The case is set in mid-2015, as Vodien Internet Solutions' founders Alvin Poh and John Jervis Lee consider their company's journey from a small-business serving web design and development studio to a full-fledged web hosting company, which now aspires to become the dominant player in the Asian market. Vodien began in 2002 as a business dreamed up by two enterprising university students that built its customer base by advertising online. It pivoted in 2006 to phase out time-intensive client design solutions by focusing on web hosting. Six years had passed since Vodien had become a fully realised Asia-based hosting and support company. The future of the company is tied to scaling up its operations and making the hires needed to fuel its growth - a far cry from the bootstrapped, two-man operation that it had started with. But Poh and Lee are wary of bringing more players to the game. Vodien needs the capital to expand, and they have, up to that point, run a lean business, directly re-investing profits into the company (both founders drew low salaries so that the company would have greater financial resources). As they consider their options, whatever they choose, a measurable return on investment is crucial for the good of the company. Expanding into new countries requires aggressive, experimental moves that are capital intensive. The duo could: 1) reinvest their own capital, drawing into their personal funds, 2) take on more debt as a company, 3) sell out to a private equity fund, or 4) merge with an existing web hosting company. What would be the most appropriate choice, and how would they arrive at the right decision?
As an e-commerce logistics manager at the national grocery store chain TrixMag, Jim Vector was continually seeking efficiency improvements in the company's supply chain. Following positive trends in the online grocery segment, Vector was specifically exploring the idea of upgrading parts of TrixMag's intralogistics warehouse system for more efficient throughput. Well versed in the growing world of e-commerce, Vector knew that TrixMag's warehouses would soon be experiencing tremendous consumer pressures. Competition was also mounting: if Vector's segment could not reduce costs, TrixMag would not have the capabilities to maintain the low prices that consumers continually demanded. It had become clear that if Vector did not act soon, TrixMag's market share would begin to deteriorate.
In 2018, the group president of Sapna Book House, operating in two South India states, was determined to take the family business to the next growth level. However, he was concerned about the threats and challenges posed by a rapidly changing competitive environment. As a third generation entrepreneur, he had executed some of the initiatives planned by his father and uncles, and had upgraded the technology to reach existing and new technology-savvy customers. His future plan was to increase the number of stores fivefold by 2020 and make the company a global brand. He believed that adding professional employees, rather than only family members, to the management team of the business was the only way to ensure the massive expansion and growth that would enable the top management family members to focus on strategic decisions and business resources, while allowing professionals to carry out routine tasks. Another issue of concern was how to raise funds from external sources to support his plan for growth, which most family members opposed.
This short case challenges students to review an array of corporate financial metrics and to match them to one of 13 listed industries. As such, students must use their intuition and common sense pertaining to the distinctive characteristics of, and the key differences between, the 13 named industries, and then identify the financial metrics that are most indicative of those traits.
Galen is a start up company in the field of MRI imaging striving to compete with Philips, GE and Siemens. The protagonist, Mr. Wong needs to develop up a business strategy and an irresistible offer to attract Dr. Comstad, a leading scientist in the field, and other co-creation partners to cooperate with a small start up company. The case illustrates the advantage of co-creation business models over in-house solutions especially with regards to R&D and product development. It unveils the reasons for both companies and partners to engage in cooperation.
In 2018, the group president of Sapna Book House, operating in two South India states, was determined to take the family business to the next growth level. However, he was concerned about the threats and challenges posed by a rapidly changing competitive environment. As a third generation entrepreneur, he had executed some of the initiatives planned by his father and uncles, and had upgraded the technology to reach existing and new technology-savvy customers. His future plan was to increase the number of stores fivefold by 2020 and make the company a global brand. He believed that adding professional employees, rather than only family members, to the management team of the business was the only way to ensure the massive expansion and growth that would enable the top management family members to focus on strategic decisions and business resources, while allowing professionals to carry out routine tasks. Another issue of concern was how to raise funds from external sources to support his plan for growth, which most family members opposed.
As an e-commerce logistics manager at the national grocery store chain TrixMag, Jim Vector was continually seeking efficiency improvements in the company’s supply chain. Following positive trends in the online grocery segment, Vector was specifically exploring the idea of upgrading parts of TrixMag’s intralogistics warehouse system for more efficient throughput. Well versed in the growing world of e-commerce, Vector knew that TrixMag’s warehouses would soon be experiencing tremendous consumer pressures. Competition was also mounting: if Vector’s segment could not reduce costs, TrixMag would not have the capabilities to maintain the low prices that consumers continually demanded. It had become clear that if Vector did not act soon, TrixMag’s market share would begin to deteriorate.
Frustrated with the available means of working out while travelling, the three founders of PikoGym, a start-up out of Erlangen, Germany, had the idea to build a workout device that allowed users to train anywhere and everywhere. The lightweight and compact solution would be combined with a progressive web application to facilitate customers meeting up for workouts, provide motivation, and build community. PikoGym would be entering a growing but highly competitive and relatively fragmented market. Although competitors’ solutions were similar to PikoGym’s, they lacked the versatility and comfort offered by the latter. The three entrepreneurs wanted to ensure that their intellectual property (IP) management strategy aligned with their business goals and long-term plans for the company’s success.
