In organizations, learning and the associated changes it brings cannot be forced. Individuals who act as "learning champions" within an organization need to be convinced of the benefits of the learning initiative themselves so that they can take the "positive" message to their teams and become key facilitators and enablers within the organization. Otherwise, their negativity can influence their team members, especially if the team members are not sold on the initiative in the first place.
The Airbnb case describes the very early days of this startup, beginning with the founders' original concept of renting out air beds and serving breakfast ("Airbed and Breakfast") in their apartment to conference attendees as an alternative to expensive hotel rooms. The founders grew the business by providing finding lodging options in people's homes for attendees of large events such as South by Southwest and the Democratic National Convention. Despite positive reviews and high spikes in activity associated with these events, the founders faced challenges achieving sustainable growth. In early 2009, they joined Y-Combinator and were forced to confront a series of decisions around how to improve the product such that it could grow into a profitable, long-term business.
IBM India was experimenting with social media applications to extend its marketing mix. A social media campaign named Digital Influence was launched to gain market share for the company's software products, influence groundswell and develop technical evangelists. Within a year, the share of voice and reach for the company's five software brands increased significantly. However, the company's marketing and communications director was hesitant to declare victory. Was the model sustainable? What challenges would the company face in the implementation process? Would the plan of operations continue to help the company gain market space and create technical evangelists?
The pharmaceutical industry prides itself on being the second largest growth industry in India; by the year 2015, it will be the third largest industry in the world. One of its major players, Micro Labs Limited, was established to provide quality healthcare products at an affordable cost. From supplying antibacterial antiseptics and vitamins to a local market, the company has expanded both nationally and internationally in such fields as eye care, heart disease, diabetes, neuropsychiatry, dermatology, paediatrics and gynecology. It not only provides training for specialists in its various sectors, but has a strong emphasis on research and development of new drugs and licensing them internationally. The founder's sons have taken over the firm and now must decide how to maintain its competitive edge and how to achieve its goal of becoming a $1 billion company while respecting and enhancing their father's vision for the brand.
The case is based on a situation faced by Hong Kong Television Network Limited (HKTV) in 2012, a leading player in Hong Kong's international direct dial (IDD) telephone and broadband Internet access industries. The protagonist is Ricky Wong Wai-kay (王ç¶åŸº), Chairman and Founder of HKTV who built his company by successfully challenging local oligopolies. Encouraged by the Hong Kong government's policy to promote more choices of quality programs in the free-to-air terrestrial television market (free TV), HKTV was one of three parties to apply for a license in 2009. At the time, two stations had free TV licenses; the dominant Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and troubled rival Asia Television Limited (ATV). To amass funds, Ricky sold the cash cow of his company, the broadband business, for around HKD5 billion. With the funds, HKTV started to hire staff and construct a large multimedia center. Ricky Wong's vision is that "together we can create TV miracles." How can he realize his vision? What will it take for him to compete successfully against TVB?
In mid-January 2013, the owner of Lake Superior Lodge and its newly appointed manager were meeting to figure out a marketing plan to turn things around at the motel. The owner, who was born and raised in Duluth, Michigan, bought Lake Superior Lodge primarily because of its location. The property sat on the scenic North Shore of Lake Superior between Duluth and Two Harbors. Ten years later, however, the motel had yet to turn a profit. The manager was hired in late 2012 to operate the motel and to increase its profitability. If he could not make this happen, the owner would have no choice but to sell the property and move on.
