Hewlett-Packard (HP) has been a 75-year-old technology leader with operations across 170 countries and an employee strength of over 3,20,000 employees. In 2013, HP launched Actionable Analytics Services (HAVEn) a Big Data analytics platform, leveraging the capabilities of Hadoop, Autonomy, Vertica, Enterprise Security, and n applications. HP enterprise wanted to mobilize the prospective and existing customer base to embrace the HAVEn offering. Historically, large organizations had a fair coverage and influence on the entire sales cycle with them driving need identification all the way through to influencing the purchase decision and purchase. However, recent studies started showing that this was changing, and nearly 70% of the purchase decision was made before engaging a sales representative independent of the offering. The HAVEn team was aware of this shift in trend, and for an enterprise class product, with high initial investment needs and relatively new outlook to how businesses could extract value; the need to influence sales cycle right from stage-one to drive adoption was an important task. Pramod Singh, Director of HP digital analytics and Ayush Jain, manager of HP social media analytics were approached by the HAVEn team to help them identify the most relevant influencers in the Big Data space and help device a strategy of engagement with the same. Topic relevant influencer identification was tough considering the volume, velocity, and complexity of social media content. Quantifying the influence of the brands, thereby enabling comparison and competitive benchmarking was even more difficult. The problem of firstly defining influence, and then identifying influencers relevant to a topic of interest, in real time, using a data source that was high volume, high velocity with little or no structure, was a challenge that enticed Pramod and Ayush to group their best talent pool together.
An investor in the electric car company Tesla recently issued a friendly challenge to HBS professor Clayton Christensen, the father of the theory of disruptive innovation: Does Tesla represent a new model of disruption, in which products start at the high end and move down? Christensen's research associates investigated by posing five questions used to evaluate disruptive innovations, concluding that Tesla is actually a classic sustaining innovation--a product that offers incrementally better performance at a higher price. But the research did point to something that could disrupt the auto industry. "Neighborhood electric vehicles"--low-speed vehicles that resemble souped-up golf carts--are adding some features of automobiles and could, the team believes, eventually steal significant market share. This reprint contains three additional Idea Watch articles. "Why Job Postings Don't Equal Jobs" visually depicts hires and postings for select industries, showing that in some (typically tech and other white-color industries) there are many more postings than actual jobs, while in others (typically low-skill, blue-collar roles) the pattern is reversed--meaning that this economic indicator is a poor proxy. "How Power-Hungry Bosses Keep Their Power" describes insecure managers who tend to isolate subordinates for fear of being challenged and suggests how companies can curb this tendency. "Financial Rewards Can Spur Innovation" highlights research showing that the right incentives can boost creative, conceptual work.
Bridging cultural differences demands exceptional emotional intelligence. This chart shows the percentage of leaders in each of seven global regions--the U.S., the Middle East, India, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and China--who demonstrated strength in a range of hard and soft skills, according to a study by YSC, a corporate psychology consultancy.
The Columbus Partnership, a civic alliance bringing together the heads of roughly 50 leading organizations in central Ohio, has made strides in developing the region's economy. But a stinging defeat at the ballot box has set back the Partnership's efforts to improve local public education. As the case opens in May 2014, the Partnership's leaders must decide whether to continue to try to improve public education and, if so, how.
The head of Performance and Rewards at Tata Motors Limited (TML) was reviewing the reports before him and deliberating their implications. The company had just embarked on a major initiative to identify employees' concerns and the results were not good. Employees across all levels, including senior leadership, were unclear about their compensation. The employees were not the only ones who were puzzled; even the recruitment team at TML had no clear basis for determining and comparing the salaries of new recruits. It was obvious that something needed to be done. Should it be a major restructuring of the compensation or could the matter be solved by simply educating the employees? Should the company remove some of the components from its compensation structure to make it simpler? If so, which components could be dropped and which should be retained?
The head of Performance and Rewards at Tata Motors Limited (TML) was reviewing the reports before him and deliberating their implications. The company had just embarked on a major initiative to identify employees' concerns and the results were not good. Employees across all levels, including senior leadership, were unclear about their compensation. The employees were not the only ones who were puzzled; even the recruitment team at TML had no clear basis for determining and comparing the salaries of new recruits. It was obvious that something needed to be done. Should it be a major restructuring of the compensation or could the matter be solved by simply educating the employees? Should the company remove some of the components from its compensation structure and make it simpler? If so, which components could be dropped and which should be retained?
