Discover some of the best ways to acknowledge and work through the fears of experimentation - while still embracing flexibility, creativity, and communication.
In 2018, the city of Montreal debated a ban on the commercial use of wood-burning ovens used by the city's famous and iconic bagel shops. This consideration came after a domestic ban on wood-burning ovens went into effect, and amid concerns about public health and a citywide effort to substantially reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020. City officials knew that commercial regulation of wood-fire bagel shop ovens could be perceived as a disruption of an important local tradition. But they also knew that failing to reduce environmental and health risks from wood burning would be seen as irresponsible. This case presents the dynamics of a situation in which environmental policy and regulation goes head-to-head with a city's culturally-important food.
Coesia was a privately owned group of industrial companies based in Bologna, Italy. The group went through a two-phase transformation journey when Isabella Serà gnoli became the full owner of the group. One of her first decisions was to name it Coesia, to symbolize cohesion and shared values among the group companies. Her vision was to build a professionally managed, value-driven, sufficiently diversified global group that would be sustainable in the long term. In 2010, Serà gnoli hired a non-Italian newcomer to the industry, Angelos Papadimitriou, as CEO. Six weeks into his tenure, Papadimitriou presented to the board an aggressive ambition of doubling the business by 2015. Achieving this ambition would require a second phase of transformation in terms of strategy, business model and organization. At that time, only one group company, G.D, was truly global. G.D. accounted for 62% of the group's revenues and 99% of its profits. However, it faced some market challenges and potential risks to its future profitability. Papadimitriou and his leadership team would have to develop an overall strategy to build a more balanced, diversified and global group while strengthening G.D. Coesia operated as a loose federation of independent companies each with its own structure, functions and processes. Aside from reshaping the strategy, the group would have to design a business model and an organizational structure to support its ambition of becoming a larger, more global group.
In 2007, Twentieth Century Fox faced a number of issues in the production of Avatar—a movie that was widely anticipated but had raised concerns in the production studios. Studio executives doubted the appeal of the plot and worried that audiences would not like the story. The movie needed to create an emotional appeal to attract audiences and make sufficient box office receipts. If the movie could not do this, Avatar would become one of the biggest money losers in the history of the movie industry. The project encountered many challenges in development—particularly in terms of time, budget, and technology, and the decision about whether to continue to invest or to pull the plug was extremely difficult. At what point did the risk become too significant? How should the studio decide when to go forward with a project and when to cancel it?
In January 2019, the telecommunications industry was under severe threat of disruption. Telecommunications companies (telcos), which had historically been able to cope with technological disruption by moving from first-generation through to fifth-generation cellular network technologies, were now threatened by digital service providers (DSPs)—firms that came with a new business model that threatened the telcos’ existing business models. Telcos were being forced to deliver only network connectivity, whereas DSPs had positioned themselves to deliver the more lucrative digital services directly to customers. The Norwegian telco Telenor Group (Telenor) decided to take up this battle by offering digital services to end-customers. However, doing so raised several important questions: Was full confrontation with large DSPs inevitable, or was there another way? How could Telenor switch from the old to the new business model? Was it possible to manage two conflicting business models under the same company?
Between 2016 and 2019, the India-based budget hotel start-up Oravel Stays Private Limited (OYO) expanded into nine countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. However, OYO faced several crises in its home country: contracted hoteliers of OYO threatened to file lawsuits against the start-up for breach of contract, and customers raised service quality issues. Critics believed that with such rapid internationalization, OYO’s founder was simply burning through the cash of venture capitalists. Nevertheless, the founder was determined to expand internationally while enhancing OYO’s service portfolio in India. Should he reconsider his decision to focus on international markets instead of the domestic market? Could legal issues in OYO’s home country create impediments to this growth plan? How should he deal with these issues?
WeWork, a successful company that provides shared workspaces, has grown rapidly since its founding in 2010 and was valued at $45 billion in 2018. WeWork was considered a progressive company with a strong focus on sustainability, evidenced by its public commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2023. As part of its rapid growth, WeWork received very large investments from SoftBank's Vision Fund. Much of the Vision Fund was funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which obtained its wealth from the sale of Saudi oil. This case presents the idea that WeWork's values may be in direct conflict with the values and actions of Saudi Arabia, yet WeWork continued to receive considerable funding from the kingdom. The case raises the question about a corporation's role in society and whether it has any responsibility to ensure its investors' values align with its own.
This case features CRM technology firm Salesforce, and its CEO, Marc Benioff. In 2015, the state of Indiana's new Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) was signed into law by then governor Mike Pence. The RFRA was criticized as legalizing blatant discrimination of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning (LGBTQ) community. Because Salesforce had recently expanded to Indianapolis and anticipated future growth there, Benioff decided to ban company travel to the state and threatened to reduce the company's presence in Indiana if RFRA was not repealed. Salesforce was joined by many other large corporations in vocalizing disagreement with RFRA and threatening to reduce or eliminate investment in Indiana. The case explores Benioff's decision to take a public and aggressive stand against the new Indiana law. Some disagreed with Benioff's extreme action that put the company at risk. Others applauded him for taking a stand.
