1

• Foreword

• InterviewwithDrorEtzionandJeroenStruben(McGill

University,Canada)-Better Place: Shifting Paradigms in

the Automotive Industry

• InterviewwithMichaelV.Russo(UniversityofOregon,

USA)–Tips on teaching sustainability with cases

• Forthcomingcaseteachingevents

• Othernews

• Howtosubscribe

In this issue

istockphoto.com

Issue 3, Summer 2011

Focus on Sustainable Mobility

Case QuarterlyTeaching Cases in Action

oikos

2

And as usually, at the end of the issue we are bringing to you all the latest news about case teaching events organised by oikos and our partner organisations around the world.Happy reading!

Dear reader,

Foreword

Liudmila Nazarkinaoikos Case Teaching Initiative, Project Lead & oikos Case Quar-terly Editor

Summer is the time of holidays and most of us are likely to travel to new places and new countries. Although the issue of transportation-related emissions is not only relevant during holidays, it is probably the right moment to think about more sustainable ways of travelling. For this reason the summer issue of oikos Case Quarterly is focused on sustainable mobility.

In this issue we learn from Dror Etzion and Jeroen Struben (McGill University, Canada), who won the 1st prize in the corporate sustainability track of the 2011 oikos Case Writing Competition, about their experience in teaching the Better Place case.

The interest in the Better Place business model is growing and it is already the second time that we have a winning Better Place case in the oikos Case Writing Competition. Last year, Ramalingam Meenakshisundaram and Besta Shankar from the ICMR Center for Management Research won the 2nd prize with another version of the Better Place case (Ramalingam Meenakshisundaram is currently affiliated with the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore). As usually inspection copies of our winning cases can be downloaded from our online Case Collection.

You can also check two INSEAD cases on Better Place: 1) by Renato Orsato, Sophie Hemne and Luk van Wassenhove (2009); and 2) by Karan Girotra, Serguei Netessine, Prash Pokala and Disha Gupta (2011). Finally, if you are interested in other companies in the field of sustainable mobility, you can read through an inspection copy of the Mobility Car Sharing by Kai Hockerts or check cases on Tesla Motors and Mitka by RSM Case Development Centre; Zipcar (2010 version by IBS Center for Management Research or 2005 version by Harvard Business Publishing), THINK Global and Toyota Prius, also by IBS Center for Management Research, another case on THINK by INSEAD and, finally, Redigo by IMD.

In June we produced our very first oikos podcast. We interviewed Michael V. Russo (University of Oregon) and asked Michael to share with us his expertise in teaching sustainability with cases. You can download the podcast or listen to it via iTunes. You can also read through the text version of the interview in this issue.

Anne Salaun & Benjamin Stoll, oikos Reims, on the way to China

(more information: http://biketoschool.fr/)

3

Dror Etzion and Jeroen Struben are both Assistant Professors in the Strategy & Organization Area at the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Dror is origi-nally from Israel (as is the found-er of Better Place, Shai Agassi), and his research and teaching focus primarily on business and sustainability. Jeroen’s research examines processes of industry transformation, primarily in mar-kets for alternative energy and transportation.

Dror Etzion

Better Place: Shifting Paradigms in the Automo-tive Industry Text contributed by Dror Etzion and Jeroen Struben, McGill University, Canada

The Case StoryThe case is centered on start-up company Better Place, which is promoting a paradigm shift in the business model for personal transportation, by shifting sales from products (cars and gasoline) to services (miles driven), based on electric - rather than internal combustion engine - vehicles. Its goal is to truly make the world a better place by substantially reducing the environmental and social impacts of the transportation sector’s reliance on petroleum. The case provides students a brief history of the automotive industry, illustrations of unintended consequences of its expansion, and overviews of various environmentally preferable automotive technologies (hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells, etc.). To aid the reader in gaining an understanding of Better Place, the case surveys its business model, probes its advantages and shortcomings, and examines the Better Place rollout strategy, as an upstart entrepreneurial company attempting to grow and expand internationally at a very rapid pace.

Teaching the CaseThe case provides students the opportunity to explore the major

challenges in store for an ambitious firm, entrepreneur, or policy-maker intent on moving an established market in a new, more sustainable, direction. It can be used in a variety of contexts, especially core strategy courses, business and sustainability courses, and in technology entrepreneurship courses.

1. In a core strategy course the case can be used to cover three main topics. First, it highlights issues related to alliances with strong network externalities: “the chicken-and-egg problem”. Second, it investigates the challenge of multinational expansion for small entrepreneurial firms. Third, in a more specialized context, the case can be used to examine the formation of a multiple-sided market, assessing the ways in which multiple industries (utilities, car manufacturers, venture capitalists, etc.) can be aligned to transform an entire sector (transportation).

