In 2013, Babcock International Plc (Babcock) was the largest engineering services provider in the UK with sales of over £3 billion. Under the leadership of CEO Peter Rogers, Babcock had grown revenues and profits nearly tenfold over the previous decade as it benefited from increased public sector outsourcing. In 2012, for the UK's Ministry of Defense (MOD), Babcock trained over 50,000 troops, maintained the nuclear submarine fleet, provided engineering support for military vehicles, and managed numerous facilities at military bases. On the civil side, the company decommissioned aging nuclear plants, maintained the Metropolitan Police auto fleet and other emergency services fleets, and was the UK's leading trainer of engineering apprentices. Babcock's leadership team believed that continued pressure on public spending would provide opportunities for double digit growth in the UK for at least five years. However, this might not come from Babcock's primary customer, the Ministry of Defense. What other national and local government agencies might the firm target? On the civil side, the resurgence of the salience of nuclear power generation in the mid 2000s had appeared to be good news for Babcock with its long-standing nuclear expertise, but the April 2011 Fukushima nuclear leak in Japan had shed doubt on future construction, while the fracking of shale deposits to extract natural gas promised a much lower cost supply of abundant energy. Nevertheless, decommissioning nuclear power stations promised steady and growing work. What other opportunities might Babcock pursue in the UK? Meanwhile, analysts were pushing for more international expansion but efforts at building business in South Africa, Canada, and Australia had been slow, with only 16% of revenues coming from outside the UK in 2013, a figure little changed since 2005. What would drive Babcock's long term future growth?

From the late 1990s to 2006/2007, Samsung Electronics moved from one of 170 TV manufacturers to gain dominant TV market share year over year from 2007-2013. As digital technologies increasingly converged in 2013-2014, the industry faced new questions: What was the future of TV? The case considers Samsung Electronics TV Group's product development processes, as the company's mobile and TV offerings increasingly converged and consumer demands and behavior pushed the historically clear boundaries of product, content, engagement and interaction.

This strategy case describes an initiative in the Western Cape province of South Africa to capitalize on an oil boom off the western coast of Africa by cultivating an industrial "cluster" of complementary businesses with the capacity to service, repair, and build components for oil and gas drilling vessels and equipment. The first half of the case lays out the initial thinking, planning, and strategizing. It includes the motive for launching the initiative, reasons to think the Western Cape was well-positioned to make a success of it, and anticipated obstacles. The second half summarizes the first ten years of the initiative, in which a string of difficulties-some foreseen, some not-severely limits the initiative's progress. This includes a shift in priorities in the National Ports Authority, a problematic deal for making port infrastructure improvements, and some features of local corporate culture. The case ends with reflections from two of the initiative's biggest advocates, predicting that new political developments and a possible shift in strategic approach will allow the effort better success in the coming years. Case Number 2002.0

When the Mexican Congress approved the country's 2007 budget, it included an appropriation of 8.5 billion pesos allocated to provide non-contributive pensions to senior citizens. President Felipe Calderon wanted to introduce eligibility criteria that would ensure the new federally-funded pensions would go to poor seniors that would otherwise lack the means to sustain themselves. This case puts the reader in the shoes of Calderon's advisor, asking them to assess which targeting option would be best for the Mexican government, taking into account a wide range of criteria including targeting efficiency, financial feasibility, political viability, and administrative feasibility. The case provides a brief description of previous efforts to target the poor in Mexican social programs and data to evaluate three potential targeting options. Case Number 2011.0

MediaTek was the third largest fabless semiconductor company in the world, and was the second largest supplier of the silicon microchips that powered mobile phones. Yet as the company's chairman reflected on his R&D strategy, he wondered why it hadn't moved faster on the transition to smartphones. He also thought about what was on his firm's menu of choices, and what was on the menus of his competitors.

Meditec is a German manufacturer of instruments for surgeries. The company is quality leader in this sector and supplies many German and international hospitals. However, the opportunities for differentiation against competitors decrease continuously. New competitors from emerging markets are challenging the market position of established companies in this industry. Meditec is therefore forced to change its strategy and business model in order to survive in this novel competitive environment. The management of Meditec has decided to traverse from a pure product manufacturer to a customer-centric solution provider. This transformation requires the development of new processes, competencies and capabilities - especially with respect to IT and IT services. This teaching case helps in understanding the role of IT in product-service systems (PSS) and PSS-based business models. Therefore the case illustrates why IT is necessary to establish a PSS-based business model and why a customer-centric view is important for this kind of business model.

Sustainable IT (Information Technology) involves the responsible management of resources (both IT and non-IT) encompassing environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Sustainable IT has the potential to be a significant contributor to an organization's sustainability strategy. In this teaching case, we examine what Intel IT has done to transform its operations with Sustainable IT, resulting in the avoidance of significant CO2 emissions and cost savings. This teaching case challenges the reader to analyze the Sustainable IT capability at Intel. The case includes insights into strategic and operational challenges of planning and managing Sustainable IT.

