We Sell Everything in Software' WSES Inc. is a products company and specializes in software solutions for different industries such as defense, clinical research, consumer goods, capital markets, security, banks, and insurance among others. One of the divisions of WSES focuses on enterprise software product. Every quarter, Jack Williams, CEO had to give forecast of sales to the stakeholders for the enterprise software product division. The forecast which he had given for the last quarter was USD 2.4 billion whereas the actual sales booking was only USD 1.48 Billion. Jack wanted more accurate forecasting of sales and he had a discussion with Michael Summers, the CFO. Michael explained to Jack that this was something which was not in his hand since he was taking the numbers from Ben Osborne, Vice President of Marketing. Ben explained to Jack that the process they were following was taking the last quarter's sales and adding their estimate of 1.5% to it. Jack did not approve of this method. He felt that since WSES has such rich sales data over the years, they should be having a way to hear what the data is saying. They engaged Mark, with Ph.D. in Statistics, to understand if they could find a structured way to forecast the sales number based on historical data available with WSES.
Nick Sugimoto, CEO of Honda Innovations-the open innovation organization of Honda, has to decide how to extend his organization's approach to innovation across the world. Honda Innovations dates back to 2000 when Honda created Honda Research Institute in Silicon Valley. Since then, the organization has evolved through various models from a venture capital fund to its current form as Honda's corporate innovation effort. The case describes the various approaches to innovation between Honda and outside firms and how it fits into an increasingly dynamic car industry.
Almost 500 million people are without electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. Governments and public utilities are challenged to bring generation and distribution to most of them. Considerable promise exists in "off-grid" or "mini-grid" technologies, notably using renewable energy from wind and photovoltaics in areas that have plentiful supplies of both yet limited access to traditional fuels due to other infrastructure constraints. Cross-Boundary is an experienced consulting firm and transaction facilitator run by several Harvard and Stanford MBAs, some with recent military experience. In the case, the company needs to analyze and select which of two nations in Africa to enter next (Tanzania or Ghana) based on many aspects of each nation, has to decide which kinds of customers to serve who will compensate it directly for electricity, and whether to partner with developers and contractors or build that capability in-house. Critically, the company has to evaluate as it matures whether it should be a) an aggregator of capital from multiple investing and lending sources, investing in a vendor agnostic manner into multiple energy developers and projects which it identifies from afar; or b), whether to be primarily a large scale multi-national competitive energy developer and project delivery company needing to attract capital from many sources, all of whom are selecting between several other developers and investment opportunities. What is their key value added and where can they build a defensible strategy? Which one best accomplishes the goal of matching up money and projects to help illuminate Africa?
In 2015, a surprise presidential election result seemed to imperil Chinese investments in Sri Lanka, which were associated with China's Belt and Road Initiative to build global infrastructure. In the previous decade, China had undertaken two major projects in the country: the construction of a port in the poor district of Hambantota (also the previous president's hometown), for which Sri Lanka borrowed 1.2 bn USD from the China Ex-Im bank, and a major real estate project outside of Colombo. The new administration pursued renegotiation of both contracts. In 2016, a Chinese state-owned company purchased the asset of the Hambantota port, generating concerns about sovereignty in Sri Lanka and Chinese naval ambitions in Delhi and Washington, DC. This case explores the dynamics of Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, a large-scale infrastructure and connectivity project launched under its powerful leader, Xi Jinping, as well as the politics and economics of sovereign borrowing in the age of Chinese lending. Did Sri Lanka fall victim to a sort of "debt diplomacy," or did the Chinese side fail to understand Sri Lanka's domestic political landscape? Was the sale of the asset the right choice for Sri Lanka? The right investment for China Merchants Group, which bought the 99-year lease?
The case describes the challenges related to topline enhancement faced by Sparsh Nephrocare, a growing chain of dialysis centers in India. In the early years of its operations (2010-2015), Sparsh grew mainly by opening new centers and focused on cost leadership to maintain profitability. However, as Sparsh's founders, Gaurav Porwal and Saurav Panda, look to raise Series B funding, they are faced with the challenge of how to fuel the next phase of growth at the existing centers. Any option worth investigating must ensure that the company's relationships with various stakeholders in a fragmented ecosystem are not adversely affected. This includes ensuring good outcomes for patients and preserving the autonomy of nephrologists and the importance of the hospitals that house these dialysis centers.
DHAN was a non-government organization with a difference. It was neither a philanthropic organization nor a service organization but a development organization focused on grassroots development aided by professional management. At the same time, it had a clear vision of being only an enabling institution rather than a directing agency. Dedicated to the mission of poverty eradication through grassroots development action, DHAN had made a significant impact on the Indian scene in the years since its inception in 1997. By 2017, it had touched the lives of 1.5 million households and was poised to reach out to another one million households over the next five years. In its mission to combat poverty, DHAN initially employed two major thematic interventions, namely, community banking and water management. However, over a period of time, it forayed into several other domains such as healthcare, education and livelihood generation in response to the dynamic requirements of its community of beneficiaries, specifically, the marginalized and the poorest of the poor in India. This case explores the theme of sustainable livelihoods and how interventions in this sphere need to be viewed and managed in an integrated manner with a conscious focus on the conservation of the larger ecosystem in which they are embedded. The case describes DHAN's various initiatives and interventions in the sustainable livelihoods arena, the challenges it encountered along the way and its innovative responses to those challenges.
