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The founders of Flytenow, Inc. (Flytenow), a tech start-up dubbed the "Uber of the skies," faced a crisis when the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration determined that Flytenow's customers, namely private pilots, would be violating "holding out" regulations if they used the service. Flytenow had just completed a three-month mentorship program at Y Combinator, the most prestigious Silicon Valley-based new venture accelerator, which had already helped start Airbnb Inc., Reddit, and Dropbox. The news came on the eve of the company's most important funding round. Should the founders go ahead with their planned funding pitch, or develop a new strategy to address the sudden regulatory barriers?

In early 2018, the KP board had expressed enthusiasm for creating a grants initiative in India. However, as KP Portfolio Director Cindy Chen and her team started doing diligence on organizations in India, they found a number of challenges when it came to the pipeline of potential grantees. Indeed, the vast majority of organizations were small, working in only a few communities across just one or two of India's 29 states and 7 union territories. Equally problematic, few of the organizations they looked at in India had a demonstrated capacity to scale across the country, or even interventions that were scalable. This mattered because KP, for reasons both practical and philosophical, focused on organizations that could scale their impact. Additional concerns from the KP board regarded the extent of corruption in India, and the impact this might have on philanthropic endeavors. There were also some questions as to need. India, at that moment in time, had more people living in extreme poverty than any other country in the world. But this number was declining rapidly even as the number of extreme poor in sub-Saharan Africa rose. These discussions were crucial for a highly intentional, mission-driven philanthropy. But they also created something of a quandary for Chen, who had joined KP as a consultant in 2016 and become portfolio director in September 2017. The choice she faced seemed to be two-fold. She could recommend that KP forego investing in India and instead expand its investment in Africa, or she could continue the search for high-impact, scalable organizations in India. This case tracks Chen's thought processes as she reflected on KP, its mission, and its existing portfolio; considered the options; and decided which option to recommend to the KP board when it met to make this critical funding decision that could impact the lives of millions of people.

The case provides a strategic overview of one of the UK's fastest-growing household goods companies, Dyson Ltd. Starting out in the early 1990s as sole vendor of bagless vacuum cleaners in the UK market, Dyson would ultimately become the market leader before its competitors finally woke up. The case tracks founder James Dyson's global ambitions over an 18-year period until his entry into the electric vehicle market, and a move of corporate headquarters to Singapore (2019), with Asia now accounting for the majority of revenues. It offers insights into the multi-faceted vision of the founder, who combines inventiveness and a love of engineering and design with a rigid respect for lawful business practice.

Scortex, a young start-up based in Paris, has developed an applied artificial intelligent (AI) solution for an industrial setting, combining hardware and machine learning. Its CEO is wondering how best to deploy the €1.8 million C-round financing it has raised. While the market is potentially huge, he is aware that IBM - with which he has collaborated in the past - has just launched a direct competitive offering.

In April 2003, entrepreneur and MBA student Christy Jones was planning a new venture to help women preserve their fertility. Her company, Extend Fertility, would commercialize a technique known as egg freezing, in which a woman's eggs were extracted and stored at low temperatures until she was ready to become a mother. To date, the emerging technology had mostly been used to preserve the fertility of cancer patients whose treatment course could damage their eggs. Jones's business would target a massively broader population: healthy women wishing to postpone motherhood. Before Jones could launch Extend Fertility, she needed to answer two pressing questions. What, exactly, would an egg-freezing service be selling? And to whom?

The chief executive officer of Dalian Zhangzidao Chuo Cold Logistics Co., Ltd., a Chinese company that specialized in cold chain storage and logistics services for imported frozen aquatic products supply chain, faced a series of urgent decisions. Since beginning operations in 2014, the company's business volume had increased faster than other enterprises in the industry. However, in 2017, the company still faced the typical dilemma of enterprises in its industry-a lower net profit margin. As a middle link in this supply chain, the company was in fierce competition with upstream suppliers, downstream buyers, and horizontal competitors. The chief executive officer faced some tough choices: Was the company capable of implementing a vertical integration strategy to enhance its competitive advantages? If so, should the company pursue forward integration or backward integration? And how could the company achieve vertical integration, given its current circumstances?

