In January 2020, the chief executive officer of the family-run business Scak Textiles LLP (Scak), based in India, was thinking about how the company could achieve a new milestone of ₹500 million in revenue by 2025. He wondered why the company, after coming so far, could not achieve that number with a sustainable margin. What else could he do to help Scak reached this target, and how could he solve the bottleneck of resource constraints?<br><br>The bright next-generation entrepreneurs of the family were taking an active interest in the business and had strategic plans for enhancing the effectiveness of both business and revenue models while navigating the ever-changing business ecosystem. The promoters of Scak wanted an outline of the entrepreneurs' recommendations with adequate assumptions and a business valuation. The promoters would expect a 15 per cent return on additional capital invested; the corporate tax rate would be 30 per cent. The next-generation family members saw three possible options: add manufacturing operations, establish e-commerce platforms for business-to-business and business-to-consumer businesses, or enter the business of exporting. Could they take up all three options, or should they maintain the status quo? The value and future of Scak would depend on their decision.
The outbreak of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease, 2019) posed unprecedented challenges to the global supply chains. As a leading and innovative supply chain that achieved just-in-time manufacturing, Apple's performance was put in the spotlight. This case describes how Apple's supply chain has coped with the COVID-19 pandemic. Apple's supply chain has weathered natural disasters, such as earthquakes, fires, floods, and SARS; the risks and challenges brought by the outbreak of COVID-19 were unprecedented and complicated. Unlike the symptoms of SARS patients with high fever, the symptoms of COVID-19 varied; some patients had no symptoms at all, which made them difficult to identify. Moreover, the pandemic complicated supply chain planning because it was difficult, if not impossible, to predict where the next epicenter would be and what measures local governments might take to prevent the further spread of the virus. Social distancing was effective to control the pandemic, but it brought both challenges and opportunities for companies like Apple. On the one hand, social distancing slowed the manufacturing process and had a negative impact on the economy, which could dampen consumer confidence and reduce demand. On the other hand, social distancing boosted the demands for electronic devices, as many people had to work at home. Using this case study, students will understand the importance of risk management in supply chain management and learn the challenges and opportunities of the disruption posed to business operations. The case provides an opportunity for students to discuss and understand why some companies can recover from the disruptions better than other companies and how a resilient supply chain can improve a company's competitiveness.
The case is inspired in the real story of Scott Stiles and the Fair Employment Agency, a non-profit employment agency, founded in Hong Kong, with the purpose of eliminating forced labour. The Agency aims to address this issue with the introduction of a new business model in the domestic worker employment agency industry, which addresses social aims while allowing companies to be profitable. In the business model of the Fair Employment Agency, the hiring of domestic workers is made through transparent pricing and ethical practices, and foreign domestic workers are not required to pay placement fees to find jobs in Hong Kong. This allows foreign domestic workers to be free of debts, therefore being less susceptible to exploitation by employers and employment agencies.
In 2020, the head of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Academy, faced some tough decisions surrounding co-creation initiatives. The UEFA Academy was founded in early 2019 to address the learning needs of the football world with the aim of advancing the game. Since its inception, the UEFA Academy had been enthusiastically received by the sporting world. However, in pursuit of constant improvement, the head of the UEFA Academy wondered whether the use of co-creation could bring innovation and excellence to the UEFA Academy’s programs. Which key stakeholders should the UEFA Academy involve in this initiative? What factors should be considered when formulating the UEFA Academy's value co-creation strategy? And what co-creating activities should the co-creation initiative focus on?
On July 29, 2020, Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon), testified before a United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law that was investigating the company for engaging in anti-competitive practices. Although the company offered low prices and did not distort consumer welfare principles despite its large market size, the Committee questioned whether it had exploited its sellers on both Amazon Marketplace and the Amazon Web Services Marketplace. The company was accused of not only exploiting sellers but also using their sales data for developing its private-label brands. As committee members were looking to redefine monopolistic practices, it was also recommended that Amazon should be split to avoid anti-competitive practices. Was it time for Bezos to proactively split Amazon and avoid antitrust actions against his company owing to its market dominance? What could he do to manage antitrust issues against his company?
