Corporate transparency is an aspirational ideal that is very difficult to achieve because organizations can never be completely transparent. As a result, effective management of transparency requires managers to carefully balance transparency with the need for secrecy. This article describes the complex nature of transparency and demonstrates how attempts to balance transparency with secrecy result in three different kinds of transparency - rationalized, ceremonial, and decontextualized. Effective transparency management requires managers to avoid simply dumping information, use new technology strategically, engage their audiences creatively, avoid overpromising and underdelivering, and attend carefully to how transparency is measured.
Many companies are implementing transparency initiatives to improve environmental and social impacts throughout their supply chains. Meaningful change, however, is elusive, and transparency efforts are often criticized as legitimizing mechanisms or "window-dressing." This article introduces a model of transformational transparency that enables new insights to drive radical change in companies and supply chains, as well as in industries and society at large. The model highlights the need for technological investments grounded in improving data, empowering stakeholders, and applying moral leadership. It presents examples that demonstrate how the model allows companies to foster dramatic improvements in social and environmental impacts.
Calibrating environmental impacts and dependencies in financial metrics, known as natural capital accounting (natural capital valuations; assessments), is critical for transparency and effective decision-making. Understanding the financial impact of a firm's effects and dependencies on nature not only surfaces new priorities and insights, but also informs and encourages companies' efforts to protect natural resources. Given that transparency and accountability go hand-in-hand, natural capital valuations help companies mitigate impacts and dependencies on the natural world.
The Green Monday Group was co-founded in 2012 by Hong Kong entrepreneur David Yeung. Capitalizing on the developing global sustainability movement and the market opportunity from growth in flexitarianism, Yeung acquired a research and development company to innovate a plant-based pig meat product, OmniPork. Through product innovation, global distribution, and celebrity endorsement, Yeung was determined to bring OmniPork to global markets. He announced in 2020 that Green Monday Holdings had raised US$70 million of equity investment, the largest funding of its kind in Asia. In 2021, the question left was how those funds could be used to expand flexitarianism globally and capture new consumers of OmniPork.
Many companies were unprepared for the supply chain disruptions triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, even though the threat of a global pandemic had been well known for nearly 20 years. Companies need a new mindset to prepare for the inevitable black swan triggers of the next supply disruption. The ADDAPT Framework features six capabilities anticipate, detect, diagnose, activate, protect, and track to better manage for such disruptions and maintain product flow from suppliers to customers.
This case tells the story of Bas Fransen, who evolved from a senior executive at Fortune Global 500 companies to founder of EcoMatcher - a socially responsible enterprise planting trees for planet and profit. This story has two particularly interesting themes. This case focuses upon the human side of the story: how a corporate baron overcame the skepticism of his friends and colleagues, giving up his economic perks and social status to find a more meaningful career as a social entrepreneur. Its companion case (EcoMatcher: Beyond the Triple Bottom Line, USTXXX) focuses upon the end result: EcoMatcher as a truly socially responsible enterprise with a profitable and scalable business model.
This case tells the story of EcoMatcher - a green and socially responsible enterprise that has found a scalable and profitable business model planting trees. EcoMatcher is interesting partly as an excellent example of strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR); its core profit-making activity of planting trees is intrinsically good for the planet and its people. This differs from the triple bottom line approach employed by some other companies, which use green or prosocial activities to offset core profit-making activities that may harm society or the environment. Both strategic CSR and the triple bottom line approach can underlie improvements in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting. This case focuses on EcoMatcher as an exemplar of strategic CSR while a companion case (EcoMatcher: Daring to Make a Difference, USTXXX) focuses on how EcoMatcher's founder made the difficult leap from corporate executive to social entrepreneur, trading off power, status, and wealth for more meaning in his work.
Mid-2015, hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the Near East sought asylum in the European Union. At the spike of the influx, over 4,000 asylum seekers, most from war-torn Syria, were landing in the Netherlands each week. The Dutch Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers was overwhelmed: it had to create dozens of reception centers from scratch, sometimes within just 48 hours, and sought to provide beds to all those entering. Anthony Slinkert, one of the agency's regional managers, was charged with finding locations for new centers in the eastern part of the country. His work on the ground was directly impacted by tense political debates in the European Union, in national and local governments, as well as by the ongoing debates in media and in towns across his region, since the arrival of the asylum seeker evoked unrest in local communities- exactly where Slinkert had to carry out his job.
On April 14, 2022, Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter Inc. for US$54.20 per share, for a total cost of US$44 billion. Musk hoped to make the social media network a platform of free speech, and the company profitable and cash flow-positive far more quickly than its management team at the time. Musk's leveraged buyout was mainly funded by a margin loan backed by his own shares in his company, Tesla Inc. On July 8, 2022, Musk announced that he was backing out of the deal. Almost immediately, a lawsuit was filed to force Musk to close the deal as required by the merger agreement. In response, Musk had to decide whether his bid of US$54.20 per share was still a fair valuation for the purchase, if a leveraged buyout with a margin loan was the best financing plan, and whether to confirm or abandon his agreement to buy Twitter Inc. If he chose to walk away from the deal, he would have to consider the potential loss, depending on the outcome of the pending lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
After the 2008–09 financial crisis, the Chinese shipping industry grew markedly and took on a more dominant role in global shipping. As a result, it was felt by some that China’s state-driven economic model had possibly created an unequal playing field. Under the political agenda of the Belt and Road Initiative, specifically the Maritime Silk Road, Chinese state-owned enterprises acquired strategic infrastructure assets, establishing a global network of shipping infrastructure through investments in strategically important ports and terminals. The growth of China’s shipping industry raised several concerns in Europe and for AP Moller–Maersk, the largest container shipping conglomerate in the market. By late 2020, some European governments were becoming more cautious; the European Union had increased restrictions on investments by Chinese companies, and European governments had become increasingly outspoken about China’s geopolitical ambitions. How could AP Moller–Maersk use non-market strategies to better position itself relative to increasing competition from China?