In 2017, the solar panel industry was in choppy seas due to a sudden drop in panel prices, and many large companies started to report bankruptcy. Steve O'Neil, the CEO of Renewable Energy Corporation (REC), was worried about the future of the solar industry and began reassessing REC's market strategy in the face of the downturn. REC was established as a hand-washed solar wafer manufacturing unit in Norway in 1996. Over the years the company grew to become a leading integrated solar panel manufacturing company and the largest European supplier of solar panels. It was able to build a market niche for itself and a reputation of being a quality-focused and technology-oriented manufacturer. By 2017, the company had installed more than 30 million solar panels worldwide. REC had shifted its focus to Asia in 2010 and moved its operational headquarters to Singapore. REC was a mid-scale manufacturer and focussed on residential and commercial customers. The key focus markets for the company were the U.S., Asia Pacific, and Europe with almost half of its revenues coming from the U.S. The solar industry globally was going through a downturn after several solar companies reported bankruptcy and began selling their products at significantly reduced prices. What ensued was a price war among companies, further fuelling the impact of the downturn. Companies who did not have scale had to shut down, and those that were plagued with overcapacity faced losses and became insolvent. REC had been more stable due to its niche market focus but was also beginning to experience the pressure. The company had so far focused on investing in the latest technology to ensure that its products were competitive. Could O'Neil and the management team at REC protect the company from the crisis? What could be their business strategy in the crisis?

According to many analysts and industry observes, in 2018 Amazon became the largest retailer of apparel in the United States and the second largest in the world, behind Alibaba. Much of Amazon's apparel was made by third party retailers on its platform, but Amazon had been working to build its own fashion retail skills for more than 15 years, and had made a number of acquisitions to this end. Having failed to convince leading brands to sell on Amazon, the company had also launched several private label lines to boost its presence in fashion apparel. However, in 2017, it had finally convinced leading brand Nike to sell direct on its platform. President of Amazon Fashion since June 2017, Christine M. Beauchamp (Harvard Business School MBA, 1997) was contemplating next steps. Meanwhile, leading online and fast-fashion specialists such as ASOS in the UK and Inditex in Spain did not appear to have much to be concerned about. However, many traditional fashion retailers, struggling to build effective multi-channels strategies, were facing slow growth and pressure on margins. Would 2018 mark the beginning of the demise of traditional fashion retailing? What role would the bricks and mortar channel in fashion retailing play in the future? What might the future look like for the fashion industry? And what role might Amazon play in it?

MedAvante, a provider of clinical trial services and technology solutions to the pharmaceutical industry, struggled to find product/market fit for many years, because its innovative service offering met fierce resistance from other stakeholders in the ecosystem. A strategic pivot to work with the ecosystem, not against it, saved the company and brought its co-founders to the brink of a successful exit. This case explores the difficulties of bringing innovation to a deeply conservative, highly regulated industry. It also analyzes the role that other stakeholders in a market ecosystem can play in encouraging, or blocking, the adoption of a startup's products/services.

Electric cars had long been championed by environmentalists as a superior solution to the internal combustion engine (ICE), but, despite large government incentives and strong pioneering efforts by a few automakers over the years, electric and hybrid cars and light trucks still accounted for less than 1% of total global production in 2016. However, events took a turn in 2017 and 2018, when many governments committed to banning ICE vehicles. In response, leading automakers announced plans to launch hundreds of electric vehicle models within five years. Early pioneer Tesla, which, in 2017, had built a stock market valuation exceeding that of General Motors (GM), despite only delivering 103,000 cars compared to GM's 9.0 million, looked as if it were about to be engulfed by this new competition. But not all were convinced that electric cars would soon displace conventional ICE vehicles. It was not clear that the infrastructure was in place to charge all these electric vehicles. There were also questions concerning the electrical generating capacity to meet the new demand. Would battery prices fall enough to make mass-market demand a possibility? In low gasoline cost jurisdictions, such as the United States, the economics of owning an electric vehicle didn't appear justified, unless subsidies were maintained indefinitely. In Europe, where gasoline taxes were high, the case for electric vehicles was stronger. But European governments depended on those taxes to meet their budget needs. Would a significant uptake of electric vehicles necessitate higher taxes on electricity? In 2018, electric cars were an expensive novelty for the rich subsidized by the poor. Would the sudden rush of new models change the balance?

The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) became the most valuable company listed on the New Zealand stock exchange in 2018 by capitalizing on a biochemical discovery related to the protein composition of cow's milk. Because many people find the A1 protein difficult to digest, and that protein may be related to other health problems (e.g., diabetes), a2MC sells dairy products containing the A2 protein only primarily in Australia and China. With sales of NZ$730 million in 2017 and a desire to grow, a2MC formed a strategic relationship with Fonterra, the world's sixth largest dairy company, in February 2018. But one month later, Nestle, the world's largest dairy company, confirmed that it had begun selling A2 infant formula in China, and people speculated that it would start selling A2 products in Australia and New Zealand later in the year. a2MC's retiring CEO Geoffrey Babidge and newly appointed CEO Janyne Hrdlicka must decide how to respond to Nestle's entry. Can this successful entrant become an incumbent with a sustainable competitive advantage?

