Supplement to case IMB639. GoCoop is a four-year old start-up that is creating an international market for Indian artisanal products such as handlooms through a B2B e-commerce platform. The company, founded by Siva Reddy, a former technologist with managerial experience in India as well as abroad has received a round of angel funding, followed by a Series A round recently. It has pivoted (i.e., changed its business model) twice and is now poised for a phase of rapid growth. The case traces the history of the company and examines some of the critical choices made by the entrepreneur and his key learning experiences. The case is anchored on the next steps that GoCoop will have to undertake to meet its growth aspirations. It also provides an opportunity for the class to deliberate and reflect on the choices made by the company and the entrepreneur so far. The case is accompanied by a background note on the marketing of Indian handloom products from an earlier period prior to the advent of electronic commerce. Company videos and those of Indian artisans are also available on YouTube.
The case describes the journey of Zola, an online wedding registry designed to greatly improve the clunky and impersonal wedding registry process. With innovative features such as group gifting, scheduled delivery, and honeymoon donations, Zola was described as the registry for Millenials. As the company achieved significant traction and looked to scale, it had to choose from three distinct strategic growth paths to pursue: 1) become the go-to registry site for all major life events; 2) become the online home department store for Millenials; 3) become the premier all things wedding website. As well, the CEO and her team needed to decide whether and how to raise capital in the context of this strategic decision.
This case study details the issues and challenges that faced ride-sharing company Uber following its arrival in the state of Colorado as a new alternative to traditional taxi and limousine services. It is written from the perspective of Will McCollum, general manager of Uber Denver, a recent MBA graduate who is given responsibility for all aspects of Uber's initial Colorado launch and ongoing operations. The case provides a unique example of the oft-seen process by which new entrant companies use technology and new business models to challenge incumbent firms and traditional industries. The highly regulated and very stable nature of local transportation markets and rapid speed of Uber's rise to prominence makes Uber's experience particularly noteworthy. Uber faces public legal battles with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission and other transportation companies within the area. After some early success in opposing regulatory restrictions, the decision facing McCollum and Uber is whether to continue to fight regulation in Colorado or instead proactively work with state politicians to develop a set of ongoing rules under which the industry will be required to operate. The case can be used to introduce or illustrate Porter's Five Forces, industry disruption and disruptive innovation, stakeholder analysis, the legislative and regulatory process, and corporate political strategy.
CEO Emma Mcilroy and her team weighed the merits of two distinct business models, as they prepared for a funding pitch to scale Wildfang, a menswear-inspired fashion brand built around a badass tomboy image. The funding pitch would hinge on the resource and process gaps the company would need to address in its business model coupled with the outcome of a customer lifetime value (CLV) analysis. Tools for scenario testing, including CLV modeling and the Business Model Canvas (BMC) template are used to contrast a bricks-and-clicks private label strategy with a multisided fashion platform. An Excel supplement included with the case, allows students to analyze segment-specific CLV and weigh financial versus business model design assumptions in order to decide which expansion strategy to recommend. This case illustrates how the descriptive modules of a firm's BMC can be linked to the financial implications of business model design using lifetime value modeling techniques.
The members of the second generation of the Nguyen family have begun to enter the business. Each has entered at different times and for diverse reasons. "Is this for me?" centers on John Nguyen who has entered the family business but isn't sure he has made the right choice. He has worked outside of the family business for a number of years and has also considered other career fields such as the priesthood. However, at this juncture, he is working in the family business, has received an attractive job offer from a prestigious technology company, and is deciding whether he should remain. The audience for "Is this for me?" are students in family business or human resource management courses, either at the undergraduate or graduate levels. This case could also be used effectively in seminars conducted by university centers or institutes focused on offering continuing education for family businesses.
