We are moving toward a new work operating system that will deconstruct work into tasks/projects that may be assigned not only to employees but also to machines and contingent workers in talent marketplaces. This shift has profound implications for leaders. Some will increasingly act as project managers, while top-level leaders will gain new challenges in orchestrating an increasingly fast-moving style of working characterized by continual change and a lack of hierarchy.
In March 2020, Zach Sims, co-founder and CEO of online education platform Codecademy, prepared for a meeting with his Chief of Staff Kunal Ahuja to discuss the company's goals. Codecademy billed itself as the largest online resource for computer science literacy and programming skills in the world. It had 45 million active users in 190 countries learning to code by taking its online courses. Ahuja had engaged the leadership team, product managers, and others to outline strategy, with an eye to assessing the venture's longer-term growth prospects and financing needs. The business had only recently started to focus on monetization. It was early innings, but the company had doubled revenues year on year, it was cashflow positive, and the team was hitting its targets. However, 2019 had been a challenging year, including departures of several key members of its leadership team. Much of Sims' time late in the year was spent on recruiting to fill open roles, and dealing with inbound interest from investors. From Ahuja's perspective, the company was "growing up" after the success of its first paid product, Codecademy Pro. But many managers were experiencing burnout given the numerous organizational changes, the grueling work to meet aggressive growth targets, and a host of new processes. How should Codecademy pursue monetization, and how would this decision determine the timing and outcome of its next financing round?
In May 2020, Scenic Floral Inc. (Scenic), a Beamsville, Ontario start-up that sourced fresh cut flowers from Colombian farms and the Niagara Peninsula, was aggressively looking to expand the business. The company's Mother's Day sales had started out very slowly in 2020 as the floral industry in Canada and worldwide began to recover from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While a flurry of last-minute orders from Scenic's two largest customers meant sales for the holiday had been strong overall, the company's manager and partners knew they would have to strike a careful balance in growing their business-continuing to focus on their main customers while considering whether to expand the current product line, add retail customers, perform processing services, serve as a sub-supplier, export to the United States, or launch into e-commerce. Capacity constraints meant they might need to make trade-offs between growing the core business and appropriately timing new opportunities. With so many opportunities available, how could they maintain their existing customers while planting the seeds for growth when the timing was right?
As 2019 ended, the founder and chief executive officer of Nudestix Inc. (Nudestix) had overseen phenomenal growth during the firm's five years of operation. However, the company was about to encounter a series of issues as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, and closures of non-essential businesses around the world. Nudestix, like many companies, suffered a severe decline in revenue. How could the company respond to this crisis in a way that would minimize its losses?
The case opens in February 2021 as Mohamad Ballout, co-founder and CEO of Kitopi, a Dubai-based managed cloud kitchen platform, is looking over the company's 2020 results. Propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, delivery orders had been on the rise globally and dine-in restaurants were more than ever focused on profitability. Against this backdrop, Kitopi had seen high traction in its business and the management needed to decide on which growth opportunities to focus. The case provides an overview of the pain points of the various players in the on-demand food ecosystem -the aggregators, the restaurants and the customers- and lays the ground for the nascent cloud kitchen business worldwide complete with the competitive outlook. The case also provides a detailed overview of how Kitopi structured its kitchens, how the company developed proprietary software to track space utilization and efficiency across its operations, and how it built it supply chain capabilities. While the B2B positioning of the company enables Kitopi to help restaurants expand much faster and in a less costly way, the company is mainly invisible to customers who don't know that their food order is coming from a central kitchen. Also, the company has been witnessing the consolidation of aggregators across its markets. The case puts the reader in Ballout's shoes, who wondered if the company could feasibly continue to own the supply side of the business and retain its position as a primarily B2B company without risking being squeezed out by the aggregators, who owned the customer relationship and data. Should the company focus on building on its currently small B2C arms, consider licensing it tech stack, or be squarely focused on its core business?
As world-renowned chef Franck Giovannini contemplated his future and the future of The Hôtel de Ville Restaurant, he wondered how would he handle the transition of leadership at the restaurant when it came time for him to step down. The Hôtel de Ville Restaurant was the first restaurant ever to earn three Michelin stars under four consecutive chefs. How did Giovannini and his three predecessors manage to maintain the restaurant's status through these transitions, which were both planned and unplanned? What steps could Giovannini take to give his eventual successor the best chance for continuing the restaurant's legacy of excellence?
Research into companies building workforce skills to compete in a tech-driven future finds that the most committed demonstrate a set of best practices for learning and development. These emphasize alignment with an organization's strategic direction, and flexibility in execution.
Set in July 2020, this case talks about ZENXIN Organic (Zenxin) - an organic farming company of fresh produce in Malaysia, and traces its evolution using the brick and mortar retail supply model in a nascent market where customers liked to "see and feel" fresh produce before purchasing them. Zenxin used a 'Farm to Fork' approach to expand its brick and mortar retail business to become the largest supplier of organic produce in Southeast Asia. The company acquired more farmland to increase supply, widened its produce variety to include a selection of 200 products with affordable price points, established supply partnerships with more than 100 supermarkets, opened 12 brick and mortar retail stores, and an agro-tourism recreation park under its brand name. Zenxin ventured into delivering organic produce online in late 2018, about a year before the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced millions of consumers to switch to online mode of purchase for their daily needs. While Zenxin was presented with the opportunity of tapping on this demand through its recently launched ecommerce platform, its digital marketing strategy to sell its products was still evolving. The company had implemented an improved ecommerce website, an updated Google My Business profile and social media accounts to build brand awareness and drive online sales, and seen some positive results. However, it was still struggling to build a strong, regular, online customer base. The firm's CEO, Sengyee Tai, wondered how he could further improve on Zenxin's digital marketing and e-commerce marketing strategies to attract more customers.