In 2019, The Vanguard Group with $5.1 trillion in assets under management was the largest global provider of mutual funds, and the second largest provider of EXCHANGE traded funds after BlackRock, which had $6.3 trillion in assets under management. The case is set in 2019 with Vanguard's CEO Tim Buckley as the protagonist. He is facing several challenges: 1) Vanguard's traditional cost leadership strategy built on its lowest expense ratio in the industry (and a strategic activity system supporting it) has been mitigated by its competitors; 2) Vanguard has been a laggard in technology adoption and the use of sophisticated IT systems and AI; 3) With the rise of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), many question whether Vanguard's philosophy of passive long-term investments is still appealing to younger customers; and 4) Vanguard is mainly a U.S. domestic player, while many of its competitors are globally active.

To achieve positive economic, environmental, and social benefits, many incumbent manufacturing firms attempt to apply circular economy principles to their business practices. However, these firms often struggle to change their existing linear business models to circular models because the steps required for successful transformation are still poorly understood. Based on a multiple case study of eight business model transformation journeys, this article proposes a roadmap for circular business model transformation. It provides a step-by-step process to enable circular transition, allowing companies to meet environmental, social, and financial objectives and proactively address sustainability.

The emerging growth of the sharing economy demonstrates the need to understand the factors driving this growth and the business models and practices of sharing economy service (SES) companies. Using case vignettes as the research method, this article analyzes the operations of a large number of these companies and presents a set of building blocks that are useful for generating the business models of SES companies. An examination of the successes and failures in the practices of SES companies provides a number of managerial recommendations.

Fulfillment strategies that offer consumers a consistent shopping experience across different channels and devices through a variety of last-mile delivery options have emerged as a powerful engine for growth in the retail sector. To thrive in this new environment, retailers need to (re)configure their last-mile supply networks to achieve better alignment between delivery responsiveness, product variety, and convenience. This article reviews multiple case studies of leading retailers across geographical regions, maps these retailers' network configurations, and conducts consumer surveys to examine how retailers operate their last-mile distribution to cope with omnichannel demands. This study develops a typology consisting of four ideal forms of last-mile supply networks differentiated by the speed of delivery responsiveness and level of product variety. It proposes a set of prescriptive guidelines for retailers to undertake reconfiguration of their last-mile distribution.

Digital piracy challenges firms by reducing revenues and shifting consumption habits. Recently, some firms have successfully leveraged business models against piracy, but the understanding about this phenomenon still lacks depth and structure. This study examines the characteristics of digital piracy in some of the most affected industries; presents comparative case studies of two iconic firms, Spotify and Netflix; and analyzes their digital business model responses. This article then considers a generic digital content distributor and explains how business model responses contribute to generating and capturing value. Theoretical and practical implications for technological innovation, firm diversification, and network competition are also discussed.

The future of health care may change dramatically as entrepreneurs offer solutions that change how we prevent, diagnose, and cure health conditions, using artificial intelligence (AI). This article provides a timely and critical analysis of AI-driven health care startups and identifies emerging business model archetypes that entrepreneurs from around the world are using to bring AI solutions to the marketplace. It identifies areas of value creation for the application of AI in health care and proposes an approach to designing business models for AI health care startups.

Business models that unlock efficiency across entire networks are becoming increasingly common in the so-called sharing economy. However, the principles underlying these models can also be used in B2B settings. This article proposes some simple rules that managers can use in a systematic process to build similar disruptive business models. It illustrates these rules by deconstructing the go-to-market strategy that resulted in Vizio becoming the dominant flat panel TV vendor in the United States.

Faircent is a leading P2P lending platform in India and this case study traces the evolution of the FinTech platform. It illustrates the myriad challenges the firm had to navigate while establishing a collateral free peer lending platform in the financial sector in the absence of established regulations. As a P2P marketplace in India, Faircent built out a full-fledged loan analytics platform by bringing onboard lenders and borrowers by providing them online tools to discover each other and transact. The case brings forth viewpoints from different platform sides such as the lenders and borrowers, along with an analysis on how the firm has shaped policy regulations by actively engaging with the central regulators. This case can be used to teach the basics of multi-sided platform business models, the different actors in the platform business along with the concepts of platform envelopment and the various strategic options for Multi-Sided Platforms (MSPs) to fight envelopment, including racing to acquire customers. It should help the students appreciate the platform business model and the competitive differentiation it can bring in.

Industry note for case IMB753