In late 2013, Husk Power Systems found itself falling further and further behind plan. The founding CEO had decided to resign. His co-founder is faced with the decision of quitting his corporate job in the US to head to India and help form a new management team. Husk is an Indian startup founded in 2007 with the goal of global rural electrification. The company has decided to pivot from operating biomass gasification plants towards developing solar microgrids in India and East Africa.
Kundanmal Mukanmal Trans Logistics Pvt. Ltd. (KM) is a well-known road transportation company in Western India, operating out of its headquarters as a family business in Jaipur. It functions as a logistics provider for flatbed steel and finished automobiles (primarily four-wheeler passenger cars and light to medium cargo vehicles). The co-executive directors are grappling with large delays with the workshop repairs that are hurting the timely truck availability and causing immense customer dissatisfaction (with about 14 per cent of the trucks taking more than one day to complete their repair). The co-executive directors believe that staffing the workshop with the right number of labourers may address the issue of long repair delays - but is the issue just with the labour availability? Is the number of bays available for repair sufficient for the volume of truck repairs? What is causing the trucks to pile up at the workshop?
Since 2005, the chief executive officer of Kering, a conglomerate headquartered in Paris, has successfully streamlined the company's business strategy to concentrate on luxury goods and sporting and lifestyle brands -including Gucci, Yves St-Laurent, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen and Balenciaga, among others - through selling off non-related businesses. By 2012, the company was more focused than ever before but was sluggish in one key aspect - its online presence. Like most competitors within the luxury industry, it was struggling with how it should capitalize on the benefits of a web presence, trying not to stray away from the luxury strategy of its brands. Kering recognized the importance of growing online, but needed to come up with an ideal approach to successfully grow the digital presence of its luxury brands.
In a quest to organize the unorganized secondary market for used computers, a team of three entrepreneurs attempted to develop a viable plan in a typical emerging market context. Identifying e-waste management problems and the digital divide as overarching social issues, they identified a potential market for empowering consumers through affordable access to information technology (IT) by re-harnessing the potential of used computers. In doing so, they identified emerging market characteristics through micro and macro analyses of the environment and the IT industry.
Visual merchandising (VM) plays an important role in hypercompetitive product categories. Though shoppers may be exposed to advertisements extolling the virtues of brands, they tend to get swayed at the point of purchase due to an attractive display or simply because of the prominence of a brand at the retail location. As such, companies must invest in processes and infrastructure to make effective VM possible. Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting is among the largest fast-moving consumer goods companies in India and has a wide range of products across different categories. One of its sales development managers must choose between several options for making certain that the company's strategic objectives are met through VM. There are four options, including two models where either the company or its channel partners manage the elements of VM, and two models where VM is outsourced to specialized agencies. All models have their pros and cons and the manager must use the available qualitative and quantitative information to compare the models across different parameters and make a choice.
Firms in Korea’s securities and brokerage industries have experienced fierce competition in the domestic market, which has led to international expansion being considered a popular strategic alternative. The chief executive officer of Hyundai Securities Co., Ltd., a Korean securities firm, envisions his company becoming the “pan-Asian market leader.” As a result, he is pursuing an international expansion strategy in Hong Kong and Singapore. However, given the popularity of international expansion in these areas, the markets are highly competitive. Has the CEO made an appropriate strategic decision?
In December 2011, the co-founder of Unbounce, a Vancouver-based software services start-up, is considering expanding into the enterprise user space. Unbounce got its start providing turnkey landing pages — web pages specific to current advertising campaigns — to the small and medium-sized enterprise market. Within 18 months, the company has achieved thought leadership in this space, has a list of paying customers and has built its support team from six to 25 people. The challenge is that since the entire company is focused on its core market segment, entering the enterprise user space means that different capabilities will have to be developed. Will developing the enterprise user market prevent the competition from invading this space or will it mean alienating and perhaps losing its current customers? What is the best plan for going forward?
A job candidate at Visa Inc., the technology payments company, prepares herself for her interview by considering what she can uncover about the company’s marketing from the published accounts. She analyzes what the company spends money on and how revenue is generated. She considers how marketing is accounted for – specifically, how marketing assets, such as brands, are dealt with on the balance sheet. She considers the relationship between values in the accounts and the market value of the firm, and the problem of brand valuation is discussed. Finally, she tries to understand the impact of accounting treatment on common financial ratios.
After three years of trading in relative obscurity, the emergence of bitcoin in 2013 as a viable cryptocurrency is promising both to open up new possibilities to entrepreneurs and incumbent firms and to pose challenges to regulators such as the U.S. Federal Reserve. Rising in value from just $0.05 in mid-2010 to over $1,000 by November 2013, bitcoin is to some people the 21st century version of Tulipmania and to others a viable alternative to fiat currencies. Bitcoin's popularity has prompted the development of competing cryptocurrencies, the establishment of a foundation to promote its interests and the emergence of legitimate and grey market entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on the currency itself and its features. Its position as a currency concerns regulators around the world, and hackers have already exploited security gaps in service providers such as Mt. Gox, a bitcoin exchange platform, for their own benefit. Looking at recent developments, what will the future of bitcoin be?
