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Spreadsheet supplement for case IMB815.

Rotary Central TTK-VHS Blood Bank, situated in the premises of a multi-specialty hospital named, Voluntary Health Services (VHS) in Chennai, is a supplier of safe blood and blood components to various hospitals across Chennai. VHS is a non-profit organization serving the needy sections of the society. It procures blood from voluntary donors by organizing blood donation camps at various places in Tamil Nadu and separates blood into its components after appropriate testing of the collected blood. It also makes arrangement for regular blood transfusion for Thalassemia patients in its hemophilia center. Since blood and blood components are perishable and have a short shelf life, accurate forecasting of demand for various components of blood is essential. Due to gap in supply and demand and perishability of blood components, Athmanathan, CAO (Chief Administrator) of VHS Blood Bank felt that the data could be used to predict the future demand on a daily basis and to help in planning blood donation camps accordingly.

Spreadsheet supplement for case IMB819.

Lupin, an India-based pharma firm, started its Novel Drug Discovery and Development (NDDD) division in 2010. In 2018, the division licensed MALT1 inhibitors to AbbVie, an MNC Pharma firm for a down payment of USD 30 million, to be followed by progressive payments of USD 947 million over 10 years. This was the first success for the division. The case revolves around the organizational system and processes (industry, company specific) and market conditions that influence innovation and commercialization of an innovation in the organization. Lupin now has two programmes in the clinical development stage and has to decide whether it should go ahead with clinical trials or license these two molecules as well. The case also is about the NDDD processes at an Indian pharma firm seeking to develop new drugs as compared to MNC pharma firms.

From 2000 to 2019, the department of corporate social responsibility and global supplier management at Huawei Technologies Company Limited had been trying to engage hundreds of Chinese suppliers on sustainability. The department's effort included orchestrating multiple, diverse, sustainability initiatives, from auditing to contributing to the rollout of a self-assessment tool launched in 2012 by the British Telecom Group (BT). However, the auditing, even when delivered through a joint initiative established by international communications tech companies in 2013, seemed unlikely to cause pathbreaking development in Huawei's large and fragmented supply network. Initial experiences with the self-assessment tool were proving equally unsuccessful in introducing suppliers to more sustainable products and operations and stimulating engagement among them. Why were these initiatives failing to produce improvement? What else could be done to effectively and efficiently engage hundreds of Chinese suppliers on sustainability?

From 2000 to 2019, the department of corporate social responsibility and global supplier management at Huawei Technologies Company Limited had been trying to engage hundreds of Chinese suppliers on sustainability. The department’s effort included orchestrating multiple, diverse, sustainability initiatives, from auditing to contributing to the rollout of a self-assessment tool launched in 2012 by the British Telecom Group (BT). However, the auditing, even when delivered through a joint initiative established by international communications tech companies in 2013, seemed unlikely to cause pathbreaking development in Huawei’s large and fragmented supply network. Initial experiences with the self-assessment tool were proving equally unsuccessful in introducing suppliers to more sustainable products and operations and stimulating engagement among them. Why were these initiatives failing to produce improvement? What else could be done to effectively and efficiently engage hundreds of Chinese suppliers on sustainability?

Spreadsheet supplement for case 620044.

Evidence based medicine (EBM) requires a level of maturity in the processes, both clinical and non-clinical, which is gained typically over years through consistent deliberate efforts. It is argued that the role of clinical leadership is critical to this. In addition, challenges of implementing EBM are easiest to surmount in single location organizations but complicate considerably when there are multiple distributed locations. While EBM is gaining momentum in health care systems of more developed countries, examples of successful implementation are few in India. Indian institutions face the unique challenge of sorting through multiple bases of foreign evidence (differing guidelines in the UK and U.S.) in addition to domestic evidence covering interventions less frequently used outside of India. The Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) is a pioneer in cancer care and research in India. Over several decades, they have developed an indigenous approach to development and implementation of Evidence based medicine, which has catapulted them into leading cancer hospitals in the world. Set in March 2016, this case study describes TMC's journey thus far with particular emphasis on changes in organizational design as key enablers. TMC's next frontier is to propagate this model of clinical excellence to other cancer hospitals in India through the formation of National Cancer Grid. The key challenge confronting Dr. Rajendra Badwe, Director of TMC, is can these other hospitals accelerate their journey based on the learnings from TMC or whether they will have to customize their approach based on their own operating context. More broadly, which elements of TMC's clinical excellence model are replicable in other hospitals and what organizational changes would be required to implement them.

Spreadsheet supplement for case SMU557.

In 2010, amidst the growth of ecommerce and the emergence of new, purely online, fashion players, Zara launched its first online store, Zara.com. Since then, Zara's online business had grown at a fast pace. By 2018, 12% of Inditex Group's total sales came from the online channel. Since the inception of the first online store, Inditex leadership wanted its online and offline businesses to be integrated. However, the increase of online orders challenged some of its operations. Inditex was committed to the vision of becoming fully-integrated, fully-digital, and fully-sustainable by 2020. How could stores continue to be relevant in a world with increasing presence of online touchpoints? What should the store portfolio look like in the medium term? How should Zara use and advance the integrated model going forward? What other challenges and opportunities would arise with the increase of online sales?

