Set in 2022, the case describes the partnership between Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) and The Social Kitchen (TSK), a social enterprise, to launch Unilever's flagship alt-meat brand 'The Vegetarian Butcher' (TVB) in Singapore. With a focus on 'future foods', Unilever planned to double the number of products that delivered positive nutrition and minimised environmental impact by 2025. Its vegan foods portfolio comprised nearly 700 products, with TVB as its most significant addition in the high-growth space of plant-based nutrition. UFS's tie up with TSK was driven by its aim to create social impact by helping people make healthier and sustainable lifestyle choices. Furthermore, positioning TVB as a 'brand with a purpose' could help it stand out in the highly competitive plant-based food space. TSK, a well-established social enterprise, provided UFS with an appropriate and credible platform to launch TVB in the city-state. The restaurant at Singapore's Jurong Bird Park, a popular tourist attraction, opened in partnership with TSK, proved to be a cost-effective platform for creating social media impressions, brand awareness and consumer interest. The full menu integration enabled TVB to experiment and develop new products for the taste palate of the locals. However, TSK comprised only one restaurant so far. Was that sufficient to launch TVB successfully in the highly competitive Singapore market? Should the company also look at other alternate food service channels to widen TVB's visibility? Moreover, did the venture generate adequate returns on the investments made by Unilever? Did the brand partnership with TSK and the related social media buzz generate enough sales leads to justify the collaboration moving forward? Most importantly, were sales and profitability in the short-term good enough criteria to assess the long-term intangibles such as a 'socially responsible' brand image and goodwill?
When Jack Sim turned 40, it was the height of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, which had decimated half his wealth. The Singaporean entrepreneur found himself wanting to live a more meaningful life, and decided to devote his remaining years to promoting the need for clean sanitation. He first set up the Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS), and buoyed by its success, he went on to found the World Toilet Organization (WTO). Given that the topic of sanitation is awkward and not one to generate interest among the public at large, Sim opted to use humour, specifically toilet humour, to attract attention and gather support for his cause. In the process, he often drew upon his expertise as a consummate salesman to persuade people to agree with him that clean toilets could be a status symbol - not unlike branded handbags. Sim also found that in trying to enlist governments to aid his movement, he had to understand how bureaucrats work and tailor his strategies accordingly, such that the probability of getting their support would be raised. But while he had perfected the art of using humour to make the unsanitary topic as commonplace and ordinary as the weather, with the world still buffeted by COVID-19, the Ukraine war, and sky-rocketing inflation, how could he continue to sustain people's interest in this cause?
Li Xia is the founder of Shenzhen Power Solution (SPS), a social enterprise established to aid people at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP). Her family's financial troubles during her childhood helped her understand the difficulties faced by the BOP consumers. She knew that BOP consumers did not have access to electricity, which restricted their ability to read and improve their standard of living. SPS provides consumers with products such as solar-powered lamps which replaced the more harmful candles and kerosene lamps. Li spent her time reducing costs and improving the quality of her products for BOP consumers, a segment that was underserved. After penetrating the African market, Li was keen on expanding the business, however, the pandemic struck adding unexpected challenges. Supply chain issues caused the business to slow dramatically. She now needs to raise working capital to keep the company running. This case may be used for graduate, postgraduate and executive education classes. By analysing the case, students should be able to gain an insider's perspective into the opportunities and constraints of impact-oriented enterprises, explore commercially viable business models for BOP customers and understand the different avenues for fundraising and the implications on growth and scaling.
In July 2021, Duolingo became one of the few mission-driven education-technology companies to list on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in the US. Founded in 2011 by Luis von Ahn, a Carnegie Mellon professor from Guatemala, and his doctoral student, Severin Hacker, the start-up was born with a social mission to make language learning universally available. A large part of Duolingo's value proposition was underpinned by free access to all content, game-like lessons, and keeping learners motivated - a recipe that boosted user retention and increasingly, the conversion to paid subscription. Duolingo had enjoyed resounding success, pulling in close to 40 million active monthly users around the globe on its platform. Not only did the firm's value creation resonate with users (including Bill Gates and Syrian refugees), its exponential growth and positive free cash flow indicating the company's liquidity - had attracted major investors including Google. In a space where listed firms played to the tune of investors' quest for more revenue, how could Duolingo balance public markets' demands for growth and profitability while maintaining its original mission of free education moving forward?
