The case, based on extensive interviews with NTT DOCOMO's technology leaders, focuses on the opportunities and challenges that NTT DOCOMO faces with the launch of infrastructure and services for 5G wireless telecommunication technology. With higher data rates and capacity, lower latency, and massive device connectivity, 5G could support new opportunities for growing NTT DOCOMO's business, which has been on a non-growth path since the early 2000s. The case details NTT DOCOMO's actions during previous transitions across wireless generations, illustrating the tradeoffs between being a first technological mover versus learning from the experience from other players in the market. It also highlights the intricacies of making a transition within a technological ecosystem, where coordination across different players is key for a successful strategy. Specifically, the case provides a platform to discuss the strategic options NTT DOCOMO is pursuing prior to launching 5G: What new services could they offer? Should they target corporate customers? Can NTT DOCOMO return to a sustainable growth path through 5G? How can they capture a larger share of the value created through 5G enabled internet ecosystems?
This short cases provides an update on TiVo from 2016-2020. The case covers TiVo merger with Rovi, the turnover of several CEOs, and struggles on how to reposition its product business (the digital video recorder).
In 2020, Chileans would head to the ballot box to decide their country's future. Many international observers credited Chile's decades of neoliberal governance with turning the country into Latin America's "Tiger," a prosperous, diversified economy on its way to becoming the continent's first developed country. But in October of 2019, a mass protest movement ground the country to a halt and shocked its political class, showing the world a different Chile-one defined by inequality, social distrust, and a young generation of political activists. As Chile prepared to vote in the fall of 2020 on whether to adopt a new constitution, could it sculpt a more equitable society while remaining "the exception" on a continent known for its political instability? Or would Chile's prosperity go the same way as its neoliberal experiment?
After a decade as CEO, Tim Cook is facing one of his biggest strategic transitions of his tenure. While Apple had performed spectacularly well under Cook, Apple's core business was maturing. Sales of iPhones, iPads, and Macs were flat or down. However, Apple's new hardware-Apple Watch and Airpods-as well as services were growing rapidly. This case explores Apple's history and Cook's strategic options for driving new hardware and services into Apple's mainstream in the next decade.
This note, written in late March 2020 and mainly U.S. focused, looks at the unfolding impact of the coronavirus pandemic on food retailers and their suppliers. It allows student to consider the challenges facing food retail executives as they navigate urgent supply chain challenges amid rapidly changing information and circumstances. It touches on developments in various segments of the supply chain, including farms, manufacturers, the trucking industry, warehouse operators, and store operations, as well as home delivery. The note is "set" as the outbreak is accelerating in the U.S., where the first "hot spots" include cities such as Seattle and New York City. Officials in many states have ordered or advised residents to stay home, exempting those employed in industries designated "essential," including food. The food industry is contending with a massive surge in demand for staple goods, as consumers worry about product shortages, seek to minimize store visits, and anticipate long stretches of time at home. Stock-outs and rationing in some categories in stores are widespread. Demand for online food shopping and delivery has skyrocketed well beyond the current capacity of retailers in many markets. As they scramble to respond, players up and down the food supply chain are changing how they source, make, move, and stock products. While U.S. officials have asserted that the food system remains reliable, anecdotal news is emerging of problems facing individual players, industry segments, and geographies. With the crisis expected to continue for weeks or months, all are bracing for even greater challenges.
Shazi Visram graduated from Columbia Business School in May 2004 and founded Happy Family organic baby food company two years later with a mission to "change the trajectory of children's health through nutrition." The company launched in 2006 with a line of frozen organic baby foods, switching to an innovative package design --pouched packaging-- in 2009. Gaining the attention of both investors and consumers-and praised for its commitment to quality control, Happy Family experienced impressive growth. In 2018 Visram, who had been called a "rock star CEO" by then-President Obama, stepped down and appointed Anne Larraway to lead the company. By 2019, Happy Family was the largest player in the organic baby strained/wet food market and the third largest player in the total US strained/wet baby food market-and pouches, which were virtually unheard of when Happy Family began selling them, made up an estimated 25% of the baby food market.
A young Canadian entrepreneur had established a digital medical tourism concierge service in Armenia--GetTreated CJSC--and in 2019 was evaluating the opportunities for the company's growth. While the company was experiencing steady growth, the founder felt that the growth rates were not reflective of the potential that was present in the market. Something had to be changed about how the company was acquiring its customers. The company's promotional strategy also needed work in the face of increasing competition locally and globally.