In October 2009, Andrew Amphlett, a financial analyst at Southern Cross LLC, and a recent MBA graduate, was asked to prepare an analysis of Pre-Paid Legal Service's financial performance and its accounting methods. Pre-Paid Legal Services recruited associates to market its legal plans to consumers who paid about $21 per month for access to the network of independent legal firms who supplied legal services for a fixed fee. In effect, Pre-Paid Legal Services was a multilevel marketing organization, or what is often perjoratively called a "pyramid scheme." Southern Cross planned to consider adding the company to its shorts portfolio after Price Target Research maintained a hold rating and established a price target of $36 per share. The shorts fund included companies that Southern Cross thought were headed for substantial stock price declines based on fundamental analysis. By October 2009, Pre-Paid Legal's stock price was trading at $43 per share, significantly higher than Price Target Research's recently established target price of $36 per share. Southern Cross's portfolio manager had asked Amphlett to pay close attention to the company's accounting methods, and particularly to its policy of capitalizing and amortizing indirect outlays, instead of expensing them immediately. Pre-Paid Legal had experienced several disagreements with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) over its accounting policies. In 2002, it restated its financial statements at the request of the SEC, and Deloitte & Touche, its independent accounting firm, resigned from the account. In October 2009, the Division of Enforcement of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requested information from Pre-Paid Legal Services about its financial, business, and accounting policies.
In October 2010, the beating of a 30-year-old bonded laborer-his punishment for staying home sick from work-in India's northwestern state of Rajasthan triggered a movement to end the practice of bonded labor in the area. A holdover from feudal times, bonded labor was outlawed in India in 1976, but was still prevalent in some pockets of rural India. Entrenched power systems protected the practice, with the lower castes most affected. In this case, the bonded workers were members of an indigenous tribe called the Sahariyas. The case explores the negotiating strategy used by Sahariya village activist Gyarsi Bai and her allies to fight a powerful landowning community and a local government administration unresponsive to appeals from the poor. It describes how Bai built coalitions with larger activist groups and worked with them to gain media visibility and secure support at the state and national levels. These alliances pressured village authorities to make changes. Two years later, bonded labor continued to exist in the area, but a growing number of laborers had sought and received official freedom. In addition, a set of modest options-a local grain bank, village-run system of microcredit, and an expanded government work guarantee-gave bonded laborers viable alternatives to the debt trap of the past. The case also shows how larger activist groups were effective at finding strategies that enabled the Sahariyas to be agents for their own change.
This sequel accompanies case number 1985.0, "Cracking Oyster: Shashi Verma & Transport for London Confront a Tough Contract (B)." "Cracking Oyster (B)" is the second part of a two-part case set, intended for use in a two-class sequence. The (B) case may also be taught on its own, but students will need to read (or at least skim) the (A) case in order to understand (B). "Cracking Oyster (B)" is accompanied by a six-and-a-half minute video companion piece. The (B) case describes how Shashi Verma (MPP '97), Director of Fares and Ticketing for London's super agency, Transport for London, copes with a frustrating contract at the heart of the agency's ticketing operation-the Prestige Contract, which is, when he assumes his position in 2006, at the midpoint of a 17-year contract term. While the (A) case lays out the nature of Verma's frustrations with Prestige (a cumbersome process for negotiating variations, excessive costs, inadequate performance requirements, and poor incentives for the contractor to col-laborate with TfL on new innovations), the more provocative (B) case describes how Verma-using techniques of "game theory" and taking some political and legal risks-tries to negotiate much more favorable contract terms for TfL. The case ends with Verma, TfL, and the TfL board on the horns of a dilemma-whether to go forward or re-treat after a high court grants one of the contractors an injunction that will require TfL to defend its actions in a court trial (or, more likely, settle out of court) if it goes forward with its plans. This one-page sequel describes what happens: TfL does decide to go forward, does settle the legal matter out of court, and ultimately obtains a contract on much more favorable terms than the original Prestige. The video companion piece shows Verma in conversation with HKS Professor Richard Zeckhauser, as the two reflect on Verma's use of game theory, a subject taught by Zeckhauser. Case number 1985.1
In early 2009, following the collapse of the housing market, Doug Brien and Colin Wiel began buying single family homes (SFH) to renovate and rent. SFH rental had previously been a mom-and-pop business due to scaling difficulties-buying and managing large properties such as apartment complexes was well suited to institutional investors, but no one had solved the problem of buying and managing large numbers of relatively inexpensive SFHs. Brien and Wiel raised a series of funds from high-net-worth individuals, and the success of their company, Waypoint Homes, eventually attracted institutional investors as well as competition from large private equity firms. The case discusses Waypoint's growth to the end of 2012, at which point it owned more than 3,000 homes. The case also describes the changing economic and competitive environment, and asks about how the company can adapt to these changes going forward.
