Executives in heavily regulated industries, such as Healthcare, often feel their hands are tied by rules and regulations which some claim to even interfere with their ability to innovate. As such, it is not uncommon to find regulated firms competing in the same way for decades without ever challenging the status quo. The case ""Rehability (A)"" describes the conditions of the highly regulated medical supplies industry in Germany and shows how traditional players, bounded by the conventional logic about how to compete in such an industry, focused on providing the lowest-cost standardized products and the widest range of ancillary supplements in stores while overlooking the pain points experienced by users of these products, thereby trapping themselves in ever intensifying and price-based competition. This two-part case is accompanied by a two-part theory-based movie, which reviews the Healthcare industry conditions and the traditional approach of the medical supplies industry and demonstrates Rehability's strategic move to shift the orientation of the industry and create a blue ocean. Together the theory-based movie and the case are excellent for teaching both MBAs and executives how to reconstruct an industry through the six paths framework. Theory-based Movies and Lecture Slides can be obtained from https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/rehability/
The case ""Rehability (B)"" illustrates how one firm created a blue ocean of new market space in the highly regulated and competitive German healthcare industry in the early 1990s. By asking a different set of strategic questions, Rehability, a German medical supplies company, shifted the focus of the industry and reconstructed market boundaries by looking across the chain of buyers, across the emotional-functional orientation of the industry, and across complementary product and service offerings. In so doing, Rehability was able to uncover and address a whole set of pain points of wheelchair users, create an unprecedented offering for them and at the same time set itself on a growth trajectory even while other medical supply stores and medical supply manufacturers struggled to survive against rapidly deteriorating industry conditions. This two-part case is accompanied by a two-part theory-based movie, which reviews the Healthcare industry conditions and the traditional approach of the medical supplies industry and demonstrates Rehability's strategic move to shift the orientation of the industry and create a blue ocean. Together the theory-based movie and the case are excellent for teaching both MBAs and executives how to reconstruct an industry through the six paths framework. Theory-based Movies and Lecture Slides can be obtained from https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/rehability/
"This case describes the challenges encountered by Nathaniel Rothschild after making a US$3 billion investment in 2010 in a family-owned business group in Asia. Scion of the Rothschild banking dynasty and private equity fund manager, Rothschild and his business associates created a LSE-listed shell company, Bumi PLC, which acquired PT Bumi Resources and Berau Coal. These were among Indonesia's largest coal mines and the largest coal exporters in the world, and were controlled by the Bakries, a powerful Indonesian family whose patriarch was a candidate for the presidency in 2014. After losing at least 70% of his investment in three years, Rothschild eventually requisitioned an extraordinary general meeting in February 2013, attempting to remove the Bakries and their associates from Bumi's management team. Despite western-style corporate governance manoeuvres, the PE investors found it challenging to control the politically connected family in Indonesia. "
This series of cases follows the changing relationship between Verbeek's Industrial Packaging Division with TotPet, a major French oil company, after TotPet launched a supply chain rationalization effort. As the only truly international supplier of oil drums, Verbeek assured its customers of quality, proximity and continuity of supply, while at the same time handling sales relationships locally. With more and more global clients, like TotPet, reengineering their purchasing and supply chain operations to reduce the number of suppliers and form global relationships, the pressure mounted to gain control of prices, which had traditionally been based on local competitive conditions and relationships.
This series of cases follows the changing relationship between Verbeek's Industrial Packaging Division with TotPet, a major French oil company, after TotPet launched a supply chain rationalization effort. As the only truly international supplier of oil drums, Verbeek assured its customers of quality, proximity and continuity of supply, while at the same time handling sales relationships locally. With more and more global clients, like TotPet, reengineering their purchasing and supply chain operations to reduce the number of suppliers and form global relationships, the pressure mounted to gain control of prices, which had traditionally been based on local competitive conditions and relationships.
This series of cases follows the changing relationship between Verbeek's Industrial Packaging Division with TotPet, a major French oil company, after TotPet launched a supply chain rationalization effort. As the only truly international supplier of oil drums, Verbeek assured its customers of quality, proximity and continuity of supply, while at the same time handling sales relationships locally. With more and more global clients, like TotPet, reengineering their purchasing and supply chain operations to reduce the number of suppliers and form global relationships, the pressure mounted to gain control of prices, which had traditionally been based on local competitive conditions and relationships.
This series of cases follows the changing relationship between Verbeek's Industrial Packaging Division with TotPet, a major French oil company, after TotPet launched a supply chain rationalization effort. As the only truly international supplier of oil drums, Verbeek assured its customers of quality, proximity and continuity of supply, while at the same time handling sales relationships locally. With more and more global clients, like TotPet, reengineering their purchasing and supply chain operations to reduce the number of suppliers and form global relationships, the pressure mounted to gain control of prices, which had traditionally been based on local competitive conditions and relationships.
This series of cases follows the changing relationship between Verbeek's Industrial Packaging Division with TotPet, a major French oil company, after TotPet launched a supply chain rationalization effort. As the only truly international supplier of oil drums, Verbeek assured its customers of quality, proximity and continuity of supply, while at the same time handling sales relationships locally. With more and more global clients, like TotPet, reengineering their purchasing and supply chain operations to reduce the number of suppliers and form global relationships, the pressure mounted to gain control of prices, which had traditionally been based on local competitive conditions and relationships.
