In early 2022, the online sports betting market was opening in Ontario, Canada, and Rush Street Interactive (RSI), an online and offline gaming company based in Chicago and already operating in the gaming space in a number of US states and the country of Colombia, had to decide about its next move. RSI had so far focused its growth strategy on being a first mover in new markets, and several of its gaming competitors had already indicated their intentions to enter the newly opened online casinos and online sports betting market in Ontario. Should RSI take the opportunity to enter the Ontario online sports betting market or take advantage of its first-mover advantage in US jurisdictions such as Tennessee, West Virginia, and Massachusetts?
On July 18, 2022, transgender employees of Kochi Metro Rail Limited revealed several sad stories of discrimination, low salary, and inaccessible toilets in the workplace. The publicly owned company based in Kochi, India aimed to be seen as among the most sustainable and connected organizations in the country. In 2017, the company made a conscious effort to hire transgender candidates into primary positions. After hiring 1,000 women and 23 transgender employees as part of its social inclusion initiative, Kochi Metro Rail Limited earned praise from the public as an inclusive workplace. The company soon reached a high of 43 transgender employees, but that number dropped considerably down to nine employees within only five years, after issues and disappointments surfaced among the workforce. The transgender community saw the company’s transgender employee policy as a promotional stunt to gain publicity and public attention. To regain its former status among India’s top companies for social inclusion, it was imperative for Kochi Metro Rail Limited to quickly find a way to attract and retain transgender employees.
In 2012, the Jamaican economy was in a crisis. It had an estimated debt-to–gross domestic product ratio of 147 per cent. To alleviate the crisis, the Jamaican government signed both an extended fund facility for US$948 million, in 2013, and a precautionary stand-by arrangement for US$1.64 billion, in 2016, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As a condition of the IMF loan, the Jamaican government agreed to an economic reform agenda with requirements that included the harmonization of prudential standards across all deposit-taking institutions (DTIs) and consolidated supervision. Consequently, in 2014, the Government of Jamaica passed the Banking Services Act (BSA), which became effective September 30, 2015. Prior to the BSA, the financial services sector was fragmented. Banks and DTIs were regulated by the Bank of Jamaica (BoJ), Jamaica’s central bank; building societies, though supervised by the BoJ, were governed by the Building Societies Act, while credit unions were self-regulated through the Jamaica Co-operative Credit Union League.<br><br>In December 2020, Courtney Campbell was the chief executive officer of the Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS), a mutual company (i.e., a company owned by its depositors). He had to decide on the future direction of the company under the new regulations and the pending implementation of new measures. The decision came at a time of great external uncertainty, as COVID-19 was still ravaging the world and there was no vaccine yet approved.
In March 2023, Reliance Consumer Products Limited announced the relaunch of Campa Cola, an iconic soft drink brand in India that was discontinued almost two decades earlier. The company acquired Campa Cola for US$2.7 million in 2022 to capitalize on the brand nostalgia and the appeal of a domestic brand offering high-quality aerated beverages at affordable prices, believing that Campa Cola had a deep connection with Indian consumers due to its unique taste and flavour. However, to be successful in the competitive market dominated by two global giants in the soft drink industry—The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo Inc.—Reliance Consumer Products Limited had to craft a meticulous strategy that should address three significant challenges: create a customer value proposition, set the right pricing strategy, and trigger brand nostalgia to appeal to all market segments across generations. However, the company would have to take a leap of faith and assume a great risk. Could Campa Cola emerge as a viable competitor in India’s soft drink industry?
In 2023, the Singapore-based startup company Horizon Quantum Computing was on the cusp of fast expansion and the founder faced the challenge to decide where to open the second office outside Singapore. To make a choice from the list of 10 countries, the founder had to consider the likelihoods of acquiring and competing for talent, developing business partnerships with quantum computer hardware makers, gaining market access for its upcoming product, among other issues. This case study also explores Singapore's startup ecosystem and its years long efforts in building a growth environment for deep tech companies.
As the new CEO of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) since autumn 2021, Christoph Schweizer had big shoes to fill-his predecessor, Rich Lesser, had tripled the partnership's total revenues and created digital initiatives that contributed 40+% of 2021 revenues, more than doubling headcount along the way. Schweizer announced plans for fresh growth: he planned to double the partnership's size and pursue what he called moonshots-dedicated efforts to accelerate in artificial intelligence and climate & sustainability that would each help drive 20% to 30% of total BCG revenues by 2030. Externally, however, BCG was soon grappling with the macro-effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine as well as rising interest rates, compounding the potential risks BCG faced with a commitment to rapid growth. As yet unclear was how much BCG needed to adapt or alter the formula of success that Lesser had applied in order to tackle these headwinds and deliver on Schweizer's vision.
