this decision and make the most humanitarian decision? Should the company exit Russia completely, or should it continue to operate but on a smaller scale? Expert commentators respond.

Allegis Services (India) Pvt. Ltd., the Indian arm of the Allegis Group, a leading talent staffing and recruitment services firm, had become the best-practice advisor on enabling disability inclusion. With a large internal workforce that provided contract staffing and permanent hiring, they provided a template for various organizations that wanted to bring talent with disability into their workforce. Slowly and steadily, there was an increase in the number of people with disability inducted into formal white-collar jobs within Allegis and the clients it serviced. However, some challenges persisted. Given the accommodation requirements for hiring persons with disability, Allegis' clients questioned the business benefits of being disability-inclusive. A few organizations struggled to enable their hires, resulting in a few people with disability opting out of jobs in large and well-reputed organizations. The case broadens the scope of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) agenda within organizations by focusing on the dimension of enabling disability inclusion. The case helps debate the need for disability inclusion, the enabling systems and mindsets to be truly disability-inclusive, and its intangible benefits for organizations.

Crop residue burning (CRB) is a major factor contributing to the pollution in the northern part of India and the national capital region (NCR). In November 2021, the NCR consistently recorded an air quality index (AQI) of more than 450, which is hazardous to human health. As a result of these bad weather conditions, Delhi residents have experienced multiple health issues such as red eyes, headaches, cough, itchy skin, and itchy throats. Farmers burning crop residues during the winter months in the states surrounding Delhi contributed to these environmental conditions. Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has been working with farmers in Punjab and Haryana to encourage them to adopt eco-friendly straw management practices as part of CII's Crop Residue Management (CRM) initiative. The CRM's main objective was to eliminate the practice of burning crop residues in the open. Chandrakant Pradhan, manager for CRM, wondered how to demonstrate CRM's results in the upcoming funding agency meeting. As part of his presentation, he wanted to raise stakeholders' awareness of the alternative methods based on ground realities and the tools that farmers have been using primarily in different districts and villages of Punjab and Haryana. As he weaved through the traffic, several thoughts began to race through his mind. How should the data collected diligently by his team through farmer surveys be presented to potential funders? How best to examine and analyze the data? What valuable insights can the data provide that can help raise more funds and support from various stakeholders? Is there enough evidence to show whether this initiative will reduce pollution over time and hence needs to be scaled up?

The case is intended to help the student learn about an important source of startup funding in India, namely, angels. It also provides an opportunity to learn about how organisations emerge - in this instance angel networks - to solve economic problems that economic agents in a market face. The note also provides an overview of how angel networks manage their investment activity. Finally, it also brings out the strategic challenges faced by players in a rapidly evolving ecosystem.

This case is about the digital transformation at Apollo Hospitals (Chennai Main) facility. The case enumerates the various digitalization initiatives with the view to highlight how a successful digitalization project will result in all three possible outcomes - cost reduction/ efficiency improvement, product/ brand differentiation leading to high willingness to pay for the products and services, and improvement in patient/ consultant experience. Most digitalization initiatives would be focused on only one of these, but this case is an instance where there has been an equal focus on all these three outcomes.

The case provides an opportunity to analyze sourcing decisions in a firm. Specifically, the case illustrates the development of a supplier scorecard system in an organization involved in new product development, where the technology of component design may change over time. The case also attempts to link the design of the scorecard mechanism to that of the incentives (or reward mechanisms) for various players.

It was July 2022, and Isaac Morgado, one of the founders of MVMT Strength Inc., wanted to create a comprehensive marketing plan for the fall season. The gym had recently moved to a new location and Morgado wanted to continue growth through promotional campaigns.

