個案總覽

Handout for Exercise UV8571

Handout for Exercise UV8571

Handout for Exercise UV8571

Handout for Exercise UV8571

Presans was founded in Paris, France in 2008 as an an open innovation intermediary, often referred to as an “innomediary.” Using a specific business model that combined open innovation services with state-of-the-art data-mining technology, Presans leveraged a network of over six million experts worldwide to solve problems for its corporate clients. In February 2017, the chief executive officer of Presans had to make some strategic decisions. Based on interviews with clients, he was considering diversifying the portfolio of products. In addition to the company’s classic approach of Call for Excellence, he was considering launching a new approach called Synergy Factory, where different companies could jointly tackle technical topics with experts, and another approach called La Conciergerie, which was a simplification of the Call for Expertise and required a platform-based, rather than a service-based, go-to-market strategy.

Beginning with an ambitious, lean start-up effort in the highly competitive restaurant industry in Auckland, New Zealand, a husband-and-wife team built a small empire of successful fine dining Indian restaurants. Then came the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed their extreme vulnerability to external forces and the subsequent volatility of the restaurant industry. Their quick pivot to launching a line of Indian sauces for home cooks, Cassia at Home, was an instant success. As the couple contemplated different paths to recovery from the pandemic disruption, they wondered how they should expand their newest business into a sustaining brand and what the future of the existing restaurants would look like. Should they continue to expand the new retail business, abandon the move into manufacturing and broader distribution, or even focus on reviving their existing restaurant businesses?<br><br\><br><br\>An earlier version of the case was awarded Second Place in the 2021 John Molson Business Ownership Case Writing Competition sponsored by the Bob & Raye Briscoe Centre in Business Ownership Studies, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University.

Presans was founded in Paris, France in 2008 as an an open innovation intermediary, often referred to as an "innomediary." Using a specific business model that combined open innovation services with state-of-the-art data-mining technology, Presans leveraged a network of over six million experts worldwide to solve problems for its corporate clients. In February 2017, the chief executive officer of Presans had to make some strategic decisions. Based on interviews with clients, he was considering diversifying the portfolio of products. In addition to the company's classic approach of Call for Excellence, he was considering launching a new approach called Synergy Factory, where different companies could jointly tackle technical topics with experts, and another approach called La Conciergerie, which was a simplification of the Call for Expertise and required a platform-based, rather than a service-based, go-to-market strategy.

Since the early days of the internet, Taiwan had a vibrant community of civic hackers and open-source programmers who engaged with social issues. Audrey Tang was one of them. She spearheaded the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan, where protestors peacefully occupied the Parliament to demand greater transparency around a proposed trade deal with mainland China. As Taiwan's Digital Minister, Tang had been at the forefront of Taiwan's development as a digital democracy that leveraged information technology and citizen participation. Tang referred to democracy as a "social technology." Like any technology, Tang believed that democracy could be improved by people, and experimented with ideas to make democracy work better. She supported the notion that openness and transparency created mutual trust between the public and the government and allowed for collective action. In Taiwan, hackers were seen as partners to the government. Digital technology was used to solicit ideas, build consensus, assess public sentiment, and address both domestic and international misinformation. In early 2020, Tang is faced with the problem of a potentially growing COVID pandemic and the explosion of misinformation. How can Tang control both the pandemic and the infodemic while retaining the government's principles of cooperation and transparency?

Research on prosocial entrepreneurship so far has focused either on ex-ante motives to create prosocial enterprises or on ex-post strategies to protect mission orientation. Surprisingly little is known about the prosocial entrepreneurial competences that help acquire resources to create blended value once a venture has been established. To fill this gap, this article presents a qualitative study in an Indian setting that shows how prosocial entrepreneurs adopt three types of competences to assemble resources when they establish their ventures.

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.

