個案總覽

Spreadsheet Supplement for Case W34028

The case presents the strategic dilemma faced by the company's leaders, especially Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, Executive Chairman of the LEGO Brand Group. In 2021, Niels Christiansen (CEO of the LEGO Group) was celebrating the financial results that the LEGO Group had obtained the previous year, a period in which they achieved the highest sales peak in the company's history, despite the complexity brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. The LEGO Group was the largest of the four units grouped under the LEGO Brand Group umbrella. It generated 70 % of the revenue of the LEGO® brand business, and was the main source of income for Kirkbi, the holding company of the Kristiansen family. Nearly ninety years after its founding, the LEGO Group still relied on the world-famous LEGO® brick and the philosophy of learning through play. Over the past two years, the LEGO Group had stepped up investments to drive expansion into other regions and had bet on innovations in the brick-based play and retail ecosystem. However, there were still many missing pieces in the strategic consciousness. The LEGO Group had not been able to carve out a niche in the video game market and had not yet developed a new growth engine that would diversify the traditional brick brand. Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, now at the head of the governing body managing the LEGO® businesses, had to come up with a vision that would lay the foundation for the future of the brand's business. The case creates discussion spaces for students to deliberate on the strategic decisions to be made and how to carry them out. The story starts from the LEGO Group's beginnings, in 1932, and describes the most notable strategic moves through 2020; from the "pieces", or founding moments, through the "pieces" of diversification, repair, transformation, entrepreneurship and expansion. Thus, it describes the strategies that each CEO devised to overcome the company's circumstances.

This case is a roleplay simulation of the negotiations between the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC-EP, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (henceforth FARC), leading up to and after the peace agreement of 2016. The peace agreement put an end to an armed conflict that lasted for more than 50 years and cost more than 200,000 lives. The negotiations cover six Negotiation Topics: i. laying down arms & safety guarantees; ii. social integration of FARC; iii. justice & trial of war crimes; iv. political participation of FARC; v. rural reform; and vi. drug production. Students assume the roles of six participants in the negotiation, forming two delegations. One represents the Colombian Government and the other represents FARC.

This case is a roleplay simulation of the negotiations between the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC-EP, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (henceforth FARC), leading up to and after the peace agreement of 2016. The peace agreement put an end to an armed conflict that lasted for more than 50 years and cost more than 200,000 lives. The negotiations cover six Negotiation Topics: i. laying down arms & safety guarantees; ii. social integration of FARC; iii. justice & trial of war crimes; iv. political participation of FARC; v. rural reform; and vi. drug production. Students assume the roles of six participants in the negotiation, forming two delegations. One represents the Colombian Government and the other represents FARC.

This case is a roleplay simulation of the negotiations between the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC-EP, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (henceforth FARC), leading up to and after the peace agreement of 2016. The peace agreement put an end to an armed conflict that lasted for more than 50 years and cost more than 200,000 lives. The negotiations cover six Negotiation Topics: i. laying down arms & safety guarantees; ii. social integration of FARC; iii. justice & trial of war crimes; iv. political participation of FARC; v. rural reform; and vi. drug production. Students assume the roles of six participants in the negotiation, forming two delegations. One represents the Colombian Government and the other represents FARC.

This case is a roleplay simulation of the negotiations between the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC-EP, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (henceforth FARC), leading up to and after the peace agreement of 2016. The peace agreement put an end to an armed conflict that lasted for more than 50 years and cost more than 200,000 lives. The negotiations cover six Negotiation Topics: i. laying down arms & safety guarantees; ii. social integration of FARC; iii. justice & trial of war crimes; iv. political participation of FARC; v. rural reform; and vi. drug production. Students assume the roles of six participants in the negotiation, forming two delegations. One represents the Colombian Government and the other represents FARC.

