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Dr. Narendran, Director, Indian Medicine (Siddha) College, has been requested by the Head of the College's Pharmacology Department to ensure intellectual protection for, and commercialisation of, a formulation that he had developed for coronary atherosclerosis. Such a request has been made for the first time in the College, and the Director has to decide how it fits into the educational and research mandate of the College. He also has with him a brief market study of the formulation's potential.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The UFC is controlled by its parent company Zuffa LLC, which is owned by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White. The UFC has seen a great deal of success since its purchase from its founders in 2001 for $2 million. The owners have made MMA a highly marketable product in terms of live event ticket sales, at home pay-per-view (PPV) purchases and general popularity among their key demographic: men aged 18 to 34. However, this success has mainly occurred within the United States and Lorenzo, current UFC chief executive officer (CEO), wants to expand the organization's reach across the globe. With several successful international events in countries that are fairly culturally comparable to the United States (the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada), Lorenzo must decide if the UFC can be culturally viable in several new international markets. Specifically, he is interested in the potential to operate in China, India and South Korea. This case has been designed for use in: International Business, Organizational Behaviour, Strategic Management, Business and Society (Business, Government and Society), Leadership and Marketing to address the following topics: The difficulty inherent in determining if a potential market (i.e. international location) will be a cultural fit for a product or service, competitive advantage, strategic development, analyzing the external environment, government regulation, the impact a leader has on organizational expansion, and brand development and management.

This case presents a situation in which a large financial institution has acquired a sizable portfolio of new clients of travel (corporate expense) cards. The bank must decide on the optimal mix of clients to retain in order to achieve their goals of maximizing profitability, entering a new product market successfully and maintaining reputation. The optimal mix depends on a number of different factors, including annual account spend level, complexity of serving the account, the number of cards in each account, account risk and account retention level. The selection and number of clients chosen will affect the bank's future profitability and long term strategy. The bank is limited by attempting to achieve a three-year payback, and facing costs that can vary significantly (and which are not in the bank's control).

The case examines the supply chain, managerial, and organizational challenges facing a large European industrial company competing in a mature industry with strong price pressure. Established in the 1930s in Southern Jutland, Denmark, Danfoss initially produced automatic valves for refrigeration plants. The company has since grown into a major industrial group. Until the mid-1990s, Danfoss was very Europe-focused, having the majority of its sales and production there. This changed, however, with the arrival of the founder's son, Jorgen Mads Clausen, as the new CEO of the company. He initiated a process to change the company into a global player within all of its main business areas. Following this process of internationalization, the company was facing various challenges. There were three main issues which top management was concerned about: namely, Danfoss's manufacturing network; its continued global growth; and its highly engineering-based culture. The first issue came from the fact that Danfoss had followed a strategy of one product, one plant. This meant that all of its plants were set up to focus on the production of one product. This had created a situation with a lot of very specialized product lines and very few common features between them. On the other hand, the internationalization strategy had so far been quite successful for Danfoss in both Eastern Europe and China. In the United States, however, the company was still experiencing difficulties despite heavy investments in its manufacturing capacity in Mexico. In China, the company had experienced success and wanted to secure long-term growth in the market. The third issue was the very engineering-based culture of the company, which among other things was manifested in the fact that Danfoss previously developed products at the expense of consumer demand and preferences.

In 2002, Tyco International experienced a corporate crisis which put the conglomerate in danger of bankruptcy. The case follows how the company succesfully tackled a short-term liquidity crisis as well as the steps taken to establish a global treasury management structure to position Tyco going forward.

This is an international version of the classic ratio detective exercise that is found in many US-based textbooks and other case series. The objective is to initiate students into balance sheet analysis via the use of common-size balance sheets. The case helps students to understand how the economics of the firm are revealed in the firm's financial statements. Effectively employed, it can also teach students to think about the links between asset composition and financial structures, and how these relate to industry economics.

