個案總覽

This case presents the unique approach to philanthropy of the Ahlstrom family. A group of 25 fifth-generation female Ahlstrom family members founded the Eva Ahlstrom foundation in 2010, in the name of the family matriarch Eva Ahlstrom (1848-1920), who was a big contributor to society in her time. This led to the establishment of the Ahlstrom Collective Impact in 2020. The uniqueness of the Ahlstrom Collective Impact lies in the power that comes from bringing all entities together under one umbrella, and letting purpose and values be the guiding principles that unite the Ahlstrom network. The core mission is to inspire, engage and involve everyone - employees and shareholders alike - to create a better understanding of what rights children have, and why and how their realization affects our businesses, our societies and our future.

A former investment banking professional had her eureka moment when she noticed instances of assaults on single women travelling alone in taxi cabs at odd times of the day. The prevalence of these instances led her to begin a safe cab service run by women for women—Taxshe Services Pvt. Ltd. (Taxshe), located in Bengaluru, India. In March 2020, the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic began in India, and a lockdown was announced as a preventive measure. Taxshe, whose customers mainly comprised working women and school-going children, faced a significant challenge, as the sudden changes and stringent restrictions brought on by the lockdown precipitated a substantial drop in the need for cab services. Taxshe’s founder contemplated the company’s dilemma and consulted people from across her wide network of personal and professional acquaintances. How could she keep Taxshe up and running in spite of the restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic? What value-added specialty services could Taxshe offer as a cab service during the pandemic that would benefit society at large?

Benny Chung-Ying Zee was a professor at a prestigious university in Hong Kong and founder of Health View Bioanalytic Limited (Health View). Health View offered fast, inexpensive, non-invasive assessments of the risk of stroke and Alzheimer's disease by using artificial intelligence and automatic retinal image analysis (ARIA) of pictures of patients' retinas using fundus cameras. While Health View was breaking even, Zee realized that it was not yet a success. Thus, Zee was considering how to scale up the company to realize the impact of its technology. Zee had to assess the current business model-its value proposition, target market, sales channels, and strategic partners-and determine how he could scale up and redirect Health View.

Founded in 1998 in Fribourg, Switzerland, Dartfish developed a video technology able to track movement and trajectory. Its user-friendly analysis tools, known as the SimulCam and StroMotion, set it apart from the competition, allowing it to conquer three market segments: broadcasting and media; sports training and education, physiotherapy, and healthcare; and online video sharing. Being first in a market it had created and the recipient of extensive media coverage, Dartfish quickly expanded its international network to serve a wide spectrum of customers. Over time, however, the market became saturated with competitors popping up everywhere, and, rather than focusing on understanding and serving its clients' needs, the firm worked to develop new technologies. Despite its apparent success, it eventually realized that it was spreading itself too thin and needed to rethink its value proposition. The case provides a platform to explore the internationalization strategies adopted by Dartfish, a born-global firm, and the dos and don'ts of market expansion.

Copenhagen Airports A/S (CPH) has been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with flight activity at levels not seen since the 1970s. Although the virus overshadows everything, three senior managers discuss a more long-term trend: the steadily declining revenues of the airport's shopping mall. Over the past number of years, consumer interest in food, beverages, and tax-free items has continuously decreased, posing considerable challenges to CPH's business model. About 80 per cent of the airport's profits are generated by the non-aeronautical business, of which the shopping mall is the biggest part, and CPH needs that income to continue investing into the airport's status as an important hub for airlines. What could CPH do to deliver better existing services, and what new services would merit serious consideration? Could CPH launch new products or services that would be attractive to both passengers and shopping mall tenants, or would it need to redevelop its entire business model? Since the commercial business was key to driving the airport's further development, the managers knew that finding answers to these questions was important to sustaining CPH's position as a leading hub in Northern Europe. The case is not about the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for the aviation industry. This is a case about the long-term trend of declining revenues in the airport's shopping mall.

