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This case lays out the steps for creating a Business Model Canvas (BMC)-a comprehensive and intuitive framework intended to facilitate description and discussion of a new venture idea. Focusing on both the efficiency and value generating aspects of a new business, the model directs the founding team members to consider key aspects of a core model, including the company's value proposition, customer relationships, revenue streams, cost structure, and competitive environment. A variation on the model for nonprofit organizations, a Social Impact BMC, is also presented, adding additional items such as impact metrics. The case includes several real world business examples and asks students to prepare a traditional BMC for the for-profit company (Nespresso) and a Social Impact BMC for the social impact example (ConBody) using the tools outlined in the case.

MILAN (ITALY), SEPTEMBER 2018. The Strategic Lab at De Agostini, part strategic think-tank and part assessment tool for the next-generation talent of the Drago-Boroli family, owners of De Agostini, was brainstorming the future direction of the diversified, family-owned group. After almost 100 years in the publishing and printing business, the third-generation family leader Marco Drago set the family firm on a radical new course, which included globalization and diversification across media and communication, gaming, and financial services to create a powerhouse, with entities listed on three different stock exchanges. However, diversification did not come without its challenges. Could portfolio repurposing also serve to anchor the family's identity? Were family values properly embedded in the current structures and investments? Should the holding structure be perennialized or be treated as a temporary arrangement until the next major liquidity event, when assets would again be refocused on a single industry? Did the legacy publishing business still serve a purpose or should it be disposed of? Emotional ties ran deep, but so did the losses... and those were not sustainable. Could it be turned around or pivoted to capture the latest digitalization wave?

Philip Morris International (PMI) CEO André Calantzopoulos announced in 2016 a radical pivot in the Marlboro cigarette manufacturer's strategy: the company would shift to "smoke-free" products in more than 180 countries around the world. One of these products was IQOS, a new "heat-not-burn" (HNB) device aimed at providing the world's over 1 billion "adult smokers with better options." The innovation of the products which, PMI claimed, were less harmful than cigarettes was welcomed by many investors and PMI. Calantzopoulos and PMI's Board of Directors believed that its sustainability strategy was critical to the company's long-term success. Nevertheless, convincing important stakeholders that a tobacco company could be part of the solution to rid the world of cigarettes by offering better alternatives was a different matter. The United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO), regulators, public health advocates, and some sustainable investors said that there was no safe level of use and no opportunity for effective engagement with tobacco companies. After a two-year wait, the US FDA issued an order authorizing the sale of IQOS in the US market of 40 million smokers. The FDA found that IQOS was "appropriate for the protection of health." PMI organized the 2020 Stakeholder Engagement Meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland to convene key stakeholders to engage with PMI's smoke-free business transformation.

In May 2017 in Chennai, India, the chairman of Celebrity Fashions doubted whether the company could last until the end of the year. Venkatesh Rajagopal had found that the company, a readymade garment manufacturing and exporter he founded in 1989, was hitting hard times financially. It had been dealing with declining revenues for the past five years, and its losses had tripled between 2014-16. A slowdown in factory plant processes in 2006 and the value of the rupee against the dollar, as well as wage arrears, contributed to the financial problem. Rajagopal's son, Vidyuth, had recently joined the company after moving roles both within Celebrity and its sister company, Indian Terrain, and at organizations elsewhere. In 2017, as joint managing director, he was convinced he would be able to turn the company around. Vidyuth, along with the independent director Venky appointed, identified the problems. There were communication gaps on the factory floor, and this caused lags in the shipments of garments and pushed up costs of production. The financial problems had confused some employees, and others were not aware of it at all. The leadership team was not communicating effectively. Would Celebrity be able to cut operational costs, and would Vidyuth be able to get the buy-in from his team to transform the company, and protect his family business?