In July 2010, William Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square, is considering a potential new opportunity: the acquisition of the distressed Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village ("ST /PCV") complex. The property had recently been abandoned by its owners and had come under the control of CW Capital, the special servicer for the vast amount of debt that was in default. Any investment in a distressed property could be very risky and might require the company to seek protection in the bankruptcy courts. While the bankruptcy process was not new for Ackman, it could add significant complexity and unknown outcomes. Ackman must consider whether this is a worthwhile investment, given the ambiguous valuation and significant public scrutiny of any investment deal.

When ChiNext opened in October 2009 as the second tier market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), it aimed to provide Chinese entrepreneurs with equity capital and to facilitate the exits of venture capital firms and other investors which had previously relied on the New York, London, and Hong Kong markets for public offerings. A year into ChiNext's operation, Dr. Wei Chen, Chairman and founder of Oriental Fortune Capital, one of the fastest-growing venture capital firms in China, met with an SZSE research fellow to discuss how the rules governing the market might be adjusted to allow more firms to list and, more importantly, to improve efficiency and transparency in order to make ChiNext a better stock exchange.

Venture capitalists Bill Campbell and Kipp Baratoff have a decision to make. They can either invest their hard-earned capital in one of two existing energy efficiency (EE) companies or create their own company that tackles EE market barriers in a novel way. Bill and Kipp must understand how EE companies operate and discover the nuances of the EE market to make their joint decision. This case explores tactics used by three EE companies to overcome market barriers and capture the tremendous financial potential of the energy efficient market.

Mountain Hazelnut Venture Limited ("Mountain Hazelnuts") was founded with economic, social, and environmental objectives. It planned to distribute young hazelnut plants at no charge to a large number of subsistence farmers in Bhutan. The farmers would plant the trees in fallow or degraded land, tend them, and sell the resulting nuts to the company at a price negotiated between the Bhutanese government and the company. If successful, this would generate a financial return for investors, greatly increase the cash income of participating farmers, help preserve rural Bhutanese communities, and improve the environment by stabilizing hillsides, reducing erosion, and providing other benefits. Mountain Hazelnuts was the first 100 percent foreign direct investment company in Bhutan. By early 2011, when the case is set, Mountain Hazelnuts had successfully established a nursery in rural eastern Bhutan, with a capacity to produce millions of plants. It was preparing to distribute its first trees to Bhutanese farmers-a project that would involve 10 million trees over five years, and involve about 15 percent of the country's population. This case is intended for use in a course on supply chain management, but can be used in classes focused on the environment, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship (for instance, within a philanthropy course), global business, or business in developing economies.

India's wireless giant Bharti Airtel (Airtel) exemplifies many of the tenets set forth in the book The New Age of Innovation by CK Prahalad and MS Krishnan. Divided into two segments, Case (A) asks students to analyze the Indian environment and Airtel's capabilities in order to determine strategies for growth. Case (B) reviews the strategies Airtel pursued and the subsequent results.

This case is about a large U.S.-based manufacturing company considering if it should shift its production from China to India to maintain it global competitiveness, particularly for selling into the U.S. market. This case study examines in detail the recent (2003-2010) economic performance of India, including changes in government policies toward foreign investment in India. The case also reviews recent financial market and product developments in India. Finally, the case study also describes, illustrates, and applies a process of country risk analysis for foreign companies considering investment in a rapidly growing emerging market economy such as India.

Gauri Nanda, the inventor of Clocky, the alarm clock that rolls off the bed stand and forces its owner to find it, has to make critical decisions regarding the future of her nascent company. As sales of Clocky show signs of declining, she must decide whether to continue her focus on the alarm clock category or to branch out into new categories. If the former, the question is which segments to pursue and what features to develop, and, if the latter, the question is whether the concept of "humanizing technology" is something consumers would value in other domains. In addition, Nanda must decide how to continue marketing Clocky and its successors, given the potential for cannibalization. Clocky's success was largely attributable to the media's intense interest and coverage, and it is not clear such attention would carry over to other new product endeavors. Students are presented with a number of new product concepts and the findings from both qualitative and quantitative market research. This allows for a rich discussion of how managers can think creatively about consumer experiences to inform their innovation strategies.

