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Online retailers frequently assume that pleasing customers requires shipping each item in an order as quickly as possible rather than assembling the entire order and delivering a consolidated shipment. But new research with an online fashion marketplace found that customers receiving consolidated shipments were less likely to return items, lowering the retailer's logistics costs and improving sales. The authors suggest how to adapt fulfillment strategies in light of their findings.

Although Blaser Swisslube (Blaser)'s market share in the coolant space in the Indian industry is relatively low as compared to other players, India is an important market for the company. With India becoming a global sourcing hub for many auto companies, the auto sector is the prime driver for the metalworking fluids segment. Since starting operations in 2002, the company has, over the years, operated as a sales subsidiary of its parent company located in Switzerland. The parent company strongly believes in innovation and delivering value globally to customers through customized solutions and safe products. Blaser is facing a challenge in India in convincing industrial customers of the value of its products and solutions and their potential to create financial returns for them. The reason is that most Indian customers are price-conscious. And the price of Blaser's coolants is higher than the price of its competitors. It is in the context of this challenge that Punit Gupta, the managing director of the Indian subsidiary, is facing some dilemmas. How should his sales team convince Indian customers to try out Blaser coolants? Who could be the right person to approach in each organization to sell the concept of the coolant as an investment in productivity improvement rather than as a consumable? Where does the ongoing digitalization of Indian manufacturing fit in? What holistic approach can the company take to intensify its growth journey in India?

From nearly bankrupt to a franchised chain of 150+ clinics and growing, PetWellClinic: Shifting from a Red to a Blue Ocean shows the use of blue ocean strategy to redraw industry boundaries and create a remarkably successful business. Dr. Sam Meisler, DVM, MBA, found himself struggling in a red ocean of the veterinary care industry. Stressed out and nearly bankrupt, Dr. Meisler applied blue ocean strategy concepts and tools to create a new market space in veterinary care. This is an ex-ante case where blue ocean strategy was used from the beginning to build a large new blue ocean business while transitioning away from his struggling traditional clinics. The first PetWellClinic was launched in 2010 and there are now over 150 franchises sold. Embedded in the case are seven short videos featuring key people which may be used in the classroom. This case enables a rich discussion related to entrepreneurism, blue ocean strategy, leadership, behavioral economics, turnarounds, and professional practices.

Transformational efforts require employees to work in new and unfamiliar ways. Generic knowledge and skills aren't enough to ensure that they can do this new digital-focused work. Leaders should follow the example of P&G's successful digital transformation and bolster employee ability by connecting knowledge and skills to targeted actions and performance outcomes.

Guangzhou Leyaoyao Information Technology Co. Ltd. provided online-payment services in Guangzhou, China. In 2017, the company entered the claw-machine market and became the leader in the industry’s online-payment services within two years. To further develop its business and improve its market power, the company was considering diversification through vertical integration within the claw-machine industry or horizontal expansion to other types of offline physical devices. Both options held potential benefits and risks. Vertical integration would enable the company to enhance its market position, lift entry barriers, and develop a new revenue model within the claw-machine business, but consolidation costs could be substantive and the relatively small scale of the claw-machine industry could be a constraint for the company’s future development. Horizontal expansion would allow the company to apply its core competences from the claw-machine industry to other offline and networked facilities, but it could be challenging due to established market leaders in other sectors. Which option would broaden the company’s business boundaries: vertical integration or horizontal expansion?

Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, Michigan, began operations as a corner delicatessen selling sandwiches. It grew to become a community of ten businesses, establishing itself as a local favorite and a nationally known achiever. This case analyzes factors that Mark Fate-a recently promoted purchasing manager for Zingerman's Deli-is considering as he determines how to transition from using traditional plastic and paper packaging to more sustainable packaging alternatives, both in-house and for take-out. The case delves into the details of current and alternative packaging materials used in the food industry, highlighting the benefits and shortcomings of each. It then transitions to considerations regarding Fate's proposal, emphasizing aspects that are imperative for Zingerman's in making such a change. Overall, the case encourages students to consider the factors and challenges Fate faced in his efforts to integrate more sustainable packaging while enabling Zingerman's Deli to continue as a profitable business that satisfies both customers and employees.

