By May 2020, Rivian Automotive (Rivian), a new electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturer in the United States, had become a darling of the new battery electric vehicle (EV) market in North America. Rivian had not yet released any products, yet it had customers signed up and waiting in three distinctly different market segments. First 10,000 customers had deposited US$1,000 each for one of Rivian’s two electric adventure vehicles. Second, the Ford Motor Company, a Rivian shareholder, had made a commitment to purchase Rivian’s advanced electric skateboard powertrain, positioning Rivian as an EV component wholesaler. Finally Amazon.com Inc., also a Rivian shareholder, had pre-ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans. With three different markets, three different sets of customers, and three different commercialization challenges, had Rivian bitten off more than it could chew?
Eco Femme (EF) was a social enterprise founded in 2010. It developed re-usable cloth sanitary napkins and marketed towards those looking for sustainable products to manage their menstrual hygiene. The enterprise faced several challenges in reaching their target market of poor women in rural India. There was a taboo attached to menstruation and it was thus a difficult topic to discuss. Also, there were popular, commonly used, and easily available substitutes in the market, which were heavily marketed and distributed. EF had narrowed its options down to three broad distribution options—community groups, small convenience stores, and apparel retailers; the team needed to choose and develop a plan.
Schiit Audio was a manufacturer of audio equipment in the Los Angeles, California area. The company, which mainly sold its products directly to consumers, experienced consistent growth in the years leading up to 2015. However, in the summer of 2015, the company’s founder had three major issues to resolve. First, he was devoting half of his time to a marketing agency he had founded earlier and was increasingly feeling that the arrangement was inadequate to provide the leadership his audio company needed. Second, some suppliers were causing inventory and out-of-stock issues that made it difficult to deliver products to customers on time. Finally, selling products on Amazon Marketplace expanded the company’s reach to new customers, but came with drawbacks, including lower margins, high fees, and inventory management difficulties. The founder had to make some decisions for the business venture’s path forward.
The OCP Africa illustrates the challenges of entering a market challenged by unfavorable conditions for the target customer - be it infrastructure, access to market, access to finance, education, etc. while at the same time acknowledging the need to respect the environmental mistakes made in other parts of the world - namely unsustainable farming. This forces OCP Africa to pursue a non-traditional, innovative approach to entering the African continent with a partnership-based strategy. The case starts by showing the challenges of the fertilizer market within Africa and the challenges for the farmers to farm in a sustainable manner. It then illustrates how OCP Africa learned from its first experiences in piloting an ecosystem approach in order to align the interests of aggregators, off-takers, input providers, financial institutions and government agencies to allow farmers to learn about sustainable farming and at the same time achieve a higher level of welfare. Business models that leverage public-private and private-private partnerships for social and economic benefits are often discussed theoretically with limited examples of use cases. This case aims to demonstrate through the OCP Africa example, the challenges of establishing and sustaining such partnerships, while taking a stakeholder-centric approach to doing business.
Constrained by both the complexities inherent in the sport and league regulations, the National Football League (NFL) in America has been slow to use analytics capabilities to enhance team performance. This case provides students with a brief introduction to the rules and regulations of American football as well as a history of analytics at the NFL. The case further explores what opportunities exist to derive real value using analytics to create a decision support system for NFL coaches.
Schiit Audio was a manufacturer of audio equipment in the Los Angeles, California area. The company, which mainly sold its products directly to consumers, experienced consistent growth in the years leading up to 2015. However, in the summer of 2015, the company's founder had three major issues to resolve. First, he was devoting half of his time to a marketing agency he had founded earlier and was increasingly feeling that the arrangement was inadequate to provide the leadership his audio company needed. Second, some suppliers were causing inventory and out-of-stock issues that made it difficult to deliver products to customers on time. Finally, selling products on Amazon Marketplace expanded the company's reach to new customers, but came with drawbacks, including lower margins, high fees, and inventory management difficulties. The founder had to make some decisions for the business venture's path forward.
Eco Femme (EF) was a social enterprise founded in 2010. It developed re-usable cloth sanitary napkins and marketed towards those looking for sustainable products to manage their menstrual hygiene. The enterprise faced several challenges in reaching their target market of poor women in rural India. There was a taboo attached to menstruation and it was thus a difficult topic to discuss. Also, there were popular, commonly used, and easily available substitutes in the market, which were heavily marketed and distributed. EF had narrowed its options down to three broad distribution options-community groups, small convenience stores, and apparel retailers; the team needed to choose and develop a plan.
As the technologies behind recommendation engines become more powerful, the advice and choices they produce could transform the customer and employee experience. Companies are already using recommenders to drive revenue, augment work, and develop human capital. But if the technology is to reach its full potential, companies will need to address sensitive issues around trust and privacy.
In 2020, the largest non-governmental organization in the world, BRAC, headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has some big problems to tackle. Its founder, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, has left behind a challenge: take the 1981-founded organization from Bangladesh to every single part of the world and create a global set of programs and program heads. Active in education, health, microfinance and poverty alleviation, BRAC is also entering the humanitarian and relief world through its work with Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. What will be the way forward for this global NGO based in the South?