In May 2017 in Chennai, India, the chairman of Celebrity Fashions doubted whether the company could last until the end of the year. Venkatesh Rajagopal had found that the company, a readymade garment manufacturing and exporter he founded in 1989, was hitting hard times financially. It had been dealing with declining revenues for the past five years, and its losses had tripled between 2014-16. A slowdown in factory plant processes in 2006 and the value of the rupee against the dollar, as well as wage arrears, contributed to the financial problem. Rajagopal's son, Vidyuth, had recently joined the company after moving roles both within Celebrity and its sister company, Indian Terrain, and at organizations elsewhere. In 2017, as joint managing director, he was convinced he would be able to turn the company around. Vidyuth, along with the independent director Venky appointed, identified the problems. There were communication gaps on the factory floor, and this caused lags in the shipments of garments and pushed up costs of production. The financial problems had confused some employees, and others were not aware of it at all. The leadership team was not communicating effectively. Would Celebrity be able to cut operational costs, and would Vidyuth be able to get the buy-in from his team to transform the company, and protect his family business?

In 2007, Twentieth Century Fox faced a number of issues in the production of Avatar-a movie that was widely anticipated but had raised concerns in the production studios. Studio executives doubted the appeal of the plot and worried that audiences would not like the story. The movie needed to create an emotional appeal to attract audiences and make sufficient box office receipts. If the movie could not do this, Avatar would become one of the biggest money losers in the history of the movie industry. The project encountered many challenges in development-particularly in terms of time, budget, and technology, and the decision about whether to continue to invest or to pull the plug was extremely difficult. At what point did the risk become too significant? How should the studio decide when to go forward with a project and when to cancel it?

The Palo Alto Health System had three hospitals, 1,600 physicians, and over 1 million patients each year - and a new risk-based model that incentivized the prevention of illness, as well as early intervention in patients with chronic illness. Engaging with patient populations involved clinical interventions, but also involved a marketing approach to encourage patients to adopt health behaviors and keep following those practices. This case study investigates this marketing aspect of health care, and looks at ways in which Amazon's Alexa, an interactive speaker that connected people to the Internet and the cloud-based Alexa voice service, could enhance health care efforts. With patient permission, Alexa could collect specific health-related information, and could help schedule patients for medical screenings and then report back important laboratory results. One early adopter was the U.K. National Health Service, which contracted to use Alexa to provide health-related content to patients - the same information that was available on the public website. The case study considers health care privacy issues, and asks students to consider whether a marketing approach to health care, in this case using Alexa or another Internet personal assistant, would be a successful strategy for the Palo Alto Health System.

McDonald's newly appointed CEO Chris Kempczinski, who assumed office on November 4, 2019, is the protagonist of the case. With $21 billion in sales (in 2019) and 45,000 restaurants globally (thereof 27,000 in the United States), McDonald's remains the largest quick-service restaurant (QSR) chain. Attempting to be "everything for everybody," McDonald's fell victim to being "stuck-in-middle," without a clear strategic position. Kempczinski must confront several challenges if he is to return the company to its former glory, including: 1) How to balance the need to introduce new items while addressing "menu bloat"? 2) How to re-establish the reputation for quality products? 3) How to appeal to Millennials? 4) How to upgrade the customer experience through all channels and locations (in-store, delivery, and drive-through)? 5) How to reignite growth?

In 2017, the global market for rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries was 126 gigawatt-hours (GWh) valued at $37 billion, growing by $10 billion in two years. Once confined largely to consumer electronics and appliances, the rapid increase in demand was spurred by the adoption of electric cars and buses. Moreover, the falling cost of batteries was sparking interest in another potential huge market-the electrical utility sector. Batteries could be used to store electricity in periods of low demand and release it when demand was high, significantly reducing the need for peak generation capacity. However, historically, the costs of doing this had been prohibitively high. In response to the expected demand, several companies had announced "gigafactories," plants that, combined, could produce many times more output than total global demand in 2017. Tesla, Inc., the electric car maker, was the first. In 2014, it announced a 35 GWh battery plant, costing $5 billion, to be built in Nevada, enough capacity to fulfill global demand in 2013. In 2017, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he would announce an additional four gigafactory locations to supply the global market. Tesla was not alone in its battery ambitions. In late 2016, start-up Alevo began delivery of its new "GridBank" batteries from a 3.5 million square-foot facility in North Carolina, with the potential to scale to 60 GWh. Alevo claimed its batteries lasted four times longer and were safer than the conventional Li-ion batteries used by Tesla. Anxious not to be reliant on third parties, in 2017, several automakers had announced plans to build battery capacity, including General Motors and Daimler. Indeed, Daimler announced two plants for its Mercedes brand cars, one in Germany and one in China. New start-ups were also entering the fray, with Northvolt AB of Sweden partnering with ABB of Switzerland to build a 32 GWh facility.

