個案總覽

In 2019, the Brazos Valley Food Bank (BVFB) in Texas increased its distribution and food-storage capacity and was delivering food to food-insecure people in six nearby counties through its partner agencies. While the number of food-insecure people in each of these counties was relatively stable, the food distribution capacities of BVFB's partner agencies and the food supply fluctuated. As a non-profit organization, BVFB needed to equitably distribute food across all the counties it served, but it first needed to decide how to define "equitable food distribution." Which parameters, food needs, or costs should it use to calculate this? How could it ensure that its food distribution did not favour one county over another? Was equitable food distribution achievable for BVFB at all?

In mid-January 2022, Nadine Hachach-Haram, founder and CEO of Proximie, was thinking about the company's growth plans. Launched in 2016, Proximie was a platform that enabled clinicians, proctors, and medical device company personnel to be virtually present in operating rooms (OR) where they would use mixed reality and a suite of digital audio and visual tools to communicate with, mentor, assist, and observe those performing procedures. The goal was to improve patient outcomes. The company had grown quickly, opening offices in Beirut, London, and Boston, and had 135 employees. Proximie's technology had been used in tens of thousands of procedures in over 50 countries and 500 hospitals. It had raised close to $50 million in equity financing and was now entering strategic partnerships to broaden its reach. In deploying its platform, Proximie also digitized and structured formerly uncaptured data from ORs, making it possible to build a novel database of rich surgical data and prepare an infrastructure for both analytics and for curating insights from users. Hachach-Haram aspired for Proximie to become a platform that powered every OR in the world. To achieve these goals, Hachach-Haram had to navigate several challenges as she scaled the company. She needed to carefully think about the company's partnership and data strategies. Which formula would position the company best for the next stage of growth?

This Note introduces a module of cases used at Harvard Business School to teach fundamental concepts about navigating nascent industries and product categories. It elaborates a set of 'innovation tensions' that managers must address in these domains. In connecting the cases to scholarly research on nascent industries (including research by the author), the module builds out a structured process for identifying the tensions and proposes product-strategy sequences and operational processes for resolving them effectively. It concludes by describing core ideas an instructor can teach via the module's six case studies.

Bail funds, organizations that collect money to post bail for community members who are eligible for cash bail to stay out of jail until the time of their trial, have grown throughout US history, buoyed by major civil rights events such as the Red Scares, Civil Rights movements, Vietnam War Protests, among others. Given the volume of potential community members who would benefit from bail fund assistance and the plethora of defendant information required to process the bail payments, such funds like the Springfield Bail Fund face a logistical and management challenge.

Bail funds, organizations that collect money to post bail for community members who are eligible for cash bail to stay out of jail until the time of their trial, have grown throughout US history, buoyed by major civil rights events such as the Red Scares, Civil Rights movements, Vietnam War Protests, among others. Given the volume of potential community members who would benefit from bail fund assistance and the plethora of defendant information required to process the bail payments, such funds like the Springfield Bail Fund face a logistical and management challenge.

In March 2020, Evolko Systems Private Limited encountered several strategic and operational effects resulting from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The private health care technology company, which was based in California, United States, used artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide products and services to India's health care market. The company's chief executive officer had to mitigate risk from the pandemic using his company's business model and value offerings. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a lockdown order effective across all of India to slow the progress of the virus, affected some of the company's key business elements and had a macroeconomic impact on its operations. The chief executive officer's challenge was to explore all options to continue the business operations and to determine how to transform its physically interactive business model to one with little or no physical contact with clients.

This case, a follow-up to "Food Supply and COVID-19: Breaking the Chain (B)" (UVA-OM-1691), looks at how the global food supply chain was faring almost 18 months after John Tyson wrote that America's "food supply chain is breaking." It explores the rising prices, global shipping issues, food-industry hiring problems, and political turmoil that the coronavirus pandemic continued to leave in its wake in late 2021 and beyond.

This case set is about the unfolding uncertainty associated with a supply chain issue involving Cardinal Health (Cardinal), the primary supplier of surgical packs to Garfield Health System (GHS). John Jenkins, MD, the newly appointed chief medical officer (CMO) at a medium-size university hospital at GHS, must assess the issue and respond as Cardinal notifies GHS of potential contamination in the manufacture of surgical gowns. Cardinal initially notifies customers of a potential problem, and then over the next several days, releases more information, culminating in the recall of virtually all of its surgical supply packs. Many institutions, including GHS, are thus forced into a dire situation, resulting in some cases in cancelation of surgical procedures. In this A case, Cardinal issues its first warning of a potential contamination problem. In the B and C cases, the crisis unfolds, and in the D case, a new crisis appears. This case set could be utilized in health care courses or courses in business decision-making.

Case Supplement for Case UV8665

"This case set is about the unfolding uncertainty associated with a supply chain issue involving Cardinal Health (Cardinal), the primary supplier of surgical packs to Garfield Health System (GHS). John Jenkins, MD, the newly appointed chief medical officer (CMO) at a medium-size university hospital at GHS, must assess the issue and respond as Cardinal notifies GHS of potential contamination in the manufacture of surgical gowns. Cardinal initially notifies customers of a potential problem, and then over the next several days, releases more information, culminating in the recall of virtually all of its surgical supply packs. Many institutions, including GHS, are thus forced into a dire situation, resulting in some cases in cancelation of surgical procedures. In the A case, Cardinal issues its first warning of a potential contamination problem. In the B case, Cardinal warns that only a specific set of surgical gowns has been affected. In this C case, Jenkins learns that all the elements in Cardinal's surgical packs have been compromised. This case set could be utilized in health care courses or courses in business decision-making."

