Conscious Mitthaiwalla’s founder was a young Indian entrepreneur who had reimagined his diabetes diagnosis into a purpose-driven venture in India’s sweets market. The Mumbai-based start-up had innovatively combined ingredient experimentation with the founder’s personal brand to deliver diabetes-friendly Indian sweets. As a result, it had witnessed strong early growth, even securing a breakthrough retail partnership. However, in April 2024, as the .....more

Happy Lamb International Catering Chain (Happy Lamb) was an international hot pot restaurant chain, founded in Boston in 2016 and since steadily expanding to 40 stores outside China. From inception, Happy Lamb remained committed to its core concept of Mongolian hot pot, adopting a strategy focused on Western markets. The company actively pursued localization throughout its globalization process—from building product competitiveness and supply chain .....more

In 2025, Zomato—India’s leading food delivery platform—faced a channel conflict with its restaurant partners, represented by the National Restaurant Association of India. The conflict arose after Zomato launched its quick food delivery app, Bistro, which partners perceived as unfair competition due to private-label offerings and Zomato’s control over customer data. The company had to decide whether to scale back, negotiate with partners, or continue .....more

In early April 2025, Hussein Hakim, general manager of Al Abdalla Restaurants, a popular Lebanese fast-food chain renowned for its charcoal-grilled chicken, was confronted with an unexpected challenge after launching a humorous advertising campaign. The campaign capitalized on Lebanese sarcasm to position the brand as the authentic and superior choice in a crowded market. Then a new competitor emerged, publicly embracing the advertising campaign to .....more

The owners of BTRMLK Inc. (BTRMLK) were reviewing the company’s performance in fiscal 2024. They had just returned from a meeting with a landlord in the up-and-coming West 5 neighbourhood in London, Ontario, where they had discussed a potential future second location for the restaurant. BTRMLK was a popular fast-food restaurant in London that specialized in large, aesthetic, fried-chicken sandwiches. Although customers were happy and eager to endure .....more

This case explores PepsiCo’s enterprise-wide artificial intelligence (AI) transformation, highlighting how the company built a strong digital foundation and scaled AI across marketing, supply chain, finance, and governance. Beginning with a global cloud and data modernization effort, PepsiCo established the infrastructure and governance needed to treat data as a strategic asset. It then applied AI to drive consumer insights (via Pepviz?), hyper-personalized .....more

In June 2023, the chief executive officer (CEO) of TH International Ltd. (Tims China), was at a strategic crossroads. Since entering the Chinese market in 2019, the master franchisee of Restaurant Brands International Inc. (Tim Hortons) had scaled through a mix of company-owned stores, city franchising with corporate investors, and key account franchising with established corporations. However, the competitive landscape had intensified drastically. .....more

Ed Chaplin had purchased Springwood Cottage Resort (SCR) in Arden, Ontario, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. He intended to revitalize the resort with his wife, Christine Chaplin, and since then, he had invested considerable time and effort into renovating cottages and updating the property. Running the resort was also significantly more demanding that he initially anticipated. Although SCR was often at capacity during the summer season, he wondered .....more

In 2023, David Arena felt the urge for a new challenge. His inspiration came from an unexpected source: Horn & Hardart (H&H), a once-iconic American dining brand. At its 1952 peak, the company operated 171 locations across Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York, New York, serving 750,000 customers daily. By 1991, H&H had vanished, undone by suburban migration, inflation, and fast-food competition. David saw an opportunity to revive H&H .....more

Constellation Brands Inc. (Constellation)—a publicly traded multinational beverage company that produced beer, wine, and spirits—was at a crossroads. Demand for alcoholic beverages was in decline. Younger consumers were drinking less, primarily because of concerns that alcohol was not good for their health; and older consumers, who represented a large proportion of drinkers, were dwindling in numbers. In search of a product mix that resonated with .....more