Founded in 2016, DeepMap developed high definition (HD) mapping software and localization services for Level 4+ autonomous vehicles. Traditional navigational maps were accurate to a few meters, which was sufficient for drivers, but not for machine-driven vehicles which required centimeter level accuracy. Autonomous vehicles required a new form of map that was highly precise, produced a 3D representation of the surrounding area, enabled vehicles to locate themselves within the map, provided information for how to navigate safely using the correct rules of the road, and was updated continuously as road conditions changed. DeepMap was not selling a static mapping database, but rather licensing its software under a software-as-a-service model. As a startup with limited resources navigating a nascent market, DeepMap faced uncertainty across several dimensions: the timing of overall AV market adoption, which countries would adopt fastest, which AV segments would move most rapidly, which sensor technologies would become standard, and what impact regulation would have. They also faced the challenge of serving customers on a global scale. As DeepMap looked ahead, it had to decide how and where to focus and allocate its funding in order to achieve its short and long-term objectives.

After the legendary founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) retired, the new chairman had to grapple with fresh challenges related to its China market. A recently opened factory in China had to find ways to reverse its financial loss and meet its full capacity; one of its major Chinese customers was facing sanctions by the U.S. government; China was investing billions of dollars in building its own powerhouse to compete in semiconductor production. The transition from 4G to 5G technology in the telecommunication industry, and the U.S.-China trade war also added to the uncertainties facing TSMC. What had changed in the competitive landscape for TSMC, and how should it respond to the changes? What were the options for the company in doing business with China, when the country had become both a customer and a competitor?

In the early days of the internet, the author was studying electrical engineering at Stanford, excited by the possibilities of the new technology. Later, working in the San Francisco office of the investment bank Alex. Brown & Sons, he gained an in-depth understanding of how to transform an idea into a corporation. Obsessed with the notion of starting a venture in his native Middle East, he moved to Dubai at age 23. There he saw that Arab youths were having a hard time finding work, while business owners were having a hard time finding workers--and he decided to start an online jobs marketplace to connect them. Fewer than 1% of people in the Arab world had internet access at that time, so clients had to be educated in the smallest details of the online universe. That meant installing the first web browser on many of their computers, training HR managers to dial into the internet, and printing and hand-delivering CVs. Today, with tens of thousands of registered companies and more than 36 million job seekers, Bayt has expanded within the Middle East and beyond, offering solutions including applicant tracking systems, video evaluation programs, and virtual event fairs. And in most of the Middle East, the internet culture it helped establish is thriving.

When most organizations strive to increase collaboration, they approach it too narrowly: as a value to cultivate--not a skill to teach. So they create open offices, talk up collaboration as a corporate goal, and try to influence employees through other superficial means that don't yield progress. Companies that excel at collaboration, in contrast, realize it involves instilling the right mindset: widespread respect for colleagues' contributions, openness to experimenting with others' ideas, and sensitivity to how one's actions may affect teammates and outcomes. What's more, these firms have established programs to help employees develop those attitudes. In her research, Gino, an HBS professor, has identified six types of training techniques used by such programs. They teach people to (1) listen, not talk; (2) practice empathy; (3) be comfortable giving and receiving feedback; (4) lead and follow; (5) speak with clarity and avoid abstractions; and (6) have win-win interactions. Drawing from her observations of Pixar, Webasto, and other companies, the author shares specific tools and exercises that show employees how to work well together, learn from one another, and connect more fully.

It's never been easier for workers to collaborate--or so it seems. Open offices, messaging, and virtual-meeting software in theory make people more visible and available. But as the physical and technological structures for omnichannel collaboration have spread, evidence suggests they are producing less interaction--or less meaningful interaction--not more. This happens because individuals, not companies, decide when and how to engage with others. They become adept at shutting people out and reading signs that their coworkers wish to be left alone. Many companies don't understand how to achieve the kinds of collaboration they want. The authors provide guidance on reaching such an understanding. Companies can use new technologies, such as sensors that track people's movements and software that collects their digital "bread crumbs," to learn how members of particular groups are actually interacting. They can then experiment to learn how to achieve the types of exchanges they want: trying various office configurations, testing a pilot floor plan before overhauling the entire space, and exploring the impact of small tweaks. This approach will help them equip employees with the spaces and technologies that best support their needs.