Roku Inc. was launched in 2008 as a spinoff from Netflix. Inc. The company sold streaming devices-tools that transformed standard televisions into smart TVs-and operated a free advertising-supported streaming television service called The Roku Channel. Throughout the 2010s, Roku Inc. dominated the streaming device industry. In late 2022, however, the company was facing several challenges. Increased operating expenses from recent investments in content creation, coupled with an advertising recession, had led to declining profitability. In addition, the company faced increased competition from established technology giants such as Google LLC and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., in addition to the entry of major US telecommunications leaders such as Comcast Corporation and Charter Communications Inc. To maintain its market share and drive profitability, Roku Inc. could enhance its advertising capabilities, continue pursuing aggressive negotiation tactics, prioritize geographic expansion, further expand its product line, or seek a buyer. The company's management team had to make decision.

Tata Motors Limited (Tata Motors), an Indian automobile major with a consolidated annual turnover of more than ₹2,497 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2021, was struggling to turn profitable and reinstate dividend payments to its investors. The case discusses the dividend policy of Tata Motors, comparing it with the dividend policies of the company's peers and examining its relevance to the investor community at large. With Tata Motors' long history as a dividend-paying company, its sudden withdrawal of dividends in FY 2016, with no payouts in the following five years, has made investors jittery. The company was working on the turnaround plan and internal reorganization that would allow it to provide a differentiated focus on its three business verticals-the commercial vehicle segment, the passenger vehicle segment, and the electric vehicle segment. Tata Motors had already communicated its decision to conserve cash to reduce its leverage and become debt-free by FY 2024. However, with an increase in pressure from a certain section of investors, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chair of Tata Motors, was considering when to reinstate dividends. What signal would doing so send to the market? Would the ownership structure of the company have an impact on its dividend policy? Did the company's cash flows support the dividend payment at this stage?

The co-founders of The Graph Foundation had experienced first-hand how difficult it was to create new Web3 applications without easy access to blockchain data: There was no indexing and querying software for blockchain, and developers had to find their own method for collecting and transforming data from different sources. The Graph was an indexing protocol designed to solve this issue and become the nascent "Google Search" for the metaverse. With a recent investment giving it an opportunity to increase its revenue while improving the value proposition, The Graph had to decide which business model to adopt: Should The Graph implement a protocol-to-user model to attract everyday users, or stay with its current protocol-to-developer model? If it implemented a the former, should it develop its own search feature, or collaborate with a partner (or set of partners) to this achieve this goal? What role should this feature play in The Graph's broader strategy and within the wider Web3 ecosystem?

On January 20, 2022, Shamini Harrington, vice president for climate change at Sasol Limited (Sasol), considered the recent announcement that the company had reaffirmed its commitment to climate change management. As she looked through the plans in place, she reflected back to Sasol's evolution as an organization and its role within South Africa, and considered the complexities involved in the process of a just transition. Two questions particularly resonated with her as she thought of the report she needed to provide to her management in the next three months: What were the implications for a just energy transition in a developing country like South Africa? and, How should Sasol work with stakeholders who often held differing perspectives?

Prakash Singhal is an intelligent, strategic, and hardworking technology integrations project lead at WinCorp. He has taken up this position after a successful tenure at a leading consulting firm and postgraduation at a top-tier Indian business school. An avid traveler and explorer, Singhal has been excited about the company policy of working from anywhere thrice a week and spending only two days a week in the physical office. He soon settles into his team and begins working with his supervisor Anurag Das and his direct report Vivek Joshi. He begins working on landing a huge technology transformation project with ABD Group, an Indian manufacturing conglomerate and prepares a proposal for them. The client is busy with some internal audit and asks the project team, at the very last minute, to present its proposal in its office. Though Singhal has been utilizing his work-from-anywhere days and travelling, he agrees to the meeting and decides to join virtually while Das and Joshi decide to attend in person. Due to some network issues at the client's location, Singhal is unable to participate, and Joshi takes the lead on the proposal. Singhal realizes that all the recognition for this win is being credited to Joshi since he was physically present at the client meeting. Singhal is disgruntled and upset over this and is now considering his future at WinCorp. He is also wondering if the hybrid working system will ever be a possibility in India.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Larry Koo, the co-founder and creative lead of KOODESIGN, needed to come up with a plan to complete a client's project from design all the way to market within six months for a robotic device equipped with disinfectants. Given such a tight project schedule and the high client's expectations of quality, Larry realized that he was indeed in a race against time and would need to think differently to fast track this project to meet the client's deadline. Larry decided to fast track this project by adjusting some of the initial task duration and start time as well as the sequence specifications. By concurrently completing tasks that would normally be completed sequentially, Larry hoped to compress the project duration just enough time to meet the client's launch date. However, fast tracking a project would also create a higher chance of resource overloading problems that Larry needed to address since his design studio's resources were limited.

