The case begins in January 2016. Alvin Chan, CEO of Neeuro, reflects on the company's three-year journey to bring their proprietary wearable technology EEG (electroencephalography) headband to market. The headband was meant for use alongside Neeuro's mobile applications to improve the brain health of users by reading and interpreting their brain signals. Chan and his co-founder Eddie Chau had long-standing connections and working relationships with government agencies and government-linked research institutes. Neeuro was a start-up, but through open innovation, they were able to access resources and technologies outside of their firm, and quickly build up their technical capacity. Chan forged a positive connection with A*STAR, the Singapore government-linked group of research institutes. Neeuro's co-founders leveraged their understanding of the surrounding ecosystem, and were able to navigate issues coming out of the scientific community and complex licensing and contracts. Neeuro received two technical capacity-building grants, embedding A*STAR researchers into the company to develop technology in-house and publish a White Paper detailing the scientific background of Neeuro's technology. They reached patent licensing agreements with A*STAR that boosted their product development cycle, and with the aid of A*STAR's scientists working with them, Neeuro enjoyed a smooth transfer of technology.
The case features Taste Good Limited (Taste Good), a fictional Hong Kong-based company in the beverage industry. The board of directors has just instructed Alice Chan, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), to prepare pro forma financial statements for the coming four years, which will be presented to institutional investors. In addition, the pro forma financial statements would help the board assess the company's gearing level for the coming years. Taste Good is required to comply with debt covenants arising from its bank borrowing. One of the covenants states that the firm's gearing ratio shall not exceed 40% for two consecutive years. If such a covenant is breached, there is high risk that the loan will be called for immediate repayment. Using the assumptions in the case, students should assist Alice to draft the pro forma statement of profit or loss and the pro forma statement of financial position. Working on the case will provide students with hands-on experience in performing financial projections and teach them to critically assess the validity of the given assumptions.
This case traces the rise of Jackie Robinson from the poor streets of Pasadena, California to one of the most famous people in America after he overturned the color barrier in baseball. The case describes how as a youth he excelled at basketball, football, baseball, and tennis. As a minor league baseball player, he was approached by the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers to step on the field as the first Black player in major league baseball. His bravery and grace in the face of taunts and threats made him an inspiration and role model for millions. Later in life, he became an entrepreneur and social activist. Students will learn how Jackie Robinson navigated life's choices to leave a lasting impact on the world.
Based in China, Envision was one of the world's leading Greentech companies. Chief Executive Officer Lei Zhang had set the goal of achieving carbon neutrality across the company's global operations and supply chain by 2022 and 2028 respectively. As part of its longer-term goal of finding ways to match the supply of renewable energy with demand more efficiently, the company was also pursuing a Smart City project in Singapore as well as building the world's first net-zero industrial park in Inner Mongolia. In face of the many opportunities afforded by the fast-changing energy sector, with constraints on its human as well as financial resources, was Envision taking the best actions for the future? And will they be enough to combat the "climate crisis" that humanity is facing?
The OneTen case study examines the nonprofit organization's origin story. Its founding team includes a roster of corporate superstars-Ken Chenault (former CEO of American Express), Ken Frazier (former CEO of Merck), Charles Phillips (chair of Infor), Ginni Rometty (former CEO of IBM), and Kevin Sharer (former CEO and chair of Amgen). In May 2020, soon after the murder of George Floyd, this group came together to form a nonprofit that would partner with companies, talent developers, and Black talent, with the goal of hiring one million Black people in the U.S. into jobs with family-sustaining wages over the next 10 years. Equally important is an emphasis on the promotion of talented Black employees within existing companies. The case is set in late 2020, just after the hire of OneTen's first CEO, Maurice Jones; it explores how the organization was established, structured, and staffed, and how it has so far built its partnerships.
This note introduces a leadership communication competencies framework as part of the embodying executive presence model. The model can be leveraged in the education and development of leaders seeking to improve their skills associated with having impact and influence, enhancing their persuasive capabilities, and their ability to inspire others.
