Coal plays a critical role as an energy pillar in many parts of the world. In three of the world's most populous countries - China, India and Indonesia - coal supplies more than 60% of electricity needs. However, coal is also one of the most polluting and greenhouse gas emission-intensive substances, holding the dubious title of the single largest contributor to global warming. Mining is one of the industries under scrutiny for its role in the coal supply chain. Amid growing negative public sentiment and investor pressure, the mining majors are pursuing different strategies regarding coal. Rio Tinto completely exited in 2018. Anglo American spun out its coal assets into a separate company, effectively putting the decision in shareholders' hands. Meanwhile, Glencore held on to coal, declaring "managed decline" the most responsible approach. The case's dilemma - "who has it right" - offers fertile ground for debate. Participants should analyze the pros and cons of the company's strategies from different angles and explore the repercussions on various stakeholders, on shareholders and on the environment. The potential learnings from this case and previews of the difficult trade-offs leaders face extend beyond mining to many industries in transition.
Logistic regression is a modeling technique often used to predict a binary variable-a variable coded as 1 if an event of interest occurs (e.g., a borrower defaults on a loan) and coded as 0 otherwise. This note details how logistic regression applies the logistic function to generate a probability forecast for a binary event. It also includes an example of how to fit a logistic regression model to loan default data using StatTools (an Excel add-in). The StatTools output is then used to predict a loan's default as a function of the borrower's credit score.
In October 2022, Chinese car company BYD Auto Co., Ltd. (BYD) announced its entry into the Indian automobile market with the Atto 3, an electric sports utility vehicle (e-SUV). Despite facing challenges in India’s emerging electric vehicle (EV) market and the close scrutiny on investments from China, BYD aimed to sell 15,000 units to be assembled at its existing Chennai plant, to establish manufacturing facilities, and to open fifty-three dealerships by the end of 2023. BYD’s push into India was part of its larger expansion strategy to diversify into new markets globally to include Japan, Thailand, the United States, and Brazil. However, the company needed to determine its target segment, who its competitors were, and what macroeconomic challenges it would face so that it could establish a position within India’s competitive car market. The existing Chennai plant saved BYD from having to obtain new approvals from the government, but the company still had to navigate the challenges of entering a new market with a nascent EV infrastructure.
On September 9, 2022, Singapore Management University (SMU) President Lily Kong launched the SMU Sustainability Blueprint at her fourth President's State of the University Address to an audience of over 600 faculty, staff, students, and guests. While paying attention to sustainability was not new for SMU, this focus intensified from 2017, when plans were put in place to considerably reduce energy and water consumption, as well as waste, so that the whole of SMU could achieve a carbon neutral campus by 2030. In 2020, when the SMU 2025 Strategic Plan was announced, Sustainable Living was highlighted as one of the three strategic priorities of the university. In the following year, the SMU Sustainability Taskforce was formed, entrusted with crafting the Blueprint, which would chart actions in concerted ways across four key strategies supporting the Sustainability Living priority: Cultivate a Greener University, Develop Change Agents Through Sustainability Education, Drive Impactful Research, and Foster Resilient Communities. By September 2022, SMU had made considerable progress in its sustainability journey, but these efforts had also come with their share of challenges. Among the many difficulties encountered were tough decisions over ensuring that all the buildings were energy-efficient green buildings, fossil fuel divestment, interdisciplinary collaboration in the curriculum development for sustainability education, and the coalescence of disparate research efforts across the different schools. Attempts to build resilience within the SMU community during the COVID-19 pandemic - a period of disruptions, uncertainties, and stress - had not been easy too. Looking ahead, Kong contemplated: What else could she and all at SMU do to accelerate and deepen the university's sustainability progress? What trade-offs would have to be made to achieve an ideal state of sustainable living?
Ravi Arora, Vice President (Group Innovation), Tata Sons Private Limited, and his Group Innovation team initially faced difficulty when introducing the concept of open innovation to the Tata Group. They tried to ease the staff into embracing it by getting them to share problem statements, learn from other companies which had already adopted it, and form InnoClusters among Tata companies which collaborated in diverse areas. The team subsequently organised monthly thematic eHackathons in which staff could propose ideas to solve business challenges on specific themes posted by senior management. In the course of organising the eHackathons, Ravi's team encountered several issues such as administrative difficulties and mismatched expectations. The central question in this case study is whether eHackathons and internal crowdsourcing in general are employee engagement devices or serious initiatives by organisations to obtain solutions to innovation problems. The question centres around the number of ideas that become full-fledged solutions, since only very few, less that 10 percent, are actually implemented. This begs the question of whether employee sourcing of ideas can ever be an effective source of innovative solutions. Hence the case is titled 'ideas and not solutions' to reflect this vast chasm between idea generation and solution implementation, while still celebrating the winners from each eHackathon.
This exercise examines three different family enterprise scenarios to open a conversation on what makes them successful. We look at how there is no strategy that fits all for family businesses, but there are strategies that can influence both the business and the family in positive ways in order to establish and cement legacies.
