Launched in 2014, Amazon's Echo and Echo Dot smart speakers led the category's rapid adoption by households and enabled the penetration of artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistants into the everyday lives of millions of people. By 2019, Alexa the virtual brains behind Amazon's smart speakers was able to play music, create reminders, get weather reports, control lights and other home appliances, shop, and do much more in response to voice commands. Amazon had developed significant new capabilities for Alexa, developed an entire ecosysgtem around it, expanded Alexa's user base to more than 100 million users, and made significant progress in monetizing its digital voice assistant. However, Alexa's progress also created new challenges for Amazon, its Alexa-enabled customers, and society at large. Amazon needed to identify and address these challenges in order to encourage continued consumer acceptance and preclude detrimental government or regulatory action.
In 2015, Mauricio Macri became President of Argentina and declared solving the energy crisis as one of his top priorities. When Macri's administration attempted to raise utility tariffs, however, it faced loud protests from citizens. In search of solutions to growing shortages, the government seized on Argentina's still largely untapped, but potentially vast renewable energy sector and created an ambitious program called RenovAr (renew in Spanish). By 2016, the country's share of renewable energy stood at less than 2 percent of the power mix. RenovAr's goal was to raise that percentage to 20 percent by 2025. More renewable energy in the electric system was a welcome improvement, but seamlessly integrating renewables into electricity grids had proven challenging in many countries. Argentina's cash-strapped wholesale electricity market, which for the better part of two decades had seen few upgrades, would have to contend with a host of expected and unexpected bottlenecks.
Since its establishment in 1973, LUXOR SA had come to occupy a strong position in the international market. However, important changes were occurring in the international computer market which the company had to take into account. Increased market pressure and a more demanding clientele was drastically changing the role of salespeople; instead of selling ready-made products, they began working with the clients, identifying their specific product needs as well as advising them on appropriate market strategies. Salespeople had to have higher technical and scientific competences, financial and marketing knowledge, and negotiation skills. It seemed evident that LUXOR SA needed to design a program that would prepare and help people progressively handle organization and market changes. In late 2003, the new CEO decided that a structural reorganization and policy revision would be necessary to maintain a viable position in the global market. Keeping in mind the external changes in the business, LUXOR SA intended to take the steps needed to become an innovative, trend-setting, marketing-driven organization.
Mobileye was an Israeli company, officially headquartered in The Netherlands, which was a Tier 2 supplier to the global automobile industry. This short case updates Mobileye's business performance and strategy, following the acquisition by Intel in 2017.
In 2019, Bill Cummings, founder of Cummings Properties and Cummings Foundation and billionaire signer of the Giving Pledge, is winding down his roles at his company and foundation. How should the management move the company forward?
Uber Technologies, the privately held ride-sharing service and logistics platform, suffered a series of PR crises during 2017. As Uber's legal and PR turmoil increased, Travis Kalanick, cofounder and longtime CEO, was forced to resign as CEO, while retaining his directorship position on the nine-member board. His June 2017 resignation was meant to calm the uproar, but it instead increased investor uncertainty. In an effort to put the recent past behind the company, the directors of Uber scheduled a board meeting for October 3, 2017, to vote on critical proposals from new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi that were focused essentially on one question: How should Uber be governed now that Kalanick had stepped down as CEO? In this case, students are asked to consider the responsibilities of the Uber board of directors to the company's investors and shareholders, employees, management, and contractors as the company moves rapidly towards its long-awaited IPO. Included with the case text are board member roles for use in a role play simulating board discussion.
This fictionalized case explores an increasingly common challenge for private equity firms in the 21st century: how to drive shareholder returns via strategic repositioning and operational improvements, and not rely solely on financial engineering. Set in the "100-day planning workshop", a full-day conference typically held shortly after a deal closing, the case follow Sarah Chiang, VP at New York-based private equity firm Cahill Freeman Partners as she convened management, board, and industry advisors to examine important questions. The deal itself was a bold "twofer", a simultaneous leveraged buy-out and merger of the $1.7 billion Dallas-based Foster Industries and the $1.3 billion Cleveland-based SmartServices-in the outsourced facilities management (OFM) space. Despite a strong investment thesis and financing scenarios, the deal faced substantial strategic, governance, and managerial challenges. How would they pursue growth and margin when the two companies had different business models? How would they trim costs? Did management need outside support to execute? Did it make sense to reorganize company across its sprawling footprint? What about the social issues-at every level up to and including top management-between two companies that were fierce rivals for years? And finally, what should the PE firm and management prioritize as the best use of cash-reinvestment, acquisitions, or returning cash to shareholders? The investment committee saw a perfect deal on paper, but was this indeed the "perfect deal" or did it have the potential to turn into the "perfect storm"?
