In 2013, Germany-based athletic products maker Adidas AG (Adidas) formed a partnership with rapper Kanye West (who legally changed his name to Ye in October 2021) to launch the Yeezy shoe line. Starting in the 1980s, sneakers had crossed over into the mainstream market as fashion accessories and Adidas saw this as a way to catch up with industry leader Nike Inc. While the partnership was lucrative for Adidas—its sales and profits grew substantially .....more

Teaching note for product W41824.

Teaching note for product W36218.

In December 2023, Avenue Supermarts Limited, operating as DMart, celebrated its robust performance in the offline retail sector in India. Since its establishment in 2002, DMart had built a sizable network of profitable offline stores, showcasing industry-leading metrics. However, its online subsidiary faced losses, prompting the management to confront pivotal decisions for future expansion. The management grappled with the choice of expanding its .....more

In May 2023, Shake Shack Inc., the New York City-based fast-casual restaurant chain faced an activist’s campaign from Engaged Capital LLC. Citing poor performance compared to industry peers over the 2020–2022 period, Engaged Capital sought three board seats, with its nominees to have industry-specific expertise, to advise Shake Shack’s management team on turning around the multi-unit chain. Shake Shack had a dual-share capital structure with founder, .....more

Teaching note for product W38733.

In mid-September 2022, Saumil Majmudar, the co-founder, chief executive officer, and managing director of Sportz Village faced a problem. The company, based in Bengaluru, India, was India’s leading sports education organization, which provided a structured physical education (PE) curriculum to K–12 schools. Thirteen years after its inception, EduSports, a division of Sportz Village, was unable to reach its goal of penetrating 5,000 schools with its .....more

Teaching note for product W34880.

In August 2022, Falguni Nayar, the founder and chief executive officer of Nykaa—a Mumbai, India–based omnichannel beauty, personal care, and fashion retailer—confronted declining profitability and a stock price that had fallen 36 per cent since the company’s initial public offering in late 2021. As a woman entrepreneur who had launched her venture at the age of 49, Nayar’s attempt to emulate the French multinational retailer Sephora in the Indian .....more

Teaching note for product W32226.