Based in Bengaluru, India, Invento Robotics (Invento) was a start-up that manufactured humanoid robots. In October 2017, Invento received a mandate to develop a humanoid robot to welcome India’s prime minister and the US president’s senior adviser at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit that year in Hyderabad. It was a high-stakes event for Invento; a positive reception to the robots would mean many leads for the company, while a negative response could mar Invento’s reputation. While Invento’s time had hitherto been spent on research and development, there was pressure for it to now determine an overall marketing strategy. It was imperative that Invento quickly crystallize ideas about its customers, product positioning, branding, pricing, distribution channels, and promotions.
In 2005, the faculty of the computer science department at Harvey Mudd College reviewed its statistics on gender matriculation. A long-time goal of the department had been to increase the number and proportion of women studying computer science at the school. To their consternation, they discovered that the number of women declaring computer science majors was declining. The case describes the steps the faculty took to redesign their core introductory course as well as the follow-up study that revealed a dramatic, sustainable increase in women's engagement: Harvey Mudd College raised the percentage of women computer science majors to over 50% in less than ten years. The case discusses the transformation of the culture and pedagogy-as well as specific actions taken by the faculty and school leadership-that fomented this change. The focus on the computer science program is set against the broader backdrop of Harvey Mudd College's efforts to attract and retain women students generally. HKS Case 2225.0
In 2008, Zoomlion acquired the Italian company Cifa, a world-leading company in the concrete machinery market. The acquisition bolstered Zoomlion's leadership in this market in China through Cifa's advanced technology. The acquisition also provided Zoomlion fast access to foreign markets, so that it could extend its leadership in the concrete machinery market to Europe, and to emerging markets such as India and Russia. But while much emphasis was given to the noteworthy success of this operation, less has been said so far on the difficulties Cifa managers experienced in their cultural dealings with Zoomlion. Zoomlion's lack of prior international experience and their cultural differences with the Cifa managers led observers to doubt Zoomlion's ability to successfully manage Cifa's operations. What factors were behind the managerial integration? What were the biggest challenges in building a stable working relationship between the two management teams?
Partnering with startups is an important way by which large multinational corporations (MNCs) pursue open innovation. This article sheds light on distinctive startup partnering strategies across multiple locations. These vary in terms of institutional strength (advanced vs. emerging markets) and local reputation in a given sector (cluster vs. non-cluster). Different partnering strategies are appropriate for each location type: a template-based or purpose-built approach (in clusters vs. non-clusters, respectively), and a facilitative or directive approach (in advanced vs. emerging markets, respectively).
In late 2020, Wendy's was an iconic North American fast-food chain with a history of innovation. The corporation's inventive approach to its promotions was particularly apparent in its use of social media, even more so in its unique management of the company's Twitter account. In addition to using Twitter to provide customer support and advertise its products in an online setting - two traditional activities conducted by many a business on Twitter - Wendy's had used the platform to regularly make fun of users and competitors, as well as respond to teasing and other playful challenges issued by Twitter users. Evaluating the company's Twitter strategy proved difficult, however. How could Wendy's chief executive officer determine whether the company's approach on Twitter positively affected sales? How could he improve the company's future social media strategy?
At the November 2019 Open Day conference, the vice-president of JD.com shared his understanding of the role that supplier collaboration played in an uncertain environment. Through 15 years of fast growth, JD.com had become the largest business-to-consumer platform in China with more than 30,000 suppliers. Using a boundless retail strategy, JD.com had to build a seamless channel from supplier to customer, which required a close look at how to collaborate with the suppliers through digital technology. However, working with people from different companies raised many challenges. Without a proper solution, the effectiveness of the supplier collaboration would suffer.
In late 2020, Wendy’s was an iconic North American fast-food chain with a history of innovation. The corporation’s inventive approach to its promotions was particularly apparent in its use of social media, even more so in its unique management of the company’s Twitter account. In addition to using Twitter to provide customer support and advertise its products in an online setting – two traditional activities conducted by many a business on Twitter – Wendy’s had used the platform to regularly make fun of users and competitors, as well as respond to teasing and other playful challenges issued by Twitter users. Evaluating the company’s Twitter strategy proved difficult, however. How could Wendy’s chief executive officer determine whether the company’s approach on Twitter positively affected sales? How could he improve the company’s future social media strategy?
