The case centres on the pricing and business model challenges facing Peloton Interactive Inc.'s new CEO, Barry McCarthy. With the decline in demand post-pandemic, McCarthy must make pricing and product decisions that balance revenue, profitability, and changing consumer dynamics. The case prompts students to assess McCarthy's options through a behavioural lens, considering the importance of behavioural biases in consumer decision-making and the alignment of the business model and marketing efforts with the target consumer's decision-making process.
The case explores the challenges faced by the leader of the El Dandara tribes in Egypt, as he confronts the disappointing results of an assessment on the status of women within his tribe. Despite being praised for his leadership style, the assessment reveals a significant gap in female empowerment within the tribe. Hashem, known for his transformative initiatives, had initiated a project to uplift women in his tribe. Now faced with the need to reassess and improve the project, Hashem must navigate the complexities of tribal leadership, cultural norms, and the urgent need for female empowerment. This case helps students understand the importance of culture for leadership by providing insights into Western and Arab leadership practices.
Nitin Kapoor, the managing director of Saera Electric Auto Pvt. Ltd. (Saera Electric), a leading three-wheeler electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer in India, was excited to capture the opportunity brought about by some recent favourable regulatory developments in the Indian EV sector in early 2015. Although Nitin, along with his father, Vijay, had spearheaded the growth of Saera Electric despite several difficulties, the new developments were compelling Nitin to reevaluate Saera’s playbook. This case examined the strategies adopted by Saera Electric for transforming an innovative idea into a final product and explored the various opportunities and challenges associated with competing in a BoP market segment in a larger emerging-market context.
Casing Petrochemicals was a leading importer of Petroleum Derivatives (such as Base Oil), Chemicals and Refrigerants in India. With 90% of the firm's revenue and profits contributed by the Petroleum Business, the other businesses were secondary in nature. The firm through procurement contracts with refineries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East imported base oil and then sold in bulk to institutional buyers across various industries such as automobiles, steel, and consumer companies. . Covid cases had begun to rise again and Indian states had already declared lockdowns. With Crude Oil prices also expected to remain volatile, the future of the firm was at stake.
Hopeworks Camden (Hopeworks), a small non-profit organization based in Camden, New Jersey, with a $4.7 million annual budget in 2022, was looking ahead to 2024. It was mid-July 2023, and the board of directors tasked Don Rhoton, Hopeworks’ chief executive officer, and Onome Pela-Emore, their chief operating officer, to develop an expansion plan that is financially viable and increases their geographic reach, beginning as early as the second quarter 2024. Rhoton and Pela-Emore believed in their mission and knew that to grow they would need to increase in spatial geography, obtain new business opportunities, increase recruitment and training, and be competitive in the marketplace. They also knew that to make this all happen they would have to question how they market, determine who they would market to, and how the market will recognize them as a competitor.
Singapore public agency VITAL offered corporate shared services including human resources (HR), payroll, and finance to agencies across the Singapore Public Service. Due to the nature of their jobs, VITAL officers handled a large volume of mundane administrative work. As automation was being increasingly adopted in the workplace, VITAL Chief Executive Dennis Lui decided that his staff should undergo training in areas such as data analytics, design thinking, and low-code/no-code tools to remain relevant. This would also enable them to move up the value chain and command better salaries. However, as in any change management exercise, VITAL's management faced several challenges as they put in place various new initiatives. Meanwhile, VITAL had also been tasked to be the robotics and automation lead for fellow public agencies in the area of corporate and administrative services, while still having to compete with private sector rivals for business as it did not enjoy a monopoly. As the world struggled to find its bearings amid wave upon wave of new developments in the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Lui wondered how he could lead the agency to reach greater heights.
An investment proposal reached the offices of Brookfield Renewable Partners (BRP) that outlined an opportunity for BRP to invest $300 million in Entropy Inc., a carbon capture and storage (CCS) company based in Calgary, Alberta. A subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management, BRP specialized in clean power investments and invested with clear environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria and company culture principles. As the investment team reviewed the materials, two key questions were at the top of mind. First, did Entropy’s business model align with BRP’s ESG investment criteria? Second, would the investment generate sufficient financial returns, and how would changes to Canada’s carbon pricing regulation impact the viability of CCS?
In October 2022, Licious, the market leader in India’s meat industry, launched its new brand UnCrave in the plant-based meat market segment. The launch was aligned with the company’s portfolio diversification strategy, leveraging its strong core brand equity. Unlike typical plant-meat brands that sold to vegan and vegetarian customers, Licious wanted to offer UnCrave to its core meat-consuming customers as an occasional alternative to meat options. However, several new competitors soon entered the market, while some people questioned the health benefits of plant-based meat. Was it a mistake for Licious to enter the plant-based industry at a time when a sizable portion of the organized meat business was still unexplored. Was the consumer segment Licious had targeted the right choice? Was it a good decision to increase the company’s product mix by including plant-based meat?
