個案總覽

Four diverse women entrepreneurs launched their ventures in a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem that was part of a shift to a creative technology-driven economy for Miami. Although Miami was rated the #1 U.S. city for startups in 2017, the region contained structural barriers and cultural biases unfriendly to women and people of color, including lack of access to capital and relationships. The case highlights women founders' backgrounds and experiences with an ed-tech startup, a coding school and events for Black entrepreneurs; an incubator for green businesses with a Black leadership focus; and an accelerator for social impact ventures that also runs social media campaigns for problems such as climate change. The women CEOs reveal the barriers they faced, how they overcame them, and how they attempt to enrich the ecosystem for other women and people of color. This case raises the question of what must be in place for cities to take advantage of the innovation and job-creating potential of a wider population of entrepreneurs and gain the benefits of diversity, and for women founders to thrive.

Derrick and Desmon Lewis were both successful professionals in the consulting and banking industries. They were born and raised in The Bronx, New York City's poorest borough. The Lewis brothers had always wanted to give back to the community. In 2016 they launched a community foundation-The Bronx Community Foundation-dedicated to improving the lives of Bronxites. While a lot of good had been happening in The Bronx, Derrick and Desmon believed that a community foundation would help to bring the systemic and institutional change to the borough; change they felt was necessary to bring economic, health, educational, etc., equality to The Bronx. Yet, nearly four years later, they had managed to raise little from donors; headwinds included those in the community who did not support the idea of a community foundation. When COVID-19 struck New York City in March 2020, the Lewises saw an opportunity to demonstrate the need for a place-based convener organization, such as a community foundation, in The Bronx. A relief effort was launched with a host of partners, which raised $10 million to help people of The Bronx who were impacted by COVID-19. Now in late July, the Lewises wanted to build on the momentum of the relief fund to finally get support and traction for the community foundation. They had much to decide: How to raise money for the foundation, which would need to come primarily from outside of the borough; who should lead the foundation; and what should be the foundation's operating model. The Lewises believed there was a window of opportunity that they needed to seize to turn their dream of a community foundation for The Bronx into a reality. The case provides an overview of community foundations in the U.S., an overview of The Bronx, The Bronx Community Relief Effort, and the Lewis brothers' early days and their efforts to start a community foundation, the opportunity, and the challenges.

In the midst of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic was unfolding, OpenIDEO - an online open innovation platform focused on design-driven solutions to social issues - rapidly launched a new challenge to improve access to health information, empower communities to stay safe during the COVID-19 crisis, and inspire global leaders to communicate effectively. OpenIDEO was particularly suited to challenges which required cross-system or sector-wide collaboration due to its focus on social impact and ecosystem design, but its leadership pondered how they could continue to improve virtual collaboration and to share their insights from nearly a decade of running online challenges. Conceived as an exercise of disruptive digital innovation, OpenIDEO successfully created a strong open innovation community, but how could they sustain - or even improve - their support to community members and increase the social impact of their online challenges in the coming years?

The company's innovative approach was widely recognized, both locally and internationally. In 2018, Moller was invited to join a prestigious NGO focused on the role of the private sector, which led to an invitation by Unilever Chile's CEO to join forces to meet a corporate-wide Unilever commitment: a 25% reduction by 2025 of the plastics it put out into the world. One of the most efficient ways of doing so was the replacement of single-use plastic packaging by reusable containers, but the challenge was to make consumers remember to take their empty containers with them when shopping. With the insight that people never forget to take their wallets, Moller's response was Packaging-as-a-Wallet (PaaW), a reusable plastic container imbedded with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip that, through Algramo's smartphone app, could also become a digital wallet. At the same time, the app allowed the user to order the exact amount desired and have it home-delivered by electric tricycle. In January 2020, following a successful pilot test, Unilever Chile and Algramo rolled out PaaW across Santiago, Chile's capital. With plastic pollution a highly visible global issue, Algramo's efforts attracted wide international attention and recognition. Several leading FMCG multinationals and environmental NGOs approached Algramo to explore potential partnerships. For many years, Algramo's financing came through awards and prizes, friends and family and benefactors. At the end of 2019, Algramo completed its first institutional capital-raise in a round led by New York-based impact investor Closed Loop Partners. That relationship opened the doors to projects that would take the Algramo model to New York City. In March 2020, Algramo's board approved a joint venture with a Dutch NGO to deploy Algramo in Indonesia, the world's second-largest source of plastic leakage into the oceans. That same month, Chile registered its first Covid-19 case.

