Gavi has helped immunize over 760 million children in the world's poorest countries over the past 20 years saving 13 million lives. How should Gavi respond to the need for a vaccine for the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic?
In the first months of 2020, a pandemic overwhelmed the world. COVID-19, commonly known as the coronavirus, spread from China and created a severe public health emergency across countries. While an immediate fear of the disease's impact on human life permeated society, the world battled another concern for the severe economic downturn that was brought about by attempts to suppress the virus. World trade, tourism, capital flows, remittances, and commodity prices collapsed. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the global GDP growth rate for 2020 was expected to be close to 2.3%. As of April 2020, multilateral organizations estimated that GDP would contract by 3% - way worse than the 0.1% contraction of 2009, and the deepest dive since the Great Depression. What policy options existed to mitigate the financial and economic distress of containment, and what factors did different countries weigh in deciding which paths to choose? Was there a terrible choice - either damage livelihoods through extended lockdowns, or sacrifice thousands or even millions of lives to the virus - or were policies reinforcing? What was the role of government, businesses, communities and individuals? After the worst of the health crisis was mitigated, what kind of shape would world economies take?
COVID-19 has quickly disrupted how companies market their brands to consumers and the way customers shop for products. The current environment offers an unprecedented opportunity for smaller and midtier brands to compete against their more established rivals for exposure, mindshare, product trials, and market share with a new and broader base of potential customers.
Do you want to lead a bird control company? No? Nevertheless, you might learn from a Case Study about the Director of one such Small-to-Medium-sized Enterprise (SME): someone who was initially a "reluctant boss". This Case helps us to widen our perspective on possible leadership career paths and examine the challenges for leadership of SMEs in general. It is suitable for undergraduates, post-graduates, and executive education participants, because the issues it raises are fundamental to leadership in early careers, and for managers and executives who want to grow their own division/business. After examining and discussing this Case Study, students will: have a better understanding of the various leadership challenges facing leaders of SMEs; be able to think more critically about the role of a leader as his/her organization grows; and have a broader perspective on possible leadership career paths, especially in terms of unusual industries, start-ups, and SMEs.
In late August 2018, the chief operating officer of Success HR Solutions, a Vietnamese software start-up, was contemplating the strategy for relaunching her product, a cloud-based human resources software product that handled various payroll and human resources functions. She needed to decide how to sell and price her product for the target market in the Vietnamese economy. As she evaluated her options, she had to consider the overall Vietnamese business landscape, the future of the industry, her company’s current capabilities, and her organization’s overall vision.
In September 2018, Marisol Labrecque, president of Technologies Ecofixe Inc. (Technologies Ecofixe), was heading to Ain Taoujdate, Morocco, in order to supervise the installation of the company’s second ECOFIXE system in Africa. Technologies Ecofixe was a small, socially responsible Québécois company that had developed and commercialized a cost-effective system for the treatment of wastewaters in aerated ponds. With her eye on Africa’s ever-expanding market, Labrecque considered entering the French-speaking countries of Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso. However, given her limited resources, Labrecque knew that she would have to choose. Which country should Technologies Ecofixe enter next?
In 2001, Apple, Inc. (Apple), known mainly as the maker of a niche personal computer and related operating system and software, became a disruptor in the music industry with the launch of the iPod music player; it followed up two years later with the launch of the iTunes Music Store (iTunes). Over the next several years, the company struck deals with major music recording labels to distribute downloadable music legally through iTunes, challenging an industry-wide decline in a climate of widespread digital file-sharing and piracy. In 2007, it brought about increased sales of digital music downloads after launching the iPhone. However, by 2019, consumers were mainly consuming music via streaming services such as Spotify, Google LLC’s YouTube, Amazon.com Inc., and Pandora. What would Apple need to do to continue as a leader in the music industry?
In 2019, Walmart Inc. (Walmart) was the largest retailer in the world, with over $500 billion in revenues and thousands of stores in the United States and international markets. It was in the midst of a transformation to compete in the online shopping and home delivery space, an industry that was dominated by relative newcomer Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon). While Walmart had continued to expand its physical stores and discount centres over several decades, its online presence had needed attention; its investment in online sales between 2013 and 2018 had brought about a significant reduction in the operating income margin in its largest and most profitable segment, Walmart US. However, by February 2019, the company had achieved growth in online sales of 43 per cent. Would the strategic changes that had brought about this growth enable the company to maintain its position in the United States?