This case is designed to discuss the tradeoffs between independent venture capital (IVC) and corporate venture capital (CVC). Students also have the opportunity to analyze two startup investment opportunities based on Nine Realms' criteria. The case concludes with a discussion about a strategic choice faced by Nine Realms: should it continue as an IVC, list on the stock market or shift to a CVC? This allows students to debate the tradeoffs between the two approaches for the individuals involved.

Late afternoon on Friday, October 27th, 2022, Elon Musk was the center of attention at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters. The night before, Musk officially took the company private and became Twitter's majority shareholder, finally ending a months-long acquisition saga. He appointed himself CEO and brought in his own team to clean house. He now needed to decide on short-term actions and a long-term strategy to turnaround the company. In the immediate days and weeks, Musk needed to take decisive steps to succeed against the major opposition to his leadership from both inside and outside the company. Twitter employees circulated an open letter protesting expected layoffs, where they called him "reckless," "unfair," and "impulsive." Advertising agencies advised their clients to pause spending on Twitter, and some threatened to leave. EU officials considered a broader Twitter ban should Twitter not abide by their moderation policies.

When IBM set about commercializing its artificial intelligence-driven Watson AI in the healthcare market, its early successes were widely publicized. Senior managers and the media claimed that its diagnostic features would soon surpass those of the sharpest doctors. The case describes the large gap between what was promised and what happened in practice, offering insider insights on why IBM's projects failed. As the corporate commitment to AI escalated in response to successful lab results, cognitive dissonance arose between managers' expectations and what they could actually deliver. How could that have happened? Three reasons for Watson's downfall are explored: 1) The tendency for societal expectations to exceed the actual technical capabilities, leading to a gap in perception between AI in the lab and AI in the field. 2) Overselling of the economic benefits of AI by the salesforce; 3) Failure to secure the cooperation of key stakeholders, notably doctors who were asked to improve the performance of AI but were undermined by claims that AI could outperform them.

Kiah Williams started SIRUM as a Stanford undergraduate alongside her classmates Adam Kircher and George Wang. Nearly two decades later, the medication donation nonprofit was now operating in five states across the country and had helped facilitate medication donations to reach 150,000 uninsured and underinsured patients. SIRUM's technology enabled donors with excess medication supply to donate unexpired, sealed, non-opioid medications to those who needed it most. SIRUM had been largely funded by philanthropic sources and had secured funding through 2025. Williams was now pondering different growth paths for the nonprofit. SIRUM could attempt to grow quickly by expanding into new states or offering a wider range of medications. It could pressure test its pricing model. Or it could build new lines of business related to data, reporting, and compliance. The growth path was unclear. Williams wanted to demonstrate that SIRUM could be a model for social enterprises to succeed and achieve both deep impact and long-term financial stability. How should she build SIRUM's growth strategy?

From their research on digital initiatives at 30 organizations, the authors have identified four key practice areas that businesses should focus on to advance their strategic data-sharing capabilities. Using specific examples from Schneider Electric, Elevance Health, and other companies they studied, they describe how strategic data-sharing practices can help businesses better cocreate with customers, engage in novel partnerships, and pursue opportunities in digital ecosystems.

In 2020, Alejandro Simón, CEO of Sancor Seguros Group, a nearly 75-year-old cooperative that had become Argentina's insurance leader, had to decide about the Group's digital transformation strategy. The Group's values and history needed to be considered during the analysis, especially regarding its relationship with individual agents selling Sancor Seguros Group's products, who drove much of the Group's revenues. Sancor Seguros Group had always taken into consideration agents' input when making important decisions, which extended to the Group's recent efforts on its digital transformation. Yet, not all of them had adapted to new technologies. However, the use of digital channels to sell goods and services accelerated after almost two months of a mandatory quarantine that restricted out-of-home activities to buying essentials such as food and medicines. Would the momentum gained by these digital channels persist, serving as the platform for agents to catch up with the industry's newest global trends? Accordingly, how could Sancor Seguros Group help agents capture the value created by new technologies? How should the Group approach its presence on less personalized channels, like the ones offered by brokers or digital channels? The Group could also concentrate its efforts on long-term actions and focus on revamping its product offering.

