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Chapter 12
ApproTEC Kenya: Technologies to Fight Poverty and Create Wealth; Rangan, V. Kasturi; Harvard Business School Publishing; 11/22/2002; (19 pages) Reference Number: 9-503-007 Revision Date: 09/19/2003 Description: ApproTEC markets a range of technologies to improve the income of subsistence farmers and other small-scale entrepreneurs in East Africa. Having achieved considerable success in its first eight years, the two founders/entrepreneurs are seeking ways to scale the impact of its operations across Eastern and Southern Africa. The question is, what should they do to accomplish this? Includes color exhibits. Dragon's Teeth Vineyards; MacCormack, Alan;Herman, Kerry;Leibold, Marius;Voepol, Sven; Harvard Business School Publishing; 12/04/2003; (21 pages) Reference Number: 9-604-069 Description: Dragon's Teeth Vineyards (DTV) is a South African wine producer that is considering whether to make use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in its wine-making process. GMOs promise to lower the costs of wine production significantly through increased yields and reduced processing times as well as significantly improve the quality of the final product via the use of GM yeasts in fermentation. However, the market acceptance of GMOs is unclear, due to perceived health risks and reactions from traditional "old world" producers who believe the beauty of wine lies in its craft, dependence on local soil and climate, and inherent variability. Teaching Purpose: To illustrate the management of a radical technological transition in a traditional industry. To assess the impact of an innovation on value capture Enabling Business Strategy with IT at the World Bank; McFarlan, F. Warren;DeLacey, Brian; Harvard Business School Publishing; 11/06/2003; (30 pages) Reference Number: 9-304-055 Description: World Bank IT provides services (communications, applications, video conferencing, knowledge sharing, distance learning, information sharing, client commerce, crisis management, etc.) on a global basis to the poorest countries in the globe via satellites. Covers the bank's global business strategy transformation and the role that IT plays enabling that vision. Covers strategy and implementation topics and conveys a sense of using IT to narrow the digital divide on a global scale while recapping the evolution of the bank's IT strategy and implementation from 1995 to 2003. Teaching Purpose: To heighten awareness of utilizing global networks and leveraging IT strategy to enable business strategy. Supplemental Material: Case Video, (9-304-805), 4 min, by F. Warren McFarlan;Case Video, (9-304-806), 6 min, by F. Warren McFarlan Finding the Balance: Intellectual Property in the Digital Age Publication Date: Feb 26, 2003 Author(s): Robert A. Burgelman , Philip Meza Product Number: SM107 Source: Stanford University Length: 18p Description: Digital media--legitimate and otherwise--were one of the few bright spots for high-technology companies in the middle of a deep and protracted recession. These demands left computer makers, builders of components such as microprocessors, software developers, and others between a rock and a hard place. Consumers disliked many of the anti-piracy technologies promoted by media companies because they often restricted legal (as well as illegal) uses of the technologies. High-technology companies feared government intrusion, legislating which technologies they could market. Many thought that digital media could provide compelling services (the "killer app") that would drive device sales and promote broadband uptake. The issues surrounding intellectual property protection could either promote or inhibit digital media. As these complementors squared off, countless billions of dollars and much of the future of media and technology were at stake. Teaching Purpose: To discuss the role of intellectual property in technology industries. Fuel Cells: The Hydrogen Revolution?; Eisenmann, Thomas;Willis, R. Matthew; Harvard Business School Publishing; 02/24/2004; (18 pages) Reference Number: 9-804-144 Description: Examines the challenges faced in establishing hydrogen fuel cell-powered transportation in the United States, which promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on imported oil. Foremost among these challenges is a "chicken-and-egg" dynamic: Consumers will not buy hydrogen-fueled vehicles until a nationwide network of hydrogen refueling stations is available, and such a network will not be supplied without a critical mass of vehicles. Explores efforts of the George W. Bush administration and the U.S. Department of Energy in developing hydrogen fuel cell technology and infrastructure and in overcoming the chicken-and-egg dynamic. Also covers industrial policy and tax regimes in the United States, Japan, and the European Union and the efforts of automobile manufacturers to develop environmentally friendly transportation. Teaching Purpose: To explore the appropriate scope of government intervention and financial support in encouraging a technology that has significant potential social benefits, but faces adoption barriers due to strong network effects. IPhoenix: Public Access Digital Distribution Centers; Pearce MR; Richard Ivey School of Business; 2002; (7 pages) Reference Number: 9B02A006 Description: iPhoenix was a consulting and public e-business management company focused on developing digital distribution center solutions for the public sector to provide consumer-based, secure public access to electronic information. The company would fulfill a wide range of needs, from basic services for people unfamiliar with the Internet (the digital divide) to enhanced, managed services for businesses. Their business would also be of interest to vendors looking for a digital channel to market, such as private and commercial enterprises, all levels of government and the financial industry. After working through a project plan and discussing their plans with numerous potential partners, the two owners are ready for a market pilot Life, Death, and Property Rights: The Pharmaceutical Industry Faces AIDS in Africa; Spar, Debora;Bartlett, Nicholas; Harvard Business School Publishing; 06/13/2002; (24 pages) Reference Number: 9-702-049 Description: In the final years of the 20th century, the world was hit by a plague of epidemic proportions--AIDS, a life-threatening disease that remained stubbornly immune to any cure or vaccine. In the developed nations of the West, AIDS was slowly brought under control through a combination of education, prevention, and cutting-edge medicines. But in the developing world, where health care expenditures were often paltry, AIDS continued to rampage. By the year 2000, 25 million people in Africa alone were infected with the disease. Millions had already died. Nearly all of the medicines that treated AIDS had been developed--at great expense--by the major western pharmaceutical firms. These medicines were expensive to produce and often difficult to administer. They demanded levels of income and structures of distribution that often were sorely lacking in the developing world. Increasingly, activists groups were demanding that the pharmaceutical companies respond to the AIDS epidemic with drastic measures, giving their drugs away for free or abandoning the patent rights that had long protected their intellectual property. The pharmaceutical firms needed to respond to their critics. The question was, how? Phase Two: The Pharmaceutical Industry Responds to AIDS; Spar, Debora;Bartlett, Nicholas; Harvard Business School Publishing; 07/25/2002; (9 pages) Reference Number: 9-703-005 Description: Describes how major pharmaceutical firms changed their strategy and pricing policies in the years 2000 to 2002 to respond to the growing AIDS epidemic in Africa. Teaching Purpose: To expose students to ethical and commercial issues raised by international drug pricing and to evaluate pharmaceutical firms' responses to external pressures. May be used with: (9-702-049) Life, Death, and Property Rights: The Pharmaceutical Industry Faces AIDS in Africa. The Free Internet Initiative in LaGrange, Georgia; McFarlan, F. Warren; Meader, Garret W.; Keil, Mark; Harvard Business School Publishing; 02/14/2002; (24 pages) Reference Number: 9-302-041 Description: LaGrange, GA was the first city in the world to offer free Internet access to citizens. Its city manager and mayor must assess the project and decide whether to continue. This case chronicles the city's efforts to build a telecommunication's infrastructure and offer broadband Internet access to its citizens. Teaching Note: Teaching Purpose: Designed to foster discussion of project management issues surrounding the adoption of new technology. Students are presented with information concerning adoption and use of the system and must decide whether the project has been successful and whether further continuation is warranted. Also affords discussion of the digital divide issue and how governments can provide innovative government-to-business and government-to-citizen services. Supplemental Material: Case Video, (9-303-802), 18 min, by F. 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