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On June 30, 2009, Nava Bharat Energy India Limited (NBEIL) proposed the setup of two coal-fired power projects: one in Paloncha, Khammam District, and another in Dharmavaram, East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh. The sites of these projects were located adjacent to the existing power plants of Nava Bharat Ventures Limited, parent company of NBEIL, a renowned industrial group based in South India.<br><br>NBEIL approached the president of a bank to arrange a term loan of ?9.70 billion through project financing under a syndication strategy. The banker would have to evaluate whether project financing would be a suitable lending instrument for these projects, and if so, what would be the potential implications to both the lenders and project owners? Would it be wise to proceed to syndicate the term loan for the coal-fired power plants?

NewStar Marine & Scooter Inc. was a small family-owned retail operation in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia. It offered a diverse range of products, from boats and motors to scooters and trailers, all under one roof. For a small family business, it was very successful. Sales grew from $198,000 in the first year to over $600,000 by year three, despite little marketing, few part-time staff, and an unconventional operational strategy. By February 2017, this significant growth coupled with the owner's lack of planning had created a series of problems, including unhappy employees, facility limitations, and brand confusion. To continue its remarkable growth, the owner needed to rethink the business operational and marketing strategies.

In 2014, the production manager at Hari Krishna Exports Pvt. Ltd., a diamond manufacturer and exporter in India, faced the challenge of maintaining his duty towards the company’s employees while it experienced low growth and profitability after a downturn in the industry. High attrition among employees was a common problem across the industry; it cost the company heavily and had a significant impact on employees’ morale. Recruiting strong employees and retaining them was a challenge, especially during a time of crisis. The production manager wanted to build on the initiatives of the chairman and founder and pursue a performance-based incentive system, value-added incentives, and other employee-friendly human resource policies. Could these strategies keep the attrition rate low and help the company create a high-performance work environment? Success could help Hari Krishna Exports in its plan to grow from a diamond manufacturer to a diamond jewelry retailer with a global reach.

In November 2015, the co-founders of OSSCube Solutions Ltd., an Indian-based information technology (IT) solution provider, faced the risk of shrinking and uncertain profits if they continued with their open source solution strategy. Changing to non-open-source technology would entail re-positioning the company in the minds of employees and customers. The re-positioning could lead to a more stable revenue stream and open up access to larger customers. However, it could also attract severe competitive retaliation and cause the company to lose clients and employees. The challenge of evolving the organization from a technology focus to a customer focus was further complicated by an increasing trend for customers to rationalize their IT vendor list. The co-founders needed to decide whether to expand their business scope now or postpone the decision. If they went ahead now, they needed to address the timing and sequence of the change.

In December 2015, the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Technology Uncorked LLP (TU) was facing decisions about the company’s future. TU was a four-year-old start-up that was set up as an ideation engine that would use crowdsourcing to generate ideas and then fast-track the development of the best of them. Faced with a previous choice between early success of a technology project in a single-product domain and remaining consistent to TU’s founding vision, the CEO had chosen to maintain the company’s original direction. This led to the early exit of one of her two partners. TU’s technology workshops had found a market, and TU was in a comfortable position financially. Should the CEO focus her resources on the workshops and scale up to become a technology training company, or should she move the business model online and shift resources to the back end of the business model, becoming more of an innovation platform? To move online, she might have to consider external funding sources, perhaps from a private equity investor. This would mean diluting the founders’ equity and losing some control over TU’s future direction. Alternatively, she could continue growing slowly but organically, and retain control.

In December 2013, Reike Technology Co. Ltd. (Reike), a Chinese information technology and outsourcing company, faced an accounting revenue recognition problem. Reike had a well-deserved reputation in the software outsourcing industry, having built partnerships with Fortune 500 companies since the 1990s. However, in 2012, it collaborated on a project with a multinational software company that included a “pay-when-paid” clause in the contract. According to this clause, payments to Reike would be based on the percentage of the project completed upon review, as long as the software company received the corresponding proportion of payments from the owner. As the project progressed, Reike’s managers became troubled by the following issues: Should the “pay-when-paid” contract containing legal risks have been signed? When should Reike recognize the project revenue? How should the company deal with the project costs considering there was unrecognized revenue at the end of the year? Would there be any effect on performance assessments?

By 2016, Midea Refrigerator was one of the leading Chinese manufacturers and exporters of refrigerators. Yet despite its broad global product market, the company’s development was stagnant. The high cost of exports had become a disadvantage. Fierce global competition was driving Midea Refrigerator to choose foreign direct investment (FDI) as its next strategic step, and China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative presented an opportunity for international expansion. The manager of Midea Refrigerator had to determine which of Russia or India (two countries linked to China by the new initiative) represented the best choice to start the company’s FDI. He also needed to decide which FDI model—greenfield investment, acquisition, or joint venture—was the best option for the chosen destination.

