個案總覽

Grameen Danone is a joint venture between the Grameen Group (a sister company of Grameen Bank) and Groupe Danone, a $2 billion (revenues) French food company. The company's goal was to provide nutritional yogurt (brand name Shoktidoi) for the nearly 50 million Bangladeshi children using an innovative social business model. The case describes the progress as of 2008 and poses questions regarding how the company might achieve sustainability.

With $2.5 billion system-wide revenues, Aaron's, a major rent-to-own supplier to the US base of the pyramid, continues to grow in the recession, but CEO R.C. Loudermilk, Jr. wonders how long the company can sustain the fast growth rate of its past. Founded in 1955, and publicly-listed since 1982, Aaron's success has paralleled the emergence of the rent-to-own industry as a major channel for the lower income US population to access durable household goods. In this space, Aaron has only one other large national rival, Rent-A-Center. As he faces Aaron's future growth, Loudermilk must consider continuing with the basic business model, follow his competitor into expanding the product line, or tap into underserved foreign markets. At the same time, the entire rent-to-own industry in the US is coming under attack by consumer advocates and politicians as the nation continues to battle a deep economic crisis.

The founders of B Lab are on a mission to create a new sector of the economy, and are specifically focused on a three objectives: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations (B=Benefit) that legally expand their corporate responsibilities to include consideration of diverse stakeholder interests, 2) advancing the public policies necessary to create a new corporate form called a Benefit Corporation, and 3) creating an investment rating system to help drive institutional investment to the emerging asset class of "impact investments." The case considers the challenges associated with achieving each one of these objectives, let alone all three at the same time. Is B Lab's tripartite strategy its secret sauce or its albatross?

Hugo Moreno, CEO of Salud Digna, was considering his growth options for the next three years. Would becoming a for-profit with access to greater capital be the best strategy or would this cause the organization to lose its social mission? Salud Digna provided diagnostic medical tests to the poor, had experienced rapid growth and was financially self-sufficient. Moreno was determined that the organization be as well managed as any company in Mexico

This case affords students of strategic management a rare inside look at the consequential political and logistical choices that international relief agencies must often make, at high speed, when responding to a humanitarian crisis. It traces the efforts of AmeriCares to find an effective way-in the midst of a tense international standoff-to work with the embattled and resistant military government of Myanmar in order to bring help to the country's Ayeyarwady Delta in May 2008, when the region was struck by one of the deadliest cyclones ever recorded. Through the story of a relatively junior relief coordinator on the ground in Yangon, this case tells the unfolding tale of AmeriCares' effort to bring a $1 million, 15-ton shipment of pharmaceuticals and supplies into the country and then get it into the hands of effective on-the-ground relief agencies. While some relief organizations challenged the government, or tried to work around it, AmeriCares devoted itself to working within the system. At every step, however, the organization faced strategic choices and dilemmas and, in the end, had to decide what to do when, hours before its air shipment was due to land, the Myanmar government suddenly adopted a new policy requiring all relief shipments to be impounded for inspection by the government on arrival. The case is structured as a cliff-hanger, to allow students to bring a critical, appraising eye to the different facets of AmeriCares' approach before they learn whether or not it was a success. A brief sequel, revealing what happened, may either be summarized in class or handed out at the end of class. HKS Case Number 1931.0

This case affords students of strategic management a rare inside look at the consequential political and logistical choices that international relief agencies must often make, at high speed, when responding to a humanitarian crisis. It traces the efforts of AmeriCares to find an effective way-in the midst of a tense international standoff-to work with the embattled and resistant military government of Myanmar in order to bring help to the country's Ayeyarwady Delta in May 2008, when the region was struck by one of the deadliest cyclones ever recorded. Through the story of a relatively junior relief coordinator on the ground in Yangon, this case tells the unfolding tale of AmeriCares' effort to bring a $1 million, 15-ton shipment of pharmaceuticals and supplies into the country and then get it into the hands of effective on-the-ground relief agencies. While some relief organizations challenged the government, or tried to work around it, AmeriCares devoted itself to working within the system. At every step, however, the organization faced strategic choices and dilemmas and, in the end, had to decide what to do when, hours before its air shipment was due to land, the Myanmar government suddenly adopted a new policy requiring all relief shipments to be impounded for inspection by the government on arrival. The case is structured as a cliff-hanger, to allow students to bring a critical, appraising eye to the different facets of AmeriCares' approach before they learn whether or not it was a success. A brief sequel, revealing what happened, may either be summarized in class or handed out at the end of class. HKS Case Number 1931.1

Describes the addition of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance indicators to the Bloomberg terminal. The initiative grew out of Bloomberg's broader sustainability initiatives and is an example of how committed employees can create positive social change within organizations. Issues highlighted in the case for discussion include: How can committed employees implement an innovative sustainability initiative within a large corporation? How can ESG data be more strategic for both Bloomberg and investors? And finally: How should the ESG data industry be structured, and what impact does ESG data have on the future institutionalization of sustainability?

