In May 2020, Benjamin Chua, the founder of Spic & Span, a cleaning company with a stated social mission to employ marginalized Singaporeans, was reviewing the company’s strategic goals. Since its founding in 2017, the start-up had become an award-winning company, and with the introduction of its new cleaning technology, Speco, in September 2019, new job opportunities had been brought to the table for cleaners and management staff alike. The company’s workforce had effectively doubled in size in less than a year. Spic & Span was expanding its services from condominiums and offices to schools, restaurants, hotels, transportations, hospitals, and homes. While the new technology had opened up new job opportunities for marginalized Singaporeans, it had also increased the level of job complexity. As a consequence, the turnover rate of newly employed staff had increased. Why were the cleaners not motivated by the new job opportunities? How could Chua motivate cleaners to stay with the company?
In December 2018, Dilip Shanghvi, the CEO and majority shareholder of Sun Pharma, scheduled an urgent investor call to address the questions raised about the level of corporate governance at Sun Pharma. A whistleblower complaint and an analyst report was being circulated in the market that highlighted concerns about the undisclosed related party transactions with promoter owned companies, unexplained loans with third parties, and subsidiaries being audited by firms related to a promoter, among other similar concerns. The stock markets responded negatively to the clarifications provided by Dilip Shanghvi, forcing Sun Pharma to reverse some of the transactions undertaken and constitute a corporate governance and ethics committee to restore investor confidence. The case provides extensive detail about the two primary governance issues raised viz., an insufficiently disclosed loan transaction with an unnamed third party and a related party transaction with a promoter owned entity, and tracks a few interesting reactions from market participants about the expectations of good governance from an industry leader. To provide a background to this discussion, the case also tracks the development of Sun Pharma from its inception in the 1980s to becoming the fifth largest generic pharmaceutical company in the world.
This case brings to life how an organization, Art of Living, developed around one man's lofty aspiration and then multiplied into a movement across geographies. It provides a tangible appreciation of an otherwise amorphous notion of "Purpose", by demonstrating how Art of Living moved beyond conventional levers of growth to creating offerings and galvanizing its members around its evolving purpose (that too in a context of limited resources, since it is predominantly volunteer-run). It further delves into the organizational culture Art of Living created that supported its continued growth. Set in 2020, during the global Coronavirus pandemic, it also invites the students to engage in a provocative discussion about Art of Living's future as it embraces social media and other online channels to help people deal with the crisis through its various on-line initiatives. The case opens with a glimpse of how the founder reaches out to the world in a new way, during the Coronavirus crisis of 2020. It rewinds to its origins in 1981, with the founder's aspiration of 'Bringing a Smile on Every Face', and traces the first phase of growth of Art of Living, as it built a second line that replicated the success of the founder's offering and grew the organization's reach over the 1980s and 90s, so much so that its 25th anniversary celebration demonstrably displayed its "global" reach. The next section (over 2006-2016), illustrates how Art of Living grew in scale and scope, by broadening its purview to include a series of programs and social projects that addressed different sections of society and their various needs. As it grew, it put in place an organization that 'enabled' rather than 'restricted' its entrepreneurial culture. The subsequent section (2017 to 2019), presents an interesting evolution of its core-from meditation to mediation-that the founder adopted to further widen Art of Living's purview to include a world without violence; while the last section (2020), presents
With frequent water main breaks, leaking pipes, and lead contamination, the water infrastructure of many countries is in bad shape, and improvements are urgent in light of climate change and increasing water stress. Discussion in recent years has focused on the role of private companies in a sector that has traditionally been in public hands. Since the privatization of the United Kingdom's water infrastructure in the late 1980s, a whole range of novel modes of cooperation have been identified, from 100% private to 100% public ownership. This note focuses on the economics of public-private partnerships (PPPs). PPPs offer a contractual approach to the delivery of infrastructure goods and services that are typically provided by the public sector or by heavily regulated private operators such as public utilities. They tend to involve relatively long-term contracts, in which the public sector shares some decision-making authority and property rights with private companies. This overlap of ownership and decision-making powers between the public authorities and private operators is both the appeal and the challenge of water PPPs.
In the fall of 1956, under the shadow of the Soviet Union, Hungarian students revolted against the Communist Party in Budapest. But their calls for reform and a moderate government were silenced by Soviet troops. America's broadcaster to Hungary, Radio Free Europe (RFE), was wrapped up in the Hungarian Revolution due to its role as one key voice of the American government. Some blamed the radio station for an overly assertive tone, encouraging protesters, and even incitement. Others argued that the station was a mild factor, in addition to many others, and that revolution had been brewing for years. Looking back, a debate emerges: What was the role of American broadcasting in fueling public optimism for change, and even revolution, in 1956 Budapest?