Oliver "Ollie" Percovich, a world traveler and skateboard enthusiast, took three skateboards with him to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he hoped to find a research job with a development organization. The job did not materialize, but as he skated through the streets of Kabul he soon found that the children who surrounded him did not just want to watch him skate, they wanted to try skateboarding. As more and more children began to learn, particularly girls who previously were not even allowed to play any sports, Ollie realized he might have found a loophole for changes to existing Afghan cultural norms about girls and sports. The children who engaged in skateboarding crossed traditional Afghan social and economic boundaries and thus opened the door to develop education and leadership opportunities that he believed could transform a society. By 2015, Ollie had founded Skateistan in Kabul and added three more skate schools in Mazar-e-Sharif Afghanistan, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Johannesburg, South Africa. The mission of Skateistan was to "use skateboarding as a tool for empowering youth, to create new opportunities and the potential for change." Ollie wanted to further deliver on the company's vision to "grow a sustainable organization that is recognized locally and globally for changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of youth through skateboarding and quality programmes-creating leaders that change the world." This case outlines events that led to Ollie's development of the Skateistan concept, its launch in Afghanistan, and the organization's organic growth into other regions of the world. The case describes the organization's programmatic approach to creating systemic social change and provides information for students to identify and analyze the organization's business model. A short video available with the case includes Ollie, Skateistan's founder, talking about how this phenomenon developed and dramatic scenes of children skateboarding in war-torn Kabul.
This case raises contemporary issues pertaining to strategy and leadership. It helps to demonstrate that (a) sound economic rationale is a necessary but not sufficient condition to make a business strategy effective, and (b) successful implementation of a strategy is contingent on it being driven by a responsible and ethical leader. The case helps students to understand limitations of the pay-for-performance system, and appreciate negative impact of unethical business decisions. Established in 1852, Wells Fargo had earned a storied reputation for integrity and principled performance. The cornerstone of the Bank's business strategy was "cross-sell", a strategy that augmented Wells Fargo's performance and that of its stock. To implement the strategy, Wells Fargo's management instituted an incentive system that awarded significant bonuses to employees for opening customer accounts, and reprimanded employees who did not meet "quotas" of the number and types of accounts. The obsession of top management with "cross-sell" obscured the vision of the Bank to give unconditional primacy to serving customers' interests. The Bank was fined $185 million for opening over two million unauthorized checking and credit card accounts between 2011 and 2015. The Board had failed to monitor the actions of its senior management. In the aftermath of the debacle, Stumpf resigned from the CEO and Chairman of the Board positions at Wells Fargo. His successor, Tim Sloan, had the unenviable task to restore reputation of the Bank by making changes to its strategy, structure and systems. Using a holistic analysis of the episode from the perspective of corporate strategy, responsible leadership, corporate governance, business ethics and organizational culture, the case provides a platform to discuss challenges that Tim Sloan faced to set the stagecoach of Wells Fargo to start thundering again.
The co-founder of Tier1 Coaching and Development, Inc., a small training and development firm, had to hire an entirely new staff after 10 years in business. Drew Nault was one of the first three on that new team, and he was hired into a newly created position that merged two different sets of operational responsibilities. Over time, Nault realized he was frequently asked to justify what he was working on and how it added value. This case provides an opportunity to critically examine an employee's struggles with job expectations and performance objectives in a newly created position within a small firm. What steps can be taken to address the job and career concerns? What exit strategy might be needed? Students also examine the employee's perceived psychological contract with his employer. The Instructor's Manual details a number of potential structural, managerial and interpersonal sources for the problems encountered. This case is best suited for graduate students or advanced undergraduate students.
United Way Suncoast (UWS), a regional chapter of the United Way, was a non-profit based in West Central Florida that had annual revenues of $22 million and served four counties. Recent performance at UWS had been excellent, but Jamie Renee, the Chief Development Officer (CDO), responsible for strategic long term relationships with corporate donors, was concerned for the future. Multiple sources of information indicated that Millennials' charitable giving differed from other generations. She particularly noted that as a group, Millennials tended to put a lower priority on local charities and the highest priority on supporting international human rights. The entire mission of UW was to collect resources and allocate them to local charities that supported local causes. If Millennials continued to shun local charities while supporting overseas causes, what would become of UW? This dilemma led Renee to think about UW's approach for targeting Millennials. She needed to devise a three-pronged strategy for appealing to Millennials: volunteering, giving and employment.