In 2016, Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani, aeronautical engineers at All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., began to wonder why, in a world of accelerating globalization and digital connectivity, those who lived in far-remote villages or impoverished urban areas could not access high quality education or healthcare. They believed that with a faster, cheaper mode of transportation, they could democratize the world's resources-bring the right people or resources together to the right places at the right time. Although teleportation was still the "stuff of science-fiction," teleporting human consciousness and skills to remote locations through robots was not. Their vision was to build an "avatar service platform"-a global infrastructure of general-purpose avatar robots that humans could rent, like Uber or AirBnB, to perform surgery, defuse a bomb, visit elderly grandparents, attend school, or vacation in distant physical environments. In Akira and Kevin's eyes, ANA was in the mobility business, not just the airline business. They influenced senior management to invest $22 million to fund the ANA AVATAR XPRIZE and, with ANA's support, built a global avatar ecosystem of technologists, start-ups, corporates, non-profits, and government, including the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. As they worked to advance the technology and regulatory landscape, they also generated demand for avatar services-for that, they needed to change the mindset of the general public. By 2020, the "ANA AVATAR" program, as they called it, had made significant progress, and Akira and Kevin initiated the process to spin out of ANA, and launch a start-up, "avatarin." Then, COVID-19 upended reality. The years they thought it would take to create widespread demand for avatar-enabled telepresence had evaporated. Now, the question was, how should they deploy their start-up team to meet the humanitarian need, investor, and partner expectations?
In 2016, Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani, aeronautical engineers at All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., began to wonder why, in a world of accelerating globalization and digital connectivity, those who lived in far-remote villages or impoverished urban areas could not access high quality education or healthcare. They believed that with a faster, cheaper mode of transportation, they could democratize the world's resources-bring the right people or resources together to the right places at the right time. Although teleportation was still the "stuff of science-fiction," teleporting human consciousness and skills to remote locations through robots was not. Their vision was to build an "avatar service platform"-a global infrastructure of general-purpose avatar robots that humans could rent, like Uber or AirBnB, to perform surgery, defuse a bomb, visit elderly grandparents, attend school, or vacation in distant physical environments. In Akira and Kevin's eyes, ANA was in the mobility business, not just the airline business. They influenced senior management to invest $22 million to fund the ANA AVATAR XPRIZE and, with ANA's support, built a global avatar ecosystem of technologists, start-ups, corporates, non-profits, and government, including the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. As they worked to advance the technology and regulatory landscape, they also generated demand for avatar services-for that, they needed to change the mindset of the general public. By 2020, the "ANA AVATAR" program, as they called it, had made significant progress, and Akira and Kevin initiated the process to spin out of ANA, and launch a start-up, "avatarin." Then, COVID-19 upended reality. The years they thought it would take to create widespread demand for avatar-enabled telepresence had evaporated. Now, the question was, how should they deploy their start-up team to meet the humanitarian need, investor, and partner expectations?
In this interview, the first in MIT Sloan Management Review's Leading With Impact series, Tassilo Festetics discusses his role as vice president of global solutions at Anheuser-Busch InBev with coach and consultant Chris Clearfield. Festetics describes the benefits of building cutting-edge applications in-house to improve the brewer's products and service, and the value of fostering an environment that encourages open communication.
Established in 1969 as a cosmetics lab in the city of São Paulo, Natura grew briskly over the ensuing decades and by 2004 it had become Brazil's largest beauty company. Unlike its competitors, Natura was built on the principle of reconciling socioecological sustainability with value creation. During the 2010s, Natura evolved from a strong regional player focused on a single brand and direct sales to a multinational, multi-brand, multi-channel group and renamed itself Natura &Co. Its three business units, Natura, Aēsop and The Body Shop, operated independently, with decision-making autonomy and their own CEOs and executive teams. Each unit continued to grow and operate sustainably, but group profitability plummeted. In May 2019 Natura &Co announced that it had agreed to acquire mass-market beauty company Avon in a transaction worth $3.7 billion. The takeover would present several challenges, from turning around underperforming Avon to developing a coherent corporate strategy without betraying Natura's sustainability ethos.
Behaviors that spark organizational learning and growth also require a great deal of courage often because they involve speaking truth to power or challenging one's sense of self. Since they feel so risky, they don't happen nearly as frequently as they should day to day. In this article, the authors offer a framework for encouraging the behaviors and making them safer for employees to exhibit.
Drop Technologies Inc. was a major success in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada technology community. Having raised its initial pre-seed funding with only a slide deck, it grew to become a popular loyalty mobile application across North America. In 2017, the company was featured in LinkedIn’s top 25 start-ups in Canada, and it closed CA$58 million in a series B funding round. In 2018, the marketing manager had to decide which marketing channel was most effective based on the goals of the company. Traditionally, Drop Technologies Inc. used paid social advertising and referrals to generate user growth. However, the rise of influencer marketing was on the marketing manager’s radar, who had previously tested this channel, but had yet to decide whether or not to allocate more of the marketing budget to it. While this channel had many potential benefits, it was still a new concept and held many potential risks.
