個案總覽

Sai Coating, a small entrepreneurial firm, was one of the three firms that had received the license from ARCI for marketing the Detonation Spray Coating (DSC). Sai Coating made and sold the detonation gun (D-Gun) to three sectors, namely: Wire Drawing, Textiles and Aero components. The coating enhanced the life of the coated wire or surface and its functionality in some ways. The firm had a turnover of INR 4,500,000 and was looking to generate scale and maximize its revenues. The case revolves around the pricing strategy to be adopted by Sai coating to extract value from different set of customers. What should be the price levels given the nature of the product?

In early 2017, Judith Judson (Harvard Business School MBA, 2000), Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER), was reflecting on the results of the initiative she had led to identify the contribution advanced electricity storage could make to electricity generation and distribution in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The study was the first major output from the $10 million Energy Storage Initiative (ESI) launched by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker's administration in May 2015. The advanced simulation techniques employed in the study indicated that over a ten-year period, the optimal deployment of storage capacity would cut the cost of electricity for consumers in the Commonwealth by $230 million per year, deliver $110 million in annual revenues for storage providers, and reduce CO2 emissions by 100,000 tons a year, the equivalent of taking 22,000 cars off the road. Moreover, neighboring states would benefit from $250 million in lowered wholesale prices. To deliver these benefits, 1.77 GWh of advanced storage would be required across the grid, costing between $970 million and $1.35 billion. Incorporating the perspectives of a wide body of stakeholders (from utilities to municipalities to generators), the study wound up recommending a suite of policies that would facilitate the installation of 600 MWh of storage capacity by 2025, representing about 6 minutes of the state's daily electricity consumption and delivering $800 million in benefits to ratepayers. It would also make the Commonwealth a leader in advanced storage technology and deliver substantial greenhouse gas reductions. At the end of 2015 according to figures from the Department of Energy, Massachusetts ranked 23rd in the United States in energy storage deployment, well behind the leader Arizona, with nearly 300 MWh, and Texas, with over 150 MWh.

After a salesman jokingly asks a female colleague if her appearance is the reason for her inclusion in a leadership program, his friend, the only other person present, reports the incident to HR. Then the female colleague must decide, in view of her company's zero-tolerance policy, whether or not to pursue a complaint. This fictional case study by J. Neil Bearden features expert commentary by Maria Galindo and Sarah Beaulieu.

After a salesman jokingly asks a female colleague if her appearance is the reason for her inclusion in a leadership program, his friend, the only other person present, reports the incident to HR. Then the female colleague must decide, in view of her company's zero-tolerance policy, whether or not to pursue a complaint. This fictional case study by J. Neil Bearden features expert commentary by Maria Galindo and Sarah Beaulieu.

After a salesman jokingly asks a female colleague if her appearance is the reason for her inclusion in a leadership program, his friend, the only other person present, reports the incident to HR. Then the female colleague must decide, in view of her company's zero-tolerance policy, whether or not to pursue a complaint. This fictional case study by J. Neil Bearden features expert commentary by Maria Galindo and Sarah Beaulieu.

When Jean-Philippe Courtois took control of Microsoft's global sales, marketing and operations in 2016, reporting directly to CEO Satya Nadella, he realised that he needed to lead the organisation away from an "inspection culture" towards a culture of learning and coaching. After a first phase of transformation focused on giving Microsoft's sales teams the right skills to accompany customers as they moved to the cloud, a second phase aimed to fundamentally transform their behaviours and mindsets. The case study describes how Courtois and his leadership team envisioned and executed a culture change effort consisting of harnessing technology to generate insights into employee and partner work patterns and enabling coaching conversations that would help staff more effectively leverage their time to serve customers and attain key results.

The case can be used in a session on entrepreneurship, disruptive technology innovation, or focus as an aspect of strategy. The case profiles Mettl Inc., an Indian online assessment startup, as it lays the groundwork for becoming one of India's first software as a service (SAAS) companies to breach the USD 100 million threshold. Solving for flexibility, system resilience, dispersed geographical spread of candidates and test integrity, Mettl was looking to develop a viable alternative to traditional assessment methods. The case provides an outline of the assessment industry and the factors that influence Mettl's market strategy. Using the personal journeys of Mettl's founders Ketan Kapoor and Tonmoy Shingal as a narrative hook to play itself out, the case traces the conception of their initial vision and examines the market forces that led them to pivot and build a technology platform that delivered assessments. It goes on to chronicle Mettl's journey from the garage to a dedicated office in the Indian National Capital Region (NCR). Successes, setbacks and the factors on which they are predicated are discussed in detail. The case also chronicles various rounds of funding and provides critical insights into the thinking of India's pre-eminent early stage venture capitalists. It then ventures to put this initial success in perspective and asks the hard question about the future of the enterprise: How would Kapoor and Shingal traverse the road to 100 million?