The head of Performance and Rewards at Tata Motors Limited (TML) was reviewing the reports before him and considering their implications. The company had just embarked on a major initiative to identify employees’ concerns and the results were not good. Employees across all levels, including senior leadership, were unclear about their compensation. The employees were not the only ones who were puzzled; even the recruitment team at TML had no clear basis for determining and comparing the salaries of new recruits. It was obvious that something needed to be done. Should it be a major restructuring of the compensation or could the matter be solved by simply educating the employees? Should the company remove some of the components from its compensation structure and make it simpler? If so, which components could be dropped and which should be retained?
In 1995, Titan launched the first branded range of jewellery - 'Tanishq' - in India's highly fragmented and disorganised jewellery market. Tanishq performed exceedingly well, attracting a large customer base that was assured of quality and purity. However, the jewelry business faced challenges on account of customer sentiments being impacted by inflation, uncertain economic conditions and rising gold prices. There was also concern that the young Indian woman was disinterested in jewellery. To address these issues, as well as expand the company's reach and customer base, the Tanishq team identified a hitherto neglected segment - working women. Within 12 months, it conducted activities ranging from customer segment identification and understanding, as well as defining the proper distribution channels, and launched 'Mia' - "the Tanishq for work wear, for the working women". Mia's design and retail strategy continues to evolve three years after its launch. But despite its growth, it is almost impossible to identify the market size of potential Mia customers. Moreover, the needs of these target consumers' are changing rapidly, and so, refreshing the range, while maintaining its affordability, is a challenge. How large would Mia's market be? Can it become a brand in its own right? Could it be the next Tanishq for Titan?
Henry Wu, the Programme Director of the Transformation Office at Alexandra Health System (AHS), conferred with his team on the status of the Population Health programme, a joint initiative between AHS and Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH), in May 2015. The programme sought to increase health awareness and encourage a targeted population of the island city-state's residents to make positive lifestyle changes. The centrepiece of the programme is a systematic effort to attract residents to voluntary screening events to assess their health and lifestyle habits. The programme also provides a clear path co-developed by residents, community nurses and intervention specialists for unhealthy or high-risk residents to seek medical treatment or participate in lifestyle intervention programmes. The most critical outcome would be encouraging them to take appropriate follow-up actions and be able to measure their habits and behaviour. In the longer term, the Population Health team faces the task of scaling up the program from an initial target population of 16,000 residents to cover the entire population of 220,000 residents over the age of 40 in the north of Singapore. The stakes are high for Singapore's healthcare system and in particular for AHS, a healthcare cluster in the north that manages Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH). KTPH has only been open for less than five years and is already experiencing serious capacity constraints. Most incoming patients are residents over the age of 50 who suffer from chronic diseases. Doctors and hospital administrators believe that a population health programme targeting people over the age of 40 could mitigate hospital resource strain by averting chronic diseases before symptoms became more acute as people age. By encouraging middle-aged residents to live healthier and more active lives, the anticipated rise in healthcare demand (and associated costs) for the next generation of elderly Singaporeans could be stabilised.
Supplement to case SMU418. In 2011, Mikkel Larsen, Managing Director, Head of Tax & Accounting Policy, Group Finance at DBS Bank mooted the idea of DBS adopting an integrated reporting approach. He was convinced that this was a more holistic way of reporting on the bank's business strategy and activities, linking each of them clearly to the financial and non-financial impact it would have on its stakeholders. In 2012, when DBS adopted the integrated reporting approach, it was the first listed company in Southeast Asia to do so. The report had been well-received and garnered considerable attention from the external parties such as research analysts and the media. Based on feedback from DBS's stakeholders, DBS incorporated changes that would make the 2013 IR more user-friendly and meaningful for its stakeholders. Larsen was, in May 2014, looking over the 2013 report, recognising that there was always room for improvement. For instance, in preparation for the following years' annual reports, further enhancements, could include defining 'materiality', increasing stakeholder outreach, and reporting 'outcomes' as compared to 'outputs'.
