The case raises contemporary issues about the growth challenges of the fintech startup Nubank. Based in São Paulo, Nubank has become one of the largest technology-based banks in Latin America. The case highlights how cumbersome bureaucracy in Brazilian banking led to the conception of a disruptive fintech startup with an entrepreneurial spirit. It shows the founders' emphasis on the importance of culture, values, and team spirit, which formed their organisational DNA's genesis. As Nubank grew, the founders realised how an entrepreneurial approach to defining its core values and culture became the strategic differentiation for competitiveness compared with the established banking sector's hierarchical system. The case's main teaching objective is to evaluate the organisational challenges for startups facing rapid growth, such as recruiting, designing, setting up, and managing teams while maintaining their corporate culture and values, essential to their differentiation strategy.

Germany-based Albrecht family owned and operated the Aldi discount supermarket chain in several countries across the world. The Albrecht family members regularly featured on the world's wealthiest people but maintained a highly secretive and reclusive lifestyle. Such a secretive family made it to the magazines' headlines not only in Germany but across the world due to a dispute that arose among the family members. After one of the brothers who owned Aldi Nord passed away, his widow and children adopted a lavish lifestyle and started using the money from one of the foundations that managed the company. Unhappy with their behaviour, the matriarch of the family excluded these members from her will. The family dispute started to impact the business, as significant investment decisions needed all the family members' consent.

Lack of access to financing was a major barrier impeding international students' pursuit of advanced education outside their home countries. Traditional banks were oblivious to the international student population's burning need as their practice focused on domestic borrowers and their local past credit records. Three young entrepreneurs founded a fintech company called Prodigy Finance and launched an internet lending platform with a future-based and cross-border risk assessment model, thereby effectively connecting international student borrowers with individual and institutional investors. The strategic move of Prodigy Finance constitutes an illustrative example of new market creation without disruption, i.e., nondisruptive creation, a concept coined by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

This case documents the process of Moris Chemicals developing into a hidden champion in the brine industry. Moris' main business has been the production and processing of brine chemicals. It originated from a fine chemical workshop in a small coastal city, Shouguang, in China. Despite the humble start, Moris now has multiple chemical products that dominate the worldwide market, making it a global leader in the industry. With the most recent diversification moving into water treatment and land improvement, its corporate umbrella has been stretched beyond purely chemical businesses.

EFMD Global would like to warmly thank the jury members Dr. Mohan Lal Agarwal and Prof. Gunjan Sanjeev for their expertise and contribution in assessing the cases submitted in the “Indian Management Issues and Opportunities” category.

This case on Akshaya Nidhi shows how a non-profit social organization can structure with additional businesses to sustain itself economically. The Akshaya Patra Foundation runs the world's biggest midday meal feeding close to 1.7 million children daily (2017 numbers) from 33 kitchens across India. However, the government's reimbursement was not sufficient to sustain them, and the donations that were helping them bridge the gap in the past were not keeping pace. In addition, they had set themselves an ambitious target of feeding 5 million children per day by the year 2025. Evaluating various options led to the setting up of Akshaya Nidhi, a for-profit organization that followed the values and beliefs of Akshaya Patra; and the case describes how the organization was structured to meet legal requirements and share and distribute resources. The case will help students appreciate the importance of getting the organization structure to support a growing organization.