TimeCredit is an artificial intelligence (AI) startup that is developing large language models (LLMs) to generate accounting memos. The case follows Ndonga Sagnia, a Gambian Harvard Business School MBA student with an accounting background, as she decides how much money to raise for her early-stage venture. The case also covers the challenges of finding a technical cofounder, initial equity allocation decisions, and the implications of the market context and founder identity for fundraising choices.
This case study explores the growth journey of Polish computer vision sports start-up ReSpo.Vision in an emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem. By providing 3D data and analysis to soccer clubs, ReSpo.Vision achieved significant milestones with a €1 million seed round, an EU innovation grant, and gained traction with top European soccer clubs. However, pressure to accelerate revenue growth led the company to consider a strategic shift towards immersive 3D visualizations for media and entertainment. Ahead of the upcoming funding round in early 2024, CEO Pawel Osterreicher faced a critical decision between scaling the existing business or creating a new business line. The case study highlights the opportunities and challenges associated with this shift in the context of a new and emerging market.
Sharing deep values with customers is a competitive advantage and a powerful creator of business value that leaders too often fail to recognize. Companies that do are likely to find that shared values can enhance customer acquisition and life cycles and experience all of the benefits that brings.
On July 18, 2022, transgender employees of Kochi Metro Rail Limited revealed several sad stories of discrimination, low salary, and inaccessible toilets in the workplace. The publicly owned company based in Kochi, India aimed to be seen as among the most sustainable and connected organizations in the country. In 2017, the company made a conscious effort to hire transgender candidates into primary positions. After hiring 1,000 women and 23 transgender employees as part of its social inclusion initiative, Kochi Metro Rail Limited earned praise from the public as an inclusive workplace. The company soon reached a high of 43 transgender employees, but that number dropped considerably down to nine employees within only five years, after issues and disappointments surfaced among the workforce. The transgender community saw the company's transgender employee policy as a promotional stunt to gain publicity and public attention. To regain its former status among India's top companies for social inclusion, it was imperative for Kochi Metro Rail Limited to quickly find a way to attract and retain transgender employees.
In March 2023, Reliance Consumer Products Limited announced the relaunch of Campa Cola, an iconic soft drink brand in India that was discontinued almost two decades earlier. The company acquired Campa Cola for US$2.7 million in 2022 to capitalize on the brand nostalgia and the appeal of a domestic brand offering high-quality aerated beverages at affordable prices, believing that Campa Cola had a deep connection with Indian consumers due to its unique taste and flavour. However, to be successful in the competitive market dominated by two global giants in the soft drink industry-The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo Inc.-Reliance Consumer Products Limited had to craft a meticulous strategy that should address three significant challenges: create a customer value proposition, set the right pricing strategy, and trigger brand nostalgia to appeal to all market segments across generations. However, the company would have to take a leap of faith and assume a great risk. Could Campa Cola emerge as a viable competitor in India's soft drink industry?
Cathay Pacific was founded in Hong Kong in 1946. As of July 2023, Cathay Pacific passenger and cargo airlines offered scheduled services to 81 destinations in 30 countries and regions worldwide, including 14 destinations in the Chinese Mainland. The group also served an additional 131 destinations in 21 countries and regions through code-share agreements. Effective January 1, 2023, Lavinia Lau was appointed chief customer and commercial officer and executive director on the board of Cathay Pacific. In August 2023 she faced the decision of what to propose to position Cathay Pacific to achieve its ambitious vision of becoming one of the world's greatest service brands. What was the current positioning of Cathay Pacific relative to other airlines? Who should its target customers be? What should its message be to appeal to those target customers?
