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In June 2014, Hisense of China and Hitachi of Japan were considering whether their 11-year-old joint venture (JV) should once again assume responsibility for its international sales. After developing a solid central air-conditioner market share in China, in 2009, the JV began to sell in various overseas regions but struggled. In April 2012, the partners agreed to have a Hisense subsidiary (the HIMC) assume full responsibility for selling the JV’s products overseas. However, over the next two years, HIMC’s performance in selling the JV’s products overseas was unsatisfactory. In response, the partners began to discuss whether they should have the JV sell its own products again overseas. Of immediate interest was the Southeast Asian market. This case can be used with Hisense-Hitachi Joint Venture (B): Expanding in Southeast Asia, 9B16M220

In June 2014, Hisense of China and Hitachi of Japan were considering whether their 11-year-old joint venture (JV) should once again assume responsibility for its international sales. After developing a solid central air-conditioner market share in China, in 2009, the JV began to sell in various overseas regions but struggled. In April 2012, the partners agreed to have a Hisense subsidiary (the HIMC) assume full responsibility for selling the JV's products overseas. However, over the next two years, HIMC's performance in selling the JV's products overseas was unsatisfactory. In response, the partners began to discuss whether they should have the JV sell its own products again overseas. Of immediate interest was the Southeast Asian market.

Bank Audi, a leading financial institution, was founded in Lebanon in 1830 and, over the years, had been engaged in various forms of philanthropic, charitable giving embodying its responsibility towards its various stakeholders. The head of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) unit faced a prominent decision. How could the bank consolidate its CSR efforts-which had taken a largely philanthropic approach, especially between 2010 and 2012-in the context of a coherent strategy that built on the assessment of aspects that were material and critical to both the bank and its key stakeholders? Setting the bank's CSR priorities would serve as the basis of a coherent CSR strategy for Bank Audi.

The number and value of Chinese enterprises' cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are increasing, but their success rate remains very low. The failure of cultural integration is one of the most important reasons. In 2005, Lenovo Group Ltd., acquired IBM's PC division in what was called a "snake swallows elephant" acquisition that caused a sensation worldwide. During the ten years after the M&A, Lenovo integrated IBM's PC division's culture through several stages of acculturation, which ended with great success. In 2014, Lenovo acquired IBM's x86 Server. Lenovo faced a challenge: Should the first acquisition's cultural integration be replayed and copied for the x86 Server acquisition? Or should Lenovo look for a new approach?

The purpose of this case is to look at Autodesk's cultural and technological challenges as the company faces a changing industry. With various innovations such as the cloud, the Internet of things, and various new manufacturing processes affecting every aspect of the company's future, students will be introduced to the various decisions and challenges a corporation has to face in order to remain ahead of massive industry disruption. The case analyzes Autodesk's three major branches: (1) Architectural and Engineering, (2) Manufacturing, and (3) Media & Entertainment and how all three branches are adjusting to meet the future. Of particular focus is the shift to a subscription business model, the cultural ramifications of such a shift, the arrival of activist investors to the company's stock, and the various disruptive innovations in Autodesk's markets.

In February 2014, the chairman and chief executive officer of the third-largest law firm in Canada, Gowlings LLP, was examining his options for taking the firm global. On the verge of retirement, he hoped to establish an enduring platform for international expansion based on three aspects: a new global location, a new global partner, and a new organizational structure. Each point was interlinked, and each presented its own managerial dilemmas. Gowlings had already established offices in three locations outside Canada: Moscow, London, and Beijing. The company had been ranked as the top legal advisor based on deal volume for Canadian mergers and acquisitions in both 2012 and 2013. Gowlings was primed to build on these attributes and move to the next level in positioning itself as an international law firm.

Lending Loop, a Canadian marketplace (peer-to-peer) lending start-up, was founded in 2014 and launched to the public in 2015. It competed with other peer-to-peer lenders to challenge the Canadian chartered banks and other financial companies for part of the Canadian small-business lending market. Without an established regulatory regime in place, it operated according to its lawyers’ interpretation of securities law. The founders needed to scale their business quickly and strategically to gain a first-mover advantage in the industry and to position their company as a major stakeholder for future regulatory decisions.

