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- December 2021
- Case
Pairwise
By: José B. Alvarez and Annelena Lobb
Pairwise discusses the strategic approach of a company aiming to “snackify” fruits and vegetables by using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to create nutritious, bite-sized foods that could compete with packaged snacks. The company is confronting a number of challenges,...
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- May 2021 (Revised September 2021)
- Case
Accounting for Bitcoin at Tesla
By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Siyu Zhang
On February 8, 2021, Tesla revealed, through its 10-K filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that it had purchased $1.5 billion of Bitcoin, totaling 7.5% of the company’s cash, and that it planned to accept payments in the cryptocurrency soon. These...
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- March 2021 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
Seeding and Selling Asana
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Susie Ma and Amram Migdal
In December 2019, Oliver Jay, Asana’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), was reconsidering his go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Asana was cloud-based work management software that enabled users to break up projects into discrete tasks that could be assigned, scheduled, and...
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Keywords:
SaaS;
Customer Journey;
Business Model;
Business Organization;
Change Management;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Growth Management;
Marketing Channels;
Marketing Strategy;
Product Marketing;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Organizational Design;
Organizational Structure;
Digital Platforms;
Internet and the Web;
Technology Industry;
United States
- Article
What Professional Service Firms Must Do to Thrive
By: Ashish Nanda and Das Narayandas
When the going gets tough, professional service firms (PSFs) often get desperate and chase all kinds of business just to keep the lights on. Consultancies, financial services firms, VC/PE firms, and the like offer services and sign up clients they should never have...
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- February 2021 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
SafeGraph: Selling Data as a Service
By: Ramana Nanda, Abhishek Nagaraj and Allison Ciechanover
Set in January 2021, the CEO of SafeGraph, a four-year-old startup that sold Data as a Service, looked to the future. His aim was to become the most trusted source for data about a physical place. The company provided points of interest (POI) and foot traffic data on...
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- January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
Jumia's Path to Profitability
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Gamze Yucaoglu
The case opens in September 2019 as Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, co-founders and co-CEOs of Jumia, the leading Pan-African e-commerce platform, are contemplating the company’s path to profitability in the aftermath of a fragile investor sentiment, as the company...
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Keywords:
Retail;
Business Models;
Business Model;
Business Startups;
Emerging Markets;
For-Profit Firms;
Strategy;
Digital Platforms;
Information Technology;
Technology Adoption;
Value Creation;
Globalization;
Entrepreneurship;
Competition;
Expansion;
Logistics;
Profit;
Resource Allocation;
Diversification;
Corporate Strategy;
Retail Industry;
Technology Industry;
Africa
- October 2020
- Case
Unison Capital Korea: Gong Cha
By: Victoria Ivashina and Sangyun Lee
In the Spring of 2017, Soomin Kim, Founding Partner of Unison Capital Korea, and his team were debating the potential exit of Unison Capital Korea’s investment in Gong Cha Korea, the sole local franchisor of the premium milk tea brand that they proprietarily sourced...
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- September 2020
- Case
Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience
By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller
Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in...
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- August 2020 (Revised March 2021)
- Supplement
Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations (B)
By: Antonio Moreno and Gamze Yucaoglu
The case opens in February 2020 as Ozgur Tort and Mustafa Bartin, CEO and chief large-format and online retail officer of Migros Ticaret A.S. (Migros), Turkey’s oldest and one of its largest supermarket chains, are looking over the results of the fulfillment pilot the...
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- March 2020 (Revised July 2022)
- Case
Levi Strauss (A): A Pioneer Lost in the Wilderness
By: Joshua Margolis, Ashish Nanda, Margaret Cross, Imran Manji and Bismah Rahmat
In 2011, newly appointed CEO Chip Bergh needed to urgently turn around the iconic but floundering denim apparel firm, Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.) Famous for its blue jeans, LS&Co. had suffered a decline in revenue of 29% from $6.8 billion in 1997 to $4.8 billion in...
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- January 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.
By: Anita Elberse and Melissa Rodman
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) develops and presents scripted hero-versus-villain storylines featuring its wrestlers at hundreds of live events—on several weekly television shows, on its own over-the-top streaming service, and on social media—to millions of...
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- December 2018
- Case
Choosy
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Julia Kelley
Founded in 2017, Choosy is a data-driven fashion startup that uses algorithms to identify styles trending on social media. After manufacturing similar items using a China-based supply chain, Choosy sells them to consumers through its website and social media pages....