The Nest and Allpa Peru Case focuses on the issue of making supply chains transparent beyond the factory walls through to the artisan level. Retailers in the home fashion industry are increasingly under pressure by customers and investors to provide complete value chain transparency to demonstrate that they are acting responsibly in moving toward sustainability objectives in both environmental and equitable work practices. While many retailers are taking increased responsibility for sustainable and equitable work practices in manufacturing factories, artisan work carried out beyond the factory walls is difficult to track and most often left unmeasured. This gap in the fashion industry's capability to create full transparency throughout the value chain prohibits retailers from being able to certify that they have full value chain transparency. Nest provides a methodology for companies to understand and manage their artisan work compliance with ethical work practices. Nest works with retailers and their suppliers to create management practices to measure and manage artisan work to enable full supply chain transparency. As the push for sustainability in terms of environmental and equitable work practices increases both from customers and industry practitioners, there is a need for designing and building a credible method for how to measure and manage the artisan work process. The case illustrates that for each fashion company to build this process themselves would be prohibitively costly both in terms of time and financial investment. Nest is an organization that is working toward providing a means for companies to ensure that equitable work practices are followed for artisan work. The case examines how Nest fills this gap, describing how Rebecca van Bergen, CEO of Nest, and her Compliance Team, led by Sarah Otto, provide a credible process for designing, tracking, and certifying compliance of artisan work.
This case series describes the decision of King's Flair International (KFI) on whether to venture into the nanofiber business. KFI grew from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the kitchenware and household products market to a successful pioneer in developing and implementing a "virtual manufacturing system" led by the company founder, Alex Wong, with his adventurous and entrepreneurial personality. KFI's innovative product design and engineering, along with its celebrated virtual manufacturing (VM) system, enabled it to enjoy steady growth over three decades starting in 1989, and it was listed in 2015 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As Wong constantly challenged the company's status quo, he became aware of nanofiber material and its potential. However, he also knew that the nature of the nanofiber business was very different compared to KFI's existing business-a dilemma emerged. In case (A), students will assume the role of the Founder and CEO of KFI and decide whether the company should venture into the nanofiber business. During the process, students will gain insights into how the founder grew KFI by developing and managing its core competencies, and in particular how the virtual manufacturing system played a pivotal role in realizing KFI's core competencies. In case (B), students will take the role of Gigi Wong, Executive Director of the company and the Founder's daughter, to decide how the nanofiber business could be implemented in KFI.
This case series describes the decision of King's Flair International (KFI) on whether to venture into the nanofiber business. KFI grew from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the kitchenware and household products market to a successful pioneer in developing and implementing a "virtual manufacturing system" led by the company founder, Alex Wong, with his adventurous and entrepreneurial personality. KFI's innovative product design and engineering, along with its celebrated virtual manufacturing (VM) system, enabled it to enjoy steady growth over three decades starting in 1989, and it was listed in 2015 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As Wong constantly challenged the company's status quo, he became aware of nanofiber material and its potential. However, he also knew that the nature of the nanofiber business was very different compared to KFI's existing business-a dilemma emerged. In case (A), students will assume the role of the Founder and CEO of KFI and decide whether the company should venture into the nanofiber business. During the process, students will gain insights into how the founder grew KFI by developing and managing its core competencies, and in particular how the virtual manufacturing system played a pivotal role in realizing KFI's core competencies. In case (B), students will take the role of Gigi Wong, Executive Director of the company and the Founder's daughter, to decide how the nanofiber business could be implemented in KFI.
By early November 2022, Elon Musk, the new owner of the social media platform Twitter, had fired approximately 75 per cent of the company’s workforce. The decision regarding which employees to dismiss was based both on low performance criteria and unwillingness to commit to a new demanding corporate culture. Twitter had mainly incurred losses since its launch in 2006. Musk acquired the company after several glitches in the purchase agreement regarding the accuracy of verified versus fake (spam) Twitter accounts. Musk’s new corporate vision, which he termed “Twitter 2.0,” would require employees to work long hours at Twitter’s offices. This plan was in stark contrast to the work-from-home policy that had been established by the company’s previous leaders. Musk also fired large numbers of employees without appropriate notice. Understandably, these actions generated negative responses from fired employees. But there were also concerns from observers regarding the damaged brand image of Twitter under Musk’s leadership. Could Musk lead a positive change in Twitter’s culture? Could he improve the company’s employer brand value? What traits and strategies should he consider to become a more responsible leader?
Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited defaulted on repayment of its financial obligations in June 2019, and in December 2019, shortly after the Reserve Bank of India superseded its board, it was subjected to the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process of India’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Because it was the first financial services provider to be subjected to the resolution process, the lenders—known as the committee of creditors—of the troubled company had to select the most appropriate resolution plan among the multiple bids they received. The poor financial position and high level of risk owing to exposure to the wholesales/corporate sector made the lenders’ prospects of recovery bleak and rendered the company less valuable for any prospective takeover or merger. The resolution of the first financial services provider subjected to the resolution process provided a test case for how a committee of creditors could deal with complex issues and still salvage the interests of the different stakeholders, including the secured and unsecured lenders and retail deposit holders.
