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White lies (inflated claims) cost the insurance industry billions of dollars every year. After investing heavily to automate workflows (from policy subscription to claims processing), digitization has ironically made fraud easier to commit and harder to catch. To an industry drowning in data and paying out millions per day for fraudulent claims, artificial intelligence and machine learning offer new hope. The case introduces what it calls "explainable AI" seen through the eyes of a senior operations executive at Shift, an insurtech unicorn company whose algorithm is used by global insurers such as Generali France and Mitsui Sumitomo to fight fraudulent claims. The focus is on strategy making (following a private equity funding round) and algorithm-level decisions. With an anonymized dataset of more than 10,000 claims and a guided coding exercise in statistical computing softwares R and Python, students are able to backtest their strategies on historical data. Beyond the exercise there is ample material to drive case discussion. https://publishing.insead.edu/case/to-catch-a-thief

A young paralegal joined the London, UK law firm Darby & Fox LLP in August 2020. The position was a one-year contract during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paralegal was subjected to employee discrimination and harassment, starting with a requirement to be in the office, unlike other workers, because she was a newly-hired contract-based employee. She endured overwork, job threats, and simultaneous work assignments from an associate partner, as well as his spouse and colleague. Workplace conflict aggravated her situation, receiving increased workload, longer work hours, lack of compensation for overtime, delegated work from other paralegals, and monitored office activity. Even the process for approval of time off work was changed, making it more cumbersome for her to take a one-day leave. The paralegal wondered how to resolve her situation.

Over a history of more than 240 years, the United States Marine Corps has forged a distinct culture and institutional identity centered on its "warrior ethos." In the wars of American history, Marines fought with uncommon valor, rising to international prominence for their bravery on the battlefields of Belleau Wood, Iwo Jima, Chosin, Khe Sahn, Fallujah, and Marjah. However, the Corps has found its distinct institutional character threatened with extinction on more than one occasion. Political maneuvers, tight defense budgets, shifting geopolitical priorities, and the evolution of the character of warfare has forced the Corps into a delicate balancing act across the decades, adapting its institutional character on the one hand while retaining its core cultural ethos on the other. With one of the highest turnover rates among the U.S. military services, the Corps relies heavily on a robust training program to inculcate its warrior ethos in generation after generation of new Marines. Historically, this program placed a heavy emphasis on infantry skills, on deconstructing the individual and cultivating intense habits of teamwork, and on centering new Marines on the historical legacy and core values of the Corps. The consistent output has been "Marines with Marine training"-a force that can fight and win "in any clime and place." Yet as new geopolitical challenges in the 2020s forced the United States to redefine its national security strategy, questions arose regarding the Corps' continuing relevance and its need to adapt yet again.

In September 2019, Zaoui & Co.'s close-knit team of professionals convened for their annual off-site. In its nine years of operation, the boutique investment bank founded by the brothers Michael (HBS '83) and Yoel Zaoui (Stanford GSB '88), had garnered a track record for advising on several significant transactions across Europe. At the retreat, the firm's leaders were debating whether to (a) continue as a small boutique focused on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory services, (b) grow aggressively in M&A advisory, or (c) diversify into principal investing. Each alternative presented strategic and organizational challenges and opportunities. Whichever path they elected to pursue would significantly influence what kind of firm Zaoui & Co. would become.

Snowman Logistics Ltd was publicly listed in 2014 at a huge premium to the issue price. The company was the first pan-Indian player in the temperature-controlled logistics industry, which was largely unorganized and fragmented. Changing consumer preferences and increasing demand for processed food were expected to drive the business's growth rates and profitability. However, India updated its accounting standards in 2019, which impacted Snowman's financial statements. Even after six years of listing, the company had failed to meet expected growth in revenue and profitability, and an assessment needs to be made about why it failed to meet investor expectations.

Concise Industries Private Limited (Concise Industries), a small enterprise operating in the material handling and control equipment sector, manufactured fixed cranes and undertook annual maintenance contracts for its clients scattered across India. In the face of the uncertainty posed by COVID-19, the owner was contemplating whether to stick with the company's current strategy or to expand to take advantage of the benefits of growth in this industry. As the economy continued to improve, he believed that demand for these goods would rise. He was considering project expansion but was unsure whether this move would bring value to his company. Hence, he was investigating several project expansion proposals and associated expected cash flow projections to make an investment decision.

In this case study, students will explore some of the differences and considerations that may emerge when entrepreneurs evaluate and choose between multiple financing offers from venture capital investors. The case follows the two founders of a fictional company, All Hands, as they raise a Series A financing round. The founders have received term sheets from two venture capital firms that differ not only in the valuation of the firm's equity but also in other important financial and non-financial ways, including preference structures, dividends, anti-dilution protection and governance. Students will put themselves in the position of the founders to identify differences across the two term sheets, evaluate potential economic and governance tradeoffs, and develop a point-of-view on which offer they would accept.

