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In May 2022, Getwell Pharma India Private Limited was an independent neighbourhood pharmacy in Amritsar, India. Pharmacy retail in the country was largely dominated by traditional independent stores, until the emergence of pharmacy chains and e-pharmacies with scale advantage, extensive financial resources, large numbers of stock-keeping units, store brands, and new technology. These changes were making traditional pharmacies less attractive to customers, who were increasingly asking for heavy discounts to match those of the new competitors. However, the discounts were not manageable for independents that were positioned at the end of a long and fragmented supply chain and stuck with limited margins. As a result, Getwell Pharma India Private Limited was losing its customer base, despite offering quality products and services. With revenues and profits falling, should the company consider allowing a major competitor to absorb the business?

In October 2019, the director of human resources at SMP India Design Centre had a difficult situation to address. She had received a sexual harassment complaint against a senior team member from two female employees, both of whom were relatively new in the organization. Acting promptly based on the organization's procedures manual and policies, the director initiated an enquiry. A detailed investigation found the accused guilty of gross misconduct. However, the surprising punishment handed down by the organization was only a warning letter. It seemed that taking any other action would go against the company's best interests. The director of human resources felt torn between her responsibility to provide a safe and positive workplace for employees versus being a custodian of the corporate brand and public image. But how could she ensure a healthy working environment if the company ignored serious issues such as sexual harassment against its own employees? Should she fight the company's ruling and provide her own advice to employees? Would her loyalty to the organization be questioned if she decided to support the two victims of sexual harassment?

Philips, the Dutch multinational conglomerate, is assessing whether to enter the business-to-consumer (B2C) LED lightbulb market in the United States. Philips has already been serving the business-to-business (B2B) market with moderate success, but it has completely ignored the B2C market. Now, a change in energy taxes and possibly additional regulatory changes have the company reevaluating that decision. This case is designed as an exam case. It arose out of a joint effort between Darden and Boston Consulting Group to develop digital content that could be used both at universities and in certain industry applications. Please note that it assumes some familiarity with conjoint analysis. At Darden, this case has been used as an exam in a required "Marketing Management" course; it would also be suitable in courses focused on pricing or marketing strategy.

In January 2022, the Tata Group acquired Air India and Air India Express from the Indian government, marking the culmination of a long privatization process of the government-owned airlines. Before the Air India acquisition, the Tata Group already operated two airlines in the Indian market: Air Asia India and Vistara. Air India was a full-service domestic and international carrier with a large fleet; Vistara was a premium full-service domestic and international carrier with a limited fleet; and Air India Express and Air Asia India were low-cost carriers (LCCs). The Tata Group urgently needed to reduce operating costs and maximize synergies across its airline portfolio, as all four airlines were losing money. Tata wanted to capitalize on the massive growth potential in the Indian airline market by augmenting and modernizing its aircraft fleet, expanding the route network, and improving the brand image of Air India. Some of Tatas decisions were constrained by conditions imposed by the Indian government. The Tata Group would need to move quickly, as customers and investors had high expectations for the turnaround of Air India.

Founded in 2010, in just one decade, the Swiss company On had established itself as a main player in global sports footwear and apparel. Based on an unconventional strategy which one of the founders labeled as "obsessively distinct," On grew its sales with a compound annual growth rate of more than 75% between 2013 and 2021, and went public in 2021. In 2022, On was on the verge of launching a revolutionary new subscription-based service that exclusively provided customers with the Cloudneo, a fully recyclable performance running shoe. Designed as a circular business model, Cyclon would deviate from On's proven growth strategy and would contradict the dominant logic of how running shoes were consumed. On had to decide whether or not to implement the subscription-based business model as envisioned.

Priya Shah, a new consultant, had just begun a project with Biko Taylor, chief procurement officer for the City of Portland, Oregon. A few weeks before, on April 20, 2022, the Portland City Council had passed ordinance 276, authorizing Taylor to pilot inclusive contracting policies designed to attract small diverse businesses (SDBs). Taylor hoped this pilot would help foster wealth creation for marginalized demographic groups by providing more economic opportunities through government contracts. He wanted to identify policies and practices that his division could adopt to achieve the goal of awarding more city government contracts to SDBs. Shah wondered if she could bring her private-sector-sourcing expertise to help Taylor's division improve its sourcing processes and mitigate the challenges in contracting with SDBs. What were some levers the city could use to increase representation of SDBs and incubate them as key suppliers? Were regulations and policies helping or hurting the city's inclusive contracting goals? This field-based case details Portland's procurement process, explores key stakeholders, and focuses on opportunities and challenges to increasing representation of SDBs in city projects. It is suitable for undergraduate and graduate-level operations management courses, in addition to Executive Education programs. This case has been successfully taught at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business in "Strategic Sourcing," a second-year elective course in the MBA program.