In 2002, Baker Hughes was accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). This case describes the actions taken by the company in response to those accusations. These include hiring a third-party law firm to undertake an independent investigation and voluntarily reviewing its entire global operations with the purpose of discovering other FCPA violations. Simultaneously, the company engaged in a comprehensive restructuring of its policies and systems for preventing and detecting the issuance of questionable payments.

By operating in war zones, urban slums, and deep rural areas, companies could not only achieve growth and profits, but could also improve the economic and social conditions of these impoverished regions. Yet how can a company operate in areas with unstable security, poor infrastructure, and little or no formal legal frameworks in place? To do so successfully, companies need to go beyond transactional alliances or legalistic business partnerships with local partners. Instead, they need to develop community buy-in and long-term personal relationships based on trust with "unorthodox" local inhabitants-the ones offering them security and protection rather than technology and business assets. Such deep social embeddedness is not cost-free. To prevent it from derailing their success, companies need to nurture and grow their local partners beyond their specific needs.

In 2000, media superstar Oprah Winfrey promised the recently retired Nelson Mandela, first president of post-apartheid South Africa, that she would build his country a top-notch boarding school for disadvantaged girls. Her twin purpose was to use the power of education to help impoverished young girls with exceptional promise-girls much like herself as a child-realize their potential and transform their lives and, at the same time, to train a cohort of strong new leaders who would contribute to the success of post-apartheid South Africa. To that end, Winfrey built a $40 million dream school-spacious, thoughtfully-designed, and elegantly-appointed, with excellent teachers, small classes, modern facilities, and extensive grounds. In South Africa and elsewhere, the opening of the extraordinary school garnered much attention, praise, and imitators, but also drew significant criticism. Some of the critics were appalled at using so much money to create so posh a facility for so few children, when so many were in desperate need. Others chided Winfrey for failing to take a community-based approach, and for separating the children from their homes and communities. Winfrey, confident in her model, stayed the course. The case allows students to consider a number of issues: what is the appropriate role of private philanthropy, how to think about private resource allocation in a poor country, what kind of school is in the best interest of the students, and what kind of school is in the best interests of the country. HKS Case Number 1930.0

In 2005, the Parliament of India enacted the Right to Information Act, a law giving citizens of India access to central, state, and local government records. Under the law's provisions, citizens have the ability to request information regarding official acts from any public authority. Officials who refuse or delay requests are held responsible through fines or disciplinary action. Many individuals and organizations were involved in the lengthy and difficult process of getting this legislation enacted. This case focuses on one of these individuals, Aruna Roy, regarded by many observers as having played a key role in empowering citizens to exercise the democratic right to make their government transparent and accountable. It traces her background and the challenges she faced in developing her commitment to improving the lives of the poor and socially marginalized. HKS Case Number 1929.0

Public Architecture is a non-profit architecture company dedicated to creating social and professional change through design for the public good. Public has focused on three strategies to create change: 1) promoting the design community's commitment to pro bono work, 2) inspiring action through creating design with a social mission, and 3) disseminating knowledge created by socially relevant design throughout the profession. As a central actor and change agent in the profession, Public Architecture created The 1% Program, a national network of architecture and design firms that have publicly pledged to donate 1% of their billable hours to the public good. However, the organization has been struggling to keep both The 1% Program and its own design initiatives integrated and reinforcing each other in creating social and professional change. Should Public split into two organizations? Would keeping the diverse elements within Public Architecture together force the entire organization to the least common denominator or would it provide them with a flexible platform for creating social change? These questions have important implications for Public's growth strategy, their funding, and resource allocation decisions.

This case describes a small nonprofit organization called The Backyard Harvest (BYH). The focus of BYH was to collect excess produce from individuals and small farmers and make the produce available to local food banks. Amy Grey had started BYH as a program of a local environmental nonprofit but had recently created a separate and independent BYH organization. Because of recent national press on the organization, Amy had received several requests for help from a handful of people around the country interested in setting up their own version of BYH. Amy's dilemma was how to continue to serve the needs of her local community and help other people around the country set up equivalent organizations. Amy wondered if she should take BYH national, and if so, when and how to do it.

