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• Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2019

  Family Matters: Governance at the Zamil Group

  Christina R. Wing, Suraj Srinivasan and Esel Çekin

  This case focuses on a large Saudi Arabian industrial conglomerate and family business Zamil Group’s corporate and the family’s governance journey. The 12 sons of the founder led and grew the group successfully after taking over from their father in 1961. The secret to their success was to arrive at all decisions with a consensus, although each had their own approach to dealing with issues. In the mid-1990s, they hired world-class consultants and created manuals and guidelines for governing the business and continuing the growth of the Group’s assets. They were the model for running a family business in Saudi Arabia. However, the increasing number of family members in the group—84 third-generation and 162 fourth-generation members and the upcoming fifth generation—created challenges going forward. They wanted to ensure that the governance principles they had created would evolve and develop in line with the changing dynamics. The upcoming generations did not have jobs waiting for them in the family business simply because they were members of the Zamil family, and not all of them were motivated to remain invested in the businesses. The second-generation and senior members of the third-generation wanted to make sure that they balanced the needs of the business and those of individual family members. They sought to put mechanisms in place that would keep the shares of the business in the family so as to avoid diluting the family’s ownership as they diversified the asset portfolio, addressed diverse risks, and catered to the consumption goals of the next generation. This might mean that the Group would eventually move from being operators to becoming financial investors.

  Keywords: Family Business; Governance; Organizational Structure; Values and Beliefs; Steel Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Middle East; Saudi Arabia; Bahrain;

  Citation:

  Wing, Christina R., Suraj Srinivasan, and Esel Çekin. "Family Matters: Governance at the Zamil Group." Harvard Business School Case 620-009, August 2019.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2017 (Revised June 2019)

  JOE & THE JUICE Crosses the Atlantic (with video link)

  Ethan Rouen and Suraj Srinivasan

  As JOE & THE JUICE began its rapid U.S. expansion in 2017, its founder and CEO, Kaspar Basse, fretted about how he could keep his employees feeling like they were doing meaningful work. Founded in 2001, JOE & THE JUICE had always focused on making healthy juices, banning prepackaged or processed foods, and providing meaningful work for front-line food services employees. To instill employees with a sense of ownership, JOE & THE JUICE had developed a transparent promotion and compensation scheme, a rigid training program, and an explicit promise to promote only from within (the CFO was 31-years-old and had spent a decade working at the company). On the other hand, employees were encouraged to make the juice bars their homes. There were no required uniforms or scripts on how to interact with customers. This strategy had led to great success in Europe. In a decade, JOE & THE JUICE had spread across the continent and was immensely profitable. But as it moved into the United States and prepared for a potential IPO, the company began struggling to retain talent and worried about how it could successfully import its internal culture while maintaining its rapid growth.

  Keywords: Organizational Culture; Employees; Retention; Expansion; Growth Management;

  Citation:

  Rouen, Ethan, and Suraj Srinivasan. "JOE & THE JUICE Crosses the Atlantic (with video link)." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Case 118-039, November 2017. (Revised June 2019.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2017 (Revised June 2019)

  Measuring True Value at Ambuja Cement

  V. Kasturi Rangan, Suraj Srinivasan and Namrata Arora

  The case discusses the measurement of social and environmental impact at Ambuja Cements, one of India’s leading cement companies. Ambuja is a leader in CSR activities and is attempting to quantify its impact, both positive and negative, using the “True Value” framework developed by the global accounting firm KPMG. True Value is an innovation in this area and tries to measure the financial cost and benefits of social and environmental impact and provide a standardized comparison across different kinds of social and environmental activities and their impact. The case allows students to discuss the challenges in measuring social and environmental impact and the pros and cons of quantifying the same in financial terms. The case elicits discussion surrounding the following questions: How do we develop a framework to measure the financial cost and benefits of social and environmental externalities? What are the challenges of doing so? What do we need to do to improve our ability to measure social and environmental impact in financial terms? How will such measurement be useful? Who will it be useful to? The case concludes with the CEO of Ambuja deciding whether or not to publicly release the “True Value” of the company.

  Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Value; Measurement and Metrics; Framework; Cost vs Benefits;

  Citation:

  Rangan, V. Kasturi, Suraj Srinivasan, and Namrata Arora. "Measuring True Value at Ambuja Cement." Harvard Business School Case 518-063, November 2017. (Revised June 2019.)  View Details

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