Case 1: Southwest Airlines

1. Is the US airline industry attractive?

2. Describe Southwest Airlines’ strategy. What are the most important strategic choices?
3. Is the strategy sustainable? What threats are on the horizon?
4. Should Southwest Airlines become an international airline?

Case 2: Cola Wars Continue: Coke and Pepsi in 2010.

1. Why, historically, has the soft drink industry been so profitable?

2. Compare the economics of the concentrate business to that of the bottling business: Why is the
profitability so different?
3. How has the competition between Coke and Pepsi affected the industry’s profits?
4. How can Coke and Pepsi sustain their profits in the wake of flattening demand and the growing
popularity of non-CSDs?

Case 3: Apple Inc. in 2015

1. What, historically, have been Apple’s competitive advantage?

2. Analyze the personal computer industry. Why did Apple struggle historically in PCs.
3. How sustainable is Apple’s competitive position in smartphones?
4. Evaluate Apple’s strategy for Apple Watch. Has Tim Cook taken the right approach? Would you
suggest any course corrections?

Case 4: Trader Joe’s

1. How do firms in the supermarket industry make money?

2. What are the key sources of Trader Joe’s competitive advantage?
3. What are the main threats to Trader Joe’s competitive advantage? Is their advantage
sustainable?
4. How would you modify Trader Joe’s strategy moving forward?

Case 5: Amazon.com, 2019

1. What drove Amazon’s early success?

2. What are the advantages and risks of opening your retail platform to third parties?
3. What is the logic of Amazon Prime? Kindle Fire? Fire Phone? Amazon content development?

Case 6: The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean

1. Can you explain Marvel’s success using the traditional theories of competitive strategy? Why or
why not?
2. Did Marvel break the value/cost trade-off? Discuss.
3. If Marvel had spent more to hire top-tier movie stars, well-known directors, and moved forward
the Hollywood Way, would the movies have performed better?
4. Who were the non-customers Marvel targeted?

Case 7: The Rise and Fall of BlackBerry

1. Describe the industry that the original BlackBerry competed in.

 2. Why was the original Blackberry product so successful? What was the basis for the Blackberry
advantage?
3. When competitors introduced new products, how did BlackBerry react? Why did BlackBerry
react this way?
4. Why was BlackBerry unable to sustain its industry position?

Case 8: The De Beers Group: Exploring the Diamond Reselling Opportunity

1. Why do diamonds sell for such high prices? Why do pre-owned diamonds typically sell for such
low prices?
2. Why is De Beers exploring the diamond reselling market? How does the creation of IIDV affect
the market for polished diamonds? The market for rough diamonds?
3. As Tom Montgomery, how would you convince the De Beers Executive Committee to launch
IIDV as a standalone business unit?
4. As a member of the De Beers Executive Committee (say from Anglo American or the
Government of Botswana), would you vote to end the pilot program, to extend it for another
year, or to convert it into a standalone business unit?

Case 9: Hewlett- Packard-Compaq: The Merger Decision

1. Do you support Firorina’s proposal to acquire Compaq? What are the pros and cons?
2. Why was the board so divided on the issue? What grade would you give HP’s board in the way
they handled this complicated strategic issue?
3. What is your assessment of the role played by third parties – consultants, investment bankers,
analysts and institutional investors – in this deal?

Case 10: Walmart around the World

1. Evaluate Walmart’s globalization strategy over the last two decades. Where did the retailer
struggle? Where did it do well? Can location characteristics explain the difference in
performance?
2. Walmart entered in some countries through acquisitions and in some through greenfield
investment. What entry mode do you think was best? Why? Did location characteristics drive
the mode of entry? Why?
3. In 2013, Walmart decided to enter the Indian market in a joint-venture with Bharti Enterprises.
Based on your analysis of Walmart’s global expansion up to that point, do you think it was a
good idea to go to India? To select joint-venture as the mode of entry?
4. In general, what do you think is the best way to enter a new market: acquisition, joint venture,
or greenfield investment? What are the location characteristics that affect this decision? What
are the firm characteristics that affect this decision? What industry characteristics affect this
decision?

Case 11: LG Electronics: Global Strategy in Emerging Markets

1. What were the key strengths of the Korean electronics industry during the formative years?
How did firms leverage these advantages to enter developed-country markets?
 2. Trace the strategic growth of LG Electronics. Were there any distinct patterns in terms of the
company’s approach to emerging markets? Trace the commonalities across its strategies in the
BRIC countries.
3. What are the critical points of learning that can be distilled from its success in emerging
markets? How may these advantages be leveraged to compete in developed countries? Are the
advantages transferable?

Case 12: Uber vs Didi: The race for China’s Ride-hailing market

1. How attractive was the taxi industry (before Uber and other ride-hailing players entered the
market)?
2. What is Uber’s value innovation? How did it create a blue ocean?
3. How does creating and maintaining competitive advantages in a platform business like Uber’s
differ from a vertical chain business like a taxi company?
4. What is the competitive advantage of Uber? How transferable is the competitive advantage to
an emerging market such as Chine?
5. What is Didi’s competitive advantage in China?

Case 13: Building a “backdoor” to the iPhone: an ethical dilemma

1. What dilemmas did Tim Cook face?

2. What were Cook’s primary responsibilities, which would have influenced his decision to refuse
to succumb to US government pressure to build a backdoor to the iPhone? Examine the
contradiction in these responsibilities, if any.
3. Assess the ways in which Tim Cook may have resolved these dilemmas.
4. What should Cook have done?