In 2010, ACTIS embarked on an ambitious project to build a pan-Middle East and Africa (MEA) payments platform. It had purchased Mediterranean Smart Cards Company (MSCC), a bankcard issuer with operations across Africa, and had identified a follow-on target, Visa Jordan Card Services (VJCS) as part of its buy-and-build strategy, and another potential acquisition in South Africa. These could enable the ACTIS platform to capture the entire value chain in the payments business in the MEA region. However, not long after the purchase of MSCC, political turmoil engulfed the Arab world, prompting the ACTIS investment committee in London to question the viability of creating a payments platform in MEA.
The case examines the reforms to the French labour code made by President Emmanuel Macron after his election in April 2017, essentially designed to loosen restrictions on hiring and firing. The new laws gave smaller companies more flexibility in negotiating wages and conditions directly with employees (rather than being bound by industry-wide collective deals negotiated by trade unions) and the right to lay off workers in periods of economic difficulty. In the context of an upturn, Macron was hoping the reforms would encourage foreign investment such as financial institutions relocating in response to Brexit. He resorted to issuing executive decrees (ordonnances) to avoid the massive street protests typically sparked by macro-economic adjustments in France, ultimately consolidating his leadership at home and in the larger European Union.
Garmin at the Crossroads (Case A) reviews the history of Garmin from its founding in 1991 until 2008. After 17 consecutive years of profitable growth in the personal navigation devices (PND) industry, Garmin was a top player with a strong cash position. However, challenges loomed with the advent of alternative global navigation satellite systems, increasing penetration of smartphones, the reshuffling of the digital map data market, and the industry's consolidation. The case explores the options available to Garmin to weather the storm. Case B (Garmin 2019) describes the changes in the industry in the following decade, how Garmin responded, and the resulting performance.
Mrida (Sanskrit for soil), a fledgling social business venture, uses the 'Earthspired' brand to sell products made from high-value plants and herbs - sourced sustainably from small farmers in India - to middle-class consumers. Mrida's founders have ambitions to grow the brand in India and internationally but need to address several interconnected questions: What should the value proposition for Earthspired be and how should it be communicated? What is the most appropriate distribution channel - direct selling, retail, or on-line sales? What should be the business strategy to scale the Earthspired brand in view of the limited resources available?
In May 2013, iGATE Corporation ended its employment contract with Phaneesh Murthy, then chief executive officer, amid allegations of sexual harassment. iGATE maintained that Murthy had violated company policy; thus, it dismissed Murthy "with cause," effectively ending all of the company's severance obligations under the agreement. Murthy responded by suing iGATE, claiming breach of contract and defamation. In March 2014, iGATE countersued Murthy for damages the company suffered due to Murthy's behaviour. Could iGATE justify its termination of Murthy's contract? What were the implications of ending a senior executive's agreement for cause?
In March 2017, the vice-president of the ice cream division at Colombina S.A. (Colombina), was in her office at the company's headquarters in Cali, Colombia. She was reviewing the growth figures for the company's ice cream business, for which she was accountable. The sales target set for the company in 2010 was US$1 billion by 2020, and the ice cream segment would play a fundamental role in reaching that target. The vice-president remembered what Colombina's chief executive officer had told employees the year before at the last strategic planning meeting: "It is simple; in order to reach the sales target, we must continue to do three things: achieve organic growth of the businesses we already have, open new markets or new businesses, and acquire companies with which we can generate synergies with our ongoing businesses." Despite having invoiced over $40 million in ice cream in 2016, a growth of 1 per cent over 2015, the vice-president was aware of the challenge this strategic guideline meant for her category, which led her to consider options for increasing sales and profits. What market opportunities should the ice cream division exploit? What channels should it grow? Should particular channels be grown more than others? Should the product portfolio be expanded?
On February 1, 2013, the managing director of software development firm SYIT, sat in his office and gathered his thoughts on his new organization. Based in Islamabad, Pakistan, SYIT was a new entrant in the offshore software development industry. Its managing director had expended months of effort to move the entire project team from his previous employer to his newly formed company, but the real challenge lay ahead. SYIT needed to reduce the cultural gap between its team and its primary client, one of Denmark's largest publishing houses. The managing director's ultimate goal was to create an organization that was flexible and innovative-like the European clients that he wanted to continue to attract. How could he implement a strong company culture to ensure that all employees projected one consistent and effective working style across SYIT's different projects and clients?
In mid-2014, Chuck Davis, chairman and CEO of Prodege LLC, parent company of the brand promotion business Swagbucks, is just a few weeks into his new role as the company's CEO. He has been tasked with helping the promising young company scale, something he has done successfully during prior stints as CEO at other young companies, but this situation presents him with some unique challenges. Prodege has a strong culture built around the deeply held religious beliefs of the company's founding employees, many of whom are devout ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jews. This has resulted in some unique situations for a growing technology company, such as the company closing its office on Jewish holidays and for Shabbat. Davis is keen to quickly implement the changes that he believes need to be made for the company to grow, but he also recognizes the need to be careful not to upset the company's culture and potentially upset what had made the business special in the first place. How quickly should he move and how should he stage his actions?
"Swagbucks (B)," HBS No. 817123, picks up in mid-2014 following the events described in "Swagbucks (A)," HBS No 817122. Davis and Gorowitz were successful in their efforts to position the company for scale without negatively affecting the company's foundational culture, and developed a close working relationship. In early 2016, the company now has the opportunity to acquire MyPoints, an established competitor with millions of members and the chance to grow revenues at an even faster pace, but Davis and Gorowitz want to first discuss whether the company is strong enough to incorporate the new business and its employees.
