Fangda Partners must determine how best to be a major, high-end law firm in the Chinese market. Elite Chinese law firm Fangda Partners has steered Alibaba and other Chinese and international clients through the complex legal, corporate, and regulatory challenges associated with executing international transactions. ""Fangda has traveled a long distance in a short while,"" reflects senior partner Jonathan Zhou, ""but .....more

Thanks to technologies that enable constant, customized interactions, businesses are building deeper ties with their customers. Firms can now address customer needs the moment they arise--and sometimes even earlier. By employing "connected strategies," companies are dramatically improving their customers'' experiences, boosting their own operational efficiencies, and gaining competitive advantage. In their research the authors have .....more

Researchers have learned to mine a unique set of data that serves as a slow-motion replay of how an organization and its people function: the company''s e-mail. Although e-mail analysis has largely focused on internal communications, a new study uses it to examine how employees interact with clients. Researchers studied the e-mail behaviors of teams working with key client accounts at a global professional services firm. Each month during .....more

The case describes the challenges related to topline enhancement faced by Sparsh Nephrocare, a growing chain of dialysis centers in India. In the early years of its operations (2010-2015), Sparsh grew mainly by opening new centers and focused on cost leadership to maintain profitability. However, as Sparsh''s founders, Gaurav Porwal and Saurav Panda, look to raise Series B funding, they are faced with the challenge of how to fuel the next .....more

SM-315 Michelin Group is told from the perspective of Florent Menegaux, COO of Michelin, and other senior leaders at the company. Michelin had recently undergone a company wide reorganization, and Menegaux was tasked with how to maintain the company''s relevance and competitiveness in a changing global marketplace, particularly as customer needs and expectations around service were becoming more specific and demanding. Given that Michelin .....more

Headspace in 2018 examines the company as it charts a new trajectory. The case follows the point of view of Randhir Vieira, Head of Product at Headspace, and dives into several challenges and opportunities from a Product Manager''s perspective. Topics include boosting customer retention rates, finding and testing key metrics, incorporating new technologies, employing the "jobs to be done framework," and evolving the platform.

Bahwan CyberTek (BCT) was an IP-enabled technology company founded in 1999 by Sheikah Hind Bahwan (Hind) and S. Durgaprasad (DP). Over the years, it had grown into a global provider of innovative software products and services and had become a $275 million group with more than 2,950 business and technology professionals. BCT was privately held, based in Chennai, India, with operations in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. .....more

Customer service jobs are notoriously joyless, and callers'' experiences with reps can be just as unsatisfying. But T-Mobile has a new operating model that''s making both employees and customers happier. There are no rows of service agents robotically responding to random calls as quickly as possible. Instead, T-Mobile relies on colocated, collaborative teams of reps who manage specific accounts in a given locale, with a focus on autonomous .....more

One of the most important goals in healthcare today is reducing costs while maintaining high-quality care. This article focuses on a triadic relationship that is responsible for a significant amount of nonlabor spending in hospitals: physician preference items. The triadic relationship among salespeople, physicians, and hospitals'' supply managers has a direct influence on costs. Regarding some key purchases, the physician-salesperson relationship .....more

Product returns are both a challenge and an opportunity for most retailers, since more than US$640 billion in revenue is lost each year because of preventable product returns. A major impediment to unlocking the full potential of these returns is the firm''s returns management program: the policies governing the customer-firm exchange process. Recent insights from research and practice have yielded the unprecedented opportunity to open the .....more