This case study is set in May 2021. It describes how Sarah Lee, Director of Engagement at Federated Hermes (FH) has been engaging with Ruby Goods (Ruby), a consumer goods company that operates in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States, to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in its dairy operations. The case illustrates how an external stakeholder, an investment management company with minimal formal organisational authority, can influence and drive ESG (environmental, social and governance) performance improvements. While Lee was successful in getting Ruby to streamline its ESG approach and establish the Ruby Corporate Responsibility Council to drive company-wide ESG initiatives, she encountered resistance from Ruby's senior management and the board to commit to the more ambitious science-based targets critical for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. What should she do to pressure Ruby's senior management into commitment and action while preserving FH's carefully cultivated relationships with Ruby's senior management?
This case is set in November 2020. Despite COVID-19, Ray of Hope (ROH), a crowdfunding charity in Singapore had grown crowdfunded donations for their clients (individuals requiring financial assistance) six-fold from S$500,000 (US$400,000) in 2019 to S$3 million (US$2.2 million) in the period April to September 2020, without an increase in headcount. The nationwide circuit breaker - Singapore's version of a lockdown, further hampered the work at ROH as no face-to-face meetings could be held with its clients in the two-month period from 7 April 2020 to 1 June 2020. Tan En, ROH's General Manager, was quick to pivot ROH's strategy from focusing on fundraising campaigns that helped individual clients directly (individual campaigns) to serving as the intermediary that raised and administered public donations for the volunteer groups (group campaigns). What were the reasons why ROH could pivot so quickly?
Public-listed Matex International Ltd, a Singapore-based specialty chemicals and dye manufacturer, was committed to spending up to 10% of its revenue on research and development (R&D), particularly in the area of developing cutting-edge dyes and dyeing processes that were more environmentally-friendly. This was in spite of the increasingly competitive macroeconomic environment and the long-term need to improve shareholder value. Matex Executive Director Dro Tan elaborated on how open innovation was a key part of the firm's corporate DNA. Moreover, innovation was not only a central component of Matex's unique selling proposition, but also its competitive strategy. Dro further shared that the company's R&D agenda was influenced by its clients' needs. It was also highlighted that the timing to launch a new product was very much determined by market conditions, and governments and the legislation they passed were a key driver. For instance, Matex's latest product Megapro ECO®, a revolutionary dye that did not require the use of any salt, would not have gained impetus for its launch, had it not been for the stricter environmental laws that were enacted by China, the world's largest textile export market, in 2015. The case examines how innovation is actually a process, and explores the way Matex weaved sustainability into its overall strategy using innovation as a vehicle.
The case is set in mid-2015, as Vodien Internet Solutions' founders Alvin Poh and John Jervis Lee consider their company's journey from a small-business serving web design and development studio to a full-fledged web hosting company, which now aspires to become the dominant player in the Asian market. Vodien began in 2002 as a business dreamed up by two enterprising university students that built its customer base by advertising online. It pivoted in 2006 to phase out time-intensive client design solutions by focusing on web hosting. Six years had passed since Vodien had become a fully realised Asia-based hosting and support company. The future of the company is tied to scaling up its operations and making the hires needed to fuel its growth - a far cry from the bootstrapped, two-man operation that it had started with. But Poh and Lee are wary of bringing more players to the game. Vodien needs the capital to expand, and they have, up to that point, run a lean business, directly re-investing profits into the company (both founders drew low salaries so that the company would have greater financial resources). As they consider their options, whatever they choose, a measurable return on investment is crucial for the good of the company. Expanding into new countries requires aggressive, experimental moves that are capital intensive. The duo could: 1) reinvest their own capital, drawing into their personal funds, 2) take on more debt as a company, 3) sell out to a private equity fund, or 4) merge with an existing web hosting company. What would be the most appropriate choice, and how would they arrive at the right decision?