To spur innovation, businesses have spent billions on internal venture capital, incubators, and accelerators. Yet survey after survey indicates these efforts aren't producing results. Why? Because firms fail to address one major obstacle: the day-to-day habits and routines that regularly stifle innovation. These include such things as poorly run meetings, no slack capacity, few opportunities to speak up, and the notion that doing things differently is inefficient and costly. Fortunately, it's possible to hack this problem, using interventions called BEANs, combinations of behavioral enablers, artifacts, and nudges that break down the innovation blockers. Behavior enablers are tools or processes that make it easier for people to do something differently. Artifacts, which you can see or touch, support the new behavior. Nudges promote it through indirect suggestion and reinforcement. In this article the authors describe a variety of BEANs that the bank DBS, the Tata Group, and other companies have devised to unleash innovation. They also explain how any organization can go about creating its own BEANs by identifying the creative behaviors it wants, examining what's getting in the way, and then brainstorming ways to bust those bad habits.

Every year the damage done by cyberbreaches seems to grow bigger. It looks as if hackers just keep getting more effective. But cybersecurity experts Parenty and Domet think there's another reason companies aren't successful at thwarting cyberattacks: They don't truly understand their cyberrisks, because they focus only on their technological vulnerabilities and relegate responsibility for managing threats entirely to security and IT staff. And because of that, they don't muster the right defenses. A better approach involves getting input from a broad range of employees and, especially, board members and company leaders. It starts with identifying the company's critical business activities and the risks to them. Instead of asking how your computer systems could be attacked, for instance, ask how an attack could disrupt your supply chain, expose your trade secrets, or make you fail to meet your key obligations. Next, inventory the systems supporting those activities, examine their vulnerabilities, and identify potential attackers. This information, which should be gathered into a cyberthreat narrative for each activity, will allow you to plan, prioritize, and make more-targeted cybersecurity investments.

In the face of rapid, disruptive change, companies are realizing that managers can't be expected to have all the answers and that command-and-control leadership is no longer viable. As a result, many firms are moving toward a coaching model in which managers facilitate problem-solving and encourage employees' development by asking questions and offering support and guidance rather than giving orders and making judgments. The authors explain the merits of different types of coaching-directive, nondirective, and situational-and note that sometimes no coaching at all is appropriate. They describe how managers can use the four-step GROW model to become more skilled at listening, questioning, and drawing insights out of the people they supervise. The article concludes with recommendations for making coaching an organizational capacity-effecting a cultural transformation by articulating why coaching is valuable for the firm as well as individuals, ensuring that leaders embrace and model it, building coaching capabilities throughout the ranks, and removing barriers to change.

Online reviews are transforming the way consumers choose products and services of all sorts. We turn to TripAdvisor to plan a vacation, Zocdoc to find a doctor, and Yelp to choose a new restaurant. Reviews can create value for buyers and sellers alike, but only if they attain a critical level of quantity and quality. The authors describe principles for setting the incentives, design choices, and rules that help review platforms thrive. To address a shortage of reviews, companies can seed them by hiring reviewers or drawing reviews from other platforms; offer incentives; or pool products. To address selection bias, they can require reviews, allow private comments, and design prompts carefully. To combat fraudulent and strategic reviews, they can set rules for reviewers and call in moderators--whether employees, the community, or algorithms.

For many employees, the key motivator is a sense of purpose--and yet more than half of those surveyed say they're not even "somewhat" passionate about their jobs. If organizations want to inspire their workers, they must clearly communicate why they're in business and what value they provide. When employees understand and embrace those things, their companies thrive: Survey results show that more than 90% of companies with a well-defined purpose deliver growth and profits at or above the industry average. An effective purpose statement, the authors say, answers several questions: Why does our organization exist? Who are we serving? What value do we offer, and why are we uniquely capable of providing it? But a powerful statement is not enough; firms must also deliver on their promises to customers. That requires putting the right people in the right roles, breaking down silos to facilitate cross-functional collaboration, investing in the areas that matter most, and ensuring that leaders demonstrate every day, through their words and actions, their commitment to the firm's articulated goals.