Optima Business Group (OBG), a consumer packaged goods firm, achieved significant improvements in its sales and distribution processes through the implementation of sales force automation (SFA). The implementation was carried out in the urban markets of OBG, but it was not an easy journey. The chief technology officer has to decide whether OBG should implement SFA in its rural markets and, if so, how it should be executed. What are the risks and benefits of implementing the system? Competitors are fast leveraging information technology in other functions such as finance, HR and vendor management and OBG needs to catch up. Finally, competitors of OBG are adopting innovative methods to share the costs of IT implementation (e.g., handheld devices) with their partners. Faced with different options, and a unique terrain of conducting business in the emerging economy of India, the chief technology officer has to decide on OBG’s future IT strategy.
Optima Business Group (OBG), a consumer packaged goods firm, achieved significant improvements in its sales and distribution processes through the implementation of sales force automation (SFA). The implementation was carried out in the urban markets of OBG, but it was not an easy journey. The chief technology officer has to decide whether OBG should implement SFA in its rural markets and, if so, how it should be executed. What are the risks and benefits of implementing the system? Competitors are fast leveraging information technology in other functions such as finance, HR and vendor management and OBG needs to catch up. Finally, competitors of OBG are adopting innovative methods to share the costs of IT implementation (e.g., handheld devices) with their partners. Faced with different options, and a unique terrain of conducting business in the emerging economy of India, the chief technology officer has to decide on OBG's future IT strategy.
This case illustrates some of the complexities involved in teaching in a participant-centered learning process. Specifically, it focuses on the learning process components as well as the tensions and barriers that hinder teaching practice changes. It describes an actual teaching experience with a couple of former Colombian combatants -one from a paramilitary group and another one from a guerrilla army- who are invited to an undergraduate public management course to share their life experiences with students in an innovative attempt by the teacher to bring the reality of this conflict closer to class participants. Students' reactions in class and their subsequent analysis build up a tense atmosphere that drives the professor to question her own teaching methods. On account of the specific issue addressed by this case -students' attitude towards Colombia's armed conflict as a result of their social status- this case may be used to discuss the impending challenges faced by a society after a conflict like the one experienced by Colombia.
The 2010 Harvard Business Review (HBR) article made the term "entrepreneurship ecosystem" prominent for the first time, reflecting this dynamic and largely self-regulating system. The SE (formerly, Southern Energy) case enriches this dialog on engaging larger corporations in fostering entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship ecosystems and helps the discussion transcend polemic prescription and overly simplistic stereotypes of what larger corporations should or should not do. The case also highlights the potential benefits for larger corporations by engaging with entrepreneurial ventures. The case describes SE's development from a small local utility located on the far western coastline of Denmark to an increasingly global player in electricity distribution and sales, telecommunications, including broad band internet, cable TV, renewable energy, and related fields. Although admittedly lacking a coherent strategy, SE has launched several entrepreneurial programs. The most prominent and visible activity is the Next Step Challenge, a new-as of the time of the case-global startup competition initially targeted to startup ventures in fields closely related to energy and telecommunications. Eight ventures from Denmark, the United States, Chile, and Serbia participated in the first three-month long program, which took place in Esbjerg, Denmark. The case outlines the program details, and participants' views of the benefits and drawbacks of the program. SE is committed to, and has budgeted for, three iterations of the Next Step Challenge. Whereas most discussions of how corporations may programmatically engage entrepreneurship would focus entirely on this startup competition, the case also describes two additional programs with later stage entrepreneurial ventures. One is SE Blue Equity, a DKK 640 million, about $120 million, private equity fund managed by SE and three large Danish corporations and funds.
This case describes the events following an incident of a rape in a taxi associated with Uber, by its driver. Uber was an application based taxi operator. The events raised several issues for government systems and processes, such as need for regulation of new formats of business like application based taxi services, integrated databases, checks against forgery and holistic approach towards women safety. The case also brings out how an e-commerce business raises regulatory concerns.
Judge William Wright considers the case of the dispute of a whale carcass wherein several whaling ships claim ownership based on each one's contribution to its killing. The judge must weigh in the differing efforts and costs of three ships who each played a role at different stages of the hunting process, as well as the prevalent norms-of-ownership at the time.
Judge William Wright considers the case of the dispute of a whale carcass wherein several whaling ships claim ownership based on each one's contribution to its killing. The judge must weigh in the differing efforts and costs of three ships who each played a role at different stages of the hunting process, as well as the prevalent norms-of-ownership at the time.