When should a board of directors push for a CEO change? This case explores the experiences of the board of directors of a popular and successful lifestyle-brand start-up as it grapples with a public-relations crisis after a young female CEO makes serious missteps in a public forum. This case allows for a discussion of the role and responsibilities of a board of a start-up backed by venture capital (VC), when and how to remove a CEO, and the evolution of executive leadership as a company rapidly scales up and approaches a potential IPO. Through the case discussion, students take the perspective of the board of directors to come to a decision about whether (and how) to implement a CEO transition amid an unexpected crisis. A supplemental B case (UVA-S-0362) presents what the board chose to do next and provides an opportunity to discuss the longer-term leadership challenges that followed the initial crisis.
This case is a follow-up to "Crisis at Away (A)" (UVA-S-0361), which explores the lifestyle-brand start-up Away as it grapples with a public-relations crisis. Its CEO has made serious missteps in a public forum and the board of directors must come to a decision about whether (and how) to implement a CEO transition amid an unexpected crisis. This case presents what the board chose to do next, and provides an opportunity to discuss the longer-term leadership challenges that followed the initial crisis.
How do firms decide where to compete internationally? What challenges arise when competing across borders? What are different ways to enter a new foreign market? How should the firm compete in that new market? What factors make a foreign market "flat" versus "lumpy"? This technical note follows the format of The Strategist's Toolkit in laying out a framework for analyzing the "where" and "how" of international strategy. Thinking carefully about both local responsiveness and global integration can help managers successfully navigate the tension between these imperatives.
When industry conditions are disrupted, planning for the future can be difficult. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the hospitality industry, not only depressing demand during the height of the crisis but also holding implications going forward for hotel demand in a future "new normal." How can mature, established organizations rethink their business models when circumstances demand it? How can firms envision possible scenarios and make plans to deploy resources when accurate forecasting is difficult or impossible? This case is used at Darden in the first-year core Strategy course, often in conjunction with concepts and frameworks such as hypothesis testing and scenario planning (see chapters 10 and 14 of The Strategist's Toolkit). The case would also be suitable for any course or module discussing disruptive innovation, business model change, organizational change, strategic planning, or resource allocation. The case highlights a female executive at the company.
The meteoric rise of ride-sharing firm Uber illustrates how gig-economy firms can grow to prominence and disrupt older, mature industries. Yet Uber's trajectory has also been rife with nontrivial tensions and controversies. The company has struggled with labor issues for drivers, safety issues for riders, cultural issues for employees, and external costs imposed on communities. How do these frictions matter, and why? What are the implications for Uber going forward? What's the role of effective stakeholder engagement and value creation in organizational success? This case is used at Darden in the first-year core Strategy course, often in conjunction with Chapter 6 of the book The Strategist's Toolkit (""Stakeholder Analysis""), by Jared D. Harris and Michael J. Lenox. The case is also suitable for Darden's first-year core Ethics course. It is appropriate for use in any course or module covering stakeholder management from either a strategic or ethical perspective. Students adopt the role of a female executive in a male-dominated corporate culture.
This case is set in the rapidly changing and technologically emerging industry of on-demand streaming video, which offers Netflix a number of strategic choices. For instance, strategies can involve choices about hosting infrastructure, consumer pricing, and other issues related to a streaming service's business model. In order to achieve global competitiveness, however, some of these choices also involve internationalization. In which foreign markets should Netflix compete? How should the firm enter those markets and compete there? How responsive to local preferences, versus leveraging globalized resources and efficiencies, does it need to be? Along with opportunities to explore these strategic choices, the case offers Netflix as an illustration and contrast to some of its industry competitors, such as Disney+. The material introduces students to Ana Mallett, who, in early 2021, has just been appointed vice president of physical production for Netflix, overseeing production in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and the United Kingdom (UK). As Mallett looks at growth from abroad, she wonders if the current internationalization strategy is going to continue to succeed. This case is used at the Darden School of Business in the first-year core strategy course, in a strategic growth and value creation module. The case introduces an internationalization analysis framework. The material encourages exploration of the industry, competitive positioning and advantage, and capabilities in the context of international expansion. Case discussion can include industry dynamics, localization, globalization, glocalization, five forces analysis, competitive life cycle, hypothesis testing, and capabilities analysis. This case would be useful for any course or module focusing on international strategy, planning for growth, or technology strategy.
