In the decade starting in 2000, a new mayor focused on infrastructure and leadership from a foundation investing in arts and culture helped the Miami region transform and attract younger people to a newly vibrant central city and arts district. In 2011, the Knight Foundation targeted entrepreneurship as its core Miami focus-to build tech jobs of the future-drawing on the rapid growth of higher education and a large immigrant population. But should a private philanthropy promote for-profit businesses?
Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods, offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3.00 price point that promised an average savings of 40% versus national brands through the elimination of the BrandTax, the hidden costs the company claimed consumers paid for a national brand. As the venture funded startup entered the fiercely competitive CPG industry, it was simultaneously taking on both the world's greatest brands and the world's most dominant retailers. Could Brandless change the way consumers bought the essential items that filled their pantries and medicine cabinets? Industry pundits had long predicted both the death of brand and the death of brick and mortar retailing in the contemporary marketplace. Would Brandless be the final nail in the coffin?
Fastenal was one of the largest U.S. industrial supply companies, with the highest operating margin among its competitors. It was known and awarded for its innovative industrial vending solutions. With the launch of Amazon Business in the industrial distribution space in 2012, Fastenal’s performance began to decline. In 2017, Amazon Business obtained patents for a drone-based delivery system. This, combined with Amazon’s power of low cost, raised critical challenges for leading players like Fastenal. How should Fastenal respond to this competition: should it focus on low price or pursue a differentiation strategy?
AB InBev, the world's largest beer company, faced serious challenges in 2017. First, large food and beverage companies were under-pressure due to shifting consumer preferences towards healthier products and increasing price pressure from retailers. The beer category, in particular, showed signs of stagnation in developed markets, such as the United States and Europe. Moreover, several major trends - e.g. localization of consumption and rise of craft beers- were quickly transforming the industry. Finally, technological innovations, such as e-commerce platforms and deep data-analysis enabled new players and emptied the effects of mass-marketing. The strategy designed by the owner of legendary brands like Budweiser, Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra, was multifaceted. On the one hand, the importance of renovating the core business was undeniable, especially via improvements to the portfolio and modernization of sales capabilities. On the other hand, the company needed to catch up on the new trends and become a disruptor itself; craft beers, e-commerce, home-brewing, and innovative business models were some of those. All while preserving its powerful internal culture and keeping its shareholders satisfied.
Faced with a persistent robbery problem at his convenience store company, Sean Sportun, security and loss prevention manager at Mac's of Central Canada, looked to standardize safety measures and devise a new way of preventing employee injury. But as a 32-year old with just one year on the job, Sportun had to tailor his message for change carefully to his colleagues, many of whom had worked for Mac's for decades. The case provides an overview of the convenience store industry and examines the challenges of crime prevention in a late-night retail environment.
Supplement to 918-001. The case describes the inventive approaches to retail crime prevention that Sean Sportun, security and loss prevention manager at Mac's Convenience Stores, implemented between 2007 and 2017.
Fastenal was one of the largest U.S. industrial supply companies, with the highest operating margin among its competitors. It was known and awarded for its innovative industrial vending solutions. With the launch of Amazon Business in the industrial distribution space in 2012, Fastenal's performance began to decline. In 2017, Amazon Business obtained patents for a drone-based delivery system. This, combined with Amazon's power of low cost, raised critical challenges for leading players like Fastenal. How should Fastenal respond to this competition: should it focus on low price or pursue a differentiation strategy?
With 195,000 employees, operations in 45 countries, and $55 billion in annual revenues, Disney is the largest media and entertainment company in the world. The strategic leadership of Walt Disney, Michael Eisner, and Robert Iger was critical in turning Disney into such a colossus empire. The case covers the epic journey of Disney from its inception in 1923 to its record performance results in 2016. The case examines how Disney grew through the corporate strategies of vertical integration, diversification, and geographic expansion by leveraging the following core competencies: creative content, technology, synergy, and branding. The case opens with Robert Iger, the current CEO who is facing four major challenges: acquiring creative content, technology disruption, global resistance to Disney's association with "American imperialism," and finding a successor by 2019. These challenges involve further broadening the scope of Disney, having to face even more formidable competition from international companies as well as former customers such as Netflix, and possibly hiring an "untested" CEO who could derail Disney's past success.
In 2015, Reynir Indahl left top Nordic private equity firm Altor Equity Partners to found Summa Equity (Summa). After long contemplation following the financial crisis, Indahl was convinced the financial system was producing negative externalities and that the current private equity model adopted by most firms would no longer be successful. Summa was developed under a new private equity model that sought to "future-proof" businesses by focusing on long-term value creation and growth, in addition to traditional private equity practices of implementing best practices and productivity improvements. To find businesses best suited for long-term growth with disruptive potential, Summa invested in four thematic areas that were mapped to megatrends outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-trends Summa believed presented long-term growth opportunities for businesses that presented commercial solutions for these challenges. In addition, Summa integrated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues to create value during the ownership phase and expand multiples. While ESG investing was practiced by many firms with a focus on compliance and reporting, Indahl wanted ESG to be a tool for value creation and growth. After a period of successful recruiting, fund raising, and deal completion, Summa needed to develop a set of practices and expectations across portfolio companies and partners. The case concludes with Indahl contemplating exiting Summa's first company. What should Summa look for in a buyer? Is sale price all that matters, or should a potential buyer share Summa's focus on building purpose-driven organizations with a positive social impact on the world? How can Summa maximize its impact, both through investment and voice? With impact investing taking off a critical question also was how to measure and report impact to its Limited Partners (LPs).