In 2021, Alejandro Simón, CEO of Sancor Seguros Group, had to reassess the Group's digital transformation strategy.

Spreadsheet to accompany product W32505.

In 2017, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, realized that the company needed a new talent development strategy to prepare its employees for the future of work, particularly a learning ecosystem that could support an enterprise-wide digital and talent transformation. The following year, Thirumala Arohi, Infosys's Senior Vice President and Head of Education, Training and Assessment, and his team developed Wingspan: a first-of-its-kind digital learning environment with internally developed content as well as content from Infosys's external alliance partners. Wingspan was initially tightly integrated with other Infosys systems, but eventually it became a full-fledged product offered to Infosys's corporate clients. In 2020, Wingspan's adoption got an unexpected boost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the Infosys staff migrated to online learning, by the end of the year nearly 220,000 employees had collectively chalked up over three million hours of learning time on Wingspan. By March 2021, more than one million client users relied on Wingspan through their own organisational learning platforms. The case study shows how Wingspan had managed to achieve scale while embodying Arohi's opinion that Infosys was a company where, "lifelong learning is the North Star for organisational progress and talent development." In early 2022, Arohi wondered what was next for Wingspan.

In early 2023, the entertainment app TikTok reached close to 1 billion users globally, placing it 4th behind the leading social networks of Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Featuring a sophisticated recommendation engine, TikTok mastered the art of keeping users interested over long periods of time. TikTok's business model focused on advertising as the principle source of revenue and, by 2023, the app had become irresistible to many marketers. At the same time, competition in the market for short-form videos intensified when Instagram introduced Reels and YouTube launched Shorts. To the surprise of many, YouTube even decided to share a significant portion of its ad revenue from Shorts with the creators of the videos, a first in the industry. Meanwhile, Instagram appeared to move away from recommending content by accounts the users followed, making the app less social. Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance, Liang Rubo, ByteDance CEO, and Chew Shou Zi, TikTok's CEO, had to decide how to respond to these latest developments. Had Meta's Zuckerberg really announced the end of social media? Did YouTube's Wojcicki's move destroy TikTok's business model?

The case is set in 2022, and the protagonist is Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, Inc. - an online rental platform. As the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in the U.S. in 2020, Airbnb faced an existential crisis. The travel company lost 80% of its bookings and 72% of its revenue in just eight weeks. Airbnb's market cap dropped to $57 billion, down 56% from its high of $130 billion just 18 months earlier. Before the pandemic, 80% of Airbnb's business was cross-border and short-term rentals. This case presents the strategic initiatives Airbnb implemented when executing an emergency pivot. It concludes with the challenges CEO Chesky faces post-pandemic, including a macro environment of high inflation and recession, lack of consistent profitability, and uncertainty as to whether pandemic travel trends and work arrangements are the new normal.

The case is set in 2022. The protagonist is Corie Barry, CEO of Best Buy-a consumer electronics retailer. Corie Barry is the fifth leader since the company was founded in 1966. She is the first female leader of Best Buy and one of the youngest CEOs of an S&P 500 company. Barry had to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath, including furloughing employees, supply chain problems, and dealing with excess inventory. CEO Barry still confronts multiple challenges in ensuring a future for Best Buy, including demand collapsing with rising interest rates and inflation. To adapt and grow revenues, she is attempting to leverage Best Buy's customer service into digital healthcare. However, this corporate strategy initiative comes with unfamiliar competitors and may fail. At the same time, competitive pressures in the core business of electronics retailing are increasing.

The protagonist of the case is Bob Iger, who has been appointed CEO of Disney for a second term. During Bob Chapek's brief tenure as CEO (2020-22), Disney's streaming business lost $4 billion in 2022, and net income fell to $3 billion, down from $11 billion in 2019. Disney's stock has underperformed the S&P 500 index by 56 percentage points. Dubbed the streaming wars, Disney must contend with several competitors, some with deep pockets: Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, HBO Max, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock, and YouTube TV. As employee morale reaches a low point, Iger must decide which organizational structure to put in place to allocate resources and distribute content, given the diversified nature of Disney as well as the ongoing industry transformation.