In early 2016, Naresh Jain was busy looking at various rental properties on popular real estate listing websites. Because of a sudden downturn in business conditions and an immediate need for money, Jain’s landlord wanted to sell the property and therefore had asked Jain to vacate the premises within 30 days. Jain had been living in the spacious, two-bedroom apartment in North West Delhi for the past five years as it was within a reasonable commuting distance to his workplace. After looking at various rental properties, Jain had come across a furnished apartment identical to his, next door, and met with a broker to discuss it. During the discussion, it came up that an identical apartment in an adjoining locality was for sale at ?12.5 million. Jain was thus faced with a quantitative finance decision of buy versus rent to arrive at the right option for him given his current financial conditions and the potential future benefits.

Yalla Momos was a restaurant in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that served momos, which were Nepal’s answer to the Chinese dumpling. Yalla Momos’ sales have grown exponentially since brothers Prashant and Ishan Goel founded the restaurant in 2012. Recently, in order to safeguard their share of the market, the Goels have been considering how to take their venture forward in the face of competition from both the organized (big retail outlets) and unorganized (individually managed) food sectors. The founders want to secure a position as market leaders in providing nutritious, affordable restaurant food to the expatriate (expat) community in Dubai. How could they communicate with the public and persuade a wider target audience of South Asian expats to adopt this healthy food choice? Should they diversify the menu to attract more customers, or would that cause the restaurant to lose its core competitive advantage of serving healthy, nutritious food? Would harnessing social media attract the expats?

In February 2017, Scotiabank’s vice-president of digital enablement was sitting in his office at Scotiabank’s Digital Factory in downtown Toronto. He was reflecting on his recent introduction to the financial technology (fintech) company Kabbage, and on how successfully the partnership was progressing. Scotiabank’s vice-president was considering what opportunities the bank should pursue next, specifically in the area of blockchain. The Scotiabank–Kabbage partnership provided a valuable guideline for future partnerships. At the partnership’s launch, the group head of Canadian banking at Scotiabank said that the partnership with Kabbage set “an example of how banks and fintechs are working together to provide customers with a better banking experience.” However, all partnerships did not work in the same way. How could Scotiabank devise an effective partnership strategy, considering the unique contexts in different sectors and geographic markets?

Alsea was a Mexican-based, family-founded conglomerate operating in six countries in Latin America and Spain. It was a master franchiser for such well-known brands as Starbucks, Domino’s, and Burger King. In late 2016, after years of dramatic growth, Alsea appointed its first chief executive officer (CEO) who was not a family member or had not been involved with the company’s founding or early development. However, family members continued to occupy senior executive roles, serve on the company’s board, and hold significant shares in the company. In March 2017, the new CEO needed to decide on Alsea’s corporate strategy. He also needed to build trust with the founding family, which held a controlling interest in the firm. How should he engage the current executives in building a world-class senior management team? How could he best demonstrate his value to Alsea's board?

In December 2009, Fedore Cooperative (Fedore), a worker cooperative in a major city in Western Canada, was at a critical juncture. A general meeting comprising all members had been convened to resolve conflicts that had been brewing for some time and threatening the survival of the business. The members were inspired by the ideals of participation and equality, and had always made decisions based on consensus. Unfortunately, they had become deeply split over the poor financial performance of the business. There was a fundamental disagreement between two influential members about how to solve their problem. The situation had stalled their cooperative decision-making process, and Fedore’s future was at risk. The question was how to present the issues so that Fedore’s members could come to a consensus about how to work their way through the problem and find a solution.

In 2012, Ingersoll Rand India added the position of senior director of engineering for its engineering and technology centres, which were originally established to support the product development activities of the company. The new position was established to lead the currently low-performing engineering and technology centres to a new, more efficient and effective path. Projects had been missing their delivery targets, and there were major differences in the understanding of the requirements among the strategic business unit teams. This all led to continuous changes in deliverables and resulted in customer dissatisfaction. Key employees were unhappy, and some high-performing team members had left the organization. The new senior director of engineering needed to assess the situation and determine whether he had the right organizational configuration to grow and sustain the engineering for its engineering and technology centres in Ingersoll Rand India. <br><br>The case comprises two parts: Part A describes the challenges faced by the organization overall, and Part B discusses the progress between 2012 and 2015.

