The Italy-based Moleskine Foundation worked with young adults in Africa and Europe to inspire social change through art and creative projects. Adama Sanneh, the newly appointed CEO of the Moleskine Foundation, faced several challenges: First, he had to make his own mark on an organization that had been shaped by several well-respected Foundation founders and advisors who still remained active on the board. Second, he had to manage the relationship between the Foundation and the Moleskine Company, the Foundation's largest funder. Third, Sanneh had made news as Italy's only Black CEO, but he did not want race to become his defining attribute. Finally, he needed to determine how ambitious he could be with the Foundation's strategy. He and his team held the belief that creativity - a longstanding element of the Moleskine Company identity - could also be a source of social change around the world. Developing a realistic strategy to achieve this goal would be no easy task, and would require support from multiple internal and external stakeholders. The case highlights how individuals manage their identity and set a new strategy when stepping into new leadership roles. In addition, it sheds light on the unique governance challenges that can arise for a corporate foundation associated with a separate for-profit enterprise.
In July, 2019, Springhill Medical Center ("SMC") in Mobile, Alabama fell prey to a malicious ransomware attack that crippled the hospital's internal network systems and public-facing web page. While the hospital rushed to securely restore the network, medical personnel scrambled workarounds to continue medical services. Amidst the chaos, a baby was born in the hospital with umbilical cord wrapped around her neck that had resulted in severe brain injury and died nine months later. The mother and family sued SMC, alleging the hospital failed to inform her of the cyber incident, which she believed had compromised the quality of care and led to an otherwise preventable tragedy. The case discusses the important questions of how SMC had responded to the ransomware attack and how hospitals and other organizations should treat the ever-increasing threat of cyber breaches.
In February 2022, the chief executive officer of Defeat Duchenne Canada was eager to scale up the operations of his charitable organization, from its local origins in London, Ontario to a national and impactful venture. The management team had to find the best way to develop awareness of Duchenne muscular dystrophy to secure much-needed funding for research and improve access to treatment for the rare disease. Despite facing multiple resource constraints, including a name and branding change from Jesse's Journey to Defeat Duchenne Canada, the team had to focus its efforts on generating the greatest impact.
Alexion Pharmaceutical Inc. (Alexion), founded in 1992, was a biotechnology company that focused on therapeutics for rare diseases. As the company grew, it sought to scale operations to serve a growing number of patients and their families worldwide. The search began for an innovative, forward-thinking, strategic information technology leader to spearhead the effort. In 2015, George Llado was hired as senior vice-president and chief information officer. Llado realized that big data and analytics could play a unique transformational role in identifying customers to accelerate sales growth and realize the mission to save lives. He wondered if analytics enabled through cloud computing, a new kind of data platform, and betting on technology start-ups could accelerate patient identification. When he joined Alexion, Llado faced a unique set of related challenges, including (a) applying analytics in a highly regulated industry, (b) rapidly creating a new type of integrated data platform, (c) managing dysfunctional vendor relationships, and (d) balancing the role of data and analytics in relation to the traditional sales force approach in pharmaceutical firms.
<p style="color: white; background-color: rgb(3, 70, 56); font-size: 16px; display: inline-block; border: 0px rgb(197, 183, 131); padding: 4px 4px;"><a href="https://www.iveypublishing.ca/s/product/vcayr-managing-sexual-harassment-digital-learning-experience/01t5c00000Cd0NUAAZ" style="color: inherit; text-decoration: inherit;">AVAILABLE AS A DIGITAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE</a></p><br> In January 2019, a project manager at VCayr, a social service organization, reported to a board director, Adam Johnson, that another board director at VCayr sexually harassed her. Johnson was aware of the severity of sexual harassment and the significant harm it could have on all VCayr members and the overall organization. He had to decide how to manage the situation.
