This case, an update on "Henkel: Building a Winning Culture (A)," describes Henkel''s strong performance against its tough 2012 objectives, as well as the new objectives CEO Kasper Rorsted set for 2016.

Stichting Het Potentieel Pakken (HPP) was launched to solve a systemic problem in the Dutch Labor Market: gender inequity that was leading to a large number of women to work part-time in fields that were in desperately short supply of labor, like health care, child care and education. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dutch Medical Care Minister Tamara van Ark announced that it would provide a large grant to HPP, a non-profit that aimed to help .....more

The Inside the Case video that accompanies this case includes teaching tips and insight from the author (available to registered educators only). COVID-19 infections were still climbing across the U.S. and many other parts of the world in September 2020, and it seemed that every time Ken Frazier, the CEO of Merck & Co. consented to an interview in recent months he always seemed to hear the same question, "Where''s Merck?" The company, a leader in .....more

Sitting quietly in the heart of the New Mexico desert in the summer of 2014, Spaceport America (SA) housed little of the activity its supporters anticipated when opening its hangar doors in 2011. Despite $1 million in annual rent from Virgin Galactic, British billionaire Richard Branson''s space tourism company and SA''s anchor tenant, the spaceport was still heavily reliant on government funds. Flight delays and a crash on Halloween of 2014 that .....more

In December 2018, Susan Tynan, founder and CEO of Framebridge, a four-year-old venture-backed startup that sold online custom framing, formulated plans for the future. Her vision was to revolutionize the $4 billion industry by making custom framing easy, transparent, and affordable by leveraging digital technology and automation. Early demand for the product was strong, and Framebridge began experimenting in retail. The company built a high-tech, .....more

In 2022, after revamping operations and expanding retail stores, Framebridge founder and CEO Susan Tynan is optimistic for the future but realizes changing market dynamics. New competitors are entering the market, and margin pressures remained. This case is part two of a two-part series (A case 723-353).

In May 2014, Alex Frommeyer, cofounder and CEO of Kentucky-based Beam Dental, a seed-stage startup that developed connected toothbrushes that tracked brushing habits, needed to decide which strategy to pitch to a venture capital firm. The first pitch deck played to the founders'' strengths as engineers and requested funds to develop a market-leading, next-generation connected toothbrush. The second pitch deck requested capital to start a dental insurance .....more

In May 2016, venture-backed Beam Dental was on the brink of financial collapse. Cofounder and CEO Alex Frommeyer weighed the unattractive terms of a bridge loan offered by Beam''s largest investor. Frommeyer needed to decide whether to accept the terms or concede defeat and close the company. This case is the second case in a two-part series (original case 723-355); the A case has two supplements (723-374 and 723-375).

Early pitch deck (one of two). This case is a supplement to Beam Dental (A) 723-355.

Early pitch deck (two of two). This case is a supplement to Beam Dental (A) 723-355.

Early pitch deck. This document is supplement to Framebridge (A): Reimagining Custom Framing 723-352.

Attrition has always been expensive for companies, but in many industries the cost of losing good workers is rising. As a result, firms are intensifying efforts to predict which workers are at high risk of leaving so that managers can try to stop them. New research by CEB looks not just at why workers quit but also at when. Danger points include work anniversaries, big birthdays, and large social gatherings such as class reunions; these are natural .....more

At the social network behemoth, machine learning has become a platform for the platform.

AI is a focused intelligence, groomed for maximum perfection. That''s why, research shows, most people don''t trust it.

Machines are learning faster and better than ever, but they still have limitations.

CEO activism has entered the mainstream.