An examination of the strategic marketing challenges facing Thinx as it tries to grow in the face of menstruation taboos and competition from large incumbents.
Komatsu, Japan's leading construction equipment manufacturer, is considering investing in a digital platform "Smart Construction" that will digitise the entire work process on a construction site, allowing for substantial reductions in cost and time while improving safety. The platform will combine data from drones, automated construction equipment, subcontractors, etc., on a single integrated online website. However, there are many impediments, both internal and external, to the adoption of "Smart Construction" and takeup of the initiative has been slower than hoped even in Japan. The case describes the origins and development of "Smart Construction" within Komatsu as well as the advantages to its usage, and a description of the construction industry in Japan and the possible causes of its slow adoption.
In 2011, Michael Ku became Pfizer's Vice President of Global Clinical Supply (GCS) after the company had undergone three large-scale mergers and acquisitions. As Ku and his new leadership team set out to build a proactive, end-to-end, digital and physical clinical supply chain, they put in place a "Patients First" culture, developed their digital capabilities, and built out their global footprint. By 2019, GCS had made significant progress toward becoming the agile, innovative organization necessary to support Pfizer's new ambition to focus exclusively on developing innovative medicines and vaccines. Ku and his leadership team felt the time had come to implement a new cross-functional decision-making hub. They also decided to pilot a 24-hour, 5 day a week workforce model with a team of clinical pharmacists in Manila. Just as they were beginning to onboard their first hires, COVID-19 struck. GCS found itself on the front lines, having to supply Pfizer's vaccine candidate and investigational antiviral studies, while also ensuring continuity of clinical supply to hundreds of other trials across the globe. By July 2020, the five-person Manila team-all of which had been on-boarded virtually-had come to play a critical role in GCS's productivity. With Phase 3 of the vaccine candidate trial looming, Ku and his leadership team had decided to double the size of the Manila team by the end of 2020. The question was, who would lead the team?
XCMG was a leading construction machinery manufacturer in China, competing in a highly competitive international market. This case describes XCMG's chairperson Wang Min's role in the company over several stages of development. In the late 1990's, he eliminated corruption among XCMG's management personnel, pushed for the consolidation of dozens of unprofitable affiliates, and led the group through a period of turmoil into high growth. In the early 2000's, he actively sought a capital injection to power XCMG's next stage of growth. In a period of market downturn after 2011, his determination to stay in the construction machinery business reassured employees at XCMG and boosted their morale. In the following years, he steered the company towards two new strategic goals-internationalization and digitalization. This case provides students with an example of a long-serving leader who has exerted significant personal influence over his organization, and has played different roles in the highs and lows of the company. It is suitable for a discussion of how a leader's vision and values can impact the strategic goals of the company and its corporate values. The open-ended topic of this case is-What should a company do to pass on its corporate culture and spirit to the next generation of leaders, especially when the company is developing rapidly or experiencing dramatic changes in its business environment?
Located in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, RLS Logistics offered temperature-controlled logistics solutions. On a Tuesday morning in October 2019, RLS Logistics' business development manager learned that a large baked goods manufacturer was seeking a logistics provider who could lower the bakery's transport costs and alleviate problems with delivery delays. The delays, in particular, were blocking the bakery's attempts to improve its relationship and scale up operations with big-box retailers such as Walmart Inc.. RLS Logistics' business manager secured a meeting with the bakery for the following Monday. In the meantime, he and his team needed to analyze delivery data from the bakery and prepare a delivery model that would showcase RLS Logistics' value and appeal to the bakery.
This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. In this case, Timothy Brennan is the founder and CEO of technology company Northpointe, Inc. (Northpointe), and the creator of its flagship software program, COMPAS, an artificially intelligent software tool for US court systems that predicts a defendant's likelihood to reoffend and informs bail, parole, and probation sentencing decisions. Brennan originally created COMPAS in order to standardize decision-making within the criminal justice system and to reduce the likelihood of human error or bias impacting court rulings. However, years after COMPAS's public release and widespread adoption within the US court systems, an investigative journalism report claims that COMPAS is more likely to mislabel Black defendants as higher risk and White defendants as lower risk of recidivism. To complicate the matter, any coding adjustments that Northpointe would make to uncover or address the bias-causing programming might reduce the software's performance or reveal sensitive operational information to competitors. In this A case, Brennan's challenge is to organize a response to investigate bias within the COMPAS software, while still protecting the complexity and intellectual property of the product. In the B case, students read a synopsis of Brennan's actual response and review its implications for Northpointe and the US criminal justice system. They are encouraged to consider how Brennan could have responded more creatively and constructively.