Stemina Lubricants (Stemina) was an automotive lubricant manufacturer in Udupi, Karnataka, India. All Stemina products were a blend of high-class base oil and imported branded additives. Stemina competed with leading brands—one that was strong in the market and at mechanics’ locations, having leveraged its consumer brand equity and strong advertising support to win over mechanics and dealers, and another that had a strong presence in the forecourts of gas stations in India. Customers looking for oil changes at gas stations were likely to purchase these company brands rather than a local brand, and Stemina faced an uphill battle to establish itself in a market with such entrenched distribution. How could this small business, with few resources for branding and distribution, successfully establish itself in the market?
The owner of Physio2U, the largest provider of in-home physical rehabilitation services in Western Canada, was forced to rapidly transition to telehealth amid the growing threat of COVID-19 in early 2020. While the Physio2U team and its patients were pleasantly surprised by their success with telehealth, as vaccination rates increased and the threat of COVID-19 infection became less significant, she had some tough decisions to make. She wondered if telehealth was (a) just a temporary solution to survive the pandemic; or (b) an opportunity for her business going forward. Before she invested any more resources in telehealth, including marketing funds, the owner needed to make sure she had both a strong business case and a comprehensive strategy for offering telehealth post-pandemic.
In 2013, the edible bird's nest industry outfaced chaotic market competition, poor customer awareness, a lack of trust, and a lack of strong branding during its infancy, thereby resulting in development opportunities for new categories and brands. Xiaoxiandun Freshly Stewed Edible Bird's Nest ("XXD") foresaw the strategic direction and emerged into prominence in the industry within less than six years. Moreover, XXD solved the pain points of the industry and consumers, developed the category of "freshly stewed bird's nests," introduced a customer-to-manufacturer (C2M) model, and directly reached consumers from the factory through value creation. Furthermore, XXD achieved rapid growth and became a leader in the industry through its innovative business model. However, XXD, which began with online sales, faced back-and-forth attacks from competitors. Traditional bird's nest giants launched online sales, intensifying online traffic and competition. Accordingly, XXD considered opening brick-and-mortar stores to further expand the brand's influence and increase its competitiveness, which would require a huge investment of resources. However, no consensus was reached among the founders of XXD despite several discussions within the company.
It is fall 2022, and open-source AI model company Hugging Face is considering its three areas of priorities: platform development, supporting the open-source community, and pursuing cutting-edge scientific research. As it expands services for enterprise clients, which services should it prioritize? Will these projects be in line with Hugging Face's volunteer community? Further, Hugging Face decided to remove a model uploaded by a contributor, due to the potential harm the leadership felt it could propagate. Was it the right decision?
On March 17, 2018, the founder and owner of Memon Lubricants, a Shell Pakistan Limited distributor located in Sukkur, Pakistan, was trying to find the best recruitment process to hire a new sales team. Memon Lubricants had just opened a second location in Khairpur, approximately 30 kilometres south of Sukkur. Several constraints that affected the process included a tight budget, limited availability of skilled and qualified candidates, and pressure to complete the recruitment quickly, Therefore, the founder wanted to adopt a more efficient recruitment process than the one he had used to hire a sales force at his first branch in Sukkur. He first had to identify the required knowledge, skills, and attitudes of ideal sales representatives. He then had to encourage appropriate candidates to apply for the positions. Generally, he had to improve the current recruitment process.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is a skilled actor, but that’s not what makes him an invaluable leadership role model for his people and the rest of our troubled world.
Is there any space for startups in a fully matured market where market incumbents are embroiled in cut-throat competition? And if so, how can new entrants carve out a niche? Through its own experience, ApiYoo has come up with an answer of its own. As a 4-year-old startup in consumer goods, ApiYoo has distinguished itself from others in the sense that while most startups begin by concentrating on just one single brand, ApiYoo established seven brands in different market segments. For every new entry, it has adopted a strategy of appearance differentiation. After four years of development, in 2020, it achieved an annual operating revenue of ¥1.2 billion, against its larger ¥10 billion goal for an annual revenue by 2025. Although its strategy of appearance differentiation has borne some fruit, the aesthetic preferences of consumers are subjective and, therefore, highly volatile. How can ApiYoo maintain its competitive advantage? What challenges will it face in realizing an 8-fold growth within five years? Students are expected to answer these questions from the perspective of Zeng Rui, ApiYoo's Founder and CEO.
In 1990, satellite expert and Sirius XM founder Martine Rothblatt was determined to save the life of her seven-year-old daughter, Jenesis, who was diagnosed with a terminal illness called Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH). At the time, there was little medication available for the rare condition, so Rothblatt decided make a drug herself and formed United Therapeutics in 1996. When that company proved successful, both financially and scientifically, Rothblatt decided to take what she saw as the logical next step: manufacturing organs for transplantation.