The case reveals how Porsche has become one of the world's leading car companies. Central to Porsche's growth strategy is creating great products, including its legendary 911 Carrera sportscar, and offering innovative customer experiences. As the automotive industry is undergoing disruptive changes, the company's leadership is making changes to its product portfolio and customer experiences.
In November 2021, Ashley Chapman, chief operating officer and vice president of Chapman’s Ice Cream, arrived at work to find several of his unvaccinated staff calling for a boycott of the company in response to its recent announcement of plans to increase the hourly rate of its vaccinated employees. The boycott efforts were buttressed by anti-vaccine groups, who urged their supporters to stop purchasing Chapman’s products. Students must adopt a marketing lens to determine whether the boycott is worth addressing and, if so, how to respond while minimizing negative impacts on the brand and product sales. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses of consumer behaviour are required to determine the relative strengths and weaknesses of various marketing-driven responses.
Dalton Kreiss founded Maguey Melate in 2018 to bring authentic, traditionally crafted mezcal from small producers in Oaxaca, Mexico directly to consumers. In early 2024, he faced fierce competition from cheaper, mass-produced alternatives. Maguey Melate's mission-driven model, focusing on authenticity, sustainability, and social responsibility had garnered success but now confronted the need to either adjust to compete with rivals, maintain its ethos despite challenges, or cease operations.
<p align="justify">Established in 2002, Chengdu, China’s Four Inter Catering Group Co. Ltd. (Four Inter) was a company specializing in Sichuan cuisine and Sichuan culture dissemination. After 21 years of development, Four Inter formed a business model that emphasized both inheritance and innovation of Sichuan cuisine and provided a broader channel for its growth. In 2023, as COVID-19 came to an end, the food and beverage industry ushered in a new round of development. But Four Inter was caught in the predicament of a regional business model. At this juncture of development, Xiaohong Xu, chairperson and CEO of Four Inter, needed to make a decision about the company’s future direction. Should it deepen the awareness of existing brands (refine) or explore the unknown map (expand)?
The Wadhwani Research Centre for Bioengineering (WRCB) at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), established in 2014 with support from the Wadhwani Foundation, entered its transformative second phase after a successful initial five years. With over 40 professors from nine departments involved, WRCB’s phase one had yielded 316 publications and 38 patent applications and spawned two entrepreneurial ventures. Heading phase two were Debjani Paul, the professor in charge, and Abdur Rub, the chief executive officer, who were focused on propelling deep-tech research toward commercialization. As the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic subsided in late 2021, Paul and Rub looked toward the future with new hope and clear goal: to enable academic researchers to secure follow-on funding crucial for sustaining momentum beyond WRCB’s initial catalytic support. This initiative aimed to cement WRCB’s status as a global leader in bioengineering translational research, bridging academia and industry to overcome funding gaps and nurture innovation in a dynamic academic setting.
In January 2024, Mei Lin was appointed as Chief Sustainability Officer of Bamboo Bridge Logistics (BB), a mid-sized logistics operator based in Singapore. Her key task over the next three years is to support the newly-formed sustainability committee that would report to the Board of Directors (BOD). Mei faced significant challenges in weaving environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles into BB's fabric. She not only had to put in place measures for ESG goals on climate change, but also to link these goals to executive remuneration. She was also aware that the company harboured ambition to become publicly listed on Singapore's stock exchange, the SGX, likely not long after implementing its sustainability initiatives. How could Mei help BB's sustainability committee in selecting the appropriate indicators that reflect the company's commitment addressing climate change challenges, while mitigating the potential negative financial impact? What roles should BB's BOD play to ensure the effective implementation of ESG metrics in executive remuneration, bearing in mind the balance between short-term financial profitability and long-term environmental sustainability?
<div style="font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.4;"><p align="justify">The (A) case outlines the process leading to the rebranding of the Tepper School of Business (the Tepper School) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Lynda Oliver, chief marketing and communications officer at the Tepper School hired Digital Pulp, a New York-based advertising agency, for this project. The case outlines the marketing research process and findings—including a competitive brand analysis and several in-depth interviews and focus groups—that led to a new messaging hierarchy for the Tepper School to represent the school’s new positioning. Oliver had to choose between five proposed new slogans for the Tepper School to communicate this new positioning to the public and present her choice to the dean for approval. The chosen slogan had to reflect the Tepper School’s new competitive positioning and serve as the unifying basis for all future marketing communications. The (B) case presents the chosen slogan as well as a brief description of the proposed implementation process. It also presents sample advertisements, asking students to develop additional ones following the same format.
<div style="font-size: 0.93em; line-height: 1.4;"><p align="justify">This is the B-case for product W37078. Lynda Oliver and her team at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University developed the new slogan, "The Intelligent Future," to emphasize analytics, interdisciplinary learning, and human judgment in decision-making. This rebranding effort, supported by Dean Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou, was aimed at positioning Tepper as forward-looking and innovative. The comprehensive rebranding included a new voice and tone guide, updated visual design, and a digital advertising campaign that highlighted Tepper's unique strengths. The new branding, launched in September 2021, garnered strong support from stakeholders and prospective students, effectively positioning Tepper among the nation's elite business schools.
This presentation is intended to accompany W37078. It can provide instructors with additional material to enrich classroom discussion by introducing students to an additional aspect of how a brand achieves consistent messaging and positioning.