In the summer of 2015, one of Nestlé SA (Nestlé)’s top-selling products in the Indian market, its two-minute Maggi noodles, was embroiled in a food and safety issue when lead was discovered during a test. Media pundits called for the arrest of Nestlé officials. Others took to the street to set ablaze the famous yellow-coloured Maggi packets. Nestlé treated the matter largely as a regulatory issue, managing the crisis with scientific data at hand. The narrative was quickly set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority and its various provincial partners, which led to statewide bans and expanded tests of Maggi noodles across India and beyond. Nestlé executives wondered how a simple test had landed the organization and its prized brand in hot water. How can Nestlé take control and win back consumer confidence?
In May 2013, iGATE Corporation ended its employment contract with Phaneesh Murthy, then chief executive officer, amid allegations of sexual harassment. iGATE maintained that Murthy had violated company policy; thus, it dismissed Murthy “with cause,” effectively ending all of the company’s severance obligations under the agreement. Murthy responded by suing iGATE, claiming breach of contract and defamation. In March 2014, iGATE countersued Murthy for damages the company suffered due to Murthy’s behaviour. Could iGATE justify its termination of Murthy’s contract? What were the implications of ending a senior executive’s agreement for cause?
In March 2017, the vice-president of the ice cream division at Colombina S.A. (Colombina), was in her office at the company’s headquarters in Cali, Colombia. She was reviewing the growth figures for the company’s ice cream business, for which she was accountable. The sales target set for the company in 2010 was US$1 billion by 2020, and the ice cream segment would play a fundamental role in reaching that target. The vice-president remembered what Colombina’s chief executive officer had told employees the year before at the last strategic planning meeting: “It is simple; in order to reach the sales target, we must continue to do three things: achieve organic growth of the businesses we already have, open new markets or new businesses, and acquire companies with which we can generate synergies with our ongoing businesses.” Despite having invoiced over $40 million in ice cream in 2016, a growth of 1 per cent over 2015, the vice-president was aware of the challenge this strategic guideline meant for her category, which led her to consider options for increasing sales and profits. What market opportunities should the ice cream division exploit? What channels should it grow? Should particular channels be grown more than others? Should the product portfolio be expanded?
ZBJ.com (ZBJ), an online platform that connects knowledge workers to small and medium-sized enterprises, is China's largest outsourcing platform. Founded by Mingyue Zhu in 2006, ZBJ had grown into a unicorn with 4,000 employees and a daily transaction volume of RMB15 million by 2017. During the company's 11-year history, ZBJ had launched ten transformation campaigns to overcome various challenges by changing its products, operations, and business model. For example, it encountered winner-takes-all competition, disintermediation (when service providers and clients took transactions off the platform to avoid the platform's 20% commission fees), the rise of fake transactions, member management issues, and difficulties in delivering satisfactory services to large enterprises. Zhu must decide how to use the next campaign to address challenges that had emerged since the last campaign and how ZBJ should expand globally.
In December 2016, the founder of Nukkad, The Chaitastic Teafé Pvt. Ltd. (Nukkad), an organized tea café retail chain, was pleased to see that Nukkad had garnered positive reviews and ratings on numerous social media pages. He was proud of his social enterprise, which encompassed two cafés based in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. Since its inception in 2013, Nukkad had created quite a buzz for its distinctive initiative: it specifically employed youths with speech- and hearing-related disabilities. Its founder’s aim was to expand Nukkad to more locations so that more people with these disabilities could be employed and a larger customer base could be reached. What was the best way to achieve this aim? Should he continue expanding with his own outlets (traditional expansion) or through franchising? If the latter, what type of franchising model should Nukkad follow?
Laurs & Bridz Pharmaceuticals Private Limited (Laurs & Bridz) was a state-of-the-art generic pharmaceutical company that exported pharmaceutical products all over the world and specialized in providing combination drugs to the medical community. The company needed to deploy a customer relationship management (CRM) solution to strengthen its sales and marketing, and build robust systems to better track customers, strengthen customer relationships, and enhance sales-force productivity. In 2017, Laurs & Bridz was considering several CRM solutions, which had been shortlisted on the basis of features and price. Before it could invest ₹50 million in the new system, Laurs & Bridz had to answer several important questions: Which of the available CRM solutions would best suit the firm? What would be the direct and indirect effects of implementing such a CRM solution? What kind of approach should the firm use to implement the solution? What obstacles could interfere with that solution’s successful implementation?
Wild Chef Limited (Wild Chef) was a multi-cuisine restaurant operating a take-away and delivery format in Delhi’s National Capital Region. It adopted the emerging concept of cloud kitchen in July 2016, considering the promising opportunities offered by the rapidly growing food-technology market in India. Key strategic decisions helped Wild Chef achieve its operational break-even point in its third month, and after one year, the owners were considering options on how to scale-up the business further. The choice of markets to enter, and arriving at the right permutation of scale-up options were the key decision areas under focus.
Since 2000, China’s Jiuzhai Valley National Park (Jiuzhai Valley) had been experiencing a sharp increase in the volume of tourists it received. The park contributed significantly to the surrounding area’s economy: in 2015 and 2016, it contributed more than 60 per cent of the total admission income received from the four major scenic parks within the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province. However, pollution and noise due to the influx of visitors presented a constant threat to Jiuzhai Valley’s ecosystem and environment. Despite Jiuzhai Valley’s fairly advanced and disciplined approach to park management, there was no easy solution to the problem it faced in trying to balance its economic success and sustainable environmental initiatives. Attempts to manage information using digital and smart technologies and “big data” were still in their early stages, and had yet to yield the expected benefits. How could the park balance conservation and development to attain sustainability?