2. In a course on business and sustainability, the case addresses the challenges and opportunity of radically reshaping an industry with significant environmental and social impacts. As opposed to

cases that highlight a firm’s efforts to reduce its own environmental footprint or sell preferable products, this case examines how a company can leverage a powerful idea to create “game-changing” industry-level advances in sustainability.

3. Finally, in a technology entrepreneurship course, the case can be used to illustrate the challenge of upending accepted business models and powerful incumbents by means of a paradigm shift in business model.

Besides being applicable to a variety of market formation-related courses, the case high-lights the importance for actors in such settings to take a broad and long-term perspective to problem formulation and analysis. Often, in sustainability-oriented courses, the development of such perspective occurs implicitly, rather than explicitly. Beyond that, through our own experience, the Better Place case has proven to be particularly suitable for developing students’ systems thinking capabilities. To illustrate, one of the authors taught the case in a systems thinking and simulation course.

Jeroen Struben

4

New Case Development

We’d like to see cases that move beyond depicting the approach or strategy pursued by a specific organization, and that really tackle – without mincing words - the central challenges of thriving competitively while committing to an authentic and profound sustainability strategy. Particularly, there seems to be room for cases that really integrate social and environmental issues holistically. Additionally, cases that address social equity and prosperity seem to focus primarily on far off lands which are “less-developed”, with a dearth of cases on tackling poverty, sickness and social malaise in our own backyards.

Case Purchase Informa-tion Inspection copy of the Better Place case is available from the online oikos Case Collection. Please contact Dror Etzion and Jeroen Struben to obtain licensed copies of this case.

The case was discussed over two 80 minute classes. The first class was dedicated to discussion of the case, driven by the students, with the discussion concentrating on topic 2 above. Students, having developed causal mapping skills (causal loop diagrams) in earlier classes applied their abilities by developing actors’ interdependencies. Their diagrams captured, qualitatively, the behaviour of and interactions between consumers (and their purchase and driving behaviour), Better Place (and their infrastructure), utilities (and their infrastructure, and primary fuel portfolio), participating and non-participating automotive firms (and their automobiles), government, energy providers (and their fuel portfolio), etc… Importantly, students developed a shared mental model around this multi-actor challenge. Underlying assumptions on interdependencies were explicit, continuously challenged and improved. Doing this collectively, students were able to articulate internally consistent narratives on potential scenarios and the dilemmas faced when seeking to achieve those. As an example, for students it was powerful to realize how difficult it was to overcome the various chicken-and-egg problems, partly because of the slow build-up of the market, and the multitude of factors. Being aware of that made them more sensitive to the importance of getting the coordinating right.

“Doing this collectively, stu-dents were able to articulate in-ternally consistent narratives on potential scenarios and the dilemmas faced [...].As an ex-ample, for students it was pow-erful to realize how difficult it was to overcome the various chicken-and-egg problems.”

The second class focused on how decision makers in real-life could be oriented towards such systems thinking approaches. The class was exposed to actual (formal) simulation models that had been developed and used as a “learning environment” to help executive decision makers from different sectors (government, energy providers, and automotive firms)

develop strategies for alternative fuel vehicle deployment. As part of this process, decision makers are brought together multiple times to help develop the simulation models. These decision-makers can then, collectively, generate scenarios of their own choosing and explore the boundaries of their own models. Central is that actors needed to understand how they influence others, and vice versa, in seeking to build such a market. Altogether, the case benefits from both being complemented with additional tools and being discussed in relation to a real world application.

“We’d like to see cases that move beyond depicting the approach or strategy pursued by a specific organization, and that really tackle – without mincing words – the central challenges of thriving competi-tively while committing to an authentic and profound sus-tainability strategy.”

Favorite CasesFor teaching the essence of business strategy and the environment, we can recommend Forest Reinhardt’s cases, especially the case on DuPont and the phase-out of CFCs, as well as the case on Patagonia (both written with collaborators) from HBS. Eva Collins, Stephen Bowden and Kate Kearins’ case on Phoenix Organic is wonderful for thinking about how sustainability plays out in smaller, entrepreneurial organizations, and also about how value and values intersect in business settings. Tom Ewart and Tima Bansal’s case on CARE Kenya [Insert the link: http://www.ecch.com/educators/products/view?id=66684] is a favourite for covering NGO-corporate partnerships (Ivey). Finally, for business model innovation, we can sug-gest Interface’s Evergreen Services Agreement by Oliva and Quinn (HBS).

“Additionally, cases that ad-dress social equity and pros-perity seem to focus primar-ily on far off lands which are “less-developed”, with a dearth of cases on tackling poverty, sickness and social malaise in our own backyards.”

5

Interview with Michael V. Russo: Teaching Sustainability with CasesLN: Thank you very much for join-ing us today Michael. Would you mind sharing with us what makes a good sustainability teaching case?