Founded in 1965 by Jim Thompson, the Crown Worldwide Group ("Crown") began as a small moving company in Japan, shifting its headquarters to Hong Kong in the mid-1970s. Within 30 years, Crown had became the world's largest privately held relocation and logistics enterprise, a success that was attributed primarily to the founder's insistence on high service quality and unwavering commitment to community development. With growing concern among customers about CSR, the company recognized that CSR must be integrated into its corporate strategy and day-to-day business operations to achieve sustainability for both the company and society. In 2008, Crown appointed its first CSR director, whose primary task was to develop and implement a standardized global CSR strategy that would support Crown's environmental and community development initiatives. Various CSR integration steps were taken, such as developing global environmental standards, stimulating employee volunteerism, building CSR communication channels, developing a supplier management system and conducting CSR measurement. In line with the goals of the UN Global Compact-a leadership initiative that guided participants in practicing responsible business-Crown would also publish sustainability reports yearly. Although employees were supportive of the company's CSR efforts, the journey of becoming a well rounded corporate citizen is full of complexities and involves a wide range of stakeholders and multi-dimensional issues. Without a roadmap or framework, CSR integration efforts could be daunting, but inaction is no longer an option in light of increasing CSR expectations. What would be the key success factors for Crown's CSR integration?

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Many companies are well aware of the need to make their businesses more sustainable but stumble badly in making that transition. Often they mistakenly assume that the sustainability initiative will require a single, sustained effort over years when, in fact, it will entail three distinct phases, each needing different leadership skills on the part of the executive heading the effort. In phase 1, the sustainability leader must be able to communicate a compelling vision and gain buy-in from key opinion formers in the organization. In addition, the leader must help identify, define and develop a specific set of business processes that are geared to manage previously unquantified risks and capture new opportunities. When a company emerges from phase 1, commercial orientation becomes the key competence. Now the task is to translate high-level commitments into a comprehensive change program with clearly defined initiatives and hard commercial targets. To make this happen, sustainability leaders in phase 2 must excel at delivering results, and they must have a strong commercial awareness. At the end of this phase, sustainability becomes an organization-wide imperative that is tracked through economic, environmental and social metrics over the business planning cycle. In phase 3, the need for commercial orientation continues unabated but is matched by a strong strategic orientation. The sustainability leader must be adept at anticipating and evaluating long-term sustainability trends, spotting new opportunities and developing strategies to reposition the organization to benefit from them. The goal is to have sustainability become embedded in the organization's DNA, such that it is a core value and the organization is unconsciously proactive about it.

The case follows Mel Young, founder and president of Homeless World Cup, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to eliminate homelessness around the world. Homeless World Cup organizes annual football (i.e., soccer) tournaments in host cities and through its grassroots partner organizations recruits and trains homeless people to play in the events. The case highlights the early days of founding and building the organization, including Young's inspiration for the idea, and also covers the importance of branding and marketing and the organization's relationship with Nike.

Each year the DM Bicycle Company focuses its CSR efforts on fighting childhood obesity, a program that's popular with everyone and in line with the company's mission. This year, though, the CEO's nine-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with Batten disease, and that's all he can think about. For the next fiscal year, he'd like the company to focus on Batten disease research instead of obesity prevention. The HR director, the protagonist of the case, wonders if the effort is more personal crusade than corporate social responsibility. Is it ethical for the CEO to ask employees to share in his family's struggle? Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1006L and R1006Z.

Each year the DM Bicycle Company focuses its CSR efforts on fighting childhood obesity, a program that's popular with everyone and in line with the company's mission. This year, though, the CEO's nine-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with Batten disease, and that's all he can think about. For the next fiscal year, he'd like the company to focus on Batten disease research instead of obesity prevention. The HR director, the protagonist of the case, wonders if the effort is more personal crusade than corporate social responsibility. Is it ethical for the CEO to ask employees to share in his family's struggle? Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1006L and R1006Z.

Each year the DM Bicycle Company focuses its CSR efforts on fighting childhood obesity, a program that's popular with everyone and in line with the company's mission. This year, though, the CEO's nine-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with Batten disease, and that's all he can think about. For the next fiscal year, he'd like the company to focus on Batten disease research instead of obesity prevention. The HR director, the protagonist of the case, wonders if the effort is more personal crusade than corporate social responsibility. Is it ethical for the CEO to ask employees to share in his family's struggle? Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1006L and R1006Z.

In 2009, ParticipACTION was a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization that had a storied history of inspiring and supporting active and healthy living for Canadians. Led by CEO Kelly Murumets, ParticipACTION was to lead a steering committee of representatives of the not-for-profit sector and the private sector, as well as academics, towards developing a set of 'how-to' guidelines for not-for-profit sport and physical activity organizations on forming effective partnerships with the private sector. Due to decreasing government support, the need to secure alternate resources and funding, and the proliferation of competition, sports and health organizations were extremely interested in such partnerships. Recent successes made ParticipACTION realize that it and other sports advocate organizations around the globe, needed to become more strategic and innovative in engaging private companies. Coming off of a successful internal restructuring and partnership with Coca Cola, ParticipACTION received an opportunity to be involved with the upcoming 3rd International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health Conference (ICPAPH ). ICPAPH would attract over 1000 leaders from dozens of countries and would be an ideal forum for sharing guidelines for responsible partnerships. This case surveys sports and healthy living advocacy and explores how ParticipACTION went about leading the process to develop guidelines for private sector partnerships.