This case is a roleplay simulation of the negotiations between the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC-EP, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (henceforth FARC), leading up to and after the peace agreement of 2016. The peace agreement put an end to an armed conflict that lasted for more than 50 years and cost more than 200,000 lives. The negotiations cover six Negotiation Topics: i. laying down arms & safety guarantees; ii. social integration of FARC; iii. justice & trial of war crimes; iv. political participation of FARC; v. rural reform; and vi. drug production. Students assume the roles of six participants in the negotiation, forming two delegations. One represents the Colombian Government and the other represents FARC.

This case is a roleplay simulation of the negotiations between the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC-EP, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (henceforth FARC), leading up to and after the peace agreement of 2016. The peace agreement put an end to an armed conflict that lasted for more than 50 years and cost more than 200,000 lives. The negotiations cover six Negotiation Topics: i. laying down arms & safety guarantees; ii. social integration of FARC; iii. justice & trial of war crimes; iv. political participation of FARC; v. rural reform; and vi. drug production. Students assume the roles of six participants in the negotiation, forming two delegations. One represents the Colombian Government and the other represents FARC.

Managers, policymakers, and leaders are often presented with data and evaluation techniques, then tasked with deciding whether to go ahead with the strategy or policy. This fictional case aims to build a basic framework to understand how one can determine whether a particular business strategy or economic policy "works." It offers an overview of commonly used evaluation strategies and their associated pitfalls, through the lens of Ramesh Sharma, the CEO of a large nongovernmental organization, who has to decide how to evaluate the effectiveness of a training program to female entrepreneurs. The case is used at Darden in a second-year elective on "India in the Global Economy." It is taught in the second week of the course with the aim of introducing students to basic methods for rigorously evaluating their business and policy decisions. While directly pertinent to the course on India, this case builds a general framework on evaluation techniques that can be easily extended to other contexts and decisions. Therefore, it can also be taught in courses in marketing, business strategy, management, operations, policy evaluation, and ethics.

This technical note surveys the concepts of free and open source software and hardware. It introduces the concepts in general, providing a brief history of their development and numerous examples of how companies employ them in practice. Further, it identifies various business models whereby companies can benefit from using and contributing to free and open source software and hardware. Importantly, these concepts often go counter to traditional business strategy teaching related to owning resources that are rare and inimitable. On its face, using free and open source software or hardware should not provide any competitive advantage because competitors can use the same products for free. Further, contributing to the creation of these products or open sourcing previously proprietary software or hardware, especially that protected by patents or other intellectual property protections, seems to be counter to these traditional strategy theories. However, in a growing number of contexts, it may make strategic sense for a company to use and/or contribute to open source software or hardware.

In 2022, Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani, CEO and co-founder of Floward, an online flower and gifting company established in Kuwait in 2017, contemplated the firm's growth trajectory. Floward, an e-commerce enterprise that offered fresh-cut flowers sourced directly from global growers and had control over the entire delivery chain, had expanded its footprint to 32 cities across nine MENA countries and had ventured into the UK. Witnessing a remarkable CAGR of over 160% between 2020 and 2022, Floward was valued at $152.5 million during its Series B investment round in 2021. Having served over 400,000 customers and recently diversifying into the broader gifting sector, Al Loughani faced pivotal decisions: Should Floward pursue further global expansion or solidify its gifting vertical in the Gulf? And, considering its aggressive growth aspirations, should the company opt for an IPO, and if so, which stock exchange should they target?

Peter Schneider, the President of T.G.S. Transportation, Inc., faced a choice. His company operated drayage trucks that moved containerized cargo between the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland to customers across the State of California, with a focus on the Central Valley. California's new Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation (ACF) issued by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in 2023, had specific requirements for drayage trucks that moved cargo from the state's intermodal seaports and railyards. Internal combustion engine (ICE) trucks placed in service by yearend 2023 would be allowed to continue to serve the ports and terminals, but beginning January 1, 2024, newly purchased trucks would have to be zero-emission. That meant that drayage operators like TGS could make a last-time buy of ICE trucks in 2023, but they had to decide what to switch to starting in 2024. The only viable choices were battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell.

