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• Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2017 (Revised June 2018)

  OCP Group

  Kristin Fabbe, Forest Reinhardt, Natalie Kindred and Alpana Thapar

  This case explores the strategy of OCP Group, the 95% state-owned Moroccan firm charged with managing the North African country’s vast reserves of phosphate. Phosphate was one of the most vital macronutrients for plant health, along with nitrogen and potassium, and Morocco had about 75% of known worldwide reserves. In 2017, under the leadership of Dr. Mostafa Terrab, OCP was halfway through a $20 billion industrial transformation program aimed at increasing its industrial capacity, improving cost efficiencies, and boosting long-term competitiveness. The program involved moving OCP beyond mining and exporting raw phosphate rock—its traditional focus, which it performed at a relatively low cost—towards greater production of phosphoric acid and finished fertilizer products. In the next phase of the program, OCP planned to ramp up its focus on fertilizer production, especially for markets in Africa, where fertilizer was historically underutilized. Terrab and his team saw an opportunity to nurture and meet fertilizer demand by creating products tailored to the needs of African farmers. This case provides background on Morocco, the fertilizer industry, and OCP Group’s past, current, and envisioned strategy and operations. With this context, students are invited to consider how aggressively OCP Group should pursue downstream integration (and specifically its Africa strategy), as well as how OCP can best leverage its competitive advantages and utilize Morocco’s phosphate reserves to its—and Morocco’s—benefit.

  Keywords: OCP; OCP Group; Casablanca; chemicals; Chemicals; Operations; Transformation; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Chemical Industry; Morocco;

  Citation:

  Fabbe, Kristin, Forest Reinhardt, Natalie Kindred, and Alpana Thapar. "OCP Group." Harvard Business School Case 718-002, December 2017. (Revised June 2018.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2017 (Revised May 2018)

  Amazon Buys Whole Foods

  José B. Alvarez, David Lane and Joni Coughlin

  The June 2017 news that e-commerce giant Amazon was paying $13.7 billion for organic supermarket chain Whole Foods precipitated a broad sell-off in the shares of grocery retailers and suppliers. Behind the precipitous declines lay recognition that Amazon’s bold move into brick and mortar assets offered transformational opportunities. Amazon could gain expertise in perishable product sales and procurement, plus access to 30 million well-off shoppers and 463 grocery stores in key U.S. markets. Whole Foods could absorb Amazon’s technology and process expertise to modernize and reduce its operating costs, which were among the highest in the industry. For grocery retailers and suppliers, the deal portended increased competitive pressures in a saturated market. As 2018 dawned, all parties were assessing the deal’s implications. Had the stock market overreacted to news of the deal? Why was Amazon buying Whole Foods? What were the long-term implications of the deal for the food value chain?

  Keywords: Amazon; Whole Foods; grocery; grocery delivery; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; e-commerce; business models; Agribusiness; food value chain; Agribusiness; Mergers and Acquisitions; Operations; Competitive Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Retail Industry; Web Services Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Alvarez, José B., David Lane, and Joni Coughlin. "Amazon Buys Whole Foods." Harvard Business School Case 518-056, December 2017. (Revised May 2018.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2017 (Revised April 2018)

  Area One Farms

  Forest Reinhardt, Jose B. Alvarez and Annelena Lobb

  In 2017, Joelle Faulkner, CEO of Area One Farms, a Canadian private-equity fund focused on investing in the best Canadian farms and helping them expand, considered the merits and disadvantages of expanding her business to the U.S. While the markets shared some similarities, Faulkner did not know the U.S. market as well as the Canadian one. Could her joint venture partnership model work as well in the U.S. as it had in her home country?

  Keywords: Expansion; Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Canada; United States;

  Citation:

  Reinhardt, Forest, Jose B. Alvarez, and Annelena Lobb. "Area One Farms." Harvard Business School Case 518-069, December 2017. (Revised April 2018.)  View Details

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