In July 2019, Evangeline Leong, co-founder and CEO of Kobe (a Singapore based start-up providing Influencer Marketing services) had a challenging task ahead of her. Her company was preparing for a campaign to build brand awareness of Jia Jia herbal tea amongst millennial consumers in Singapore. At Kobe, Leong and her team provided end-to-end influencer marketing services for clients including consultation on marketing strategies for realising brand objectives, assisting clients in identifying KPIs, execution and monitoring of campaigns, analysis of campaign results and providing recommendations. In addition, Kobe's AI driven influencer platform allowed clients to choose the most suitable influencers from a database of over 5000 influencers. Millennials in Singapore were social media savvy and often-brought products based on recommendations of influencers they trusted. Targeting this customer segment through social media was therefore a viable option. However, the Jia Jia campaign had a few limitations including a small budget and a short timeframe. Another constraint was that herbal tea was not popular with millennials. Historically Chinese herbal tea was synonymous with Singapore's culture and dated back to its history as a British settlement. However, over the past decade, bubble tea had become the preferred drink of the millennials. Leong knew she was being ambitious in trying to "sell bell-bottoms to Millennials", and she wondered if her influencer marketing campaign to rebrand Jia Jia herbal tea in Singapore could be as successful as the Levi's Jeans' 501 campaign. Could Leong turn the clock back and make Jia Jia the most talked about beverage brand in Singapore?
The case, which is a disguised version of real events, is set in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2013) during the long running Afghan war. Lt. Paul Rickson, a Navy SEAL Platoon Commander, is leading a team of 30 US and Afghan soldiers on a mission to clear hostile forces in Maiwand Village. After a long day of various hostile activities and clearing Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's), he faces a tough choice that is filled with various tensions. After he directs a missile attack from a drone onto an enemy position, he's ordered to conduct an on the ground Battle Damage Assessment (BDA), to confirm there are no civilian casualties. This would require some or all of his team crossing 800 meters in open territory, almost certainly drawing enemy fire. He's concerned about the real risks to his team vs the perceived benefit of a US-forces taken picture. His has to reconcile a conflicting sense of priorities, from the Rules of Engagement for his team, the directive from HQ and inputs from his team. The primary purpose of the case is to focus on lessons from his decision-making approach that might be beneficial for a young leader facing conflicting tensions, such as: a. The strategic directive to win hearts and minds, while training Afghan forces vs. the on the ground facts and circumstances facing the platoon commander and the threats to his team. b. The predictability of support systems (e.g. communications, HQ guidance, video surveillance, transport) that can have outsized impact on options and outcomes. c. How substantial risks and core values come together in deciding what to do for you and your team.
The case, which is a disguised version of real events, is set in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2013) during the long running Afghan war. Lt. Paul Rickson, a Navy SEAL Platoon Commander, is leading a team of 30 US and Afghan soldiers on a mission to clear hostile forces in Maiwand Village. After a long day of various hostile activities and clearing Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's), he faces a tough choice that is filled with various tensions. After he directs a missile attack from a drone onto an enemy position, he's ordered to conduct an on the ground Battle Damage Assessment (BDA), to confirm there are no civilian casualties. This would require some or all of his team crossing 800 meters in open territory, almost certainly drawing enemy fire. He's concerned about the real risks to his team vs the perceived benefit of a US-forces taken picture. His has to reconcile a conflicting sense of priorities, from the Rules of Engagement for his team, the directive from HQ and inputs from his team. The primary purpose of the case is to focus on lessons from his decision-making approach that might be beneficial for a young leader facing conflicting tensions, such as: a. The strategic directive to win hearts and minds, while training Afghan forces vs. the on the ground facts and circumstances facing the platoon commander and the threats to his team. b. The predictability of support systems (e.g. communications, HQ guidance, video surveillance, transport) that can have outsized impact on options and outcomes. c. How substantial risks and core values come together in deciding what to do for you and your team.