The case explores the intersection of capital allocation and shareholder activism in the biopharmaceutical industry. As many biopharma companies face looming patent expirations for key medicines, the case asks the question of whether investing in R&D and M&A is an imperative. Three biopharma companies have been under scrutiny by Elliott Management, one of the largest shareholder activists for various reasons. The range of investment options for biopharma companies are outlined, including investing in the business via R&D and M&A, and returning capital to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases. The uniqueness of large biopharma companies is reviewed including enviable profit margins, significant risk in R&D, questionable perpetuity value, and the pressure from shareholder activists to prudently deploy capital.

The case features Ina Botha, executive director for South Africa-based Commercial Cold Storage and Logistics (CCS Logistics), critically reflecting on the lessons learned during her tenure leading the organization. Botha initiated and led a three-and-a-half-year culture change journey, which helped improve accountability and results. Now that she was considering a larger role within the organization's parent company, Oceana Group, she reflected on whether the new culture had been embedded within CCS Logistics and if it would be sustainable in a new era under different leadership. What should she recommend the incoming joint executive directors of the business continue to do or do differently to ensure the new culture supported the business in achieving its strategic objectives?

In 2019, Loblaw Companies Limited, a Canadian grocery chain headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, was mired in controversy over the "ethnic food aisle," which was a common feature in all its stores. The company was questioned about the aisle's role in creating a sense of otherness and divisiveness among the culturally diverse individuals it served. These issues related to discussions sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement alongside the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, during which broad social inequality and COVID-19's disproportionate impact on frontline employees became spotlighted in new ways. Loblaw Companies Limited had to decide if it should remove its "ethnic food aisle." It also had to consider the purpose of its acquired stores that were entirely dedicated to ethnic offerings, such as T&T Supermarket, which specifically offered products and a shopping experience tailored to Asian tastes. The company had several questions to resolve. Did its current corporate strategy reflect evolving expectations of equity, diversity, and inclusion? What actions should the company take with regard to its popular "ethnic food aisle?" Should it continue to expand by acquiring additional ethnic grocery store chains? Was Loblaw Companies Limited doing enough to support equity, diversity, and inclusion in the organization?

The case recounts the dilemma faced by Donnie Boyd, the owner of a small barber shop in downtown Toronto in the second quarter of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic had spread throughout the world but its consequences were only partially known in mid-2020. The first wave of the virus had almost run its course in Canada but people feared (correctly so, as it happens) that subsequent waves would strike, further devastating the economy and specifically small businesses such as Boyd's Barber Shop.

The head of Agile Initiative Network (AIN) at TCS, an India based multinational IT services-consulting-business solutions enterprise, has been mandated by the company's CEO to lead the internal transformation of TCS at scale into an Agile enterprise. There is a three-year deadline beginning December 2017, and the transformation must be executed company-wide in a single leap. Midway into the execution of the strategy, the head of the Agile Initiative Network discovers that he had not factored in the need for change management at scale. The deficit needs to be quickly addressed to achieve the desired outcomes from the ongoing transformation. Students have an opportunity to step into the shoes of the case protagonist and resolve the managerial dilemmas he is facing in making course corrections.