In 2015, the chief operating officer of the Kitchener Rangers Hockey Club had to consider short- and long-term options to maintain and increase the success of the organization. Given its strong community support, the Kitchener Rangers Hockey Club was in the enviable position of having an 800-person waiting list for season tickets; however, this scenario caused a perception that games were always sold out, which discouraged a new generation of fans from attending. Given the organization's nonprofit governance model, any plan the chief operating officer considered would have to be adopted by the players and staff, as well as ticket holders, fans, local municipalities, and community residents. Possible courses of action included building a larger stadium, leveraging new marketing opportunities, and bidding for control of stadium concessions. How could the Kitchener Rangers Hockey Club continue its success while attracting a new generation of fans?
In 2007, the chairman of Supor Group led the company in a new venture in the sanitary ware industry. Supor Group was the first listed company in the Chinese cookware market, and Supor Sanitary Ware Co., Ltd. (Supor) was Supor Group’s most important industry. Supor established three production bases in Zhejiang and Shenyang, China. Its marketing channels included brand agents and direct-sale stores. The company also opened an online flagship store on Tmall, a Chinese-language website for business-to-consumer online retail. Since its performance on Tmall was poor, the company outsourced this channel to Company X. However, this led to channel conflict between online and offline channels. How could Supor Group resolve the conflict, improve channel performance, and achieve channel synergy?
In 2015, the medical officer in charge of a blood bank in India needed to manage a chronic shortage of blood products that was likely to worsen over the summer months. The blood products were perishable and had a limited useful life which complicated matters when maintaining adequate stock. Furthermore, demand for blood products was unpredictable and varied widely each month. The blood blank attracted few blood donors and they were likely to become even fewer over the summer. A shortage of blood products could mean cancelled surgeries and, in worst-case scenarios, the loss of lives. The medical officer needed to decide whether the blood bank should optimize its inventory of perishable blood products by organizing large blood donation camps or by holding smaller but more frequent blood donation camps. This case can be used with the <a href=http://bbgame.wpcarey.asu.edu/target=_blank>Blood Bank Game simulation tool.
In 2012, the French government was faced with the challenge of setting the standards for socially responsible investment funds. A broader issue was the set of roles and responsibilities that regulators needed to take to ensure the best interest of society and the retail market. Retail consumers were different from institutional clients because they were numerous, they may not have had access to the same information available to more sophisticated investors, and because their thoughts on the financial markets were most likely to be based on what they had read and heard in the news. The government had to decide how to go about creating standards that could be applied to socially responsible investment funds. Also see supplement 9B16N017.
In 2003, a financial planner in Calgary started working with the owner of Oilfield Welding Limited to provide employee benefits to the owner and his staff. Initially, the owner wanted to save for retirement by reinvesting all of his surplus earnings back into the business. However, he appreciated the potential creditor-proofing of life insurance and established a small retirement savings opportunity using life insurance. When Oilfield Welding Limited hired a new group administrator, the employee benefits program was put out to bid and the business was moved. Shortly thereafter, the financial planner was notified that the life insurance he had placed on the owner of Oilfield Welding Limited and his wife would be replaced by two new policies as recommended by another advisor. Would it be beneficial for the clients to replace their existing insurance? How should the financial planner proceed?
A year after a massive data breach at its Ashley Madison adultery service, Avid Life Media relaunched in 2016 under a new name. The move was designed to help the business recover from the hacker attack that had exposed its security and governance issues and dashed the desire of investors to take the company public. It was also a strategic step to regain the trust of customers who had been outed as would-be cheaters. Now known as Ruby, the company has new leadership, and Ashley Madison has dropped the tagline “Life Is Short. Have an Affair.” and replaced it with “Find Your Moment.” While announcing these moves, the CEO assured wedding-vow breakers that the controversial business intended to remain “true to our roots.” <br><br> Ultimately, a business founded to help people deceive their partners will have a fraught reputation regardless of the parent company’s name. That’s why Ashley Madison is a case study that keeps on giving. Long before a hacker group exposed the personal information of millions of Ashley Madison members, we developed an Ivey case study based on Avid Life’s first attempt to go public in 2010. Back then, the business’s controversial nature and aggressive founder were seen as free publicity. Further, the company was considered well-run and profitable. Yet Avid Life failed to attract investment in 2010, which raised issues about the function of businesses, e.g., the shareholder perspective versus the stakeholder perspective. Boardrooms still debate how best to balance the duty to generate returns for shareholders with growing public expectations of corporate social responsibility. To help understand the reputational issues involved, there is perhaps no better case than the jilting of Ashley Madison by investment bankers, who are not typically seen as the moral compass of society.