On March 14, 2019, the convenience business unit manager of Greenyard Frozen was in his Roeselare, Belgium office preparing for a management meeting that would discuss current challenges facing the company. Greenyard Frozen had to decide on the market positioning of its cauliflower rice and how to promote the new product. The project, which was a great example of co-operation in the value chain and of open innovation for sustainability, had resulted from the unique collaboration of several key contributors: Greenyard Frozen, two cauliflower growers, a machine builder, the agricultural research group Instituut voor Landbouw-, Visserij- en Voedingsonderzoek, and the Flanders' Food platform. Greenyard Frozen had to decide whether to emphasize the product's sustainability benefits or simply position the cauliflower rice as a healthy, low-carbohydrate alternative to rice or other food products. What steps could the company take to remain ahead of its competitors, who were innovating at a relentless pace?
In July 2017, with a proven track record in power distribution in Delhi and Mumbai, Tata Power Co Limited incorporated a new organization called TP Ajmer Distribution Limited using the distribution franchise model in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India. The new company was created in partnership with the state government company Ajmer Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited as a strategic partner. One year later, the management team had to overcome various challenges including recruitment from diverse private and public sources, a limited competent talent pool, a lack of administrative and technology infrastructure, many first-time managers, a scattered team concept, a silos working style, a low level of work experience, and a dated distribution network. To ensure a successful transition, the new company had to streamline business processes and establish an organizational culture of safety, excellence, quality, and ethics consistent with the Tata name. The company had to decide whether to adopt the organizational culture of its parent company, create and entirely new culture, or customize its own culture based on Tata Power principles.
In 2019, the president of China’s ride share company Didi Chuxing Technology Co. (Didi) faced various challenges associated with marketing and communications in a high-risk disruptive technology. As one of few female global corporate leaders, she was a role model for young women and promoted inclusion and diversity at Didi. However, the emergence of autonomous and connected vehicles in the industry forced her to make some strategic decisions. Several recent high-profile safety failures involving Didi and other industry giants had resulted in injury and death. The president needed to develop a communications and marketing plan for Didi’s employee and consumer stakeholders. But how should she respond to the recent negative media reports? What promotion and communication strategies would enable the company to develop a level of trust and knowledge that would set it apart from its high-risk competitors? How could the president influence consumer perceptions of the industry’s—and Didi’s—legitimacy?
Jia Yuan Company was a small Chinese business founded by two brothers in 2005. The more ambitious of the brothers worked at the front of the business, successfully transforming it from a local sales agent for foreign branded products to a contractor for government-financed construction projects. He saw new opportunities for the business and wanted to make further investment in a related company that his friend worked at. However, the conservative brother, in charge of internal management, was not convinced of the project’s potential and did not approve of making drastic changes to their company’s overall strategy. The brothers had a history of disagreement and suppressing resolution of the problems. Can the brothers manage their conflict, or should they go their separate ways?
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 note provides an introduction to crafting strategy following an options-led approach. It provides an overview of scenario planning, and it prepares students to describe firm strategy with succinct strategy statements. The note also briefly outlines other approaches to crafting strategy.
In March 2016, Bahrain Development Bank's existing board term came to an end and Khalid Al Rumaihi was appointed the new chairman. Determining a need for change, he immediately overhauled the board and replaced the Bank's long-standing CEO. The new board quickly concluded that the Bank needed to refocus on its core business of lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and selected an experienced Bahraini corporate banker to implement this strategy. However, within six months, the new CEO resigned and the board had to once again look for a replacement. Expanding their search globally, they found Sanjeev Paul, a Singaporean with immense experience in SME lending, who was appointed CEO of BDB in May 2018. Over the next 20 months, with the board's support, Paul headed an organization-wide revamp aimed at enabling the bank to refocus and achieve its mandate of supporting SMEs. By December 2019, the changes started to pay off; after three years of losses, BDB turned its first profit. However, Paul and the board recognized their work was far from over. The Bank's cost structure was higher than that of competition, they paid below-market salaries, and had an outdated core banking system. As Al Rumaihi looked ahead to his second term as chair, he wondered how the board could help Paul and his management team in addressing these challenges.
