In 2015, German football club Bayern Munich is considering how to enter the Chinese market. Should it build its own infrastructure or rely on third-party partnerships to reach this massive football fanbase?
Sewells Group, India, a leading provider of retail solutions to auto original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their dealers in the Indian market, developed an innovative engagement model for its clients. The model offered solutions based on the performance management of franchised automotive dealers using measurement, analysis, education and development. The first client for whom Sewells Group developed the dealer sales and service system was a late entrant into the Indian market and had about 100 dealerships across the country. It wanted to ensure that the brand promise communicated through its innovative and expensive marketing campaigns was supported at its dealerships when customers arrived to explore the cars. The client sought a comprehensive model of dealer management that did not suffer from the limitations of traditional models that were heavily focused on training and process compliance. In response, Sewells Group developed a novel 5-step dealer management model that applied principles of retail process efficacy to deliver three key outcomes: customer experience, productivity and profitability across all the departments of a dealership. As Jayesh Jagasia, CEO at Sewells Group, India, reviewed the impressive quarterly results of the model's implementation, he mulled over questions related to the sustainability, replicability and extendibility of this initial model to other firms in the automotive sector. What were the learnings from the first implementation of the model? Was it possible to effectively overcome the challenges that they had faced? Would the model work across the industry? Under what circumstances and for what brands or dealerships would the model work? What sort of consulting resources would the company need? Could some parts of the solution be automated? How would the IT departments of auto manufacturers respond to the automation of solutions?
In 2014, the owner of a food truck based in Hamilton, Ontario, was looking over the first year of her operations. In addition to working in Hamilton, she had tried to maximize her revenues by driving to several other cities and charging various prices for each burger, depending partly on the fresh ingredients available in each city. Besides location, the owner had collected data on a few other factors-the weather, the day of the week, the city's population, and whether a festival was going on-that had had an impact on the demand for her product. She wondered whether analytics could help her decide where to sell and how much to charge on a daily basis. The owner also wondered whether this decision-making and data-collection process could be automated since she would be using it every day.
In 2013, the chief executive officer of Porter Airlines, a Toronto-based regional airline, announced an expansion project to expand the airline's destinations. The project required that Porter Airlines expand its fleet of jets to accommodate longer distances, and that its transport hub, the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, be renovated. The airport was governed by a tripartite agreement between the federal government, the City of Toronto, and PortsToronto; any amendments to the agreement required a consensus of the three governing parties. Despite active petitioning, the federal government announced in 2015 it would not support an amendment to the agreement. Should Porter Airlines continue to petition? Or should it consider alternative options to achieve growth?
This technical note provides an overview of Financial Management. It is intended as a note to accompany the opening session of a case-based course in corporate finance or financial management, as a way of orienting students as to what they should expect and not expect from such a course.
In July 2014, after 18 months and eight unsuccessful product launches, the CEO of Yabbly has agreed to sell his company to a larger, well-funded startup, providing a return of capital for his investors and a home for his team. Two weeks prior to the scheduled closing, the team launches a final experiment based on the results of a customer interview. After creating a quick landing page and announcing the product launch through social media channels, the company finds significant customer interest. With only two weeks of promising data, the CEO must decide whether or not to abandon the planned sale to pursue the new product, and if so, what terms he should offer new and existing investors to finance the next phase of product development.
In late May 2009, New Vine Logistics ("New Vine"), a Napa-based wine shipping and fulfillment company, abruptly closed its doors, leaving hundreds of clients scrambling for information on their orders and inventory. Six days after New Vine's closure, Inertia Beverage Group (IBG), a provider of solutions for the creation and expansion of online wine marketplaces, agreed in principle to acquire New Vine and provide interim cash funding to revitalize operations. The resulting organization provided the industry's only fully integrated direct-to-market solution incorporating e-commerce, compliance, and logistics capabilities. Nine months later, in March 2010, Joseph Waechter, who had spent 15 years at DHL and was credited with the growth and expansion of the company into the world's largest express shipment company, was appointed CEO of IBG. Under Waechter's direction, the company set out a new strategy to expand access to new markets. Despite operating in a highly regulated industry, WineDirect facilitated winery direct-to-consumer fulfillment in 45 states, enabling the company to reach 90 percent of the U.S. wine-drinking public. In 2015 alone, WineDirect enabled more than $1 billion in direct wine sales and shipped more than 8 million bottles of wine through its three fulfillment centers. Still, Waechter thought about the greatest current business opportunities as a supply chain management firm. Further, he wondered what types of existing or new wine businesses could and should be leveraging WineDirect's supply chain management capabilities. This case describes the challenges faced by the growth of the direct-to-consumer segment of the wine industry. It covers growth, trends, and regulatory matters within the wine industry, as well as WineDirect's competitive offering, customers, and brief economics.
