個案總覽

The technologies driving artificial intelligence (AI) had progressed significantly since HubSpot's acquisition of Motion AI in 2017. Generative AI was the newest major development. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies such as HubSpot were analyzing how generative AI could impact marketing and sales processes in two ways: hyperpersonalized and contextual content generation to feed the top of their sales funnels and intelligent chatbots for business development and sales prospect customer service further down in their sales funnels. Could and should AI be a substitute for the people involved in HubSpot's marketing and sales processes? Or, was it better utilized as a complementary tool, a co-pilot or digital assistant to marketers, salespeople, and chat reps? How might HubSpot benefit from and/or suffer from having AI be the face of its brand to its customers? How might the relationships the company formed with its customers change if customers interacted with AI-generated content and AI-fueled chatbots as opposed to being inspired by and interacting with humans? Would generative AI prove to be a sustainable competitive advantage for HubSpot and would it show a positive return-on-investment, or not?

Spreadsheet supplement to 124024 and 124055.

This case examines the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring- and retention-related challenges encountered by Amazon.com's FAR1 location in Fargo, North Dakota, at the end of 2021. John Sabo, FAR1's general manager and hiring team leader, had one main goal: to hire and train a diverse team of 1,446 Amazonians by the facility's opening date in December 2021. However, there were many barriers to achieving this goal, including potential candidates' negative perception of Amazon's workplace environment due to its negative track record of employee safety and well-being, especially with regard to under-represented groups. To complicate matters, there was a limited supply of qualified, under-represented candidates in Fargo. Could Sabo and his team find a way to meet Amazon's DEI goals while also ensuring adequate staffing? Were there solutions they had overlooked? Should they develop separate strategies for managers and employees? Further complicating the team's decision, DEI initiatives were not universally embraced, and there were questions on the efficacy of DEI programs. The success of FAR1 and its potential to serve as a blueprint for future warehouse expansion hung in the balance.

On a day in early June 2017, Fadi Kanaan, a member of the organizing committee of the Beirut International Model United Nations (BEYMUN) conference at the American University of Beirut (AUB), sat in front of college hall feeling very excited yet worried. He had just received an email informing him that he would be the secretary-general of the annual Model United Nations conference at AUB in the spring of 2018. BEYMUN invited students from universities worldwide who were interested in addressing global concerns and prevailing world topics in a real-life simulation of the United Nations committee sessions. This conference was the perfect opportunity for participants to tackle such topics as regional conflicts, women and children, human rights, peacemaking, disarmament, economic and social development, and the environment while working in committees for Disarmament and International Security, Economic and Financial, Social Humanitarian and Cultural, and Special Political and Decolonization. But Kanaan was worried how BEYMUN would manage the overwhelming application process. Previously, the BEYMUN team had experienced issues with organizing large events, and Kanaan realized the existing system that received applications was inadequate for processing the hundreds of applications he expected the conference to receive. He knew that within two weeks of announcing the conference dates, applications would start to pour in. Kanaan and the team had to respond to each application before a deadline. Now was the time for BEYMUN to develop a system that would efficiently manage and process the applications to help organize a successful conference.

This case examines Nova Post's strategic response to the challenges posed by the Russian full-scale military invasion into Ukraine in 2022, focusing on its expansion into the European market. As Ukraine's leading postal and express delivery service, Nova Post faced a dramatic decline in business at the onset of the war, prompting a reassessment of its operational and strategic direction. The case explores the company's journey from its inception as a small startup to becoming a national logistics giant, and its pivot during the crisis to adapt and explore new markets.Students are challenged to analyze the organizational issues surrounding expanding to other countries and strategies for doing so.

In January 2023, the chief executive officer of New World Development Co. Ltd. (New World Development) faced a critical decision. With travel set to resume between Hong Kong and Mainland China, opportunities and challenges emerged in the post-pandemic era. An impending board meeting in February demanded a delicate balance between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives and the company's financial health. Financial data revealed significant spending on ESG efforts, posing cash flow challenges. The CEO grappled with critical questions: Should ESG spending be cut to fuel post-pandemic investments? Could New World Development's ESG image, cultivated amid COVID-19, be a competitive advantage with evolving travel patterns? Before the board meeting, he had to decide on a strategy to balance financial stability with sustainable innovation.

