Subject area: Healthcare UX Strategy
Region: United-States, Boston, MA
Industry: Healthcare industry, focus on COVID-19 vaccine development
Company: GoInvo
Timeframe: Fall 2020
Decision Maker: Juhan Sonin
Challenge: In the fall of 2020, Juhan Sonin, leader of the healthcare user experience design firm GoInvo in Boston, MA was looking to create a product that would help people understand when they would receive their COVID-19 vaccine. COVID-19 turned the world upside down, rapidly forcing people to move their lives online. As the COVID-19 was beginning to be distributed, Juhan had to decide how to create a product that would be useful, engaging, and effective in decreasing confusion around the vaccine. However, he had to act quickly to ensure he was the first on the market with one of these tools. Sydney was excited to begin this project and apply strategy, public health, and design frameworks to solve this problem for Juhan.
(more…)Title: CVS Pharmacy Globalization Decision
Subject Area: International Business
Region: Dominican Republic
Industry: Retail Health Care
Company: CVS Pharmacy
Challenge: In this case, we analyzed CVS Pharmacy and its efforts for international expansion. This growth is motivated by a need for more pharmacies during the COVID-19 pandemic and a newfound global hyper-awareness of health. The two markets examined in this case study are the Dominican Republic and China. These choices were made because of the saturation of the market, geographical proximity to the home country, and closeness to other international locations. Both markets have appealing attributes. CVS Pharmacy previously expanded into Puerto Rico, therefore their next international location will determine the future of additional growth opportunities.
(more…)Title: Robinhood – Domestic Growth or International Expansion?
Subject area: Financial Services, stock trading platform
Region: United States, United Kingdom
Industry: Finance, investing, financial services
Company: Robinhood
Decision Makers: Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, Robinhood Co-CEOs
Dilemma: In the Summer of 2020, co-founders Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt of Robinhood were experiencing a large influx of users signing up for their financial trading platform due to individuals staying at home in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This provided a unique opportunity for Robinhood to either improve their position domestically, or attempt to replicate this growth in expanding to the United Kingdom. If Robinhood was not proactive, they may find themselves at a disadvantage to competitors in both markets. (more…)Title: Primex Plastics International Expansion into Scotland
Subject Area: International Business
Region: United States and United Kingdom
Industry: Manufacturing, Plastics & Chemicals
Company: Primex Plastics & ICC Industries
Decision Makers: ICC President Blaise Sarcone
Challenge: In this case, we analyzed Primex Plastics, a large American plastics and chemicals manufacturer, and compared the markets of Thailand and Scotland as potential locations for the company’s international expansion. Primex is committed to sustainability, both in the economic impact of its product line, as well as its business practices. For the company to continue to grow into the 21st century, it must look beyond the U.S. Both markets had appealing characteristics, but we settled on Scotland mainly due to cultural similarity with the U.S., the maturity of its markets, the company’s existing presence and relationships in the U.K. and the organization’s current potential for cross-cultural management. This case provides a valuable framework for ICC President Blaise Sarcone and the Farber family as they evaluate Primex’s potential for international growth. (more…)Subject area: International Business
Region: Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil)
Industry: Software as a Service (Saas), On-Demand Transit
Company: Blaise Transit
Timeframe: 2020
Decision Maker: Justin Hunt, Co-Founder of Blaise Transit
Dilemma: As of summer 2020 Blaise Transit had carried out contracts in two Canadian cities and was in the process of negotiating contracts with a number of other cities in Canada and Europe. At this point, Blaise had invested hefty amounts of money in software development and was ready to take the next step; deployment. Blaise was looking towards announcing its first deployment in Canada and was additionally looking into the possibility of short term deployment in Asia and Europe. Due to favorable market and industry conditions, Blaise co-founder Justin Hunt had the desire to explore the possibility of expanding into emerging markets, and more specifically, Latin America. In order for Blaise to take the next step in expanding into Latin America one question had to be answered: Which markets in Latin America would best suit Blaise’s ambitions and why?
(more…)Title: Akaneo Company Case
Subject Area: Corporate Strategy for Business Sustainability
Region: United States
Industry: Product information management (PIM)
Company: Akaneo
Challenge: Akeneo is a Software-as-a-Service company that prides itself on delivering lean and efficient product information management (PIM) software to its business clients. The PIM is offered in two versions: free and enterprise. Akeneo is a global leader in the PIM industry and provides a critical software backbone for thousands of retail companies. However, after attending a major technology conference, CEO Frédéric de Gombert realized that Akeneo’s enterprise offering was not attracting enough clients. Smaller companies, despite needing PIM software, were unable to fully utilize or need the larger scale enterprise edition that Akeneo was pushing. In order to maintain Akeneo’s competitive advantage in the PIM market, Akeneo needs to expand to a more inclusive client base and retain existing relationships. (more…)
Title: Traditional Financial Advising in the Age of Fintech Case
Subject Area: Corporate strategy
Region: United States
Industry: Financials Services - Private Wealth Management & Fintech
Company: Goldman Sachs, Inc.
Challenge: In the face of increasing competition of automated investing software, Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management division, in the financial services industry and located in New York, NY, has to differentiate itself in the market of increasing technology to avert declining revenues in this segment. ● The team was very passionate about the sustainability challenge and conducted extensive research into the corporate company and industry to evaluate different scenarios and assess which one would be the most successful considering the mission, value, and vision of the company.
(more…)Title: Eric’s Health Food Shoppe: Facing The Challenge of Substitutes
Subject Area: Competitive strategy
Region: United States
Industry: Organic Food and Beverage Industry
Company: Eric’s Health Food Shoppe
Challenge: Eric’s Health Food Shoppe has a mission to build community through the sale of healthy products and vitamins. Owner Eric Piker wants to keep his store competitive while still maintaining this goal—but his margins are thinning as competitors such as Amazon continue to undercut his prices. As the substitutes continue to enter the market, Eric worries that if he doesn’t act now, his business may have to close in the next five to seven years. Eric’s Health Food Shoppe is facing a challenge-problem of strategy recalibration.
(more…)Subject area: Emerging Economy, Business Internationalization
Region: Eastern Europe (Belarus), European Union, United States
Industry: Fire and smoke protection
Company: FireDoors.by
Decision Maker: Dmitry Bratanov, Director for Development and co-founder
Dilemma: Dmitry Bratanov, Director for Development and co-founder of FireDoors—a company producing antismoke and fire-protection curtains for public spaces—was convinced that, after the economic crisis in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region in 2014–2016, the company needed to expand to other markets in order to secure profitability and sustainability. (more…)
Subject area: International Business
Region: Middle East (Egypt), Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong)
Industry: Financial Services
Company: HC Security and Investments
Decision Maker: Mr. Choucri, CEO
Dilemma: The case involved an Egyptian investment company, HC Securities, which was facing challenges related to Egypt’s economic slowdown. Its CEO, Mr. Choucri felt expansion into an Asia-Pacific country could help with the company’s growth and stability. He identified Hong Kong and Singapore as the most compelling locations because of their sophisticated economies and growth potential in the investments industry. (more…)