This case describes the aggressive growth of Luckin Coffee since its inception in 2017. In merely two years, Luckin established a coffee network in China, surpassing Starbucks despite the US giant's 20 years of experience in the country. The case concludes with Luckin's announcement of accounting fraud in April 2020, followed by the immediate stock market and investor reaction. The case's epilogue also enables students to consider the spillover implications of accounting scandals for other stakeholders. This case exposes students to several business-related, accounting, and finance issues that lay the foundation for further examination in specific accounting and finance topics.
Kapila Krishi Udyog Limited, a Kanpur-based cattle feed manufacturer, was the market leader in the organised cattle feed market in North India. The organised cattle feed market was estimated at around 17-18% of India's cattle feed market. The product was commodity type and had demand mainly in rural and semiurban areas. Traditionally, Kapila Krishi had a market presence in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, but later, it moved to Punjab and Haryana. It faced competition from national and international brands in the cattle feed market besides competing with many unorganised players. Kapila Krishi saw a decline in its year-on-year revenue growth in 2018-19, but it simultaneously witnessed a massive increase in promotional expenses. The decline in Kapila's revenue growth could be traced to a changing competitive market scenario and unawareness among customers towards market-based cattle feed, besides a lack of strategic fit between market segmentation and marketing mix and a shift in the promotional and distribution strategy. Sameer Shivhare, Director, Kapila Krishi, was concerned with this development and was pondering to prepare a business plan to bring a reversal in declining revenue growth and ensure a steady growth in the business. He had to present the plan in the next board meeting.
In building the International Space Station (ISS), NASA opened the door to the development of a robust in-space economy in low-Earth Orbit, and yet the decision to build the station, and continue to extend its lifetime, placed a huge burden on NASA's Human Spaceflight budget. Should NASA continue to invest in the ISS? Or is it possible for the agency to facilitate the commercialization of the Station and move beyond low-Earth Orbit?
In March 2020, the director of Shikshaa Public School (SPS), a privately owned school with 785 students, located in Chennai, India, and his wife and co-founder were reviewing the school's performance and deciding its strategy going forward. The Indian education sector was highly regulated and competitive. Government schools, government-aided schools, and private schools all competed for new student enrolments to obtain a portion of the US$101.1 billion (in fiscal year 2019) Indian education sector. Having recently taken out a bank loan to construct a school building that increased SPS's capacity to 3,000 students, the cofounders were considering ways to increase SPS's revenue and profitability. The options considered were (1) more effective marketing to attract an increased enrolment of new students; (2) relocation of SPS to an upmarket location, where families had the potential to pay higher fees; and (3) acquisition of another school to expand rapidly and leverage the SPS brand.
In March 2020, the director of Shikshaa Public School (SPS), a privately owned school with 785 students, located in Chennai, India, and his wife and co-founder were reviewing the school’s performance and deciding its strategy going forward. The Indian education sector was highly regulated and competitive. Government schools, government-aided schools, and private schools all competed for new student enrolments to obtain a portion of the US$101.1 billion (in fiscal year 2019) Indian education sector. Having recently taken out a bank loan to construct a school building that increased SPS’s capacity to 3,000 students, the cofounders were considering ways to increase SPS’s revenue and profitability. The options considered were (1) more effective marketing to attract an increased enrolment of new students; (2) relocation of SPS to an upmarket location, where families had the potential to pay higher fees; and (3) acquisition of another school to expand rapidly and leverage the SPS brand.
Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB) Chief Innovation Officer Christopher Coburn had overseen a period of exciting transformation and growth in healthcare innovation at MGB. In November 2019, the health system was the largest recipient of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in the world. The Innovation Office sought to capitalize on that funding. Their team aimed to help the organization's 3,505 Principal Investigators translate and commercialize their research, with the goal of both producing revenue and improving patient care. Despite the success of Coburn and the Innovation Office over the last decade, MGB CEO Anne Klibanski and other key stakeholders had a serious concern. Although women comprised approximately 40% of the medical researchers and physicians it employed, the percentage of women participating in innovation activities lagged behind--in some categories, by a ratio of 4:1. Coburn knew that change would require an understanding of the main sources of disparities, the right strategy to address those disparities, and an equally robust execution. How could MGB expand and diversify its community of innovators?
Atal Indore City Transport Service Limited operated Indore Bus Rapid Transit System, the main public transport system in the city of Indore, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Indore Bus Rapid Transit System ran through an important section of the city, along a corridor 11.57 kilometres long with 21 bus stops. Operating the system involved meeting hourly demand for bus service-a task that required scheduling buses and their deployment to achieve the desired frequency. Indore Bus Rapid Transit System used modern technologies to identify passenger demand and the location of vehicles at all times during operation, and it used the data to plan and execute bus operations. Demand varied considerably between bus stops; therefore, management science techniques were needed for optimal planning. How could passenger service be maximized while optimizing the use of buses?