BDP International Inc. (BDP), one of the world’s leading privately-held freight logistics companies, provided chemical shipping services to eight of the top ten global chemical companies. In April 2021, it contracted with a chemical company for two shipping orders, each to a different destination, and each with a set number of containers to be shipped every month for a year. The containers were filled with a chemical used in the electronics industry. This was one of the biggest logistical challenges faced by BDP’s vice-president of Government and Industry Affairs and its director of Transportation, especially because the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted the global shipping industry.<br><br>After having sorted out and arranged for the shipping, a few containers belonging to BDP’s client were engulfed in a fire that broke during the vessel’s voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The containers and their contents were damaged beyond recovery. BDP had to scramble again to plan transportation, this time deciding how to inform the client, deal with possible late penalties and damage fees, and make whole on the order.
Set up in 2008, VidyaGyan was a residential school for children in grades 6-12 from low-income rural families in Uttar Pradesh in northern India. It was the brainchild of Shiv Nadar and Cabinet Secretary T.S.R. Subramanian, who recognized the enormous potential hidden in the poverty-stricken districts of this state. Nadar and his daughter Roshni hoped that the VidyaGyan effect would self-multiply; that students would inspire not just their family, but their street, their village, and their entire community - creating "spirals of inspiration" that would transform rural India. Regardless of their future career plans, the foundation had decided to fund the college education of any student who scored above 93% in their grade 12 exams and many students received offers from universities in the US and other countries. Having opened the door to the world, Nadar and Roshni wondered was it fair to ask the students to turn their backs on the opportunities in front of them and return home to the rural countryside?
This technical note describes an up-to-date data repository containing balance of payment, exchange rate, and aggregate macroeconomic data in a standard format used by case studies written by members of the Business, Government & the International Economy (BGIE) group at Harvard Business School.
This note introduces a leadership communication competencies framework as part of the embodying executive presence model. The model can be leveraged in the education and development of leaders seeking to improve their skills associated with having impact and influence, enhancing their persuasive capabilities, and their ability to inspire others.
BDP International Inc. (BDP), one of the world's leading privately-held freight logistics companies, provided chemical shipping services to eight of the top ten global chemical companies. In April 2021, it contracted with a chemical company for two shipping orders, each to a different destination, and each with a set number of containers to be shipped every month for a year. The containers were filled with a chemical used in the electronics industry. This was one of the biggest logistical challenges faced by BDP's vice-president of Government and Industry Affairs and its director of Transportation, especially because the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted the global shipping industry. After having sorted out and arranged for the shipping, a few containers belonging to BDP's client were engulfed in a fire that broke during the vessel's voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The containers and their contents were damaged beyond recovery. BDP had to scramble again to plan transportation, this time deciding how to inform the client, deal with possible late penalties and damage fees, and make whole on the order.
Hongxing ERKE Industrial Co., Ltd. (ERKE), founded in 2000, was the first large Chinese sportswear company to list overseas. Despite the difficulties it faced caused by poor management and the decline of its brand influence, ERKE donated ¥50 million worth of aid to disaster-hit areas in Henan, China, shortly after severe flooding in the province in July 2021. The donation caused an unprecedented online event in China and ignited the enthusiasm of netizens for buying ERKE products. Millions of netizens rushed to ERKE’s livestreaming studios and expressed their gratitude and support for the company through “wild consumption.” ERKE became representative in consumers’ minds of excellent domestic products that were part of Chinese fashion trends. Why had ERKE’s donation become such a hot topic and triggered a consumption binge in China? On the heels of this situation, how should ERKE use the opportunity to achieve a long-term competitive advantage in the future?
The historic Lund Resort at Kla ah men (the Resort) was wholly owned by the Tla’amin Nation and operated by Tla’amin Management Services LP (TMS). The Tla’amin Final Agreement had been in effect since April 2016, making the Tla’amin Nation self-governing over its land, resources, and members. The Resort, on British Columbia (BC)’s Sunshine Coast, featured thirty-one renovated guest rooms that ranged from budget-friendly units to luxury ocean-front suites. In addition to hiring a new general manager, the Resort needed to increase bookings in the shoulder season and stabilize staffing. By 2018, the Resort had had six general managers in two years and needed a highly experienced professional to fill the position. TMS hoped to retain this person for at least three years. The new manager would need to be a good fit in terms of Tla’amin culture and values; given the complex reporting structure, they would need to be adaptive and willing to work with multiple people within the Tla’amin leadership, including the TMS board of directors and the Tla’amin operating board. While it would have been best to hire a manager with experience working with Indigenous communities, the TMS had determined that this was not feasible and that it was best to hire someone who was experienced and open to learning about Tla’amin culture and values.