We too often squeeze our worries, fears, and needs through the funnel of aggression. That is usual in business hence our fondness for the language of warfare. But the COVID-19 crisis is not business as usual, and leaders need better ways to show up and care for their people.
Be Well Hospitals - a multi-specialty secondary healthcare chain of hospitals is set up in the suburbs, industrial towns and district headquarters of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The hospital chain co-founded by Dr. C.J.Vetrievel in 2011, fulfills the need of quality healthcare services in secondary healthcare market segment. They provide access to high-quality primary and secondary healthcare services at affordable price to the semi-urban and rural population through their chain of multi-specialty hospitals. In the four and half years, since its founding, Be Well has set up eight hospitals with a combined capacity of more than 280 beds and has treated close to 500,000 patients. The case describes Be Well's extensive programs to achieve service excellence by building a high-quality healthcare delivery system using standard operating procedures (SOPs) in both clinical and non-clinical operations. It provides detailed information on the genesis of the service excellence initiative, the data collection system to understand key operating parameters, converting operating goals into procedures, and the implementation challenges across multiple locations of a multi-specialty tertiary care hospital. The case deals with a leadership challenge of extending the system of controls in both clinical and non-clinical operations while trying to balance it with the need for motivation among both internal employees and contracting doctors. A complicating factor is the accreditation process that the hospital chain is trying to pass which would extend its market reach and strengthen the brand. The top management of the chain needs to decide on the institutionalization of standard operating procedures and metrics, tying them to incentives and compensation systems ,and adding a Health Management Information System to achieve its service excellence goals. And, it wants to ensure that operational excellence does not compromise the patient experience.
Established in 2012, Youth4Jobs (Y4J) was a not-for-profit organization that served the disabled community, particularly youth, by providing them with market-oriented skills and livelihoods. Meera Shenoy, its Founder and CEO, and the core team of Y4J had previous experience in the skill development and placement of rural youth. However, they quickly discovered that dealing with disabled youth required a totally different approach. The case describes their experiences, the lessons learned and how they evolved their model for Y4J. The case outlines how Y4J became involved in the entire value chain of disability inclusion: education at the school and college levels, imparting skills to increase the employability of disabled youth, and placing them in a wide range of jobs and companies by sensitizing and supporting employers. Within a period of six years, Y4J had grown phenomenally and had a presence across the country. However, given the prevalence of disability in India and the fact that approximately 7-8 million of the disabled population were in the age group of 20-39, Shenoy believed that Y4J had to further enhance its reach to support as many people with disabilities (PwD) as possible. At a visioning workshop in August 2018, Shenoy and key stakeholders of Y4J brainstormed on the way forward for the organization and came up with several strategic options for increasing its impact. Shenoy had the difficult task of choosing among these options and setting the future direction of Y4J. The choices were replicating the model, creating a knowledge hub, and building and empowering the network. Shenoy was also concerned about how to build the requisite capacity to effectively implement those strategies without compromising on the values that had guided Y4J from its inception.
Frustrated with the available means of working out while travelling, the three founders of PikoGym, a start-up out of Erlangen, Germany, had the idea to build a workout device that allowed users to train anywhere and everywhere. The lightweight and compact solution would be combined with a progressive web application to facilitate customers meeting up for workouts, provide motivation, and build community. PikoGym would be entering a growing but highly competitive and relatively fragmented market. Although competitors' solutions were similar to PikoGym's, they lacked the versatility and comfort offered by the latter. The three entrepreneurs wanted to ensure that their intellectual property (IP) management strategy aligned with their business goals and long-term plans for the company's success.
Michael Ku joined Pfizer in 2011, after the company had undergone three large-scale mergers and acquisitions. His mission was to drive the digital transformation of the company's clinical supply chain, but he knew he had to start with the culture. Over the next eight years, Ku and his leadership team put in place the culture, talent, structure, and processes necessary to prime the clinical supply chain for digital transformation. By 2019, the clinical supply chain 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 knew there was more to be done before they could maximize their digital and innovation efforts. He had asked his leadership team to come up with a proposal to improve decision-making in the organization.
Companies looking for ways to stand out from their competition can offer customers data products that enhance the product or service the customer originally came looking for. This data wrapping technique is an innovative option to increase a product's value to the customer and maximize its profitability.
The case "Wild Herbs Grow Tall - Mastering Structural Change in Lusatia" describes how entrepreneur Christina Grätz carves out a niche in the re-cultivation of landscapes in post-mining areas in her native region of Lusatia in Eastern Germany. After having established a thriving B2B business with wild herbs, she explores the possibility of entering the B2C market with a new business line. After several iterations and pivoting, she and her partners set up an online platform for direct web-based sales of organic herbal salts. However, the new company shows a lackluster performance - potentially due to the lack of experience in the online B2B marketing strategy.
The case "Wild Herbs Grow Tall - Mastering Structural Change in Lusatia" describes how entrepreneur Christina Grätz carves out a niche in the re-cultivation of landscapes in post-mining areas in her native region of Lusatia in Eastern Germany. After having established a thriving B2B business with wild herbs, she explores the possibility of entering the B2C market with a new business line. After several iterations and pivoting, she and her partners set up an online platform for direct web-based sales of organic herbal salts. However, the new company shows a lackluster performance - potentially due to the lack of experience in the online B2B marketing strategy.