In 2015, Elaine Paul, CFO of Hulu, and the rest of the senior leadership team, must decide if they should offer a new, advertisement-free subscription service. At the time Hulu distributed a wide variety of content including in season current programming and earned significant revenues from advertising revenues. This choice had strategic implications and required formulating a view on how the video on demand industry would evolve. It also had value implications that can be analyzed in a subscriber valuation model. The owners of Hulu, which included Disney and Fox, would ultimately need to approve whatever decision was made.
"Stanford Medicine: Health IT Purchasing Decisions in a Complex Medical Organization" examines how a complex medical organization evaluates new health information technology products to pilot, purchase, and utilize. Every year, hundreds of companies pitched their health IT solutions to Stanford Medicine and its associated entities: the Stanford University School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, and Stanford Health Care. However, Stanford Medicine would only select a few of these IT products to purchase and implement. Highlighting a few specific health information technology companies and products, this case explores the organizational decision-making process at Stanford Medicine and the criteria used to evaluate new technologies.
In the early 1960s, a popular drug taken by patients worldwide for a range of maladies was found to cause severe birth defects and other health problems in babies born to mothers who had taken it during a certain stage of fetal development. As many as 10,000 children may have been affected. Just a handful of these children were born in the U.S., where safety concerns were raised by Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey, the medical officer handling the thalidomide application at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. However, the company hoping to distribute the product in the U.S. had already given away thousands of pills for doctors to run clinical trials. Once the full extent of the global thalidomide crisis became generally known, the U.S. Congress significantly reformed the country's drug approval process, to ensure that all new products were both safe and effective. It subsequently became much more arduous for pharmaceutical firms to bring new drugs to market. Some critics therefore argued that the new regulations were actually detrimental, as they prevented or delayed good drugs from coming to market. What was the right balance between consumer protection and access to potentially life-saving drugs?
In 2017, True Fruits, a German smoothie company, was operating in three European markets. The company had developed flash pasteurization, which was an efficient and gentle production process that made their product one of the highest quality smoothies in the world. The company successfully exported its product to premium Austrian and Swiss supermarkets, and was planning further expansion within Europe. True Fruits had strong brand loyalty, and a noteworthy, healthy lifestyle-oriented product. True Fruits' owners were convinced that entering other European markets would fuel the company’s growth.
Although Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) was the leader in passenger vehicle sales in India in May 2015, it was having difficulties breaking into the high-end car segment. There were multiple strategies that MSIL could have used to deal with this problem, such as; changing its brand image from small automaker to high-end automaker; staying in the small car market; penetrating the market further by introducing new models and their variants in the same segment; or striking a balance between both of the other suggestions (i.e., a mixed strategy). A sudden change in MSIL's image could harm the company's existing share of the small car segment. At the same time, remaining firmly in the small car market could be detrimental for MSIL's market leader position in the years following, as the small-car-dominated market was gradually moving towards segments such as mid-size and executive cars in India. Which strategy (or combination of strategies) should the company pursue?
While the first decade of the 21st century saw a massive financial crisis that led to significant economic downturn, the second decade saw the rise of political leaders, who built their support upon a political message that championed the common person against the collective enemy - the political and economic elite. Historically, waves of populism were infrequent and occurred almost exclusively in developing nations. However, not seen since the pre-World War II years had populist leaders gained such a following throughout the developed world - in countries with the strongest democracies. Driven heavily by growing inequality and degrading trust in institutions, populist leaders took global elections by storm. Populist movements raised the fundamental question of the role of business in the development of the conditions for the genesis of these movements, especially in relation to inequality, and how business would respond to subsequent government interventions that reduced the freedom of markets.
In 2016, Kurt Summers, the Chicago City Treasurer, considered his future in Chicago politics. With an unpopular governor and mayor soon up for reelection, should Summers consider running for higher office? Summers reflects on his time growing up in gang-controlled neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago, and career experiences in both the public and private sector. These include stints at Harvard Business School, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, the Chicago Olympics bid, and in local government. He tries to assess what he should do in this situation and what the best next steps would be in terms of his career. The case also discusses his work and leaderships styles, his personal life, including his relationship with his wife, and how he has adjusted to the new role of being a politician.
Exhibit to Merging American Airlines and US Airways (A) case. In February 2013, US Airways announced that it would merge with American Airlines to create the world's largest airline. Doug Parker, the CEO of US Airways, would become CEO of the new American Airlines Group (AAL). The case describes a number of critical decisions Parker made and actions that he took in the course of the acquisition integration process. All focused on how best to combine the two airlines' core systems and operating processes as well as the appropriate scope and speed of strategic changes. Now, Parker must decide on the composition of AAL's senior executive team. Should Parker select a team dominated by US Airways executives with whom he has successfully worked for decades? Or should he establish a new team with roughly equal representation from both airlines? Parker's choice will send important signals to employees about the extent to which the transaction will be viewed as a merger of equals or as a takeover by US Airways.
BeiGene was a biopharmaceutical company founded on exploiting a temporal regulatory policy discontinuity. Because of regulatory challenges in China, most innovative new drugs launched there four to six years after their initial U.S. launches. This gave BeiGene a window of opportunity to develop drug candidates toward known targets with known mechanisms of actions that would allow it to become first-in-class in China. But how well would the company's strategy hold up to the 2017 regulatory reforms?