June 20, 2016. It was the day Magic Pony Technology galloped to fame after Twitter announced its acquisition of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) start-up for a reported US$150 million. Co-founded by Rob Bishop and Zehan Wang in London in 2014, Magic Pony specialised in using machine learning, a branch of AI, to optimise image-processing technology that greatly enhanced the quality of video streaming over the Internet on mobile devices. Along with a team of highly-skilled computer and neuro-scientists, Magic Pony brought critical technology in video compression to Twitter which would strengthen the microblogging service's live streaming capabilities. To battle against stagnant subscriber growth, one of Twitter's best bets perhaps was to rely on high-quality live video streaming in an attempt to draw a larger user base from a broader cross-section of the society. On the other side of the deal, the successful exit of the 18-month-old start-up was engineered by its founders based on a mix of strategies which included securing investment from venture capitalists and resisting acquisition offers from smaller players while perfecting the technology until a sizeable offer (i.e., Twitter) came along. Looking back, was there a better time to sell? Why was Twitter successful in acquiring Magic Pony while others failed? What made Magic Pony a favourite acquisition target?
Flipz is the pseudonym for a Hong Kong-based mobile classified app for consumer-to-consumer selling and buying of new and second-hand goods. Despite the initial skepticism towards their venture, the founders managed to gain traction with their app and eventually succeeded in raising venture funding at a valuation of US$500 million six years after the company was founded. In January 2016, Lee Ju Ning, the co-founder of Flipz, a peer-to-peer online selling platform for second-hand goods, ponders about the important decisions she has to make in the wake of being confronted with multiple setbacks in her entrepreneurial journey. Eighteen months earlier, Lee and her fellow university classmate, Caden Chan, had returned to Hong Kong, feeling energised after a one-year immersion programme in Silicon Valley. Shortly after, Lee and Chan spotted a business opportunity and brought their idea of simplifying the cumbersome process of online listing and selling second-hand items to a hackathon competition. They eventually emerged the champion and with the winner's prize, Flipz was founded, despite disapproval from Lee's parents. The entrepreneurship journey was indeed not as smooth as expected, and there were many lessons to be learnt from the school of hard knocks. Successive challenges began to dampen the initial high spirits - funding rejections, technical difficulties during product development, and dwindling user downloads following a successful launch. Lee faces a common dilemma encountered by many budding tech entrepreneurs - whether to channel the remaining limited funds to marketing or product development. She also begins to cast doubts on the future: Should she hang on to the start-up or call it quits?
Case A is set in 2008. Tong Yee is a co-founder of The Thought Collective (TTC), a group of social enterprises that aimed to enhance the social capital of local society. His background in education led him to provide private lessons to underprivileged children. In 2006, he worked with his partners to launch School Of Thought (SOT), a tuition centre that focused on public welfare and charged affordable fees with the goal of maximising social impact instead of profits. TTC subsequently branched into the restaurant business in 2007 with Food For Thought (FFT) when the opportunity fortuitously arose. FFT began by donating 10% of its profits to the community. Later on, in collaboration with the National Heritage Board (NHB), a statutory board charged with preserving the shared heritage of Singapore's diverse communities, FFT would also be a place where people gathered to share stories of their local life experiences. FFT hence aimed to provide good food for a good cause. At the end of the year, Tong and his team had to decide if a much larger restaurant location at the Singapore Botanic Gardens was worth bidding for. The area was popular with tourists and locals alike and fit their goal of bringing people together in community areas. A dynamic rental model would also allow their rent to fluctuate with sales. However, the costs would be a lot higher than at their other outlets and demand was uncertain. Case B continues in 2011. After FFT decided to rent the space at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, they suffered huge financial losses in the first few years. The team started to face new operational and staffing issues and had to figure out how to move forward or cease operations. The case also explores what the team could have done differently.
Case A is set in 2008. Tong Yee is a co-founder of The Thought Collective (TTC), a group of social enterprises that aimed to enhance the social capital of local society. His background in education led him to provide private lessons to underprivileged children. In 2006, he worked with his partners to launch School Of Thought (SOT), a tuition centre that focused on public welfare and charged affordable fees with the goal of maximising social impact instead of profits. TTC subsequently branched into the restaurant business in 2007 with Food For Thought (FFT) when the opportunity fortuitously arose. FFT began by donating 10% of its profits to the community. Later on, in collaboration with the National Heritage Board (NHB), a statutory board charged with preserving the shared heritage of Singapore's diverse communities, FFT would also be a place where people gathered to share stories of their local life experiences. FFT hence aimed to provide good food for a good cause. At the end of the year, Tong and his team had to decide if a much larger restaurant location at the Singapore Botanic Gardens was worth bidding for. The area was popular with tourists and locals alike and fit their goal of bringing people together in community areas. A dynamic rental model would also allow their rent to fluctuate with sales. However, the costs would be a lot higher than at their other outlets and demand was uncertain. Case B continues in 2011. After FFT decided to rent the space at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, they suffered huge financial losses in the first few years. The team started to face new operational and staffing issues and had to figure out how to move forward or cease operations. The case also explores what the team could have done differently.
