Apollo Hospitals--First-World Health Care at Emerging-Market Prices

Felix  Oberholzer-Gee; Tarun   Khanna; Carin-Isabel  Knoop

Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2005 (Revised June 2007)

Apollo Hospitals--First-World Health Care at Emerging-Market Prices

by Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Tarun Khanna and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Abstract

The Apollo Hospitals Group, one of Asia's premier health care organizations, had come to rival the best health care organizations on the globe. Apollo offered advanced medical procedures, such as cardiac surgery using the beating heart technique, at very high levels of quality but at a fraction of the cost of hospitals in the West. Apollo's managers must decide how best to capitalize on the group's remarkable medical capabilities. One option was to bet on global medical tourism by trying to attract patients from Asia and worldwide needing advanced medical procedures. Thailand had set the example for medical tourism and attracted more than one million patients a year, most of them undergoing plastic surgery. Another option Apollo considered was to build and manage hospitals abroad.

Keywords: Vertical Integration; Decision Choices and Conditions; Health Care and Treatment; Global Strategy; Developing Countries and Economies; Health Industry; Thailand; United States; India;

Format: Print

20 pages

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Citation:

Oberholzer-Gee, Felix, Tarun Khanna, and Carin-Isabel Knoop. "Apollo Hospitals--First-World Health Care at Emerging-Market Prices." Harvard Business School Case 706-440, October 2005. (Revised June 2007.)

Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2019

Rural Taobao: Alibaba's Expansion into Rural E-Commerce

Tarun Khanna, Ryan Allen, Adam Frost and Wesley Koo

Alibaba's Rural Taobao initiative had been launched in 2014 as a public service initiative to increase e-commerce adoption in China’s remote rural areas. In the first two iterations of the initiative, dubbed “1.0” and “2.0”, Alibaba had partnered with local businesses and young returnees to operate village stations. Village stations served as logistical and educational hubs to help villagers make online purchases. Despite significant growth in sales through village stations, the business model was operating at a loss, and competitors JD and Pinduoduo were growing quickly, threatening to challenge Alibaba by claiming the rural e-commerce markets. Bill Wang, the head of the initiative, was tasked with designing and implementing the next model for Alibaba’s future expansion into rural areas. The decision centers around whether Alibaba should copy the successes of competitors JD and Pinduoduo, escalate commitment to its original value proposition (hands-on service to villagers), or embrace an entirely new model. The case highlights the competing pressures of financial performance, CSR and corporate mission, government relations, and long-term competitive positioning that are common to major strategic decisions.

Keywords: strategy; Business growth; ecommerce; corporate social responsibility; Business and Government; emerging market; Market Platforms; Online Technology; Emerging Markets; Rural Scope; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Decision Making; China;

Citation:

Khanna, Tarun, Ryan Allen, Adam Frost, and Wesley Koo. "Rural Taobao: Alibaba's Expansion into Rural E-Commerce." Harvard Business School Case 719-433, January 2019. View Details

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Apollo Hospitals--First-World Health Care at Emerging-Market Prices

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