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By 2023, the global online resale marketplace Vestiaire Collective – founded in 2009 – had attracted more than 23 million members across 50 countries. Investors included global luxury group Kering. According to Vestiaire Collective’s executives, the secondhand apparel market was valued at between US$100 billion and US$120 billion. The company described itself as having a “a circular business model” and being “one piece of the puzzle in circularity.” Vestiaire’s leaders estimated that buying a used garment extended its life by 2.2 years, on average, reducing its environmental footprint by 90%. In addition, 82% of items bought on Vestiaire were believed to have replaced a first-hand purchase. Furthermore, Vestiaire was the first fashion resale platform to ban ultra-fast fashion. The company was also one of the first marketplaces to insert itself as a trustworthy middleman by authenticating the items for sale. Nevertheless, the fashion resale market was seeing significant consolidation, suggesting that only the biggest and fittest would survive. As of April 2023, Vestiaire Collective was still not profitable. Selling pre-worn clothes online remained a challenging process where every item must be sorted, priced, photographed and described in a listing. Against this backdrop, what were Vestiaire Collective’s best bets to achieve profitability? Importantly, should luxury brands venture into this territory – and if so, how?

This case is part of a series on Netflix. Case (A) discusses the company’s growth until July 2011. Case (B) tells the story of Netflix’s sharp share price decline after it announced it was splitting the business in two and increasing prices. Case (C) covers the years 2012/13, when Netflix found its way back to success. Seeing that the industry bottleneck was shifting from the channel (who can reach the viewers?) to the content (who owns the movie rights?), Netflix started to produce its own TV shows (e.g., House of Cards, Hemlock Grove). Case (D), set in 2020, focuses on a diverse set of strategic challenges Netflix is facing. First, as indicated already in the (C) case, the cost of content through licensing and production continued to increase. Netflix users had to get used to more frequent cancellations of their favorite show. Second, the “streaming war” between Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video and YoutTube was intensifying on two fronts: competition for subscribers and for content. Third, Netflix was increasing its global presence to accelerate economies of scale by introducing new pricing strategies in foreign countries. Fourth, most movies are watched on mobile phones, where a vertical format is more natural than the traditional horizontal format. It was an open question whether movie producers should adopt this trend set by Instagram and TikTok. Thanks to the growing subscriber base, Netflix’s revenue and profitability were increasing. But is the company well equipped for the intensifying “streaming war”?

In June 2022, pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG announced it was cutting 8,000 jobs, i.e., 7% of its global workforce, as part of a restructuring plan that involved integrating its pharmaceuticals and oncology units into an Innovative Medicines business. By reorganizing as separate US and international commercial setups, making operational improvements and reducing duplications in the business, the company’s goal was to increase focus, strengthen competitiveness and drive synergies. According to market analysts, Novartis stock was undervalued. CEO Vasant Narasimhan was driving a strategy for Novartis to become a 100% medicines company powered by advanced therapy platforms and data science. He carried out bolt-on acquisitions, investing approximately $30 billion since 2018 in more than 10 deals. However, the company faced several challenges: integrating the acquired companies, stiff competition from peers, a looming patent cliff, setbacks in clinical trials of innovative drugs, scandals around kickbacks, data falsification and price collusion, and a recent overhaul of the top management team following the restructuring moves. While the makeover of Novartis was underway, the CEO had to chart the strategic roadmap to power the next phase of innovation, growth, productivity and value creation. What would the roadmap look like? What should the company prioritize for the short term and initiate for long-term success?