The owner of a small robotics company needs to make some decisions regarding his company's employee compensation plan. One of the owner's valued employees has approached him with a request for a pay increase; the owner has to decide whether to grant the raise. The owner is also considering instituting an 'employee trust' (i.e., an organization-level reward plan that would provide a payout to employees in the event that the company is sold). The owner also needs to consider his employee compensation plan as a whole and decide whether his current compensation system is helping him to achieve the company's goals.
The Augusta Training Shop (ATS) was a non-profit organization that provided jobs for individuals with disabilities. In 2012 the workers started producing craft snowflakes made from reed which were sold online, in the shop, and at trade shows. The Executive Director, Audrey Murell, was attending a trade show in Atlanta in the spring of 2014 and was asked if she could give a 50% discount to a wholesaler. Despite having produced and sold snowflakes for a couple of years, Audrey realized she did not know how much it cost her to make them. What should Audrey reply?
US Army Officer Captain Richard Swift was the newly-appointed commander of a 100-person Basic Combat Training unit, whose mission was to train brand new enlistees in the Army. Swift sensed malaise within his team of drill sergeants, who led the majority of the training. Swift was concerned that these instructors, with an average service of 13 years in the Army and multiple combat deployments, were no longer motivated to do their best and had lost sight of the importance of their work. He wanted to change this. He wanted to increase the sergeants' professionalism and motivation, as these drill sergeants not only taught the basic combat classes, but also were the first faces that recruits saw when beginning their Army careers. Unwilling to accept mediocrity or mission failure in turning recruits into soldiers, Swift arranged for a training consultant team to visit his unit at Fort Benning, Georgia in March 2016. He wanted the consultants to emphasize the importance of training, to underscore how drill sergeants could design and execute better learning modules, and to professionalize drill sergeants' work by having them consider metrics or measurements to evaluate their job performance as trainers. In April 2016, after the workshop's conclusion, Swift received the consultants' raw data as compiled from the pre- and post-survey instruments completed by his drill sergeants. Swift had to combine his own expertise as an Army officer with the workshop data to effectively lead change and improve the operation of his unit.
On April 12, 2013, Corey Rennell, the founder and CEO of CORE Foods (CF), was faced with the decision of whether or not to withdraw $100,000 worth of CORE Meals from distributors and retailers who had purchased product from the last production run. The company's product, CORE Meals, was a meal replacement nutritional bar made from high quality, organic, mainly plant-based ingredients that were minimally processed. Since the products did not use preservatives, CORE Meals lasted only a week without refrigeration, one month when chilled and six months frozen. The company had recently switched to a new type of oats, one of the main ingredients in CORE Meals. However, within weeks, the company received complaints from customers about a spicy cayenne-like after-taste, something that was not evident during the initial product testing. While the after-taste was not a health issue warranting a mandatory product recall, Rennell and his team felt it would be a "disservice to consumers if they sold something that had a different aftertaste from what they were used to." A decision as to whether or not to withdraw may come at a high cost to the brand and/or the bottom line. What were the alternatives? And what action(s) should Rennell and his team take going forward that was both in keeping the company's ethos as well as maintaining its financial viability?
This case is about a for-profit social enterprise in Rwanda named the Rwanda Trading Company (RTC) which purchases coffee beans from coffee growers in the country, roasts the beans and exports them to other coumtries. The company was begun in 2009 by Todd Brogdon who also managed the organization. The primary goals of the company were twofold: (1) Have a positive impact on the poorest of the poor in the country; and (2) To be profitable. RTC has been able to achieve these goals since its founding by working with the Rwandan coffee growers on a multi-year agriculturalo training program. All had gone well until the spring of 2016, when a German company named SRO which owned such coffee companies as Peet's Coffee & Tea and Green Mountain (which was owned by Keurig) decided to change the terms of its contract with RTC. A provision in the contract RTC signed with SRO was that their company would carry 180-day receivables. Brogdon immediately realized that this would lead to a serious cash flow problem that would threaten all of the good work they had been able to perform with the Rwandan coffee growers.