In 2018, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink wrote a surprising letter to CEOs across the country stating "to prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society. Companies must benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate." Now BlackRock is facing pressure from a variety of stakeholders. Republican legislatures are cutting their states' investments in BlackRock funds, saying that the firm's "woke investing" is damaging their states' economies. Environmental groups are protesting that BlackRock is not divesting quickly enough from nonrenewable energy sources. Individual and institutional investors alike are confused by the lack of clear criteria for environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds, and analysts question whether ESG investing is sufficiently profitable. Students are tasked with helping the CEO regain control of the narrative, and advising where BlackRock should position itself next.

VDart Inc (VDart) was founded by Sidd Ahmed in December 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, as a digital talent management and services firm, which grew at a steady rate to reach US$160 million in annual revenue and more than 2,550 employees in 2019. The same year, the company was classified as the 138th largest and fifty-sixth fastest-growing staffing firm in the United States. VDart's global servicing hub was based in Tiruchirappalli, India, with about 380 employees who served clients from seven geographic locations. VDart differentiated itself from its competitors through its core values of appreciation, recognition, and encouragement (ARE) and through unique cultural practices including shout-outs during Monday conference calls, Friday Lunch & Learn sessions, and annual reward and recognition (R&R) events. Growing rapidly, VDart had set itself an ambitious goal of becoming a $500 million revenue firm by December 2022. However, the rapid growth was putting a strain on the existing culture, making it challenging to sustain and nurture it. Ahmed and the top management were finding it increasingly difficult to instill the VDart culture in new employees, realizing that the values which had propelled VDart's success thus far would not take it to the next level. The case describes the company's twelve-year growth journey, its unique cultural practices, and the growing pains, inviting students to think about options to manage culture during rapid growth.

In December 2019, Pembina Pipeline Corporation (Pembina) must evaluate an opportunity to partner with the Western Indigenous Pipeline Group (WIPG) to bid for the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) project owned by the Canadian government. Pembina's chief executive officer had previously stated that the company was unlikely to bid on the pipeline due to the challenging legal landscape, especially regarding Indigenous land rights. However, since WIPG consists of Indigenous communities along the pipeline's route, partnering could mitigate these concerns. If the project succeeds, the payback could solidify Pembina's position as a market leader in oil and gas. Should Pembina proceed with the WIPG partnership? And if they do, how should they manage relations with governments and other stakeholders?

The case is set in 2023; the protagonist is Chris Kempczinski, CEO of McDonald's Corporation. McDonald's is the world's largest hamburger fast-food restaurant chain, with 40,000 restaurants in over 100 countries, $23 billion in annual revenue, and a net income of $6 billion. Since being appointed CEO in 2019, Kempczinski launched the Accelerating the Arches strategic initiative (MCD, also the ticker symbol): maximize our Marketing, commit to the Core Menu, and double down on the 4 Ds of delivery, digital, drive-thru, and development. Although McDonald's has significantly outperformed the broader stock market for most of the past decade, Kempczinski wonders how long this can last. McDonald's faces significant headwinds, including recessionary pressure, high inflation, supply chain problems, rising wages, and significant labor shortages.

In May 2022, Roche Group, one of the largest healthcare companies in the world, hosted its first ESG investor event focused exclusively on its efforts to impact access to healthcare. While Roche had recently set an ambitious goal to double the number of patients that had access to its innovative medicines and diagnostic solutions within ten years, it was not at all clear how the firm should structure its resource allocation criteria, performance evaluations, reporting and incentive systems to align efforts internally toward these goals. Group CFO and CIO Alan Hippe was presented with two options, none of which he was particularly enthusiastic about. One was to lower the hurdle rate for projects related to ESG issues, thus relaxing profit expectations. The alternative was to incorporate a set of minimum ESG requirements in all of Roche's new project proposals. In this case, however, the risk was to reduce the focus on ESG from a strategic priority to a compliance exercise. In the presentation shared with investors at the ESG event, access to healthcare had been positioned as Roche's greatest contribution to society. This type of public commitment required more than a compliance-level of effort. In September, Alan Hippe would sit down with the executive committee to chart a path for integrating ESG issues into Roche's project selection and business planning. Hippe went on to define three objectives for ESG at Roche, "we need to align on targets, we need to get resource allocation right, and we need to report both internally and externally."

In the summer of 2022, the Lyric Opera of Chicago (Lyric), a major opera company, is facing a deepening challenge. Lyric has seen ticket sales decrease, declining from 54% of revenue in 1998 to 33% by 2018. Since 2010, the primary source of this decline has been a loss in subscribers--high-value patrons who attend several operas per year. This subscriber lack is concerning not just for the lost ticket sales but also because subscribers are far more likely than single-ticket buyers to make gifts (a stream that now constitutes 51% of Lyric's revenue). As it plans to counter this downward trend, Lyric's marketing team has two questions to answer: First, the team must decide which audiences to focus on to fill its empty seats--past subscribers, "opera-primed" lookalikes of past subscribers, more diverse audiences closer to Chicago's urban core, or millennials; then, once the team chooses a target audience, it must determine how Lyric should address that audience with its product, customer experience, and opera programming choices.

