The case tells the story of the rise and fall of Scott Tucker, an entrepreneur, businessman, passionate race car driver, competitor, and owner of a professional racing team. From 1997 to 2012, Tucker built a nationwide network of payday lending businesses, becoming a pioneer in online lending along the way. Many of his borrowers depended on payday loans as a lifeline in dire times-a pricy-yet-reliable source of cash to pay bills and cope with emergency expenses. However, Tucker's reign came to an end in 2012 when federal prosecutors indicted Tucker on several criminal charges, including the violation of disclosure laws. This (B) case completes the narrative, describing the outcomes of the legal cases and consequences for Tucker and his businesses. This case allows students to discuss the role of individual executives in the corporate governance process, and how the regulatory-level, firm-level, and personal levers of governance may interact to create trust in markets. The case also allows discussions of the importance of effective communication of information by management to help facilitate the decision-making of various stakeholders (such as investors, employees, and customers).
Launched in 2011, Kermit PPI helped hospitals save money on expensive orthopedic implants and devices by enabling them to renegotiate their contracts with device manufacturers and better monitor compliance. In 2021, as they look to grow, they are entertaining two options: recruiting new customers and expanding their service offerings.
Long before the pandemic struck, many work environments were becoming increasingly harder to navigate due to higher densities, smaller workspaces, more noise, and less space per person. Given the correlation between workspace and job satisfaction and employee performance businesses should strive to define a new era of people-centric workplaces that produce greater business competitiveness through improved collaboration, culture, innovation, and individual excellence.
George Kurtz founded CrowdStrike in 2011 to bring next-generation cybersecurity products to the marketplace. CrowdStrike used artificial intelligence to train its detection agent on evolving threats. This approach was revolutionary in an industry that had previously been fighting against previously detected and catalogued threats. CrowdStrike grew quickly, with impressive financial metrics. The company went public in 2019, and continued to evolve its suite of product offerings. CrowdStrike also found itself in the middle of a few high-profile breaches, first at the Democratic National Committee, and in the Solar Winds hack. The severity of those attacks underscored CrowdStrike's thesis: cybersecurity would impact every person at every company in every industry. To be able to reach its aspirations, CrowdStrike needed to build a company that could service customers and make it turnkey to use its services. Kurtz saw the opportunity in the industry, and he was eager to continue to capture his share of it.
SimplyGood is a sustainable consumer brand reinventing the homecare & cleaning industry, founded by a homegrown entrepreneur; Mr. Jeremy Lee (29) in 2021. SimplyGood is a successful spin off from his previous venture UglyGood he cofounded in 2017 which focuses on turning fruit waste into products such as cleaning agents, essential oils, and animal feed. UglyGood has since been acquired. SimplyGood aspires to replace the hefty plastic bottles of household cleaning detergent by their ecologically and space friendly plant based 'cleaning tablets'. Importantly, SimplyGood produces the dehydrated cleaning tablets using only non-toxic plant-based ingredients. Traditionally, when a consumer buys a bottle of household cleaning agent, they are paying for a single use plastic bottle, a solution that contains 96% water and the cost of transporting a plastic bottle filled mainly with water - this is highly carbon & resource inefficient. By compressing all the active ingredients into a dry based cleaning tablet, SimplyGood can encourage consumers to reuse their existing plastic bottle that have been bought previously and utilise readily available tap water at home. The tablets are 300x smaller & 200x lighter than a regular 500ml bottle of liquid cleaning solution. A SimplyGood cleaning tablet will dissolve in 500ml of tap water and make a bottle eco-friendly plant-based cleaning solution from home. As such they were able to maximise resources while also significantly cutting down on carbon footprint incurred from shipping plastic bottles & water.
After two decades of insufficient work, scarce revenue, and meagre lifestyles, the weaver community of Sircilla was plagued with financial instability. To generate more income, these weavers invested in new weaving machinery. Whilst the looms increased their production of cloth, sales remained stagnant with no market for this increased production. This lethal combination of financial hardship and desperation left the community in much distress, resulting in suicides. This case study discusses this below-the-bottom-of-the-pyramid situation and the interventions that worked. It also provides students with the opportunity to experience policy makers' dilemmas through an analytical exercise. This case is suited for classes focused on policy making, strategy as well as sustainability.
Consumers are evolving from "owners" to "users" as they increasingly purchase access to goods rather than owning them outright. That may result in a reduced sense of psychological ownership of individual goods and likely will change how, and for what, consumers feel ownership. The author explains what businesses should understand about this evolution and its future consequences.
