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The data-driven manufacturing system at this Chinese bespoke mens' suit manufacturer illustrates the use of information technology to support mass customization in a largely manual production environment. It contrasts sharply with some of the Industrie 4.0 automation-heavy approaches taken in some Western companies. Thus the case seeks to unpack the essence of a data-driven mass customization approach that is more suited to small and medium enterprises.

For several decades, the classical music industry has been in decline with demand down, costs up and profits shrinking as many orchestras struggle for survival. Against this backdrop, André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra stand apart. Instead of competing like all the other orchestras, André Rieu has reconstructed market boundaries between classical music and pop concerts, creating a blue ocean of vast new demand. Rieu and his orchestra have stayed on the Billboard Top 25 Tours list for nearly 2 decades, right alongside the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Justin Bieber. His CDs and DVDs have sold more than 40 million copies versus 10,000 copies for a top classical music CD. This case reviews the competitive practice of the classical music industry and illustrates how Andre Rieu gained insight into unlocking new demand by looking to noncustomers of classical concerts, and how Rieu reconstructed industry boundaries and created new market space, making the competition irrelevant. The case comes with a teaching note that reviews major concepts and frameworks of competitive strategy and blue ocean strategy in the context of the case and provides answers to the questions for class discussions. Additional case material includes a lecture slide pack, and two short videos, which can be downloaded for teaching purposes from https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/andre-rieu/ The case material is also available in Chinese and Korean.

Enel has transformed from the Italian state-owned energy monopoly into a global leader in renewable energy and shared value creation. Through its open innovation model, the company has catapulted to the cutting edge of electric mobility and distributed power generation, partnering with the likes of Google and Tesla. Under the leadership of Mr. Francesco Starace, the company has gone through a significant change in organizational culture and structure, committing to 100% renewables while placing an emphasis on growth in middle-income countries and capturing new revenue sources from energy management services. At the same time, Starace has had to balance stockholder pressure for short-term earnings with a legacy of coal and gas fired power plants against its futuristic vision.

On January 3, 2011, the Canadian Competition Bureau was reviewing a recent business merger. CCS Corporation Inc. (Tervita) had acquired Complete Environmental Inc. (Complete). Prior to its acquisition by Tervita, Complete had received regulatory approval to operate a secure landfill site in Northeastern British Columbia (NEBC). However, a complaint about the purchase was filed by SECURE Energy Services Inc. (SECURE), one of Tervita's competitors. The complaint claimed that the price Tervita paid for Complete was well above fair market value, and that the purchase would eliminate a competitor in the NEBC market. At the time, only two secure landfills operated in NEBC. Both were owned by Tervita, which provided a wide-range of waste management, recovery, and disposal services to the North American oil and gas industry. The Canadian Competition Bureau had to evaluate the economics underlying Tervita's decision to pay a premium price for Complete. It also needed to determine whether the acquisition violated the Competition Act, or whether the complaint was merely a frivolous case of "sour grapes" stemming from SECURE's own failure to acquire Complete.

Supplement to case W17521.

The case briefly describes the 112 year history of the organization, and focuses particularly on the changes wrought by its new leader David Yarnold who was brought in by the board in 2010. Under Yarnold's leadership the organization went through two strategic plans (2012-2016 and 2016-2020), and brought about many changes. At the start of 2017, Yarnold declared his goal of making Audubon the most effective conservation network in America. What actions should Audubon take to get to that goal?

Thai Union had come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1977 as a Thai private label supplier of canned tuna to US importers. In four short decades it had become one of the leading seafood companies in the world with a turnover in 2016 of US$3.8 billion. Thiraphong Chansiri, the CEO, had led Thai Union brilliantly to make it a true multinational company operating in three continents, delivering value added branded products covering multiple fish species and distributing these under ambient, chilled and frozen temperature conditions. The company planned to more than double its turnover by 2020 to $8 billion while also raising its gross margin from 15.6% to 20%. It sought to do this by growing its existing business; launching innovative, high-margin products; expanding its presence in the food service sector; building a significant emerging market presence; and making more acquisitions. In October 2016, Thai Union announced that it had effectively acquired a 49% ownership stake in Red Lobster, the leading seafood restaurant chain in the United States. This diversification was viewed as an important growth opportunity for the company. The question for Thai Union's leadership team was whether diversification and growth were still the right mantras for the company in 2017, when it had already become the industry leader? A related challenge was in building a global organization that could effectively manage the company's growing and diverse international footprint.