In May 2020, Chinese state-owned Shandong Gold Group was attempting to acquire the Canadian gold mining company TMAC Resources, whose gold mines were located in the High Arctic. If this acquisition took place, it would be the first time Shandong Gold Group would operate a gold mine outside of China. However, it would be a challenge for Shandong Gold Group to operate a mine in such a hard-to-navigate polar environment. As well, there were other lingering questions: How would the company handle the relationships with the indigenous Inuit people during the development stage of the project? Would Shandong Gold Group’s potential acquisition of TMAC Resources be successful, considering the Canadian government’s recent strengthening of its reviews of foreign acquisitions of Canadian companies? Would Shandong Gold Group’s state-owned identity increase the uncertainty of this potential transaction?
Drop Technologies Inc. was a major success in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada technology community. Having raised its initial pre-seed funding with only a slide deck, it grew to become a popular loyalty mobile application across North America. In 2017, the company was featured in LinkedIn's top 25 start-ups in Canada, and it closed CA$58 million in a series B funding round. In 2018, the marketing manager had to decide which marketing channel was most effective based on the goals of the company. Traditionally, Drop Technologies Inc. used paid social advertising and referrals to generate user growth. However, the rise of influencer marketing was on the marketing manager's radar, who had previously tested this channel, but had yet to decide whether or not to allocate more of the marketing budget to it. While this channel had many potential benefits, it was still a new concept and held many potential risks.
In May 2020, Chinese state-owned Shandong Gold Group was attempting to acquire the Canadian gold mining company TMAC Resources, whose gold mines were located in the High Arctic. If this acquisition took place, it would be the first time Shandong Gold Group would operate a gold mine outside of China. However, it would be a challenge for Shandong Gold Group to operate a mine in such a hard-to-navigate polar environment. As well, there were other lingering questions: How would the company handle the relationships with the indigenous Inuit people during the development stage of the project? Would Shandong Gold Group's potential acquisition of TMAC Resources be successful, considering the Canadian government's recent strengthening of its reviews of foreign acquisitions of Canadian companies? Would Shandong Gold Group's state-owned identity increase the uncertainty of this potential transaction?
Investors had lost confidence in Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi. It was once one of the world's most valuable private technology companies, valued at USD45bn after four years of operation. With Xiaomi, founder Lei Jun had created an internet company with an online business model that made tech-driven products with minimal margins. It focused on building value around the phone with products and services. Consumers quickly became fans. In 2014, Xiaomi became China's best-selling smartphone brand and also the world's third largest. Investors anticipated continued growth. But the excitement around the company did not last long. In 2016, Xiaomi's overall smartphone shipments fell 36% from the previous year after a series of supply chain issues. To revive investor confidence, Lei adjusted the company's strategic direction and led a series of internal restructurings. Its long-awaited IPO in 2018 was priced at the bottom of the range and raised USD4.7bn, less than half of its initial target. Worse, six months after the IPO, the company's market capitalization had dropped by half. According to some analysts, the company had been "overhyped" and Xiaomi was "just a hardware company." But the image of Xiaomi as a value-for-money brand stuck. Some even gave it the nickname "assembly house." What could Xiaomi do to revive the confidence of investors?
In 2018, after ten years at the helm of the Festival Aix-en-Provence, Bernard Foccroulle had passed the reins to Pierre Audi, leaving behind him a uniquely positioned festival with a distinctive artistic vision renowned for its policy of accessibility and audience diversification. It was also distinguished by being firmly anchored both in its region and in the Mediterranean. In addition to the artistic and economic objectives that generally characterize such organizations, the Festival also had societal objectives. This case unfolds a few months before the passing of the torch.
FinVolution Group, previously known as PPDAI (PaiPaiDai), was the first P2P (peer-to-peer) lending company in China. With more than a decade's experience in the online consumer financial industry, the group has developed its core capabilities and a business model that is working well in China. It has gained extensive knowledge and experience in credit risk assessment, fraud detection, big data and artificial intelligence. Its online platform links underserved individual borrowers with financial institutions. By showing how FinVolution has developed its competitive advantages and built a successful online lending business model in China, this case provides an opportunity for students to discuss what factors have led to the success of a fintech company. It raises the question of whether a successful fintech business model developed in one country can be ported to another country. It also highlights the regulatory change challenges facing fintech companies, especially P2P lending companies.