個案總覽

Nathan Seidle, the chief executive officer (CEO) of SparkFun Electronics (SparkFun), was contemplating stepping down from his role. Based in Colorado, SparkFun was founded in Boulder in 2003 and had grown to generate an annual revenue of US$32 million with 146 employees. SparkFun’s commitment to open-source principles had shaped its business model, facilitating a mutually beneficial and collaborative relationship between the company and its users, with community contributions driving rapid innovation and product development. As Seidle stepped down from his CEO role, would SparkFun remain open source?

環境因素、人口老化、飲食添加物和平均壽命增加導致癌症發病率上升，使得癌症成為人類更關心的議題。癌症治療方式通常區分為手術、化療、放療等等方式，其中放療日漸被採用。隨著科技快速進展，醫界積極研發更強勁的射束，因此開發了質子射線治療。完整的質子治療系統建置成本相當昂貴，長期以來都是國際大廠的天下。iPROTON公司執行長James帶領一群跨領域的專業人士團隊，自主開發軟體與操作介面，建構出一套優質又有成本優勢的系統，產品定位於「占地小、汙染低、價格具競爭優勢」，日趨成熟的解決方案已然成形，但是，如何採取最適切的營運模式，成功地進入市場，搶佔先機取得業界領先者的地位，成為創辦人與團隊必須面對的嚴肅課題，他們又該如何選擇呢？

The case focuses on the required financing for a new building for Wabanaki Maple, founded by Jolene Johnson and located in Tobique, New Brunswick, Canada. Johnson had to prepare financial information in advance of a meeting with an economic development officer from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) from which she was seeking a loan. ACOA had unique lending programs with more favourable terms (e.g., interest-free, non-repayable loans) for Indigenous businesses. To prepare for the meeting, Johnson had to evaluate the impact of Wabanaki Maple’s production capacity, as it could limit sales growth potential in the near future; assess changes in customer type (e.g., boutique store, big-box retailers) including the impact of cultural priorities and awareness; determine improvements in inventory management; and assess the firm’s ability to pay for financing while generating profits.

Ivan and Dan MacKinnon grew up on a farm in Bath, Ontario, where the brothers learned about the importance of farming and local supply chains. In 2014, the brothers put together their farming assets and brewing and engineering skills and launched their farm-based brewery, MacKinnon Brothers Brewing Company. After nearly 10 years of operations, the MacKinnons were faced with a growth challenge. Should they leverage their farm brewery brand and grow its distribution beyond the local region? Or should they “dig in” on their local farm concept and explore more sustainable growth options in the food and beverage tourism industry?

In February 2019, D. K. Ram, the executive director of liquid petroleum gas at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), read a newspaper headline in his office in Mumbai. The paper reported that two delivery boys had been killed while returning to a distributor of BPCL after delivering gas cylinders. Ram thought of the risks to the safety of delivery people who were transporting cash they had collected from customers. He wondered whether BPCL should seek novel technologies to digitize last-mile delivery. Would BPCL choose to implement an all-encompassing digitization payment strategy, or would it execute a phased approach that entails incremental growth in the digital realm?

In September 2022, Balmer Lawrie & Co Ltd., a highly diversified Indian public-sector enterprise, was reviewing the outcomes of its mentorship program, which had been launched as a pilot initiative about a year earlier. The company had hired an external consultant to help design and speedily launch the first offering of the mentorship program, enrolling 25 mentor-mentee pairs. Now, it needed to refine the program, strengthen the measurement of its benefits, and plan a scaled-up rollout across the organization. The company aimed to make the mentorship initiative a long-term, self-sustaining program.

On the morning of November 25, 2021, the general manager of the Renaissance Suzhou Hotel received a call from the administrative committee of a nearby business district informing him that some guests who had stayed at the hotel a few days earlier had been diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019. The administrator requested that the hotel cooperate with the government in carrying out an urgent epidemiological investigation and implementing a closed-loop operation for emergency treatment. It was Thanksgiving day and the hotel was almost fully occupied. How would the general manger and his team address this challenge?