When Afresh CEO and cofounder Matt Schwartz enrolled at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business (GSB) in 2015, he had a singular obsession-healthy food, to benefit both individuals and the planet-and an ironclad determination: to found a business by the time he graduated. His classmate and cofounder, Afresh President Nathan Fenner, had a credo-work with really cool technology, preferably in underleveraged areas-and an orientation: choose work that had positive social impact beyond creating value in the market. Together, they honed in on a thesis: that the fresh food market was wildly under penetrated by technology. This led them, through trial and error, to found Afresh, a "for-profit social impact company" focused on fresh foods in the supply chain inventory management and software business. This case explains how Schwartz and Fenner took their idea from the business school classroom to the market and built a company that, as of early 2022, was valued at $121 million and had signed deals with grocery chains with a total of 3,100 stores-and expected to be live in 4,000 to 5,000 stores by late 2022.
As of 12/31/21, Amazon held $22 billion of equity and warrants in related companies. In fact, it often requests a free grant of warrants when it enters into a new commercial agreement with a supplier. Over the past 20 years, Amazon has gotten warrants in almost 20 publicly traded companies and more than 75 private companies; in a few instances, it has gotten multiple grants from a single company. Combined, Amazon held $3.4 billion of warrants as of year-end 2021. This case explores one of the recent transactions in which Amazon requested warrants as part of signing a new commercial agreement with SpartanNash Company, the fifth largest food distributor in the United States. In September 2020, shortly before Tony Sarsam became CEO of SpartanNash, Amazon proposed a new 2-part agreement. The first part involved a revision to the existing commercial agreement that governed distribution of grocery items from suppliers to Amazon warehouses. The second part involved a free grant of "at-the-money" warrants to buy up to 15% of SpartanNash's shares. The warrants would vest over seven years based on Amazon's cumulative purchases from SpartanNash up to a total of $8 billion. Compared to Amazon's current spending of approximately $400 million per year, this proposal represented a significant opportunity for SpartanNash to grow with one of America's largest and fastest-growing retailers. But that opportunity came at a cost (giving Amazon warrants). Should Sarsam accept the proposal, reject it, or try to renegotiate aspects? More generally, students must assess whether this was an example of a powerful buyer exerting market power over a smaller supplier, or was it an example of a new dynamic partnership that would align interests and share gains through common ownership. In other words, was Amazon's proposal coercive, collaborative, or both?
Unbeknownst to most people, Amazon currently holds $10 billion of equity and warrants in related companies. In fact, it often requests a free grant of warrants when it enters into a new commercial agreement with a supplier. Over the past 20 years, Amazon has gotten warrants in at least 13 publicly traded companies and more than 75 private companies. As of January 2022, Amazon's current holdings of warrants was worth almost $4 billion. This case explores one of the recent deals in which Amazon requested warrants as part of a new commercial agreement. In September 2020, shortly before Tony Sarsam became CEO of SpartanNash Company, the fifth largest food distributor in the United States, Amazon presented the company with a 2-part proposal. The first part involved a revision to the existing commercial agreement that governed distribution of food from suppliers to Amazon warehouses. The second part involved a free grant of "at-the-money" warrants to buy up to 15% of SpartanNash's shares. The warrants would vest over seven years based on Amazon's cumulative purchases from SpartanNash up to a total of $8 billion. Compared to Amazon's current spending of $400 million per year, this proposal represented a significant opportunity for SpartanNash to grow with one of America's largest and fastest-growing retailers. Should Sarsam accept the proposal, reject it, or try to renegotiate aspects? More generally, was this an example of a powerful buyer exerting market power over a supplier, or was it an example of a new kind of dynamic partnership that would align interests the medium to longer term through ownership stakes? "
As of 12/31/21, Amazon held $22 billion of equity and warrants in related companies. In fact, it often requests a free grant of warrants when it enters into a new commercial agreement with a supplier. Over the past 20 years, Amazon has gotten warrants almost 20 publicly traded companies and more than 75 private companies; in a few instances, it has gotten multiple grants from a single firm. Combined, Amazon held $3.4 billion of warrants as of year-end 2021. This case explores one of the recent transactions in which Amazon requested warrants as part of signing a new commercial agreement with Kornit Digital, a small, but rapidly growing digital printing company based in Israel.