In 2017, the new chairman of A. P. Møller-Maersk confronted one of the worst cyberattacks in history, which crippled the company's vast global shipping network that accounted for nearly 20 per cent of global container shipping. NotPetya was a particularly virulent strain of ransomware that, within seconds, destroyed Maersks's servers and personal computers around the world. Maersk's senior system administrators had warned the company that its network was vulnerable, but the necessary upgrades were never completed. How can the company recover from this devastating event? And how can it protect itself from cyberattacks in the future?
During the period 2011-2016, CEO and Chairman of Greek telecommunications company OTE Michael Tsamaz guided the company through a much needed transformation with a multi-pronged strategy.
Bonuses are an important part of any CEO's toolkit. This white paper outlines specific steps to follow in establishing or revamping a company's bonus structure, and how this part of the compensation system can reward outstanding results and help retain star performers. Computing bonuses with specific targets, and tallying the results on a quarterly rather than annual basis, for instance, will boost accountability and help keep managers and employees focused on reaching the specified goals.
In January 2016, the three partners of CampusHash Technologies LLP (CampusHash), an Indian start-up focused on conducting software training programs, had to make some pressing strategic decisions. CampusHash’s revenues had not grown as expected and the partners had to decide whether to continue with the existing business model or choose to pivot. While pivoting could potentially lead to a significant improvement in CampusHash’s performance, it could also lead to wide-spread organizational change and disruption, risking the survival of the start-up. Despite their constrained resources, the partners had to decide whether to pivot or not in the next two weeks, when they would present a business plan to angel investors to raise much-required funding.
In 2019 Walmart was still the world's largest company, with over $500 billion in annual revenue and operations around the world. Although it had mostly vanquished its rival discount retailers in the U.S., it was struggling to find the right growth strategy. Facing a mature U.S. market, it had looked to ecommerce and international sales as an engine of growth. Walmart leadership also faced intense competition from dominant online retailer Amazon. In such a competitive environment, how should Walmart respond to the reality that its traditional strengths no longer guaranteed robust growth?
In September 2018, the executive team at Ariadne Labs (Ariadne), a Boston-based organization dedicated to improving health systems through the discovery and implementation of simple tools, faced a number of strategic decisions. Chief among them, the seven-year-old organization needed to determine how it might establish and shepherd successful partnerships with a wide range of diverse entities-ranging from major international public health organizations like the World Bank to small non-profit implementing organizations.
In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online purchases through four interest-free installments. Customer advocacy and the brand's ability to improve customer acquisition for its retail partners had contributed to strong network effects, leading to rapid growth. In the United States, however, competitors were abundant, the regulatory environment was unfamiliar, brand awareness was lacking and retailers were seeking to partner with service providers capable of supporting an omnichannel experience. This new set of challenges required Afterpay to reevaluate its strategy: should the company fast-track the rollout of its offline offering in the United States or was it prudent to wait to acquire a larger customer base to justify the capital expenditure and operational changes this would require?
Kara Medoff Barnett, executive director of American Ballet Theatre (ABT), widely regarded as one of the world's premier ballet companies, faces several challenges. It is June 2018. Despite its prestige, the company's $45 million annual budget and $22 million endowment are far below those of peers like New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and The Royal Ballet in London. Also, although those institutions rely heavily on talent developed in-house, ABT has traditionally mostly attracted dancers who had been trained elsewhere. Known for having featured some of the world's most high-profile stars, ABT's biggest current star arguably is Misty Copeland. What can Barnett learn about Copeland's rise to fame that could help her have ABT's other dancers' stories resonate? Looking to the future of the ballet company more generally, how could Barnett promote a "constellation of stars," as she puts it, rather than bank on one or two individual superstars? And what is the right balance for ABT between developing and acquiring talent?
The case is about Ecoalf, a Spanish sustainable fashion brand that manufactures garments, sneakers and accessories from recycled materials. By providing information on Ecoalf's products and initiatives, while simultaneously illustrating the difficulty of balancing social and financial goals, this case introduces an interesting real-world setting that touches upon various issues related to social innovation, entrepreneurship, strategy, CSR and ethics. Particularly, the case offers insights on the delicate phase in the growth of a firm in which sales are booming and the company is expanding, while the company still does not make a profit and its long-term continuity is still uncertain. The case confronts students with questions such as 'What strategic decisions should be made to ensure Ecoalf's long-term profitability?' and 'How should social and financial objectives be balanced?', and allows them to explore these questions using real company and market information.