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This case focuses on Gas Natural BAN's network expansion project to provide natural gas to five low-income neighborhoods in the suburban area of Buenos Aires. It shows how a business model evolved to serve low-income sector (henceforth, LIS) customers, and, more particularly, it describes how the company partnered with a local CSO, Fundación Pro Vivienda Social (Foundation for Social Housing, henceforth FPVS), and learned how to work with these communities in a project carried out in Moreno's Cuartel V. Starting with the project carried out with FPVS, the company had begun to pursue natural gas network expansion projects for LIS neighborhoods with a business approach that differed from the scheme used with conventional customers. At the juncture depicted by this case, the company needs to set the guidelines for its natural gas network expansion strategy targeting LIS neighborhoods. Gas Natural BAN's experience with FPVS, though viewed as successful by the company, registered some inefficiencies that prevented its large-scale application and led management to look for new options to pursue its LIS strategy. As a result, the FPVS collaboration model and its potential for optimization were questioned. It was also questionable whether the scheme used by FPVS in Moreno's Cuartel V would be applicable to other neighborhoods with different conditions. This teaching case deals primarily with the development of inclusive business models based on cross-sector collaborations involving companies, nonprofits and citizens. It may be used in graduate courses on Business and Society, Corporate Social Responsibility or Business Strategy including BOP issues.

In December 2006, Alcan was the second largest producer of aluminum in the world, but the industry was consolidating. The case traces the development of the aluminum industry since World War II to the recent emergence of China as an economic power and the accompanying rise in commodity prices. Alcan had to decide between two offers: to be acquired or to go it alone. The first offer was from Alcoa and the other from Rio Tinto. Alcoa was the world leader in the production of aluminum and, like Alcan, was engaged in significant technological research and development. Meanwhile, Rio Tinto was one of the largest mining companies in the world, but had minor aluminum operations and, in general, few downstream processing plants or technologies. Students are asked to identify Alcan's key resources and consider which strategy would make best use of them.

Hungary's top producer of poultry products is deciding the company's future strategy in the face of new opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe, a changing retail market in Hungary, and the possibility of increased global competition.

Facing the worldwide financial crisis, Goldman Sachs' CEO Lloyd Blankfein considered his options including whether his company could avoid a forced marriage and what steps Goldman Sachs should take to try to restore confidence in financial services companies.

Stephen Richards, the former global head of sales at Computer Associates, Inc. (CA), is serving a seven year prison sentence for financial fraud. In the case, Richards responds to a number of questions about managerial responsibility and the manipulation of financial performance in a letter written to a graduate student.

In August 2009, a portfolio manager for Resolute Funds Inc. is considering adding to his fund's holdings, WestJet Airlines, a fast-growing airline based in Calgary, Alberta. WestJet has grown rapidly from a startup to become the second largest airline in Canada. Despite its recent successes, due to the economic crisis, its share price has halved from its high in December 2007. The portfolio manager is trying to determine whether WestJet's shares are attractive. To support his analysis, the portfolio manager has asked his team to assemble comparative financial data on WestJet and its key competitors. The portfolio manager wants to know if he should buy, hold or sell WestJet's shares.

Bertelsmann's EVP HR Immanuel Hermreck and his team were focused on four key HR issues. Three of these were somewhat discreet: improving Bertelsmann's employer brand; managing Bertelsmann talent across the firm's decentralized businesses; and ensuring early identification and appropriate development of Bertelsmann's top 100 high potential managers (hi-pos) to better seed the company's future top management. The fourth issue-recruitment and retention-played an integral role across all three challenges and had to be strengthened and made consistent across the firm, not an easy prospect given Bertelsmann's highly decentralized structure. Hermreck knew navigating these issues would pose significant challenges, but getting them right was critical to Bertelsmann's competitive advantage and survival as a robust media company. He had some good results in from his early efforts, but as he looked forward, what should his action plan set out to do?

In 1931, during one of the worst economic crises in US history, Du Pont announced the discovery of an innovative rubber synthetic product - neoprene. Yet at the time of the announcement, Du Pont did not have any neoprene to sell. Manufacturing facilities were still being erected and production remained at laboratory scale. Rubber synthetics had been developed in Russia, Germany and even in the United States before, but large scale production had never taken off. Would Du Pont's announcement and public disclosure of the basic science lift the barriers to commercialization? What made Du Pont so confident that it could succeed at this uncertain time?