This case describes the experiences of employees participating in a corporate mindfulness-training programme. The training programme takes place at the Risk Management Services group of If Insurance, a leading insurance company in the Nordic region. As defined for the training programme, "mindfulness is the 'attentional' skill of being able to focus one's full attention and awareness on one thing at a time, without distraction".
"Natural Gas and Its Role in the New Energy Dynamics" presents a comprehensive look at new natural gas extraction technology (hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" and horizontal drilling), as well as the economic and climate effects of the recent dramatic increase in unconventional natural gas production and consumption. It discusses the impact of the low natural gas prices in the U.S., as well as the lucrative arbitrage opportunities in transporting liquified natural gas (LNG) to Europe and Asia, where prices could be as much as five times higher than those in the U.S. The case also explores the new energy dynamics created by the natural gas boom, most notably the significant decrease in U.S. coal production and consumption due to low natural gas prices. It looks at other options for coal companies, such as exporting more coal to China, and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). The potential for natural gas to replace oil as a transportation fuel is also discussed The question presented to students by the case is whether the executive director of a fictional environmental group should support the use of natural gas, and if so, under what conditions. Reasons for supporting the use of natural gas include reducing the use of coal in the U.S., a key goal of many environmental groups. When burned, natural gas emits only half as much carbon dioxide as coal-so the substitution could positively impact climate change. However, data on the climate effects of LNG and compressed natural gas (CNG) in certain uses-such as in transportation fuel-are still incomplete. In addition, there is evidence that fracking may cause local environmental damage and that methane leakage must also be taken into account.
This case lends itself to courses covering the topic of rapid expansion of an enterprise. By 2012, Rick Berry, the founder and CEO of Demandforce (DF), and his team had built a company with annual revenue of approximately $70 million. DF provided small businesses with software tools used by more than 23,000 individual businesses and 50,000 business users to communicate with their customers. DF's business model was software as a service (SaaS) for a monthly fee. The company's value creation for its clients was evidenced by a high client renewal rate of 88%. But after DF was acquired by Intuit in April 2012, Berry knew that the game had changed dramatically. He was now confronted with a new challenge-one he had never faced: building a big company. He had to take his business and grow it into one with $750 million of revenue as quickly as possible.
The Brooklyn Warehouse, a popular restaurant in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is cramped for space because of its popularity within its neighbourhood and as a tourist destination in the city. The restaurant is a private company with two shareholders, one of whom is not involved in operations. Because of the economic downturn, the risky nature of the business and the fact that it has been open only four years, the owners are having trouble securing financing for their expansion plans from their bank and other conventional lenders. However, while negotiating a renewal of their lease in late 2011, their landlord offered to pay for half the cost of building a patio to increase the size of the restaurant. To raise the other half, the owners turn to crowdfunding as a method of raising capital through social media by tapping into their community of friends, family and loyal customers. In return for their donation, which may vary from $100 to $2,500, sponsors are offered various packages, including free meals, a company T-shirt and their name listed on a wall of honour. However, little is known about the appropriate accounting or tax treatment for money raised in this manner. The owners had heard horror stories about businesses that used innovative ideas to raise funds only to have fines and penalties levied by government agencies for income tax and sales tax or even by the Securities Commission for improper accounting. The owners turn to their accountant for advice.
In June 2012, Cheah Cheng-Hye and his colleagues at Value Partners, a Hong-Kong-based investment firm, received a copy of a short-seller report alleging that Evergrande, one of China's largest property developers, was using fraudulent accounting and paying bribes to secure business. Evergrande's stock plummeted, and Value Partners, which had a sizable holding of Evergrande stock, had to determine how to respond to the allegations. The case provides an opportunity to review Value Partners' research approach to investing in Chinese companies and to assess the merits of the Evergrande allegations.
This case examines the mindset of a father who faces a complex situation when his adult son, who works with him in the family business in India, begins pressuring him to make a will. The father's thought processes are revealed as he tries to understand the reasons behind his son's motivation. The case explores the issue from the father's point of view. It examines his hesitation to make a will and the points in favor of doing so.