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• Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2019 (Revised January 2020)

  Nehemiah Mfg. Co.: Providing a Second Chance

  Michael Chu, Brian Trelstad and John Masko

  In 2009, Dan Meyer and Richard Palmer, two veterans of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, founded Nehemiah Manufacturing to build FMCG brands while providing jobs to Cincinnati, Ohio’s beleaguered urban core. Two years later, the pair made their first “second-chance” hire of a convicted felon, a successful experiment that would grow to define the company. By 2019, Nehemiah’s factory floor, as well as several supervisory and management positions, would be staffed by ex-offenders. With a robust net of social support services and a non-profit foundation for training peer companies in how to hire second-chance employees, Meyer and Palmer advocated using second-chance hiring to decrease turnover and create staff loyalty. This case deals with the challenges and opportunities associated with growing a manufacturing company while prioritizing a social mission and enables students to evaluate the potential of second-chance hiring programs.

  Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Employment; Human Capital; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Social Marketing; Mission and Purpose; Prejudice and Bias; City; Urban Scope; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Ohio; United States;

  Citation:

  Chu, Michael, Brian Trelstad, and John Masko. "Nehemiah Mfg. Co.: Providing a Second Chance." Harvard Business School Case 320-008, October 2019. (Revised January 2020.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2019 (Revised May 2019)

  GENTERA: Facing the Digital Age

  Michael Chu and Carla Larangeira

  After long dominating Mexican microfinance, Compartamos Banco faces the emergence of fintech, just as for the first time its loan portfolio and clients have declined. Enrique Majós, CEO of GENTERA, the bank´s parent company, is keenly aware of the profound changes since the Compartamos IPO in April 2007, when it was valued at $1.5 billion and became the first bank wholly dedicated to microfinance to be quoted in a major stock exchange. Since then, the market has become intensely competitive, with both large established institutions and new entrants vying for the same customers. Simultaneously, the digital era has spawned fintech, threatening to disrupt Compartamos’ highly successful model but also providing opportunities for the bank to reshape it. While challenged to manage key innovation within a leading incumbent, Majós must consider whether to commit his team to a major cost reduction in the next few years to his board of directors at their next meeting at the end of the month.

  Keywords: Micro Finance; base of the pyramid; fintech; Microfinance; Disruption; Innovation and Management; Competitive Strategy; North America; Mexico;

  Citation:

  Chu, Michael, and Carla Larangeira. "GENTERA: Facing the Digital Age." Harvard Business School Case 319-092, March 2019. (Revised May 2019.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2018 (Revised January 2019)

  Gilead Mexico

  Michael Chu and V. Kasturi Rangan

  With a breakthrough cure for Hepatitis C listing in the U.S. at $1,000/pill, Gilead must now solve the issue of making it available to patients across the world, much as it did for its blockbuster HIV/AIDS antiretrovirals. For Erik Musalem, the new general manager of Gilead Mexico, the challenge was complicated by operating in a middle-income country, where Gilead’s terms for more vulnerable nations did not apply. For all practical purposes, Musalem had only one customer for his company’s Hep C medicine: Mexico’s public health system and the National Pricing Commission that set prices annually for the entire sector. With no lack of priorities competing for the finite resources of the public health sector, Musalem’s charge was to devise the strategy that in the long run would maximize access to the cure in Mexico while protecting the financial strength of Gilead Sciences, Inc.

  Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Price; Strategy; Management; Pharmaceutical Industry; Mexico;

  Citation:

  Chu, Michael, and V. Kasturi Rangan. "Gilead Mexico." Harvard Business School Case 318-111, March 2018. (Revised January 2019.)  View Details

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