Corporate giving exceeds $21 billion annually, but new research into the corporate foundations of the Fortune 100 reveals a significant lack of disclosure in their racial justice giving compared with other aspects of environmental, social, and governance spending. This negatively impacts the efficacy of spending, accountability, and the value it generates for companies or their stakeholders. Company leaders can take three steps to enhance transparency.
In 2006, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) published "Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options," which, among other things, detailed the connection between livestock agriculture, particularly beef, and its adverse impact on the environment, including land, soil, and water degradation as well as the reduction of biodiversity. Raising livestock contributed, globally, to 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The report presented a problem for McDonald's, one of the world's largest fast-food restaurant chains, which was one of the largest global purchasers of beef, at 500 million pounds annually. Bob Langert, McDonald's Vice-President of Sustainability, was tasked by the CEO to create a "bold, offensive strategy" in sustainability. Langert knew that for McDonald's to consider its operations truly sustainable, it should begin to look beyond ï¬xing incremental problems within its current system and instead consider transforming the beef system itself. Because of its global reach and international scale, McDonald's was ideally situated to lead the US beef industry to explore more sustainable practices. The company already had a track record of sustainable transformation in waste, packaging, and recycling. However, Langert knew it would not be an easy task, since there would be many environmental organizations as well as the National Beef and Cattlemen's Association that would be scrutinizing McDonald's efforts. Langert and his colleagues would need to navigate the large cast of characters-internal and external, both individuals and organizations-in their efforts to address the issues around livestock agriculture and sustainability.
Patricia Skeen, a well-respected full professor at a prestigious business school at a major university, has accepted the role of chairing the school's important Academic Design and Delivery Committee (ADDC). During the week she was given to think about the role and to come to a decision, she gave some serious thought to how she wanted to lead her peers in such an endeavor. In this case, students are asked to engage in a similar reflective mode, identifying the commitments and to-do list with which they would undertake this, or any other similar, important task. The setting is simply one where the protagonist must lead from a collegial position absent any budget, any personnel decision-making authority, or an official title/position other than serving one term as committee chair and as an on-going colleague. This case is suitable for an undergraduate- or graduate-level introductory course on leadership and/or teams. The case provides an opportunity for students to consider the leadership qualities of those that they have observed when leading peers, their own prior experience leading groups of peers, and then synthesize and crystallize their own best thinking on how they would subsequently want to approach their next opportunity for leading peers. The case is fairly open-ended, thus galvanizing students' reflective thinking and refinement of their shared perspectives.
This fictional case introduces students to interactive presentations through the situation of a US craft beer company that is developing a new beer product. The case discusses an organizational push to incorporate technology to help drive decision-making throughout. It opens with a product manager who is starting to design a new beer flavor and feeling pressure from his boss to embrace the CEO's desire for interactive presentations. Having relied on static presentations previously, the manager searches for guidance to get started. This case is taught at Darden in a first-year MBA elective business communications course, "Storytelling with Data." It could also be used in a module on producing interactive presentations. The material can be taught in tandem with an introductory lesson in Tableau, Power BI, or some other interactive presentation program.
This case and data set can be used with data visualization software to tell a story with data through charts, maps, and dashboards. Using an independent wine shop, Market Street Wine, the case describes changes in customer demographics, tastes, purchasing methods, and other trends that prompted the owners to consider whether they should "extend the aisle" by expanding their wine selection. The COVID-19 pandemic and related supply chain issues presented new business challenges-but also opened new opportunities. Most notably, the difficulty obtaining traditional French and Italian labels, and the more easily available wines produced across the United States, which had the owners considering these offerings. Students can use the shop owner as audience and the wine consumer data to explore new wines, US regions, and trends to design charts, the narrative arc of a story to present, and a dashboard.
Runza National, Inc. (Runza), an iconic Nebraskan quick-service restaurant chain had saturated its home Nebraskan market, with eighty-two stores across the state. A proud, family-run business, the Nebraskan chain was named after a mouth-watering regional specialty: the Runza sandwich. Also known as a bierock, this savoury bread pocket of Russian and German origins was adapted from a family recipe into the flagship offering. To foster further growth, the Runza team sought to expand the chain across the Midwest and beyond, through options such as company-owned stores, franchising, and ghost kitchens. Equally crucial were the areas in which to expand, with possible markets in nearby Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri. Canadian communities also presented opportunities for international expansion. In determining the optimal markets and modes of entry, the company had to consider the effect of local factors on the company's appeal. Its Nebraskan roots had made it a local icon with a devoted customer base, but the next steps beyond its home state would shape its future. Which states of the United States should they expand into, and was Canadian expansion viable? What market types-larger cities or smaller towns-were the most desirable, and which mode of entry was most feasible?
In October 2022, Bruce Taylor (HBS MBA, 1981), Chairman and CEO of Taylor Farms, the leading producer of salads and healthy fresh foods in the United States, wondered whether this was the right time for Taylor Farms to venture into the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA). Taylor Farms' operations involved farming, processing, and distributing about 50 million pounds of fresh produce every week. To accomplish such a feat, Taylor Farms faced a number of ongoing challenges related to features such as food safety, climate change, labor shortages and wages, input prices, and logistics. CEA, either in high-tech, single-level greenhouses or vertical farms (multi-layer indoor crop cultivation systems), could not entirely help address environmental and logistic challenges, but its smaller geographic footprint enabled operations closer to consumption sites. Indoor farms were promoted as using far less water and requiring less transportation than traditional farms, but they required more power and were more expensive to build and run. With these solutions still under development, Bruce harbored some qualms about their actual benefits. After all, Taylor Farms had been able to sustain double-digit revenue growth rates by sticking to conventional agriculture. Yet, he did not want the company to fall behind in new technologies that could render its operations more efficient. Moreover, CEA producers might turn into a threat for Taylor Farms, eating into its market share by catering to consumers who favored "environmentally-friendlier" products. Was this the right time for Taylor Farms to venture into the CEA space, or should it wait for the technology to evolve further or the industry to consolidate?