In 2021, IPI celebrated its tenth anniversary since its inception as a public-funded innovation intermediary in Singapore, a city-state with a strong focus on innovation as an economic growth strategy. Among the many initiatives promoted by the government agencies is open innovation - an approach that enables firms, both large and small, to pursue innovation with the help of external expertise or partners, as few could innovate effectively on their own. As a neutral party facilitating collaboration between the local SME community and technology innovators in developing new products, services, and processes, IPI is the missing element that plugs the gap in the local innovation ecosystem. Its value proposition includes reaching a wider network of partners, acquiring industry-specific knowledge insights, and identifying and catalysing new market opportunities for licensing technology by a multidisciplinary team. Over the past decade, IPI has grown into a trusted intermediary for thousands of companies that are either seeking or offering innovative solutions. However, IPI is still unknown to many among the 300,000 plus SME community in Singapore. Wong Lup Wai, who took the helm as CEO in 2019, has set out to rebrand IPI's identity and strengthen its service offerings. He concedes there is still much work to be done. What factors will help IPI succeed in the next decade? How can IPI scale its key services to create an even more vibrant innovation community for SMEs?

When Jack Sim turned 40, it was the height of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, which had decimated half his wealth. The Singaporean entrepreneur found himself wanting to live a more meaningful life, and decided to devote his remaining years to promoting the need for clean sanitation. He first set up the Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS), and buoyed by its success, he went on to found the World Toilet Organization (WTO). Given that the topic of sanitation is awkward and not one to generate interest among the public at large, Sim opted to use humour, specifically toilet humour, to attract attention and gather support for his cause. In the process, he often drew upon his expertise as a consummate salesman to persuade people to agree with him that clean toilets could be a status symbol - not unlike branded handbags. Sim also found that in trying to enlist governments to aid his movement, he had to understand how bureaucrats work and tailor his strategies accordingly, such that the probability of getting their support would be raised. But while he had perfected the art of using humour to make the unsanitary topic as commonplace and ordinary as the weather, with the world still buffeted by COVID-19, the Ukraine war, and sky-rocketing inflation, how could he continue to sustain people's interest in this cause?

No hierarchies, no superiors, circles, roles, and complete transparency. That was the secret to Liip's success after it moved from a pyramid to a holacratic structure. In starting the high-tech digital agency in 2007, the co-founders were clear that the firm's employees belonged at the centre of all activities, projects, and decisions, and they enjoyed enormous freedom, trust, and responsibility. If employees were not doing well, customers and the company itself were not doing well. The company gained speed, flexibility, and agility with this management system. By 2022, Liip had expanded to six Swiss locations, and its employee number had jumped from 130 to more than 200. Holacracy was integral to operations, and every staff member could explain exactly how holacracy worked. Liip had been a pioneer in implementing holacracy, and while it had experienced steady growth, it had also faced many challenges.

Established in 1984, Cirque du Soleil (CdS) reinvented the circus, creating one of the industry's most iconic creative brands. In 2015, Guy Laliberté, CdS's leader, sold the organization to a private equity consortium led by Texas-based investment group TPG, Chinese real estate developer Fosun, and Quebec financial investor Caisse de Dépôt. This ownership change introduced a strategic shift and a renewed focus on the Chinese market - a market in which CdS had attempted to establish permanent operations with limited commercial success since 2007. The case, which is set in June 2020, focuses on the period between 2015, when the ownership change took place, and June 30, 2020, when Cirque filed for protection from its creditors under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act ("CCAA") in Canada and Chapter 15 in the United States so that it could restructure its capital. It explores the company's decisions regarding market entry and product selection and the challenges it encountered.

Two women entrepreneurs co-founded a profitable direct-to-consumer apparel brand called Suta. In June 2021, as the business owners were planning to increase advertising expenditure and scale up operations, they were confronted with a declining return on advertising spend on social commerce and other digital platforms. The co-founders needed to make use of marketing analytics to examine the effectiveness of their online store in converting visitors into customers and decide whether adopting a conversion rate optimization strategy could help improve performance.

Planet Milk produced and distributed A2 milk in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of the state of Orissa, in India. Despite the best efforts of its founder, Planet Milk had remained unprofitable since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March 2020. In January 2022, the founder considered three broad alternatives to revive his milk business. The first was to change the milk's packaging from glass bottles to Tetra Pak cartons. This change in packaging would increase the milk's shelf life, allow wider customer reach, and improve revenues. The second alternative was to introduce an online order management option for consumers, which would increase the visibility of demand and thereby increase the operational efficiency of the business, reduce wastage and logistics costs, and increase profits. However, these options also required significant capital investments that would potentially not be recouped if the desired increase in sales did not occur. The third option was to target institutional buyers or retail channel partners, which would potentially increase sales but also decrease margins and increase credit. The founder had three months to implement a revival plan; if it proved unsuccessful, he could sell the business.

