El Celler de Can Roca (CCR), a small family business, is one of the best restaurants in the world. Its evolution can be characterized by its bet on innovation, respect for tradition and family culture. The case commences before the third BBVA tour and after the restaurant was voted, for the second time in June 2015, the world's best restaurant by "The World's 50 Best Restaurants". The case analyses the importance of the three Roca brother's leadership as well as the loyalty and commitment of everyone who plays a role in the organization. When the Roca brothers planned the BBVA Tours, one of their terms was that they would do them with the El Celler team. The case's main dilemma is whether the restaurant should continue with the BBVA world tours in 2017, which require a large amount of time to be invested in them, or whether the brothers should focus on developing the Roca brothers' foundation as well as projects that are entered on improving the restaurant.
Growing was critical to ensure the survival of PRAMER, a cable TV producer and distributor of regional content in Latin America (except Brazil). Growth paths were numerous, and so were restrictions on resources. Thus, deciding where and how to grow was essential for the future of the company. A possible alternative was to continue expanding in Latin America, focusing the marketing team on its development. Another option was to venture into the Hispanic market in the United States, a community with a rapid high growth rate that was beginning to gain influence in the American market. Both options would involve leveraging its flagship channel Elgourmet.com (EG.C), not only because it was the company's most successful channel, but also to profit from the current global gastronomic boom.
The case opens in November 2019 as Ozgur Tort and Mustafa Bartin, CEO and chief large-format and online retail officer of Migros Ticaret A.S. (Migros), Turkey's oldest and one of its largest supermarket chains, are contemplating what the best fulfillment format and delivery model for the company's growing online arm, Sanal Market, and its under-30-minutes gorcery service arm, Hemen, are. Migros's online operations had grown over 50% year-on-year in the previous three years, and the target for 2020 was to grow 100%. With all of these considerations in mind, Bartin and Tort needed to decide which levers to pull for the last mile and fulfillment to best serve the future of Migros. The case chronicles the founding and growth of Migros as well as Sanal Market and lays the ground for food and grocery retail in Turkey complete with the competitive outlook. The case then provides a detailed overview of how Migros built online channels, Sanal Market and its recently introduced Hemen, and how Tort and Bartin have thought about fulfillment and delivery as well as omnichannel mentality. The case goes into detail about the three different fulfillment models, store pick micro-fulfillment center, and dark store, that Migros is piloting in 2019 as well as providing an understanding of what the company is thinking about logistics and last mile delivery as its online sales grow. While globally, online shopping and consumer preferences were changing fast, particularly in terms of how and with what frequency customers shopped online and how fast they wanted their groceries delivered, Migros was trying to find the optimum model for fulfillment and last mile delivery.
The case opens in February 2020 as Ozgur Tort and Mustafa Bartin, CEO and chief large-format and online retail officer of Migros Ticaret A.S. (Migros), Turkey's oldest and one of its largest supermarket chains, are looking over the results of the fulfillment pilot the company had been running since June 2019. Comparing the data from dark store, micro fulfillment center, and store pick models, the duo see that contrary to the expectations outlined in their business plan in May 2019, the mini dark-store performance metrics were superior to those of the dark store format. As the online grocery market is evolving, the duo decide to refrain from going forward with one fulfillment model only and decide to mix and match the fulfillment models as needed and buttress the efforts with automation for picking to increase efficiency. On the last mile, the teams decide to focus on pooling and developing an algorithm to automate deployment while trying to combine delivery efforts for both Sanal Market and Hemen. Decisions with regards to Hemen's offering are yet to be made as its competitors manage to raise money from Silicon Valley.
This supplement to Facelift at Olay (A) explains the major steps Procter & Gamble's skincare brand Olay took to reverse several years of declining sales.
Just Arrived is an online platform that matches newly-arrived immigrants in Sweden with employment opportunities. As one of several for-profit and non-profit start-ups in Europe that is looking to address the refugee crisis, the case enables a comparative analysis of a few of the core choices that a social enterprise has to make when developing a solution to a problem of this scale and scope. Used as an introductory case for a course on social enterprise and systems change, it touches on the background and experience of the founders, and their product development process. It shifts to explore which business model (for-profit or non-profit) and organizational structure might be most effective in addressing the problem, and how to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts. And finally, it looks at how these organizations are working to change the system in the long-term, with a combination of direct service to refugees and employers, as well as the indirect influence of the media and through national or European policy changes.
This case describes the career of Eiichi Shibusawa (1840-1931), a serial entrepreneur who is widely known as the "father of Japanese capitalism" and as a pioneer of socially responsible investment. Born in feudal Edo Japan, following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 Shibusawa transitioned to working for the government in the new Ministry of Finance. He played a central role in the creation of Dai'Ichi Bank, a national bank and Japan's first joint stock company, in 1873. He subsequently became a prolific venture capitalist, being involved in founding nearly 500 companies and 600 public organizations over the course of his lifetime. The companies he founded, such as Oji Paper, Tokio Marine Insurance Company, and the Osaka Spinning Company were central to the modernization of the Japanese economy. He was also active in forming business associations, including the Tokyo Bankers Association, and supported many social enterprises in education. In 1901 he was associated with the founding of the Japanese Women's University, the first private university for women. Shibusawa was a student of Confucianism and developed the concept of gappon shugi, which has been variously translated as ethical or stakeholder capitalism. While traditional Confucianism in Japan had regarded commerce as lacking virtue, Shibusawa argued that creating wealth was a virtuous activity. He believed that ethical principles had to be central to the pursuit of wealth, and that business must serve all stakeholders, so that the country as a whole could flourish.