In January 2015, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Canaan Group, a privately owned logistics conglomerate of businesses in Vancouver, Canada, was considering how to capitalize on opportunities in the freight forwarding industry. The first thing he needed to do was stabilize the Export Cargo Specialist (ECS) division. The ECS division focused on ocean freight forwarding—helping customers coordinate and ship goods from origin to destination. To counter a glut of shipping capacity and fall in demand over the past few years, the CEO had restructured the roles and assignments in the division. He attempted to create a cross-trained workforce capable of performing a range of functions for clients. However, issues emerged with the restructuring, leading to employee departures and, along with the industry changes, a net loss in operations. The CEO was looking to turn things around and avoid further mistakes. He wondered if he should give his restructuring experiment more time, bring in an experienced project manager, or promote a current ECS staff member to find a solution.
In January 2015, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Canaan Group, a privately owned logistics conglomerate of businesses in Vancouver, Canada, was considering how to capitalize on opportunities in the freight forwarding industry. The first thing he needed to do was stabilize the Export Cargo Specialist (ECS) division. The ECS division focused on ocean freight forwarding-helping customers coordinate and ship goods from origin to destination. To counter a glut of shipping capacity and fall in demand over the past few years, the CEO had restructured the roles and assignments in the division. He attempted to create a cross-trained workforce capable of performing a range of functions for clients. However, issues emerged with the restructuring, leading to employee departures and, along with the industry changes, a net loss in operations. The CEO was looking to turn things around and avoid further mistakes. He wondered if he should give his restructuring experiment more time, bring in an experienced project manager, or promote a current ECS staff member to find a solution.
In the spring of 2016, the chief executive officer of Agoda Company Pte. Ltd. (Agoda), a subsidiary of The Priceline Group, Inc., wanted to transform the firm's human resource practices using data analytics. The idea was not just to get more data, but to use this data to help managers gain insights to make better decisions. The three main focal areas of this exercise were recruitment, performance evaluation, and compensation. As key executives worked at transforming Agoda into an organization that emphasized people and development, they faced various challenges related to collecting, managing, and leveraging large volumes of data.
In the spring of 2016, the chief executive officer of Agoda Company Pte. Ltd. (Agoda), a subsidiary of The Priceline Group, Inc., wanted to transform the firm’s human resource practices using data analytics. The idea was not just to get more data, but to use this data to help managers gain insights to make better decisions. The three main focal areas of this exercise were recruitment, performance evaluation, and compensation. As key executives worked at transforming Agoda into an organization that emphasized people and development, they faced various challenges related to collecting, managing, and leveraging large volumes of data.
Rob Rosenstein, the co-founder of Agoda.com, had a difficult task ahead of him. Agoda had been acquired by a global online travel giant - the Priceline group in 2007. The terms of the acquisition were based on a three year earn-out period following which Priceline would pay Agoda the bulk of the acquisition pay-out. However, by 2008, Agoda was in dire need to improve its revenue figures, and the Priceline Group's board was pessimistic of Agoda's chances of hitting its earn-out targets. The general assumption was that the Asia based start-up's assets would be gobbled up and integrated into the group as part of its much larger and profitable western brand. Rosenstein, however, believed in the strengths of his company - a venture he had co-founded with Michael Kenny in 2005 in Singapore. Agoda.com was one of the first online travel platforms in Asia to build its business globally and attract travellers from all parts of the world. By the late 2000's however, Agoda had lost its dominance in Asia, with the emergence of global players in the market and rising competition from Chinese online travel agencies (OTA's). Other challenges like technology disruption, a fragmented and diversified Asian market, unstable political environment in Thailand (Agoda's largest office was in Bangkok at the time) and difficulty in attracting the right talent, obstructed its growth path as well. In December 2009, heightened concerns over the future of Agoda prompted Rosenstein to sit with his team and formulate a strategy to enable Agoda to hit its earn-out targets within the stipulated three year period ending in 2010. How could Agoda grow its business and revenue? How could it improve on its marketing strategy, further build its supply and attract more consumers to make bookings on its website? How could Rosenstein make the acquisition work?