MR: This is a great place to begin our conversation. When I look for cases to include in my classes, I usually choose those with a set of alternatives that require a clear decision. It is really valuable for students to face a situation that is managerial in content, but also in which it is difficult to identify the best alternative. This forces students to work through different courses of action and outcomes in the process of determining what the best alternative for the company is. So students will need to have enough information to make the decision. If you are writing the case, you’ve got to have obvious informa-tion that instructors expect to have

in a case. But what really helps any case is enough numerical informa-tion so that students can crunch a few numbers and use that analysis to support the decision. And in fact sometimes the decision is all about the numbers. I think the potential to learn about the company or a par-ticular sustainability context is also important. And then finally if you have a video to back up the case, it’s enormously helpful. You can talk about social entrepreneurship in a developing country or you can bring it to the students via video. It personalizes the discussion, reaches out to students and touches them in a very special way. This makes teaching such a case much more productive.

LN: And what is students’ reac-tion to sustainability challenges? Which cases do they like?

MR: It depends on the case or on the class. So if it is a class where they have selected themselves in (such as a sustainability elective), the reac-tions can be very different than if it is a required class in which sustain-ability is a component, because stu-dents bring a little bit more scepti-cism there. I think the best teachers in those required classes succeed in really exciting students and motivat-ing them in ways that the students didn’t expect. And sometimes those classes can be more rewarding to teach than the ones where there is an elective because the formerly sceptical students see the “a-ha” moment.

In terms of specifics, I have had wonderful success with so many cas-es. People love the Acid Rain case (Part A and B ) because students can do a cash flow analysis that brings them to a discussion what the best alternative is. But what makes that case exciting is that they can also review the assumptions that go into the analysis itself and find out, for example, what happens when you change the discount rate within this cash flow analysis. We just did

a case on Millipore – which is a medical device company – and this was very interesting because stu-dents were able to get into the case and talk about change within the organizational context. Many cases lack that inside component and students really don’t get an idea what is going on inside the case. And finally I have to nominate my case on Seventh Generation which I enjoy and which is in use worldwide. I think it’s been used a lot: in 85 or 90 separate classes. It is a thrill to have people in so many places using a case!

And you never know what you are going to get in the case analysis. That’s what is exciting about it. If you are a “control freak”, you can’t teach cases because there is no way to control the discussion. Students also like to see a video, they like numbers, they like those cases where they can “sink their teeth into”. I haven’t had a great success with really short cases. Once in a while I do use them, but I like to provide enough information to students so that they really feel as though they know something about the situation. The less they have to speculate, the less their answers – when you ask them a question – will begin with, “Well, we don’t really know.” But if they have to speculate and fill in the gaps, that’s the sign that the case doesn’t have enough information. No case is truly complete, all cases have information that at some level conflict, but as a rule I like “meaty” cases.

LN: In order to get students interested in sustainability, which other types of teaching may be complementary or even better than case teaching?

MR: Our experience at Oregon has been unique. We’ve got an MBA concentration in sustainable business practices and it’s really fascinating to get the students work with real companies.

Michael V. Russo is the Charles H. Lundquist Professor of Sus-tainable Management at the University of Oregon. Michael is an author of several cases on companies with a strong sus-tainability mission, including an oikos winning case on SeventhGeneration. Michael is also a noted researcher and an author of an award-winning book pub-lished in 2010 and titled “Com-paniesonaMission:Entrepre-neurialStrategiesforGrowingSustainably,Responsibly,andProfitably”.

Michael V. Russo

6

LN: My last question would be what you have learned about sustainability while teaching with cases.

MR: I am continuing to learn every day when I teach these cases. I tell my students – and I am not making this up – that if I am not a little bit nervous walking in the classroom, that’s when I quit teaching, that’s when I retire. But I think what strikes me most is the value of passion: the value of a passionate individual at a lower level of the organization that takes an initiative and runs with it. And also the value of people at the top who are willing to change and willing to learn from people that are several levels of management below them.

To make the case in business in terms, I don’t usually use the phrase, “what’s the business case for sustainability?” because as Paul Hawken says, “what’s the business case for non-sustainability?” But it is critical to make the case in business terms so that people understand that it is more than some cost-producing diversion (that is going to add costs and complexity in management). The problem with many modern organizations is that they are not resource-bound, but as C.K. Prahalad noted, they are imagination-bound. And how do we solve this problem in organizational terms and unleash the innovative capability that these organizations embody? Sustainability is a wonderful way to empower employees and galvanize commitments both to causes and to organizations.

So we have – as we term it – experiential learning: students will be assigned to a real life business situation. They will go out and work with companies on a pressing issue facing the company at that point. We are very careful about selecting these cases and some students have some degree of choice into which case they will be assigned and into which group. It is important for us to work with the company and for that company to have an individual who is one point of contact; and also this person should be fully committed. But we had tremendous luck with this in about the last ten years.