Cofounders of the Berlin-based startup Bone Brox developed a traditional bone broth made from organic, pasture-fed cattle and free-range chickens. Although they had a polarizing product, the founders tapped into the health and awareness trend and managed to gain market attention and secure government funding. The startup defined itself with a flat hierarchy, open communication, and shared decision-making. However, the company faced challenges, such as the impact of a flat hierarchy on business success and efficient decision-making, a highly competitive market, and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Ramp My City Pvt. Ltd. (RampMyCity)’s mission as a social enterprise was to foster in India the inclusion of people with disabilities. Established in 2019, RampMyCity was a social start-up dedicated to enhancing physical accessibility and delivering comprehensive training solutions across the public and private sectors. It collaborated with various corporations, private entities, and public institutions to offer seamless professional and practical end-to-end accessibility solutions and services. Its commitment extended beyond mere infrastructure improvements; RampMyCity aimed to transform the lives of people with disabilities by facilitating their full participation in society, creating accessible places for them, and promoting inclusivity. The founder now had to make some challenging decisions about the future of RampMyCity to ensure its scalability and sustainability. To scale effectively, what business model should the company adopt? Could the enterprise continue to depend on a flexible workforce and partnerships with larger organizations to drive its expansion, or would it be better for it to focus on building internal capabilities, including transitioning toward full-time operations and a larger, more permanent team to scale effectively and achieve sustained long-term growth?

<div style="font-size: 0.94em; line-height: 1.4;"><p align="justify">This case examines the innovation path in the entrepreneurial journey of Liu Feng, founder of Nanjing Kuickwheel Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (Kuickwheel), a high-tech company established in 2014 in China’s Jiangsu Province. Aspiring to become a provider of short-distance travel solutions with advanced software and hardware, Kuickwheel was committed to building a user-preferred travel mode with a 5 km range. In 2022, Liu was considering the best way of addressing intrapreneurship processes to develop Kuickwheel’s next generation of products to take advantage of the opportunities presented in the smart travel market. Liu was a serial entrepreneur and had created several previous businesses. How could this experience help him identify and realize the next electric scooter opportunity?

Montecarlo Limited (MCL), a 25-year-old infrastructure and construction company in India, had invested in building effective human resources (HR) processes and a better employee experience. While it was unconventional for companies in this industry, whose outlook generally favoured production and profitability, to focus on these issues, MCL had endeavoured to create not only an effective training function, but also a culture of learning and development that empowered its employees to become better professionals and individuals. Given the nature of the industry, such efforts posed challenges in understanding and implementation. In January 2021, the company’s senior vice-president of HR wondered both how this focus on employees would help MCL and whether the company should continue to invest in its people and in building a culture of learning. If it did continue, how could it adjust its training process to make the learning and development process more effective?

In March 2020, the leadership team at Toronto General Hospital (TGH) needs to plan resources to accommodate the new influx of COVID-19 ICU patients. Key resources for ICU capacity include beds, physicians, nurses, and PPE. The current demand coming from two streams of patients (elective surgeries & emergencies) is expected to overwhelm the ICU capacity, but by slowing down elective surgeries, TGH can mitigate the situation. The optimal proportion of COVID to total ICU patients must be analyzed considering the impact on physicians, nurses, patients awaiting elective surgeries, and PPE. The case allows students to take the role of a hospital leader deciding on allocating capacity across resource pools and recommend an ICU action plan.

Akshali Shah, the promoter of Parag Milk Foods, was excited about the success of her brand, 'Pride of Cows,' which, despite being super-premium, was growing fast in the Indian market. The other two brands- 'Gowardhan' and 'Go' brands were performing well. However, her mind was continuously distracted with the thought of scaling up and 'What next for Parag Milk Foods (PMF)'? The Indian dairy market had been primarily about liquid milk and was highly commoditized due to a lack of differentiation and premiumization. She had to make decisions on how to scale up. Should the company introduce more products or consolidate the existing ones?