In 2016, the Plan Foundation in Colombia was the organization with the largest investment in social programs of all those that made up the global organization of Plan International Inc. Its annual investment budget exceeded 24 million euros, almost three times higher than that collected by other countries in the region. In recent years, the Colombian organization had transformed its role within PII, from being an implementer of programs funded by organizations from economically developed countries, to an organization that combined the roles of collection and implementation.

Green Monday began in 2012 in Hong Kong as a nonprofit organization advocating sustainability and a plant-based diet. After three years of consumer education, in 2015, the group set up a commercial branch, Green Common, as a retailer and wholesaler of plant-based groceries. In 2017, the group further diversified its business to set up an R&D company, which successfully formulated Asia's first plant-based minced meat, OmniPork, in April 2018. Two months later, it opened its first restaurant, Kind Kitchen. In November 2018, Green Monday Group officially launched in Singapore, its first international market, where it partners with a local distributor to sell plant-based products across the country. Currently, the Green Monday nonprofit movement is present in over 30 countries, while the Green Common commercial platform is available in 7 countries, with plans for China and the UK by the end of 2019. This growth was especially impressive in the pessimistic socioeconomic atmosphere in the second half of 2019, when both the local and global economy were doomed by political tensions. Green Monday Group is a "miracle" that performs strongly and surprisingly well in this negative climate. How does Green Monday Group commercialize a philanthropic idea with a sustainable business structure? What are the factors should it consider when it chooses its international market? What business model should it adopt in its overseas operations? How does it manage domestic and international supplier risk?

Just Arrived is an online platform that matches newly-arrived immigrants in Sweden with employment opportunities. As one of several for-profit and non-profit start-ups in Europe that is looking to address the refugee crisis, the case enables a comparative analysis of a few of the core choices that a social enterprise has to make when developing a solution to a problem of this scale and scope. Used as an introductory case for a course on social enterprise and systems change, it touches on the background and experience of the founders, and their product development process. It shifts to explore which business model (for-profit or non-profit) and organizational structure might be most effective in addressing the problem, and how to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts. And finally, it looks at how these organizations are working to change the system in the long-term, with a combination of direct service to refugees and employers, as well as the indirect influence of the media and through national or European policy changes.

In 2020, The Honor Foundation (THF), a nonprofit dedicated to helping U.S. military special operators to transition into civilian careers, was facing a series of strategic challenges. THF had been founded in 2013 by former Navy SEAL trainee Joe Musselman, who observed a disturbing pattern: once special operators left the military in their mid-30s or 40s, they tended to end up in jobs in which they were overqualified, underpaid, and unfulfilled. Musselman attributed this to fundamental disconnects between the world of special operations, whose members had unique and deep skill sets but little experience articulating them in the civilian world, and the world of business. THF's programs gave transitioning special operators space to reflect on what they wanted out of their transition, and hard skills for interviewing, resume writing, and networking. Over seven years, its three month program had grown to serve over 200 transitioners per year on three campuses plus a virtual campus. But in early 2020, THF was not yet serving America's largest contingent of special operators: the U.S. Army Special Forces. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, THF CEO Matt Stevens was evaluating how best to incorporate Army special operators and fulfill THF's mission of serving all the U.S. special ops community. Should THF build another physical campus? Should it use its virtual campus to incorporate Army special operators instead? Or should it take on government funding to scale quickly? Students who read this case will evaluate this strategic problem while becoming familiar with the unique skills of the Special Operations Forces community.

Beginning in March 2020, Sesame Workshop navigated a global pandemic and racial justice crisis, which caused unemployment, business shutdowns, school closures, and remote work. The CEO and team responded with new partnership using its assets and reinforcing its mission, including allying with CNN to produce free informational TV specials for children and their families and redoubling efforts to provide education to children in refugee camps. Sesame's culture of confidence helped it support its constituencies through the crises.

In 2019, Sesame Workshop celebrated its 50th anniversary while on a winning streak of social impact, innovation, and peak media and financial results. Over the past four years, CEO Jeff Dunn and his turnaround team exhibited values-driven leadership, instituted cultural changes, and pursued opportunities to further Sesame's mission, including the inaugural MacArthur 100&Change award to tackle the worldwide refugee crisis in partnership with the International Rescue Committee. The $100 million winning project, Ahlan Simsim, was the largest early childhood program created in a humanitarian setting. By early 2020, Sesame had a mission-aligned culture that laid the groundwork to make kids smarter, kinder, and stronger.