I think one of the reasons that at Oregon we have that success is that managing this process of experiential learning, contacting companies, eliciting projects, determining, scoping them so that there is just the right scope for a ten-week class – that in itself is already a skill. And I think that we have some pretty deep capabilities in that type of outreach and engagement with business. And it works for everybody: it works for the faculty member in terms of getting them out from behind their computer monitors; of course, it works tremendously for students who have the opportunity to go out and put on their resume that they worked with a company on an actual project that has an outcome; and it works for the companies.

For example, KEEN Footwear is a company that prides itself on its sustainability mission. A few years ago they found out that the messages that they were getting from people is that the marketing of their sustainability was outpacing their documentation, so they came to us and asked, “How can we quantify what we’ve done on sustainability?” And so our students worked with them on their first global reporting initiative project and it was tremendously successful all the way around. We worked with them two years in a row and it was great to see that report made. And it helped everybody involved, not the least of which was the company. And of course the students went on with that skill and they were able to go to whatever

company and walk in there and say, “I can do it. I can lead the effort to create a sustainability report. I know where to go, where to get information, what questions to ask, what the issues are going to be in this particular industry and for this particular organization.”

LN: It sounds very exciting! But if we now go back to case teaching, how do you find good sustainability cases?

MR: You’ve got to read an awful lot of cases! For every case you teach, you might need to read five to ten. I find that good teaching notes are critical but not mandatory. It is absolutely important to understand the case well enough and then you might not need the notes at all, but they are typically very helpful to facilitate the understanding. In order to find cases I go to usual places. I go to oikos, I go to Ivey, I go to Harvard Business School. IMD has some really good cases and I also go to European Case Clearing House.

So there are a number of places to find good cases but what’s very important is to read them carefully. And although you never really know the case until you teach it, you need to know in advance where this case is going to go in your class and what goals it is going to serve. For example, I have chosen a particular case so that students are going to understand full cost accounting and environmental differentiation – and this case is great for this. And it is also increasingly apparent to me that you teach cases as a collection, so that you go into a case understanding that each case brings its own value but as a collective whole. They all relate to each other so that some learning can come from comparing and contrasting firms in the same area. So we do Seventh Generation and we do Coastwide Laboratories, which makes and sells cleaning and supply, but in janitorial and commercial sector. So these are two different markets and two different kinds of companies, but you can compare and contrast those two in a way that promotes learning.

You can listen and download a podcast with Michael Russo on our website.

7

Forthcoming Case Teaching Events

Aligning Your Teaching and Research - the Potential of Case Studies

4 October 2011Venue: Aston Business School, Birmingham, UKAt a time when universities are encouraging academics to strengthen the link between their research and teaching, this workshop will provide a framework for using the case method in this process. By bringing research into the classroom, the tutor benefits from student input and responses, whilst students respond well to the enthusiasm and vested interest of the tutor. This workshop explores the use of cases to maximise the potential of the link between research and technique. Participants will work through their own experiences and opportunities in a supportive environment.

Other news

New teaching materials on CasePlace.org

CasePlace.org put together a collection of fascinating case studies and other teaching materials on Sustainable Tourism. Check out cases on Just Us! Community-based Tourism,The Ambrose Hotel: Eco-labeling Strategies for Sustainable Lodging, El Castillo: The Eco-Fairy Castle and many other exciting

sustainable tourism organisations, events and destinations.

CasePlace.org has also created two new teaching materials portals – on Low-Wage / Frontline Workers and on Economics and Peace. The first teaching portal focuses on employment practices of frontline/low-wage workers. Low-wage workers represent an increasingly vulnerable population in society that has witnessed stagnant or declining living standards for more than 30 years. Employment practices that matter most to low-wage workers are often misunderstood, or simply not taught at all to business leaders.

The second teaching portal offers resources to help teach business students about peace. The study of peace has traditionally been the study of conflict, but focusing on peace itself represents a unique opportunity for business students and for business schools. Business benefits immediately and materially from peace. A better understanding of peace can help business leaders make better strategic decisions and improve performance.

Next issue of oikos Case Quarterly will be focused on the topic of water.

8

www.oikosinternational.org/academicbe informed, get involved, make a difference

ContactWe would like to hear your experiences of teaching innovative corporate sustainability and social entrepre-neurship cases! If you have any suggestions for improv-ing this periodical, or information you may want to share with the community of case writers and instruc-tors, we would appreciate your feedback. Please send us an email at case@oikosinternational.org or give us a call at +41 71 224 2698.

To subscribe:To subscribe, please feel in an onlineform. Should you wish to unsubscribe, please send an email to case-unsubscribe@oikosinternational.org.

Partners:

istockphoto.com