This case illustrated the business ecosystem of WeChat from two perspectives. From an external perspective, the WeChat ecosystem was part of Tencent's overall ecosystem. Using this perspective, the case examined the external relationships between the WeChat ecosystem and the external environment. Looking closely, the various parties collaborating on the WeChat platform formed an ecosystem. From an internal perspective, the case examined the internal relationships within the WeChat ecosystem. The platform was not a closed, impenetrable ecosystem. Expertise, resources, and value could flow in and out, enabling sharing and exchanges. However, it was not entirely open. Certain boundaries protected the independence and distinctiveness of the WeChat ecosystem. As a result, participants better suited to the nature of the WeChat ecosystem would thrive. Externally, WeChat was born with the mission of delivering Tencent's new strategy to encourage openness and sharing, representing Tencent's determination to change after its former core product, QQ, was accused of monopolistic behavior. Apart from serving the more extensive "Tencent ecosystem," WeChat was also developing its own ecosystem. The two systems supported and empowered each other. Internally, WeChat helped various types of participants find their most appropriate roles within WeChat. Through product and function design, capacity empowerment, resource channeling, and rulemaking, WeChat ensured there was room for key enterprises, users, distributors, suppliers, and even competitors. All parties would find their proper places. In this newly established value network, WeChat would help capital, information, and traffic flow in an orderly manner. Different parties could seek monetization and exchange value to sustain their survival, co-exist with others, and contribute to a symbiotic environment.

Pear Therapeutics seemed off to a promising start as a young digital therapeutics (DTx) company, taking a focused approach to demonstrate the efficacy of new software therapies, generate value for prescribers and patients, and secure reimbursement from insurance companies. Investors were also excited about the potential for evidence-based, software-driven therapeutic interventions - instead of going to a pharmacy for a bottle of pills, patients would get a prescription to download a software app designed to help treat their disease. And new DTx companies like Pear Therapeutics saw great promise in packing the power of a pharmaceutical products into a software products. The case study provides background on the rapid growth and challenges in the new DTx field, and details of Pear's early successes with digital therapies designed to treat insomnia and substance use disorders. But for Pear, continuing investment in the development of a robust produce portfolio proved difficult, in light of the difficulties navigating the insurance reimbursement minefield, while managing investor expectations. Were Pear's troubles - and eventual failure - an ominous cloud over the future of the DTx sector?

One of the most consequential governance questions for platform operators is deciding who sets prices and what discretion other parties in the transaction have to alter them. Putting the locus of control primarily in the hands of the platform provider presents drawbacks but so does allowing other stakeholders to set prices, if prices set too high or too low limit participation on the platform. The authors advocate for a hybrid approach that shares some control.

The case opens in March 2023, as Sten van der Ham and Jaap Maljers, CEO and co-founder of eBee, an electric bike (e-bike) company in Africa, are contemplating the different avenues for growth and path to profitability for the young and ambitious company. In 2023, the company had been gaining traction in Kenya under three business models and was also getting ready to raise a financing round of €8-10 million. eBee had the first mover advantage of having introduced e-bikes and van der Ham and Maljers needed to decide which levers to pull for to best grow eBee going forward. The case chronicles the founding of eBee, provides details on its bike designed for the terrain in Africa, and its unit economics. The case then lays the ground transportation Africa complete with challenges, opportunities, and the competitive outlook. The case then goes into detail about the three go-to-market channels that eBee picked to penetrate into the Kenyan market. The case goes into detail about the three different business models-vehicle as a service, fulfillment, and direct sales-that eBee is piloting in 2023 as well as providing an understanding of what each operate, their financial prospects, and growth outlooks, as eBee tries to grow its sales. While each business model presented its challenges and were yet to prove profitable at scale, van der Ham and Maljers firmly believed the in the immense opportunity to grow e-bikes in Africa and in eBee's first mover advantage. The duo was excited about geographical expansion. Others on the team and advisory board held that, obtaining proof of concept in Kenya first would be more helpful, while some suggested to eliminate some of the business models and focus more on others.