In 2011, the sole proprietor of wetlandPOOLS, a specialist installer of non-chemical swimming pools based in Johannesburg, South Africa, was looking at the design of his latest creation. He was satisfied with the work he had done, yet frustrated that it had taken so long to complete the project. His company had been in existence for 10 years. During that time, wetlandPOOLS had grown organically by taking on new projects as they arose. This approach allowed wetlandPOOLS to remain distinct from traditional pool builders and true to its original principles; however, its opportunities for growth appeared to be somewhat limited. The owner wondered how he could have the best of both worlds-owning a company that would operate efficiently and grow at a reasonable, sustainable pace, while also maintaining its unique nature.

In 2015, Automaten Technik Baumann (ATB) was dismayed to learn that Volkswagen Financial Services had acquired a 92 per cent stake in Sunhill Technologies, one of Europe's largest providers of mobile parking and ticketing solutions. ATB had focused on the production of parking meters for several decades, but was now seeing a threat to its existing business due to the rise of mobile parking providers. Consumers could now use their smartphone to pay for parking-making parking meters obsolete. Should ATB take the rise of new entrants seriously? Would ATB need to adjust its business model?

In early 2016, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Pennycook Power Boats was approached by the CEO of a competitor, who was interested in purchasing Pennycook Power Boats and asked to see the company's audited financial statements. The CEO of Pennycook Power Boats faced a dilemma: he wanted to engage in a meaningful discussion about a possible sale but also needed to protect his firm's business interests.

Supplement to case W16625.

Orb, a tiny Silicon Valley start-up, came up with a breakthrough technology. Before anyone else was doing it, Orb developed software that enabled every type of media on a PC (including music, photos, and videos) to be streamed remotely to any mobile device for free. Orb also enabled users to stream live TV onto their PCs and mobile devices. This was a significant technological feat in the days before the iPhone and other smartphones. When it launched the product in 2005, Orb won the "Next Big Thing" award from an influential technology publication. Orb had developed a sophisticated technology that generated positive press, yet the product did not immediately go viral, as the company had hoped. So Orb carried out several marketing, technological, and strategic pivots-and faced a lot of disappointment until it hit on what seemed to be a winning combination. The case, set in 2007, details these pivots and addresses the following topics: new product and feature development; customer acquisition; customer usage and retention; and marketing opportunities and challenges. The case ends with a decision about what the company should do next.

In 2003, the tiny start-up Orb came up with a breakthrough technology. Through its software, every type of media on a PC (including music, photos, and videos) could be streamed remotely to any mobile device for free. Orb also enabled users to stream live TV onto their PCs and mobile devices. This was a technological feat in the days before the iPhone and other smartphones. When Orb launched in 2005, it won the "Next Big Thing" award from the influential tech publication CNET. It had been a challenging technology to develop, and with such positive press, Orb watched and waited for the technology to go viral. This case is divided into three parts. Part (A) covers the early challenges Orb had with user adoption, unexpected technology challenges, and its realization that it was not going to go viral - at least not as the company and product existed at that time. At the end of 2005, Orb had about 300,000 users, and it needed to decide its next move. It could keep pushing the product to consumers - either on its own or through partners; try to find partners in the B2B space and supply streaming architecture; or maybe call it a day and try to sell the company for the technology. Parts (B) and (C) cover Orb in 2006 and 2007. Topics include: 1) New product and feature development, 2) Strategy and product pivots, 3) Customer acquisition versus product usage, 4) Marketing opportunities and challenges, and 5) decisions about selling a company. Part (B) and (C) of the case are for instructor use only.

Supplement to case M363A.

Supplement to case M363A.