After booming in 2007 and early 2008, the offshore drilling industry slumps in 2009. Lower oil prices lead oil companies to reduce drilling budgets, and rig utilization falls from essentially 100% to 70% in some markets. Day rates--the prices paid for a rig's services--fall by as much as 68%. The case illustrates how supply and demand work together to determine prices and utilization in the short run, as well as how long-run supply is determined in an industry where capacity additions take several years. Also describes how advances in deep-water drilling technology are changing industry structure.

In 2002, Wendy Lane had been a member of the board of directors at Tyco International a little more than a year when the company's CEO, Dennis Kozlowski, and other top executives were accused of fraud, which ultimately led to resignations, imprisonments, lawsuits, and SEC filings. In a short period of time Tyco lost two-thirds of its market value. Many outside the company questioned the board's leadership and diligence. Lane, who had a successful career in investment banking before becoming a professional director, was caught in the firestorm. The case discusses the events that led to the crisis, her reflections on managing the crisis both personally and professionally, the reputational risk she encountered, and the lessons she learned as a director.

In December 2007, the management of Mercedes-Benz India (MBI), a fully owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, the 12th-largest automobile manufacturer in the world, decided to relocate to a new facility near Pune in western India. In overseeing the installation of information technology (IT) infrastructure at the new premises, the company's CIO is dealing with some managerial choices pertaining to IT architecture, IT tools, and IT skill sets of the company. Each choice involves several trade-offs. The CIO's decision on each will have a major effect on the revenues, margins, and competitive positioning of MBI in the Indian automotive industry.

This case describes the history of Desko, a Canadian manufacturer of wood office furniture, as it faced a crisis that threatened its own existence. The president and CEO needed to decide which actions to take to improve the effectiveness of the value chain activities of the firm and the information technology (IT) supporting it. He was considering outsourcing parts of certain value chain activities, including manufacturing, to specialized partners. The case also depicts the main characteristics of the Canadian wood office furniture industry and the external factors that played an important role in the development of Desko.

Wawa was founded in 1803 and incorporated in 1865 as a textile manufacturer. In the early 1900s, the company opened a dairy; in 1964, Wawa Food Markets' first store was established as an outlet for dairy products. By mid-2007, Wawa, headquartered outside Philadelphia, had grown into a chain of 564 convenience stores (200 of which sold gasoline) within a 250-mile radius. A privately-owned firm, Wawa employed over 16,000 people. 2006 sales were $4.673 billion, an increase of 19.6 per cent over the prior year. Wawa was widely admired as a highly effective and humane organization with a loyal and expanding body of customers. This case addresses Wawa's supply chain management (SCM) in the context of strategic direction, organizational design, and future growth opportunities. Over an eight-year period, Wawa had transformed its supply chain from a disjointed array of pieces into a coherent, high-functioning system. Issues before the company now included (1) the relation between SCM & competitiveness; (2) the nature of the typical store, and store manager; and (3) possible expansion beyond Wawa's current area of operations. Another question concerned Wawa's stores. Historically, these places had featured a friendly, ambience where "everybody knows your name" but the company was moving towards larger, more standardized units with fewer offerings, with the goal of minimizing customer throughput time. What would this shift mean for the role of the store manager, and for the overall customer experience? Finally, to what extent was Wawa "landlocked" in its concentrated, middle-Atlantic market? Could--and should--the company attempt to export its distinctive value proposition, culture, and methods to other geographic areas?

The A-case begins with Tony Hayward's appointment as CEO of BP. Hayward was immediately faced with the challenge of convincing the board that he could streamline BP's cost structure, while at the same time addressing the other main issue facing the company, its safety record. One of the board's subcommittees, the safety, ethics and environment assurance committee (SEEAC), had the mandate to identify and mitigate significant non-financial risks and ensure the company achieved its goal of "no accidents, no harm to people, and no damage to the environment." Learning objectives: Strategic positioning in terms of risk and costs; setting strategic priorities; comparison competitors; managing the expectations of the board.