On April 17, 2021, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) released an "urgent" warning to consumers regarding the Peloton Tread+ after thirty-nine incidents had been reported related to the treadmill in which children and pets were injured. The treadmill was sold by Peloton Interactive Inc. (Peloton), a US company that sold fitness equipment such as exercise bikes and treadmills, as well as on-demand fitness classes. According to the CPSC, the accidents could have happened as a result of design flaws in the Peloton Tread+, including the height of the treadmill, which allowed a small child or pet to crawl underneath. The CPSC requested that Peloton recall the product but Peloton refused, claiming that there were no safety issues with the product and that users had failed to follow proper instructions. Industry experts suggested that Peloton was not wise to hold consumers responsible for misuse, and some consumers filed lawsuits against Peloton. The company had to decide whether to reconsider the decision to not issue a recall and determine how to avoid similar incidents in the future.
Wateroam is a social enterprise that develops water filtration systems for rural and disaster-hit areas. Since 2014, Wateroam has deployed its water filtration systems to more than 30,000 people in remote villages and disaster-stricken areas across Southeast Asia through Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). In 2014, three young men met at the HydroPreneur Programme, an industry-oriented entrepreneurship programme organised by the Public Utilities Board (PUB) - Singapore's national water agency - to accelerate commercialisation of technologies and foster a new generation of water entrepreneurs. This event kickstarted the journey of Wateroam, a social enterprise founded by David Pong ("David"), Wateroam's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lim Chong Tee ("Lim"), Wateroam's Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), and Vincent Loka ("Loka"), Wateroam's Chief Technical Officer (CTO). David graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a Business degree, while Lim and Loka graduated from NUS with degrees in Environmental Engineering. 2021 was a challenging year for Wateroam, and the seventh year of its operation. As its three co-founders perused a 2020 World Economic Forum report that identified Singapore as one of the five most promising start-up hubs to watch outside of Silicon Valley, they reflected on their journey and the road ahead. What additional tools and frameworks would they need to navigate changing social and economic conditions worldwide? How should they position Wateroam to succeed in Covid-stricken communities as well as post-pandemic markets?
HSBC Commercial Banking was a key business for HSBC Holdings plc, contributing one-third of the bank’s profit in 2019. In 2016, the regional head of Commercial Banking, Asia Pacific, began initiating a series of open innovation programs in Hong Kong. The programs aimed to embrace collaboration in the innovation and technology ecosystem to co-create value for Commercial Banking’s small and medium-sized customers.<br><br>Now, in 2020, the regional head of Commercial Banking and his innovation team leader were discussing their innovation initiatives. They reviewed what they had achieved in the last four years. What value had they created for not just the small- and medium-sized customers but also the ecosystem stakeholders? What challenges had they met, and how well had they resolved these? Had the proper culture and talents been in place to meet these challenges? Had they measured the performance of the team properly to keep their colleagues motivated about sustainable innovation? They also explored a few critical areas for future growth. The regional head of Commercial Banking wondered what more they could do in Hong Kong, and how they could replicate the success they had achieved in Hong Kong in other emerging markets in Asia.
In April 2012, Qingke Facilities Leasing Ltd. (Qingke), a technology-based real estate management company, was founded to provide a long-term apartment rental service to young professionals in Shanghai and some other cities. The goal was to rent constructed but vacant apartments on the Shanghai market by leveraging information technology resources for all operations and by employing a model of standard apartment renovation.<br><br>A decentralized long-term apartment rental model was introduced to China’s market in 2014 by leading Internet-based companies and was booming by 2017. At the end of 2018, Qingke was one of the top ten brands in the long-term apartment rental market, running 100,000 renting units in coastal cities in China with revenue of ¥1.2 billion that year. However, to sustain rapid market growth and create a large-scale Internet economic model, Qingke would have to overcome many uncertainties and challenges, including capital acquisition; strong competition; constraints to its financial resources, team building efforts, work force development, and sustainability; and extension of the business model.<br><br>By the beginning of 2019, Qingke had come a long way; the US$100 million in funding he received in 2018 signified a major accomplishment in Qingke’s progress since its establishment in 2012. However, competitors were targeting Qingke with the aim of overtaking its market share. How could the recent funding strengthen Qingke’s position in the housing rental market and gain sufficient market share? Should Qingke increase investment in information technology to upgrade its data processing abilities and capacity, or should it build its brand to promote market exposure and awareness?
The Berlin-based start-up, Lytt, was founded in late 2019 with the aim of offering employees a means to speak up about misconduct at work through a digital assistant, which enabled them to communicate difficult topics safely and anonymously. Lytt wanted to help companies understand their working climate and sustainably promote their employees’ satisfaction and health. In August 2020, the owners of Lytt had to develop the right go-to-market strategy, keeping in mind the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their decisions.