Ment.io was a software platform that used proprietary data analytics technology to help organizations make informed and transparent decisions based on team input. Ment was born out of founder Joab Rosenberg's frustration that, while organizations collected ever increasing amounts of data, the information gathering process did not capture human insights, which he viewed as critical to the use of the data. In early 2020, Rosenberg felt that the company he had started five years ago was taking off, but he wondered how to manage the team's limited engineering resources to help Ment stand out in a crowded software market. Should the company improve Ment's user interface, develop new features, or focus on its innovative algorithm?
In mid-December 2018, Peter Ma, Chairman and CEO of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. was considering whether the company should grow a fifth ecosystem of Smart City Services. Established in 1988, Ping An was one of the top 10 global financial institutions in terms of market capitalization with 342, 550 employees and nearly 1.4 million sales agents. Under Ma's leadership, Ping An was transforming from a traditional financial institution to a leading global technology-powered personal financial services group. In recent years it executed a strategy of "Finance+Ecosystem" by leveraging three frontier technologies-AI, blockchain, and cloud technology-to develop four ecosystems: Financial Services, Healthcare, Automobile Services and Real Estate Services. Smart City Services, with its business potential and social impact, had become an attractive new opportunity for Ping An to leverage its technology expertise and business experience while gaining new traffic for the other four ecosystems. Ma wondered: How important would this new ecosystem be strategically for the future of Ping An? If Ping An decided to go after this market, how should Ping An differentiate itself from competitors?
In 2003, mathematics professor Sergio Fajardo was elected mayor of MedellÃn, Colombia - one of the most violent cities in the world at that time. As mayor, Fajardo faced a host of daunting challenges. Rampant gang violence had raised MedellÃn's homicide rate dramatically, and a history of corruption had undermined the public's trust in the local government and law enforcement institutions. The under-resourced local police did not communicate clearly with the mayor, and the city was approaching bankruptcy. To address these concerns, Fajardo would need to not only develop a strategy, but also convince the majority of his 21-member city council - among whom he had only one ally - to support it. Fajardo needed to decide how to prioritize the many financial, legal, and cultural concerns in MedellÃn to bring the city closer to peace and prosperity.
La Maison Simons was a successful 178-year-old, family-run fashion retailer with 15 locations across Canada and over CA$500 million in sales in 2018. On September 6, 2018, the president and chief executive officer (CEO), supported and approved the launch of a new marketing campaign featuring brassieres named after historic Canadian women. One of those women was the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Beverley McLachlin. Within hours of the launch of the marketing campaign, La Maison Simons’s social media feed erupted with comments from angry users who viewed the campaign as objectifying and sexualizing iconic Canadian women. McLachlin was also upset, the company having named one of the bras after her with her permission. Following a phone conversation with McLachlin, the CEO issued a formal apology and destroyed all materials related to the campaign. At McLachlin’s request, the company also became involved with fundraising for a women’s shelter. The CEO, who was embarrassed by the marketing campaign and quickly took responsibility for his mistake, was concerned that he had tarnished the company’s brand. Had he done enough to redeem it? What more could he do in the short and long term to improve the company’s reputation? What had he learned from this disastrous marketing campaign?
This case, set in May 2019, details the launch strategy of the German automobile company AUDI AG (Audi) for its model A8 sedan, the world’s first Level 3 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) conditional automated vehicle. A Level 3 vehicle uses technology and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms derived from advanced programming to control itself under specific conditions, enabling the human driver to take their eyes off the road and their hands off the steering wheel. Given the fast-paced nature of technology development and the emerging status of the autonomous vehicle industry, this case provides several class discussion points, including first-mover advantage and influencing technological standards in an emerging industry, the ethical implications of technology development and the programming of autonomous vehicles to make decisions, and the role of government regulations and customers in autonomous vehicle programming. Further discussions could address the development of smart cities and related technology, the data privacy issues of autonomous vehicles, the decisions of an established company to develop a risky technology, and future international market entries with these vehicles.
In 2019, Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited, one of Hong Kong’s most popular jewellery chains, had recently adopted blockchain, under the leadership of managing director, to address some of the challenges in the diamond industry. In particular, the company had moved from paper certificates to digital certificates; blockchain also allowed the firm to trace the origin of diamonds, eliminating the problem of blood diamonds. In order to continue as a leader in transforming the diamond industry for the digital age, what other changes should the managing director implement? Should the company emphasize its use of blockchain technology in marketing to end consumers?