Wayne Williams, the CEO of Telect, Inc. has proposed that he and the company's CFO, Stan Hilbert, spend a month or more riding around the country on their Harley Davidson motorcycles visiting the company's customers in honor of the company's upcoming 30th anniversary in September 2012. Wayne wants to take the ride to personally thank the customers who have helped the company reach this milestone and to showcase the firm's product offerings. He would also like to find out from customers what more Telect could be doing to meet their needs. Stan is concerned that the ride could backfire and be misinterpreted by customers, eroding rather than enhancing customer relationships. He is also concerned that employees will not see the ride as the best use of the company's resources and CEO and CFO's time, and that the company may not want to take on the physical risks of having its executive team travel around the country by motorcycle. The students are put into the shoes of the CFO and must decide whether or not to support the ride. If they support the ride, they need to craft a strong argument for the ride to present to the company's board of directors. If they decide not to support the ride, they need to craft a strong argument that will have a chance of convincing the CEO to change his mind about the ride. The case was written primarily for use in MBA and Executive Education strategy and/or executive leadership courses, but it is also suitable for use in an undergraduate level strategy or leadership course. The case focuses on strategic leadership and the role of the executive team in both shaping corporate culture and in developing and maintaining strong relationships with the organization's stakeholders, and in particular, its customers. There is both a full length (12 pages) and abridged (5 pages) version of this case.
Against the background of a fragmented cable industry Chris Kyle at Shentel is evaluating a renewal offer to carry AMC Networks' programming. The offer includes a significant price increase as well as conditions that require Shentel to carry additional AMC channels. AMC's position is fortified by its ownership of the #1 TV show in the US, The Walking Dead. Shentel is concerned about price escalation and the additional capacity demands on its network, and must make a recommendation on whether or not to accept AMC's offer.
"Noble and The Valuation of Its Investment Associates" focusses on the Noble Group's performance since 2011 and the impact of the adverse research report published by the independent outfit, Iceberg Research in 2015, on the company. The veracity of Iceberg Research's reports is analyzed. The case uses financial statement analysis, valuing companies through income, market and asset/cost approaches to assess if Noble Group paid purchase considerations in excess of the target firm's intrinsic values while acquiring associates, particularly Australia-based Yancoal. The case study also provides the setting to use macroeconomic factors in conjunction with valuation techniques and financial statement analysis to evaluate a potential investment.
nuTomomy was an innovative company spun out of MIT that sought to develop Automated Mobility on Demand (AMoD) services: fleets of highly automated on-demand vehicles or "robotaxis." The two founders had developed software and algorithms for autonomous vehicle operation in urban environments, but now faced a fundamental decision: Where should they conduct road tests to refine their models and make automated car services part of the actual transportation system? The critical problem was that the technology was well ahead of the regulatory environment, which meant that their efforts would involve legislative challenges, in addition to the technical work to make their vision a reality. The case study describes the origins and rapid technological innovations of the automated vehicle sector, and the founders' vision for a fleet of automated on-demand vehicles, hailed via a smartphone app, and controlled remotely through teleoperation. The founders could choose to remain in the Boston area to conduct the road tests, a critical part of the company's next steps. Or operations could shift to California, where other start-ups in the space were already pushing state regulators to greenlight testing of automated vehicles on public roads. A third option was shifting to Singapore, where the government was committed to realizing the benefits of vehicle automation, and seemed to offer all the conditions for a rapid path to testing and the deployment of nuTonomy's technology on public roads. Singapore also could offer excellent infrastructure, disciplined drivers, and mostly benign weather conditions.