The authors concluded that organizational agility required routines in four areas: strategizing, perceiving, testing, and implementing. Routines and capabilities, the authors note, allow organizations to perform key activities reliably and repeatedly. Management processes -- the fundamentals of planning, organizing, controlling, and motivating -- operationalize the routines and capabilities. To support agility, management processes need to be designed well, and some processes must be designed for change. While the authors found that good management processes were a prerequisite for agility, good processes were no guarantee for success. Sustaining high performance was a function of whether certain processes were flexible and fast. They illustrate their argument using two companies from their research: the Brioche Pasquier Group, a multinational bakery headquartered in Les Cerqueux, France, and Netflix Inc., which is based in Los Gatos, California, and streams digital content to more than 80 million customers in more than 190 countries. Both companies demonstrated an ability to operate effectively without being tied to a rigid set of steps. At Brioche Pasquier Group, for example, twice a year individuals and teams identify objectives and actions related to their work that they think can improve short-term performance or develop future capability, and they also review the previous plans. Brioche Pasquier Group uses this as an opportunity to distribute monetary bonuses (funded by savings or new value realized) to the individuals and teams whose actions contributed to the results. At Netflix, executives are committed to putting information into the hands of the people who do the work and making sure that the information flows up and down to everyone who needs it.

Although the term "robot"connotes visions of electromechanical machines that perform human tasks, the term as it relates to service automation refers to something less threatening: software that performs repetitive and dreary service tasks previously performed by humans, so that humans can focus on more unstructured and interesting tasks. In this article, authors Mary C. Lacity and Leslie P. Willcocks focus on "robotic process automation"-- software tools and platforms that deal with structured data, rules-based processes, and deterministic outcomes. They focus on this area (as opposed to more advanced automation technology known as "cognitive automation") because this is where most companies begin their service automation journeys. Currently, companies use robotic process automation for tasks such as those associated with validating the sale of insurance premiums, generating utility bills, paying health care insurance claims, keeping employee records up-to-date, and even generating news stories. In one case, the authors describe how a business process and technology services provider helped an insurance industry client automate a multistep process for processing premiums for new insurance policies. Humans still handle the unstructured parts of the work. However, the structured parts of the process, including finding errors, retrieving the online data, creating the official sales record, and notifying insurance brokers when the process is complete, are now managed by the robotic process automation software. By studying organizations that were early adopters in deploying software robots, the authors were able to identify three ways the companies generated tangible benefits: (1) by developing an approach to service automation supported by top management; (2) by initiating effective processes that deliver value to customers and employees; and (3) by building enterprisewide skills and capabilities.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review Article. The combination of new analytical capabilities and burgeoning data assets are being used to form value-added "data products."Such products have powered rapid growth in the value and success of online companies, but the expansion of analytics means the standard model for developing these products needs to evolve. An updated model needs to reflect new "time to market"expectations and input from a variety of stakeholders.

Executives should evaluate whether a business model innovation they are considering is consistent with the current priorities of their existing business model. This analysis matters greatly, the authors write, since it drives a whole host of decisions about where the new initiative should be housed, how its performance should be measured, and how the resources and processes at work in the company will either support it or extinguish it. Business models, the authors point out, "by their very nature are designed not to change, and they become less flexible and more resistant to change as they develop over time."Interdependencies between different elements of the business model grow over time, and the business unit develops increasingly ingrained approaches to solving problems. The authors describe the development of a business model across time as a journey whose progress and route are predictable -- although the time that it takes a business model to follow this journey will differ by industry and circumstance. In the authors'view, a business model, which in an established company is typically embodied in a business unit, travels a one-way journey, beginning with the creation of the new business unit and its business model, then shifting to sustaining and growing the business unit, and ultimately moving to wringing efficiency from it. Each stage of the journey supports a specific type of innovation, builds a particular set of interdependencies into the business model, and is responsive to a particular set of performance metrics. The authors argue that this road-map view of business model evolution helps explain why most attempts to alter the course of existing business units fail. Unaware of the interdependencies and rigidities that constrain business units to pursuing their existing journey, managers attempt to compel existing business units to pursue new priorities or attempt to create a new business inside an existing unit.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review Article. Digitally savvy executives are already aligning their people, processes, and culture to achieve their organizations' long-term digital success.