The Canadian city of Toronto had one of the largest housing affordability problems of any city in the developed world. One company trying to address this problem was Dream, one of the largest real estate groups in Canada. In 2021, Dream had just launched a new system for impact investing, along with two new investment vehicles to connect investors with environmentally and socially beneficial projects. A first mover in impact investing among Canadian real estate firms, Dream wrestled with the question of how to use the language and concepts of impact investing to solve Toronto and Canada's housing affordability crisis. How could Dream work with federal, provincial, and local governments to make housing more affordable? How could it scale impact across the real estate industry to increase affordability? How could Dream also integrate other aspects of impact, like environmental sustainability, into its approach without losing focus on affordability? Students will consider the case of a single large Dream development in Toronto as they evaluate these questions.
Do you-as leader, an individual within an organization, or running your own business-know when to say yes and when to say no? How do you make decisions about your own career and life? How do you counsel others who ask you for career and life insights? Owusu-Kesse is not only a new CEO of a nonprofit organization changing the lives of tens of thousands of children and young adults, but he also took this position while the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the world, and more specifically in the streets and homes of Harlem, New York. Now the newly selected CEO has a major decision to make, one which could change the trajectory of his own career, the organization he is tasked to lead, and make a meaningful difference in the lives of children and young adults beyond Harlem. A group of philanthropic organizations have asked Owusu-Kesse to take the lead in coordinating the scaling of the Harlem Children's Zone place-based model nationally, beginning in a dozen major U.S. cities. What should the response of the CEO be to this extraordinary request? How should he make the decision? How does he think about the children and families within Harlem who already require his full attention amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial reckoning, renewing a sense of urgency to address rampant inequalities? How does he think about inspiring and leading his organization of 1,800 professionals who are already tired and depleted? Should he seriously take on a national effort at this time?
Francoise Brougher was a high-powered technology executive in Silicon Valley. After successful stints at Google (where she rose to lead a $16 billion ad sales business) and Square (which she helped take public), she joined Pinterest as its first Chief Operating Officer in March 2018. As COO, Brougher increased the advertiser base eight-fold, expanded operations to 20 countries, and more than doubled Pinterest's revenue to $1.1 billion in less than two years. These achievements, among others, set Pinterest up for its successful IPO in April 2019. In the year after the IPO, however, Brougher was increasingly cut out of meetings with other leaders in the company and given little voice in critical decisions. When Pinterest's CEO and founder, Ben Silbermann, asked Brougher if they could connect, Brougher was ready to share her latest thoughts on the actions Pinterest could take to further grow and optimize its business. Ten minutes into their video call, however, Brougher realized she was being fired. Brougher pondered how her status as an outsider-a French woman-played into her treatment in the firm. Silbermann offered a severance package of six months' salary, suggested she tell her team she had decided to leave the company, and asked her to sign a non-disclosure agreement. What could Brougher do in response?
Bühler Group, a Swiss multinational processing technology provider, started by selling machines for processing grains and later transitioned into selling food processing solutions. A family-owned business in the fifth generation, Bühler's high-end milling, grinding, sorting, and die-casting machines and its process engineering and services expertise were respected by the world's largest players in the food, feed, and automotive industries. The firm's purpose was formalized in 2010 under the slogan 'Innovations for a Better World.' With the establishment of its purpose, the firm began to transform itself from a quiet technology leader to a vocal advocate for innovation, education, and sustainability in its industry, a substantial challenge for a privately held Swiss company with CHF 3 billion ($3.2 bn) revenue. Though Bühler had nurtured its long-term partnerships with customers, the firm struggled to bring about a deeper embrace of sustainability across its customers' value chains, which it considered necessary. In 2016, the firm introduced the Bühler Networking Days conference as a platform to facilitate a dialogue on innovation, sustainability, and education in the industry. The event aimed to change the firm's one-on-one interactions with customers into a public and multilateral engagement. While planning the Networking Days 2022 conference, the firm's leadership wondered how they could use the forum to inspire others in the industry to commit to concrete outcomes. Besides, had Bühler done enough to embed sustainability in its internal and external innovation ecosystem? How should the firm measure impact and see whether the efforts made so far were simply incremental or collectively enough for Bühler to be a truly purpose-led firm?
MAYA Capital co-founders Lara Lemann and Monica Saggioro raised $41.5 million through a series of closings for their early-stage Latin American venture capital fund. The two women had met for the first time in mid-2016 when Lemann was contemplating scaling her angel investing experience by structuring a fund, and Saggioro was about to start her MBA program at Harvard Business School. After founding MAYA in 2018, the pair built an investment portfolio in sector-agnostic investments across the region, providing startup founders with an on-demand, hands-on management support approach. MAYA also initiated a series of creative efforts to help develop its venture ecosystem and to source opportunities. By 2021, Lemann and Saggioro had invested approximately $21 million in 28 companies, with several completing subsequent follow-on rounds of financing to support their growth. By then, Latin America´s VC market size had more than doubled since MAYA´s inception, with escalating competition among local players. Lemann and Saggioro faced several important decisions: When should they raise another fund? How large should the next fund be? Should they alter their investment strategy? And as MAYA expanded its portfolio, would they be able to sustain their hands-on management support strategy?