The case discusses how Pepperfry, India's largest online furniture retailer, disrupted the furniture and home decor market while overcoming the challenges of India's weak infrastructure, age-old methods of buying and selling furniture from local carpentry shops, lack of consumer trust in e-commerce and a massive geography. By 2018 Pepperfry had grown exponentially to control over 60% of the online furniture business in the country. However, several questions regarding its current and future trajectory remained. First, despite controlling costs and significantly expanding revenues, it was not profitable. What could it do to achieve profitability? Second, in response to the demands of the market, Pepperfry embarked on an omnichannel strategy, establishing 34 studios in Tier 1 cities with targeted expansion to 70 studios by 2019. How could it manage this added online-offline complexity, while still staying on track to break even? Finally, the competitive space had significantly heated up, with the arrival of IKEA (September 2018), and with Flipkart's (acquired by Walmart) growing focus on the furniture segment. Did Pepperfry have the systems, brand name and agility to respond to these challenges? Or will the disruptor be disrupted?
Case A is set in 2016. Trung Dung is the founder of iCare Benefits (iCare), a social enterprise established to aid low-income workers. His background included studying computer science in the US and successfully working in the American software industry. Trung returned to Vietnam to discover that many low-income workers had to borrow heavily for basic household necessities, especially migrant workers who moved to the city with nothing. How could he help? Trung decided to tackle the related problems of lack of access to the formal financial sector and the workers' lack of basic consumer durable goods. He partnered with employers, global manufacturers and financial institutions to develop a third-party employee benefits programme that would help low-income migrant workers afford basic goods. iCare would undertake retail functions to enable migrant workers to buy consumer goods. Using an innovative retail model, iCare would provide workers with zero-interest procurement loans for up to six months. His value proposition to partners allowed for a collaborative setup that permitted the social enterprise to operate without donations. Case B continues in 2018. iCare has been successful in reducing borrowing from other sources at usurious rates. Many workers now have access to financing and consequently basic consumer durable goods. Trung is able to scale up and reach many more workers. However, he wanted to help existing members as well. He would start to offer additional consumer discretionary products and services in the areas of education, healthcare and insurance. How might he further improve the lives of low income workers?
Case A is set in 2016. Trung Dung is the founder of iCare Benefits (iCare), a social enterprise established to aid low-income workers. His background included studying computer science in the US and successfully working in the American software industry. Trung returned to Vietnam to discover that many low-income workers had to borrow heavily for basic household necessities, especially migrant workers who moved to the city with nothing. How could he help? Trung decided to tackle the related problems of lack of access to the formal financial sector and the workers' lack of basic consumer durable goods. He partnered with employers, global manufacturers and financial institutions to develop a third-party employee benefits programme that would help low-income migrant workers afford basic goods. iCare would undertake retail functions to enable migrant workers to buy consumer goods. Using an innovative retail model, iCare would provide workers with zero-interest procurement loans for up to six months. His value proposition to partners allowed for a collaborative setup that permitted the social enterprise to operate without donations. Case B continues in 2018. iCare has been successful in reducing borrowing from other sources at usurious rates. Many workers now have access to financing and consequently basic consumer durable goods. Trung is able to scale up and reach many more workers. However, he wanted to help existing members as well. He would start to offer additional consumer discretionary products and services in the areas of education, healthcare and insurance. How might he further improve the lives of low income workers?
Ford's F-Series of trucks were first introduced in 1948, and ever since they have represented American identity for their consumers. Both earned media, in movies like Urban Cowboy, and Ford's paid media positioned Ford as part of the pioneering culture. Ford also constantly introduced innovations to the F-Series to make the trucks more suitable to the changing needs of its consumers. In 2018, Ford's management decided to retreat from the low-margin cars segment and focus on trucks and SUVs. Ford was also working toward robot taxis and driverless delivery by 2021. These two parallel trajectories converge to pose a pivotal challenge for Ford: Should the company invest in developing driverless capabilities for its best-selling and highest-margin product, the F-150? The case provides students with a context in which to discuss the changing technologies in the auto industry and their implications for industry structure, along with the specific aspects of software-driven business models, consumer preferences, and brand identity. It also offers an opportunity to explore the challenges faced by traditional businesses as they develop digital capabilities and reimagine their business models to fully leverage artificial intelligence (AI). The competition among Ford, Google Inc. (Google), Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), and Tesla, Inc. (Tesla) in the automonous vehicle industry highlights the different routes these companies have taken to obtain develop autonomous vehicle capability that leverages their respective strategic capabilities.