International

September 2021

Treeapp: Plant a tree for free, every day

By Ioannis Ioannou

The case describes the launch in the UK and Ireland in April 2020 of the mobile app Treeapp, intended to help combat the effects of climate change by enabling users to plant trees for free. The app is funded by Treeapp’s brand partners, who pay £1 to Treeapp every time a user watches an advert on...

July 2021

The ‘Funding Buffet’: Understanding the sources of capital to finance your venture – Technical Note

By Luisa Alemany, Gary Dushnitsky

This technical note is an introduction to the world of financing entrepreneurial ventures. It is a primer on the different stages of a business and the different types of financing available. Most of the capital that high-growth entrepreneurial businesses will secure to fund their future plans is pr...

February 2021

Finance for Entrepreneurial Companies: Financing Instruments – Technical Note

By John Mullins, Robert M Johnson, Steve Pesenti

Despite today’s growing attention to bootstrapping and the use of customer funding in the financing of new ventures, many new ventures, be they a startup or a plan to grow an existing business, will require some initial injection of capital to finance the fixed assets, working capital, and operati...

November 2020

Protean Electric: Innovation upon innovation

By David Arnold

The case is intended as a vehicle for analysis of the challenges involved in launching an innovative product. It is set against the background of the wave of innovation in the vehicle market, as manufacturers race to replace internal combustion engines (ICEs) with electric power. Protean Electric, a...

October 2020

The Marketing Process – Background Note

By Nader Tavassoli

The Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK defines marketing as: “The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably” 1 This note describes the marketing process...

October 2020

Brand Value and Valuation – Technical Note

By Nader Tavassoli

Brand valuation is the process of estimating the financial value of a brand. The valuation of brands as intangible assets emerged in the 1980s, when brands were first capitalized on post-M&A balance sheets. Brands are also valued for non-reporting purposes...

October 2020

The World Trade Organization and Tobacco Plain Packaging: Is Packaging Adverting and Does It Influence Consumption?

By Nader Tavassoli

On June 29, 2020, a dispute settlement panel convened by the World Trade Organization (WTO) rejected the appeal regarding its findings in the report “Australia – Certain Measures Concerning Trademarks, Geographical Indications and other Plain Packaging Requirements Applicable to Tobacco Products...

October 2020

Reinventing performance management at Allen & Overy

By Herminia Ibarra, Carrie J. Fletcher

By early 2019, Magic Circle law firm Allen & Overy (A&O) had replaced its longstanding, traditional annual review system with Compass, a state-of-the-art performance management process based on real-time feedback and planful career development discussions. As Managing Partner Andrew Ballheim...

July 2020

Haier’s (2019) ecosystem revolution: From Rendanheyi 2.0 to Rendanheyi 3.0

By Michael Jacobides, Lisa Duke

2019 was an important year for Haier. Its new version of its radically decentralised structure, dubbed Rendanheyi 2.0, based on many independent ‘Ecosystem Micro-enterprise Communities’ (EMCs) had been devised to help it respond to the shifting ways of adding value in the digital, internet-based...

July 2020

Haier’s Rendanheyi 2.0: An ecosystem revolution

By Michael Jacobides, Lisa Duke

Haier in 1984 was a small, local firm on the verge of collapse, with poor-quality products and low morale. Within 30 years, it was transformed by Zhang Ruimin, who took over as CEO, into one of the worlds’ leading white-goods manufacturers, with a reputation for quality and innovation and an incre...