KiranaKart Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Zepto) was a quick-commerce start-up founded by two 19-year-old Stanford University dropouts and operating in the Indian e-commerce market, one of the fastest growing in the world. Using a quick hyperlocal e-grocery delivery model, the company faced challenges during its post-pandemic growth; these included the viability of its disruptive model, the competition it faced, and a long wait for profitability. While the quick-commerce grocery delivery model, initially supported by a steady flow of funding from venture capital firms, faced close scrutiny the world over as the flow of easy money started drying up, not everything was ominous for Zepto. As August 2023 was coming to an end, the start-up found itself on a stable funding runway. However, critics raised doubts about the feasibility of its 10-minute delivery service. Every reduction in customer wait time led to an increase in costs, and there was no broader e-commerce or food delivery platform to synergize with. Moreover, there were also social costs associated with delivery. To sustain the next phase of growth, Zepto's founding team had to consider various strategic options. They could commit to grocery and focus on high-margin items to increase the frequency and basket size of online grocery customers. Alternatively, they could aggressively re-launch Zepto Café to expand their product range, attract more customers, and increase average order value. Diversifying the company's product categories by adding e-pharmacy or even electronics could be another option to win over more customers.

A.P. Moller - Maersk A/S (Maersk) dominated the shipping business as the world's second-largest container shipping company in terms of fleet size and capacity of handling cargo. In December 2023, Houthi attacks on various Maersk vessels passing through the Red Sea interrupted supply chains from Asia to Europe. One Maersk vessel was hit by a missile while travelling from Salalah, Oman to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Maersk temporarily halted all its container shipments via the Red Sea route. One week after resuming travel, a second Maersk vessel was hit. Container ship operations in the Red Sea were again forced to stop. The US Central Command and other co-operative groups such as the Combined Maritime Forces intervened to help normalize the unrest created by Houthi rebels but their efforts had little impact. Maersk's share price fell by almost 5 per cent in December 2023. Maersk was wondering how to resolve its situation and move forward. Should it evaluate alternative routes or transportation modes to continue providing seamless shipping services to its clients? Should Maersk continue or enhance its recently implemented policies for transit disruption fees? Or should Maersk follow a demand-driven route, in addition to the disruption fees, to maintain vessel and crew safety?

In January 2023, the diagnostic services provider Simira Diagnostics (Simira), founded in Navi Mumbai, India, in 2017, decided to launch a company-wide rebranding project. When unveiling the new logo to the team, the co-founder emphasized the need to become a purpose-led organization with patient centricity at its core. The redesigned brand's logo and tag line would include a new service delivery proposition. As she worked to strengthen the company's brand identity, the co-founder knew that merely capturing the essence of the organization in the logo and tag line would not be enough; she would have to support the branding process by devising an effective advertising and communications strategy to ensure an accelerated level of brand awareness by Simira customers. She would also have to ensure a consistent and seamless customer service experience to strengthen the brand and patient centricity.

This case, a follow-up to "Matteo Hill at Drawn, Inc. (A)" (UVA-OB-1293), continues the debate about sharing the raw responses from employee pulse surveys. The decision becomes more complicated after the company releases a new round of raw survey results that contain three wildly different opinions about Drawn, Inc.'s, DEI efforts. The new results highlight the challenge of summarizing or editing the raw survey data, yet also make it clear that the raw survey data will continue to contain divisive and potentially offensive remarks. At the conclusion of the case, Drawn's leadership team remains divided about the best path forward.

AI assistant tools based on large-language models like ChatGPT offer an easy route for managers to increase the use of behavioral nudges to direct employee's choices. However, by encouraging reactive rather than reflective thinking, nudging can have the effect of reducing competence at thinking through some decisions, especially concerning ethical issues. Managers thus should consider tactics for boosting reflective thinking.

We've all experienced the meeting after the meeting when people have candid conversations about the meeting they just attended. These informal gatherings are inevitable. The question is how you, as a leader, will participate. These post-meeting discussions produce moments of clarification, grousing, and pushback. The way a leader handles those responses can make the culture more supportive or toxic. Explore five strategies to transform post-meeting dynamics in a positive way.

Even when companies try to encourage bottom-up innovation, ideas from employees rarely see the light of day. Researchers have found that managers can be a significant barrier to implementing novel ideas from employees when they feel insecure about their status within the organization. Once they recognize this, organizations can take steps to incentivize managers to better promote ideas from employees to the benefit of the managers, their subordinates, and the company itself.