In today's global economy, what are the factors that go into production location choice? This case is set in the world's largest automotive glass producer as it expands from China into the United States. To meet a very aggressive cost target, management is faced with the alternatives of fulfilling the contract from its new Ohio factory, which can only produce above the target cost currently because it is still on a learning curve, or it can fulfill from its Tianjin, China factory which can produce below the cost target but will incur extensive shipping costs and require a far great amount of inventory holding. This case examines a core question facing managers who want to produce physical products for world markets.

Early in the 21st Century the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government estimated that their oil reserves could run out in a 150 years. They began efforts to diversify the UAE economy into clean industries--tourism, technology and renewable energy--and signal that the country was pivoting away from an oil-based economy toward one that would grow and thrive as an environmentally aware, sustainable, low-carbon economy. Masdar City, a UAE marquee initiative designed to be the world's first zero-carbon city, was an important pillar of this economic diversification. Dr. Al-Jabar, Masdar City founder, envisioned it as a commercially viable "green-tech" cluster including an economic free zone relying on solar energy and other renewable resources that could serve as a model for sustainable urban development regionally and globally. This bold effort was not as straightforward as anticipated and planned. The case documents the wide variety of surprises--technological, financial and environmental challenges--that obstructed the initiative's progress, as well as the invaluable learning that unfolded as the Masdar City initiative evolved. The case provides an opportunity to explore the UAE's business climate, the role of government in economic development, challenges inherent in building an industry cluster, and limitations due to scarce talent resources.

This article analyzes online technology strategically from the perspective of traditional (face-to-face) providers of higher education. Analysis of current and projected relative positions explains why face-to-face providers need to take online technology seriously. But both pure strategies entirely face-to-face and entirely online have significant limitations from their perspective, directing attention toward mixed or blended strategies, for which a strategic typology, illustrated with a broad range of examples, is provided. Moving from an entirely face-to-face approach to a blended one is likely to generate some implementation challenges, which are also addressed.

In the business world, it's not common practice to look for strategy pointers from Black Lives Matter or the Idle No More movement; but it really should be. The author-who has worked with Microsoft, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Rainforest Alliance-argues that today's most successful companies have strong networks of highly-engaged people on their side, a strategy that social movements have been perfecting for decades. He describes three principles that enable social movements to foster such a high degree of engagement: shared purpose, clear roles and the right rewards.

The Swiss company TAG Heuer, maker of luxury watches, is part of the LVMH group (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton). In 2015, CEO Jean-Claude Biver is deciding whether to launch its first-ever fully connected Swiss watch, manufactured in partnership with Google and Intel. Entering this new market presents an unprecedented challenge: making a watch based on a technology (microprocessors) that the Swiss have not mastered. Is TAG Heuer ready to compete in the digital space - and potentially without the traditional 'Swiss Made' label? Case B takes up the story following the successful launch of the TAG Heuer connected watch. Sales are beyond all expectations for the luxury Swiss watchmaker and its partners Intel and Google. There are a few surprises too - the consumers are older than they expected and the watches sell out far quicker than anticipated - hence the company runs into some supply chain issues. Please visit the https://cases.insead.edu/tag-heuer dedicated case website to access supplementary material.

The case describes General Electric's transformation from an industrial manufacturer to an industrial analytics giant. It opens in 2009 when CEO Jeff Immelt decides that GE, a hardware maker, needs to be more capable in software. The narrative traces his early efforts to consolidate and coordinate software capabilities in a central unit (GE Software Center) headed by Bill Ruh in Silicon Valley. It documents the realization of the potential for big data and analytics for customers to which GE has sold industrial equipment for decades. Opportunities related to 'predictive maintenance' seem attractive given the significant economic costs of unplanned maintenance and repair for GE customers. Equipment optimization through analytics also has potential to increase their margins, especially for those that face increased competition and lack pricing power. As GE roars down the runway to becoming the leading player in the digitization of industry,the question is can it reach the critical speed to break free of the tarmac and sustain flight?

