The case examines a social enterprise that is at a turning point in its development. After a successful start-up phase, Gardens Without Borders (GWB) aspires to achieve long-term financial viability. The case describes various projects carried out by GWB to promote sustainable agriculture around the world before addressing the challenge it now faces: achieving financial sustainability by collaborating with the private sector. Specifically, GWB wishes to develop customizable proposals for partnerships with two corporations known for their commitment to corporate social responsibility. By studying this case, students are expected to gain an in-depth understanding of real-life challenges faced by social enterprise start-ups and develop strategic decision-making capabilities for creating corporate-social enterprise collaborations for sustainability.
Burton Sensors presents a realistic situation where a small, rapidly growing, and profitable temperature sensor original equipment manufacturer (OEM) reaches its debt capacity and seeks equity financing to sustain high growth. The president of the company must decide whether to purchase thermowell machines (a positive NPV project), whether to issue common stock to a private investor at depressed prices to alleviate financial pressure, and whether to acquire another sensor manufacturer in an all-stock deal. All three decisions are interrelated and require different techniques to assess. In particular, the acquisition decision must be analyzed as both an investment and a financing opportunity, as the acquisition could be used to resolve the financial constraint problem. This case thus shows students how corporate investment and financing decisions often interact. The case offers a comprehensive overview of key issues in a typical corporate finance or financial management course, including capital budgeting, debt capacity analysis, security issuance, and acquisitions. It can be used in a first-year MBA course in corporate finance or financial strategy or in an elective MBA course in mergers and acquisitions. It can also be used in upper-year undergraduate finance courses that cover capital budgeting, security issuance, and mergers and acquisitions. The case can also be used as a take-home final exam.
Supplement to Knowledge Sharing at REMA 1000 (A). Chief Human Resources Officer Tore Høylie was proud of REMA 1000 (REMA)'s strong employee engagement with Workplace, Facebook's corporate social media platform, however some users complained that the corporate social network had disrupted hierarchical structures, and that the site was overloaded with information. To begin to remedy these problems, Høylie's team modified the group architecture and issued guidance for platform use.
In April 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was again in Washington to petition Donald Trump. After years of rapid, export-led growth, Japan had slumped into recession in 1991 and never really recovered. For the past 27 years, it's economy has grown at 1.1% annually, plagued by deflation. After several attempts at quantitative easing, Abe had commenced a radical program in 2012 called Quantitative and Qualitative Easing - the first of "three arrows" to repair the Japanese economy. But in early 2018, inflation was still far below the 2% goal, growth had turned negative, and Abe faced the highest debt among the OECD. Together with demographic, energy and security problems, Abe had his hands full, while President Trump roiled the waters in China and North Korea.
The case discusses the globalization of fashion and the trajectory of Fashion Forward Dubai. Since its inception in 2013, FFWD had striven to offer an alternative to traditional fashion weeks by showcasing collections of local designers to fashion buyers, journalists and customers on the catwalk and on internet. Over 15,000 attendees came to the show and more than 100,000 followed it online. In 2018, FFWD's co-founder, Ramzi Nakad, has to decide whether to continue the B2B+B2C event showcasing emerging brands in Dubai Design District, or create a digital fashion platform to sell direct-to-customers and give brands instant international exposure and access to e-commerce without the high costs of runway shows. The case asks to what extent the global fashion industry is ripe for digital disruption.
In early July 2017, the shareholders of RollUP Solutions Incorporated (RollUP), a social enterprise in London, Ontario, had just received great news about a partnership with Goodwill Industries International Inc. that would result in process efficiencies and business growth for RollUP. RollUP collected used mobility devices from long-term care homes, upcycled the devices, and sold them to consumers at discounted prices. Before launching their online sales channel and implementing their new sourcing and upcycling process, the shareholders needed to make key marketing decisions such as selecting a target market, price, and promotional methods.
In January 2017, a Canadian farmer and entrepreneur faced a challenging decision about the future of his two businesses: a farming operation and a trucking operation. After the hectic 2016 farming and trucking season, he began to compare his 2016 and 2015 financial statements for the farming business, Meakin Farms Inc., and the trucking business, Meakin Industrial Ag Corp. While both organizations remained viable, he wondered what he should do for 2017 and beyond, given the unique structure of the businesses and the vast uncertainty of the agricultural industry. Should he pursue an expansion, a contraction, or should he maintain the current levels of business? He needed to identify a strategic direction that would balance the size and scope of his businesses while accounting for environmental risks.
This public-sourced case is based on a 2017 blog post by a former Uber employee, Susan Fowler, in which she was brutally honest about the sexual harassment, the sexism, the bro culture, and the failures of HR and in senior management at the ride-share company. All thoughts by and conversations between the characters in this case are entirely fictional, but the events described are drawn from Fowler's post, which went viral within hours of her posting it. Fowler was forced to disable the comment section because there were too many, positive and negative, to keep up with. The accusations hit Uber's management like an earthquake, and the press covered every development. Students are placed directly in the case as Uber's recently hired CHR, within days of a company-wide meeting to discuss the post. They will be expected to sit side-by-side with Ariana Huffington-founder of the Huffington Post and the only woman on Uber's board-and with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. The meeting was billed as "self-reflective," as being about "clearing the air" and "being honest." This fictional narrative based on a real-life experience offers the opportunity to discuss organizational culture, gender, power, leadership, and difficult conversations with superiors.
In early July 2017, the shareholders of RollUP Solutions Incorporated (RollUP), a social enterprise in London, Ontario, had just received great news about a partnership with Goodwill Industries International Inc. that would result in process efficiencies and business growth for RollUP. RollUP collected used mobility devices from long-term care homes, upcycled the devices, and sold them to consumers at discounted prices. Before launching their online sales channel and implementing their new sourcing and upcycling process, the shareholders needed to make key marketing decisions such as selecting a target market, price, and promotional methods.
In January 2017, Groupe PSA (PSA), the France-based automobile manufacturer known for its brands Peugeot, Citroën, and DS Automobiles, announced its partnership with the Indian conglomerate CK Birla Group, which would enable the company to re-enter India after having left in 2012. PSA had entered India twice before, through a joint venture with Premier Automobile Limited in 1994 and again in 2011, but both times had been unsuccessful due to production losses, labour unrest, and pressures related to the financial crisis in Europe. The Indian automobile industry was one of the largest in the world. It contributed 7.1 per cent of India's gross domestic product in 2017 and was expected to contribute 12 per cent by 2026. All major automobile manufacturers had set up base in India, and to be truly global, PSA also needed a presence in India. In its previous attempts, PSA had suffered and failed to build its brand. The re-entry decision therefore raised many questions: Was a joint venture the right entry method, or would an Indian subsidiary have been better? Which segments should PSA target? What should it do with the Ambassador brand it had acquired from CK Birla Group in 2017?
A student pursuing his master's degree in thermal engineering at Western University, in London, Ontario, was a self-proclaimed coffee snob. In his search to find a high-quality coffee he could make and take to go, he discovered no coffee maker, on the market, suited his exact needs. He began applying his knowledge of thermal fluids engineering in designing his own travel-friendly all-in-one coffee press, which he called the Pascal Press. After developing a functional prototype he thought there may be commercial value to his product design, and sought out assistance from a neighbouring business school professor to help him realize the business potential of his innovative design.Despite securing various streams of financial support, he had not been able to raise the full $60,000 he needed. One recommendation he had received early in the process was to secure his desired funding through Kickstarter-a dedicated web platform designed to bridge the funding gap of many start-up ventures by pre-selling products to a large pool of interested early adopters. In 2017, he set out to discover whether a crowdfunding option would work for his fledgling business.