This case describes the leadership succession planning process at Cesaro e Associati (Studio Cesaro), founded in 1986 by Franco Cesaro in the northeastern Italian state of Veneto. In 2022, Franco was contemplating retirement and passing leadership of his firm, which consulted with other family-owned businesses, to his youngest daughter, Laura. For her part, Laura found much of her work at Studio Cesaro suited her, but she was still figuring out how her own ambitions fit with the firm's future. The case considers the perspectives of Studio Cesaro senior consultants and the Cesaro family-including Laura's mother, sisters, and husband-with a focus on Franco and Laura. Also included is information on Franco's philosophy and approach to family businesses, and descriptions of selected clients and services. The case concludes with Franco, Laura, and the family considering several options for the future equity allocation, governance structure, and business model of the firm.

In 2018, the legacy business of Somedia AG (Somedia)—traditional media such as newspapers, radio, and TV—was in structural decline. While its business portfolio still delivered positive financial results, it became clear that this would only be the case for a few more years. Susanne Lebrument and Thomas Kundert, the two main figures in charge as this pivotal moment in the firm’s history emerged, tasked themselves with finding new business areas that would secure sustained profitable growth and, thus, compensate the declining legacy business. The firm had a rich history and was a well-respected institution in southeastern Switzerland; as such, Somedia’s existing resources and capabilities would provide points of departure for new business development and diversification. Lebrument and Kundert’s key strategic challenge was to change the current business trajectory toward sustained profitable growth that would compensate for the decline and eventual disappearance of Somedia’s legacy business.

"Scientists and technologists encounter and develop great ideas, but usually have difficulties finding a way to take them to the market. Once they decide that they want to make a business out of their technology, a wobbly path of enrolling people, developing prototypes, protecting technologies, getting funding, and launching a company starts. This case explains how an entrepreneur, Raúl Aragonés, converted an innovative technology into AEInnova, a heat harvesting company. After explaining the incorporation of AEInnova and the change of CEO to David Comellas, the case explains the development of the heat harvesting technology. Initially, they worked on an application of their technology for cooling PV-panels to improve their performance. Then, they found an interesting application in industrial waste heat recovery, what later was named as the Waste Heat Recovery Unit (WHRU). Finally, by pure serendipity, they found another application for their technology: powering IoT sensor devices (Indu-Eye). They knew that to succeed with their start-up, focusing was very important. Additionally, they did not have either the resources nor the time for developing and commercializing the three applications of their technology. Moreover, they had started to feel the pressure from investors that wanted to see some commercial results from their investments. So, they had to decide on which application to concentrate their efforts and take first to the market. Part A - Where to play, focuses on the decision to choose which application of the technology to commercialize first by analyzing the business opportunity and the associated risks.

This case describes the March 2018 Ransomware attack on the information technology (IT) systems of the city of Atlanta and the response by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and her administration. The case includes a brief background on Bottoms and her young administration at the time of the attack. The case also includes background information about the trend of ransomware attacks against organizations, including government entities such as municipalities. Several cybersecurity experts describe the tactics of ransomware attackers and potential strategies to respond when ransomware attacks occur. The (B) case concludes with a description of Bottoms and her administration's approach to managing the crisis, including her decision to not pay the ransom and instead use Atlanta's cyber-insurance policy award to invest in remediation and upgrading of the city's IT systems.

This case describes the March 2018 Ransomware attack on the information technology (IT) systems of the city of Atlanta and the response by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and her administration. The case includes a brief background on Bottoms and her young administration at the time of the attack. The case also includes background information about the trend of ransomware attacks against organizations, including government entities such as municipalities. Several cybersecurity experts describe the tactics of ransomware attackers and potential strategies to respond when ransomware attacks occur. The (B) case concludes with a description of Bottoms and her administration's approach to managing the crisis, including her decision to not pay the ransom and instead use Atlanta's cyber-insurance policy award to invest in remediation and upgrading of the city's IT systems.

