This case addresses the nuances of gender dynamics and career progression at the top of the organization, where even women who have strong leadership expertise, experience, and alliances with powerful male colleagues still get stuck. Told from the point of view of Sonia Millar, the case explicitly presents two significant challenges: How can Millar sustain her career momentum into the CEO role despite taking on the critical but difficult role of CIO; .....more

This case describes the efforts of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to lower the cost of production of vaccines to prevent polio infections. It is an abridged version of Case No. 620-021 with less emphasis on comparison between traditional and the new compact modular process developed with the Foundation''s funding. It focuses more on the lowering of entry barriers to vaccine manufacture and some of the perceived risks associated with .....more

Indigo Agriculture used a digital-enabled research and development (R&D) process to launch its initial product, microbial coatings for agricultural seeds, which increase crop yields while reducing the need for fertilizers. In doing so, the company developed direct relationships with farmers, in contrast to typical agricultural supply chains that use intermediaries. The company then launched a marketplace platform to link growers directly to crop .....more

After losing market share to low-priced competitors such as Harry''s and Dollar Shave Club for several years, Gillette decided to fight back by launching new products and increasing advertising. When these efforts failed to stem the losses, Gillette decided to cut the prices on its razors and blades in April 2017. Bonnie Herzog, an equity analyst at Wells Fargo, must assess how the recently announced price cuts are likely to affect Gillette''s .....more

Malcolm Turner becomes the new athletic director at Vanderbilt University, tasked with increasing athletics-related revenue and improving on-field performance, while maintaining Vanderbilt''s academic rigor for student-athletes.

In 2018, Lindsay Kaplan is preparing to meet with Carolyn Childers about the possibility of co-founding Chief, a New York-based peer network for women executives. Kaplan is currently the vice president of communications and brand engagement at a successful mattress company, and she is happy in her current role. However, she is excited by Childers''s vision for a community of women executives and believes she could bring valuable expertise .....more

Chief is a New York-based peer network that provides mentorship, support, networking opportunities, and a sense of community to women executives. Co-founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan launched the company in January 2019, and just two months later, Chief has 400 members and a growing waiting list. Now, Childers and Kaplan must determine how aggressively to scale Chief''s model to other cities. How much money should they raise in .....more

Ana Barrera has worked for nearly five years building the personal finance startup Aflore as a part of the first cohort of Bogota, Colombia-based incubator Polymath Ventures. Even as Barrera and her team build a customer base within Colombia''s population of "unbanked" citizens, they must overcome some challenges in their working relationship with the Polymath incubator.

The case traces the development of the early gramophone industry through the eyes of the American talent scout and producer Fred Gaisberg. It explores the emergence of the sound recording industry in the US since 1877, including the challenges of defining the application of this new technology, building a market and responding to critics. It then shows the difficulties of gramophone entrepreneurs expanding globally and, in particular, focuses on the .....more