Neat, a fintech company based in Hong Kong, launched its first account in 2016 and has grown up over the years. The company now mainly serves startups and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) by offering credit cards, payment collection, remittance services and startup-tailored solutions. After the outbreak of COVID-19, many countries introduced travel restrictions, lock-down and social distancing measures which gave online businesses including Neat significant growth opportunities. Having successfully secured a US$11 million Series A funding in April and a further US$4 million in August 2020, David Rosa, CEO and co-founder of Neat, is contemplating the next stage of expansion. Should Neat focus on developing new products and services or on expanding the market reach and target developing countries or developed countries? The case describes the business details of Neat, including company background, its products and services on offer and the different options available for its future development. The case helps students understand the different stages of corporate growth and the status quo of fintech companies in Asia. It provides a learning opportunity for students to analyze and discuss different growth strategies, and they will learn the different business environments fintech companies are facing in developing countries and developed countries.
Case A is set in 2010. Shinji Tanaka is a senior economist at Kyoto Heritage Foundation, a Japanese think tank, and he wondered if Sharp's new manufacturing plant in Sakai could turn the company around. Sharp's vision and innovative culture led it to invest in LCD technology. It played an important role in consigning cathode ray tube technology to the past and eventually outlasted plasma as well. However, Sharp's fortunes started to take a hit as plant construction racked up large debts and profitability declined as the global economy shrank and LCD prices fell due to increased competition. The company responded by doubling down on LCD technology and built a larger and more expensive plant to build more technologically advanced LCD panels. Case B continues in 2016. Technological improvements continued to bring down the prices of LCD panels. Sharp had to be bailed out from its losses twice and was facing bankruptcy again. The company had to decide between two choices. One option was to merge with the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), a government-owned investment fund, to create a national champion. The second one involved doing a deal with Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics giant that could realise synergies. Which option should Tanaka suggest Sharp to take?
Case A is set in 2010. Shinji Tanaka is a senior economist at Kyoto Heritage Foundation, a Japanese think tank, and he wondered if Sharp's new manufacturing plant in Sakai could turn the company around. Sharp's vision and innovative culture led it to invest in LCD technology. It played an important role in consigning cathode ray tube technology to the past and eventually outlasted plasma as well. However, Sharp's fortunes started to take a hit as plant construction racked up large debts and profitability declined as the global economy shrank and LCD prices fell due to increased competition. The company responded by doubling down on LCD technology and built a larger and more expensive plant to build more technologically advanced LCD panels. Case B continues in 2016. Technological improvements continued to bring down the prices of LCD panels. Sharp had to be bailed out from its losses twice and was facing bankruptcy again. The company had to decide between two choices. One option was to merge with the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), a government-owned investment fund, to create a national champion. The second one involved doing a deal with Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics giant that could realise synergies. Which option should Tanaka suggest Sharp to take?
Mr. Manuel Aristizábal was the founder of San Basilio, a restaurant that began operations in 2001. Angelina, Manuel's wife, started to work at the family firm on trial. Very soon, however, her organisational and managerial capacities meant that she became completely involved in the business. The business' growth was very conservative when Manuel and his wife were in charge. When MartÃn (their son) returned from studying abroad, he proposed new challenges for the family firm. MartÃn set up a catering service for San Basilio, led the opening of an additional branch, and began a successful ice cream business. The first two opportunities were leveraged in San Basilio, his parents' business; the new branch and the earnings from the catering service were important economic benefits just for him. MartÃn is the sole owner of the ice cream business. However, San Basilio's growth started to exceed its operational capacity, and, according to Angelina and Anette (their daughter), its financial performance was at risk. Angelina and Anette were interested in slow growth for the business and in maintaining the family ties, which had weakened due to the MartÃn's entrepreneurial activities. MartÃn's proposal to pass the catering service to San Basilio was the straw that broke the camel's back. He had been running it on his own and now wanted his parents to assume control of the whole operation and to give him a commission for the business whose original idea and current performance were the result of Martin's management.
In 2013, Juan Moreno, CEO of Kepler Ltda. (commercial name INTEGRADOC), a Uruguayan company specializing in the provision of software for business process management (BPM) and electronic documents, had to make a set of decisions to achieve the goals agreed under the project of Notifications and Electronic Communications signed with the government of Uruguay. These decisions would have consequences at several levels: particularly, the technical quality of the solution delivered and future scalability, the motivation of its technical team, the satisfaction of the state client, the acceptance by users of the platform, and the likelihood of not achieving the agreed goals for the project (5 installations in operation by 2013). These potential issues would put in jeopardy the continuity of the support provided by the international development entity that was financing this project, which was expected to continue in subsequent years. Moreover, the results of this particular project would set a precedent that would have a great deal of influence on similar larger businesses in the country and the region in the future.
The case proposes to evaluate an investment project in the private sphere of a Peruvian company called INVERSTATE. For this, the requirement is to make a series of decisions related to the best way to carry it out, in order to maximize profitability, specifically regarding three aspects: the location, the investment scale and the alternatives of asset replacement.
Welspun India Limited (Welspun) was a global leader in home textiles, supplying to top global retailers like Costco Wholesale Corporation, IKEA, Tesco plc, and Bed, Bath and Beyond, Inc. Welspun undertook many sustainability actions like eliminating freshwater usage through a sewage treatment plant in Anjar, improving energy efficiency in manufacturing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, using transportation modes to leave a smaller carbon footprint, and creating products out of waste material. In order to move forward, the chief executive officer needed to decide how to use sustainable fashion to gain a competitive advantage. Was becoming a circular company the answer? If so, what steps needed to be taken for Welspun to become circular?