Foodics aimed to develop a point-of-sale system that offered food and beverage establishments an all-in-one workflow solution, providing a digital menu system to replace outdated analog systems and paper stickers to update menu prices. The case study discusses the hurdles and complexities of bringing what appeared to be a logical and simple digital solution to market, as well as plan for strategic expansion across multiple countries. Integrating Foodics' digital meus into existing point-of-sale systems would involve unexpected challenges, as the founders soon realized restaurants and coffee shops in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Middle East relied on proprietary technology platforms for many of their business operations. Further complicating matters, the highly individualized rules, laws, and ways of doing business in different cities would require local staff and expertise, and a large field sales organization.
BreadTalk Group, based in Singapore, has grown into a food and beverage powerhouse in the region. Mention BreadTalk and images of delicious, fluffy bread with unorthodox designs and creative names comes to mind. Despite its successes, BreadTalk is experiencing a period of stagnation and underperformance in its key markets. How can BreadTalk Group improve the competitiveness of its BreadTalk brand in Singapore and China? What key factors should BreadTalk consider when prioritising which international markets to allocate more resources to? This case challenges readers to assess the external environment and capabilities of BreadTalk to recommend strategic actions to improve performance.
In October 2020, Melissa Wood-Tepperberg, founder of the digital subscription wellness platform Melissa Wood Health (MWH) and creator of 'The MWH Method,' was evaluating the strategic directions of her company. What had started as a way to share workouts and wellness tips via Instagram only five years ago, today was a growing business enterprise. The MWH membership was reaching 92,000 paying subscribers who accessed the content in her platform. Wood's base of Instagram followers was also growing, now totaling more than 650,000, along with the number of brands who sought her attention and endorsement to promote their brands via her Instagram account. As the business grew, new opportunities arose. Today Wood was meeting with executives of a large fashion retailer who had proposed a partnership to create, launch, and sell Wood's own collection of apparel-an important step for MWH towards becoming a lifestyle brand. How should Wood approach the negotiations about the deal terms? What would this partnership mean to her members and followers? And how could she ensure this new partnership would help propel the other parts of her business?
Atal Indore City Transport Service Limited operated Indore Bus Rapid Transit System, the main public transport system in the city of Indore, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Indore Bus Rapid Transit System ran through an important section of the city, along a corridor 11.57 kilometres long with 21 bus stops. Operating the system involved meeting hourly demand for bus service—a task that required scheduling buses and their deployment to achieve the desired frequency. Indore Bus Rapid Transit System used modern technologies to identify passenger demand and the location of vehicles at all times during operation, and it used the data to plan and execute bus operations. Demand varied considerably between bus stops; therefore, management science techniques were needed for optimal planning. How could passenger service be maximized while optimizing the use of buses?
Clarke Building and Supplies Limited was a multi-generational family-owned building supply and contracting company headquartered in the western region of the island of Newfoundland, Canada. After the death of the company’s founder and chief executive officer, it fell to the founder’s son to take the helm of the company. With his engineering background, this son noticed inefficiencies and lax controls within the company. He was especially worried about the possibility of a more tightly run national store entering the market and outcompeting his family’s business. Complicating any decision to tighten operations was the community culture of the business, which included many long-time employees, friends, and family members. He could see that there were issues in the company, but he lacked the business acumen and distance to separate symptoms from causes and develop a plan to keep the company healthy and strong for generations to come. He knew he needed to achieve buy-in from the managers so he could implement any solutions he devised.
The shortcomings of the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile were fully exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they must be remedied before the next large-scale public health emergency. This will require government and industry to work together to build backup capacity and standby capability, not just more inventory.
This case study is set in September 2016 to April 2021. It describes how Abhilash Murthy used the Digital Product Management (DPM) framework to create the Bus Uncle chatbot and subsequently, to pivot to a successful digital business. The DPM framework combines Design Thinking, Lean Start-up and Agile methodology. It can be used to develop digital products and solutions in the private and public sectors. There are four distinct stages that correspond to cases A, B, C and D respectively. And there are supporting videos for this case. Case A: How Abhilash created the Bus Uncle chatbot and then rapidly re-architected it to scale after the chatbot went viral. Case B: How Abhilash started monetising the Bus Uncle chatbot through conversational advertising. Case C: How Abhilash built a chatbot agency to develop and implement chatbots for other organisations. Case D: How Abhilash created a chatbots-as-a-service platform called BotDistrikt to scale the chatbot business further.