In January 2013, the general manager of the Planning Division of the Bank of Maharashtra in Pune, India, is considering how best to analyze the performance of the bank's 1,728 branches in 28 states and two union territories and its staff of nearly 14,000 people. Such a process would help develop a comprehensive yearly plan by setting realistic targets for each of the bank branches, which have a wide variety of operating conditions. With its market share falling and increasing competition from major players in both the private and public sectors, the bank must take proactive steps to develop a strategy for expansion. The general manager meets a business school graduate who suggests using performance evaluation and benchmarking tools that will not only help evaluate performance in terms of an efficiency score but also indicate possible potential improvements. Should the general manager trust that the young analyst can pinpoint why some branches are not meeting their targets and suggest how their performance can be improved, or should he hire a more experienced consultant?
Konecranes is a leading manufacturer of lifting equipment and a market leader in industrial cranes and components. Headquartered in Finland, the group has the world's most extensive crane service network. North Americas is the group's best performing territory, accounting for a third of global sales. However, it is increasingly clear that future growth will primarily come from emerging markets elsewhere. In mid-2012, Pekka Lundmark, president and chief executive officer of Konecranes, makes the radical decision to relocate his office from Finland to Singapore since he believes this will help bring the necessary balance between markets, move the company closer to new opportunities and achieve success. He is determined to continue Konecranes on its journey of pivoting this product- oriented company to one of high-end services. But is this the right approach? What are the implications of such a change in the business model?
EADS N.V. (EADS), Europe’s leading aerospace and defence company, is reviewing its strategic positioning. EADS had planned to merge with a British company to form the world’s largest aerospace company, but the merger failed mainly due to resistance from government shareholders. As a result, the firm cannot achieve its major strategic goals that were tied to the merger. In the highly competitive aerospace industry and despite also facing production issues and a corruption investigation, the firm’s management must revise both its short-term goals and future action plan.
More than one-third of India remained without electricity or received less than eight hours of electricity per day. To fight energy poverty, Boond was in the business of providing lighting solutions to the low-income population in rural India. By 2013, it had created a network of four hubs (energy centres) and impacted the lives of more than 50,000 people across two states in India through its solar energy systems. It had forged non-traditional partnerships with regional rural banks and community-based organizations and its plan was to shift from the inception phase to the growth phase in 2013–2014. The aim was to set up 30 hubs covering more than 50 districts in the states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh by 2015. This required evaluating the transformational challenges and creating an action plan to address them without losing sight of the social mission. Key obstacles included attracting social investors, extending its reach, and finding and retaining skilled employees willing to operate in small towns and villages.
This case follows Yaron Samid, founder of BillGuard, a personal finance web application that monitors users' credit card transactions for fraudulent and unrecognizable charges. The case centers on Samid's struggles to gain broad distribution. After trying several strategies including entering start-up competitions and selling directly to large American credit card issuers, Samid considers whether he should pivot and completely change BillGuard's distribution strategy and product design.
The case follows Jim and Debbie Aung-Din Taylor, an American couple with backgrounds in international development, as they found and build Proximity Designs, a social enterprise in Myanmar. Initially, the Taylors are focused on redesigning the treadle pump for Myanmarese farmers, using design thinking and processes to formulate a pump that is affordable to their extremely impoverished target customers. However, the Taylors soon realize that they also need to build a distribution network in order to sell their products. Along the way, a natural disaster (Cyclone Nargis) and political reforms in the country create both new challenges and new opportunities for Proximity.
In 2013, Airgas was the market leader in packaged industrial gas distribution. Recent acquisitions had made it into a larger player in upstream gas production as well, where it competed with Praxair and Air Products. Should Airgas continue building a position in gas production or divest these activities?
Five years earlier, a U.S.-based social enterprise, d.light design, launched its innovative brand of solar lamp in India. Although the company has gained market share, the category as a whole is not growing. The solar lamp market in India is complex, as a result of being both fragmented and disorganized. The company's new head of Indian operations faces three dilemmas: How can the company scale up? How can the company improve the productivity of its distribution channels? How can the company leverage its first-mover advantage to make its brand synonymous with the category?
Whenever an investment is made, there are always costs and benefits. This case explores, based on quantitative and qualitative factors, a decision that a typical student at university might face. The decision to rent a house or purchase one in order to rent out the additional rooms is a difficult one. All of the pros and cons of each option need to be carefully considered.
Alibaba is the world's largest online trading platform, with higher revenues than Amazon and eBay combined. Its 2012 syndicated loan was the first sizable loan for a Chinese technology company with few tangible assets. Creative loan covenants stated that the subsidiaries would repatriate 100 per cent of the distributable profits for debt service. The loan was partially used for the buyback of Yahoo!'s stake in Alibaba. In the agreement, Yahoo! would sell half of its stake back to Alibaba immediately and an additional 10 per cent during Alibaba's IPO in the next few years, and divest the remainder sometime after that. Now, Alibaba thinks it is time to tap the debt market in order to pay off the $4 billion in loans it received in 2012 and to finish the payments owed to Yahoo! for the stock repurchase.
An investment analyst needs to recommend whether her firm should become an institutional investor in HudBay Minerals Inc., which is nearing completion of an acquisition to purchase another mining company, Norsemont Mining Inc.