In August 2020, Sterlite Copper, a mining company in India, was shut down for good by the Madras High Court following a lengthy legal battle with the local Indian community, who accused the mine of environmental pollution. This verdict was a blow for Anil Agarwal, the executive chairman of the mine’s parent company, Vedanta Resources Limited (VRL), because the mine’s closing not only caused serious economic losses but also damaged VRL’s reputation around the world. Subsidiaries of VRL had successfully operated in Ireland and Australia—both developed economies—but had faced strong opposition in developing economies such as Zambia, Namibia, and India. Although VRL publicly advocated for corporate social responsibility and had received awards for its sustainability practices, the company continued to experience a lack of social consent from the local communities surrounding its operations in developing countries. Why was VRL failing in those countries despite its profitable operations? Were there cleaner and more efficient ways of extracting minerals to improve the company’s sustainability? Or were there other environmental, social, and governance factors that made mining difficult in developing economies?
Nihilent Limited (Nihilent), established in 2000, is an information technology (IT) services and consulting company based in Pune, India. Nihilent has been led by a charismatic and very creative leader who has been leading the go to market and client acquisition strategies through his design thinking workshops. Most work has been acquired based on his personal credibility. <br><br>How can the company sustain creative disruption through humanizing technology that the founder has so painstakingly built? Can the right leadership be found to carry the company vision forward? Can the government's policies and ecosystem help Nihilent gain competitive advantage?
Aritzia Inc., a prominent figure in the fashion retail sector, cultivated a reputation for its stylish designs and boutique atmosphere, attracting both customers and prospective employees who sought to be part of its esteemed brand image. However, a July 2023 article on the global business news website Business Insider revealed allegations by former employees of a toxic work environment characterized by high-pressure tactics and racial discrimination. The article ignited reactions across social media platforms, prompting widespread discussion and company backlash. The current chief executive officer was tasked with addressing the allegations and improving workplace dynamics at Aritzia stores. Her need to manage the company’s reputation was particularly critical, based on its image as a champion of equity, diversity, and inclusion. She had to act quickly to uphold the company’s brand image and nurture positive relationships with stakeholders.
Noah Joss had received a full-time job offer from Genesis Consulting, following his summer internship there. While a full-time offer had been his goal, Joss started to think critically about the compensation package and the working hours expected of him. Worried about making the wrong decision, Joss worked with his study group to come up with a compensation survey for those working in consulting that could be used as a reference point when deciding whether to accept the offers they had secured. After receiving a data set of survey responses from a consulting-focused media organization, Joss needed to analyze the data to inform his decision of whether to accept the offer, as well as to better understand the consulting sector’s compensation packages.
This case, which concludes the scenario set up in "Matteo Hill at Drawn, Inc. (A)" (UVA-OB-1293) and "Matteo Hill at Drawn, Inc. (B)" (UVA-OB-1459), reveals the outcome of the heated discussion about recently acquired start-up Drawn, Inc., sharing the raw data from internal pulse surveys.
This technical note describes an important rationalization process called moral disengagement that helps explain why and how people make decisions that stray away from the values they claim to hold. This reading explains what moral disengagement is, how to identify it in the words and rationales people provide to explain their choices, and why it is such a pernicious problem facing leaders. At the Darden School of Business, this technical note has been taught in the second-year "Defining Moments" course, as well as many executive education formats. It would also be suitable for class discussion about making values-driven decisions.
An important metric that plays a pivotal role in marketing is customer lifetime value (CLV). Given the constraint of limited marketing budgets, a company can enhance the return on its marketing investment by strategizing to allocate marketing resources based on the anticipated value of different customer segments. This technical note provides a contemporary explanation for what CLV is, focusing on its conceptual underpinnings and why it matters for marketers. In the digital age, the analysis of CLV has experienced a profound transformation driven by the wealth of available customer data and the emergence of advanced analytics tools, and it continues to evolve. This technical note provides an accessible, intuitive introduction to CLV as applicable in a wide range of scenarios. We recommend pairing this with another note that provides examples of empirical applications of CLV: "Three Empirical Methods for Calculating Customer Lifetime Value" (UVA-M-1056).
Set in March 2024, this case asks students to take the perspective of Oli cofounder and CEO Sathish Gangichetty as he approaches an impact investor for seed funding. Oli is an app that draws on artificial intelligence (AI) to improve users' mental hygiene through short daily interactions. The case describes Gangichetty's inspiration for creating the app and provides an overview of the app's features. The case promotes a discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of AI wellness programs at the individual, organizational, and societal levels. A feature that will be a benefit for some stakeholders may be a weakness for others. There is a tension between AI user privacy and organizational or societal safety. Therefore, individuals involved in AI development, implementation, and use must make tradeoffs about which features-and stakeholders-they will prioritize for a given product. This analysis provides a framework for evaluating an AI tool's impact on different stakeholders, and highlights the factors that business leaders must consider when implementing a new AI product in their organization. At Darden, this case is taught in "Minds and Machines," an elective course for second-year MBA students. The course draws on research from psychology and AI to teach students how to responsibly use AI in their future careers as business leaders. The course assesses AI's impact on individuals, organizations, and society, and highlights both the opportunities and the risks involved in AI development and implementation. This case would also be suitable for MBA and executive education courses on leadership and technology, AI and organizational culture, and ethics and technology.