Nestlé Ecuador (A): Managing through a crisis

This short case exercise presents a rare but critical real-world business scenario: A large, multi-country, multi-site beauty company wishes to evaluate its capability to execute a major product recall. The need for a recall may be due to an internal quality issue or one caused by quality defects from a supplier. The CEO has seen a competitor struggle when faced with this challenge, along with the severe, potentially lasting damage to the brand, and has asked the head of supply chain to assess and provide a brief on the ability of their company's supply chain to respond should they find themselves in the same circumstances. The case provides a vehicle for students to consider the supply chain challenges a company might face in constructing policy, processes and tools to be capable of quickly and effectively executing a product recall with customers and consumers. It will spur them to consider the need for traceability from several tiers of suppliers, through the transformation into finished goods, to inventories located at customers or already sold to consumers. The broad array of distribution channels in today's supply chains adds another layer of complexity. Although the case is fictitious, it is anchored in the real world and will elicit challenges that are universally present in companies today.

Las investigaciones indican que el 14 % de las empresas reportan efectos positivos netos derivados de los riesgos políticos que afectaron a la competencia, creando oportunidades de mercado para aprovechar las disrupciones temporales y los cambios ...

This qualitative study explores how individuals try on entrepreneurship during crisis. We discover that individuals use entrepreneurship as a way to envision a possible future in a moment when their occupational trajectory is upended. We reveal th...

A few weeks ago, we convened over 60 CEOs and senior board members in Lausanne for IMD’s annual CEO Roundtable. It’s a rare opportunity for CEOs to compare notes and an opportunity for us to get a sense of what is on the minds of leading CEOs. Thi...

All organizations should have a plan to secure trust during, after (and even before) a crisis hits. Michael Skapinker offers a host of examples, both good and bad, to learn from

Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue but also a critical financial risk that demands immediate attention from business leaders, investors, lenders, and insurers alike. The increasing frequency and severity of climate-related eve...

As businesses navigate market disruptions, technological innovations and an increasingly turbulent world, leaders will frequently find themselves taking control of a team in the aftermath of a crisis. Inheriting such a challenging environment ofte...

In 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight KE007, a Boeing 747, suffered a tragic fate that claimed the lives of all 269 passengers and crew. Against the backdrop of Cold War tensions, the aircraft experienced an autopilot failure and veered significantly off course into Soviet airspace. The crew’s missteps led to a series of misinterpretations because there was a lack of awareness of geopolitical intricacies and technological constraints. Confusion was triggered as a result of Flight KE007 entering Soviet territory during a heightened state of alert for a missile test, miscommunications, and a malfunctioning radar system. Soviet fighter jets, unable to establish communication, fired warning shots. When Flight KE007 sought altitude clearance, in accordance with its flight plan, this maneuver was misread as evasion and the Soviet military launched a missile that downed the aircraft. Post-incident, the Soviets maintained secrecy, attributing the intrusion to ongoing provocations. However, this catastrophe was the catalyst for pivotal advancements in air safety. The Reagan administration pledged to introduce GPS for civil aviation by 1988, which would afford precise global positioning. Interim measures included the extension of US military radar coverage and the establishment of a joint air traffic control system in 1986, with the Soviet Union monitoring civilian air traffic over the North Pacific. The narrative unfolds at the intersection of aviation, politics and global security in the early 1980s. Beyond technical and human factors, it underscores the profound impact of international relations and the subsequent strides in air safety emerging from this poignant chapter in aviation history.