GenapSys, a California-based startup, was soon to release a new DNA sequencer that the company's founder, Hesaam Esfandyarpour, believed was truly revolutionary. The sequencer would be substantially less expensive-potentially costing just a few thousand dollars-and smaller than other sequencers, many of which were large devices costing tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. GenapSys' device, named GENIUS, could also quickly generate large amounts of data, as it was capable of sequencing an entire human genome in less than eight hours. At this price, GenapSys' device would be attractive to customers that had been unable to afford sequencers, such as smaller laboratories or hospitals, and even expand the market to include industries such as agriculture and biofuels. As GenapSys came closer to releasing its product, Esfandyarpour and his Senior Director of Operations and Strategy, Leila Rastegar (HBS '11), sat down to decide which of three business models they would choose to bring this device to market. In the first model, the company would sell sequencers at a higher price to those entities which already purchased sequencers, primarily major research labs and pharmaceutical firms, but position its machine as a faster alternative to existing technologies. In the second model, GenapSys would sell its sequencer at a lower price but charge more for the cartridges necessary to run a sample, and earn its primary revenue from these cartridges. The third model would see GenapSys sell its device at or around cost, but use the data customers generated to create a proprietary database of genetic information. Customers could pay to access the database for research, to create genetic tests, or for many other purposes. GenapSys would also build an online store with the genetic tests customers created. Esfandyarpour's and Rastegar's decision would determine GenapSys' customer base and financial position for the coming years, and also impact develop
This case, follows Ali Hurbas's efforts to use data extracted from the Dunia data warehouse to establish potential customers' customer lifetime value (CLV). Hurbas plans to use a spreadsheet model to evaluate Dunia's various cross-selling activities and their effectiveness in creating the greatest CLV. First, students should explain how the spreadsheet reflects the way in which Dunia makes money from cross-selling. Then students should use the spreadsheet to conduct what-if analysis to see how combinations of activities might improve total CLV, and sensitivity analysis to understand how cost parameters and other parameters would affect profitability. A teaching note for this case series is available to instructors to aid in class preparation.
Although three decades of booming, innovative growth in emerging markets has done little to advance women’s interests, the situation is about to change. Gender inequality is a significant barrier to prosperity, depriving economies of women’s talents, constraining consumption, and diminishing tax yields. This article suggests that emerging markets might lead the way on the diversity front because mitigating gender inequality offers faster, more sustainable benefits in the developing world. Evidence suggests that firms with female CEOs often outperform sector peers on important metrics. Diversity drives innovation and a company that matches internal diversity with the external diversity of its customers will satisfy more people more often. <br><br>Firms operating in emerging markets could perform better by incorporating gender-equality concerns. In particular, more businesses should take advantage of opportunities to innovate gender-specific mobile technologies that enable access to information, savings, security and healthcare. Former Pakistan Federal Minister of Health Dr. Sania Nishtar, an author of this paper, addressed healthcare and gender-equality issues through a mobile-enabled community that protects the poor from catastrophic expenditures on healthcare. Furthermore, Nokia uses diverse ethnographic techniques and employs gender-diverse anthropologists to study mobile users in emerging markets, where mobile phones are hugely impacting safety and security, farming and phone banking.
Multichannel retailing is growing explosively, moving proactive retailers to reinvent the role of traditional stores and fulfillment. Walmart, for example, is experimenting with smart phone checkout, while Macy’s offers in-store customers the ability to have items delivered from a different location when not available at the point of purchase. Getting fulfillment right is much more mission-critical in a multichannel setting compared to a traditional brick-and-mortar one. <br><br>Multichannel fulfillment leaders follow three core fulfillment-related practices: 1. Define customer strategy and fulfillment solution simultaneously (and iteratively). Establishing a clear vision of the customer promise is the first step to breakthrough fulfillment. Promised delivery speed, by category, dictates many distribution-network and store-role requirements. 2. Harness flexible, “no-regrets” fulfillment-solution activation. Built-in flexibility must allow for the evolution of target customers, products, speed, etc. A “no-regrets” fulfillment build-out ensures adaptability and helps stage the development of the system over time. Fulfillment leaders can help ensure solution agility by using external partners (e.g. third-party logistics providers). 3. Use metrics and incentives aligned with multichannel fulfillment. Multichannel financial incentives should be established, and the adoption of shared financial performance across channels is a must. A balance must be struck between growth and profit, and leading multichannel key performance indicators should be defined, as they track fulfillment-system success more proactively than financial metrics.