Zomeworks, a small-sized designer-manufacturer of passive solar energy products, is considering launching a new freeze-tolerant passive thermosiphon solar water heater. The firm's target market analysis is based only on consumer economics. How can the firm design the product and select a target market in ways that implement a corporate strategy and a branding strategy? Should the product be targeted only at consumers living off the natural gas line in the United States, or should it also target green/"ethical" consumers, industrial users and emerging markets? Is Zomeworks the best firm to commercialize the product, or should it license out or spin off the product? The firm also has a successful battery enclosure product. Should it spin it off in order to mass produce it?

In this note you will find a summary and an overview of the principles of branding, as well as an illustration of application of these principles to build personal brands. We will review the principles of branding, apply these concepts, and generate a tangible and useful outcome - your personal brand plan.

The Volkswagen Group (VW Group) had set a firm-wide "Strategy 2018," which sought to make Volkswagen "the most successful and fascinating automaker in the world by 2018." According to the strategy, the company would reach annual sales of 10 million vehicles worldwide. To achieve this ambitious goal, VW Group placed "intelligent innovations and technologies" at the top of its agenda. Big data, broadly defined, represented an important opportunity for the company. In this exercise, the class will be divided into teams, and each team will design an initiative that leverages big data to help the VW Group make significant progress towards its objective. The teams will present their initiatives at the upcoming executive meeting, at which time the best initiative will be selected.

Safe Water Network, a charity initiative focused on providing underserved populations with clean drinking water, established its first site in the village of Nizampally, India. This initiative was unique in a number of ways in its conception as well as its execution. Firstly, after vigorous assessment of the identified region, demand-driven solutions were customized to deal with the specific water-related issues of the region. Secondly, it was supported by prominent Indian and international companies who not only provided monetary support but also extended assistance in terms of technology, assessment and further research. Thirdly, the project was economically sustainable and required active participation and ownership by the community it served. Safe Water Network’s directors hoped to scale up and sustain the adoption of the Safe Water project. The commitment and participation of the villagers was truly heartening but would this enthusiasm continue? Would the villagers see value in this expenditure? Were there any barriers to the project’s adoption?

The case may be used in the latter part of a core course on strategy, or in advanced or elective courses on strategy which deal with business models, or in courses on mergers and acquisitions. There is data in the case for students to do some modeling using spreadsheets to experiment with and evaluate alternative strategies and business models, especially in the context of the acquisition of Lee Enterprises. The context is especially challenging given the difficulties faced recently by so many newspapers, suggesting this is a problem for the industry as a whole and not just a problem for a single newspaper company. Through discussion of this case, students may be expected to expand their understanding of industry structure analysis and business model analysis, and also to examine in detail the financial implications of alternative strategies and business models using spreadsheets. This case demonstrates well the implications of specific strategies for the financials of a company.

Abstract: Fan Ye has opened a U.S. sales office for the company his father founded in China: Suns International, a manufacturer of electronic switches. While competition in China was based almost solely on cost, Fan knew this would not be enough to break into the U.S. market-particularly in Suns' industry, where the cost of failure was high. Consequently, he decided to obtain the certifications needed to ensure Suns' product would meet U.S. standards. This gamble paid off as Suns attracted OEM customers like Honeywell and Otis Elevator. A main issue and decision point in the case is triggered by Suns taking over the exclusive supply of foot switches to Grainger, a major electronics catalog. ProSwitch, a U.S.-based family business that lost the Grainger account to Suns, has asked to meet with Fan, presumably to talk about a possible cooperative relationship. Fan must now decide whether to compete or cooperate with ProSwitch and what approach to take in the meeting.

Companies that focus on their "superconsumers"--a subset of heavy consumers who are highly engaged with a category and a brand--can realize even greater sales from them, along with new product ideas and insights that can help products gain mass appeal.

U.S. companies seeking to export their products are often thwarted by widespread anti-American sentiment in regions such as Asia and the Middle East. However, new research finds that segments in those regions keenly identify with U.S. urban youth culture--the world of hip-hop and rap--and identifies nontraditional sources of influence (TV shows, music and music videos, athletes and other celebrities) through which companies can reach them.

At work, many executives feel pressured to conform to the mainstream and to hide any signs of belonging to a minority group. A new study indicates that dynamic undermines employees' self-confidence and engagement and adversely affects diversity in organizations.

In a new study, subjects chose to experience a higher electric shock immediately over waiting a while to experience a milder shock--indicating that dread may be a powerful negative force.

The president and CEO of the American Red Cross talks about changing its organizational structure, making processes more collaborative, and learning the power of emotion.