This case set is about the unfolding uncertainty associated with a supply chain issue involving Cardinal Health (Cardinal), the primary supplier of surgical packs to Garfield Health System (GHS). John Jenkins, MD, the newly appointed chief medical officer (CMO) at a medium-size university hospital at GHS, must assess the issue and respond as Cardinal notifies GHS of potential contamination in the manufacture of surgical gowns. Cardinal initially notifies customers of a potential problem, and then over the next several days, releases more information, culminating in the recall of virtually all of its surgical supply packs. Many institutions, including GHS, are thus forced into a dire situation, resulting in some cases in cancelation of surgical procedures. In this D case, the contamination crisis has been resolved, but a new and potentially much more serious crisis looms: COVID-19. This case set could be utilized in health care courses or courses in business decision-making.

Spreadsheet to accompany product W27019.

On May 24, 2021, Peloton Interactive, Inc. (Peloton) announced its intention to build a new US factory to produce its stationary bicycles and treadmills. The new factory, which would be located in Ohio, was an addition to the company’s investments in its manufacturing facility in Taiwan and its purchase of fitness equipment manufacturer Precor Incorporated. In deciding to invest in its own production facilities to supply exercise equipment, Peloton was in stark contrast to its competitors, who predominantly outsourced production overseas. Would Peloton’s plans to build its own fitness equipment in Ohio help or hinder its ability to fulfill its goal of market leadership?

Buckeye Chiller Systems and International Steel Corporation formed MicroFin Incorporated in 2017, in South Carolina, United States, as a joint venture to produce tubing for industrial chillers. After four years of losses, the chief executive officer of Buckeye had lost patience with the joint venture. He gave his chief operating officer until the end of March 2021 (less than three weeks) to turn around MicroFin or dissolve the partnership. With no chance of making money in the short term, the chief operating officer focused on three options for terminating the joint venture. Time was running out, and something needed to change.

On March 23, 2021, Vineet Sharma, the sole owner of MedStar Polymers, India, a medical-grade latex glove manufacturing company, was considering the dilemma of how to scale up production to fulfill an unprecedented order during COVID-19. With demand for protective equipment outstripping global supply during the pandemic, an exceptional business growth and expansion opportunity for glove manufacturers had emerged. Several manufacturers had expanded production by adding new production lines. On the surface, a production ramp-up looked as simple as increasing inputs: raw material, labour, machinery, equipment, and cash. However, a decision to rapidly increase production could create risk and almost destroy a business—especially when constraints such as raw material unavailability, transport and travel restrictions, logistical problems, and state- and area-wide lockdowns started impacting the production process. Sharma had to decide how to increase output while also dealing with disruptions such as a shortage of labour and concerns about the use of natural latex rubber. Was now the right time to add a new production line? Should he switch to making nitrile gloves? He needed to make decisions quickly, as the current high demand would likely not last.

The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) is a leading manufacturer and marketer of prestige skincare, makeup, fragrance, and haircare products with annual sales of over $14 billion in 2020. ELC had a long-standing commitment to "High Touch" customer service, inviting and tracking all feedback from consumers. ELC had recently moved from a manual to an automated tracking platform, positioning the company to more efficiently handle customer feedback. This platform and the data it aggregated was put to the test in August 2020 when the Consumer Care Analytics & Insights Group noticed an uptick in contact volume largely generated from China. The team also noticed that the increase was driven almost exclusively by complaints. The spike was especially cause for concern given that ELC had a 100% return policy with no questions asked, so customer complaints often led to returns and lost revenue. In this case, students are asked to consider potential root causes of the increased online customer complaints-and based on their hypotheses, what type of analysis and potential interventions they would recommend.

On March 23, 2021, Vineet Sharma, the sole owner of MedStar Polymers, India, a medical-grade latex glove manufacturing company, was considering the dilemma of how to scale up production to fulfill an unprecedented order during COVID-19. With demand for protective equipment outstripping global supply during the pandemic, an exceptional business growth and expansion opportunity for glove manufacturers had emerged. Several manufacturers had expanded production by adding new production lines. On the surface, a production ramp-up looked as simple as increasing inputs: raw material, labour, machinery, equipment, and cash. However, a decision to rapidly increase production could create risk and almost destroy a business-especially when constraints such as raw material unavailability, transport and travel restrictions, logistical problems, and state- and area-wide lockdowns started impacting the production process. Sharma had to decide how to increase output while also dealing with disruptions such as a shortage of labour and concerns about the use of natural latex rubber. Was now the right time to add a new production line? Should he switch to making nitrile gloves? He needed to make decisions quickly, as the current high demand would likely not last.

<p align="justify/">In 2021, the chair of the admissions committee at The School of Management in Gandhinagar, India, had only three months to prepare for the start of the school’s next master of business administration program. During these three months, prospective students who had received admission offers could decide to decline offers, even though some had already paid relevant fees. Understanding the uncertainty of those decisions was critical to estimate the number of additional offers to send out to other candidates. If the final number of prospective students joining the program was lower than the school’s available capacity, The School of Management would lose contributions toward its fixed business costs and potential profit. It would also mean that the school’s resources would be underused. On the other hand, denying admission to students who had received offers to join the program, due to a lack of space, could adversely affect the school’s brand image and future admissions. Understanding the decision-making process of prospective students was critical over the long term to develop appropriate retention strategies and encourage all candidates to accept their admission offers.</p>

Instructor Spreadsheet to accompany product W27746.

Student Spreadsheet to accompany product W27745.