This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. In this case, Timothy Brennan is the founder and CEO of technology company Northpointe, Inc. (Northpointe), and the creator of its flagship software program, COMPAS, an artificially intelligent software tool for US court systems that predicts a defendant's likelihood to reoffend and informs bail, parole, and probation sentencing decisions. Brennan originally created COMPAS in order to standardize decision-making within the criminal justice system and to reduce the likelihood of human error or bias impacting court rulings. However, years after COMPAS's public release and widespread adoption within the US court systems, an investigative journalism report claims that COMPAS is more likely to mislabel Black defendants as higher risk and White defendants as lower risk of recidivism. To complicate the matter, any coding adjustments that Northpointe would make to uncover or address the bias-causing programming might reduce the software's performance or reveal sensitive operational information to competitors. In the A case, Brennan's challenge is to organize a response to investigate bias within the COMPAS software, while still protecting the complexity and intellectual property of the product. In this B case, students read a synopsis of Brennan's actual response and review its implications for Northpointe and the US criminal justice system. They are encouraged to consider how Brennan could have responded more creatively and constructively.
The Irish company Kerry Group, one of the leading global players in the taste and nutrition industry, wants to ensure its future growth in developing and developed markets. Founded in 1972 as a dairy cooperative, it had grown into a provider of taste and nutrition solutions through many acquisitions, but also through organic growth. In 2020, Kerry rolled out its new sustainability strategy, "Beyond the Horizon", with the goal of reaching 2 billion people a day with sustainable nutrition solutions by 2030. In order to reach that goal, Kerry had identified channels where it could grow and that were compatible with environmental sustainability, namely food waste reduction, plant-based protein, and proactive health products. Kerry's customer base was changing as well, with many FMCG companies losing market share to new, innovative market entrants in the food and nutrition space. Kerry was looking for ways to attract those new customers, while helping its existing customers shift to more sustainable solutions as well. Kerry had already adapted its recruitment strategy to meet its changing needs, but it still had to simplify its organization to better integrate new acquisitions and talent. Would this be enough to reach the 2030 goal of 2 billion people reached daily?
After having proven its base technology (3D printing) through NASA solicitations and contracts, Made In Space was searching for a viable commercial application. But the business case for the leading candidate, high-quality fiber optic cable for use on Earth, remained uncertain. In 2019, Made In Space secured a major contract from NASA for early work on a much grander project, called Archinaut, to build architectures in space that would enable off-Earth habitation. Was that opportunity a more promising path for Made In Space, or did its ambition risk distracting Made In Space from its more managed, incremental strategy? Which strategy would enable MIS to retain its central place in facilitating the development of the space economy?
This case explores the use of advanced out-of-court restructuring techniques from the perspective of a company facing looming debt maturities and an overleveraged capital structure. The decade that followed the global financial crisis was characterized by rising corporate leverage with increasingly forgiving debt covenant packages. These looser covenants enabled borrowers to pursue a range of novel transactions to avoid bankruptcy. The 2016 exchange offer conducted by J.Crew paved the way for the use of a particularly aggressive form of restructuring, where valuable assets that had provided collateral and/or value support for loans and bonds are separated from the company and used as a bargaining chip to obtain more favorable terms in a restructuring negotiation. The protagonist in the case is a restructuring advisor, contemplating the proposal of a similar type of transaction for Neiman Marcus Group. These transactions have significant financial, strategic, commercial, legal and ethical implications, which the case explores in depth.
When deciding how to be good and act well, we often seek outside help. Many of our oldest and most frequently consulted sources of ethical guidance are our religious traditions. Just as one might consult a thoughtful friend, countless people seek direction from their own religious leaders, texts, and customs on all sorts of matters, including those related to business. To help shed light on what might constitute a "Hindu approach," this case presents three dilemmas encountered by Gurcharan Das (former CEO of Procter & Gamble India) and pairs them with stories and teachings drawn from Hinduism. How does one manage an incompetent boss? What can an individual do to combat social inequity? Should the Ganges and Yamuna rivers be granted legal personhood? In the epic Mahabharata, questions of duty and decision-making are articulated through the Hindu concept of dharma, or the principle of pursuing righteous action while discharging one's worldly duties. This case asks: Is dharma too subtle to be of any use? Or can it point us toward a theory of ethical action for a complex world?