In May 2022, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer), Albert Bourla, announced an initiative called “An Accord for a Healthier World” to supply less-developed countries with the company’s COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty and the oral antiviral drug Paxlovid. The program sought to reach 1.2 billion people in 45 countries with a focus on treating diseases that disproportionately affected low-income countries. The initiative was part of the company’s goal to reduce the number of people around the world who could not afford their medicines by 50 per cent. Bourla’s plan was to reach that goal by 2023.<br><br>The move was in response to criticism that Pfizer was not doing enough to get vaccines to people in less-developed countries. The CEO acknowledged the challenges of distribution, such as poor infrastructure, misinformation, and corruption and stated that solutions should address these underlying problems, rather than focusing on the cost of vaccines. He also stated that a vaccine patent waiver would not be effective because other countries did not have the necessary infrastructure or knowledge to safely produce high-quality vaccines. The waiver would also set a precedent for future endeavours, potentially making manufacturers reluctant to develop new treatments. However, how could Pfizer effectively communicate its efforts to address global health inequities?
In 2017, the new chairman of A. P. Møller-Maersk confronted one of the worst cyberattacks in history, which crippled the company's vast global shipping network that accounted for nearly 20 per cent of global container shipping. NotPetya was a particularly virulent strain of ransomware that, within seconds, destroyed Maersks’s servers and personal computers around the world. Maersk's senior system administrators had warned the company that its network was vulnerable, but the necessary upgrades were never completed. How can the company recover from this devastating event? And how can it protect itself from cyberattacks in the future?
In 2015, the chief content officer at Netflix was responsible for the company’s globalization strategy, which included $5 billion in new content and an expansion to nearly every part of the world by the end of 2017. Although original programming helped Netflix to grow its subscriber base, it was also very expensive. As a result, Netflix earnings were declining even as the company added new subscribers. The company's chief financial officer warned that the financial situation would only worsen due to the high fixed costs associated with content development and international expansion. See supplement 9B16M119.<br><br>The case is a sequel to “Netflix lnc.: Streaming Away From DVDs” (9B12M040), which provides a history of Netflix, examines its U.S. strategy, and familiarizes students with both the impact of disruptive technologies and the link between technology and business model viability. This case can be used to build on the lessons outlined in the previous case. It also works as a stand-alone case, either to focus on international market entry and globalization or to examine the challenges that digital media companies face, particularly piracy and content regulations.
The case supplement focuses on the implementation of Netflix's global expansion in early 2016. As criticism of its strategy mounts, the company's share price declines and Netflix encounters problems with censorship and content laws in various countries. ln some locations, governments attempt to block the service. This is a supplement to 9B16M118.
This case examines two of the leading video rental services in the United States, Blockbuster and Netflix, and how each adapted to changing technology and market forces. At the end of the case, Blockbuster has declared bankruptcy and Netflix has seen its first decline in subscribers since its founding in 1997. Netflix also faces a number of new threats, including illegal file sharing, rental kiosks, and new low-cost video-on-demand (VOD) services. Netflix responds to these threats by announcing that it will split the company in two — Netflix will focus exclusively on streaming content, while a new subsidiary called Qwikster will be restricted to providing DVDs by mail. Customers overwhelmingly react negatively to the announcement, and Netflix’s stock price plunges by more than 50 per cent.