As one of the world’s largest fried chicken chains, Popeyes had failed twice to enter the Chinese market over a twenty-year span. In March 2023, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), the owner of Popeyes, attempted a third strike by bringing the fried chicken brand under its local joint venture, Tim Hortons International Limited China (Tims China). The responsibility of making this third attempt successful rested with Yongchen Lu, the chief executive officer of Tims China. To cultivate another world-class, fast-service brand in China, Lu faced the imperative of delineating synergy between the two distinctive brands (one in coffee and the other in fried chicken). Could he make Popeyes a success in China?

Anchal Abrol and Priya Puri faced a dilemma of enticing their children to eat nutritious food. In 2019, they decided to pool all their savings to launch Snaqary. The company’s clever recipes, inspired by traditional Indian wisdom, focused on nutritious ingredients such as multigrain without compromising taste. Though organic growth met initial expectations, the time to launch the brand into the next orbit was upon them when they realized the need to generate a strong preference and pull for the brand to be able to command a position in the grocery retail system. It was March 2023, and they were planning the following year's strategy. Snaqary wanted to scale up and make the brand attractive to investors.

Alexandria Confectionery & Chocolate Company (trading as Corona), led by chief executive officer Shady Farid, grappled with a post-pandemic downturn in sales, weakened brand image, and heightened competition in the chocolate, biscuit, and chocolate spread markets. Faced with an urgent need for revitalization, Farid contemplated strategic adjustments, with an emphasis on enhanced brand perception and consumer insights. To succeed, he had to leverage the company’s existing brand and market position and focus on targeted advertising and quality representation to reclaim market share and grow revenues. Farid focused on three product lines: moulded chocolates, the Bimbo brand, and chocolate spread. How could he leverage the company’s existing positioning and brand name to increase market share and revenues?

The present case examines new challenges, associated risks, and the bold decisions that start-up leaders may need to make to navigate through an environment filled with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). Sanjib Jha, a seasoned entrepreneur with experience in several start-up firms, is confronted with this predicament in May 2020. Varun Dua and Devendra Rane started Coverfox Insurance Broking Private Limited (Coverfox) in 2013 as an insurtech start-up with the aim to radically change the Indian insurance market. The company’s founders quit in November 2016, leaving a leadership void. The new management continued focusing on the top line by running the business model, but they lost sight of the runway and cash burn, which put the organization’s future at risk. Coverfox wanted to be the Razorpay in the insurance ecosystem aggregator. Coverfox had already been dealing with issues such as investor exit, cash burn, and operating costs far exceeding the budgeted levels, and the COVID-19 pandemic further compounded these issues. When the existing management’s ability to turn the business around was called into question, the investors appointed Jha, an investor of Coverfox, as its chief executive officer (CEO). In May 2020, a few months after becoming CEO, Jha was faced with a decision dilemma. He had to make a firm choice- to suspend the business operations, sell it off or lower the monthly cash burn of US$1.1 million significantly thus increasing runway and continue toward break even and profitability. How can Jha, the new CEO, manage the confidence of investors, optimize cash burn, increase the runway, and envision Coverfox’s future?

In August 2022, two interns at Miravo Healthcare (Miravo) needed to present a comprehensive marketing plan for Miravo’s over-the-counter (OTC) head lice treatment product, Resultz, to two vice-presidents of the company. Resultz had not been actively advertised in recent years, and the company identified an opportunity to capitalize on an increasing need for head lice products as a result of children returning to school after the COVID-19 pandemic.

併購是企業追求成長最快速的方法之一。對於軟體產業而言，併購不僅是快速取得客戶、技術與市占率的途徑，更可以藉此獲取關鍵軟體的人才。而軟體產業是知識經濟的代表之一，更著重於知識資源的擁有、配置、產生與使用。其中，人力資源與組織文化是累積知識的重要關鍵，且軟體屬於無形資產，在併購前難以鑑價與衡量品質，能夠發揮預期綜效的成功率並不高。因此相較於其他產業，基於軟體產業的特性，本個案將探討軟體公司O公司面對併購機會時，於併購前、中、後期決策考量與管理作為。

富采控股公司面臨了2021年是否應跟隨ESG潮流，將ESG活動納入其經營理念之一的抉擇。本文述及了富采在執行ESG活動時所面臨的挑戰，以及通過設定階段性目標和調整組織架構，逐步實施ESG活動的歷程。。