Aftertaste Foundation (Aftertaste) was an organization that provided livelihood support to women living in the impoverished urban areas of Mumbai, India, who created sustainable handicrafts. Aftertaste was started in 2013 and initially employed three craftswomen. By 2021, the organization had expanded to two locations and had increased the number of craftswomen employed to 40. Aftertaste’s business model was focused on creating social impact by generating revenue through the sale of handcrafted items to corporate and retail buyers. For six years, Aftertaste was supported financially by the social impact organization Avanti Foundation. In September 2019, Aftertaste was registered as an independent entity. However, shortly after its transition, in March 2020, the foundation was confronted by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. A nationwide order for temporary lockdowns soon forced Aftertaste to stop all in-person operations. When the country started reopening after pandemic lockdowns, Aftertaste’s owner struggled to maintain the financial sustainability of her organization. Surrounded by enduring pandemic uncertainty, she had to decide what strategy to pursue for the future of her organization. How could she overcome her venture’s losses and lead Aftertaste on a path of financially sustainable growth?

Ten-year-old, Palo Alto-based Ribbit Capital is best-known for its global investments in fintech. The firm was also an early advocate of crypto and blockchain, having invested in more than two dozen startups in the space in the past decade. In the Spring of 2022, Partner Nick Shalek contemplates an investment into Gauntlet, a Brooklyn-based crypto startup. He weighs not only the pros and cons of the Gauntlet investment in the context of the fund's overall portfolio, but also the deal structure. While investing in crypto startups played to many of the strengths that the Ribbit Capital team had built investing in fintech startups, there were a variety of aspects of crypto startup investing that were new and different. Sourcing deals, performing diligence, providing guidance to entrepreneurs, understanding governance, and negotiating deal terms were similar in principle, but presented new opportunities and challenges to navigate.

Teld was one of China's largest EV charging pile network operators. It was a young company founded by a serial entrepreneur, Yu Dexiang. His first company, TGood, designed and manufactured box-type substations, which represented a relatively small and saturated market. Yu started Teld based on rational analysis of China's EV industry. His strong vision made him an early starter. He adopted high financial leverage to invest in building a nation-wide infrastructure and new technology development. Teld's business did not take off quickly enough, which almost put TGood on the verge of bankruptcy. Deeply influenced by Yu's passion and charisma, no one in the management team, including key scientists, chose to leave even though they had not seen the pay check for three months. Fortunately, after two years of turmoil, favorable government policies came one after another. Teld spared no effort in building joint ventures with China's local governments. Yu needed to find roughly a thousand qualified city managers to oversee local businesses and handle government relations discreetly and wisely.

Daily Crunch was a sprouted-nut brand that launched in March 2020 during the beginning of a global pandemic. The co-founder and chief executive officer of Daily Crunch was responsible for determining the company’s marketing and business strategy in 2021. In this pivotal time for a new company, a multitude of avenues needed to be explored, such as deciding whether to focus on a digital or an in-person marketing strategy; examining new marketing opportunities in a new shopping environment; launching new products, flavours, or sizes; and deciding whether to focus primarily on direct-to-consumer sales through e-commerce. Daily Crunch had several key objectives—namely, increasing brand awareness and sales, and expanding distribution. However, its key objective was to survive as a start-up during a global pandemic.

Spreadsheet to accompany product W28617.

Every Harvard Business School first-year student enrolls in "The Entrepreneurial Manager," a course that focuses on leadership in entrepreneurial settings. This document outlines the course's goals and approach.

In fall 2021, André Bolduc was contemplating retirement and passing down his maple syrup farm, or “sugar bush,” to his children. David Bolduc, the youngest in the family of three siblings, was the only family member who wanted to continue the generational tradition of the family’s maple sugar farm, which was located in Saint-Jacques-de-Leeds, a municipality close to Montreal and Quebec City. David and his wife had three children under the age of ten. David was evaluating the option of expanding the family’s maple syrup business in order to reach greater profits from production so that he could continue his family’s traditional legacy and also be able to support his family. While the 2021 maple syrup season was over, David would have to make a decision well before spring 2022.

