SK Group was one of the largest companies South Korea. A family-run conglomerate consisting of around 120 subsidiaries and employing more than 100,000, SK was tightly knit into the fabric of Korean society. SK viewed their future success as contingent upon the strength of the societal ecosystem in which they operated. As such, the company had a long history of philanthropic giving. However, SK questioned if their donations were producing the desired impact, as many of the societal issues they, and the rest of Korean society, sought to address were not improving. In order to create a new system of generating social value, SK established the Social Progress Credit (SPC) initiative. The SPC initiative designed a measurement methodology that was used to measure the social value created by social enterprises - firms whose mission was to generate social value in conjunction with generating sustainable financial returns. Additionally, the SPC initiative provided monetary incentives to social enterprises in proportion to the social value generated by participating social enterprises. Looking to the future, SK envisioned a marketplace in which SPC's were traded among investors and credits were priced by the market. Initial results of the SPC initiative were positive, showing positive growth in social value created and financial stability of social enterprises. How then could SK convince other public and private organizations to adopt the SPC model and promote social value? Moreover, how could SK convince mainstream capital markets to make investments into society enterprises on the basis of the social value creation? More importantly, was this attempt to enrich and grow the ecosystem of social value creation making a difference?
Data protection is important to businesses, and increasingly so as the paper-based world fades into memory. Information safeguards that were sufficient in the past no longer are in the current digitized environment. It is incumbent upon companies to keep their data secure, but what constitutes reasonable protection? In this installment of Business Law & Ethics Corner, we tackle this question and proffer Draper's Catastrophe Value Curve as an assessment tool toward that end.
Historically, the decision over whether or not to consolidate was guided by bright-line rules, which outlined the minimum percentage of ownership required in a subsidiary for it to be considered controlled by a reporting entity and thus included in the consolidated financial statements (CFSs). Today, U.S. GAAP and IFRS use a principles-based approach, which is guided by the concept of control to determine whether a subsidiary is to be consolidated in the CFSs. In this context, a debate exists between managers and auditors about which subsidiaries should be consolidated. To deepen our understanding of how managers and auditors grapple with consolidation decisions, we interviewed several CFOs and audit partners to determine if they are anchored to legalistic mechanisms or if, instead, they are strategically developing ways to support the consolidation decision. Based on our interviews, we find that opportunistic transactions-criticized at the time of the rules-based approach-still exist due to the search for legalistic mechanisms that protect underlying choices influenced by economic incentives. Such results are crucial for analysts and investors to properly interpret consolidated financial performance.
Since the late 1990s, executives have been warned that explosive company growth is essential to producing superior financial performance. For executives who recognize that this contention accurately describes their situation and want to upgrade their competitive capabilities, the challenge is planning to grow fast while understanding and avoiding the risk of fast failure. In this article, we identify promising competitive strategies by studying businesses that have sought high-growth and succeeded in achieving it. The dataset consists of the fastest growing new ventures in the U.S. as selected for the Inc. 500. The results of a quantitative and qualitative analysis show that these businesses rely on different combinations of attributes related to advanced technology, market aggressiveness, and functional excellence. We discuss 12 of these attributes and look at the demographic characteristics of the Inc. 500 and their implications for new venture creation.
A decade ago, we published an article in Business Horizons about the challenges and opportunities of social media with a call to action: "Users of the world, unite!" To celebrate its anniversary, we look at artificial intelligence and the need to create the rules necessary for peaceful coexistence between humanity and AI. Hence, we now are urging: "Rulers of the world, unite!" In this article, we outline six debates surrounding AI in areas like artificial superintelligence, geographical progress, and robotics; in doing so, we shed light on what is fact and what is Utopia. Then, using the PESTEL framework, we talk about the six dilemmas of AI and its potential threat and use. Finally, we provide six directions on the future of AI regarding its requirements and expectations, looking at enforcement, employment, ethics, education, entente, and evolution. Understanding AI's potential future will enable governments, corporations, and societies at large (i.e., the rulers of this world) to prepare for its challenges and opportunities. Then, we can avoid a scenario in which we return in 10 years to write the article: "Dreamers of the world, unite!"
