In this installment of Organizational Performance, we draw attention to two types of shareholders that tend to push executive decision-making in different directions. Quality shareholders (QSs) invest in a small number of companies and hold their shares over time. QSs offer patient capital that allows executives to focus on building and sustaining competitive advantages. Transient institutional investors (TIIs) hold dispersed shareholdings across .....more

The objective of improved work-life balance is achieved. However, it prompts a discussion of whether management should take on special events during what is now a long weekend in order to improve the bottom line even more. The case raises questions about other businesses to which the Cyrus planning process and profit model can be applied.

Beth Sharp and Jennifer Brilliant founded Miracle Therapeutics based on intellectual property developed by Brilliant and her post-doctoral student, John Supreme, in Brilliant''s lab at Elite University (EU). Miracle will have to obtain a license from EU to the Brilliant patent rights and other technology, and the founders want this license to be exclusive. With venture funding waiting in the wings, Sharp and Brilliant set up a meeting with .....more

You can use these tactics before, during, or after.

Ariel Fristoe co-founded the Out of Hand Theater ensemble (OOH) in Atlanta in 2001. OOH began as a traditional theater nonprofit, which Ariel and her colleagues ran on a shoestring budget. But over the years, the group transformed: First, around 2010, OOH pivoted to science outreach. Then, around 2018, OOH shifted its focus to racial and economic justice, and staged a series of shows in Atlanta community members'' private homes.

In February 2023 acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay is filming her latest movie, Origin, a daring adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson''s book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. With Origin, DuVernay is pioneering a method to finance the endeavor-through a combination of investors and grantors-that is unheard of for a film of its size. A group of charitable institutions and individual donors have brought in around $35 million needed to acquire .....more

BC Cancer was a provincial government-funded treatment and research organization that provided cancer care in British Columbia (BC), Canada. During 2021-2022, BC Cancer developed a connected chatbot to improve patient access to information and reduce demands on the telephone nursing lines. A project manager oversaw the chatbot''s development and ran a proof of concept in Victoria, BC, from March to June 2022. While this allowed her working .....more

The president of the West Coast Cycling Association (WCCA) believed that a lot was riding on finding the best way to secure the future of the Newfoundland and Labrador non-profit organization. He had to consider how to effectively fulfill what he saw as the WCCA''s mission, better promote mountain biking throughout the region, and build a sustainable financial future for the association. While there were several viable options that could meet .....more

In 2022, Michael Steiner, Porsche''s Executive Board Member for Research and Development, confronted a pivotal decision as the company aimed to shift over 80 per cent of new vehicle sales to full-electric models by 2030. In response to the global drive for sustainability, Porsche contemplated an innovative strategy: the eFuels concept, involving the production of synthetic fuels with near-carbon-neutral potential. This presented a solution .....more

Oak Street Health opened its first primary care center for seniors in underserved communities in 2013. By 2022 the company had 169 centers and a market valuation exceeding $10 billion. Oak Street created value by accepting risk-adjusted, capitated payments for Medicare enrollees and reducing the expected spending for these enrollees through high-quality, high-touch primary care. In 2023 CVS Health acquired Oak Street on the thesis of substantial synergies .....more