Under the guidance and vision of founder Peter Munk, Barrick Gold Corporation had risen to become an industry leader and the world's largest gold producer. The company had grown, mostly through mergers and acquisitions, from one single mine in Northern Ontario to 26 operating mines on five continents, with more than 20,000 employees worldwide. By 2013, however, weak gold prices, asset value writedowns and operational cost overruns have negatively affected the company's stock price. Many attribute the company's problems to Munk's personality and his control over the board of directors. Munk has announced that he will retire in 2014 and will be replaced as chairman by his current co-chairman, John L. Thornton. How can Thornton effectively chair Barrick's board in the wake of Munk's legacy? Will his vision for the company conflict with Munk's dream of turning it into an international diversified mining company? How much of a role will Munk play in the future given his level of informal power? Finally, what can Barrick do to lift itself out of an industry mired in volatility and financial uncertainty?
In 1996, NorPetrol arrived in Venezuela, where it started upstream oil operations. The company engaged in corporate social responsibility initiatives to support its operations, choosing its programs after consulting with local stakeholders. Upon arriving in the Paria Gulf area, Francisca Rios, head of the company's Social Investment and Community Relations Coordinating Unit, met with politicians, community leaders, public officials, and grassroots organizations' representatives to learn about their expectations and issues, and to communicate the company's investment plans and projects with a potential impact on their communities. A stakeholder identified by the company was Asopescar, an association of traditional fishermen. Tensions between fishermen and oil companies were commonplace. The former blamed NorPetrol for the degradation of a mangrove swamp and a significant decrease in production during the fishing season. Francisca Rios did not want to build a relationship with the fishermen based on donations and assistance. Intending empower them, she decided to channel a portion of her social investment budget to turn Asopescar fishermen into entrepreneurs. In 2006, Francisca Rios considered that Asopescar had made great progress as a productive, self-sustaining company. However, a number of problems had arisen in the organization, forcing her to rethink upcoming investments of NorPetrol in the association. Problems included rising unpaid debts of Asopecar members with their own organization, member drop-out, administrative chaos and informality in money handling, and high operating costs.The case raises the challenges facing an oil company to achieve a social license to operate, as well as its attempts to secure sustainable community development processes in its areas of influence. It takes place in April 2006, at which time Francisca Rios, wondered what to do with her initiative to support modernization of the productive model of a group of small-scale fishermen.
Dicore, the third largest supplier of drilling services in the world, must increase its profitability. To do so, the executive committee is considering an expansion into the southwestern United States. The senior vice-president and general manager must create a plan that outlines whether or not Dicore should enter the southwest drilling market and, if so, if it should enter this market organically or through an acquisition.
The Ivey Business Journal interviews Robert Kennedy, the dean of the Ivey Business School. He characterizes globalization as disruptive in the short term but crucial for long-term growth and discusses how the globalization of services has accelerated. To transfer work overseas (e.g. through call centres), firms have to implement new IT systems and digitize processes, and these typically generate a much larger return than the savings realized on labour, due to more efficiency. People often believe that heading offshore is just for “low-end” operations like call centres. However, what makes an activity amenable to going offshore is related not to being low end, but to whether or not one has to be physically present. <br><br>Dean Kennedy lists three foundational elements that position a country well for the services shift: a large English-speaking population, a higher-education infrastructure, and a tech-savvy environment. As an economist, he possesses three main global concerns: 1. America’s huge savings shortage, driven by huge government deficits and low personal savings rates. 2. Europe’s social welfare system, which is unsustainable because of the rapidly aging E.U. population. 3. Tensions between China’s economy and its fairly centrally controlled political system.
The founder and CEO of Dialogue in the Dark (DID) had a very unique background with long-term professional experience. She developed a passion for working with the blind and, through this passion, she brought DID to China. DID was a social enterprise aiding the disabled through awareness. Social entrepreneurship was a fairly new concept that had only recently been introduced in China.The CEO needed to figure out how to introduce this idea of social franchising to China and how to make it successful. Further, she faced the challenge of developing and executing a successful business plan for future growth and investment for DID. Marketing and revenue outlets were limited and needed to be expanded for future growth and success.
In late 2011, SAP, the German leader in the enterprise software industry, announced a major investment plan for expanding in China and also acquired a leading American firm in cloud-based human capital management software. At first glance, these investments seemed rather unconnected. A closer look at SAP's strategy, however, revealed a closely connected and coordinated network of strategic decisions and investments for which alignment and finding the right balance were key challenges. Hence, it was crucial to ask: What were the principal challenges for SAP in aligning its innovation and sourcing strategies? Compared to its key competitors - Microsoft, IBM and Oracle - how was it aligning its innovation strategy with its sourcing strategy?
This case is a follow-up to UVA-C-2295. The analysis of the proposed new data center suggested that the project's net present value was negative-not by much, but by enough to be of concern. Scheduled to meet with her boss at 3:00 p.m. to review the results of her analysis, the senior project leader is contemplating what to do next. When she and her boss had discussed the economics of green practices in the context of the bank's next data center, she had been sure she could justify the cost of the investment in green technologies; the cost of power and cooling infrastructure had become the primary cost drivers in a data center, and new technologies were promising substantial reductions in power and cooling costs.
After a highly successful third round of funding in 2012, Gaurav Jain, founder of quick service restaurant chain Mast Kalandar, was looking to expand. In addition to opening new stores in other cities, Jain was also hoping to increase the profitability of his existing stores in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune. He needed to fully understand the financials of his current operations and identify the key drivers of success at the stores, at both the city and corporate levels. With this understanding, he would be able to evaluate how best to improve the performance of existing outlets and to choose an entry strategy for new cities. Students are asked to develop a financial model for outlets and use it to compare different growth strategies.