Following the Arab Spring of 2011, the centuries-old co-operative movement helped the emancipation and financial independence of women in Morocco. One such woman was Samira Smahri, the founder and president of a co-operative called Attadamoun, which nationally and internationally marketed a unique product native to Morocco now used around the world: argan oil and its derivative products. The co-op, founded in 2014 and located in Sidi Bibi, a small village in Morocco, had experienced steady growth and given women a sense of hope and new-found freedom. However, this was all put on hold with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, Smahri had to decide whether to persevere under extremely unfavourable conditions or to shut down the co-op that meant so much to her and the co-op's emancipated women employees.
In the fall of 2019, “flight shaming,” a growing environmental movement, was gaining speed. The movement, which was sparked in Sweden and popularized by Greta Thunberg the previous year, sought to express the “unease about flying experienced by environmentally conscious travellers.” As a short-haul airline, EasyJet plc (EasyJet) needed to determine whether this was merely a passing fad that it could ignore or a threat that might damage its reputation and growth ambitions for the future. In the latter case, EasyJet would also need to determine what it should do to mitigate such risks.
In May 2022, Shopee Pte. Ltd. (Shopee), the e-commerce division of Singapore-based Sea Limited (Sea), was at a critical juncture. Over the past several years, fuelled by the growth of its e-commerce business, Shopee had achieved rapid revenue growth. Starting from Singapore and Southeast Asia, the company had expanded its international footprint to countries in Europe, the Indian subcontinent, and Latin America. But early 2022 brought several new challenges for Shopee: Sea’s stock price plummeted as investors sold off high-growth and unprofitable Internet stocks; and Shopee exited France and India rapidly because it was facing pressure from multiple sources, including an industry association in India and the Indian government, which had banned sales of Shopee’s best-selling game in India. Shopee had to carefully choose an appropriate strategy for further international expansion. Should it pause its international expansion and consolidate in the short term or carry on with the rapid pace of expansion?
Marlow is a new menstrual health company that developed the first-ever lubricated tampon for smoother and more comfortable insertion and which aimed to deliver the product through a direct-to-consumer subscription model. During its first year in business, the team of female founders focused on product development, including completing the research and testing required to secure regulatory approval from Health Canada and the US Food and Drug Administration. After successfully raising $500,000 in an angel pre-seed fundraising round, the team was ready to bring its innovative product to market. In preparation for the launch, Marlow needed a comprehensive marketing plan that identified the consumers who would benefit most from the product and who would be willing to purchase it. Key messages and a communications plan had to be finalized highlighting Marlow’s differentiated advantage, and the financial estimate for the first year had be forecast and presented to investors.
Following the Arab Spring of 2011, the centuries-old co-operative movement helped the emancipation and financial independence of women in Morocco. One such woman was Samira Smahri, the founder and president of a co-operative called Attadamoun, which nationally and internationally marketed a unique product native to Morocco now used around the world: argan oil and its derivative products. The co-op, founded in 2014 and located in Sidi Bibi, a small village in Morocco, had experienced steady growth and given women a sense of hope and new-found freedom. However, this was all put on hold with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, Smahri had to decide whether to persevere under extremely unfavourable conditions or to shut down the co-op that meant so much to her and the co-op’s emancipated women employees.
Sheree Evans and Danielle McFarland had spent five years trying to build and launch business management software for the health and wellness industry. After an attempt with Mystro, an online payment gateway, they pivoted to create a new business, Therapair, a multi-sided platform. They had enough funds left for just over three months of operations and needed to decide whether they should continue to invest in their businesses or walk away from them.
Kinbor, a pioneer and top brand of creative planner journals in China, was launched in 2015 by Guangbo Group (Guangbo), a leading stationery manufacturer and worldwide exporter. In January 2022, Jessie Yu—Kinbor’s, founder and general manager— was facing several urgent issues in moving the start-up forward. Like many intrapreneurial projects, Kinbor was only contributing a small fraction to Guangbo’s total annual revenues, so pressure to boost sales and scale up the operation was mounting. In addition, Kinbor’s incongruence with the parent company’s business model was making integration a challenge. Externally, major stationery industry competitors were launching their own creative planner journal brands, thereby intensifying the market’s competition. Kinbor had to find the right strategy to address these issues.
Two decades into the 21st century, agriculture and farmers faced multiple challenges. The following case study presents a success model for all Indian stakeholders involved in the agriculture sector from growing food to processing food. The business model adopted by Sahyadri Farms worked to find solutions for the problems of small and marginal farmers and make farming into a profitable venture with development of agriculture and rural community. It not only linked farmers to international markets through export channels for remunerative returns but also provided innovative technologies like blockchain to ensure solutions forcrop advisory, weather forecasting, etc. Sahyadri Farms were successful in establishing itself as India's biggest and most successful Farmer Producer Company. The Sahyadri's case explores the interventions in agriculture supply chain with technology and economies of scale (Farmer Producer Company). Though the company continues expand, the trade-offs between expansion and vision remain a dilemma.
Sheree Evans and Danielle McFarland had spent five years trying to build and launch business management software for the health and wellness industry. After an attempt with Mystro, an online payment gateway, they pivoted to create a new business, Therapair, a multi-sided platform. They had enough funds left for just over three months of operations and needed to decide whether they should continue to invest in their businesses or walk away from them.