Singapore-based Metta Welfare Association (Metta) had been keenly aware of the need to digitalise, and had taken steps to do so under the leadership of Felicia Wee, the Deputy Executive Director. With the coaching of its partners - NFT Ventures and Mega X World - Metta decided to embark on the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a new avenue for fundraising. The charity's management committee was originally concerned that it could end up getting embroiled in money laundering. However, after a successful pilot in which transactions were conducted via credit cards in Singapore dollars instead of cryptocurrencies as was usually the case for NFT trading, its unease was allayed. Nevertheless, the question remained: should Metta continue to rely on NFT sales for its fundraising?

For the past ten years, dacadoo, a healthtech and insurtech start-up based in Switzerland, has been developing and operating its digital health engagement solution, including mobile applications, exploring ways to monetize the patented and AI-based health score it developed. Dacadoo has a dual objective: It aims to help users achieve and maintain healthy lifestyles with its proprietary "health score" and a digital health engagement solution, while at the same time it seeks to drive digital transformation of the insurance industry, with a focus on life and health insurers. As dacadoo has moved from being a start-up into a high-growth phase, this case series explores which business model(s) will help the company grow to its full potential. In 2010, Peter Ohnemus, a serial entrepreneur who had already built sixteen companies, took some well-deserved time off after the sale of his last successful venture. During this "between ventures" break in Verbier, he noticed his health had improved after two weeks of ski touring, but he could not quantify exactly how much he had progressed. That is when a new idea came to him: How to score human health holistically, encompassing physical health, mental wellbeing and lifestyle. Peter came down from the mountains and started a new company, which led to dacadoo.

For the past ten years, dacadoo, a healthtech and insurtech start-up based in Switzerland, has been developing and operating its digital health engagement solution, including mobile applications, exploring ways to monetize the patented and AI-based health score it developed. Dacadoo has a dual objective: It aims to help users achieve and maintain healthy lifestyles with its proprietary "health score" and a digital health engagement solution, while at the same time it seeks to drive digital transformation of the insurance industry, with a focus on life and health insurers. As dacadoo has moved from being a start-up into a high-growth phase, this case series explores which business model(s) will help the company grow to its full potential. In 2010, Peter Ohnemus, a serial entrepreneur who had already built sixteen companies, took some well-deserved time off after the sale of his last successful venture. During this "between ventures" break in Verbier, he noticed his health had improved after two weeks of ski touring, but he could not quantify exactly how much he had progressed. That is when a new idea came to him: How to score human health holistically, encompassing physical health, mental wellbeing and lifestyle. Peter came down from the mountains and started a new company, which led to dacadoo.

For the past ten years, dacadoo, a healthtech and insurtech start-up based in Switzerland, has been developing and operating its digital health engagement solution, including mobile applications, exploring ways to monetize the patented and AI-based health score it developed. Dacadoo has a dual objective: It aims to help users achieve and maintain healthy lifestyles with its proprietary "health score" and a digital health engagement solution, while at the same time it seeks to drive digital transformation of the insurance industry, with a focus on life and health insurers. As dacadoo has moved from being a start-up into a high-growth phase, this case series explores which business model(s) will help the company grow to its full potential. In 2010, Peter Ohnemus, a serial entrepreneur who had already built sixteen companies, took some well-deserved time off after the sale of his last successful venture. During this "between ventures" break in Verbier, he noticed his health had improved after two weeks of ski touring, but he could not quantify exactly how much he had progressed. That is when a new idea came to him: How to score human health holistically, encompassing physical health, mental wellbeing and lifestyle. Peter came down from the mountains and started a new company, which led to dacadoo.