The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) became the most valuable company listed on the New Zealand stock exchange in 2018 by capitalizing on a biochemical discovery related to the protein composition of cow's milk. Because many people find the A1 protein difficult to digest, and that protein may be related to other health problems (e.g., diabetes), a2MC sells dairy products containing the A2 protein only primarily in Australia and China. With sales of NZ$730 million in 2017 and a desire to grow, a2MC formed a strategic relationship with Fonterra, the world's sixth largest dairy company, in February 2018. But one month later, Nestle, the world's largest dairy company, confirmed that it had begun selling A2 infant formula in China, and people speculated that it would start selling A2 products in Australia and New Zealand later in the year. a2MC's retiring CEO Geoffrey Babidge and newly appointed CEO Janyne Hrdlicka must decide how to respond to Nestle's entry. Can this successful entrant become an incumbent with a sustainable competitive advantage?
In 2019, The Vanguard Group with $5.1 trillion in assets under management was the largest global provider of mutual funds, and the second largest provider of EXCHANGE traded funds after BlackRock, which had $6.3 trillion in assets under management. The case is set in 2019 with Vanguard's CEO Tim Buckley as the protagonist. He is facing several challenges: 1) Vanguard's traditional cost leadership strategy built on its lowest expense ratio in the industry (and a strategic activity system supporting it) has been mitigated by its competitors; 2) Vanguard has been a laggard in technology adoption and the use of sophisticated IT systems and AI; 3) With the rise of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), many question whether Vanguard's philosophy of passive long-term investments is still appealing to younger customers; and 4) Vanguard is mainly a U.S. domestic player, while many of its competitors are globally active.
Intuit India, a fully owned subsidiary of Intuit Inc., a US multinational company, has been in the business of developing financial software for small businesses, accountants and individuals. The case is about how Intuit's India unit got to be recognized as India's no 1 ""great place to work"" through a competitive assessment among 600 of India's employers in 2017. This accomplishment was significant for Intuit India because it had toppled corporate giants like Google and American Express who had held on to the top rank in the previous years. The case narrates the history of Intuit's seven-year journey to the top rank in the Great Place to Work rankings and engages students in learning about what it takes to build a great place to work and sustain it over time. Intuit India was established in 2005, and grew to 1,050 employees on its rolls by 2017. Intuit India had consciously worked towards building a great place to work since 2010. The next seven years had been a roller-coaster ride, full of surprises and ups and downs. In its attempt to break into the top 10 and reduce its variability on the rankings, Intuit did many things that can give us insights into what it takes to build a great place to work. The case raises many questions and offers several insights in how sound HR and People Leadership practices can build a vibrant organizational culture and help build a great place to work.
This note explores the first principles of pricing financial contracts. Debt contracts go by many names, but the term bond is used in this note to denote any market-traded debt contract. The note is divided into three sections. The first section examines the simplest of financial contracts-the zero-coupon risk-free bond contract. The second section examines bonds with the additional complexity of coupon payments. The third section examines the expectations theory, the fundamental theory for why yields vary over different maturities, and introduces the construct of a yield curve. The basic concepts and principles associated with the risk-free bonds discussed in this note provide an important foundation for understanding more complex securities.
To achieve positive economic, environmental, and social benefits, many incumbent manufacturing firms attempt to apply circular economy principles to their business practices. However, these firms often struggle to change their existing linear business models to circular models because the steps required for successful transformation are still poorly understood. Based on a multiple case study of eight business model transformation journeys, this article proposes a roadmap for circular business model transformation. It provides a step-by-step process to enable circular transition, allowing companies to meet environmental, social, and financial objectives and proactively address sustainability.
The emerging growth of the sharing economy demonstrates the need to understand the factors driving this growth and the business models and practices of sharing economy service (SES) companies. Using case vignettes as the research method, this article analyzes the operations of a large number of these companies and presents a set of building blocks that are useful for generating the business models of SES companies. An examination of the successes and failures in the practices of SES companies provides a number of managerial recommendations.