Shankaboot, the world's first Arabic-language web series, was created in Lebanon as a social development project carrying forward the following message: "to defy traditions and explore taboos". The overarching vision was to use the web to create a forum for raising awareness, sharing alternative viewpoints and generating constructive discussions about the social issues that were often experienced by Arab youth, but which no one dared to speak up about. The project was a resounding success and received a 2011 International Digital Emmy Award. In July 2011, the producer of the web drama was approached by potential funders to scale up the Shankaboot project to the rest of the Arab world. She had to decide where Shankaboot could expand to, given censorship laws and Internet connectivity levels in the region.
A budding entrepreneur in India is planning to set up a fly ash brick manufacturing plant near a thermal power plant. Not only does making bricks out of the residue of coal power generation reduce the amount of fly ash waste dumped on the ground, but the government is actively supporting the fly ash brick industry as a way to meet the increasing demands for construction materials that are environmentally sustainable. On the basis of preliminary analysis, the entrepreneur decides to set up a plant that will have the capacity to manufacture four million bricks. Though actual production will depend on market demand, he and his potential partner estimate that 2.4 million bricks can be sold per year at an average Rs 7,000 per 1,000 bricks. He wants to ascertain the feasibility of the project using a cost-volume-profit analysis.
Ecovative Designs (Ecovative), a start-up company in upstate New York, uses an innovative process to combine agricultural waste and mycelium (mushroom "roots") to grow forms for use in a wide variety of applications, especially a protective packaging material. Not only does this new product replace the need for the environmentally harmful alternative, extruded polystyrene, but the production process is less energy intensive. It exemplifies the cradle-to-cradle design indicative of a sustainably embedded product and attractive to companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint. In just a few years, Ecovative has expanded from a lab to a large facility funded partly through research grants and partly from contracts with two large corporations. In 2013, the partners are considering whether to sign a contract with Sealed Air, one of the largest distributors of packaging materials in the world, but the deal would mean relinquishing control over the only profitable segment of their company. They are considering alternative growth strategies to find the one that fits best with their goal: to have the largest impact on the planet while remaining profitable.
Having been called upon by global leaders to use its technology to address the global crises of climate change and poverty, Cisco opts to pursue sustainability for corporate social responsibility and as a driver of differentiation and competitive advantage. The case discussion explores how the company answered this call to action and how the resulting strategies have proven effective in protecting its competitive advantage in an increasingly hostile business environment. The case traces the company's historical rise to power through the Internet bubble of 2000 and up to the present day, as the firm adjusts to competition in the 21st century. With the introduction of its new and ground-breaking technology, Cisco seeks to drive sustainability and future profits. The question becomes: will it work? The CEO ponders how he could use his company's core business of information technology (IT) to drive global environmental and economic sustainability. Can he fulfill his dual responsibility of doing the right thing for his shareholders while, at the same time, doing the right thing for the world at large?
Deloitte Dads is a firm-sponsored diversity and inclusion initiative aimed at supporting working fathers within Deloitte (Canada) LLP, an independent member of the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited global network. With support from senior management, Deloitte Dads was founded in 2010 by a junior consultant in the management consulting division in the company's Greater Toronto Area office and quickly gained both members and media attention. The group not only had to be distinctly separate from other parenting initiatives already in place but had to negotiate with the company's performance management practices, which historically had not considered flexibility in appraising employees. In 2013, the founder was wondering not only if the group could be rolled out to other divisions within the company across the country and perhaps across the world but also how best to handle its success while managing his own career and the demands of being a father of two small children. He had mastered the quarterly events within his office, but how could he create a formal governance model? Already working 80 to 90 hours per week, with no end in sight, how was he going to make Deloitte Dads sustainable and successful?
A fast-growing Macau-based airline backed by private US investors faces a dramatic expropriation in the wake of the first change of head of government since the former Portuguese colony became a Special Administrative Region of China. The case allows students to explore what Foreign Direct Investors can do to foresee a possible expropriation event and what options they might consider to protect themselves ex-ante or fight the outcome ex-post.
Tariq Khan arrived home after a nearly 16-hour meeting. He was grappling with whether to take the global sales and marketing team manager position that had been offered to him, and had spent the entire day with the senior leadership of his potential new team. He wanted to understand the causes of the group's multiple problems and get a handle on how to help them thrive. But so far, the meeting had raised more questions than answers.
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. What does it take to transform an organization before a crisis hits? How can leaders initiate major transformations proactively? The key often lies in strategic renewal - a set of practices that can guide leaders into a new era of innovation by building strategy, experimentation and execution into the day-to-day fabric of the organization. It's not easy: leaders find it much easier to resist change than to embrace it.
Hindustan Unilever Ltd. can trace its current-day profitable business operations in its Doom Dooma factory in the conflict-ridden northeastern state of Assam (India) to its proactive corporate responsibility initiatives since the start of its operations. A spurt in sales in the personal care segment has led the company to consider capacity expansion. The company needs to decide whether to continue to invest in Assam despite three challenges: operational risks posed by the area’s continuing insurgency, the possibility of labour disruptions and the imminent discontinuance of fiscal incentives.
After independence in 1947, the government of India founded the Industrial Finance Corporation of India as the first development financial institution to provide medium- and long-term loans to public limited companies and cooperative societies engaged in productive activities. Then in 1991, the government’s New Economic Policy opened the door to liberalization, privatization and globalization of the Indian economy. The company was restructured and incorporated in 1993 but was unable to diversify its business model from project financing to other financial services. By 2004, it had almost collapsed; its profitability had become negative. Non-performing assets had reached their peak, and the company did not have money to do business. It began selling off and/or renting out its premises, going door-to-door to save its future, and employee morale hit rock bottom. The business had become unsustainable and unviable. With this as backdrop, the board of directors needs to decide on the company’s future. What is their best option: liquidation, restructuring, merger or strategic partnership?