Pete Carroll, the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, is the American football world's anomaly. His leadership style is the opposite of the traditional one, a more humanistic approach, based on developing and nurturing strong connections with his players on an interpersonal level and on celebrating, and not suppressing, their individuality. It is anchored by psychology and mindfulness, with Grit author Angela Duckworth noting that Carroll is tapping into something universal about human performance and potential. Carroll believes that to elevate your game you need to start with a strong sense of purpose that is anchored in a clear personal philosophy. As a leader he is committed to the idea that caring personally about each player and his unique needs, background and aspirations is fundamental to his success as a coach. His style is seen by some as overly positive, "touchy feely" and lacking the top-down edge expected of successful coaches. But what casual observers miss is the rigor, discipline, intense spirit of competition and a passion for winning that underpin his approach. His leadership has enabled a distinctive culture that has become a magnet for highly talented players, especially those who are known as gifted and value their individualism. His results provide clear evidence that his model works. Carroll is among the most successful football coaches of the last 50 years, achieving a remarkable level of consistently competing at the highest levels, including winning both a Super Bowl and multiple collegiate national titles. Carroll has influenced numerous championship-winning coaches in football and basketball, including the NBA's Golden State Warriors and the NCAA's LSU Tigers. And the increasing embrace of Carroll's leadership practices by CEO's including Microsoft's Satya Nadella demonstrate that his caring and humanistic form of leadership may help deliver exceptional results far beyond the football field.
In 2015, Mauricio Macri became President of Argentina and declared solving the energy crisis one of his top priorities. When Macri attempted to raise utility tariffs, however, he faced loud protests from citizens. In search of solutions to growing shortages, the government seized on Argentina's still largely untapped, but potentially vast renewable energy sector and created an ambitious program called RenovAr (renew in Spanish). By 2016, the country's share of renewable energy stood at less than 2 percent of the power mix. RenovAr's goal was to raise that percentage to 20 percent by 2025. An ambitious plan for an economy still reeling from the 2001 default. This case describes the business friendly Macri administration's strategy to attract private investment in the nascent renewable energy sector, under challenging macroeconomic conditions. The case package includes a sequel that describes the events between 2018 and 2020, when Argentina faced a crippling economic downturn and Macri lost to the Peronist duo, Alberto Fernandez and Vice President Fernandez de Kirchner. The sequel catches the reader up on the state of the RenovAr program during a period of intense economic tumult and political change.
Spencer's Retail, a fast-moving consumer goods retail chain in India, had been perceived as an expensive retailer exclusively for high-end consumers. A new sector head took over in 2013 and shifted the store from a positioning statement of "Taste the World" to "Make Fine Living Affordable." Within five years, Spencer's was making a profit. However, traditional grocery stores continued to dominate the Indian retail scene and were more heavily frequented by Indian shoppers. To maintain a sustainable profit, Spencer's had to expand the business by opening more retail outlets and increasing same-store sales growth by increasing footfalls and basket size. What store format and combination of private label and national label products would help Spencer's reach this goal?
In March 2020, as COVID-19 spreads rapidly across the U.S., Everlywell founder Julia Cheek considers how to respond as a small start-up specializing in at-home lab testing. After making dramatic budget cuts, she decides to pivot the organization to address the country's testing shortage. But after a hectic few weeks building capacity at her partner labs to 30,000 COVID daily tests, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) releases a statement warning the public that it has not granted approval for at-home tests. Cheek must decide whether to return to her core business or persist in focusing her nascent organization on COVID-19 tests, an opportunity whose commercial merit is unclear.
In the midst of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic was unfolding, OpenIDEO - an online open innovation platform focused on design-driven solutions to social issues - rapidly launched a new challenge to improve access to health information, empower communities to stay safe during the COVID-19 crisis, and inspire global leaders to communicate effectively. OpenIDEO was particularly suited to challenges which required cross-system or sector-wide collaboration due to its focus on social impact and ecosystem design, but its leadership pondered how they could continue to improve virtual collaboration and to share their insights from nearly a decade of running online challenges. Conceived as an exercise of disruptive digital innovation, OpenIDEO successfully created a strong open innovation community, but how could they sustain - or even improve - their support to community members and increase the social impact of their online challenges in the coming years?
Jonathan Lachowitz founded a start-up venture in the Financial Planning industry called White Lighthouse Investment Management in 2006. He targeted a niche segment (US citizens living abroad) that had a critical problem that was not addressed by existing companies (e.g. US Tax Reporting). The organization has grown slowly and consistently. In 2015 the current form of organization is stretched to a maximum. There are several decisions Jonathan needs to make, he needs to decide whether or not to hire new employees or partners and he needs to come up with a strategy on what type of clients he should accept.