In 2022, Roblox had 58.8 million daily active users, including over half of all children and teens under the age of 16 in the United States. Roblox, a free-to-use "co-experience platform", allowed users to come together in immersive 3D experiences to socialize, work, play, learn, and purchase virtual and real goods. Brands saw Roblox as a major metaverse testing ground and experimented by offering a variety of branded items and experiences. In 2022, Roblox was grappling with how to maintain revenue growth and generate profits, considering two key decisions. First, how should Roblox expand its partnerships with brands, and should Roblox allow brands to offer immersive advertising within experiences? Roblox would have to tread carefully to not raise the ire of watchdog groups who were wary of advertising targeted at children. Second, should Roblox change its economic model which was free to publish, and adopt a "scarcity economy" whereby Roblox would allow creators to only publish items in limited quantities and charge an upfront fee for item creation, similar to a manufacturing fee? On one hand, scarcity could prevent excess supply from driving down prices, but culturally Roblox users and developers were accustomed to unlimited supply, low prices, and virtually no upfront fees.
Smart products like robotic vacuums and smart speakers have become common in many households. However, although consumers value the convenience and time savings smart products offer, the accompanying feeling that they've relinquished some control to a machine is inhibiting the products' broader adoption and customer satisfaction. Based on their research, the authors recommend ways that smart-product companies can increase consumers' sense of control and autonomy when using smart technology.
Lumière Project, a Hong Kong-based company, uses blockchain technology and smart contracts to offer finance solutions to the filmmaking industry. Founded by Patrice Poujol, Lumière relies on Elemis, its ERP platform prototype using blockchain technology, to help finance media projects and increase capital flow transparency and control for movie investors, cast, and crews. With the initial success of its B2B business and from the end of 2020, Lumière has designed and started developing NFT and Lumiverse solutions in the hope of opening the gates to the wider B2C arena for film financing, production, and distribution. But developing B2C business is considered as a bold move for Poujol and his team. To make the expansion into B2C a success, they need to raise additional capital and cope with a range of technical, regulatory, and market risks and challenges. This case describes B2B and B2C use cases of blockchain technologies and smart contracts in the filmmaking industry. By illustrating how Lumière works, this case shows how blockchain technologies and smart contracts improve transparency and accountability in the film payment process, bringing digital transformation in to the filmmaking industry. It provides a good opportunity for students to assess the benefits and challenges of using blockchain and smart technologies. Students will also learn not only how NFTs can create business value but also how to cope with the challenges associated with the use of NFTs, such as legal and regulatory concerns, the valuation difficulties and the efforts to attract the interest of the target audience. Moreover, this case provides an opportunity for students to learn different ways that start-ups can raise capital to run businesses. Besides traditional funding options, Lumière provides an opportunity to consider tokenization-related alternatives. Students can compare pros and cons of each funding option based on a real-world case. After studying this case, students will
Alexion Pharmaceutical Inc. (Alexion), founded in 1992, was a biotechnology company that focused on therapeutics for rare diseases. As the company grew, it sought to scale operations to serve a growing number of patients and their families worldwide. The search began for an innovative, forward-thinking, strategic information technology leader to spearhead the effort. In 2015, George Llado was hired as senior vice-president and chief information officer. Llado realized that big data and analytics could play a unique transformational role in identifying customers to accelerate sales growth and realize the mission to save lives. He wondered if analytics enabled through cloud computing, a new kind of data platform, and betting on technology start-ups could accelerate patient identification. When he joined Alexion, Llado faced a unique set of related challenges, including (a) applying analytics in a highly regulated industry, (b) rapidly creating a new type of integrated data platform, (c) managing dysfunctional vendor relationships, and (d) balancing the role of data and analytics in relation to the traditional sales force approach in pharmaceutical firms.
In January 2019, a project manager at VCayr, a social service organization, reported to a board director, Adam Johnson, that another board director at VCayr sexually harassed her. Johnson was aware of the severity of sexual harassment and the significant harm it could have on all VCayr members and the overall organization. He had to decide how to manage the situation.
