Founded in 2008, Khan Academy was a global educational nonprofit with a mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone anywhere in the world. By 2018, the organization had expanded into numerous content areas, product areas, and geographic markets. However, a newly minted 3-year strategic plan called for greater focus and prioritization to enable the young organization to maximize its impact. It also called for increased fundraising efforts to ensure long-term sustainability. The case poses several questions: how to balance Khan Academy's far-reaching aspirational vision for transforming education globally with the short term need for greater focus? Would the priorities set in the strategic plan enable Khan Academy to create systemic global change? How should donors evaluate the attractiveness and impact of a potential investment in Khan Academy relative to other organizations in the educational market? Was Khan Academy on the right path to ensuring long-term sustainability?
This case looks at the challenge the Maltese Ministry for Health faced. The public healthcare system of Malta was modeled after the British NHS and provided a comprehensive package of medical services. Healthcare was free at the point of delivery for all Maltese citizens. Operating in parallel was the Maltese private sector, which accounted for a third of total health expenditures and provided most primary care. Healthcare was undergoing a paradigm shift from a focus on disease to a focus on systems. Governments were, therefore, increasingly scrutinizing returns on healthcare expenditures and pushing health actors to reorganize inefficient and badly functioning public systems. Malta was no exception. Its healthcare system was at a crossroads. The country had two seemingly different healthcare value chains operating in parallel, an increased reliance on private care, an overburdened public care system, and a population with chronic health issues and a history of taking advantage of the system.
Each individual who enters an organization will, at some point, leave. And yet most future leaders spend significantly more effort learning about recruiting than departures, despite the sensitivity and challenges associated with the latter. This note is intended to help address that imbalance. This note provides a roadmap for managers and employees to follow when instituting or facing layoffs. It aims to help managers consider the broader implications that should be taken into account when conducting layoffs, including how to structure and execute them effectively; how to minimize the negative impact on laid-off employees, "surviving" employees, the firm's reputation, and the community; and what alternatives any firm contemplating layoffs should consider.
In December 2017, the managing director of Nipponply Distributors Private Limited (Nipponply) planned to expand his firm geographically. Nipponply provided plywood products to household consumers, architects, interior designers, and original equipment manufacturers. The company already operated in Gujarat, India, but the managing director had found an opportunity to expand into the western Indian states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, where there were large volume requirements in housing, corporate, and industrial projects. The managing director completed a market survey to determine cost- and market-related information. On the basis of his initial analysis, he decided to start an expansion project, but he first wanted to ascertain its feasibility using a cost-volume-profit analysis.
Naked Retreats, a hotel management company that adhered to a localized brand positioning strategy, made its debut in the Chinese hotel market in 2007. To allow customers to experience the restorative effects of closeness to nature, it launched Naked Stables, the first resort in China to have obtained a Leadership in Environmental Energy Design (LEED) Platinum certification. The founder of Naked Retreats, Grant Horsfield, was a South African who felt deeply connected to nature. Horsfield subsequently launched a series of explorative projects related to holistic living, including catering, education, and a co-working space. While the brand had success in some areas of its brand extension, it experienced failures in others. In 2018, Naked Retreats must decide whether to continue its horizontal extension or to focus on its most successful projects.
In December 2017, the managing director of Nipponply Distributors Private Limited (Nipponply) planned to expand his firm geographically. Nipponply provided plywood products to household consumers, architects, interior designers, and original equipment manufacturers. The company already operated in Gujarat, India, but the managing director had found an opportunity to expand into the western Indian states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, where there were large volume requirements in housing, corporate, and industrial projects. The managing director completed a market survey to determine cost- and market-related information. On the basis of his initial analysis, he decided to start an expansion project, but he first wanted to ascertain its feasibility using a cost–volume–profit analysis.
Naked Retreats, a hotel management company that adhered to a localized brand positioning strategy, made its debut in the Chinese hotel market in 2007. To allow customers to experience the restorative effects of closeness to nature, it launched Naked Stables, the first resort in China to have obtained a Leadership in Environmental Energy Design (LEED) Platinum certification. The founder of Naked Retreats, Grant Horsfield, was a South African who felt deeply connected to nature. Horsfield subsequently launched a series of explorative projects related to holistic living, including catering, education, and a co-working space. While the brand had success in some areas of its brand extension, it experienced failures in others. In 2018, Naked Retreats must decide whether to continue its horizontal extension or to focus on its most successful projects.
The effectiveness of manufacturing and service processes can be measured in many ways. Some key measures include throughput time, throughput rate, cycle time, and inventory. In this brief exercise, we define the relationships among these metrics, focusing specifically on a concept called Little's Law and distinguishing among throughput rate, throughput time, and cycle time-hence the title.