Green Freight Asia (GFA) is a three-part case. Part A chronicles the formation of GFA, a private sector initiative that grew out of a network of companies that came together in 2011 to reduce air pollution and CO2 from road freight emissions in the Asia Pacific region. GFA's primary goal is to incentivise the adoption of green freight practices by creating a label that recognises and rewards companies for their commitment to improving fuel efficiency and reducing vehicle emissions. GFA's label programme, finalised in March 2014, establishes four levels of recognition, each represented by a logo with a corresponding number of 'Green Leaf(s)'. However, GFA lacks the necessary data management systems and processes to run the programme. This means that GFA needed a mechanism to collect, verify and incorporate company reported data into the labelling programme. To address this issue, in May 2014, Stephan Schablinski, the chief executive officer of GFA, seeks potential partners to collaborate with GFA on a comprehensive IT solution for the programme. He is not interested in a typical IT services arrangement but also because he believes that working with GFA could provide ample business opportunities for an entrepreneurial partner. Part B of the case series explores how a collaborative partnership between GFA and an IT solution partner could work. A workable partnership must consider alternative models for financing, since GFA lacks the financial resources to pay for the development, implementation, operation and maintenance of the data management system. The partner must provide a feasible, innovative and creative means to commercialise at least some aspect of the GFA partnership. Part C of the case series takes a look at the capabilities of what a successful data collection, analytics and reporting platform could do. And how the platform could potentially influence policy and expand collaboration into more wide-reaching spheres to mitigate global climate change.
Green Freight Asia (GFA) is a three-part case. Part A chronicles the formation of GFA, a private sector initiative that grew out of a network of companies that came together in 2011 to reduce air pollution and CO2 from road freight emissions in the Asia Pacific region. GFA's primary goal is to incentivise the adoption of green freight practices by creating a label that recognises and rewards companies for their commitment to improving fuel efficiency and reducing vehicle emissions. GFA's label programme, finalised in March 2014, establishes four levels of recognition, each represented by a logo with a corresponding number of 'Green Leaf(s)'. However, GFA lacks the necessary data management systems and processes to run the programme. This means that GFA needed a mechanism to collect, verify and incorporate company reported data into the labelling programme. To address this issue, in May 2014, Stephan Schablinski, the chief executive officer of GFA, seeks potential partners to collaborate with GFA on a comprehensive IT solution for the programme. He is not interested in a typical IT services arrangement but also because he believes that working with GFA could provide ample business opportunities for an entrepreneurial partner. Part B of the case series explores how a collaborative partnership between GFA and an IT solution partner could work. A workable partnership must consider alternative models for financing, since GFA lacks the financial resources to pay for the development, implementation, operation and maintenance of the data management system. The partner must provide a feasible, innovative and creative means to commercialise at least some aspect of the GFA partnership. Part C of the case series takes a look at the capabilities of what a successful data collection, analytics and reporting platform could do. And how the platform could potentially influence policy and expand collaboration into more wide-reaching spheres to mitigate global climate change.
Green Freight Asia (GFA) is a three-part case. Part A chronicles the formation of GFA, a private sector initiative that grew out of a network of companies that came together in 2011 to reduce air pollution and CO2 from road freight emissions in the Asia Pacific region. GFA's primary goal is to incentivise the adoption of green freight practices by creating a label that recognises and rewards companies for their commitment to improving fuel efficiency and reducing vehicle emissions. GFA's label programme, finalised in March 2014, establishes four levels of recognition, each represented by a logo with a corresponding number of 'Green Leaf(s)'. However, GFA lacks the necessary data management systems and processes to run the programme. This means that GFA needed a mechanism to collect, verify and incorporate company reported data into the labelling programme. To address this issue, in May 2014, Stephan Schablinski, the chief executive officer of GFA, seeks potential partners to collaborate with GFA on a comprehensive IT solution for the programme. He is not interested in a typical IT services arrangement but also because he believes that working with GFA could provide ample business opportunities for an entrepreneurial partner. Part B of the case series explores how a collaborative partnership between GFA and an IT solution partner could work. A workable partnership must consider alternative models for financing, since GFA lacks the financial resources to pay for the development, implementation, operation and maintenance of the data management system. The partner must provide a feasible, innovative and creative means to commercialise at least some aspect of the GFA partnership. Part C of the case series takes a look at the capabilities of what a successful data collection, analytics and reporting platform could do. And how the platform could potentially influence policy and expand collaboration into more wide-reaching spheres to mitigate global climate change.
It was the waiting that drew the attention of the Stockholm County Council. In 2008, patients seeking a hip or knee replacement in Stockholm County faced wait times of up to two years of sometimes debilitating pain, intermittent missed work and income, and the trials of disability. Seeking a new model to lower wait times, but also improve patient choice of care, County Council Senior Medical Adviser, Dr. Holger Stalberg, set out to create a bundled payment system for hip and knee replacements in the County. The new model, called OrthoChoice, was set to go into operation on January 1, 2009.
By the end of 2008, all major hospitals (one of which was private) and three private specialized orthopedic centers signed OrthoChoice contracts. In 2009, hip and knee replacements in the County of Stockholm for relatively healthy patients began being reimbursed. By 2013, OrthoChoice had covered 12,531 hip and knee replacements, accounting for 59% of such operations for county residents. Total payments were SEK 704.5 million ($109.4 million). Dr. Holger Stalberg and his team at the Stockholm County Council (SLL) were reviewing the results of the new payment approach and considering how to improve the model.
Riverview Law, run like a business rather than a traditional law firm, wants to expand its unconventional concept from the UK to the US. The firm's approach includes performing all legal work for annual fixed-price contracts, using data and analytics to advise clients on ways to reduce their legal problems (and spending), and evaluating lawyers' performance based on client satisfaction surveys rather than typical metrics like billed revenues. With detailed information on the firm's financial performance, service teams, pricing, culture, and business model, students can debate whether Riverview poses a truly disruptive threat to traditional law firms.