South Korean steelmaking giant POSCO in 2021 had become a global company with businesses in 52 countries. In 2018, POSCO's new chairman and CEO had inaugurated a broader business philosophy, espousing "Corporate Citizenship" practices as a way for the company to give back to society, beyond the production of steel or creation of jobs. This philosophy included new principles, innovative R&D, action plans, and internal and external cooperation to address climate change, sustainable development, safety, economic and social assistance programs, and cultural facilities-all connected to this broader goal of being good global and local citizens. South Korean citizens had long viewed the company as the bedrock of Korea's industrialization, and a symbol of national pride and "can-do" spirit. Would South Koreans, along with POSCO's internal and external stakeholders, embrace this new management approach, and the company's new cultural identity?
This article identifies barriers that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) encounter when they openly innovate, according to the open innovation (OI) mode used (inbound, outbound, coupled). A qualitative analysis - involving seven case studies of SMEs active in digital (high-tech) or social economy (low-tech) sectors - reveals that they face more internal than external OI barriers. Overall, the nature of the barriers does not vary across OI modes, but their intensity does. With regard to external barriers, the results reveal a "tribe syndrome," such that SMEs resist opening up to other firms that do not share the same values.
Ucommune was the first co-working space operator in China to submit a prospectus to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. As its basic business, Ucommune provided co-working spaces for members and customers, and gradually formed two specific space operation models: the self-operated model and the asset-light model. Ucommune also offered members comprehensive value-added services and promoted the development of a service business by establishing a service ecosystem. Constant exploration of the co-working space industry had enabled Ucommune to create a unique business model and, through its creation, positively change the industry's old model. Although it had reached certain goals, Ucommune still faced challenges, including problems with achieving profitability, fierce competition, and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. To transcend the current obstacles, In early 2020, Ucommune had to consider how to further adjust and optimize the business model.
Masai Ujiri, the President and General Manager of the Toronto Raptors (Raptors), had an illustrious career on and off the basketball court; he had not shied away from making bold, even controversial, decisions; and he had led his franchise, the Raptors, to the National Basketball Association (NBA) Championship. Following the Raptors’ clinching the NBA Championship in 2019, Ujiri faced an altercation with an Officer in Oakland, California. At the height of his success, Ujiri explicitly called out his mistreatment because of his being a Black man, highlighting the racism prevalent against Blacks and minorities. Contemplating his future as an executive, Ujiri would need to decide whether to continue, and if so, how to marry the worlds of sport and activism, charting his own path for social change.
In Fall 2017, Tommy Hilfiger launched Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive, a line of adaptive and inclusive fashion apparel intended to make dressing easier. Now, Tommy Hilfiger is planning to launch Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive internationally in early 2020. The prospect of making adaptive clothing available globally is exciting, but some wonder if a global launch might be a bit premature. While Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive has experienced some initial success, it is still a relatively unknown line in the U.S. Moreover, despite conducting extensive research, the Tommy Hilfiger team continues to learn more each day about how to best serve the adaptive customer. With a global launch looming on the horizon, there is a lot of work to be done. This case highlights the opportunities and challenges faced with the introduction of a new product line that effectively serves an entirely new and unknown customer while simultaneously starting a movement to provide fashion for all.
The case spotlights Kwame Spearman's career-shifting decision to leave a NYC-based consulting job to return to his hometown of Denver, Colorado, and take over an iconic independent bookstore, The Tattered Cover. The case lays out ways Spearman envisions a new approach to retail. It highlights challenges that can face individuals when they step into a substantive leadership role for the first time. It also examines how local businesses respond to significant threats from online and big box retailers.
When Peter Moyo was appointed as chief executive officer (CEO) of Old Mutual Emerging Markets (Old Mutual), one of South Africa's largest and oldest financial institutions, in 2017, the chair of Old Mutual, Trevor Manuel, and the Old Mutual board were optimistic, as Moyo seemed like the ideal candidate. However, less than two years into his tenure, Moyo's employment was terminated owing to a conflict of interest and a breakdown of trust between Moyo and the chair and board. From the moment he was suspended, Moyo made the dispute very public, and appeared to be orchestrating a media campaign against Old Mutual and the directors, especially Manuel. A protracted and bruising legal battle ensued, and many corporate governance lessons were learned. It was now incumbent on the board to identify and appoint a new CEO of Old Mutual. Given the local and international environment, and in view of internal and external challenges, they needed to consider what kind of CEO would be appropriate for Old Mutual; what criteria they should set for this crucial position; and what the right timing and communication process would be around the new CEO's appointment.
In late May 2020, the two founding and managing partners at Redhill Capital, in the Pearl River New City district of Guangzhou, China, were considering various reasons why the year was developing far differently than they had expected. The two-year-old venture capital firm's limited partners and investees were all shocked by the dire developments, as was the entire country and the whole world. Earlier that year, rapidly spreading outbreaks of COVID-19, which had started in Wuhan, in China's Hubei province, had led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, and many countries were closing down their borders. With the world seemingly plunging into a deep depression, the two founders of Redhill Capital were wondering about the future of their venture capital firm, which normally invested in medical technology and biotechnology. How should the company's strategy be adjusted to survive the crisis and take advantage of new opportunities in the rapidly changing world?