Many observers worried about what would happen to Apple when Steve Jobs died in 2011. But Apple had performed above everyone's expectations in Cook's six years as CEO. Apple's core business - the iPhone - continued to deliver spectacular results. In addition, Cook was aggressively introducing new products, ranging from Apple Watch to HomePod. Cook also had the world's biggest balance sheet to invest in new technologies and markets. The total number of products in Apple's portfolio had doubled (from roughly 20 to 40) under Tim Cook. The question for Cook in 2018 was no longer, 'can Apple thrive without Steve Jobs,' but rather 'can Apple move beyond a one-trick pony (iPhone)'?
In 2017 Wal-Mart was still the world's largest company, with over $480 billion in annual revenue and operations in 28 countries. Although it had mostly vanquished its rival discount retailers in the U.S., it was struggling to find the right growth strategy. Facing a mature U.S. market, it had looked to international sales as an engine of growth in the early 2010s, but international sales had also stagnated over the past few years. Wal-Mart's leadership had targeted the rapidly-growing e-commerce arena as strategic priority, but there it faced intense competition from dominant online retailer Amazon. In such a competitive environment, how should Wal-Mart respond to the reality that its traditional strengths no longer guaranteed robust growth?
Between late 2014 and late 2016, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk undertook several major, and risky, initiatives that would dramatically expand the scale and scope of Tesla's business. In late 2014, Tesla began construction on a $5 billion "gigafactory" that would manufacture lithium-ion batteries used in Tesla's electric vehicles on an unprecedented scale. In early 2015, Tesla announced a new product line of battery packs designed for large-scale energy storage for residential, commercial, and utility-scale installations. In 2016, the company acquired SolarCity, a leading solar energy firm, creating what Musk called "a vertically integrated energy company." These moves, representing billions of investment and extension into new industries, came at a time when Tesla was still losing money and struggling to scale up production of its electric vehicle lines to meet ambitious delivery targets. Meanwhile, Musk was also CEO of SpaceX, which was, while growing its business of launching satellites and cargo into space for commercial and governmental clients, preparing to take astronauts into space, pioneering the use of reusable rockets, and announcing plans to colonize Mars. Would Musk be able to realize his ambitious goals or was he taking too many risks with his investors' money?
This case explores Carl Icahn's attack on eBay, starting in January 2014. The case examines how John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, should respond to Icahn's demand that eBay spin off PayPal and accept Icahn's two nominees to the board of directors. Teaching Note includes a.) links to videos which should be assigned to students along with the case and b.) videos only available to the instructor for display during classroom debrief.
In 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook knew that Apple, despite its phenomenal success, needed to continue to innovate in new product areas in order to continue its momentum into the future. This case explores three new (actual or potential) product offerings from Apple: the Apple Watch, Apple TV, and the Apple Car. All three categories represented significant opportunities and challenges. The smartwatch category was new and poised for growth when Apple released its Watch in April 2015, but the use case remained uncertain, and Apple would face a strong challenge from Android-based competitors. The television industry, facing growing dissatisfaction with traditional cable packages and the rise of online streaming, was ripe for disruption, but would Apple be able to build a competitive offering? The automotive industry, with the rise of electric cars and autonomous driving technology, was also on the cusp of significant changes, but the engineering and economic challenges of the industry made any move into that space a risky bet.
At the end of 2014, Apple Inc. recorded the most profitable quarter of any firm in history, and its market capitalization soon topped $700 billion. 'Apple Inc in 2015' explores the history of Apple, its successes under Jobs, its continued growth under Tim Cook, and the challenges facing the company in 2015. With iPod sales continuing their freefall, tablet sales in decline, and the Macintosh's market share remaining small, Apple was increasingly dependent on the iPhone to drive its growth. Could Cook continue Apple's dominance in the smartphone market in the face of growing competition? Could he revitalize the iPad business, become a leader in payments, with Apple Pay, and replicate Apple's success in other device categories, such as the Apple Watch, the first new product the company had released since 2010?
This case examines a distinctive leadership development program within the World Economic Forum. The program, born out of the conviction that the complexity of global challenges at the beginning of the 21st century required a new generation of global leaders, recruited a small number of "high potential" young leaders from around the world as "Global Leadership Fellows" each year. During the three-year program, Fellows combined a position at the Forum with formal classroom training modules, one-on-one coaching, peer mentoring, and extensive assessment. The case explores the Forum's understanding of its role in the world, the vision of leadership that animates the program, and the structure and content of the program. It asks how successful the program has been in providing the kind of transformational experience it envisions and whether it could or should be replicated by other organizations.
Describes the challenges and successes encountered by GE's Aviation business in implementing a teaming work structure and culture in plants across its supply chain. GE Aviation leadership had seen dramatic gains in productivity, quality, and worker satisfaction in manufacturing plants where it had implemented teaming, which was designed to move decision-making as close to the product as possible by delegating authority, responsibility, and accountability to front-line workers. The case describes what teaming looked like in two of GE Aviation's plants and discusses the benefits realized in teaming sites. It also describes the challenges GE Aviation leaders had encountered in implementing teaming in the face of an entrenched work structure and culture in one particular plant, and discusses the difficulty management had faced in moving forward in transforming the culture of the plant.
This case explores a shift in strategic direction at PepsiCo, the second-largest food and beverage company in the world. It concentrates on the formation of a new group, the Global Nutrition Group, whose purpose was to bring focus to the company's efforts to significantly expand its offerings in nutritious food and beverages. The case explores the background to that decision and the complexities the company faced in altering its product portfolio over the long run (which also included efforts to make its core snack and soft drink products healthier), while at the same time maintaining short-term profitability. The evolution of the product portfolio was part of a larger effort to implement a new strategic vision, encapsulated in the phrase, "Performance with Purpose." The phrase, in brief, expressed a commitment to deliver financial results in a way that was good for the world as well as good for the company.