Ambareen Musa started Souqalmal by adapting the business model of UK-based online insurance brokers (e.g., MoneySuperMarket) to the UAE context. This two-part case describes some of the ups and downs of her journey, emphasizing the need for innovation and nimbleness in a rapidly changing competitive and regulatory environment.

When staff as well as investors participate in a profitable exit by a global private equity firm, the industry pays attention. KKR's sale of CHI, a garage door manufacturer, for a 9.8X multiple of invested capital (MOIC) made headlines in early 2022 as one of KKR's highest returns since the 1980s and for CHI's hourly workers and truck drivers for whom the pay-out would be life changing. More than 600 strong blue-collar workforce got an average of US$175,000 each, rising to US$800,000 for the longest serving employees. KKR had acquired the company in 2015 for US$700 million, and sold it to Nucor Corp for US$3 billion in early 2022. The celebrations were the result of a movement led by Pete Stavros, Chairman of CHI, and also Co-Head of the Americas Private Equity platform at KKR, who had worked with CHI management to give every employee an equity stake in the company, allowing them to participate in its growth as well as a substantial return upon KKR's exit. The case shows the power of equity ownership and incentive structures, as well as the challenges of implementing such fundamental changes in any business, setting the scene for discussions that go beyond DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) to tackle issues such as social justice and the equitable distribution of wealth. https://publishing.insead.edu/case/kkr-chi

Singapore Airlines Ltd (SIA) is an aviation company headquartered in Singapore. It is majority-owned by Temasek Holdings, a Singapore government investment and holding company. SIA adopts various strategies to sustain and grow its business operations, even in the midst of the Covid 19-pandemic, while devising plans to propel it toward a bright future. The evolving key issues and challenges SIA faces include: (a) Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions that have impaired SIA's business operations; (b) the lack of sustainable alternative revenue generating options outside of commercial and cargo flight services; (c) its inability to cover expenses and recurring payments that affected the optimization of its commercial flights operations that eventually led to its underutilization; (d) damage to its corporate reputation stemming from backlash from environmental activism groups in Singapore and other eco-conscious customers; (e) developing viable business strategies to bounce back while navigating the post-Covid-19 pandemic era. Aside from these, when examined from the decarbonization and environmental sustainability across its operations front, there are strategic systematic issues in SIA's usage of its new-generation aircrafts, adoption and implementation of low-carbon technology. The case is intended to help participants to better appreciate how an airline operates to sustain its business operations and growth.

In August 2022, the Pentagon tasked U.S. Air Force Captain Victor Lopez to launch a new office for AFWERX, an Air Force innovation unit that leveraged commercial developers and military talent to acquire advanced technologies. This task was particularly arduous because Lopez would be the first and only member of this new office. Having been granted flexibility in the setup of the office, he pondered the complexities of his assignment, the decisions around organizational design he would have to make, and reflected on his recent experiences, particularly those as part of the team that launched the Air Force's AI Accelerator.

Shelly Sun had founded BrightStar Care, a home health care and medical staffing agency, 20 years earlier and had grown the business to over 300 franchised locations and $654 million in annual system-wide sales. Sun had spent years working to get "the right people in the right seats" and now had a strong bench of executive talent. Sun loved being an ambassador for BrightStar and spent considerable time with external stakeholders, including policymakers. But there were times she still felt she needed to take the reins-after all, no one knew BrightStar like she did.

This case follows Sam Byker, the Founder and CEO of Atticus, as he creates, scales, and fundraises for the company. Atticus is a platform that serves individuals in need by connecting them with law firms that can help. The case covers the company's history from its inception through to its Series A financing. The case explores the tension Byker faces between Atticus' opportunities for growth and maintaining focus on the company's mission when selecting a lead investor. The first vignette leaves Byker choosing between two Series A term sheets: one from an impact-focused investor, and the other from a venture capital firm with a track-record of building iconic brands. The second vignette explores a set of strategic decisions Byker must make that place growth and impact in tension with one another.

The case outlines the development of Boston-based start-up Rethink Robotics Inc., a leader in a rapidly growing part of the booming robotics market: collaborative robots (cobots), which work side by side with humans. This case also traces the moves of a mid-sized German hardware engineering company, HAHN Automation, a leader in integrated automation systems. With a keen interest in cobots, HAHN Automation had invested in the start-up and acquired the rights to distribute, sell and service Rethink Robotics' products globally. This had made HAHN Automation a leader in the growing global market for cobots. When Rethink Robotics suddenly announced that it was liquidating, HAHN's leaders needed to act. They saw three options: acquire, develop IP in-house or find another solution.