Gerald Weiss left Wall Street for the promise of a CFO position at a well-established corporation. He was given a 10-year options package with a guaranteed floor of $12 million and unlimited upside. To ensure the entire package would be worth at least $12 million after 10 years, Gerald negotiated a special provision, which gave him the ability to "gross-up" his options twice over those ten years. If the stock price fell substantially, Gerald would be awarded more options (at-the-money) to bring the entire Black-Scholes value of his package back up to $12 million. Because of the company's culture of informality, the deal was agreed to with a handshake from the CEO, witnessed by the current CFO and the VP of human resources, but not written down. When the stock price actually fell, and Gerald asked to revalue his options package, the company reneged on the deal. Teaching Objective: To generate discussion about the benefits and pitfalls of mega-option grants, the issue of revaluing options, and the conflict between adhering to company culture and protecting the financial interests of the employee.

Velong is a supplier of kitchen equipment and backyard grills for major global brands and store brands of large western retailers. In light of the COVID-related disruptions to the global supply chains, and the evolving trade tensions between China and the Western countries, Velong's global customers were pressuring the company to move 30% of its manufacturing from China to other locations. Velong was considering a number of countries to shift its manufacturing-India, Vietnam, Turkey and Mexico. At present, none of these countries seem to be able to match the cost structure and manufacturing quality that the company is able to achieve in China. Velongs co-founders, Jacob Rothman and Iven Chen, need to decide soon how to formulate a strategy to deal with the challenge.

This case gives an overview of Elon Musk's career arc through the lens of the 2003 founding of Tesla and its growth through 2022. Background information is included on Tesla's unique strategic decisions, its operational and reputational struggles and successes, and the broader evolution of the electric vehicle market, emissions regulations, and green technology developments. The case also contains information on Musk's early life and endeavors beyond Tesla, with a focus on his management style and the implications for Tesla's success and his aim to influence human civilization for the better.

The case titled ""Scaling Niramai: Disrupting Breast Cancer Detection using Artificial Intelligence"" describes the relentless efforts of Dr. Geetha Manjunath, the founder of Niramai, to improve early-stage breast cancer detection in women. India was plagued by a lack of medical facilities, poor access to early-stage cancer screening programs, and a lack of awareness of breast cancer in rural areas. These were the primary causes of the high rate of death due to cancer among women, of which breast cancer was a major contributor. The case study explores the different stages of Niramai's journey and poses the key question of what Niramai should do to scale its innovative and crucial offering for marketplace success. Manjunath, a healthcare research scientist, developed an innovative thermal-analytics-based solution to detect early-stage breast cancer. Niramai's innovative product received global recognition; it was the only Indian start-up to be listed on the global business data intelligence platform CB Insights. She had the noble vision of providing an affordable early-stage breast cancer solution to women, especially the underprivileged in the hinterland of the country. Manjunath considered her start-up to be much more than merely a business. The company raised US$7 million from investors for business expansion and growth. Given the potential upside, the opportunities to raise funds and scale globally created a plethora of dilemmas and challenges for Niramai's senior management team. It was a challenge for Niramai to simultaneously balance social impact and financial goals. The case ends with Manjunath and her team contemplating various options to scale Niramai. From an analysis of the case, students will appreciate the need for an organization to develop a framework that helps it analyze the company's current situation, identify opportunities, and make key strategic decisions to boost growth.

The case is centered around the 2021 Telangana Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) elections, held against the backdrop of a known unknown: the COVID-19 pandemic. While the project planning was diligent, the team faced several unknown unknowns during the execution of the project. The case study enables readers to create a framework for risk management and associated strategies within the project management context.

In September 2021, the chief human resources officer of the video intelligence firm Wobot.ai saw a negative review on the online platform Glassdoor, which accused her of being a figurehead who achieved her leadership position only because she was the founder's wife. Despite her numerous professional achievements, including being recognized as one of the 2019 "Shepreneurs: Women to Watch" by Entrepreneur India magazine, the chief human resources officer was shaken by the demeaning sexist remark in the glaringly public review that threatened her personal brand and the company's reputation. The review had already deterred one potential applicant from joining the organization. The chief human resources officer considered the review a personal attack and wanted to defend her personal brand identity. She was also eager to call out offensive stereotypical remarks that could create a hostile workplace environment. However, the Wobot.ai leadership team was wondering which response strategy would be the best approach for the organization.