Wilford Marshall is preparing recommendations to Petrosupra Exploration (Petrosupra), an independent oil and gas company, regarding a drilling project in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, on the Gulf Coast. This was an opportunity to take over Coyote Oil's drilling rights and drill within a year. If oil was found, two years following that, Petrosupra would have the additional opportunity to initiate enhanced recovery, which could provide an additional stream of oil. To evaluate the contract, Marshall will consider the path that oil prices will take and the amount of oil discovered. Enhanced recovery is a real option for which Marshall must think about a decision rule for the downstream decision and the optimal trigger point for such a rule. All the uncertainties and this option will be simulated to determine the value of (a) the rights to the well and (b) the value of the enhanced recovery option. Claiborne Chemical (CC) affords the opportunity to reduce the exposure to quantity and price uncertainty that is generated by the well. The beauty of swapping an interest in Petrosupra's well for an interest in the CC opportunity is that it exchanges an exposure to oil price for an opposite exposure to the price of a fuel additive that is negatively correlated to oil price. With some analysis of the risks and the best exchange shares, the project risk can be reduced dramatically.

Alsea was a Mexican-based, family-founded conglomerate operating in six countries in Latin America and Spain. It was a master franchiser for such well-known brands as Starbucks, Domino's, and Burger King. In late 2016, after years of dramatic growth, Alsea appointed its first chief executive officer (CEO) who was not a family member or had not been involved with the company's founding or early development. However, family members continued to occupy senior executive roles, serve on the company's board, and hold significant shares in the company. In March 2017, the new CEO needed to decide on Alsea's corporate strategy. He also needed to build trust with the founding family, which held a controlling interest in the firm. How should he engage the current executives in building a world-class senior management team? How could he best demonstrate his value to Alsea's board?

This case chronicles Go-Jek's journey as Indonesia's first unicorn tech startup, which has been named by Fortune Magazine as one of the top 50 companies that "change the world". It highlights how Go-Jek leveraged on its on-demand mobile platform - arguably, the most complete ecosystem in South East Asia to create significant social and economic value for Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country. It also reveals how Go-Jek capitalized on its local business understanding and data analytics to outmanoeuvre bigger competitors such Uber and Grab in Indonesia. Go-Jek has a saying: money can't buy time, but Go-Jek can buy you time. In particular, Go-Jek's motorbike delivery and ride-sharing app has enabled businesses and individuals to circumvent Jakarta's gridlock and achieve desired outcomes of increased sales and higher productivity. This has led to the positive effect of spurring the growth of Jakarta's informal economy.

Stephane Kasriel, the new CEO of Upwork, the leading platform for freelance labor, needs to decide on how to redesign business model. While the firm has been growing rapidly since the merger of Odesk and eLance, the newly combined firm continue face problems of clients "circumventing" the Upwork platform after an initial match. This case explores a variety of options for how Kasriel might prevent circumvention and reach his ambitious growth goals.

Supplement to case PEL076.

In late 2014, Dropbox, the San Francisco-based pioneering cloud-based file storage service, was at an important stage of its growth. Its user base had expanded into hundreds of millions of users globally, and the company was expanding its service offerings to organizations. At the heart of this expansion was the ever-increasing acquisition of customers in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. As Dropbox targeted larger customers, it needed to carefully allocate its limited resources and continually evaluate the appropriate sales approach because of the highly competitive nature of the cloud storage market. The head of the Strategic Finance team needed to recommend how Dropbox could most effectively invest its limited resources. Should it invest in the self-serve, inbound approach, or opt for the more proactive and costlier outbound approach?

This case uses Pacari, a medium-sized Ecuadorian company whose chocolate bars have won multiple international quality awards, to illustrate the global value chain of the chocolate industry, as well as to compare business models pursued in Ecuador in order to determine which ones create more economic, social and environmental well-being in an emerging country. It starts by describing its founders' concern about Pacari's contribution to changing Ecuador's cacao industry landscape, helping farmers escape poverty and overcoming the traditional hurdles that hindered exports of value-added products in a country largely reliant on commodity exports. Pacari principals wonder if it is convenient for the company to change its business model to have a stronger impact on its sector. The case begins with a dilemma regarding retail management: should Pacari open wholly-owned stores? A significant industry player has made this choice and seems to be reaping fruitful results. Pacari's maturity apparently justifies such a move, which might potentially help it to expand the market and rake in more resources to continue supporting farmers' development. However, this option might also endanger the company's financial health, forcing it to incur high fixed costs. This decision cannot be made without a thorough understanding of the global chocolate industry and the business models coexisting in Ecuador. The key goal of this case is to lead class participants to think about the purpose of private companies in today's society. In a world growingly aware of the need for environmental care and fair global value chains, business leaders must balance economic, environmental, and social demands. Pacari provides an example of a business approach that does not prioritize short-term financial results, focusing instead on improving the conditions of value chain players in Ecuador and the country's positioning as a world leader in the premium dark chocolate segment.