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Keywords:
Artificial Intelligence;
Algorithms;
Machine Learning;
Neural Networks;
Instagram;
Influencer;
Fast Fashion;
Design;
Customer Satisfaction;
Customer Focus and Relationships;
Decision Making;
Cost vs Benefits;
Innovation and Invention;
Brands and Branding;
Product Positioning;
Demand and Consumers;
Supply Chain;
Production;
Logistics;
Business Model;
Expansion;
Internet and the Web;
Mobile and Wireless Technology;
Digital Platforms;
Social Media;
Technology Industry;
Fashion Industry;
North and Central America;
United States;
New York (state, US);
New York (city, NY)
- November 2018 (Revised February 2019)
- Case
Israel at 70: Is it Possible to (re)Brand a Country?
By: Elie Ofek and Sarah Gulick
In the spring of 2018, Israel was set to celebrate its 70th anniversary. While there was much to rejoice in reaching this milestone, the country’s brand image internationally was far from ideal. Past efforts to impact perceptions of Israel, spearheaded by the Ministry...
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- September 2018
- Case
Hunley, Inc.: Casting for Growth
By: John A. Quelch and James T. Kindley
Hunley, Inc. manufactures rods for the niche sport of fly fishing. It specializes in freshwater rods that are perceived as "middle-market" products, targeted at "avid" fly fishers. In the face of declining revenue and a decreasing price per unit sold, the company's...
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- June 2018
- Case
Candor at Clever
By: Ethan Bernstein and Om Lala
Clever, a high-growth EdTech company based in San Francisco, had grown quickly in market share and headcount. As with many high-growth companies, however, early employees (many of whom had never managed people before) had been given the opportunity to manage teams, and...
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Keywords:
Performance Feedback;
Talent Development And Retention;
Talent Management;
Feedback;
Difficult Conversations;
Radical Candor;
Scaling Start-ups;
Scaling And Growth;
Developing Effective Managers;
Effective Managers;
First-time Managers;
Kim Scott;
Clever;
Bay Area;
Silicon Valley;
Interpersonal Communication;
Talent and Talent Management;
Human Resources;
Leadership Development;
Management Practices and Processes;
Management Skills;
Management Style;
Organizations;
Organizational Culture;
Performance Evaluation;
Conflict and Resolution;
Technology Industry;
Education Industry;
San Francisco;
United States
- April 2018 (Revised March 2019)
- Case
Tesla-SolarCity
By: E. Scott Mayfield and Emil N. Siriwardane
On June 21, 2016, Tesla Motors, Inc. announced its offer to acquire SolarCity, bringing CEO Elon Musk one step closer to completing his goal of moving the world from a hydrocarbon-based economy to a solar-electric one. Markets and analysts were mixed in their reaction...
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- February 2018
- Article
Auctions versus Posted Prices in Online Markets
By: Liran Einav, Chiara Farronato, Jonathan Levin and Neel Sundaresan
Auctions were very popular in the early days of internet commerce, but today online sellers mostly use posted prices. We model the choice between auctions and posted prices as a trade-off between competitive price discovery and convenience. Evidence from eBay fits the...
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- February 2017 (Revised June 2017)
- Case
ExxonMobil: Business as Usual? (A)
By: George Serafeim, Shiva Rajgopal and David Freiberg
Climate change was becoming an important societal and business issue as more governments were introducing climate change related regulations and investors became increasibly worried about stranded assets within oil and gas firms. In September 2016, the U.S. Securities...
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- August 2016 (Revised October 2016)
- Case
Nirvana Vihar Rehabilitation Homes
By: Shawn Cole, Andreas Rotenberg and Thomas van den Aarssen
Kumar Builders (KUL) was finally nearing completion on the four luxury condominium towers that comprised the first phase of its bold vision for the redevelopment of more than 70 acres of prime real estate in downtown Pune, India. The Nirvana Hills development also...
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- April 2016 (Revised June 2019)
- Case
The Walt Disney Studios
By: Anita Elberse
In December 2015, Alan Horn, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, celebrates the world premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens—only the latest in a string of big bets that he has overseen. Disney pursues a “tentpole strategy” that revolves around at least eight...
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Keywords:
Entertainment;
Movie Industry;
Film;
Creative Industries;
Product Portfolio Management;
Innovation;
Branding;
Talent;
Blockbuster;
Superstar;
Film Entertainment;
Media;
Strategy;
Talent and Talent Management;
Creativity;
Product Launch;
Brands and Branding;
Product Development;
Marketing;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry