Hygiene and You, an Indian entrepreneurial venture, retailed sustainable menstrual products such as menstrual cups and cloth pads. In December 2017, the business was not making profits because of slow growth and increasing competition in the sustainable menstrual product industry. Menstruation was a taboo topic in India and associated with deep-seated socio-cultural beliefs that severely inhibited marketing communication. In India, 88 per cent of menstruating women still used unhygienic menstrual products, and the Indian government actively promoted disposable sanitary napkins to encourage women to shift to a hygienic alternative. The company's founder had to decide on expansion strategies to make the business profitable while passionately advocating sustainable menstruation practices.
On November 20, 2015, the chief financial officer of Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer) was preparing to make a recommendation about whether to proceed with or stop merger talks between Pfizer and Allergan plc (Allergan), a pharmaceutical company with headquarters in New Jersey but tax residence in Ireland. Informal talks had been going on for almost a month, but both sides were rapidly approaching the pre-arranged deadline. The two teams had less than a week to either formally agree to proceed with a merger or walk away. Formalizing the agreement meant activating a US$400 million breakup clause that would make it costlier to call the deal off at a later date. Allergan's Irish tax residency made this merger both attractive and concerning. While it provided the opportunity to lower Pfizer's worldwide tax rate, the U.S. Treasury Department had recently announced regulatory changes targeting mergers that relocated a company's tax residence to a low-tax country (called "tax inversions"). Pfizer's legal team members were confident that the announced changes would not affect the proposed merger with Allergan. However, they were less certain about if-and when-the U.S. Treasury Department might make changes again.
This case examines Facebook's corporate governance by reviewing information in the company's proxy statement. Students become familiar with the nature and type of information in proxy statements. They also learn how to examine various facets of executive compensation and corporate governance such as the use of stock options and restricted stock to compensate executives, dual class share structures, board composition and characteristics, controlled companies, and classified boards.
This case is used in Darden's required first-year course, "Strategic Thinking and Action." In 2015, Steve and Heidi Crandall, the founders of Devils Backbone Brewing, LLC (DBB), were looking back on eight years of unanticipated success and significant growth. DBB had created a destination, a brand, and beer that drew people from all over, and it was the largest craft brewery in its region. The entire community, not just loyal beer drinkers, had supported DBB. In addition to funding and zoning accommodations, so many local residents had built their own economic lives around what had been their "little brewery that could." But the success had brought challenges, specifically in terms of growth. DBB was consistently not meeting demand in its existing markets and was receiving complaints about out-of-stocks. The Crandalls and their team had to figure out how to grow with, or preferably ahead of, demand for DBB's product. Should DBB build further capacity despite an already exhausted line of credit? Should it employ a contract brewer despite the local authenticity concerns such a move might stir up? Or should it just keep trying to manage business within its existing footprint, comfortably serving its loyal customer base?
This case focuses on Dell's efforts to develop an open-source, scalable, and cost-effective supply chain capable of delivering ocean plastics waste to its production facilities, and potentially to those of partnering companies through a consortium. Piyush Bhargava, vice president of global operations at Dell and leader of Dell's Ocean Plastics Initiative, must deliver a strategic plan for how to proceed with the initiative but has three primary challenges: (1) how to deliver "additionality", (2) how to operationalize an ocean plastics supply chain at scale, and (3) how Dell should approach developing a consortium to ensure meaningful demand for the material. The case presents scientific information on the causes, scale, and impact of the ocean plastics problem and provides background on Dell's involvement in other sustainable packaging initiatives. Students will learn why Dell chose this cause and how it came to be a leading initiative within the company. The case is based on a 2017 Tauber Institute for Global Operations (University of Michigan) summer internship project.
In 2012, in the small mountain town of Boone, North Carolina, an entrepreneur launched a premier coffee shop called Local Lion. Boone was both a home to a state university and a popular tourist destination and Local Lion provided a unique coffee experience. This experience included responsibly grown coffee, homemade doughnuts, and locally made artwork and jewelery; however, customers were heading to the recently opened outlet of the global coffee chain Starbucks. The Local Lions owner wondered what he could do to preserve his business and retain his current customer loyalty. What options should he explore?
In March 2017, a training manager at IndCo, a large Indian manufacturing conglomerate, faced a pressing problem. She had been asked by one of IndCo's general managers to design and implement a customized training program on strategic thinking for his departmental team. Because she had prior commitments and had never conducted a training module on this topic before, the training manager sought to outsource the program to an external expert-a professor from a reputable business school. Although this arrangement seemed promising, the professor's training proposal presented certain challenges, including cost and availability. The training manager needed to assess whether the proposal met IndCo's requirements, and whether she had made the right decision in outsourcing this task. She had to choose her next steps very carefully to avoid displeasing any of the involved parties, while also satisfying IndCo's budget constraints and ensuring the ultimate delivery of a high-quality training program.
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?
In March 2017, a training manager at IndCo, a large Indian manufacturing conglomerate, faced a pressing problem. She had been asked by one of IndCo’s general managers to design and implement a customized training program on strategic thinking for his departmental team. Because she had prior commitments and had never conducted a training module on this topic before, the training manager sought to outsource the program to an external expert–a professor from a reputable business school. Although this arrangement seemed promising, the professor’s training proposal presented certain challenges, including cost and availability. The training manager needed to assess whether the proposal met IndCo’s requirements, and whether she had made the right decision in outsourcing this task. She had to choose her next steps very carefully to avoid displeasing any of the involved parties, while also satisfying IndCo’s budget constraints and ensuring the ultimate delivery of a high-quality training program.
Hygiene and You, an Indian entrepreneurial venture, retailed sustainable menstrual products such as menstrual cups and cloth pads. In December 2017, the business was not making profits because of slow growth and increasing competition in the sustainable menstrual product industry. Menstruation was a taboo topic in India and associated with deep-seated socio-cultural beliefs that severely inhibited marketing communication. In India, 88 per cent of menstruating women still used unhygienic menstrual products, and the Indian government actively promoted disposable sanitary napkins to encourage women to shift to a hygienic alternative. The company’s founder had to decide on expansion strategies to make the business profitable while passionately advocating sustainable menstruation practices.
In 2012, in the small mountain town of Boone, North Carolina, an entrepreneur launched a premier coffee shop called Local Lion. Boone was both a home to a state university and a popular tourist destination and Local Lion provided a unique coffee experience. This experience included responsibly grown coffee, homemade doughnuts, and locally made artwork and jewellery; however, customers were heading to the recently opened outlet of the global coffee chain Starbucks. The Local Lions owner wondered what he could do to preserve his business and retain his current customer loyalty. What options should he explore?
Brian Perkins, chief architect of the $6 billion Budweiser brand, was excited about 2018, in which the company would launch Budweiser into several new markets in Africa and Latin America. He was also feeling the pressure to finalize a global brand strategy that would define Budweiser's value proposition and guide its development and execution around the world. The problem was that Budweiser actually had two distinct brand realities that differed across geographies and that often interfered with each other. He worried whether the company could keep selling a premium brand proposition abroad as the brand's reputation faced challenges at home in the U.S. and whether he needed to force a monolithic global brand strategy everywhere or allow for local market customization. Could Budweiser simultaneously accommodate two or more brand realities?
Are a salesperson's struggles her own fault or the result of a problematic job design? Anna George works as a salesperson at Verona Group, a company that designs and wholesales high-end women's apparel. She had spent nearly 20 years in sales with another fashion label and was well regarded in the industry. Verona Group hired her to bolster its small but growing presence in the western United States. In her first two years with the company, however, George has missed her sales targets and received mixed scores from customers in Verona Group's annual customer service survey. When Emilio Chao, the head of Verona's sales force, looks at George's performance review and discusses George's situation with Catherine Edwards, Verona Group's head of human resources, he wonders whether the company should give George additional support that would help her be more successful. Or is George not a good fit for the company?
The case describes how Amazon and Walmart have been two of the most successful retailers in history and responsible for changing the rules of the game in the retail industry. In their wake, they have driven many retailers out of business while transforming how suppliers manage their relationship with powerful retailers. They have both been widely admired even if the market currently views Amazon as having greater potential. The unique trajectory of each retailer, Amazon through online and Walmart through offline, has endowed these companies with different and distinctive capabilities. For the most part they have managed to avoid each other in the competitive marketplace by serving different consumer needs. However, as consumers and markets have been increasingly demanding an omni-channel presence, both retailers have been forced to invade the other's turf - with Amazon seeking an offline presence and Walmart seeking a substantial online operation. This leads to several questions that engage students. To grow, how should the two retailers confront each other and build their omni-channel operations? What has been their past success in the playing field of their nemesis (Amazon offline and Walmart online)? How does the marketing strategy of the two retailers differ? What are the distinctive capabilities of each retailer and how do these either help or hinder their ability to effectively evolve for an omni-channel future? What are the financial implications of the omni-channel transformation for each retailer?
It is a two part case, set in 2018. Case A describes how Amazon and Walmart have been two of the most successful retailers in history and responsible for changing the rules of the game in the retail industry in the US. In their wake, they have driven many retailers out of business while transforming how suppliers manage their relationship with powerful retailers. Case B presents India, one of the most attractive e-commerce market globally, as the next battleground for the two retailers. The unique trajectory of each retailer, Amazon through online and Walmart through offline, has endowed these companies with different and distinctive capabilities. For the most part they have managed to avoid each other in the competitive marketplace by serving different consumer needs. However, as consumers and markets have been increasingly demanding an omni-channel presence, both retailers have been forced to invade the other's turf - with Amazon seeking an offline presence and Walmart seeking a substantial online operation. This leads to several questions that engage students. To grow, how should the two retailers confront each other and build their omni-channel operations? What has been their past success in the playing field of their nemesis (Amazon offline and Walmart online)? How does the marketing strategy of the two retailers differ? What are the distinctive capabilities of each retailer and how do these either help or hinder their ability to evolve for an omni-channel future? What are the financial implications of the omni-channel transformation for each retailer?
The Meridian Systems case focuses on a start-up in the restaurant point of sale (POS) systems market. In early 2018, Meridian is getting ready to roll out a POS system based on a new technology-a tablet-based, Wi-Fi-enabled POS system (the "tablet" system, or GingerSnap). This product has a far lower price point than Meridian's existing terminal-based system does. It also has a different target customer. The company's leadership is thus faced with several questions about how to deploy the sales force for GingerSnap. Should the product be integrated into Meridian's existing field sales force, should it be sold with a new, dedicated field sales force, or should it be sold by an inside sales force, that is, primarily by phone or web contact and limited in-person selling? Or should a hybrid of these approaches be used? The overlay to these issues is the fact that the new product is less profitable than Meridian's legacy system. These choices must be made not only with the customer and market in mind, but also with an awareness of the margin structure of the new product, and what kind of activity it will support. Given the array of topics it explores, Meridian Systems can be used in courses on marketing, selling, sales management, business marketing, new products, distribution channels, entrepreneurial management, technology ventures, and strategy.