Haboydem was a second hand clothing store in Jerusalem that operated as a social enterprise by hiring and training individuals who were living with mental illness. The two store locations had successfully trained workers, and 70 per cent were able to find employment in mainstream businesses; however, in mid-2017, the co founders faced new issues. How should they deal with emerging competition from other second hand clothing retailers? How should they address the possibility of partnerships with other organizations? Should the company expand to additional locations or into additional activities? How should the co-founders measure Haboydem's success? They needed to reflect on how to best address these challenges, and how their social enterprise could best move forward toward a long term future.

Deeply disturbed by the consequences of underinvestment in critical infrastructure in the United States over the last half century, highly successful former investment banker Suneel Kamlani set out to address the problem by launching an innovative infrastructure bank model that he honed as a 2016 Harvard Advanced Leadership Fellow. To implement his social innovation, Kamlani, an unaffiliated private citizen, needed to convince states to pass new legislation permitting its establishment, despite his lack of legislative knowhow and institutional power. This case study chronicles Kamlani's development of his solution for infrastructure underinvestment and his relentless efforts to build a robust multi-stakeholder coalition using advanced leadership practices to try to pass infrastructure bank legislation in his home state of Connecticut. It shows how he worked with elected state officials and other stakeholders to champion the effort and how he tried-both successfully and unsuccessfully--to overcome entrenched interests. It provides background for an in-depth discussion regarding 1) the degree to which Kamlani's skill set, his chosen solution pathway, and his targeted societal problem aligned to tackle the infrastructure underinvestment issue, and 2) the strategies and advanced leadership skills that individuals without legislative expertise or formalized institutional power in state government can employ to build coalitions and pass new legislation. The case study opens on June 3, 2019 with Kamlani on the cusp of a major legislative victory for his Connecticut Infrastructure Bank (CIB) initiative. It concludes with the Governor's unexpected withdrawal shortly thereafter of support for the CIB bill and the CIB coalition's relaunch of the legislative effort in early 2020.

Established in 2012, Youth4Jobs (Y4J) was a not-for-profit organization that served the disabled community, particularly youth, by providing them with market-oriented skills and livelihoods. Meera Shenoy, its Founder and CEO, and the core team of Y4J had previous experience in the skill development and placement of rural youth. However, they quickly discovered that dealing with disabled youth required a totally different approach. The case describes their experiences, the lessons learned and how they evolved their model for Y4J. The case outlines how Y4J became involved in the entire value chain of disability inclusion: education at the school and college levels, imparting skills to increase the employability of disabled youth, and placing them in a wide range of jobs and companies by sensitizing and supporting employers. Within a period of six years, Y4J had grown phenomenally and had a presence across the country. However, given the prevalence of disability in India and the fact that approximately 7-8 million of the disabled population were in the age group of 20-39, Shenoy believed that Y4J had to further enhance its reach to support as many people with disabilities (PwD) as possible. At a visioning workshop in August 2018, Shenoy and key stakeholders of Y4J brainstormed on the way forward for the organization and came up with several strategic options for increasing its impact. Shenoy had the difficult task of choosing among these options and setting the future direction of Y4J. The choices were replicating the model, creating a knowledge hub, and building and empowering the network. Shenoy was also concerned about how to build the requisite capacity to effectively implement those strategies without compromising on the values that had guided Y4J from its inception.

The SF Ballet was regarded as one of the top ballet companies in the world. It had an enviable earned revenue percentage of almost 50% and had an internationally recognized ballet school. However, by 2019 the Ballet faced a number of challenges. Ballet was a European art form that had gained popularity in the U.S. a century ago, but the demographics of the U.S. no longer reflected those European roots. In San Francisco, the Ballet had been a favorite pastime of the older, monied set, but the city's demographics had changed over the last few decades as young Millennials had flocked to San Francisco to join the burgeoning tech industry. The Ballet struggled to attract younger audiences and found itself competing with digital alternatives for how people spent their leisure time. Moreover, to make changes in programming, accessibility, and the Opera House venue to appeal to younger audiences, the Ballet risked alienating its loyal, older donors, who were the lifeblood of the Ballet's revenue model. Kelly Tweeddale, the newly hired Executive Director, had to consider the interests of various stakeholders--dancers, donors, audience, staff, board, and the local community--which often were at odds with one another. With limited resources, the Ballet needed to choose which changes to tackle first and those decisions were tied to how the organization prioritized its various constituents.

