Eneco Group, the second largest utility company in the Netherlands, launched a smart thermostat, Toon, that served as a platform for energy management services. Toon quickly became the gold standard for smart homes in the Netherlands. In January 2017, top management needed to discuss the strategic priorities to keep Toon’s lead and hold off the competition.

Teaching note for product 9B15A039.

DSM, a global life sciences, business-to-business company, is in the midst of a massive multi-year corporate rebranding exercise to incorporate the concept of creating sustainable shared value. With few precedents in this industry, the company must develop its own processes and implementation. Students are challenged to define the next steps in the rebranding, including the promotion of DSM’s sustainability positioning as its key differentiator.

A health services company is planning for an initial public offering. Its new business model is the farming of body parts to feed into the organ supply chain in developed economies to help reduce the waiting lists for organ transplants.

Teaching note for product 9B14M071.

Teaching note for product 9B14A023.

Five years earlier, a U.S.-based social enterprise, d.light design, launched its innovative brand of solar lamp in India. Although the company has gained market share, the category as a whole is not growing. The solar lamp market in India is complex, as a result of being both fragmented and disorganized. The company’s new head of Indian operations faces three dilemmas: How can the company scale up? How can the company improve the productivity of its .....more

In September 2011, the CEO of First Energy Private Ltd, a startup enterprise in the alternative energy industry in India, is facing a flashpoint. The company has commercialized the technology of biomass cooking stoves and has been providing, since 2007, clean and affordable cooking solutions to customers in rural India. A marginal hike in price of biomass fuel in early 2011 has, however, led to a steep fall in demand making the continuance in the .....more

A month after Best Buy Inc. (Best Buy), the largest retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, acquired Five Star, the third largest retailer of appliances and consumer electronics in China in May 2006, the management of Best Buy is weighing in on a branding option. Should Five Star lose its identity and be marketed as Best Buy? Or should Best Buy retain the Five Star brand and let the two brands compete with each other in the Chinese .....more

Dabur, an Indian consumer package goods company, had established a strong brand equity in India by offering, for decades, a vast portfolio of over-the-counter products. In seeking international expansion in 1987, it first took the export route. It also "followed" the customer, targeting the Indian diaspora in the Middle East, Africa and the United States, already familiar with the brand. By 2006, Dabur had set up five manufacturing facilities .....more