This workshop allows students follow a modified version of Google Venture's Brand Sprint to build a startup brand from scratch. Details on the elements of a brand are discussed, including defining the values and personality of the venture, as well as developing a clear voice and visual representation. The exercise emphasizes the importance of crafting a brand that aligns with the company's purpose, resonates with the target audience, and differentiates the venture from competitors.
In April of 2020, an Ivey Business School HBA graduate, and chief executive officer of automobile parts manufacturer MJD Manufacturing (MJD), recognized the potential opportunity to invest in new machinery and retool some of MJD’s operations to produce COVID-19-related supplies. Specifically, she was considering whether or not MJD should produce personal protective equipment. Aside from analyzing the financial viability of the potential investments, she had to consider three factors: First, how long the COVID-19 pandemic might last, as the timeline of the pandemic underpinned the potential investment decision; second, how an investment would be financed; and third, the qualitative aspect of the decision. Specifically, she had to consider how she could help her community at a time when many businesses were shrinking and furloughing employees.
Founded in 2015 by Dan Gilbert, Josh Luber, and Greg Schwartz, StockX was an online platform where users could buy and sell unworn luxury and limited-edition sneakers. Sneaker resale prices often fluctuated over time based on supply and demand, creating a robust secondary market that bore similarities to the stock market. Inspired by these similarities, StockX's co-founders created a secondary platform that tracked sneaker resale prices over time and that emphasized authenticity, anonymity, and transparency. In 2017, StockX began to experiment with ways to expand from the secondary market into the primary market, using a new type of online auction known as an initial product offering (IPO). Based on the results of its first IPOs, was StockX on the right track with its strategy to expand into the primary market?
In the wake of George Floyd's killing in May 2020, and widespread protests for social justice in the United States, OneTen was formed by a coalition of 40 large companies to provide one million jobs for African-Americans in 10 years. The case describes the background of the labor market in the U.S. and specifically the disparity in opportunities for Black Americans, which was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes the effort by government agencies and particularly a nonprofit-YearUp-to address the labor market gaps. The case asks students to analyse the underlying problems and formulate recommendations. The case allows students to understand and distinguish between a system level problem and one that manifests itself at an organizational level. It calls for action planning at an organizational level but one calling for considerable coordination and collaboration across the entire labor supply eco-system.
The realities of boardroom dynamics can often reveal a different story than how things appear on paper. Boards need the right dynamics and culture to effectively carry out their responsibilities. At their best, boards can catch budding issues before they negatively impact the firm and can partner with management to lead through change, like they did with Indra Nooyi's transformation of PepsiCo. Given the dual mandate of boards to both monitor and advise management, how can boards strike the right balance? This case begins with a brief discussion of director and board performance, along with an analysis of the role of government regulation in promoting healthy board dynamics. Then you are asked to act as a consultant to evaluate the board dynamics and culture of three companies presented below in vignettes: GE, Theranos, and PepsiCo.
The general director of Northern Canada Evangelical Mission (NCEM) wanted to make some changes to the organization’s accounting system to coincide with the calendar year-end. The changes involved consolidating the financial records for 20 separate ministries operating across the country to reduce the number of redundant, time-wasting, manual entries needed and to align the general ledger accounts with the charitable activities report required by the government. As well, the process for tracking and reporting taxes needed to be improved. Finally, NCEM’s board of directors wanted an increased level of professionalism and timeliness in the organization’s financial statements. The chief financial officer and accounting staff would need a carefully planned schedule to carry out the changes, which would involve bookkeepers, ministry leaders, and the executive team, all while minimizing the interruption to NCEM’s operations. How could the general director make the changes without causing additional problems along the way?
Mathilde Johnsen was a highly motivated environmental systems engineer in the real property branch of Public Services and Procurement Canada. Johnsen advanced a job grade about every 18 months, and in 2016, she successfully applied to the management stream. In 2019, after completing an MBA, Johnsen pursued an opportunity in the executive stream of the civil service. Her past behaviour raised concerns for the selection committee, who decided that, rather than promote Johnsen, they would give her a one-year secondment in the executive position so they could assess her growth. Unfortunately, her inability to deal effectively with subordinates, peers, and superiors resulted in Johnsen’s effective demotion and transfer out of the department. Could this unfortunate career derailment have been avoided?
In September 2019, the newly appointed manager of the procurement department at Jiangxi Hengda High-Tech Company Ltd., located in China, was wondering how to make his department more efficient. He took some time to understand the working relationships of his department with other internal departments and with external suppliers. During his research, he uncovered sources of conflict between the procurement department and other functional departments, including the marketing, manufacturing, warehousing, and finance departments, as well as the company’s suppliers. The manager took his findings to the company’s chairman and reported that the low efficiency of the procurement department was caused by the company’s lack of synergy across departments. The chairman acknowledged the issue and agreed that some reform of the company’s departments was necessary. However, he also pointed out that this would be a complex, costly, and difficult task. The manager of the procurement department was adamant that the company would have to resolve this systemic issue at some point and decided to prepare a proposal for his next meeting with the chairman.
In early 2019, just a year after opening a gallery in Sydney, Australia, the elders of the APY Art Centre Collective proposed opening a second gallery in Adelaide, a much smaller city. The first year in Sydney had been profitable, in part due to an aggressive digital presence. The Collective had some seed money, an offer of a small gallery space, and the draw of serving a large number of the APY community who were residents in Adelaide. But the Adelaide art market was tiny compared to Sydney’s, staff was stretched thin, and budgets were tight. The board’s vision was certainly compelling, but was it practical? Could a digital strategy help Adelaide’s success without cannibalizing the Collective’s success in Sydney? What would such a strategy look like?