The Klockner case follows CEO Gisbert Ruhl and his team as they prepare for the operational consequences of digital transformation at the century-old German steel distributor. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the Klockner team must rethink their sales, operations, people practices, and organizational structure to prepare for a future of increased automation and online platform sales for steel and other metals.
Shivam Finance is a private lending firm operating in the Bhilwara district in Rajasthan. It offers loans for buying two-wheelers to customers of nearby districts. The firm applied for a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence in 2019 as the lending regulations changed, and it became difficult for the firm to operate in the two-wheeler financing space as a private lending firm. With this licence, it plans to scale up its operations two times and adopt a fintech-based model for making its processes more efficient. The case revolves around the future strategy that Shivam Finance would adopt to expand its business and transition into a fintech-based model, given the regulatory and customer adoption challenges. Key questions addressed include the following: What will be the risks and challenges in implementing a fintech-based model? How will it help in onboarding more dealers and customers? What aspects of fintech would be required for creditworthiness appraisal, disbursement and collection processes? Given the current customer behaviour, how could Alok Bhandari, co-founder of Shivam Finance, ensure that the transition into fintech enhances customer acquisition outcomes amongst present and new customers? How will the firm resolve the potential skill gaps related to changes in the business model? What would be the impact of COVID-19 on the transition? How much would fintech benefit a small NBFC like Shivam Finance? The crux is how a private lending firm transitions into a fintech-based NBFC, given the challenges within the firm and changing legalities in the auto financing space in India.
In early 2019, Alan Jay, an executive in the Quality, Safety and Risk Management (QSRM) department of Gloria Hospital, a full-service hospital that specialised in children and women healthcare, had been requested to gather insights and seek improvements to the pre-consultation waits at the hospital's Children's Emergency (CE) department. After an initial study, minor schedule adjustments were put into place, with many shifts starting one hour in advance to reduce snowballing of patients awaiting consultation. However, post-implementation data suggested that the patient load to capacity ratios remained uneven across each day of the week. Subsequently, a team of operations professors and students were assembled to join Jay in a second phase of the Children's Emergency Consultation Queue (CECQ) project, started April 2019, to better understand the actual waiting time of patients at the CE.
An effective and highly motivated executive at 3DP Incorporated, a company that specialized in manufacturing objects with three-dimensional printing, often told his friends that he thought he could be the next Steve Jobs. He wanted to take advantage of the “next great opportunity” to change the world by producing and marketing his own creations. However, his inability to deal effectively with his subordinates, peers, and superiors, as shown by instances of abrasive behaviour throughout the cases, contributed to his eventual downfall.
By the end of 2019, Trōv, Inc. (Trōv) had ceased to sell its flagship direct-to-consumer single-item coverage insurance product. Going forward, Trōv would no longer compete as an insurance company, but would instead focus on expanding its technology in order to equip established insurance companies, financial institutions, and technology companies with the modern, all-digital insurance apps required to remain competitive and/or gain market share. In doing so, Trōv offloaded the enormous financial burden associated with customer acquisition. Heading into 2020, Trōv’s business was divided into two main units—Trōv Enterprise and Trōv Mobility. As a result of this strategic shift from a business-to-consumer (B2C) strategy to a business-to-business (B2B) strategy, Trōv’s leaders were faced with a new set of questions. Should they implement a fee structure that would allow Trōv to achieve profitability as a B2B technology provider? Were Trōv’s new products designed to respond to its clients’ desired customer segmentation? How should Trōv allocate resources between its Enterprise and Mobility businesses?
On June 11, 2018, Jake Veluz, portfolio manager at BDO Asset Management had to decide whether or not to invest in the initial public offering (IPO) of D.M. Wenceslao and Associates (DMW), a Philippine-based integrated property developer. The IPO price of DMW was reduced from ₱22.90 to ₱12 because of deteriorating stock market conditions. There is substantial concentration risk because most of the company’s land is in a single location and it is subject to long-term competitive pressures. However, DMW also has good prospects for future growth and capital appreciation in real estate rentals and development. Veluz had to prepare an internal memo to explain the merits, risks, and fair valuation of a possible investment in the DMW IPO in the context of weak stock market conditions.
On June 11, 2018, Jake Veluz, portfolio manager at BDO Asset Management had to decide whether or not to invest in the initial public offering (IPO) of D.M. Wenceslao and Associates (DMW), a Philippine-based integrated property developer. The IPO price of DMW was reduced from ₱22.90 to ₱12 because of deteriorating stock market conditions. There is substantial concentration risk because most of the company's land is in a single location and it is subject to long-term competitive pressures. However, DMW also has good prospects for future growth and capital appreciation in real estate rentals and development. Veluz had to prepare an internal memo to explain the merits, risks, and fair valuation of a possible investment in the DMW IPO in the context of weak stock market conditions.