This article explores how an organization can use its history to define and deliver its corporate brand strategy. We specifically look at Adidas, which, having rejected its history at one stage, rediscovered and used the philosophy and ideas of its founder to provide direction for the future, legitimate strategic choices, and enrich the corporate brand. Through analysis of material evidence and interviews with senior and long-serving employees, we conceptualize the way Adidas developed a systematic approach to the use of history in its corporate brand strategy by creating the means to uncover, remember, curate, and then embed it. Combining the lessons of the Adidas case with evidence from other cases in which history was used to refocus and revitalize corporate brands, we deliver key recommendations for managers.
Even though they have gotten better at meeting the iron triangle of cost, time, and scope, many projects still do not achieve the strategic benefits-especially those that are nonmonetary-desired in most contemporary projects. Given that no one is specifically accountable for delivering these benefits, it should be no surprise that these projects are largely unsuccessful. We consider multiple possible candidates for this role of accountability-the CEO, the project manager, the sponsor, and the program manager-and find none of them acceptable, thereby necessitating the formalization of a new role: a project owner. The project owner would be accountable for delivering the strategic benefits desired from each project. In this article, we describe the responsibilities of the project owner at each phase of the project, the sources for candidates to fulfill this role, and the training needed for project owners to find success. We conclude with a case study of an organization that has taken this route and discuss the advantages and challenges that resulted from its strategic organizational change initiative.
This research examines current applications and potential capabilities of a wide array of social media applications such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others within the context of B2B supply chain operations. Specifically, we use social media affordances (SMA) as a framework to explore how social media is used in B2B supply chain settings. We report finding based on a survey of 209 professionals in supply chain areas. These findings include the extent to which social media and different social media tools are used in B2B supply chain operations, the impact of company size on social media use, the areas in which social media is used, the perceptions of social media, and other relevant issues such as social media policy and security. Based on these findings, this study provides a discussion regarding the current and future use of social media in B2B supply chain operations.
Big data analytics have transformed research in many fields, including the business areas of marketing, accounting and finance, and supply chain management. Yet, the discussion surrounding big data analytics in human resource management has primarily focused on job candidate screenings. In this article, we consider how significant strategic human capital questions can be addressed with big data analytics, enabling HR to enhance overall firm performance. We also examine how new data sources that help assess workforce performance in real time can assist in the identification and development of the knowledge stars that contribute to firm performance disproportionately as well as help reinforce firm capabilities. But in order for big data analytics to be successful in the HR field, regulatory and ethical challenges must also be addressed; these include privacy concerns and, in Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We conclude by discussing how big data analytics can facilitate strategic change within HR and the organization as a whole.
Modern economies are characterized by the rising role of nonmarket actors (e.g., regulatory agencies, social activists, labor unions, media) that are gaining influence over the behavior of for-profit firms. These nonmarket stakeholders use their clout over industry players to impose innovations that require costly changes in business practices or technological trajectories while lacking firm-level economic justification. How should a company respond when it is pressured to adopt a new practice or change its products, while the economic calculations suggest that this is going to be a pure cost? Our study suggests alternative strategic responses to imposed innovation pressures and explores the factors determining the choice of an optimal strategy. Grounding the argument on the outside-in approach to pursuing imposed innovations, we propose a framework of organizational responses to external pressures to innovate, with varying degrees of firm engagement and different levels of cooperation with other industry actors. We also present a decision tree approach, allowing organizational decision makers to analyze the contextual determinants and ultimately arrive at the most appropriate, context-determined strategy.
Today's disruptive innovations are driving the creation of numerous billion-dollar startups. Venture capitalists focus on these potentially disruptive technology startups and fund them furiously, advancing their speed of growth. The idea is to scale fast and seek huge returns for investors. Terms that define this type of aggressive scaling have recently developed in Silicon Valley. Unicorn is defined as a venture with a value of $1 billion while a decacorn describes startups with a value of $10 billion. Another recent term is blitzscaling: funding a venture for extremely fast growth and prioritizing speed over efficiency in an environment of uncertainty. While blitzscaling is being used heavily by investors in Silicon Valley, we look at exactly what comprises this new phenomenon and how it is used in practice. We examine the concept, its stages, and its prevalence before reviewing the different examples of how the strategy has been implemented for success (the good), cases of its failure in practice (the bad), and the extreme cases of ethical compromise by ventures (the ugly). From these cases, we draw specific lessons that if understood and appropriately addressed would help new ventures effectively implement the strategy.