Fulfillment strategies that offer consumers a consistent shopping experience across different channels and devices through a variety of last-mile delivery options have emerged as a powerful engine for growth in the retail sector. To thrive in this new environment, retailers need to (re)configure their last-mile supply networks to achieve better alignment between delivery responsiveness, product variety, and convenience. This article reviews multiple case studies of leading retailers across geographical regions, maps these retailers' network configurations, and conducts consumer surveys to examine how retailers operate their last-mile distribution to cope with omnichannel demands. This study develops a typology consisting of four ideal forms of last-mile supply networks differentiated by the speed of delivery responsiveness and level of product variety. It proposes a set of prescriptive guidelines for retailers to undertake reconfiguration of their last-mile distribution.
Digital piracy challenges firms by reducing revenues and shifting consumption habits. Recently, some firms have successfully leveraged business models against piracy, but the understanding about this phenomenon still lacks depth and structure. This study examines the characteristics of digital piracy in some of the most affected industries; presents comparative case studies of two iconic firms, Spotify and Netflix; and analyzes their digital business model responses. This article then considers a generic digital content distributor and explains how business model responses contribute to generating and capturing value. Theoretical and practical implications for technological innovation, firm diversification, and network competition are also discussed.
The future of health care may change dramatically as entrepreneurs offer solutions that change how we prevent, diagnose, and cure health conditions, using artificial intelligence (AI). This article provides a timely and critical analysis of AI-driven health care startups and identifies emerging business model archetypes that entrepreneurs from around the world are using to bring AI solutions to the marketplace. It identifies areas of value creation for the application of AI in health care and proposes an approach to designing business models for AI health care startups.
Business models that unlock efficiency across entire networks are becoming increasingly common in the so-called sharing economy. However, the principles underlying these models can also be used in B2B settings. This article proposes some simple rules that managers can use in a systematic process to build similar disruptive business models. It illustrates these rules by deconstructing the go-to-market strategy that resulted in Vizio becoming the dominant flat panel TV vendor in the United States.
A new era of disruptive technologies and changing business practices is moving a number of industries toward the "real-time" enterprise. With increased capabilities and intensity of online digital platforms, managers need to deliver goods and services faster, and to respond rapidly to customers within a disruptive and dynamic business environment. It is therefore critical to ask what "real time" means to managers, what real-time management entails, and learn how enterprises capture business value through real-time management, especially when the ability to adjust and operate in real time must be ingrained in organization's culture, structures, and processes. We surveyed over 1,000 senior managers to better understand those issues and to get broader insights into enabling technologies and organizational mechanisms needed to transition more effectively into real-time management. Interviews provided deeper insights about managerial perceptions of real time, and about how, depending on the manager's focus, real time generates value to the enterprise. We show that managers, who use "real time" in different ways, articulate different facets of experience and practices, leading to the Fast & Flow framework. Thinking of real time as "Fast & Flow" presents a sensemaking that is better attuned to the organization, the market, and a technology-driven state of flux. We provide insights for managers to build a "Fast & Flow" responsive enterprise and to transition to real-time management.
The case describes the efforts of GNFC, a large publicly held chemicals and fertilizers company, in establishing a business of manufacturing and selling products made from neem-oil, which was instrumental in creating livelihood opportunities for more than 450,000 individuals from the economically underprivileged segment. GNFC was a government owned commercial enterprise that was listed in the Indian stock market. Like all commercial enterprises, their goal was maximizing shareholders wealth through their primary activities-manufacturing and sales of fertilizers and chemicals. GNFC's Neem project started with the intention of preventing diversion of subsidized fertilizer to the undeserved, involved landless labourers and marginal farmers in collection of neem seeds, which was used to extract neem oil for coating urea and to create products such as soaps and shampoos. Since neem-oil based products could be sold in the market to earn revenues, the entire neem project had the potential to be financially sustainable. Compared to GNFC's fertilizer and chemical business, the revenue generated by the neem project was insignificant. However, the neem project was creating a positive impact on the lives of the economically underprivileged, while being financially sustainable itself and GNFC had the ambition of scaling the project across India. The case ends by highlighting some of the potential challenges that GNFC would face in their efforts in scaling as well as encouraging other similar organizations to adopt their model.