In fall 2021, André Bolduc was contemplating retirement and passing down his maple syrup farm, or "sugar bush," to his children. David Bolduc, the youngest in the family of three siblings, was the only family member who wanted to continue the generational tradition of the family's maple sugar farm, which was located in Saint-Jacques-de-Leeds, a municipality close to Montreal and Quebec City. David and his wife had three children under the age of ten. David was evaluating the option of expanding the family's maple syrup business in order to reach greater profits from production so that he could continue his family's traditional legacy and also be able to support his family. While the 2021 maple syrup season was over, David would have to make a decision well before spring 2022.

The case presents the founding vision and early days of a young startup that seeks to empower delivery drivers with tools and transparency. The company's flagship mobile app has been taken up by tens of thousands of delivery drivers across major U.S. cities who use it as a single-point to accept or reject gigs from multiple sources and map their routes. At the same time, the app has sparked the ire of major delivery services, who are concerned Para disintermediates drivers from their platforms. Para's founders look to the future and believe that there is a win-win outcome.

The case, which is set in the period 2014-21, provides an overview of Karma Primary Healthcare's origin and growth story. It also explores the unfolding growth opportunities, some of which emerged as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Karma was founded by Jagdeep Gambhir to deliver quality healthcare to communities in rural India. As of 2021, Karma clinics were present at 25 locations in semi-urban and rural India. Nurses at these clinics used a teleconsultation-based care model to connect the patient with doctors located remotely. The case suggests that Karma has been reasonably successful in progressing toward its original mandate of delivering care to rural communities. However, opportunities for further growth opened up. The case presents the prospects for growing the organization's nascent B2B business, given the broad acceptance of, and high demand for, tele-consultation-based care models across India during and after COVID-19. Further, the case discusses in detail the opportunity for Karma to utilize its experience and capabilities to enter urban India, and touches upon the critical factors that would determine the decision whether or not to enter this market.

Jennie O’Keefe and Chris Johnson, owners of Rough Waters Brewing Company, were deliberating how to make further inroads into an increasingly competitive provincial craft beer market. The new entrepreneurs were at a crossroads as they considered several possibilities for business growth in the face of a highly uncertain environment that included an unfavourable economic outlook and a global pandemic. They knew there were many things to consider in weighing their options, and that they did not have all the information they wanted or needed to confidently decide. O’Keefe and Johnson needed a framework to guide their decision-making in charting the best course for the brewery in the midst of so many unknowns. 

This case tells the story of Bas Fransen, who evolved from a senior executive at Fortune Global 500 companies to founder of EcoMatcher - a socially responsible enterprise planting trees for planet and profit. This story has two particularly interesting themes. This case focuses upon the human side of the story: how a corporate baron overcame the skepticism of his friends and colleagues, giving up his economic perks and social status to find a more meaningful career as a social entrepreneur. Its companion case (EcoMatcher: Beyond the Triple Bottom Line, USTXXX) focuses upon the end result: EcoMatcher as a truly socially responsible enterprise with a profitable and scalable business model.

Stemina Lubricants (Stemina) was an automotive lubricant manufacturer in Udupi, Karnataka, India. All Stemina products were a blend of high-class base oil and imported branded additives. Stemina competed with leading brands—one that was strong in the market and at mechanics’ locations, having leveraged its consumer brand equity and strong advertising support to win over mechanics and dealers, and another that had a strong presence in the forecourts of gas stations in India. Customers looking for oil changes at gas stations were likely to purchase these company brands rather than a local brand, and Stemina faced an uphill battle to establish itself in a market with such entrenched distribution. How could this small business, with few resources for branding and distribution, successfully establish itself in the market?

The owner of Physio2U, the largest provider of in-home physical rehabilitation services in Western Canada, was forced to rapidly transition to telehealth amid the growing threat of COVID-19 in early 2020. While the Physio2U team and its patients were pleasantly surprised by their success with telehealth, as vaccination rates increased and the threat of COVID-19 infection became less significant, she had some tough decisions to make. She wondered if telehealth was (a) just a temporary solution to survive the pandemic; or (b) an opportunity for her business going forward. Before she invested any more resources in telehealth, including marketing funds, the owner needed to make sure she had both a strong business case and a comprehensive strategy for offering telehealth post-pandemic.