Fresh Routes, a not-for-profit social enterprise with the mission of advancing local food security, was focused on creating new and innovative ways of providing healthy and affordable food to as many people as possible in the Canadian cities of Calgary and Edmonton.<br><br>As the global COVID-19 pandemic raged in 2020-21, Fresh Routes found itself questioning if it could still provide its much-needed services. Demand was exponentially increasing as more and more people experienced food insecurity due to the pandemic’s impact on their employment status, mobility, and health. Would Fresh Routes be able to find a new way to operate, or would the company need to shut down its operations?
During the first quarter of the 21st century, the TV industry underwent rapid vertical consolidation.For decades, the industry had been divided into three basic levels: production (i.e., the studios that identified on-screen talent and facilitated the making of content); distribution (i.e., the TV channels that carried the content); and platform (i.e., the cable TV or satellite providers who brought the content to viewers). In the 2010s, however, an increasing number of companies in that value chain had begun to play on multiple levels. Streaming services such as Netflix were producing their own high-quality content, and both traditional TV channels and production companies (e.g., NBC, Paramount, and Disney) were circumventing the conventional value chain and building platforms to sell their content directly to viewers. This case uses a small set of examples--including the streaming service Netflix, the sports channel ESPN, and the movie channel AMC--to explore the economics of this new verticalized TV industry. It asks students how companies can create value and maximize profitability in TV.
New research shows that factors unrelated to employees' knowledge, capabilities, and behavior such as who they report to, their access to accelerator roles, and whether they take advantage of flexible working arrangements play a leading role in who gets promoted. When managers understand the circumstances that contribute to or block paths to promotion for women and people of color, they can apply proactive career management to help position employees for advancement more equitably.
Over two decades old, Effet Boomerang is an advertising agency based in Quebec, Canada. In recent years, it has found it harder to win client contracts, which has been partially due to changes in the industry. This has left its co-founder and president examining her options for repositioning the agency. This case provides an interesting opportunity to introduce students to internal and external analyses by having them examine how a small firm may leverage its strengths to effectively adapt to a changing industry.
Raymond Green, Chief Researcher at Amber Global, a global energy think tank, believes that climate change could be slowed by consumers switching to electric vehicles (EVs). He analyses the lithium-ion (li-ion) battery industry's origins and its ascendance to an ecosystem that encompasses diverse actors such as lead firms (key li-ion battery manufacturers), upstream suppliers of raw and processed minerals, and downstream complementors of battery management system (BMS) providers and charging stations. In particular, governments play integral roles as members of the li-ion battery ecosystem in which their unique ties with lead firms have led to the rise of diverse ecosystems across the countries of Japan, South Korea, and China. Consequently, the government and lead firms co-lead and also co-develop the specific li-ion battery ecosystem to align the set of multilateral actors to materialise the value proposition of high-energy and low-cost li-ion batteries for the end-user. How has the emphasis of the different governments influenced the rise of the diverse li-ion battery ecosystems and therefore, the alignment of the diverse actors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and how would it effect the emergence of the specific li-ion battery ecosystem as a winner in the future?
The case examines how to account for risks associated with loan assets (or receivables) through financial reporting for loan losses (or bad debt expenses) in the context of the adoption of the new accounting standard, Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) model. CECL required banks to consider future economic conditions and to include forward-looking credit loss estimates in the setting of allowance for loan and lease losses (ALLL). This marked a departure from the previous standard, which is called the incurred loss model. Under that model, credit losses were recognized when it became "probable and estimable" that a credit loss had incurred based on historical data and current economic conditions. The case also explores what banks, regulators, and investors thought about the new method. Both bankers and regulators called CECL the biggest change ever to bank accounting. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called CECL accounting crazy. Financial Accounting Standards Board member Hal Schroeder indicated CECL would lead to a safer financial system and a more resilient economy. Investors and analysts were trying to figure out the new CECL method and what impact it would have on financial statements.
When budgets are tight, learning and development is often one of the first programs to be cut but that's shortsighted, the authors contend. In this article, they explain how prioritizing ongoing employee training and upskilling benefit not just individuals but their teams and the company as a whole. They also discuss three strategies to help managers effectively allocate L&D resources and suggest approaches to help employees secure professional development funding.
Global furniture giant Inter IKEA Systems B.V. (IKEA) announced its intent to become a circular and climate-positive business by 2030. In order to achieve these goals, the company had to find ways for consumers to cycle end-of-life products back to its facilities. IKEA was implementing this process—known as reverse logistics—via international sell-back and leasing programs. It was unclear, however, if the company’s efforts would be enough to make its operations sustainable. Additionally, the question remained as to whether IKEA was truly focused on sustainability and responsibility or if it was simply attempting to maximize customer lifetime value.