ZOLOZ, a biometrics platform within the Chinese technology provider Ant Group, served more than one hundred million overseas users with its advanced biometrics identification technology. In 2018, ZOLOZ's general manager was appointed to promote the company's facial recognition technology overseas, extending the company's global ambitions. ZOLOZ aimed to not only increase its user base but also promote the growth of electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) processes. The company successfully expanded to the Philippines and planned to enter other Southeast Asian countries, helping users open accounts remotely. ZOLOZ's general manager needed to decide how it could continue to expand the use of facial recognition technology to the rest of Southeast Asia.
This case follows Shan Kadavil, the co-founder and CEO of FreshToHome, as he assesses the growing diversity of investments being made by his team. FreshToHome is a technology-enabled platform that connects fishermen directly with customers, eliminating intermediaries and guaranteeing product quality and traceability. To achieve their mission, the company has invested heavily in advanced technology and operations to optimize the supply chain, reduce waste, and offer competitive prices. This case highlights the balancing act required by Kadavil as he aims to maintain the company's core mission while fostering growth and adapting to an ever-evolving competitive landscape (including both online players and traditional offline retailers and local vendors) FreshToHome must also navigate logistical issues and cultural differences when expanding geographically into new markets.
<p align= "justify">Many factors influence corporate governance in a family firm, the most prevalent form of business entity in Latin America. National culture affects a family firm's societal values, as well as economic, political, and legal systems of governance. Normative behaviour and expectations are also key factors that affect both individual and organizational norms. The firm’s characteristics are another major source of influence. In addition to these major factors, various other variables play a role on shaping the firm's corporate governance, including family unity, patriarchal expectations, and inclusivity of the family definition. All of these factors can influence the numerous decisions that family businesses make in regard to their corporate governance, which makes it impossible to apply one approach for all family firms in Latin America. Each organization’s board of directors may have specific characteristics that require different mechanisms to make effective governance decisions. This technical note discusses an evolutionary pattern of corporate governance, rather than a single approach, that could be effectively applied to the decision-making board of a family firm in Latin America.
Biodiversity loss threatens enough economic activity to warrant far more private sector investment than it gets. Over half the world’s total GDP is “moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services,” and restoring and conserving nature is widely expected to require annual investment of more than US$700 billion. However, the money currently being spent doesn’t come anywhere close to that. If we’re serious about protecting our ecosystems, we can’t rely on the public sector alone. To help attract the level of private-sector investment required to bridge the biodiversity financing gap before it’s too late, this article argues that governments need to create a conducive investment environment and seed a self-sustaining biodiversity market through a major increase in concessional financing. The authors believe there are three primary factors behind why the biodiversity crisis in developing countries fails to attract more private capital. First is the scarcity of investible deals. Second, the environment in terms of policies and frameworks isn’t conducive. Third, risk perception is significant. To develop biodiversity as an adaptation sector, climate accelerators (cohort-based programs offering early equity that have mentorship and educational components) could facilitate and support the growth of adaptation and biodiversity technologies, particularly in developing countries.
Product innovation increasingly involves both human designers (engineers, developers, lead users, creative geniuses, and other innovators) and machine designers (algorithmically organized software tools that autonomously collect and interpret data to make innovative design decisions). This article provides practical guidance about how firms can leverage different forms of machine designers in tandem with human designers to fundamentally change the way they engage in product innovation. It describes how successful companies have managed to optimally orchestrate the capabilities of human and machine designers to create both effective and ethical product innovations that were previously unthinkable.
Mosaic, a multidisciplinary research platform bringing together researchers and academic collaborators, graduate students, industrial partners, and government decision-makers to accelerate innovation and creativity, recently received two proposals. One was from the University of Locarno, an academic partner, to organize a creative workshop; the other was from ExCom Canada, an industrial partner, to organize a co-design session for its employees. Both organizations wanted their workshops to be held the following week, and Mosaic's co-directors didn't know which proposal to accept. Moreover, ExCom's partnership agreement would expire that year, and it wished to discuss its renewal during the co-design session. It was a difficult choice: the co-directors worried that Mosaic would be less able to attract academic partners if it focused too heavily on industrial activities. On the other hand, industrial partners might lose interest if it focused too heavily on academic research. The key question was thus this: how could Mosaic maintain a balance between academic and industry-specific research while sustaining the interest of researchers?
This case examines how a social enterprise, Longevity Design House (LDH) in HK, has transformed its business model several times to balance creating social value and generating profit. With the rapid growth of an aging society in HK, the social mission of LDH is to help seniors live a decent life through home renovation, interior design, and product specifications. The company originated by upcycling leftover brand-new construction materials to reduce environmental waste. The company also utilized the internet of things (IoT) technology to offer a location tracking system for guardians to detect when their seniors were at risk. After several stages of transformation, the company has recently developed plans to expand products to include a wearable device to help seniors receive health alerts regarding their physical condition from healthcare professionals. However, a promising senior-friendly furniture line also requires further investment. It then raises the question of how much a social enterprise should scale up its business for profit. This case illustrates the tension between its mission and growth as a social enterprise.