In the spring of 2016, the chief executive officer of Agoda Company Pte. Ltd. (Agoda), a subsidiary of The Priceline Group, Inc., wanted to transform the firm’s human resource practices using data analytics. The idea was not just to get more data, but to use this data to help managers gain insights to make better decisions. The three main focal areas of this exercise were recruitment, performance evaluation, and compensation. As key executives worked at transforming Agoda into an organization that emphasized people and development, they faced various challenges related to collecting, managing, and leveraging large volumes of data.

Tech Talk is an electronic content publishing portal that publishes articles on information and communication technologies. The articles cover specialized areas such as business analytics, e-governance, e-commerce, web technologies, big data analytics, software project management, telecommunication systems, business management theories, service science, e-payments, and Internet marketing. As a growth strategy, the co- founder of Tech Talk wants to draw traffic by creating a larger social media presence. He wants to use established strategies, and has the following questions: How should he strategize the interaction with readers on social media? With so many platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, which ones should he focus on? Should he manage the social media marketing in-house or outsource it?

In 2008, the marketing manager for Nestlé Japan’s confectionery business and his team were struggling to redefine the KITKAT brand within the Japanese market. KITKAT as a brand faced a real threat as the retail environment rapidly shifted toward increasingly powerful convenience store chains and consumer preferences shifted toward more novel consumable products. With more than 200 companies competing within Japan’s crowded and relatively stable confectionery market, Nestlé Japan was facing the harsh realities of Japan’s famed position as the world’s toughest consumer market. To address these challenges, Nestlé Japan worked over 15 years to instill deep meaning in the KITKAT brand and then, based upon this foundation, created a comprehensive product portfolio. How can KITKAT capitalize on its past success as it moves forward?

A family-owned grocery business, Askew’s Foods Inc. (Askew’s), had to decide how to handle the threat of a Wal-Mart Superstore, which included a grocery department, coming into its market area. Before the news of Wal-Mart’s potential arrival, Askew’s had already purchased a site on which to build a second store in the city’s uptown area, and the board needed to approve the design for the new building. Askew’s had a long-standing tradition of being an environmentally sensitive, socially responsible, and community-minded retailer, and the board wanted to uphold those corporate values in the design and operation of the new Askew’s store; however, the pending arrival of this low-cost competitor had to be considered in the decision. Was it fiscally responsible for Askew’s to stay true to its principles and build a state-of-the-art, sustainable grocery store, or, given the new threat to its market share and profitability, as well as limited funding from its bank, should it opt for the more conservative and less expensive standard box option? Was cost the only consideration?

BRAC was the largest non-governmental organization in the world, reaching out to 138 million people. It made a significant contribution to reducing poverty in Bangladesh by employing more than 117,000 community workers (Shasthya Shebikas) to improve the health and nutrition of the rural poor. The manager of BRAC's Health, Nutrition and Population program was faced with two significant challenges. First, she had to find a way to encourage more people to use BRAC’s services; more than 60 per cent of the population sought the services of unqualified health care service providers, despite the significant contribution made by Shasthya Shebikas. Second, she had to bring down the 10 to 20 per cent turnover rate of the Shasthya Shebikas.

The semester-long small business management class at Southern New Hampshire University had incorporated into the course a food truck under the brand name “Munchiez” as a catalyst for students to integrate and apply the concepts they learned about in various business classes. As such, Munchiez was a vital teaching tool at the school. However, with an 80 per cent turnover rate each semester, knowledge transfer and financial stability quickly became critical issues for the Munchiez team to assess. As of December 2016, Munchiez was operating at a deficit. Some team members suggested that Munchiez may need a general manager. In order to continue receiving financial support from the university, Munchiez’s management had to answer some difficult questions: How should Munchiez increase the transfer of knowledge from semester to semester? What strategies should be used in order to break even? Would the business benefit from a general manager? If so, how could the team find the right person for this position?

In late 2016, the executive director of Free Geek Toronto faced a challenge. Free Geek Toronto was a social enterprise based in Toronto, Ontario. It focused on recycling electronics waste and aimed to use its business profits to expand its scope of operations and deliver on its social mission of both reducing electronics waste going to landfill and employing at-risk and marginalized individuals. As a result, the executive director purposely hired individuals who had severe physical or mental disabilities, or both, and who had recently received, or were currently receiving, disability benefits, had poor health, or experienced general struggles with regular employment. The executive director’s challenges included juggling the financial and social goals of running a work integration social enterprise. In view of the constraints he faced, the executive director began considering whether to call on the assistance of volunteers—people who, despite their well-meaning intentions, might unwittingly disrupt the operation of the enterprise. Should he move forward with recruiting volunteers? If so, how could he ensure that doing so would not adversely affect the organization’s current culture or demoralize the current employees?