Globalization has created new opportunities and new threats. As sourcing from around the world has made supply chains longer and more complex, the volatility inherent in production has significantly increased. The average risk management process begins by creating basic awareness, and the use of heat maps (two-dimensional representations of scenarios and consequences) is widespread. However, many dimensions can be at play and the consequences of oversimplification can be devastating. Hazardous events can strike several firms simultaneously, and two forms of dependencies can be distinguished: 1) structural within industries and 2) events that hit groups of firms independently or all at the same time. This article traces the development of a useful heuristic in which a network model was progressively refined to depict interconnected activity in an industrial system over time. The authors show that it is not sufficient to look at individual profiles of disruptions, because they may come in “multi-packs.” Furthermore, backup suppliers do not necessarily mitigate single-source risk. Although a model is never the “answer” to a manager’s problem, even those with limited access to data will find that sources like iSuppli are affordable and adequate for analysis. Finally, managers should not look at businesses separately, but rather develop an enterprise-wide view of the total risk exposure.
In a recent survey of millennials in which Deloitte asked about the primary purpose of business, the most frequent response was “to improve society.” For any business enterprise, taking on social troubles comes with risks, but potential payoffs are huge. This article looks at how the solution economy is eroding the border between public and private sectors and discusses how businesses can best find opportunities in social challenges. It examines projects such as Unilever’s Project Shakti in India, which addresses sanitation needs while lifting women and families out of poverty, and Coca-Cola’s installation of the Slingshot, a water purification unit, in many rural parts of the world.<br><br>The authors identify six key features of successful, multi-rational business strategies. <ol><li>When entering the solution economy, everyone should use a wide lens to assess the target markets and what they offer in terms of problem solving.</li><li>Disruptive technologies are key to success.</li><li>Keep the door open to new business models (e.g. franchising tailored specifically to underserved markets through partnerships with local entrepreneurs and community groups). </li><li>Reputation, public data and citizen ingenuity can offer non-financial but tangible ways of fueling innovation. </li><li>Think about creating platforms that exchange public value. </li><li>Multi-rational strategies require multi-lateral relationships.</li></ol>
PyCon, a developer conference for a computing language community, implemented a code of conduct in response to allegations of sexism and misogyny in the tech community. Later, when a female attendee at a PyCon conference overheard inappropriate sexual jokes, she posted a picture on Twitter of the audience members responsible. One of them was fired from his job and the individual responsible for the tweet — a developer evangelist for an email company — received harassment and death threats, and her company’s website was disabled. The issue divided the tech community and her company fired her soon after. <br><br>“Donglegate” illustrates the need for appropriate mechanisms for reporting wrongdoing, as well as the need for people to feel confident that reporting bad behaviour will get results. When acting as a whistleblower, one must consider the repercussions. In the age of smart phones, expectations about privacy should be re-conceptualized to protect reputations and data. The authors provide three steps to achieve this: 1) Leaders need to develop guidelines for internal stakeholders about how and when information is shared. 2) Because it is almost impossible to control all potential exposures, leaders should be proactive and ensure that they have less to hide. 3) It is essential to plan for the times when, despite all efforts, negative information gets released.