The June Oven was a smart oven which was capable of identifying food and cooking it accordingly. This type of smart oven represented the next step in the long history of oven and stove development. Due to the widespread use of traditional ovens, the market for the June Oven was potentially large. The June Oven was primarily a direct-to-consumer product, available through the company's own website, but it was available through some retail stores. June faced challenges from a relative decline in retail sales, the turn to online shopping, potential smart oven competitors, macroeconomic factors such as the U.S. China trade war, and internal problems such as software malfunctions.
Countries facing the greatest risk from automation are those that have labor economies in which many jobs involve manual or routine tasks that can be easily automated. Analyzing occupations in terms of their component parts provides a much richer way of looking at jobs than estimating the effects of automation more broadly.
The case follows Erica Mackey, CEO of early childhood education impact venture MyVillage, as she determines the growth path of the company after a recent fundraise. Particular issues explored include tensions between growth and mission, defining and measuring impact, and navigating interrelated areas of impact outside the core focus of an impact venture.
Uncertain how they would monetize their idea, they began with a pilot study in Redwood City. They formed groups of 10-12 seniors and one facilitator; the inexplicit goal was to create a sense of trust and cohesion such that each member would walk away with one friend. With time, they learnt that their programs could do so much more for communities than just provide friendship. By creating environments that enabled structured learning and peer-to-peer sharing, they could bridge many of the gaps in care and encourage members to look after each other and, interestingly, peer-pressure them into looking after themselves. Moshe and Darin realized that being the convener of these communities placed Wider Circle in a unique position in the healthcare value chain, which was attractive from the perspective of healthcare plans. The Wider Circle program could be a way for plans to improve the care experience and reduce costs as well to attract and retain members. Four years on, Moshe and Darin now had clinical validation that their programs were effective and had shown that their business model could generate healthy unit economics. As they prepared to scale and raise their series B financing, their minds were flooded with numerous questions, especially around scaling a people intensive business. Would they be able to identify, recruit, and train facilitators fast enough? Would they be able to recreate at scale the community experience members so loved? Would they be able to sell their program to enough health plans to have meaningful impact on elderly care? Reaching their next milestones would entail scaling from 5,000 to 50,000 members and increasing their revenue 10-fold - this would be their biggest challenge yet and they knew that if they couldn't address these questions, success was not guaranteed.
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (Huawei) was the world's largest telecommunications equipment provider, and was widely acknowledged to be the leader in developing fifth generation (5G) mobile network systems. In 2018-2019, the US government took a series of steps to restrict Huawei's business with the US government and US companies, citing security concerns. Huawei needed to craft a response that would minimize damage to its financial position, protect its leading position in 5G equipment, and allow it to continue to expand its overall business.
New research links leaders' actions in their personal lives with outcomes for their firms. The researchers used crime databases, private investigators, tax and property records, and other sources to identify executives with personal legal records and ones with unusually materialistic lifestyles. They then looked for correlations between those traits and certain on-the-job behaviors. Across four studies, they found that leaders with legal records were more likely than their law-abiding counterparts to engage in stock trades made on the basis of insider information and that their companies were more likely than others to have submitted fraudulent financial statements to the SEC. Materialistic leaders, for their part, tended to helm firms in which other executives made intentional and unintentional reporting errors. They were more likely than frugal leaders to take risks, and they got lower scores on CSR measures. Simply having governance structures in place across a firm is not enough, the researchers conclude, because individuals have very different appetites for taking chances and breaking rules.
Ads tell us about attractive new offerings we might want to try. But it could be they also make us feel discontent with what we currently have--and diminish our sense of well-being in the process. When researchers looked at survey data on the life satisfaction of nearly a million people in 27 European countries and compared it with the annual ad spending in those nations, they found an inverse relationship between the two. When ad spending went up, national happiness went down.
Madan Mohanka, Managing Director of Tega Industries, a start-up organization, was reviewing the marketing strategy and plan for introducing new improved wear-resistant rubber products in India in mining and metal processing industries. The case describes products, product characteristics, potential market, likely demand, customer behaviour, current and likely competition, segmentation, targeting, marketing strategy and marketing plan including segment coverage strategy, pricing, promotions, marketing organization, and the marketing and promotion budget. Participants can be challenged to evaluate objectives, marketing strategy, marketing plan, pricing, promotion, and marketing organization.