In August 2018, many regions in the state of Kerala, India, were experiencing rising flood waters, and people were being evacuated from flood-prone areas to relief camps. Various relief camp supplies in the state were being distributed through the distribution centre at Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi. XSEED, a student community-driven organization of the Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, was being coordinated by faculty member Dr. Mercia Justin. Justin, entrusted with the responsibility of managing the operations at the distribution centre, was carefully considering how to manage the throughput of the relief camp supplies and streamline operations at the distribution centre as the volume of shipments rapidly expanded and the rain and flooding situation worsened.
This article discusses the digitalization efforts of 26 leading manufacturing firms, the difficulties encountered, and how they can be handled. It shows that many firms are far from ready to benefit from digitalization and are mainly focused on achieving greater efficiency through digitalization rather than pursuing a growth agenda. This imbalance is because of the difficulties related to identifying profitable configurations of competencies, assets, and data generated from digital technologies, orchestrating them, and exploiting them in an agile organization. Practical implications of digitalization are highlighted, specifically in terms of strategies for supporting the current business and embracing long-term digital transformation.
Noora Health, an India-based non-profit, through its Care Compassion Program (CCP), which was based on human-centred design principles, aimed to reduce readmission rates and complications after patients were discharged from the hospital. While implementing the program in several hospitals across India, the chief executive officer of Noora Health faced several challenges. These challenges included convincing nurses to train patients' family members in caregiving and increasing the scope and scale of the CCP. By early 2019, Noora Health had successfully implemented the program across 110 hospitals in India. What should the company further undertake to prove the program's effectiveness and enhance its scope and scale?
This case reviews the path to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and the subsequent efforts that have been undertaken to repeal it. It focuses on the role of the government and interest groups in shaping policy.
People have a strong innate desire to be in touch with nature. By designing jobs and workspaces that fulfill that desire, organizations may be able to replenish their employees energy reserves in four key ways: cognitively, emotionally, prosocially, and physically. Imagine the impact not only on wellness but also on work performance.
What does it take to set up the next level of schools that encourages academic excellence at an international level in a developing country? How should the school brand itself to communicate that commitment to excellence to prospective students' parents? How can a school provide that level of academic excellence at an affordable cost to the middle-income segment? What are the levers that it can use to scale its school locations over the country? In September 2019, Phan Hu Thuy, CEO of Vinschool, contemplated the above questions as she addressed the managing committee of Vinschool. Thuy had a daunting target ahead of her - to expand Vinschool to double its existing size in a period of five years. Vinschool was established in 2013 in Vietnam, as a directive of Vingroup, to provide schooling facilities for children residing at the Vinhomes real estate complexes built by the group. The school had expanded rapidly, growing from one campus to 31 campuses with over 27,000 students, by 2019. Operating as a not-for-profit entity, Vinschool delivered international standard education to its students, amidst an increasingly competitive private school education market served by a limited resource pool. The challenge was clear: Vinschool had to provide an excellent academic experience with limited resources, and at the same time, focus on uniformity of quality as it established new campuses. How could Vinschool expand holistically? How could Vinschool stay ahead of the competition? Could the school expand its potential consumer market segment? How could the school make it's brand more compelling?
In March 2019, Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft were grounded worldwide. This was a consequence of two deadly plane crashes within five months in late 2018 and early 2019. In both the crashes, the flawed design of the aircraft led to an erroneous reading of the onboard sensors. This, in turn, activated the stall prevention software of the aircraft, which kept pushing the nose of the aircraft down. Boeing was alleged to have hastily developed the 737 MAX aircraft in response to the Airbus A320neo.<br><br>In August 2019, Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing, was hopeful that services of 737 MAX could resume within a couple of months. How should Muilenburg deal with the crisis? To what extent should he worry about the increasing competitive rivalry with Airbus?
On October 25, 2018, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Dr. Jonathan Broomberg (CEO Discovery Health) and Dr. Craig Nossel (Head of Vitality Wellness) consider their dilemma of how to make Vitality Move more attractive to the lower-income market and increase the programme’s uptake. Vitality Move is a wellness programme for the lower-income market, launched in 2017. It has a low membership uptake by the KeyCare benefit scheme members. The two leaders are faced with a challenge to devise ways to strategically target the lower-income group to improve employee productivity, decrease the burden of non-communicable diseases and influence positive lifestyle decisions. The case features the initiatives undertaken towards creating shared value.
In July 2018, the owner and president of Yates Control Systems was contemplating her company’s future. The company was an engineering firm located in Hamilton, Ontario and catering to the region of Southwestern Ontario. The company’s net income had declined over the past year and the owner was considering several strategic options: maintaining company operations (status quo), hiring a second salesperson, expanding into parking system controls, purchasing an existing company that specialized in parking system controls, or selling her company. The owner had to evaluate which option would be the best path forward for her and for her business.