By 2013, Adobe had reinvented itself from a publisher of popular software such as Photoshop and Acrobat to a digital marketing and digital media company. In May 2013, the company decided to stop selling its software as a package in favor of Creative Cloud where consumers paid a monthly subscription fee. Within a few weeks thousands of consumers signed petition complaining against this decision. Should Adobe reverse its decision? More generally, what new skills and capabilities does it need to develop as it reinvents itself?
The case opens with Sheryl Sandberg finding herself in the role of chief operating officer for Facebook alongside the 28 year-old Founder/CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. She just watched Zuckerberg deliver a keynote speech about the company's latest product, Graph Search, which empowers users to search the social network for specific information regarding their connections.
Elon Musk's reputation as a serial entrepreneur has people wondering what will happen with his current focus, Tesla Motors. In the heavily-fragmented, alternative fuel vehicle industry, Tesla has established itself as the leader in all-electric car technology. Despite the Tesla Model S being named the Motor Trend 2013 Car of the Year and a soaring stock price, Tesla faces many challenges going forward.
Tim Cook took over as CEO of Apple, Inc. in August of 2011 after the resignation of the legendary Steve Jobs. Though Jobs left big shoes to fill, Cook saw early success with the launch of the iPhone 5 and the continued adoption of the iPad tablet computer. Apple's market cap peaked a year later in September of 2012. But as competitors gained parity with their software and electronics, Apple's market cap declined from $650 billion to $370 billion.
The case opens with the background of RIM and a description of the industry as well as technology upon which RIM based its success. It follows chronologically how the industry shaped up, including trends and competitive dynamics.
Don Thompson became CEO of McDonald's in July of 2012. McDonald's total shareholder fell from 34.7% in 2011 to -10.75% from 2011 to 2012. Thompson is under fire to turn things around in 2013. Former CEO Jim Skinner's "Plan to Win" had turned the company around in the last decade, and Thompson, Chief Operating Officer under Skinner, was looking to recreate that success. Thompson wanted to focus on improving the menu, customer experience, and McDonald's brand.
The case is written from the perspective of Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, as he ponders the company's strategy over the next several years. At one point, Bezos believed there was room in the marketplace for the Kindle as a dedicated e-reader alongside tablets and laptops. Since its introduction in 2010, however, Apple's iPad has become the all-in-one vehicle for digital content, and competition in the mobile device industry has risen sharply.
CEO Hubert Joly must devise a turn-around strategy that will enable Best Buy to survive in an increasingly competitive consumer electronics market. By year-end 2012, Best Buy's stock price had dropped roughly 60% over a two-year period and same store sales and overall profitability were showing a consistent, negative trend. On the plus side, revenues were increasing (at a marginal rate), while Best Buy continued to dominate its competitors in terms of sales volume and U.S. market share. In addition, Best Buy's online business was growing by 15% to 20% each quarter. Still, critics were doubtful that Joly could save the company, which seemed intent on following Circuit City down the fast-track to bankruptcy.
Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm Computing, wants software that "thinks" like the human brain. His latest company, Grok, has developed "Hierarchical Temporal Memory" (HTM), a cutting-edge pattern-recognition software that functions as the human brain does. Hawkins struggles with how to license Grok's software while protecting Grok's intellectual property.
At the time of the American War of Independence (1776-1783) and for several decades after it, Great Britain dominated the global production of cotton textiles. In fact, Britain became so dominant in textile manufacturing and trading that Manchester, its industrial capital, was nicknamed "Cottonopolis." By contrast, American manufacturing of export-oriented or even tradable-quality cotton textiles was practically nonexistent. This position of relative American backwardness changed with the influence of two prominent individuals: Samuel Slater (1768-1835) and Francis Cabot Lowell (1775-1817). Slater, a skilled British textile machinery engineer helped to develop the country's first cotton spinning mill. Lowell, a member of a prominent New England mercantile family, established the first integrated cotton spinning and weaving facility in what became the city of Lowell, Massachusetts. Together Slater and Lowell brought the sophistication of British industrial revolution technology and introduced innovative methods of factory production to the United States.