The chief executive officer (CEO) of Fortune Motors, the largest Mitsubishi dealership in Taiwan, has to consider his vision for the survival of the company. Fortune Motors' sales in 2003 had fallen below 50,000 units for the first time in 10 years, and market share had been falling for several years. The CEO had a plan to enter the business of financing used-car purchases. He thought that the balanced scorecard would be a useful tool to help him implement this change. The first step was to construct a corporate scorecard.

A week before Christmas, Tim O'Connell, a manager at Driscoll Software, gets a call from Hybara Casinos. The former client's system has crashed, and the company wants to be rescued by New Year's Day. The project will generate much-needed revenue, but it involves six weeks' worth of work crammed into two - and over the holidays, no less. Tim's star programmer, Alessandra Sandoval, quit several months earlier, and the rookie Kristen Hammersmith has taken her place. Should Tim contract the project out to Alessandra or trust Kristen to lead the team? Three experts comment in this fictional case study in R0912B and R0912Z. Tim should hire Alessandra immediately, says Michael Schrage, a researcher at Sloan School of Management's Center for Digital Business. Kristen is in over her head. But more important, Tim is a shockingly poor manager. Carol A. Walker, the founder and principal of the consulting firm Prepared to Lead, agrees that Tim isn't doing his job and outlines a scenario whereby he demonstrates his confidence in, and support for, Kristen and prepares her to succeed. Paul Muller, Hewlett-Packard's vice president of strategic marketing for software products, says that in this severely condensed time frame, Driscoll and Hybara need to assess the risks and costs involved in rushing the project. If they decide to go ahead, Tim should empower Kristen to lead.

A week before Christmas, Tim O'Connell, a manager at Driscoll Software, gets a call from Hybara Casinos. The former client's system has crashed, and the company wants to be rescued by New Year's Day. The project will generate much-needed revenue, but it involves six weeks' worth of work crammed into two - and over the holidays, no less. Tim's star programmer, Alessandra Sandoval, quit several months earlier, and the rookie Kristen Hammersmith has taken her place. Should Tim contract the project out to Alessandra or trust Kristen to lead the team? Three experts comment in this fictional case study in R0912B and R0912Z. Tim should hire Alessandra immediately, says Michael Schrage, a researcher at Sloan School of Management's Center for Digital Business. Kristen is in over her head. But more important, Tim is a shockingly poor manager. Carol A. Walker, the founder and principal of the consulting firm Prepared to Lead, agrees that Tim isn't doing his job and outlines a scenario whereby he demonstrates his confidence in, and support for, Kristen and prepares her to succeed. Paul Muller, Hewlett-Packard's vice president of strategic marketing for software products, says that in this severely condensed time frame, Driscoll and Hybara need to assess the risks and costs involved in rushing the project. If they decide to go ahead, Tim should empower Kristen to lead.

A week before Christmas, Tim O'Connell, a manager at Driscoll Software, gets a call from Hybara Casinos. The former client's system has crashed, and the company wants to be rescued by New Year's Day. The project will generate much-needed revenue, but it involves six weeks' worth of work crammed into two - and over the holidays, no less. Tim's star programmer, Alessandra Sandoval, quit several months earlier, and the rookie Kristen Hammersmith has taken her place. Should Tim contract the project out to Alessandra or trust Kristen to lead the team? Three experts comment in this fictional case study in R0912B and R0912Z. Tim should hire Alessandra immediately, says Michael Schrage, a researcher at Sloan School of Management's Center for Digital Business. Kristen is in over her head. But more important, Tim is a shockingly poor manager. Carol A. Walker, the founder and principal of the consulting firm Prepared to Lead, agrees that Tim isn't doing his job and outlines a scenario whereby he demonstrates his confidence in, and support for, Kristen and prepares her to succeed. Paul Muller, Hewlett-Packard's vice president of strategic marketing for software products, says that in this severely condensed time frame, Driscoll and Hybara need to assess the risks and costs involved in rushing the project. If they decide to go ahead, Tim should empower Kristen to lead.

When a consultant recommends an overhaul of the HR compensation practices that the family business is known for and prizes, what should be the next steps?

