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

  Fetchr: A New Way of Last Mile Delivery

  V.G. Narayanan and Eren Kuzucu

  By mid-2016, five years of aggressive growth had transformed Fetchr from a small logistics startup to a 1,000-employee, full-fledged last-mile delivery company operating across four countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Already beneficiaries of the largest Series A round to the Middle East from an American firm, CEO Idriss Al Rifai and the Fetchr team had ambitions of raising another $40 million in Series B and deliberated continuing international expansion. But first, Al Rifai and his team needed to address the operational efficiency and profitability issues that led their investors to threaten the discontinuation of funding and put the company’s future at stake. The case provides background information on the logistics sphere in the Middle East and the challenges companies face in the region. The case then takes the reader through Al Rifai’s journey of founding and growing Fetchr, backed with innovations like their patented GPS-based delivery technology. Finally, the case zooms in on Fetchr’s management team as they race against time to perform evaluations of their operational efficiency, weigh cost-cutting options, and explore strategies to improve profitability.

  Keywords: Startup; decision; financial strategy; UAE; KSA; MENA; Cost Accounting; Business Model; Business Startups; Transformation; Cost Management; Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Logistics; Service Delivery; Supply Chain Management; Performance Evaluation; Mathematical Methods; Mobile Technology; Transportation Networks; Middle East; United Arab Emirates; Dubai; Bahrain; Egypt; Saudi Arabia; North Africa;

  Citation:

  Narayanan, V.G., and Eren Kuzucu. "Fetchr: A New Way of Last Mile Delivery." Harvard Business School Case 119-018, March 2019. (Revised May 2019.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2016 (Revised July 2018)

  Accenture Human Capital Strategy

  Paula A. Price, V.G. Narayanan and James Weber

  Accenture is a leading global consulting, technology, and outsourcing company. It has clients and its own operations throughout the world. This case describes the human resources and related activities necessary to deliver its services to clients. It allows students to explore how Accenture predicts its staffing needs, identifies the necessary skills, identifies how to recruit staff, when to hire them, in what parts of the world, how to develop compensate, and motivate them, how to form them into project teams, and manage the process in a cost effective manner. The case also provides a fictional example of an Accenture project. A potential client has issued a request for proposals to deliver a technology project. Students are asked to create a project team with the right mix of people at a cost that is competitive enough to win the project.

  Keywords: management consulting; technology consulting; outsourcing; human resources; Human Resources; Activity Based Costing and Management; Management Practices and Processes;

  Citation:

  Price, Paula A., V.G. Narayanan, and James Weber. "Accenture Human Capital Strategy." Harvard Business School Case 117-032, August 2016. (Revised July 2018.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | February 2018 (Revised June 2018)

  The Music Academy, Madras

  V.G. Narayanan

  Keywords: India; Southeast Asia;

  Citation:

  Narayanan, V.G. "The Music Academy, Madras." Harvard Business School Case 118-054, February 2018. (Revised June 2018.)  View Details

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