In 2010, Anne Charpentier, director of the Montreal Insectarium, a natural history museum dedicated to insects, was mandated to metamorphose her museum, whose dilapidated facilities were bursting at the seams. Much more than the story of a simple renovation project, this case focuses on the extraordinary project management approach adopted by Charpentier. Soliciting the input of a host of experts, she spearheaded a co-creation process to help develop the specifications for the architecture competition that would determine the architectural and functional design of the new museum. Against all odds, Charpentier launched a two-year process involving the museum staff, other Montreal museums, world-renowned experts (in entomology and experiential design), as well as the general public. This case presents the details of the approach used along with the thoughts of the director and her collaborators throughout the collective design process. The end result was a program of museum experiences - the centrepiece of the specifications presented to the architects. The case also discusses the challenges faced by Charpentier and her team. The case is divided into two parts (A and B) - the first centres on the context of the museum transformation and the second on the development and implementation of the co-creation process.
In 2010, Anne Charpentier, director of the Montreal Insectarium, a natural history museum dedicated to insects, was mandated to metamorphose her museum, whose dilapidated facilities were bursting at the seams. Much more than the story of a simple renovation project, this case focuses on the extraordinary project management approach adopted by Charpentier. Soliciting the input of a host of experts, she spearheaded a co-creation process to help develop the specifications for the architecture competition that would determine the architectural and functional design of the new museum. Against all odds, Charpentier launched a two-year process involving the museum staff, other Montreal museums, world-renowned experts (in entomology and experiential design), as well as the general public. This case presents the details of the approach used along with the thoughts of the director and her collaborators throughout the collective design process. The end result was a program of museum experiences - the centrepiece of the specifications presented to the architects. The case also discusses the challenges faced by Charpentier and her team. The case is divided into two parts (A and B) - the first centres on the context of the museum transformation and the second on the development and implementation of the co-creation process.
By the time Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs, began hosting a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session in January 2018, he had only nine months remaining to convince the people of Toronto, their government representatives, and presumably his parent company Alphabet, Inc., that Sidewalk Labs' plan to construct "the first truly 21st-century city" on the Canadian city's waterfront was a sound one. Along with much excitement and optimism, strains of concern had emerged since Doctoroff and partners first announced their intentions for a city "built from the internet up" in Toronto's Quayside district. As Doctoroff prepared for yet another milestone in a year of planning and community engagement, it was almost certain that of the many questions headed his way, digital privacy would be among them.
This Harvard Business School case is about Harvard Kennedy School graduate, Phuc Huynh, who wants to establish Teach for Vietnam (TFV) in his home country and become an official Teach for All partner. It considers the concepts of giving back in one's career and the process of deciding whether to give up on a seemingly unattainable goal or whether to persevere and follow through on a dream, despite multiple obstacles.
This is a standalone reading designed to introduce students to the shareholders' equity section of the balance sheet. The reading provides the formal definition of shareholders' equity and its four main components-contributed capital, distributions, retained earnings, and accumulated other comprehensive income.
In July 2017, CEO Kevin Tabb of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center announced his plan to consolidate 11 Massachusetts hospitals under a common management structure. These hospitals collectively generated $5 billion in patient revenue and 25% of privately-insured hospital stays in the state. The merger would create a credible competitor to Partners Healthcare, the state's dominant health care provider, but would potentially reduce competition and raise prices. State regulators were assessing the merger, and Tabb needed to argue its merits.
An analyst at Vaux Gibson Inc., a fund that managed a portfolio of North American equities, was tasked with reviewing the fund’s holdings of Under Armour Inc. (Under Armour) and providing recommendations for the fund’s prospective investment strategy with the company. Under Armour had experienced significant revenues and bottom-line growth over the past three years, but this growth slowed significantly in 2017 and the company reported a net loss, resulting in the significant depreciation of its stock price. The analyst wondered if it was time to exit the investment, providing investors with an above-market return, or if there was still room for Under Armour to recover and grow.
Several psychological theories can help explain organizational behaviour, but many students are not exposed to the benefits that these types of concepts can provide. This note discusses a brief overview of some of the most relevant theories, which may help employees and leaders to better understand organizational behaviour.
A common assumption is that if we just put good people together, they will automatically develop into a strong team. Conversely, we assume that if we put a lot of low-performing people together, they will perform poorly. However, research tells us that it is not that simple. Teams are different from the sum of their parts, and they develop as they go. Scholars have been able to develop a well-accepted model that can help managers and employees build team effectiveness in the workplace: the input-mediator-outcome (IMO) team effectiveness framework. This note provides an overview of the well-supported IMO model of team effectiveness.