Steve & Barry's grew rapidly in the mid-2000s, transitioning from a chain of small stores selling inexpensive collegiate-branded merchandise near university campuses into a $1 billion mall-based giant selling a wide variety of low-priced, celebrity-endorsed apparel. While the company had a wide following, elements of its growth strategy-potentially exacerbated by economic conditions-contributed to its quick downfall. By 2008 Steve & Barry's had declared bankruptcy, and various private equity firms were investigating whether some or all of the company should be saved. This requires analyzing the underlying business strategy pursued by Steve & Barry's before and after its growth phase and specifically diagnosing the explanations for its failure.

By early 2009 Starbucks had nearly 17,000 stores worldwide, with about a third of these outside the United States. Despite multibillion-dollar annual revenues, the giant coffee retailer's yearly growth had declined by half, quarterly earnings had dropped as much as 97 percent, same-store sales were negative, and its stock price was languishing. Factors such as a global economic downturn and increasing competition in the specialty coffee market from large players such as McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts had driven this decline, resulting in the closings of hundreds of domestic stores already, with many more planned. Founder Howard Schultz, who had recently returned as CEO, and his executive team were convinced that Starbucks's growth opportunities lay overseas, where the firm already had a strong foothold in markets like Japan and the United Kingdom and was preparing to open hundreds of new stores in a variety of locations. But recent international challenges, including the closing of most Australian stores due to sluggish sales, made clear that Starbucks had more to learn about bringing its value proposition-a combination of premium coffee, superior service, and a "coffeehouse experience"-to foreign soil. The key question was not whether Starbucks could transport its value proposition overseas, but how the value proposition's three elements would play in recently entered and new markets. And the stakes of making the right international moves rose with each U.S. store closure. Schultz and his team also faced a broader question, one that applied to both their U.S. and foreign stores: Could they "grow big and stay small," remaining a huge retailer that delivered both high-quality products and a consistently intimate and enjoyable experience to consumers worldwide? This case presents this challenge in the context of Starbucks's history, well-established value proposition, and domestic and international growth and vision.

Ontela, a technology start-up company, has introduced an innovative service called PicDeck that improves the mobile imaging experience for wireless subscribers. Ontela sells PicDeck to wireless carriers, who in turn private-label the service to their subscribers. Ontela must decide which customer segments it should target for the service and how to create a positioning strategy and a marketing communication plan to promote it. It must also consider the value proposition of the PicDeck service for wireless carriers (its direct customers), who need to be convinced that the service will lead to higher monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) and/or increased subscriber loyalty. Part A of the case provides qualitative information on customer personae that represent different customer segments. Students are asked to develop a targeting and positioning strategy based on this qualitative information. Part B provides quantitative data on customer preferences that can be used to identify response-based customer segments, as well as demographic and media habits information that can be used to profile the segments. Students are asked to revise their recommendations based on the additional quantitative data.

The case depicts Krispy Kreme's franchise system growth and decline as a lesson to entrepreneurs running a company as a franchisor. Burton D. Cohen, retired senior vice president and chief franchise officer for McDonald's Corporation from 1980 to 1999, explains the strengths and weaknesses in Krispy Kreme's franchising strategy during the period from 1997 to 2006. Areas examined in the case include: franchisee agreements, accounting practices, volatility in stock valuation, franchise system growth, franchise ownership structure, product distribution strategy, and commissary growth. The case depicts how Krispy Kreme started and how it ended up in a low point.

In 2009 Wikia was the Internet's largest for-profit provider of hosted open-source wikis, with over a million daily users. After five years of existence, the organization had supported a wide range of exploratory activities, experiencing both success and failure. With approximately $3 million of cash on hand, Wikia turned cash flow positive in 2009, with revenues of approximately $4.5 million, affording it time and flexibility to try new things. Some of the company's employees and investors suggested that Wikia should attempt to expand and market itself more aggressively, but which strategic direction should receive priority? The case presents many of the issues and tradeoffs facing CEO Gil Penchina as he formulates these priorities.

Wayne Leonard became CEO of Entergy in 1999. After serving as CEO for close to eight years, the Entergy Board named Leonard Chairman and CEO.

Communispace is the market leader in creating and managing private, brand-focused online communities for major corporate clients. These communities have provided its clients with insights into how consumers view their brands, with quick feedback on potential marketing decisions, and with a sounding board for new product ideas. Now, a potential client has asked Communispace to build and manage an online community for the sole purpose of fostering Word-of-Mouth for a new brand it was launching. Should Communispace take on this assignment?