Two soon-to-be MBA graduates are considering a business opportunity in the boutique hotel industry. Having found a seemingly attractive property in Savannah, Georgia, Yvonne D'Arcy and Elisabeth Whiting face questions about career issues, planning, financing, and the possibility of unequal power dynamics. Students assess the merits of the proposed project, as well as the overall attractiveness of the boutique hotel industry and the career opportunity it presents. Exhibits include a Letter of Agreement between D'Arcy and Whiting, the hotel's historical performance data, lodging statistics for the Savannah market, and the project budget. An associated case, "Hotel Vertu: Financing the Venture in the Boutique Hotel Industry" (#917505), overlaps with this case, but delves into the issues around financial forecasts, financial returns, deal structure, equity splits, and the power dynamic between investors and entrepreneurs. Although each case can be taught on its own (i.e., students do not require data or knowledge from one case in order to benefit fully from the other), the two can be paired in order to give students a more complete sense of the challenges that aspiring entrepreneurs may face. If both cases are taught, it is recommended that instructors begin with "Hotel Vertu: Analyzing the Opportunity in the Boutique Hotel Industry."
Two recent MBA graduates are considering a business opportunity in the boutique hotel industry. Having found a seemingly attractive property in Savannah, Georgia, Yvonne D'Arcy and Elisabeth Whiting face questions about financing, deal structure, and unequal power dynamics. This case covers opportunity analysis, financing and deal structuring, and partnership issues. Students are asked to assess the overall financial returns on the project and how those returns should be parsed between investors and owners. Students also examine how the deal with investors should be structured. Exhibits include a Letter of Agreement between the founders, the hotel's historical performance data, the project budget, financial forecasts, and cash flow and return projections. The HBS Brief Case series contains two cases on Hotel Vertu. Both cases are set within the same disguised context, but take place two months apart. The earlier case, Hotel Vertu: Analyzing the Opportunity in the Boutique Hotel Industry (917-501) overlaps with this case, but focuses more on the nature of the opportunity itself, an industry analysis of the boutique hotel segment, issues related to early career entrepreneurship, and only hints at the power dynamic between investors and entrepreneurs. Although each case can be taught on its own (i.e., students do not require data or knowledge from one case in order to benefit fully from the other), the two can be paired in order to give students a more complete sense of the challenges that aspiring entrepreneurs may face. If both cases are taught, it is recommended that instructors begin with Hotel Vertu: Analyzing the Opportunity in the Boutique Hotel Industry.
This case describes how IKEA's distinctive strategy was formed over a period of about 30 years (late 1940s to late 1970s). It describes how the various elements of its strategy were created gradually, with the help of many people other than the founder Kamprad, and how these elements were ultimately integrated with each other thanks to the creation of IKEA's organizational culture that came much later.
TSL is a family business in a traditional jewelry industry in Hong Kong that is being driven to change by many external and internal factors. This scenario, which is faced by many businesses, can be challenging when perceived from a conventional corporate mindset. To design a future for TSL, the management team needs to embrace an entrepreneurial mindset and build the "new company" by starting from basic principles, then completely re-think how to focus on providing value to new as well as existing customers through innovative products, service, and operating procedures. The case is set in early 2016, when TSL was facing increased competition, new price sensitivity among its customers, and industry changes. Issues raised in this case are quite broad and could be useful in a wide range of courses, including Strategy, Marketing, and Organizational Behavior. The case could be used as part of a discussion on innovation, strategy, business development, change management, family businesses, company culture, branding, or similar topics. The students are asked to take the viewpoint of Annie Yau Tse, the new Chairman, on how to move forward in this environment. Remarkably, Annie is the daughter-in-law of the patriarch/founder, and had little experience in the industry. Her background and training is in information technology. She brought a fresh viewpoint and the courage to institute dramatic changes in the management of operations.
There were probably 30,000 public buses, minibuses, and vans in Mexico City. Though, in 2015, no one knew for certain since no comprehensive schedule existed. This was why el Laboratorio para la Ciudad (or LabCDMX) had spawned an effort to generate a map of the labyrinth system that provided an estimated 14 million rides a day. Gabriella Gómez-Mont, the Lab's founder and director, had led her team in a project to crowd-source the routes from volunteer riders in what came to be known as Mapatón CDMX. After four pilots and a two-week "mapping marathon" later, she wondered exactly what to make of the lab's fiftieth experiment? Was Mapatón successful?
"A Warby Parker of mattresses? Somebody is going to do it. Why not us?" This was the topic of a conversation begun in spring 2013 among Gabe Flateman, Philip Krim, Neil Parikh, and T. Luke Sherwin. The four met as members of a New York City venture accelerator program. All admired Warby Parker's success in delivering on the promise of "designer eyewear at revolutionary prices," via a direct-to-consumer sales model. "Big Mattress," their term for the current manufacturer / retailer system, featured not only high prices, but also, as they would describe to many in the days ahead, "one of the worst buying experiences in the world."
In November 2014, the founder and chief executive officer of HomeZilla, in Toronto, Canada, was considering how to provide value-added services to his business. One of the company’s main services was to work with real estate agents to provide web listings to attract home shoppers. Many Internet companies were analyzing web-browsing data in an effort to better understand user behaviour and thus improve their business. Inspired by this trend, the founder considered how his company could use web-browsing data to better attract home shoppers on the company’s website and thereby add value to his business.