In 2014, recognizing that their leadership in the online media market was weakening, eight Korean television broadcasters severed their ties with YouTube and formed Smart Media Representative Co. Ltd. (SMR), an alliance to collectively distribute online television content and advertising on behalf of the broadcasters. SMR changed the nature of the online video market in Korea. The rights to advertising sales, programming, and distribution that were previously transferred to the platforms were retained by the broadcasters. The nature of distribution also changed to use a format that allowed the broadcasters to package their content and advertisements as one. The profit sharing from advertisements also changed, with broadcasters realizing a substantial increase. The structure had worked well and had been lucrative for the broadcasters and the Korean platform companies that partnered with SMR; however, in 2016, as SMR prepared to re-contract with the stakeholders, the varying goals of the stakeholders threatened to disrupt the structure. What did SMR need to do to maintain these fragile relationships and continue to grow?
In 2014, recognizing that their leadership in the online media market was weakening, eight Korean television broadcasters severed their ties with YouTube and formed Smart Media Representative Co. Ltd. (SMR), an alliance to collectively distribute online television content and advertising on behalf of the broadcasters. SMR changed the nature of the online video market in Korea. The rights to advertising sales, programming, and distribution that were previously transferred to the platforms were retained by the broadcasters. The nature of distribution also changed to use a format that allowed the broadcasters to package their content and advertisements as one. The profit sharing from advertisements also changed, with broadcasters realizing a substantial increase. The structure had worked well and had been lucrative for the broadcasters and the Korean platform companies that partnered with SMR; however, in 2016, as SMR prepared to re-contract with the stakeholders, the varying goals of the stakeholders threatened to disrupt the structure. What did SMR need to do to maintain these fragile relationships and continue to grow?
The case follows the career path of Megha Malagatti, from her humble Indian origins as a member of the Dalit caste (known as "untouchables") to a senior management position in a French luxury goods company - an improbable journey that speaks to her personal strengths, skills and qualifications, as well as the possibilities open to young women to make a career in the luxury goods industry irrespective of their background. It opens a window on gender diversity in the executive suite, highlighting the company culture of S.T.Dupont and the CEO who mentored her.
When 3G Capital bought Burger King from TPG, Bain Capital and Goldman in 2010, the fastfood chain was losing momentum. By 2014, the business was back in growth mode but the Burger King brand was still lacking lustre and it was unclear if the celebrity-heavy ad campaign would work. Could new CEO Daniel Schwartz and his team make the brand cool again - on the cheap? Drawing on data from a brand audit, the challenge is to (i) define the brand's identity and choose among five positioning ideas; (ii) allocate expenses between television, digital and PR, and brand and restaurant redesign. For the digital and PR components, for example, students have to evaluate eight mock-ups created by Burger King's agency, and come up with their own ideas for Burger King to evaluate. Please visit the https://cases.insead.edu/burger-king/ dedicated case website to access supplementary material.
Customers are gaga for Wawa, the restaurant / convenience store / gas station that inspires people to tattoo the firm's logo. Founded in 1803, Wawa morphed over time from an iron foundry to a textile mill, to a dairy farm, dairy delivery business, grocery store, then convenience store. Dark clouds descended with the 2008 financial crisis. As competitors converged on Wawa, management recognized the need for a new direction. After the CEO asked his executives to review a selection of business books, they chose Blue Ocean Strategy to redefine industry boundaries, shifting away from the red ocean of competition to a blue ocean of differentiation and low cost. By 2017 Wawa was the 34th largest private company in the US, with 625 million customers and sales of $10.5 billion. Wawa serves 222 million cups of coffee a year and 105 million hoagie sandwiches. Where the average 7-Eleven convenience store grosses $30,000-$35,000 per week, Wawa averages $116,000. It used Blue Ocean Shift to achieve breakout success and thrive for a decade after its strategic pivot. The case comes with a teaching note and firsthand video interview of Howard Stoeckel, Vice Chairman and former CEO of Wawa. The video can be downloaded from <a href=""https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/wawa/""target='_new'> https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/wawa/</a><br> It is also available in Chinese.