This case challenges students to solve a riddle: How did Motorola's share in the Indian market fall so dramatically while cell phone adoption in India skyrocketed and Motorola was launching one of its most successful products globally? The case is set in the mid-2000s, when Motorola had just rolled out the Razr phone and the firm was approaching the ten-year anniversary of its entry to the Indian market. Motorola's market share in India had fallen from as high as 31% in 1998 to less than 5% in 2006. This dramatic downturn came at a time of immense growth in the Indian cell phone market.
Jonas Spangenberg, CEO of BoKlok, an entrepreneurial industrialized construction venture focused on providing low-cost housing to a sharply defined, relatively low-price market segment, must identify and manage forces within three contexts as he develops and guides BoKlok's growth strategy: the residential construction industry, and Skanksa and IKEA, BoKlok's parent companies. Students are asked to consider Spangenberg's strategic actions in relation to the external context-an industry beginning to feel the impact of information technologies (digitalization) in the design, manufacture and assembly phases of construction-and in relation to the company's internal context: parent companies Skanska and IKEA. Organizationally, BoKlok was nested within Skanska, one of the top ten construction companies in the world, and was dependent on Skanska for BoKlok's continued growth and development. Yet, historically, culturally, and from a brand perspective, BoKlok was patterned after IKEA, the low-cost furniture retailer. Spangenberg's most direct strategic challenges relate to fine-tuning BoKlok's business strategy in light of industry turbulence and, with the support of Skanska, developing a strategy for entering the U.K. market, and preparing his organization for executing the U.K. strategy. The first case can be used on its own to develop a deep understanding of the conditions that led to the founding of BoKlok and to clearly identify its novel business strategy and the success that it has been able to achieve by January 2018. The second case is set in September 2018, at the time that the Swedish housing market entered a downturn and BoKlok and parent company Skanska were dealing with the effects of contraction in their home market while preparing for BoKlok's expansion into the United Kingdom.
Striking the right balance between competence and credibility is essential to digital leaders' success, but it depends on what a company expects its CDO to do. While external candidates can bring critical digital competence and experience to organizations seeking a better digital footing, they may struggle to build the necessary credibility for organizational change.
Jane Joins the Club is a fictional case that presents a crisis - and an opportunity - at the peak of the career of an ambitious executive. The setting is the boardroom of a US manufacturing company, but the problems apply to any team environment where cultural rigidity, stereotypes, and process dysfunction threaten good decision-making. The case raises important questions about the value of diversity in a team environment, and will engage any student who has been an outsider on an insular, club-like team.
Amazon's initial request for proposals for a second headquarters (HQ2), released in September 2017, attracted great attention and, ultimately, proposals from 238 cities and regions in North America. This case discusses the company's decision to split its HQ2 between two locations, and the ensuing response from local politicians and the public.
In November 2018, Five Guys, a fast-casual restaurant chain based in the United States, faced an important decision related to its future promotion strategy. Five Guys had started in 1986 as a small company with limited resources. The company had always avoided traditional advertising media, such as television, radio, print, and billboard advertisements. As a result of the company's success over the years, the founder and chief executive officer had a significantly larger promotional budget than ever before; he needed to develop a promotional strategy for the future. In particular, he needed to determine how to allocate the company's promotional budget. In which promotional media should he invest the company's promotional funds?
On April 1, 2017, Flashfood.Shop, a new brand in self-service retailing of fresh meals, was founded in Dalian, Liaoning province, China. The self-service retail platform provided office workers with affordable and convenient fresh meals 24 hours per day. Flashfood.Shop used intelligent self-catering machines as its physical sales terminals and it used an intelligent self-catering system as its online service interface. By the end of June 2018, Flashfood.Shop had launched 51 catering machines, where customers could buy fresh meals. The company had 14 catering suppliers, 135 different types of catering products, and over 500,000 customers. However, along with its success, Flashfood.Shop incurred a loss in five consecutive quarters. After its establishment, the only source of income for the company was the sale of its catered products. However, operating costs were high due to the instability of the hardware and software systems, as well as low operating efficiency and other factors. Faced with these issues, the start-up's founder and general manager was wondering how to resolve his company's ongoing losses.
In early 2016, ChimpChange Limited, a financial technology (fintech) start-up, had started operations in California and already had more than 80,000 customers. The company needed capital to acquire more customers in order to become cash-flow positive, as was the case with most start-ups. ChimpChange Limited should have been able to attain the break-even number of customers within another year or so, but it needed capital to execute a marketing campaign to attract these customers. It had already undergone several series of funding rounds. At this point, should it return for a series C funding round or should it raise funds through an initial public offering (IPO)? If it were to opt for an IPO, where should this take place?