This case presents the evolution of Nintendo's gaming technology and discusses the history of the video gaming sector over eight generations of releases. It illustrates how industry dynamics shift over time and how different phases of the competitive life cycle place different demands upon those firms that are all vying for the top position. The case provides history and context for students to discuss an age-old question: How do firms sustain a competitive advantage over time? Based on public sources and written from the perspective of Aya Kyogoku, the manager of Entertainment Planning and Development (EPD) Production Group No. 5, the case offers a launching point into a discussion of how different product strategies can become dominant at different times, an insight that has implications for future strategies. The case also includes sales, stock prices, consumer spending, and product release data that allow for calculations and discussions of the performance of the broader market. The case opens with Kyogoku pondering the future of the entire gaming industry-one facing explosive growth-and Nintendo's place within it. She reflects on the company's need to continue to experiment and innovate and wonders where Nintendo should focus its creative spirit going forward. The case is targeted to MBA students and executives who are building a foundation for analyzing and developing competitive strategies. It is used in the required core Strategy course at the Darden School of Business, where it is employed to highlight industry evolution and the changing nature of competitive dynamics within an evolving context. It would also be suitable for any course on disruptive strategy or digital transformation.
This case uses Apple Inc. (Apple) and its Mac line of personal computers (PCs) to allow for an analysis of competitive positioning and the building of sustainable competitive advantage. In spring 2020, as Apple evolves its various product offerings, a product manager at Apple must think about how the Mac fits into its broader product portfolio. What is the future for desktops and laptops broadly and the Mac specifically? The case facilitates an exploration of Apple's underlying capabilities and broader market dynamics, in the face of uncertainty over the industry's future direction, and it highlights the way in which Apple made deliberate strategic choices for the Mac that have worked to alleviate the typical competitive pressures of the laptop industry. The case provides a historical summary and an overview of the current forces in the PC industry, including market-share trends, mobile computing, cloud computing services, the Mac portfolio of products, and competitors. The case offers the opportunity to conduct a five forces analysis as well as explore to competitive advantage and market position. Crucially, the case highlights the possibility of carving out a valuable competitive position even in an industry with difficult competitive dynamics. This case is used at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business in "Strategic Thinking and Action," a required course in the first-year core curriculum of the MBA and EMBA programs, and the students' introduction to the discipline of strategic management. This case can be used to introduce or build upon the five forces framework and connect theory with action.
In early 2014, recent Stanford University graduate Tyler Shultz was in a quandary. He had been working at Theranos, a blood-diagnostic company founded by Elizabeth Holmes, a Stanford-dropout wunderkind, for almost a year. Shultz had learned enough about the company to realize that its practices and the efficacy of its much-touted finger-prick blood-testing technology were questionable and that the company was going to great lengths to hide this fact from the public and from regulators. Theranos and Holmes were Silicon Valley darlings, enjoying positive press and lavish attention from potential investors and technology titans alike. Just as companies like PayPal had revolutionized the stagnant payments industry and Uber had upended the for-hire transportation sector, Theranos had been positioned as the latest technology firm to substantially disrupt yet another mature sector: the medical laboratory business. By the start of 2014, the company had raised more than $400 million in funding, and had an estimated market valuation of $9 billion. Shultz's situation was exacerbated by the fact that his grandfather, the highly respected former US Secretary of State George Shultz, was on the Theranos board and was one of Elizabeth Holmes's biggest supporters. But Tyler Shultz worried about the customers he was convinced were receiving highly unreliable and often inaccurate blood-test results. With so much at stake, Shultz wondered how he should proceed. Should he raise his concerns with the firm's investors? Blow the whistle externally? Report to industry regulators? Go away quietly? This case and its subsequent four brief follow-up cases are based largely on interviews with Tyler Shultz, and outline the dilemma he faced and the various steps he would take both to extricate himself from his unsavory position and let the public know the full extent of the deception at Theranos. Five optional handouts are available to instructors to further discussion after the case has