Corporations are increasingly held responsible for the products they source and the sustainability of their supply chains. It was to meet this need that EcoVadis, a sustainability rating agency, was founded in 2007 by Pierre-François Thaler (INSEAD MBA, 1999) and Frédéric Trinel to bridge the information gap between corporate buyers and their suppliers. Following an EcoVadis sustainability assessment, suppliers receive a "scorecard" of their performance which they can then share with clients, while corporate buyers can monitor suppliers' sustainability performance via the EcoVadis platform. The combination of technology, expertise and network effects propels the rating agency onto the global stage, with over 650 employees in 10 offices on 5 continents, and over 55,000 assessments completed. However, the co-founders need to adjust their strategy in an increasingly competitive and technologically sophisticated market. How can they scale up its human capital and technology capabilities to drive growth in the next decade, and ultimately make the corporate world more sustainable?

Brothers André and Daniel Albuquerque founded the company Terra Nova in 2001 to mediate land disputes between poor families illegally living in urban areas and the official landowners-with the aspiration to improve the lives of the poor. A business-led approach to the issue, like Terra Nova's, was innovative and contested amid the widespread belief that land disputes fell solely within the public sector's purview. After struggling to develop a viable business model, the company received support from impact investing firm MOV Investimentos. By 2019, Terra Nova finally broke even and was exploring opportunities for scaling. But its leaders had to decide the right expansion model for the social business.

This case is located within the multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis, as key managers decide what kind of monitoring and evaluation to implement for one of its social business programs, Novartis Access. This new program will expand the company's reach into traditionally underserved markets in low- and middle-income countries using a basket of 15 medicines for non-communicable diseases offering them at public and faith-based facilities at a lower price than sold in the private market. Novartis Access is being launched in late 2015 in Kenya, with a long-term goal of operating in 30 countries. The case focuses on Michael Fürst, Senior Manager for Corporate Responsibility Strategy and Innovation, who must prepare a plan for monitoring and evaluation for Novartis Access to present to Harald Nusser, Head of Novartis Social Business. In order to prepare for his first meeting with Harald Nusser, Michael Fürst needs to identify the value and risks of monitoring and evaluating (and their differences) and make a proposal about what kind of monitoring and evaluation to adopt (if any), and how to overcome internal and external challenges.

Philip Morris International (PMI) CEO André Calantzopoulos announced in 2016 a radical pivot in the Marlboro cigarette manufacturer's strategy: the company would shift to "smoke-free" products in more than 180 countries around the world. One of these products was IQOS, a new "heat-not-burn" (HNB) device aimed at providing the world's over 1 billion "adult smokers with better options." The innovation of the products which, PMI claimed, were less harmful than cigarettes was welcomed by many investors and PMI. Calantzopoulos and PMI's Board of Directors believed that its sustainability strategy was critical to the company's long-term success. Nevertheless, convincing important stakeholders that a tobacco company could be part of the solution to rid the world of cigarettes by offering better alternatives was a different matter. The United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO), regulators, public health advocates, and some sustainable investors said that there was no safe level of use and no opportunity for effective engagement with tobacco companies. After a two-year wait, the US FDA issued an order authorizing the sale of IQOS in the US market of 40 million smokers. The FDA found that IQOS was "appropriate for the protection of health." PMI organized the 2020 Stakeholder Engagement Meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland to convene key stakeholders to engage with PMI's smoke-free business transformation.

This case follows the co-founder and president, Marla Felcher, of The Philanthropy Connection (TPC). TPC is a nonprofit organization that centers around collective giving: members of TPC make an annual contribution that is then distributed to select nonprofit organizations via grants. As Felcher works to maximize how much money they can give out via grants, this case allows for a deep dive into the motives for giving and how the organizational structure and processes can tap into why people give. As this case begins with Felcher's founding of TPC and concludes with Felcher desiring to step down from her role as president, this case also allows for a rich discussion around if and when a nonprofit founder should step aside to let the next round of leaders takeover.