The general manager of Lidu Liquor Co. Ltd. (Lidu) was considering the next phase of the company’s marketing plan. From 2016 to 2018, unit sales had risen from ¥80 million to ¥300 million, largely due to Lidu’s unconventional marketing programs. But by mid-2019, national and domestic brands had noticed Lidu’s success. With competition increasing, Lidu’s future growth might not come as easily. The general manager wondered how best to modify the company’s immersive experiential marketing plan so that Lidu could stay ahead of the competition.
The Asia sourcing manager at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a humanitarian organization working in conflict areas, had contributed to the 2009 creation of an ethical procurement policy to respond to urgent needs around the world. Her mandate was in line with the ICRC’s strategy of improving the flexibility, cost effectiveness, and sustainability of its supply chain. Ethical procurement could not be enforced, however, when sudden conflicts or natural disasters relied on local purchasing or cash transfer programs to meet the needs of distressed populations. Ten years later, despite efforts to systematize and expand the ethical procurement policy, emergency relief items were still being procured from local and regional markets through traders or cash transfer programs not covered by the policy. How could the ICRC address this gap and promote the ethical procurement of relief items at the local level in emergency situations?
At the very end of 2019, Jay Prakash Pal, divisional electrical engineer (Traction Distribution) for the Sealdah division of Eastern Railway in India, was asked to prepare a consolidated report for revising the contract demand with power distribution companies. Over the last six months, demand charge penalties had been imposed on multiple occasions for two power stations under his jurisdiction (Barasat traction sub-station and Sonarpur feeding post), as the monthly maximum demand had crossed the existing contract demand for these stations. He would have to provide a revised contract demand value to minimize the annual expenditure due to a demand charge penalty for the next year. While proposing the new contract demand, he would also have to ensure that the cost arising from the unutilized portion of the minimum guaranteed demand would be minimal.
This case is set in 2020 and talks about a start-up pharmaceutical marketing company - Good Pharma - based in Singapore. One of the first products the firm had embarked on marketing was Suu Balm, a cream for dry and eczema-prone skin, which had been formulated by a lead user - Dr Tey Hong Liang (Dr. Tey) from Singapore's renowned National Skin Centre (NSC). As a lead user innovation, Suu Balm had gone through extensive licensing negotiations before launch and took some time to see market success. The Suu Balm cream was a menthol based formulation to help relieve itch and dry skin conditions. Initially, the cream was sold online and to government and private dermatologists and general practitioners directly. Later the company approached retail pharmacy stores like Guardian and Watsons to distribute the product and saw spiralling sales growth at an average of 180% a year. The firm expanded beyond Singapore to other Asian countries, the U.K. and Ireland, by collaborating with both physical and online retail stores. However, it faced some hiccups in its collaborations with physical stores in Ireland and U.K. and quickly shrank its expansion in these countries after incurring some losses. Dr. Tey had also noted an increasing demand for additional products from his patient visits, which led to the expansion of the Suu Balm brand to include hair care, facial care, and products suitable for children. Effective product and geographical expansion strategies fuelled further business growth, and by 2019, Suu Balm's retail sales had exceeded US$3.69 million in its home market alone. However, Good Pharma wanted to expand beyond collaborations and launch its own products in the market moving forward. Could lead user innovation still be a viable strategy for Good Pharma's next growth stage as a start-up company?
Designed as a coffee chain enabled by a digital platform, Luckin Coffee Inc. leveraged extensive customer behavior data gathered from its application (app), information systems, and technologies to offer innovative customer experience and high operational efficiency. Merging online with offline channels, this digital start-up quickly grew into a formidable competitor for Starbucks Corporation in China and became a star in the technology industry. Luckin was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market in 2019, bringing additional capital to fuel its ambitious growth. However, in 2020, a report revealed a deep scandal, showing falsified financial and operational figures. The scandal could have a profound and far-reaching impact and offers lessons for the business world and beyond.
Yogesh Bellani was the chief executive officer of FieldFresh Foods Private Limited (FieldFresh), a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Del Monte Pacific Limited. Bellani, with his entrepreneurial mindset, had successfully led FieldFresh in establishing the Del Monte brand in India. A great deal of that success was attributable to Bellani's ability to capitalize on business-to-business sales. FieldFresh had pivoted to a business-to-consumer (B2C) sales model, but issues that arose in fiscal year 2019-20 and were expected to be more pronounced in 2020-2021 indicated that an even greater emphasis on B2C sales was needed. The pivot to B2C would be crucial to unlocking the equity FieldFresh had built with the Del Monte brand and would enable the brand to take a leadership position in key categories, but was this the right time to make that change?