In 2014, the owner of a food truck based in Hamilton, Ontario, was looking over the first year of her operations. In addition to working in Hamilton, she had tried to maximize her revenues by driving to several other cities and charging various prices for each burger, depending partly on the fresh ingredients available in each city. Besides location, the owner had collected data on a few other factors—the weather, the day of the week, the city’s population, and whether a festival was going on—that had had an impact on the demand for her product. She wondered whether analytics could help her decide where to sell and how much to charge on a daily basis. The owner also wondered whether this decision-making and data-collection process could be automated since she would be using it every day.
The leader of a pioneering biotech company in the siRNA space weighs his options for scaling production capacity in advance of an anticipated commercial launch. Operational complexity and relative merits of in-house manufacturing versus a contractor model are discussed.
In March 2010, Burak Dalgın (HBS MBA 2004) led private equity firm Darby's investment in Sırma, a local Turkish water and beverage company. Sırma was owned and managed by members of two Turkish business families. The existing management, while being highly entrepreneurial, had paid less attention to managing the company in a professional manner, leading to a highly leveraged balance sheet and a significant need for financing. After the investment, Sırma introduced new products, opened a new factory, and built up its financial reporting system from scratch. Two years after Darby's investment, Sırma's operational performance had improved. However, the company was still suffering from significant financial problems. By early 2013, although Sırma had received two cash injections from Darby, the company still required another round of financing. Dalgın was looking at three potential options: Should Darby make another investment in Sırma? If Darby stayed invested in Sırma, should it replace its managing partners? If Dalgın advised Darby to exit, would that be a premature move?
In 2016, the millennial generation (those age 19 to 35 in 2016), the largest generation by population in the U.S., was entering its prime home buying, family forming, earning and spending years. This generation was showing different beliefs and behaviors than previous generations-beliefs and behaviors that were having a significant impact on the overall economy and in particular on the food industry. This note explores the millennial generation, how it differs from previous generations, and examples of how it is impacting the food industry.
In November 2015, Westridge Cabinets (Westridge) was facing a sales decline of approximately 35 per cent. Westridge manufactured and sold kitchen cabinets for the new home market, the home renovation market, and both the low-rise and high-rise multi-unit markets. The company was based in Alberta, Canada, which had been hit hard by a 75 per cent drop in world oil prices in the last year. Westridge was re-evaluating its sales strategy and considering three alternative structures for the account management team: leave the existing system in place, but with a renewed focus on growth; off-load some of the order-management and customer-care responsibilities of the account managers to allow them to focus more attention on winning new contracts; or add new account managers to generate new business, and allow the existing team to focus on existing customers. The situation was urgent.
In 2016, the owner of Sarda Farms, a dairy farm in western India, was preparing for a meeting with the company's senior management. Since the dairy's launch in 2011, its production processes had stabilized; however, the daily demand for its milk was projected to increase substantially in six months, from 15,000 litres to 25,000 litres. Because the farm was already operating at near capacity, the output and efficiencies of all processes were under scrutiny. Sarda Farms needed to improve its efficiencies to meet the increase in demand, and the owner needed to finalize his strategy for improvements with senior management in one week's time.
In 2016, the owner of Sarda Farms, a dairy farm in western India, was preparing for a meeting with the company’s senior management. Since the dairy’s launch in 2011, its production processes had stabilized; however, the daily demand for its milk was projected to increase substantially in six months, from 15,000 litres to 25,000 litres. Because the farm was already operating at near capacity, the output and efficiencies of all processes were under scrutiny. Sarda Farms needed to improve its efficiencies to meet the increase in demand, and the owner needed to finalize his strategy for improvements with senior management in one week’s time.
In November 2015, Westridge Cabinets (Westridge) was facing a sales decline of approximately 35 per cent. Westridge manufactured and sold kitchen cabinets for the new home market, the home renovation market, and both the low-rise and high-rise multi-unit markets. The company was based in Alberta, Canada, which had been hit hard by a 75 per cent drop in world oil prices in the last year. Westridge was re-evaluating its sales strategy and considering three alternative structures for the account management team: leave the existing system in place, but with a renewed focus on growth; off-load some of the order-management and customer-care responsibilities of the account managers to allow them to focus more attention on winning new contracts; or add new account managers to generate new business, and allow the existing team to focus on existing customers. The situation was urgent.
Hope Blooms was a social enterprise based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, that grew its own garden produce and manufactured and sold a line of herb dressings. For a small social enterprise, it was remarkably successful. Hope Blooms had appeared on CBC’s Dragons’ Den and was constantly selling out of its products in local markets. In addition, it had secured placement in a national grocery retailer and was continuing to fulfill its social mission of empowering marginalized youth by providing education on food, sustainability, and entrepreneurship issues. These successes started to create a series of problems associated with production and capacity shortfalls associated with using a youth volunteer workforce, stock outs, and potential mission drift. As the executive director of Hope Blooms prepared for the final board of directors’ meeting in 2015, she wondered how to solve two of the organization’s fundamental problems: How could the retail operations provide stable employment for its youth members? How could Hope Blooms increase its profits to continue to expand its activities?