An uneasy ceasefire has held in Western Sahara since 1991, largely preventing a resumption of armed conflict. Yet a final status agreement to sustainably resolve the conflict has proved elusive. This case describes the strategy and tactics employed by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker to mediate an end to the Western Sahara territorial dispute from 1997 to his resignation as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Personal Envoy in 2004. A highly skilled and accomplished international diplomat, Baker's attempts to resolve the Western Sahara conflict were ultimately unsuccessful. The case maps out a complex web of relationships between Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, the US, France, UK, Spain and the "Frente Polisario" movement in Western Sahara. Every time the negotiations appeared to take a step forward, the process was put two steps back a matter of weeks or months later. Little changed on the ground in Western Sahara. The obstacles to determining the final status of the disputed territory had only grown increasingly entrenched during Baker's fruitless efforts to negotiate a solution. Through the late 2010s, Western Sahara continues to be an important, if relatively neglected, conflict in the Middle East and North Africa region.

In 2016, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Feihe International Inc. (Feihe), the manufacturer of a leading infant formula brand in China, was considering whether his company should enter Canada. Although the company would be challenged by the Canadian dairy industry's unique supply management system, Canada was eager to attract foreign investment and the CEO needed to overcome the intense domestic competition in China's infant formula market. The CEO needed to decide on an integrated strategy to enter Canada. Should he pursue a greenfield strategy, an acquisition, or a joint venture?

India's most recognized celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor has been an integral part of the country's food industry since 1993. As a celebrity chef, Kapoor enjoyed a 17-year run of his hit TV cooking show "Khana Khazana", published more than 100 cookbook titles in multiple languages and endorsed a variety of brands. Kapoor later turned entrepreneur when he established a restaurant company that has partnered with more than 60 restaurant franchisees worldwide and launched his own TV channel-FoodFood. Although Kapoor has multiple businesses, he continues to find more exciting growth opportunities coming his way.

In December 2015, the new government in Argentina lifted capital controls, leading to a sudden drop in the value of the Argentine peso. This depreciation of the peso had the potential to significantly affect companies that exported goods to Argentina. One such company was Bajaj Auto Limited (Bajaj Auto), an Indian exporter of motorcycles to Argentina. On December 18, 2015, Bajaj Auto's shares dropped 2.43 per cent and lost over US$212 million in market capitalization. The market was reacting to concerns that exports from the world's fourth-largest manufacturer of two-wheelers, Bajaj Auto, might be hurt in Argentina, where it was the market leader with over 30 per cent of the market share. Following the 30 per cent decline of the peso on December 16, 2015, there was uncertainty about the future of the currency. What caused Argentina to lift currency controls and float the peso? Why had the Argentine peso depreciated so sharply, and what was its future course? Moreover, how would this affect Bajaj Auto and how could it handle such a crisis?

This case focuses on the introduction of the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule in 2018 and General Motors' (GM's) challenge regarding how to best respond during the proposed rule's public comment period. GM, a company committed to a vision of zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion, can respond to the SAFE public comment period in one of four ways: support the new SAFE standards, favor maintaining the status quo Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, propose a National Zero Emission Vehicle (NZEV) program, or opt to say nothing. The case presents GM's company history, the history of U.S. fuel economy standards, the electric vehicle market, and an overview of the stakeholder landscape surrounding this issue. Students will explore how sustainability, government, and business interconnect when making a policy recommendation that will not only affect GM's business but also the trajectory of sustainability within the auto industry as a whole.

In 2016, the supply chain manager at Northwestern Memorial Hospital recognized that many problems occurring throughout the hospital originated at the hospital receiving area. Some problems had reached epic proportions: overstocking at par locations, stocking at temporary locations, misplaced items, expired items, and inaccurate inventory records. Most of the problems could be traced to the receiving area's procedures and average three-day dock-to-stock lead time. A value-stream mapping kaizen event revealed that a big contributor to the long lead time was the receiving area's reliance on batch-oriented processing. The supply chain manager recognized the severity of the situation and urgent need to do something to improve operations in the receiving area and shorten the lead time from package arrival to final delivery. He felt that reducing the lead time from three days to one day would reduce or eliminate many of the problems, and it seemed a reachable goal. The supply chain manager intended to approach this challenge using the lean production practices he had successfully employed elsewhere.

