After pursuing a career in finance, the case protagonist moved back to his hometown of Toronto in 2016 to pursue his dream of being an entrepreneur. An incident involving his diabetic father during a family vacation was the primary motivation for his decision to help diabetics by offering treats they could enjoy without worrying about the health consequences. Being inexperienced in the baking industry, he invited a food connoisseur to join him in this adventure. She advised him to revise his product strategy from being solely low sugar to being low sugar, vegan, and gluten free in order to stay on top of market trends and target more customers. The entrepreneur’s new business, Bald Baker, began in January 2017, and in April of that year it officially launched three of Bald Baker’s products at the Niagara Food & Wine Expo. Bald Baker’s treats at this and other consumer food shows were receiving very positive reviews.<br><br>The entrepreneur now had to make some decisions about the future of Bald Baker. To ensure the long-term growth and sustainability of the brand, should Bald Baker’s product positioning be low sugar, or vegan/gluten-free/ketogenic-diet friendly? How should he allocate a $50,000 grant toward Bald Baker’s marketing?
Alphabet Inc.’s Google LLC (Google) purchased Fitbit Inc. (Fitbit) in November 2019 for US$2.1 billion, marking its foray into health care, and by January 2021, the US Department of Justice was conducting a probe into the Google–Fitbit merger amid Fitbit users’ skepticism and distrust of the deal with regard to data privacy. Although Google’s senior vice-president of devices and services assured users that the intent of the deal was to “spur innovation in wearables” and not to sell personal information or use Fitbit’s health and wellness data for Google Ads, Fitbit users remained concerned regarding Google’s access to incredible amounts of personal data. While the acquisition would help Google address its hardware failures of the past, gain an edge in software through an instant foothold in the growing smartwatch market, and integrate Fitbit’s smartwatches more deeply with Android, the larger goal was more likely maximizing Fitbit’s business-to-business (B2B) partnerships with “health insurance companies and direct corporate wellness programming.” What strategies should Google use to leverage Fitbit’s hardware strengths, B2B partnerships, and technical expertise? What steps should Google take to assuage data privacy concerns to become a serious contender in the smartwatch and health care markets and to realize its goal of revolutionizing digital health care? Did Fitbit stand to benefit from the deal?
Typical approaches to culture change relying on leaders to define the culture and cascade it throughout the organization, or fully outsourcing the responsibility of shaping and building culture to an HR group rarely produce real results. Instead, when individuals' behavior and actions become habits, it can truly change a culture. The authors explore three of the most widespread dangers to culture change and provide proven strategies for addressing them.
This set comprises six exercises: in each, a team of students must shop online for products to solve a particular problem. Problems range from outfitting a new apartment quickly to purchasing food for a festival to choosing car insurance. Students will experience a customer journey as they navigate shopping websites.
In this set of three exercises, students are cast in the roles of brand managers of one of three categories of consumer goods companies. They must choose a specific brand in their category and identify keywords to advertise that brand on Google search, in order to leverage or react to evolving consumer behavior. Students research trend tools and Google's keyword planner, explore and analyze consumer demand, identify customer segments, research product features, identify competitors, and finally choose paid search keywords.
This technical note provides a brief overview of the state of climate finance at the start of the 2020s. Catastrophes such as the Texas power grid failure and widespread wildfires in other western states have highlighted the increasing financial costs of climate change. The material includes market failures that have constrained the financial sector's response to the challenge of climate change, along with different methods that have been used to target funding toward climate-related opportunities. It offers consideration of the roles of public, private, and blended finance products to provide the trillions of dollars necessary to meet the needs of the Paris Accord. The note can be used both as background material or as a discussion topic itself, in which students might consider how best to address these market failures, how public finance might mobilize private capital, the benefits and drawbacks of vehicles used to date, and the innovative vehicles they might design. The depth of financial detail discussed in the class can be customized to reflect student knowledge.
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic is looming. Gordon Chen, MD, the chief medical officer of ChenMed, a family-owned company committed to delivering primary care to the oldest and most vulnerable patients in the United States, has a number of decisions to make. How can he continue the strong doctor-patient relationship that his company is known for during a pandemic? How can he keep his staff employed while adhering to the precautions set in place for the pandemic? Finally, should ChenMed pause its plans for expansion until the pandemic passes? ChenMed turned the traditional model of primary health care on its head, opting for a value-based model rather than a traditional fee-for-service one. ChenMed's new model has had exemplary results, and the company plans to expand. But the pandemic poses unique challenges for ChenMed and the vulnerable population it serves. The case provides students with a deep look into many of the challenges of providing health care to older Americans. Students have the opportunity to learn how the United States pays for health care for older Americans, discuss the pros and cons of different models of health care, and finally, consider the very real-world implications of a pandemic for health care companies and their stakeholders.