This is a three-part case on India's largest consumer goods company, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), a subsidiary of Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch multinational company. The case traces HUL's journey from inception till the end of 2018 with an emphasis on the last two decades. The case also documents developments at Unilever during the last two decades. Students analyze HUL's strategy and performance in the context of the changing competitive landscape in India as well as the strategic imperatives of Unilever. The case also helps them examine the impact of the evolving parent-subsidiary relationship on HUL's strategic choices.
Akshaya Patra was founded by ISKCON (religious foundation) in 2000. It started by serving Mid-Day Meals to about 1,500 students in 5 government schools. By 2017, it was serving ~ 1.7 million children in 33 locations across 11 states in India. Akshaya Patra had built state-of-the-art "mega-kitchens" along with a well-developed food supply chain. The meals were prepared in a hygienic environment but, to ensure safety and taste, a quality check was also carried out for every batch, before dispatching the same for consumption. However, the exponential growth was a cause of concern. The cost of meal preparation after reimbursement by the government kept increasing, but the donations that had helped bridge this gap in the past were not keeping pace. In addition, the organization had set an ambitious "Mission 2020" to reach 5 million children daily by 2020. It was this challenge of scaling up that forced Akshaya Patra to look at various options and led to the setting up of Akshaya Nidhi, a for-profit organization in support of Akshaya Patra. Over a period of 3 years, Akshaya Nidhi had grown steadily and entered various businesses. In such a scenario Vinay, CEO, Akshaya Nidhi, was wondering about the appropriate path forward, that is, which opportunities to pursue, and the related organization structure that was needed to support the same.
Stellar Auto Ltd. (SAL) is upgrading its current Galaxy product to Galaxy X. With pricing expected at a 20% discount to the current Galaxy model, Galaxy X is expected to generate sales of approximately 26,000/year. To achieve financial feasibility, SAL plans to increase the local content from the existing 12% in Galaxy to 75% in Galaxy X. To meet the sales requirements, SAL plans to operate its plant at the rate of 120 cars/day for 236 days/year, giving itself a capacity of 28,320 cars/year. Feasibility studies have shown that this target can be achieved with the current setup in the body and paint shops, but cannot be achieved as per current arrangements in the final assembly area (FAA). FAA comprises 84 work stations in three areas - trim, chassis, and final (assembly and testing). To meet the increased production requirements, various sub-assemblies needed capacity enhancement and there was no space lineside for the same. The matter was further complicated by the fact that since Galaxy X was being introduced in 6 variants, significant space was also needed to store inventory. After significant analysis and negotiations, the final open issue was with regard to the cockpit subassembly which the supplier Instruments Sophistiques D'auto (ISD) agreed to do. The cockpit subassembly is planned to be installed at station 9 in the FAA, and could not be shifted to a later station. So SAL, along with ISD, had to design a system to make the cockpit subassembly at ISD and deliver the same, in right sequence at the right time, at station 9. The system design required the determination of various factors. This case study identifies and determines the various system parameters that are needed to design such a system.
The case traces the growth of Asian Paints Limited ("APL") from being a small paint manufacturer in 1942 into the undisputed leader of the Indian paints industry. The case invites students to analyze the strategic decisions made by APL's management over its 75+ year journey and identify key factors that enabled the company to dominate this industry for the last five decades. The case enables students to unpack how a firm's strategy that is hidden in plain sight affords sustainable competitive advantage.
Faircent is a leading P2P lending platform in India and this case study traces the evolution of the FinTech platform. It illustrates the myriad challenges the firm had to navigate while establishing a collateral free peer lending platform in the financial sector in the absence of established regulations. As a P2P marketplace in India, Faircent built out a full-fledged loan analytics platform by bringing onboard lenders and borrowers by providing them online tools to discover each other and transact. The case brings forth viewpoints from different platform sides such as the lenders and borrowers, along with an analysis on how the firm has shaped policy regulations by actively engaging with the central regulators. This case can be used to teach the basics of multi-sided platform business models, the different actors in the platform business along with the concepts of platform envelopment and the various strategic options for Multi-Sided Platforms (MSPs) to fight envelopment, including racing to acquire customers. It should help the students appreciate the platform business model and the competitive differentiation it can bring in.