The case of mysterious deaths of children caused by eating litchi, a popular fruit in Bihar, India provides the classic context. There have been instances of deaths of children in Bihar after eating Litchi and this has been going on for years. Many children were brought to hospitals with acute neurological symptoms like swelling of the brain, seizures, and convulsions, although strangely they seemed to have been healthy just moments before. These symptoms of the sick children were treated for Acute Encephalitis Syndrome in the region. It left the families of the children and neighborhoods perplexed, and even the doctors were at a loss in understanding the cause of the deaths. It was finally diagnosed in 2014, based on a research finding published in Lancet that these deaths could be due to hypoglycemia triggered by children eating litchi and skipping dinner thereafter. Another study by John had concluded similarly. They recommended administration of dextrose as the treatment which helped bring down the incidences. The government did try to implement their recommendations. However, the disease struck again in 2019 with the death of about 125 children. The disease and the deaths again brought to the fore all the questions. This case is about the reality of conflicting evidence, how the issue was handled by the government and the stakeholders' response. At the next level, the challenge for the government is how to communicate the diagnosis, treatment protocol, and precautions to the parents regarding the risk their children are exposed to on eating litchi when they are hungry. There was consensus about the findings and treatment procedures. Given this, the challenge is in communicating this to the healthcare providers as well as to the parents and the general public. It has to be done without creating panic about litchi. The government, as well as the growers, had the overriding concern that the controversy should not damage the market for litchi.
The case presents the status of sports in general in India under official federations, place and shape of the football game before and after introduction of premier leagues, and global trend and debate around games going the path of premier leagues. In India, sports, in general, is dominated by the official federations whose performance track has been dismal. The premier football league is at the early stage of its life cycle. Marketization of the game has succeeded in bringing to the fore the latent demand and passion for the game. It has brought forth initial success in professionalizing the game, identifying the talents, upgrading the infrastructure, etc. However, the purists would like to voice their concern about unbridled marketization in terms of dominance of star players, financial viability, conflict with national games, etc. This case is built around All India Football Federation (AIFF) at the center and AIFF weighing the development of premier leagues and latest rift between two leagues. The challenge for AIFF is: Can it calibrate the contours and trajectory of the game to keep in check unhindered marketization? Can and should the official federation influence the rules of game, terms of engagement of investors, players, agents, etc. or best leave it to the leagues; and their influence on the game once the floodgates are opened? Or, is marketization such a juggernaut that it rolls on its path sidestepping regulations and national fervors? Can something be learnt from other sectors in protecting national brand against the onslaught of global brands in the context of international management?
Anurag Bhatt (AB), Managing Director (MD) of Coats Indonesia, was on a flight from Bangalore to Singapore on his way to Jakarta after a vacation. On the flight, he was reflecting on an issue that he had encountered just before the vacation but not yet addressed. It would definitely be one of the first issues he would have to handle on his return. An effort to fill a senior position, Head of Procurement, currently occupied by an expatriate, had not been received with enthusiasm by those who seemed to have the potential to take on the role. One-on-one conversations with the potential candidates had not helped as each one suggested the name of another person as more suitable for the role. He had faced similar difficulties in recruiting Indonesians to occupy other senior roles. Nothing in his past experience helped him understand how these people were unwilling to accept an opportunity for career growth. One of the goals that had been assigned to him as he accepted his current role was to reduce the number of expatriates in senior ranks in Coats Indonesia. This was not feasible unless local managers were willing to rise to the occasion. He needed a way to address the lack of enthusiasm among managers in Coats Indonesia to take on positions with greater responsibility. He had some ideas, based on the short experience in the country, but was willing to get inputs from anyone who might have a better understanding of the drivers of behavior of Indonesians in general and managers in particular.