Business models and business model innovation-and particularly their opportunities-have been a popular topic recently, but we find the extant literature on the subject lacking. The risk and uncertainty aspect typical of business models has not been sufficiently addressed. We draw upon the existing literature and triangulate results with an extensive expert group interview to identify 28 risk and uncertainty factors, creating a checklist that can be used as the first step in an integrative business model risk management process for existing and new iterations. With an established process for managing and identifying risk in business models, managers can make more conscious and well-informed decisions.
John Branca, attorney to pop musician Michael Jackson, must negotiate a series of deals on behalf of his client in order to safeguard his financial interests and creative license during a period of rising stardom.
In December 2018, US-based Virgin Galactic LLC (Virgin Galactic), a commercial space tourism company founded by Sir Richard Branson, launched its first successful crewed test spacecraft. The company's goal was to launch suborbital space tourism in 2019. However, experts and critics voiced concerns that Virgin Galactic's space tourism program could have adverse environmental and health effects. A prominent astronaut also considered Branson's space program to be a marketing gimmick aimed at ultra-rich consumers. Branson believed that Virgin Galactic caused less environmental pollution than conventional air travel and with time would become affordable. Could Branson make space tourism a feasible reality in the long term? Was Branson right to claim that space tourism would become affordable over time? Should he pursue multiple business opportunities, such as intercontinental space travel and supporting research and development projects, along with space tourism?
HCL Technologies Ltd. (HCL) was one of the big four information technology (IT) companies in India. The infrastructure services division (the company's flagship revenue generator), had phenomenal growth over the years. However, by fiscal year 2015-16, the division was facing growth challenges. Market dynamics, including competition size and capability, client expectations, and the technology landscape, were all changing. The company was trying to build its corporate entrepreneurship function to prepare itself for adapting to these emerging challenges. The HCL enterprise technology office (ETO) exploration team had been chartered by the company to bring new technologies and breakthrough solutions into the organization. The company was looking forward to shifting away from its dependence on its traditional IT infrastructure outsourcing business and toward new technology domains.
Tata Motors Limited, an Indian automobile manufacturer, had been struggling with decreasing market share and profitability, which was affecting the company's share price. After the appointment of a new chief executive officer in 2016, the company undertook several reorganization programs to revive its financial health and improve its market share. However, it still registered heavy losses in the first nine months of fiscal year 2018-19. Was there more that the company could do to improve the company's position and regain lost investor confidence?
Takata Corporation was a business-to-business firm based in Japan, whose logo once symbolized safety. In 2013, however, the company mishandled its airbag recall crisis, which was Japan's largest automotive safety recall. The crisis led to the largest corporate bankruptcy filing of a Japanese firm and impacted Japanese banks involved in a collateral-free syndicated loan. How could the company have better managed the crisis?
Carla Thomas, the owner of Boulevard Sandwiches, is preparing to meet with Alan Philips, the new manager of Boulevard Sandwiches, Inc., Unit No. 2, in mid-December 2017. The primary purpose of this meeting is to finalize the 2018 operating plan for the location, as well as to conduct sensitivity analysis related to the assumptions included in the budget. Thomas has decided that, due to the growth of her business, she can no longer continue to manage the operation as she did when there were only a couple of locations, so she is in the process of implementing a more formal and extensive planning and budgeting process. This case may be used as a stand-alone case on budgeting, or it may be paired with "Boulevard Sandwiches, Inc. (B)" (UV7971) in a module on budgeting and strategic profitability analysis or flexible budgeting.
Alan Philips has just completed his first year as manager of Boulevard Sandwiches, Inc., Unit No. 2. Actual profit for the year was well below budgeted profit. Philips is preparing for a meeting with Carla Thomas, the owner of Boulevard Sandwiches, Inc., to discuss the 2018 operating results and Philips's performance for the year. In December 2017, Philips had met with Thomas and had accepted the 2018 budget as aggressive but achievable. Now, he must convince Thomas that he did a good job during his first year as manager and that he deserves a bonus. This case can be used alone or after "Boulevard Sandwiches, Inc. (A)" (UV7969), which focuses on preparing the 2018 budget for Boulevard Sandwiches Unit No. 2.