More and more manufacturing companies are talking about what''s often called the circular economy--in which businesses can create supply chains that recover or recycle the resources used to create their products. Shrinking their environmental footprint, trimming operational waste, and using expensive resources more efficiently are certainly appealing to CEOs. But creating a circular business model is challenging--and taking the wrong approach .....more

In May 2020, Scenic Floral Inc. (Scenic), a Beamsville, Ontario start-up that sourced fresh cut flowers from Colombian farms and the Niagara Peninsula, was aggressively looking to expand the business. The company''s Mother''s Day sales had started out very slowly in 2020 as the floral industry in Canada and worldwide began to recover from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While a flurry of last-minute orders from Scenic''s .....more

Praesens Care, a start-up based in Belgium, has developed a mobile laboratory with the aim of safely testing people for a wide range of killer diseases. Its mobile laboratories enable monitoring of infectious diseases and improve diagnostic capabilities in remote areas in Africa. The case tells the story from its origins to the difficulties encountered in the public health sector, with three questions at the core: what and who are its targets, how .....more

Praesens Care, a start-up based in Belgium, has developed a mobile laboratory with the aim of safely testing people for a wide range of killer diseases. Its mobile laboratories enable monitoring of infectious diseases and improve diagnostic capabilities in remote areas in Africa. The case tells the story from its origins to the difficulties encountered in the public health sector, with three questions at the core: what and who are its targets, how .....more

In 2019, the chairman and chief executive officer of Valeo, an automotive supplier and partner to automakers worldwide, faced the challenges of maintaining the company''s speed of growth and balancing its growth with profitability. Valeo had started as a small automobile component manufacturer in 1923 in France. By 2019, however, it was partnering with automakers to design innovative solutions for smart mobility with a focus on intuitive driving .....more

Tom Hermans, CEO of EMMA Safety Footwear, is excited about the idea of developing the world''s first circular safety shoe - one that adheres to the cradle-to-cradle design principles. This could be a transformational strategy, differentiating EMMA from the crowded safety shoe market in Europe and extending a long tradition of social responsibility since its establishment in 1931. Careful consideration and research are required because this .....more

This case is the continuation of EMMA Safety Shoes (A): Designing a Circular Shoe. EMMA reached 100% circularity in shoe design at the end of 2019, but this impressive achievement did not mean its journey to the circular economy was over. EMMA Safety Footwear - Implementing the Circular Business maps out several milestones in the transition of its business model, recycling logistics, supply-chain management and internal culture to make the circular .....more

The chief executive officer of Ruaha Farm (T) Ltd (Ruaha Farm), in Iringa, Tanzania, established his honey business, in 2012. The company''s business model relied on the engagement and empowerment of neighbouring communities of low-income beekeepers, creating mutually beneficial relationships with local beekeeping communities in the Iringa region. The business model was unique, asset-light, and scalable. In contrast with an integrated business .....more

In January 2019, one of the founding members and current board members of Londvolota, a South African trust formed by General Electric South Africa (GESA) in 2015, faced a challenge. Londvolota needed to improve the establishment and growth of entrepreneurial South African businesses as part of GESA''s development of local suppliers, which aimed to enable the best of these businesses to supply the global GE network. The initiative represented .....more

This note gives managers a concrete perspective on what ''a strategy'' really is, what makes a decision ''strategic,'' and what ''strategic thinking'' means. It also gives them practical frameworks to assess whether some set of decisions is really a strategy and how to assess a strategy''s effectiveness. It finally also gives managers a starting point for developing strategy in the form of the .....more