In 2010, amidst the growth of ecommerce and the emergence of new, purely online, fashion players, Zara launched its first online store, Zara.com. Since then, Zara's online business had grown at a fast pace. By 2018, 12% of Inditex Group's total sales came from the online channel. Since the inception of the first online store, Inditex leadership wanted its online and offline businesses to be integrated. However, the increase of online orders challenged some of its operations. Inditex was committed to the vision of becoming fully-integrated, fully-digital, and fully-sustainable by 2020. How could stores continue to be relevant in a world with increasing presence of online touchpoints? What should the store portfolio look like in the medium term? How should Zara use and advance the integrated model going forward? What other challenges and opportunities would arise with the increase of online sales?

This case focuses on the supply chain strategy of Apple Inc. (Apple). Set in early 2020, it provides a detailed description of the company’s supply chain network and capabilities. Data in the case allows students to develop an understanding of Apple’s source of competitiveness and to gain insights into the management of a large, complex global supply chain network that focused on the intersection of services, hardware and software. Students will obtain an understanding of the supply chain challenges faced by Apple, in the context of supporting its corporate strategy and growth objectives.

It can be cognitively demanding to understand how a system or organization made up of many very different interconnected elements actually works. But the fact that such systems or organizations are difficult to understand doesn't make them inherently bad. In addition to its more obvious costs, complexity confers critical benefits, especially in dynamic and uncertain environments. The authors draw on their experience and perspectives in business, biology, and physics to offer some reflections on the nature, benefits, and costs of complexity and provide some guidance on managing it. Their recommendations: In growing your organization, make sure that it remains modular in structure and that all components and connections conform to a small number of simple operating principles. Embed a bias for change, avoid imposing too many controls on your people, and let the market judge which changes work. Finally, always optimize your organization globally and keep fixing, repairing, and pruning.

In June 2017, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Kindred Home Care, a home care company in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, bordering the United States, was grappling with three options for scaling up operations—take the familiar acquisition route, move toward the untested franchising route, or cross the border to the larger US market. The company has limited physical assets, and therefore the CEO cannot tap external capital to finance growth; however, he could access internally accrued funds of CA$2 million.

This case traces the journey of 759 Store, a chain store selling groceries and snacks in Hong Kong, from its inception in 2010 to 2019. After many years of rapid expansion, it began to experience difficulties amid a deteriorating retail business environment in Hong Kong. Management would need to rethink its business strategy and make major changes to turn the business around.

In October 2014, Carestream Health Inc. (Xiamen) (CHX) was faced with a supply chain disruption caused by a labour dispute involving most of the ports on the west coast of the United States. The work-to-rule strike was having a considerable impact on the operations of the ports and was putting pressure on CHX's lean supply chain. In particular, the supply of wide rolls of films, the key material to CHX operations, was compromised. In an emergency meeting, CHX's management team discussed using other shipping options. One of these options, (airfreighting) appeared to be feasible but costly. The meeting's leader who was the director of the Asia Pacific Lean Six Sigma asked the management team to determine when CHX should use airfreight for its supply of wide rolls, how many rolls should be airfreighted each time, and what the best mechanism would be to govern the use of airfreight.

In June 2017, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Kindred Home Care, a home care company in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, bordering the United States, was grappling with three options for scaling up operations-take the familiar acquisition route, move toward the untested franchising route, or cross the border to the larger US market. The company has limited physical assets, and therefore the CEO cannot tap external capital to finance growth; however, he could access internally accrued funds of CA$2 million.

This case is set in 2018. The Institute of Service Excellence (ISE) at Singapore Management University conducted surveys in Singapore to measure customer satisfaction across 20 industries comprising more than 100 companies, and released the results as Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) every quarter. In the latest CSISG report of the e-commerce sub-sector, Amazon was ranked last in terms of customer satisfaction in Singapore. The results were surprising as Amazon, the global leader in online retail, usually topped the customer satisfaction surveys conducted in the US. Puzzled by its lacklustre performance, James Mckally, senior partner at a Singapore-based marketing consultancy on e-retail, had requested ISE for a detailed analysis. John Lim, as the lead analyst at ISE, was in the process of reviewing the data collected and the analysis that had been generated, in order to derive some useful insights before the proposed meeting. In the latest CSISG report of the e-commerce sub-sector, Amazon was ranked last in terms of customer satisfaction in Singapore. The results were surprising as Amazon, the global leader in online retail, usually topped the customer satisfaction surveys conducted in the US. Puzzled by its lacklustre performance, James Mckally, senior partner at a Singapore-based marketing consultancy on e-retail, had requested ISE for a detailed analysis. John Lim, as the lead analyst at ISE, was in the process of reviewing the data collected and the analysis that had been generated, in order to derive some useful insights before the proposed meeting.

A new approach to e-commerce, one that blends the best of different online models, is emerging in China under the description "New Retail." Hema, a subsidiary of Alibaba, was founded in 2015 and is growing rapidly, demonstrating the power of an omnichannel strategy of merging online and offline grocery shopping experiences that integrates supply chain considerations into the business design. Overall, Hema represents a fusion of the centralised distribution model and store fulfilment model in the typical online grocery distribution. Each Hema store doubles as a distribution centre through an overhead conveyor system, which enables a 30-minute delivery time for customers within 3km of the nearest store. Hema's approach to transform online grocery demonstrates new possibilities in the future of grocery retail.