Tom Ewart had been recently promoted to associate vice-president (VP) of Sustainability at The Co-operators Group Limited (Co-operators), a Canadian financial services company focused on insurance. Ewart and his team were in the process of publishing the company’s annual integrated report to inform stakeholders of the firm’s current environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives and commitments. With sustainability trends rapidly growing, Ewart wanted to ensure Co-operators was well positioned to address upcoming changes and to continue to be a catalyst for a sustainable society. Ewart was excited about the growing industry, but he also wanted to find ways to improve Co-operators’ current sustainability strategies and ensure the company was on track towards its ESG commitments. One option Ewart was considering was to hire more individuals to join his Sustainability team, which currently had 3.5 employees. Given the lack of clear career structure in the industry, he was unsure of the types of candidates he should be looking for and what sort of experience they should have. Ewart reflected on his own career journey and the path he had taken to reach his current role as a sustainability executive. He also thought about the experiences and traits of his employees and how they brought value to the team.

Tom Ewart had been recently promoted to associate vice-president (VP) of Sustainability at The Co-operators Group Limited (Co-operators), a Canadian financial services company focused on insurance. Ewart and his team were in the process of publishing the company's annual integrated report to inform stakeholders of the firm's current environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives and commitments. With sustainability trends rapidly growing, Ewart wanted to ensure Co-operators was well positioned to address upcoming changes and to continue to be a catalyst for a sustainable society. Ewart was excited about the growing industry, but he also wanted to find ways to improve Co-operators' current sustainability strategies and ensure the company was on track towards its ESG commitments. One option Ewart was considering was to hire more individuals to join his Sustainability team, which currently had 3.5 employees. Given the lack of clear career structure in the industry, he was unsure of the types of candidates he should be looking for and what sort of experience they should have. Ewart reflected on his own career journey and the path he had taken to reach his current role as a sustainability executive. He also thought about the experiences and traits of his employees and how they brought value to the team.

Changing socio-economic trends led to the emergence of the men’s grooming segment in India. With the rise of e-commerce, the progression of social media, and growing awareness among men towards their personal grooming, a number of start-ups emerged in a category once dominated only by established players like Gillette. One such start-up was LetsShave, which was founded by Sidharth Oberoi in 2015 and catered to men’s shaving and grooming needs by offering products online only.<br><br/>Since its inception, LetsShave had maintained a product-centric approach to growth with a focus on high-quality products at affordable prices. This helped LetsShave gain a strong foothold in the market, growing at a sustained rate of 40 per cent per year with a loyal clientele and healthy rate of repeat sales. Other start-ups had adopted aggressive advertising and promotion strategies and were growing at a much faster pace than LetsShave. By continuing with its existing product-centric strategy, LetsShave might not be able to achieve its stated revenue target of US$10 million by the end of 2023. Oberoi had to quickly decide whether to continue with the company’s current approach or change course towards pursuing an aggressive marketing strategy to boost its top line.

Changing socio-economic trends led to the emergence of the men's grooming segment in India. With the rise of e-commerce, the progression of social media, and growing awareness among men towards their personal grooming, a number of start-ups emerged in a category once dominated only by established players like Gillette. One such start-up was LetsShave, which was founded by Sidharth Oberoi in 2015 and catered to men's shaving and grooming needs by offering products online only. Since its inception, LetsShave had maintained a product-centric approach to growth with a focus on high-quality products at affordable prices. This helped LetsShave gain a strong foothold in the market, growing at a sustained rate of 40 per cent per year with a loyal clientele and healthy rate of repeat sales. Other start-ups had adopted aggressive advertising and promotion strategies and were growing at a much faster pace than LetsShave. By continuing with its existing product-centric strategy, LetsShave might not be able to achieve its stated revenue target of US$10 million by the end of 2023. Oberoi had to quickly decide whether to continue with the company's current approach or change course towards pursuing an aggressive marketing strategy to boost its top line.

This case takes place in February 2019 as Rotoplas, a Mexico-based commercial and residential cistern and pipe manufacturer serving markets in Central and South America, explores new market solutions that could revolutionize access to potable water through a subscription model. The idea and implementation plans were developed by Charly Rojas, son of the company founder and CEO, Carlos Velasco. The case highlights the company's historical growth and culture, as well as Rojas's relationship with his father and his desire to transform Rotoplas into an innovative company. Rojas faces common challenges associated with leadership transition to the next generation in a family business, as well as those of implementing change in an organizational culture steeped in tradition. Rojas prepares to meet with his father to discuss how to manage the leadership transition and introduce innovative market solutions.