This case documents the origin and development of Together for Sustainability (TfS), a chemical industry initiative dedicated to raising sustainability standards throughout the industry's supply chains. In 2011, six Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) from some of the world's biggest chemical companies collaborated on a solution that would enable their companies to jointly advance supply chain sustainability-namely, eliminating adverse environmental, human rights, and labor impacts by suppliers. Towards this end, the six CPOs would build Together for Sustainability, a standalone non-profit organization that would coordinate the measurement of member companies and their suppliers' sustainability performance. Over the next decade, TfS scaled from 6 to 50 member companies. TfS has transformed the chemical industry by creating a template for collective action and setting new sustainability standards for supply chains. It must now decide what lies ahead and how it might go about achieving those goals. In 2024, TfS was at a critical juncture in its development. While TfS had earned a reputation as a leader in sustainability both within and outside the chemical industry, representatives from TfS member companies were now immersed in vigorous debates as to how to scale their initiative-and their impact-even further. Members were divided as to whether to expand their initiative into other industries or to remain focused on the chemical industry. Moreover, others were beginning to question whether TfS's non-profit model was truly the best medium for scale, or if a for-profit model would potentially be better suited to maximizing impact. What aspects of their initiative were specific to the chemical industry? What might translate to other industries?

The Japanese sake market witnessed a 40-year decline, fueled by shifting consumer preferences and an aging customer base. Asahi Shuzo Co. Ltd. (Asahi Shuzo), a once-struggling brewery from Yamaguchi, defied the trend with the success of its singular brand of sake, Dassai. By 2022, under the leadership of the founder and chairperson of the company, Asahi Shuzo's sales surpassed ¥ (yen) 16.5 billion, marking a phenomenal 165-fold increase since 1984. Expanding into 20 countries by 2016, the company aimed for a 50:50 revenue split between sales brought in from its Japanese market and sales brought from its overseas markets. In 2017, Asahi Shuzo's president and fourth-generation owner embarked on a bold venture-to construct its first overseas brewery in New York. Initially estimated to cost ¥1 billion, by March 2023, due to delays related to COVID-19, the costs increased to ¥8 billion. The opening of the Dassai Blue Sake Brewery in New York in October 2023 raised questions about what the global market's impact would be on Dassai as a premium sake brand. As the brewery in the United States became a reality, challenges and uncertainties unfolded, shaping the narrative of Dassai's strategic evolution.

HelpSeeker Technologies, a Calgary-based technology startup, employed technological innovations such as digitization and artificial intelligence (AI) to address social welfare solutions, facilitating swift access by its users to crucial resources like psychological aid, medical services, and housing. HelpSeeker confronted a significant challenge: reconciling its identity as a technology firm with its commitment to societal betterment. In October 2023, facing the need to expand and monetize its services, the company grappled with the delicate task of scaling without compromising its core mission of addressing pressing social issues.

By early 2022, Zhongguang Yiyun Supply Chain Management Co. Ltd. had spent six years developing its supply chain management (SCM) and supply chain finance (SCF) platform, ToTrade. The platform collaborated with multiple banks and focal companies to provide integrated SCF services to over 1,000 upstream and downstream small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in China's Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai Provinces. But the site of competition in the Chinese SCF market had shifted from a single company's SCF capability to its integrated SCF network. Therefore, it was crucial for ToTrade to establish a robust financial supply network in order to enhance the implementation and development of its SCF services. As the volume of ToTrade's SCF service increased, the company faced key questions: How could ToTrade develop its network to further support its SCF development? And how could the platform effectively evaluate its SCF service performance to better guide this development?

As Chief Executive Officer Maya Kambeitz sat in her Calgary office preparing for the upcoming mid-2018 board meeting, she considered a potential growth strategy for Norfolk Housing Association (Norfolk Housing) that would align with its core values: to offer inclusive and affordable housing, and to maintain financial stability in 2019 and beyond. Norfolk Housing was a social enterprise registered as a non-profit corporation in Calgary, Alberta, offering rentals of affordable and priced-to-market apartments in shared buildings. Kambeitz wanted the board to consider whether or not to acquire another building, ideally near the current locations, to expand their operations. The increased number of units would improve operational efficiency through economies of scale and serve more people, aligning with the social enterprise's dedication to both long-term financial sustainability and social purpose. However, expansion would require financing and support to acquire and manage the new building, which could put Norfolk Housing's financial sustainability at risk. The challenge was to achieve Norfolk Housing's purpose to expand and provide affordable housing to more Calgarians while also maintaining long-term financial stability, which ensured that current tenants would not lose their homes if the association failed. Kambeitz had learned about Riley Park Place, a property with 24 units that was for sale. The location was close to their current properties and its acquisition had potential. However, there were some questions about whether the opportunity aligned with Norfolk Housing's purpose and financial sustainability.