In 2007, Trek Bicycles (Trek) entered the Indian market. Although Trek’s market share in India was small compared to its global presence, India held an important position in Trek’s global aspirations, and the country’s potential for growth drove Trek to enter that market. The company strongly believed in innovation and in delivering value to customers through a bundle of services and schemes. Trek operated in the country through a partnership with an Indian distributor and in 2017 set up its Indian subsidiary. The company had a first-mover advantage with respect to the sale of super-premium bicycles in India, but in 2019, after more than a decade, how could the company increase its retail network and grow the community that was connected with cycling?
In late 2018, the chief executive officer and founder of Tunaiku, a new digital consumer-lending financial technology (fintech) company in Indonesia, faced a dilemma. Although he had set out in 2014 to revolutionize Indonesia's consumer lending by providing people in the underserved lower segment of society with small unsecured loans, he now faced his most crucial challenge—dealing with Indonesia’s changing regulatory environment. When he had launched the venture in 2014, fintech was unknown, and the founder had eventually decided to offer the product through a bank. But after Indonesia introduced a new fintech regulation, he needed to reconsider his earlier decision. Should Tunaiku move to a fintech licence or remain as a bank?
This case is set in 2018 in China and follows Daimler’s efforts to compete in the Chinese automotive market amidst fast paced changes which are underpinned by state driven efforts at fostering innovation. Testing its leverage as the world’s largest and most profitable auto market, China is aggressively pushing foreign and domestic auto manufacturers towards new and ambitious targets for electrification. At the same time, Daimler has to be responsive to the particular tastes of auto consumers in China, especially their preferences for on-line connectivity which are creating space for players like Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu to become real competition, threatening traditional car companies’ ability to control the car interface.
In October 2018, the president of a business school student (BSS) society must decide on the viability of marketing a line of business school apparel. The school had been selling its brand of products with moderate success and the president had to determine the best option going forward. She faced a number of decisions: How to increase sales? What should be included in the clothing line? Should the product line be branded under the school’s or the student society’s logo? What strategy would be the most successful?
WillowTree began as a small digital products company in 2007. By 2020, it had more than 500 full-time team members operating out of offices in four locations, and it had launched hundreds of digital products, including mobile apps, websites, voice assistants, and TV experiences. But also in 2020, WillowTree was facing the most significant challenge in its 12 years of corporate existence-a global pandemic. By analyzing how WillowTree blends project and product management, students will gain insights into how a digital products services company integrates a product mindset within contract-based projects, and get the opportunity to brainstorm how WillowTree can further adapt to provide a unique value proposition during the pandemic and beyond.
This case describes the experiences of Michael Sanders-the Chief Executive of the What Works Center for Children's Social Care-as he led the design and implementation of a program of research aimed at improving the social care system in the United Kingdom (UK) at the national level. In the course of discussing the case, students are asked to consider the challenges of improving wellbeing for social workers and to debate the merits and challenges associated with the proposed experiments. The solutions and ideas shared by students illustrate various behavioral science techniques aimed at improving employee well-being by leveraging non-cash rewards and recognition, especially within the context of a financially constrained organization.
This case describes the experiences of Michael Sanders-the Chief Executive of the What Works Center for Children's Social Care-as he led the design and implementation of a program of research aimed at improving the social care system in the United Kingdom (UK) at the national level. In the course of discussing the case, students are asked to consider the challenges of improving wellbeing for social workers and to debate the merits and challenges associated with the proposed experiments. The solutions and ideas shared by students illustrate various behavioral science techniques aimed at improving employee well-being by leveraging non-cash rewards and recognition, especially within the context of a financially constrained organization.
The aspiration of addressing maternal deaths in Nigeria, which were mostly caused by blood shortages, led Temie Giwa-Tubosun to found LifeBank in 2015. LifeBank developed an online platform that enabled hospitals to connect and purchase blood from local blood banks and fulfilled those orders through an around the clock team of dispatch riders. Over the years, LifeBank delivered a range of essential medical products including blood, medical oxygen canisters and medicines. However, the company had yet to break even and now needed to raise additional funding. LifeBank aimed to become profitable by 2022 and planned to grow its revenues 24x over three years. To achieve such growth the company needed to raise 10x more than the total amount raised since its inception. Giwa-Tubosun wondered how to achieve such growth and funding targets. What were LifeBank's growth options? More importantly, what kind of funding opportunities were available to the company?