This case examines the accounting implications of a customer incentive deal between Plug Power (Plug; an industry-leading manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cells) and Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon; Plug's major customer). Alexis Reed is an analyst struggling to understand the implications of the negative annual revenue reported by Plug for fiscal year 2020. This extremely rare occurrence was caused by the interaction between the accounting rules for reporting payments to customers and those for reporting share-based payments. Plug incentivized Amazon to purchase fuel cells by offering stock warrants for every $50 million purchased by Amazon, up to a total of $600 million in purchases. Payments to customers are typically a reduction to revenue, and share-based payments with performance criteria must be measured at fair-market value when it becomes likely that the performance criteria will be met. An unexpected run-up in Plug's stock price caused the fair-market value of the stock warrants given as customer incentives to exceed Plug's expectations. Ultimately, the value of Plug stock awarded to Amazon drastically exceeded the invoice price of Amazon's purchases. The setting provides an opportunity to discuss Plug's motivations in offering these lucrative sales incentives, as well as to explore the definition of revenue, the accounting rules and implications for payments to customers and share-based payments, and the role of non-generally accepted accounting principles (non-GAAP) measures in executive compensation and earnings calls. This extremely rare case of negative revenue serves as a dramatic and intriguing starting point for class discussions. This case is taught at McIntire as the capstone case in an introductory master's-level Financial Accounting course and within the revenue recognition module of an advanced Financial Statement Analysis course for undergraduates.
Artificial intelligence typically takes root in an organization in isolated experiments or projects, but formal structures are needed to scale the technology across the organization and deliver on its potential. The authors identify three typical structural phases of AI implementation: islands of experimentation, centers of excellence, and federations of expertise. They identify the strengths and limitations of each and describe how companies have managed transitions to new structures that better enable AI initiatives.
Origo Commodities Indian Pvt. Ltd. (Origo) had grown to achieve revenue of US$40 million in just a decade, making it one of the leading players in India’s agricultural commodity sector. The co-founders had explored various avenues to accelerate growth but had repeatedly encountered employees’ discomfort with implementing technology. By 2020, with emerging competition, growing investor interest, and the movement of government processes to online platforms, they needed to take tough decisions now to grow further. Would restructuring the organization and hiring technology-proficient replacements be their only option? Since the employees had been with Origo since its inception, replacing them would be an agonizing decision. The founders had to decide what to do and how to do it before their investors’ meeting in four weeks.
This case focuses on the use of modern data analytics to alleviate crowding at the branches of United Overseas Bank, a full-service bank headquartered in Singapore. The case is set in 2020 against the backdrop of the COVID-19 global pandemic when vaccines were not yet available and social distancing was a key tool in the fight against the spread of the disease. How should the bank develop and deploy predictive analytics to accurately anticipate future branch crowds? How should the bank trade off key design considerations?
This case about Economic Value to the Customer (EVC) enables students to deeply analyze the positive and negative differentiation value of a product or service, and how distinct demographic segments can have disparate EVC. Additionally, it makes students aware that consumers can feel differently about various types of (equivalent) payment, e.g., $1 spent on service fees, tips, or on monthly fees for a food delivery service. Finally, the case encourages students to think about how to communicate the various aspects of value that a product/service provides.
In 2021, a coalition of seven First Nations communities was exploring a potential partnership with Premium Brand Holdings Corporation (Premium Brands). If executed, this partnership would constitute the single largest investment in the seafood industry by any Indigenous group in Canada. Chief Terry Paul, the Chief of Membertou First Nation in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, had ambitious goals. He desired to develop his community to become economically and financially self-sufficient in order to free it from dependence on government funding. In 2020, John Risley, co-founder of Clearwater Seafoods Incorporated (Clearwater), shared his plans to retire with Paul and asked him to consider purchasing the company, as he believed Paul and his community would be good stewards of Clearwater. Seeing the opportunity, Paul formed partnerships with six other First Nations communities in Atlantic Canada, but they needed to secure additional funding, and sought a corporate partner to assist. While Paul searched for a partner who would be willing to eventually allow the coalition to purchase 100 per cent of Clearwater, the best offer he received was for a 50/50 ownership split with Premium Brands. Although Premium Brands was not willing to accept Paul's ownership criteria, this deal would have a significant impact for the First Nation communities. Should Paul set aside his criteria and accept the counteroffer? How could he secure this deal while maximizing the benefit for all stakeholders?
Syngenta AG (Syngenta), the Monsanto Company (Monsanto), Bayer Crop Science (Bayer), BASF SE (BASF), Dow AgroSciences (Dow), and DuPont de Neumours, Inc. (DuPont) were the only multinational firms engaged in the discovery of new agrochemical and seed technologies. Despite their fierce rivalry, the six competitors had forged strong collaborative relationships to manage the rising challenges in developing and launching agricultural innovation. A wave of unprecedented mega mergers transformed the industry into even fewer and larger firms. Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, and Corteva became the four new leaders in agriculture. As rivalry increased and innovation became even more challenged, the four competitors were pushed to reassess how they could innovate and collaborate together. Their key challenge was to determine how they could work together to develop the next wave of innovation in agriculture without compromising their individual strengths and competitive advantages.
The case describes Harvard University's consideration to decarbonize its supply chain by replacing cement with a low-carbon substitute called Pozzotive®. Developed and produced by Urban Mining Industries, Pozzotive® is a ground-glass material made with post-consumer recycled glass. A successful pilot project using Pozzotive® could jump start Harvard's initiative to reduce embodied carbon emissions, but Harvard needs credible information about the magnitude and validity of potential carbon reductions. This case illustrates the flow of emissions along a simple supply chain, from Pozzotive® to concrete production to Harvard University's construction project. Students explore the different methods of measuring carbon emissions, including the greenhouse gas protocol and the E-liability approach proposed by Professors Robert Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna. The case further features the opportunity to leverage blockchain technology to facilitate the flow of comparable and reliable emissions information.