Founded in 2018 in Hanoi, Vietnam, Selex Motors emerged with a vision to propel Vietnam toward sustainable development through electric motorbikes and renewable energy. The company’s founder and co-founders aimed to overcome the challenges of electric vehicle (EV) ownership—mainly charging inconvenience and high costs—by introducing an innovative ecosystem comprising electric motorbikes, compatible battery packs, battery swapping stations, and an internet of things (IoT) management platform. As the industry evolved, Selex found itself at a crossroads, contemplating a strategic focus between deepening its B2B penetration or revisiting the B2C market to drive transformative change in the EV motorbike sector.
In May 2022, amid the transformative currents of their industry, Kalpesh Shah and Paresh Shah of Ramson Industries (Ramson) confronted the reality that their traditional business model, which was historically heavily reliant on distributors, was facing stagnation. Having partially pivoted to a direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategy during the pandemic, the Shah brothers now considered whether to more fully embrace this new direction. Despite the potential for increased margins and a solution to the issue of unsold inventory, the shift required careful consideration of e-commerce platform dynamics, website development, and the reconfiguration of Ramson’s supply chain. The company’s story was a testament to the complexities of navigating business transformation in a rapidly evolving marketplace, highlighting the strategic deliberations involved in adapting to a new consumer landscape while striving to uphold the values and relationships that had underpinned the business’s success.
In June 2022, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Worn Again Technologies (Worn Again), a polymer recycling technology company based in London, United Kingdom, was examining the way forward with a new technology that the company had developed and fine-tuned. The technology had been tested successfully at the company’s demonstration plant in Switzerland and was capable of processing fifty thousand tons of material per year. The CEO now needed to find new markets where the technology could be set up and scaled for commercialization.
If all goes well, a new body within existing accounting standards institutions will soon drive standardized approaches in sustainability reporting in Canada. There are some important challenges and critical questions that need to be addressed when forming the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board (CSSB) and defining its focus, composition, and mandate. The authors identify the following major questions that the committee should consider as it contemplates future oversight of sustainability standards: 1) How can Canadian standards setting be a model of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples? The consultation process needs substantive Indigenous involvement or participation in the formation of the committee and in the development of the related consultation paper. 2) How will the CSSB manage tensions between international consistency versus local adaptation? In the establishment of the working rules of the new CSSB, it is important that maintaining international comparability is the north star for standards setting, and the development of the Canadian versions focuses primarily on additional elaboration that facilitates and enables adoption in the Canadian context. 3) How will the CSSB manage tensions between single-materiality (i.e., primary consideration of the impact of sustainability issues on the firm and its immediate stakeholders) and double-materiality (also providing comprehensive and comparable information on the wider impact of the firm on the environment and society)?
In May 2019, a Vietnam-based entrepreneur was wondering which strategy would work best to sell nipa honey, the first product launched by his nipa palm products company, Viet Nam Nipa Development Company Limited (Viet Nipa). The product was launched in February 2019 and the entrepreneur had been selling the nipa honey at trade fairs, through partnerships with three popular resorts in his home district, and on a sales platform on Viet Nipa’s Facebook page. He was reaching out to grocery retailers in Vietnam with sale propositions, but to no avail. Should the entrepreneur continue to pursue business-to-consumer (B2C) distribution or leverage his company’s operational and manufacturing capabilities to shift to a business-to-business (B2B) operation? What was his target market and how should he tailor Viet Nipa’s marketing strategy and tactics to these consumers? Should he also consider taking nipa honey to the international market?
On January 2, 2019, Canada-based Barrick Gold Corporation (Barrick) and Randgold Resources (Randgold) merged to become the largest gold mining company in the world. Following the merger, Barrick’s new executive team communicated a financial strategy that emphasized a long-term focus, particularly on sustainability. Barrick’s executive performance scorecard—a key management tool used to direct executive attention and evaluate performance—had been introduced in 2013, after an overwhelming majority of shareholders voted against a proposed compensation plan at the annual general meeting. No changes had been made to the scorecard since 2015, despite changes in the organization and in the mining industry overall. An external human resources professional who was proposing a new executive scorecard for the company faced several questions: Should she emphasize the short-term or long-term incentive plan? Which metrics and weightings should be changed? Were the existing financial and non-financial measures still appropriate, and did they adequately reflect Barrick’s sustainability goals? Was Barrick doing enough to satisfy regulators, institutional investors, and the many guidelines and standards that had been released in recent years?
After the management of Magna International Inc. (Magna) tabled a proposal to shareholders in May 2010 to acquire all of Frank Stronach's Class B voting shares for approximately US$1 billion, vociferous opposition emerged, heavily criticizing the process by which the terms had been agreed on and the lack of information provided by the board. The Ontario Securities Commission ruled that Magna needed to provide more information to shareholders. In compliance with that order, Magna released an amendment that included a report from its financial advisor, its advisor’s advice to the Magna board, and PricewaterhouseCooper's evaluation of the deal. In late August 2010, a Magna shareholder needed to decide whether to keep or sell her shares, and wanted to understand what amount, if any, would have been appropriate for Stronach’s Class B voting shares. As a consumer conscious of the environmental, social, and governance aspects of a corporation, she was also concerned whether Magna’s board and special committee had applied good governance principles.