The case explores the challenges faced by the leader of the El Dandara tribes in Egypt, as he confronts the disappointing results of an assessment on the status of women within his tribe. Despite being praised for his leadership style, the assessment reveals a significant gap in female empowerment within the tribe. Hashem, known for his transformative initiatives, had initiated a project to uplift women in his tribe. Now faced with the need to reassess and improve the project, Hashem must navigate the complexities of tribal leadership, cultural norms, and the urgent need for female empowerment. This case helps students understand the importance of culture for leadership by providing insights into Western and Arab leadership practices.
Nitin Kapoor, the managing director of Saera Electric Auto Pvt. Ltd. (Saera Electric), a leading three-wheeler electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer in India, was excited to capture the opportunity brought about by some recent favourable regulatory developments in the Indian EV sector in early 2015. Although Nitin, along with his father, Vijay, had spearheaded the growth of Saera Electric despite several difficulties, the new developments were compelling Nitin to reevaluate Saera's playbook. This case examined the strategies adopted by Saera Electric for transforming an innovative idea into a final product and explored the various opportunities and challenges associated with competing in a BoP market segment in a larger emerging-market context.
Casing Petrochemicals was a leading importer of Petroleum Derivatives (such as Base Oil), Chemicals and Refrigerants in India. With 90% of the firm's revenue and profits contributed by the Petroleum Business, the other businesses were secondary in nature. The firm through procurement contracts with refineries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East imported base oil and then sold in bulk to institutional buyers across various industries such as automobiles, steel, and consumer companies. . Covid cases had begun to rise again and Indian states had already declared lockdowns. With Crude Oil prices also expected to remain volatile, the future of the firm was at stake.
A year had passed since implementing digitalization of the direct lending process at Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), and the committee gathered on January 2, 2023, to reflect on its success and identify any issues. During the meeting, the team discovered that some businesses faced issues with loan sanctioning due to the need for relaxation of certain policies. Because the system-driven processes were based on standard procedures, the committee faced a dilemma in how to handle these relaxations. Although the system was automated, there were still certain areas that required manual interventions. As a result, the team deliberated whether SIDBI should move toward hyperautomation.
Avocados from Mexico (AFM) is a marketing organization that exists to 1) build brand equity for avocados exported from Mexico to the United States and 2) increase category consumption. In preparing for 2022, after several years of successful advertising campaigns, the AFM decided to develop its next omnichannel strategy. A critical part of this decision was whether the company should continue to tout its product in Super Bowl advertisements. Although the organization had advertised in the Super Bowl from 2015 through 2020 as a media channel, the Super Bowl was growing in expense. Moreover, in 2021, AFM did not advertise in the Super Bowl yet achieved considerable success, calling into question the importance of Super Bowl advertising's role in the brand's omnichannel strategy.
In February 2023, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo weighed signing off on a Notice of Funding Opportunity ("NOFO") with at least one unconventional provision: a pre-application ("pre-app") to the actual application for parts of $39 billion in direct semiconductor manufacturing incentives. The funding had been made available through the U.S. Department of Commerce by the CHIPS and Science Act ("CHIPS") passed a few months earlier. Her team had also proposed additional measures for the NOFO. They'd added upside sharing provisions to align incentives. They'd included funding milestones so that only awardees making progress would receive additional funds. And they'd drafted a rolling process, so apps didn't have to be evaluated all at once. Each mechanism, along with the pre-apps, they hoped, would help regain U.S. technological leadership while protecting taxpayer funds. Raimondo would have to decide whether the NOFO as conceived set the stage to do precisely that.
Managing acquired subsidiaries can be daunting. Parent and affiliate executives strive to co-create value, but fixed mindsets around subsidiary autonomy can result in diverging interests and outcomes. Through a longitudinal study of Audi's post-acquisition integration of supercar manufacturer Lamborghini, this article provides guidance on how to manage the level of acquired subsidiary autonomy as a strategic dial that can be dynamically adjusted over time for mutual benefit. This dynamic approach to autonomy rests on three specific managerial levers - appraisal respect, organizational identity, and resource orchestration. These can enable the renewal of competitive capabilities and sustain post-acquisition success.
This chapter provides a road map for how instructors can teach most effectively using the case method. It describes the history of the case method and the reasons to use it. It provides an overview of what instructors can do before, during and after teaching to maximize student learning, as well as a brief for students on how to prepare and participate to maximize their learning.
By 2023, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in Santa Clara, California, had been successfully providing financial services to venture capitalists and private equity firms for 40 years. The bank, which catered to clients from the innovation and technology sectors, ran into problems and was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on March 10, 2023, becoming the second largest US bank to fail after Washington Mutual collapsed in 2008. The US Federal Reserve System (FRS), while being criticized for having lax standards that contributed to the catastrophe, maintained that it had provided several warnings. The United States Senate Banking Committee planned to organize a formal congressional hearing to investigate the nature of SVB’s failures and flaws and to question the FRS and evaluate the regulator’s response to the same. Everyone involved was shocked by the collapse of a large bank like SVB. Was it an erroneous business model that concentrated on sector-specific clients that had led to SVB’s downfall? Or was the failure due to lax banking rules? Could a poor regulatory environment be held responsible? Another possibility was that SVB’s weak risk management oversights and controls could be blamed. What could SVB have done to avoid the disaster? What lessons could the banking sector learn to avoid such collapses in the future?