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic is looming. Gordon Chen, MD, the chief medical officer of ChenMed, a family-owned company committed to delivering primary care to the oldest and most vulnerable patients in the United States, has a number of decisions to make. How can he continue the strong doctor-patient relationship that his company is known for during a pandemic? How can he keep his staff employed while adhering to the precautions set in place for the pandemic? Finally, should ChenMed pause its plans for expansion until the pandemic passes? ChenMed turned the traditional model of primary health care on its head, opting for a value-based model rather than a traditional fee-for-service one. ChenMed's new model has had exemplary results, and the company plans to expand. But the pandemic poses unique challenges for ChenMed and the vulnerable population it serves. The case provides students with a deep look into many of the challenges of providing health care to older Americans. Students have the opportunity to learn how the United States pays for health care for older Americans, discuss the pros and cons of different models of health care, and finally, consider the very real-world implications of a pandemic for health care companies and their stakeholders.
Cryptocurrencies claim to be the future of money and payments, the lifelines of any business. An informed evaluation requires understanding both the economics and the computer science behind the technology. Designed for an MBA elective on money and banking, this technical note guides students through the building blocks of cryptocurrencies using the one that launched them all: Bitcoin. To provide a logically consistent framework for interpreting future innovations, the technical note digs deeper into the technological ingredients of Bitcoin than is typical in economics, while also connecting the technology back to a core set of economic principles, all in an accessible way.
Access to clean water is so critical for development and survival that the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal number 6 (SDG-6) was to ensure availability and sustained management of water and sanitation. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2006 estimated that 97 million Indians lacked clean and safe water. Fluoride and total dissolvable solids (TDS) in drinking water were dangerously high at many parts of rural India, with adverse impacts. On the other hand, buying clean drinking water from commercial vendors at market rates was not a realistic alternative, a costly recurring expense that much of India's rural population could not afford. The case tracks the efforts of Huggahalli, head of the technology group of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations (SSSO), to devise a sustainable solution to the drinking water problem in rural India that is low on cost, high on impact. They eventually develop a model that satisfies all these criteria and becomes the basis for a project called Premamrutha Dhaara. Funded by Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, the project aims to install water purification plants in more than 100 villages spanning six states in India, with the ultimate goal of turning over plant operations to the beneficiary villages and setting up a welfare fund in each village from the revenue generated. Social service projects, particularly in developing countries, have their unique challenges. The case highlights the importance of performing feasibility analysis as part of the project planning in social projects. The case also describes how the financial and operational dimensions of sustainability could lead to a self-sustainable system. The social innovation framework used to deploy the water purification project to achieve broader rural welfare has wider implications for project management, social innovation and change, sustainable operations management, strategic non-profit management, and public policy.
The case goes on to describe the enormous challenges involved in building the 4.94 km long Bogibeel Bridge in the North Eastern Region (NER) of India. When it was finally commissioned in 2018, it was hailed as a marvel of engineering. With two rail lines and a two-lane road over it, the bridge spanned the mighty Brahmaputra river. The Bogibeel Bridge was India's longest and Asia's second-longest road and rail bridge with fully-welded bridge technology that met European codes and welding standards. The interstate connectivity provided by the bridge enabled important socio-economic developments in the NER that included improved logistics and transportation, the growth of medical and educational facilities, higher employment, and the rise of international trade and tourism. While the outcomes of the project were significant, the efforts that went into constructing the Bogibeel Bridge were equally so. This case study is designed to teach the importance of effective risk planning in project management. Further, the case introduces students to earned value analysis and project oversight in managing large projects. The case centers on Indian Railways' need to quickly discover why the Bogibeel project was not going according to plan. The case also serves as a resource to teach public operations management where the focus is on projects and operations that result in socio-economic outcomes.
The case describes the digitalization of L&T Construction, the largest business of L&T, from conception to implementation. The CEO and MD of L&T believed that the organization-wide implementation of digital at L&T Construction would have a significant impact on the business. As a project organization with a limited number of high-value customers and relatively few customer touch points, the primary goal of digitalization in its case would be to improve operational effectiveness. It created a separate digital department and identified digital officers and champions across projects and sites for effective implementation. The transformation was championed from the top and the digital team initiated a variety of initiatives to facilitate digital at L&T. Within two years, they had developed and deployed a large number of solutions across hundreds of project sites, completely transforming the way work was performed. Buoyed by the success of the digitalization effort at L&T Construction, it was decided to extend it to other group companies.