Cold Call

Mexican convenience store chain OXXO dominated its market — until its chief rival doubled in size almost overnight. Harvard Business School professor Tatiana Sandino discusses how CEO Eduardo Padilla responded by creating an agile organization based on a team culture and strong management systems in her case, “OXXO’s Turf War Against Extra.”

Should large institutional investors divest or engage if they have an issue with a company? Harvard Business School professor Vikram Gandhi discusses why and how CalSTRS, the $200 billion pension plan for California public school teachers, chooses to engage with gun makers and retailers in California in his case, “CalSTRS Takes on Gun Violence.”

Harvard Business School professor Geoff Jones discusses his case, “Thomas J. Watson, IBM and Nazi Germany,” which explores the options and responsibilities of multinationals with investments in politically reprehensible regimes. The case considers the strategy of U.S.-owned IBM, then a manufacturer of punch cards, in Nazi Germany before 1937, and opens with IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson meeting Adolf Hitler in his capacity as President of the International Chamber of Commerce. IBM had acquired a German company in 1922 and, like other American companies, found itself operating after 1933 in a country whose government violently suppressed political dissent and engaged in intimidation and discrimination against Jews.

In 2014, Neel Ghose (MBA 2019) created The Robin Hood Army, an organization entirely based on volunteer work that used food redistribution as a medium to bring out the best in humanity. By the end of 2018, the Robin Hood Army was present in twelve countries, was serving over 500,000 meals per month, and had helped more than 750 children enroll in public schools. All of it without raising a single rupee, in line with their “golden rule” of being a zero-funds organization. Harvard Business School’s Susanna Gallani and Ghose discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with fast growth and international expansion of a startup that operates with no monetary assets, including how to attract, retain, and motivate workers.

Launched in the midst of the financial crisis in 2009, Goldman Sachs’ “10,000 Small Businesses” program provided free business education, a network of support, and access to capital for small businesses across the United States. The company committed $500 million to fund the program and nine years later had graduated 7,300 participants, just shy of its goal. Harvard Business School professor Len Schlesinger discusses the success, impact, and future of the program in his case, “Goldman Sachs: The 10,000 Small Businesses Program.”

Harvard Business School professors John Deighton and Jeffrey Rayport discuss their case, “Gimlet Media: A Podcasting Startup,” and how two former public radio producers launch a podcast network, entering the last frontier of digital media. Can they turn a content supplier into a disruptive platform?

Children’s Hospital & Clinics COO Julie Morath sets out to change the culture there by instituting “Blameless Reporting,” a policy which mandates that employees report anything that goes wrong or seems substandard without fear of reprisal for the act of reporting. Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson discusses getting an organization into the “High Performance Zone” by creating an environment of psychological safety and high accountability in her case, “Children’s Hospital & Clinics.”

Harvard Business School professor Stefan Thomke discusses how past experience and intuition can be misleading when attempting to launch an innovative new product, service, business model, or process in his case “Booking.com” (co-author: Daniela Beyersdorfer) and his new book, “Experimentation Works.” Instead, Booking.com and other innovative firms embrace a culture where testing, experimentation, and even failure are at the heart of what they do.

Harvard Business School professors Rebecca Henderson and George Serafeim discuss the efforts of Hiro Mizuno, CIO of GPIF, the Japanese Government Pension Investment Fund, one of the largest pools of capital in the world, to integrate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues into every aspect of GPIF’s portfolio. Mizuno believed the only way to meet his responsibilities to his beneficiaries was to improve the performance of the entire economy by improving corporate governance, increasing inclusion and gender diversity, and reducing environmental damage from climate change. But, would it be enough to change the world? Should a pension fund even try to change the world? Henderson and Serafeim discuss these questions and more in their case, “Should a Pension Fund Try to Change the World? Inside GPIF’s Embrace of ESG.”

Much of the advertising purchased during the Super Bowl is about selling corporate brands rather than products. Harvard Business School professor Shelle Santana discusses her case, “Super Bowl Storytelling,” (co-author: Jill Avery), regarding the art of storytelling on the world’s biggest television stage. Which stories win (or fumble) on game day?