After building the oil and gas distribution company UBI Group in her native Ghana and then selling a majority stake to an international investor, Salma Okonkwo turned her attention to solar power. As the pace of industrialization in Africa accelerates, she wants to make sure that political and corporate leaders don''t repeat the mistakes that their Western and Chinese peers made as they pursued development and economic growth. That''s .....more

Quantum computers can solve problems exponentially faster than classical computers can. They will bring about two huge changes: an end to our current infrastructure for cybersecurity over public networks and an explosion of algorithmic power that holds the promise to reshape our world. Scientists face myriad challenges in developing commercially relevant quantum computers. But once they are overcome, the disruption caused by postquantum cryptography .....more

Small farmers in a big country" is an accurate portrayal of the tea industry in China. China''s tea industry chain links thousands of tea farmers and more than 70,000 tea-related enterprises. However, the highly dispersed structure of the tea industry restricts its development. Sunriver Holding Group Co. Ltd. ("Sunriver Group") started to invest in and acquire the time-honoured Keemun Black Tea Factory after signing an agreement .....more

In mid-2021, Maaz Sheikh, cofounder and CEO of STARZPLAY, a Dubai-based subscription video on demand (SVOD) provider that catered to the Middle East and North Africa region, was wrestling with how to find the right balance between continued subscriber growth and profitability. Founded in 2015, the company was the first major SVOD player in the region providing high quality and affordable Hollywood content. STARZPLAY rapidly grew its subscriber base .....more

Founded in 2010, Worldreader was an international nonprofit organization that promoted reading to children around the world. For many years, Worldreader distributed e-readers to under-resourced communities and funded its operations primarily through philanthropic donations. In 2019, Worldreader launched the BookSmart mobile reading application, and soon thereafter came the idea of a new, self-perpetuating funding structure: the "flywheel." .....more

This case features Isabella Couchet, the chief operations officer of CaLNG, a company that planned to sell liquefied natural gas (LNG) to help California utilities better match supply and demand through peak shaving. The price of natural gas drawn from the California pipeline infrastructure increased with sudden huge demand spikes during the summer and winter peaks, so the ability to use LNG to fulfill demand during peak periods would be a significant .....more

Spreadsheet Supplement for Case KE1189

In December 2020, Mary Kay Inc. Chief Marketing Officer Sheryl Adkins-Green considered several strategic dilemmas. Founded in 1963 by Mary Kay Ash, Mary Kay was a direct sales company whose Independent Beauty Consultants purchased its beauty and cosmetics products at wholesale and sold them to end-consumers at retail. As the coronavirus pandemic spread in 2020, Mary Kay worked to equip its Consultants with digital tools and strategies to help them .....more

The Hospital de la Misericordia (HM), today HOMI Foundation, is a children''s hospital located in Bogot (Colombia). It was founded by Jos Ignacio Barberi, Great Grandfather Barberi, in fulfillment of his wife''s last wish: to build a hospital for children. It officially opened its doors in 1906. Great Grandfather Barberi conceived HM as a non-profit organization to be led by the members of the Barberi family. After the founder, .....more

GSH Conserves was an artisanal jam producer in Singapore that specialised in using tropical fruits, such as dragon fruit, lychee, mango, etc., to handcraft high-quality jam in small batches. Founded in 2013 in a home kitchen, the demand for GSH Conserves jam and bottled fruits had grown organically through word-of-mouth over the years. In 2016, GSH Conserves moved to a new factory that could cater to a larger production capacity in order to meet .....more