In July 2022, Celsius Network (Celsius), a cryptocurrency (crypto) network, filed for bankruptcy. Celsius was a "crypto bank" but often acted as a hedge fund. It was taking deposits in cryptos such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), promising a sizeable yield to the depositors and then lending these out to institutional investors, or more aggressively to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols which were promising an even higher yield (but with a higher risk, of course). The case examines the DeFi ecosystem, its key players, and discusses key building blocks such as stablecoins and their role in it. The case can be taught in a course on financial institutions, capital markets, or fintech.
This case traces the rise of Ronald Reagan from small town Illinois to two-term president of the United States. An unlikely candidate for the world's most powerful job, the case describes the different roles that Reagan filled over his life: radio announcer, Hollywood actor, labor leader, state governor, and, finally, president. As president, the case describes how Reagan revitalized the U.S. economy, negotiated nuclear arms reductions, and precipitated the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War. Students will learn how Ronald Reagan navigated life's choices to leave a lasting impact on the world.
A Silicon Valley start-up executive must navigate tensions between its Ukrainian and Russian sub-contractors as war between the two countries rages. After war erupts between Ukraine and Russia, a team of subcontracted Ukrainian software developers threatens to cut ties with a venture-backed Silicon Valley startup if the company does not end its relationship with a team of subcontracted Russian developers. The start-up's VP of Product and Engineering works to smooth tensions and find a solution.
This case reveals how the situation with Nexus Market and its Ukrainian and Russian subcontractors was resolved. The conclusion to the story of a Silicon Valley start-up executive facing an ultimatum from a team of Ukrainian subcontractors to cut ties with a separate team of Russian subcontractors due to tensions stemming from the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Late afternoon on Friday, October 27th, 2022, Elon Musk was the center of attention at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters. The night before, Musk officially took the company private and became Twitter's majority shareholder, finally ending a months-long acquisition saga. He appointed himself CEO and brought in his own team to clean house. He now needed to decide on short-term actions and a long-term strategy to turnaround the company. In the immediate days and weeks, Musk needed to take decisive steps to succeed against the major opposition to his leadership from both inside and outside the company. Twitter employees circulated an open letter protesting expected layoffs, where they called him "reckless," "unfair," and "impulsive." Advertising agencies advised their clients to pause spending on Twitter, and some threatened to leave. EU officials considered a broader Twitter ban should Twitter not abide by their moderation policies.
In 2022, Wang Jun was the chairperson of Ant Fortune, a comprehensive wealth management platform under Ant Group. China's economic growth since 1978 led to a significant increase in the number of people having sufficient money to invest. Ant Fortune aimed to provide inclusive wealth management services to such consumers. Since 2013, Ant Fortune capitalised on China's high internet penetration rate and the popularity of Alipay, and started helping consumers invest in its money market fund Yu'e Bao. The improvement in technology meant that investment barriers were lowered, and users could be easily reached online. Algorithms could help users allocate funds and rebalance their portfolios automatically. Ant Fortune built an open platform to connect users with mutual fund providers. It endeavoured to be user-centric and provided educational tools to help investors make investment decisions. Wang's goal was to make Ant Fortune the most trusted wealth-management platform that promoted investment education to benefit society and the most trustworthy partner for wealth management firms.
International acquisitions of large, well-established western organizations by Chinese companies are now common. The cultural differences between the actors are often critical amid these processes. However, they can also be an opportunity for transformation and renewal for the acquired businesses. Regarding the dimension of organizational culture, this article analyzes the transformation of a 100-year-old American firm, General Electric Appliances (GEA), after its acquisition by the Chinese multinational company Haier. As a result, the company went from a nonrevenue growth business to a double-digit growth company in only 5 years. To study this transformation, we apply a cultural analysis framework based on Edgar and Peter Schein's work. This article contributes to the debate on corporate cultural analysis in the context of international acquisitions by providing managers and scholars with a detailed account of GEA's transformation.