Case A describes a leadership crisis affecting the managing director of the German construction company SÄBU Holzbau GmbH. In 2013, severe organizational problems, such as deficiencies in internal communication, indecisiveness, and a lack of clarity in the distribution of tasks and responsibilities, led to frustrations for both customers and employees. The crisis culminated with three key employees leaving the company because they were no longer willing to cope with what they described as "chaos."

In late September 2017, the country manager of Garrard Japan was reviewing an interim strategy to deal with emerging, negative views on the ongoing globalization of industry and commerce. Garrard Japan was a wholly owned subsidiary of Garrard S.A., a leading packaged foods company. The European-based multinational enterprise had been a major contributor to globalizing trade and commerce, and the survey results had highlighted a Japanese view that global companies were concerned more with profits than with meeting the needs of local communities. The country manager wondered whether the strategy developed by his team to change these perceptions was adequate. He was also considering how to execute the strategy and who should pay for it: Garrard Japan or Garrard S.A.?

In 2014, Song Weiping, the founder, chair, and major shareholder of the high-end residential property developer Greentown China Holdings Limited (Greentown), based in Hangzhou, China, had started to consider decreasing his involvement in his company. Without any family to provide an obvious successor, Song had to evaluate different ways to leave the business he founded. The alternatives ranged from selling all or part of his holdings to keeping his shares but having someone else manage the company. If he chose to resign his position as chair and remain as a financial investor, he would have to find a suitable successor to act as chief executive officer. If he chose to sell his interest in the company, what criteria should he use to determine the best buyer or buyers? How much should he sell, and how could he determine a fair price?

At the end of 2017, the human resources director at Yuanbo Education Group, a fast-growing educational service enterprise located in Shanghai, China, was struggling to calm down the managers, who were complaining about their salaries. Managers of the established business units were paid a relatively lower base salary but often with a sizable bonus tied to a revenue target. In contrast, the new hires for the recently established business units were paid a much higher base pay but with little or no bonus available. Both veteran and new managers were dissatisfied with their pay structure. The human resources director knew that he needed to take action soon. But what should he do and where should he start?

In June 2018, Ow Fook Chuen, the Accountant-General of the Accountant-General's Department (AGD), was in charge of the Accountant-General's Department (AGD) as it sought to improve through innovation and the use of technology. Being the steward of public sector finance transformation, AGD partnered public sector agencies to uplift the role of finance from being the custodian of public finance, to a strategic partner who empowers decision-making. In its role, AGD had to handle various financial transactions related to the government and its vendors, and process the payroll of all government officers. Staff from AGD were seconded to work closely with other public sector finance professionals in the finance and internal audit departments of various public sector agencies in order to implement key initiatives. To improve the accuracy and efficiency of its processes, AGD had reviewed new technologies and spoke to private sector companies on their experiences. It linked many individual systems used by various ministries across the Whole-of-Government (WOG) into a central data analytics platform to enable public sector agencies to perform their jobs more effectively and efficiently. Despite facing a few challenges, Ow knew that the data analytics journey would help AGD strengthen finance functions across WOG.

In 2013, India passed a law to make corporate social responsibility mandatory for large companies. The case examines the context in which the CSR legislation was introduced and how Tata Motors Ltd (TML) responded to it. Case (A) explores the meaning of corporate social responsibility and the question of whether a company should put community projects before profits. Case (B) examines Tata Motors' CSR programmes in depth and provides an opportunity to consider their impact. Students are challenged to come up with their own ideas for how the philosophy of "more from less for more" can be used to address issues related to poverty and lack of education in India.

Baabuk, a Swiss based start-up with a branded offering in wool footwear was founded in 2014 by the married couple Dan and Galina Witting. Since then and to 2018, the founders have grown the firm to now offer three product lines of wool footwear, employ 5 staff and book CHF 1.4 Mio net revenues from selling its products across online, distributor and retail channels. The case introduces Baabuk's history, current business and financial situation. The case also highlights the competitive environment with specific focus on Allbirds, a venture-capital backed US start-up. Allbirds has a similar core product to Baabuk. Whilst Baabuk has remained self-financed, Allbirds has raised a number of funding rounds with a most recent valuation of US1.4bn. The case presents the founders in a position where they feel the potential of the product has been clearly demonstrated but also face an increasingly competitive environment. Their primary concern is to formulate the right channel and pricing strategy, but they are also considering external investment to help scale the business. They are in a dilemma as to how to take Baabuk forward and wonder whether they are asking themselves the right questions.