At the November 2019 Open Day conference, the vice-president of JD.com shared his understanding of the role that supplier collaboration played in an uncertain environment. Through 15 years of fast growth, JD.com had become the largest business-to-consumer platform in China with more than 30,000 suppliers. Using a boundless retail strategy, JD.com had to build a seamless channel from supplier to customer, which required a close look at how to collaborate with the suppliers through digital technology. However, working with people from different companies raised many challenges. Without a proper solution, the effectiveness of the supplier collaboration would suffer.
When hackathons are held virtually, people from a variety of circumstances have an opportunity to participate. But facilitating such events entirely online requires an organizational and mindset shift for making the collaboration work, with greater emphasis on steps such as onboarding and building in fun. Recent hackathons around COVID-19 offer insights into how to make remote collaboration succeed with participants who have diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experience with technology.
As a leading short-video social and livestreaming app in China, Kuaishou Technology’s Kuaishou application (app) was facing various challenges, including fierce competition from ByteDance Ltd.’s Douyin. In June 2018, to sustain its long-term growth, Kuaishou needed to evaluate the possibility of entering the livestreaming e-commerce market, as livestreaming was becoming one of the hottest ways to sell to Chinese consumers. The co-founder and chief executive officer of Kuaishou Technology needed to decide whether Kuaishou should launch a livestreaming e-commerce business. If so, should Kuaishou cooperate with an existing e-commerce platform or build its own e-commerce ecosystem? What potential challenges might Kuaishou face in its livestreaming e-commerce business expansion?
After climbing the ranks among Kenya's financial institutions from 66th to 1st, and toppling a quarter of the market share held by mobile money giant Safaricom, CEO James Mwangi must now guide Equity Bank into its next stage of development beyond "Equity 3.0." Should he continue to chip away at the substantial hold Safaricom still has over the industry, or should he branch out into completely new areas that the company has never dealt with before? The former would mean a long and grueling fight, but the latter could spell disaster if fresh ventures go awry. Is the company's innovative approach on its homefield evidence of a deeper penchant for ingenuity overall, or was Mwangi simply in the right place at the right time with its landmark MVNO Equitel?
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.
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.
In February 2019, the owner of the Yukon Soaps Company (Yukon Soaps), based in Mayo, Yukon, was contemplating the path forward for her business. Founded in 1998, Yukon Soaps was a provider of hand-crafted artisanal soap featuring Indigenous artwork. Yukon Soaps had been experiencing double-digit annual sales growth over the past several years, and demand was steadily exceeding supply. The owner felt that her business had reached a critical point, and she knew it could not grow without addressing several pressing growth challenges, many unique to its northern context: (1) the cost of sourcing ingredients and shipping them via air freight to Yukon significantly drove up the cost of goods sold; (2) Yukon Soaps' product was currently produced in the owner's basement, which severely limited production capacity; (3) the business currently sold to Yukon retailers, directly to customers through fairs and farmers' markets, and through an online e-commerce platform, and there were significant trade-offs associated with each sales channel. The owner's primary goal was neither revenue nor profit growth, and as the challenges that came with growth threatened her primary goals and values, she was questioning the value of expanding the business. Should she expand Yukon Soaps, or should she remain a small-scale player? How could she address the unique challenges that she faced in Mayo, Yukon?
In this technical note, we examine the concept of diversification and the tradeoff between risk and return in portfolio theory. The note includes a general introduction to normal distribution, then applies it to portfolio theory by examining normal distribution of future return and risk. The note also examines formulas for calculating expected returns of various two-asset portfolios and applies these formulas to investment decision-making. Finally, it touches on errors of inference, including survivorship bias and statistical concerns around skewness or excess kurtosis.
Jay Bharat Spices Pvt. Ltd., a company located in Cuttack, India, was involved in the manufacturing and distribution of spices across India under the brand name Bharat Masala. The company specialized in producing basic spices such as turmeric powder, cumin powder, and chili powder. The senior management team had recently noticed a rise in demand for the spice garam masala in the East India market and asked the company’s vice-president of East India operations to oversee the launch of this new product over the next six months. The vice-president was now struggling with multiple constraints related to the launch, including storage capacity in the warehouse and various financial constraints that were forcing him to look for a more economical and efficient solution.
Following its official launch on April 6, 2020, Quibi, a mobile-only short-form video streaming platform that had raised over $1.7 billion had failed to gain the traction it was expecting and fell well short of its first-year growth projections. The company ultimately announced that it was shutting down after just six months in October 2020. Exactly where had Quibi gone wrong, and what lessons could investors learn from their failed investment in the company?