In April 2018, following an in-store incident in Philadelphia that resulted in the unwarranted arrests of two Black men, Starbucks Corporation (Starbucks) faced a severe public relations crisis. A video of the incident, posted on Twitter, quickly generated widespread attention, online criticism, and in-person protests from people who accused the coffee giant of having exhibited racial bias. Within a few days, Starbucks shared press releases that featured its chief executive officer personally apologizing and taking responsibility for the incident, which had resulted from a single employee's actions. The chief executive officer also announced that US Starbucks stores would close for an afternoon, for racial bias training and education. Although many public relations experts and customers commended Starbucks for its response, others continued to criticize Starbucks, claiming that its response wasn't genuine but merely an attempt to protect reputation and avoid losing business. Further, while the training may have yielded positive education for employees, was it enough to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future? What could Starbucks do to demonstrate its intentions were genuine? How could it correct its mistake, address the root cause to keep customers' trust, and thrive as the world's largest coffee retailer?
In 2012, the Jamaican economy was in a crisis. It had an estimated debt-to-gross domestic product ratio of 147 per cent. To alleviate the crisis, the Jamaican government signed both an extended fund facility for US$948 million, in 2013, and a precautionary stand-by arrangement for US$1.64 billion, in 2016, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As a condition of the IMF loan, the Jamaican government agreed to an economic reform agenda with requirements that included the harmonization of prudential standards across all deposit-taking institutions (DTIs) and consolidated supervision. Consequently, in 2014, the Government of Jamaica passed the Banking Services Act (BSA), which became effective September 30, 2015. Prior to the BSA, the financial services sector was fragmented. Banks and DTIs were regulated by the Bank of Jamaica (BoJ), Jamaica's central bank; building societies, though supervised by the BoJ, were governed by the Building Societies Act, while credit unions were self-regulated through the Jamaica Co-operative Credit Union League.<br><br>In December 2020, Courtney Campbell was the chief executive officer of the Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS), a mutual company (i.e., a company owned by its depositors). He had to decide on the future direction of the company under the new regulations and the pending implementation of new measures. The decision came at a time of great external uncertainty, as COVID-19 was still ravaging the world and there was no vaccine yet approved.
In early 2022, the online sports betting market was opening in Ontario, Canada, and Rush Street Interactive (RSI), an online and offline gaming company based in Chicago and already operating in the gaming space in a number of US states and the country of Colombia, had to decide about its next move. RSI had so far focused its growth strategy on being a first mover in new markets, and several of its gaming competitors had already indicated their intentions to enter the newly opened online casinos and online sports betting market in Ontario. Should RSI take the opportunity to enter the Ontario online sports betting market or take advantage of its first-mover advantage in US jurisdictions such as Tennessee, West Virginia, and Massachusetts?
<p align="justify">In 2022, Emtec Inc., an information technology and digital services firm located in Florida, was at a critical juncture. The company had seen immense success as a hardware reseller and managed services provider to government agencies and midmarket companies in the US. But Dinesh Desai, the founder and former chief executive officer, was concerned about decreasing profit margins and intensifying competition in the current reseller and managed services business. Low barriers to entry were adding new entrants and competition on pricing as well as affecting the ability to acquire and keep talent. Furthermore, the pace of technological change influencing newer offerings such as cloud and custom development was creating significant uncertainty. For Desai, the question came down to the following: Stay the course and build upon established services or pivot to a different mix of offerings? The pressure to chart a new path was very important, given the uncertainty about the future and the cutthroat price-based competition in the market.
AbhiCure was an online health care platform facilitating consultation between patients and doctors. It enabled individuals to be treated by doctors from their own homes by phone call, online chat, or video consultation with doctors supported by AbhiCure’s team of paramedics. The company aimed to simplify the entire health-care ecosystem and add value for all stakeholders, including patients, doctors, pharmacies, clinics, and hospitals. However, with competition intensifying in the telemedicine sector, the company’s senior management was concerned about which growth strategy to adopt for the future and was considering product diversification, product development, market penetration, and market development strategies.
Shrikant Patel was the manager of Sabar Aart Farmer Enterprise Producer Company Ltd (SAFE), located at Khedbrahma, in the Sabarkantha district of Gujarat. Patel knew that members of the farmer producer organization (FPO) were working laboriously but were still not able to generate high incomes. Organic cultivation of only a single crop in fertile land once a year did not boost their incomes. Passionate about agriculture and social work, he wanted to encourage the FPO members to adopt multicropping and increase their incomes. He identified turmeric as one of the crops that was not grown in the Sabarkantha region. Thus, growing turmeric along with creeper vegetables would not only ensure a steady income for the FPO members but would also provide the FPO with first-mover advantage in organic turmeric cultivation in the region. Patel, not being an expert in accounting, needed support from advisers to determine an accurate price for the turmeric powder from one kilogram (kg) of raw turmeric input.