Sponsored Projects

AMOREPACIFIC (AP) is a leading Korean cosmetics company that offers its cosmetics under the HERA, Sulwhasoo, LIRIKOS, Hyosia, Verite, LANEIGE, IOPE, Mamonde, Hanyul, TeenClear, Primera, Lolita Lempicka, Odyssey, MIRAEPA, INNISFREE, ETUDE, and Espoir brands; personal care products under the Mise-en-scène, Ryo, ILLI, Happy Bath, Dantrol, Median, and Songyeum brands; and health care products under the O’Sulloc, VB Program, VB Solution, Natural Beauty Food, and Ketotop brands. The company also operates OSULLOC, a fine teas business.

Project: A significant amount of AP’s growth in China was targeted to come from its Mamonde (French for “My World”) brand which was launched in China in 2006 and accounted for $105M USD in sales, making Mamonde the #15 brand in China at the time. AP intended to increase Mamonde CAGR 40% from 2012-2015. The SGE Immersion team worked with the Mamonde brand team, AP’s Sustainability team, and Mamonde Product Management teams to develop a strategic growth plan for the brand that would raise brand awareness, leverage sustainability beyond greening and CSR, and remain consistent with the brand’s message to “unleash the natural intelligence” ( ??????). The team evaluated potential product changes, communication strategies (especially on-line channel and SNS utilizing strategies), and CSR activities to meet growth goals.

American Governor Company (AGC) provides critical support and equipment to over 90% of the North American hydropower market.

Project: The SGE Immersion team performed a complete brand evaluation for AGC and recommended steps the company could take to enhance their position as a key player in the renewable energy OEM market by maximizing brand value. The team developed a comprehensive, five-year branding strategy.

The Hersha Group of Companies includes: Hersha Hospitality Trust (www.hersha.com), an NYSE listed real estate investment trust (REIT); Hersha Hospitality Management (www.hershahotels.com), a nationally recognized hotel management and asset management organization; and Hersha Development Corporation, one of the nation’s leading hotel development companies.

Project: Hersha’s EarthView sustainability program had been launched and was being rolled out across the company’s hotel portfolio. The program’s near-term objectives were focused on strategies and operations within Hersha Hospitality Management. The EarthView program was still in its nascent stages, giving Hersha the flexibility to creatively brand the program and develop EarthView into a revenue-generating enterprise. As such, Hersha wanted to evaluate opportunities for developing EarthView as a self-sustaining business within The Hersha Group. The SGE Immersion team evaluated and prioritized a set of short-term, mid-term, and long-term revenue generation opportunities.

Deere & Company is the world’s leading manufacturer of farm equipment, forestry equipment, construction, tractors, mowers, golf course equipment, and other outdoor power products. The company consists of three major business segments: agriculture and turf, construction and forestry, and credit.

Project: Rapid economic growth in China, India, and S.E. Asia had been pulling a great deal of the labor traditionally engaged in agriculture into other, often more urban, opportunities. Because of this, in many geographies, the labor to perform manual field preparation, planting/transplanting and harvesting was no longer economically viable or available. However, the average plot size was often too small to support individual mechanization, even walk-behind solutions. To fill this void, there was rapid development of an emerging contractor segment where individuals would either specialize on one process step (e.g., mechanical harvesting) or offer a full suite of services necessary for a given crop. The SGE Immersion team evaluated the opportunity for the company to leverage its dealer organization, financial services capabilities, and infrastructure to address the contractor segment’s growth. The team examined the mechanization of agriculture in India to understand the underlying economics and drivers of the sector; evaluated the economic impediments in relation to the growth in contractor services to understand the current market, profit opportunities, and changes in demand with the goal of conceptualizing an improved business model for the region related to mechanization; and reviewed the equity and financing necessary to start, the bookings required to maintain, and the risks associated with such a business.

Intelligen Power Systems, LLC is a privately owned, for-profit company that operates in the alternative energy sector and focuses on the Northeast U.S. power market.

Project: Building off the 2010 project, the SGE Immersion team evaluated the implementation of the strategic growth plan and made recommendation for where to improve execution to achieve the company’s growth objectives.

Grameen-Intel Social Business — created in 2009 between Grameen Trust and Intel — is dedicated to the notion of using technology in innovative ways to alleviate some of the world’s most pressing poverty-related issues.

Project: Grameen-Intel had been identifying tactical areas where technology could play a role in addressing healthcare and agriculture problems and had launched two pilot projects: the healthcare project and the pilot agricultural project. The healthcare project aimed to show that technology could help pregnant women stay healthy and deliver healthy babies; local health workers used smart phones and Grameen Intel’s screening software to identify high-risk pregnancies early on, before complications typically develop, then refer women for further diagnosis and care. The pilot agricultural project aimed to demonstrate how technology could help farmers increase their production and make a better living; local entrepreneurs at “Agro hubs” provided soil-testing services to village farmers then used computers and analysis software to recommend needed nutrients. The SGE Immersion team identified a process for yielding a pipeline of possible solutions for addressing other unmet needs and associated usage models.

Corning Incorporated is the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics.

Project: Future light duty vehicle regulations in Europe and the United States will require dramatic reductions in fuel consumption/CO2 emissions. The EU was planning on an emissions limit of 95 grams of CO2 per km (roughly 57 mpg for gasoline-powered vehicles) and the Obama Administration had recently proposed a 62-mpg standard for the US in 2025. These regulations would certainly lead to the adoption of efficiency-improving technologies. The question was which ones? Corning was researching several technologies that could be candidates for installation on cars sold after 2020. Publicly-known examples include lithium-air batteries for electric vehicles, thermoelectric generators for waste-heat recovery, and ultracapacitors for high-power Mild-HEV energy storage. Would these technologies be the right ones to help automakers meet future CO2 regulations? The SGE Immersion team examined: (a) what future automakers would be willing to pay for the last marginal gram eliminated from future cars (in dollars per gCO2) and (b) which technologies might be worthy of future investment, and why.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company and operates in six business segments – chemicals, plastics, performance products, functional solutions, agricultural solutions, and oil & gas – at 385 production sites worldwide.

Project: BASF had recently established a global Market Development Team to evaluate market needs of and business opportunities with low income consumers (i.e., Base of the Pyramid or BoP). The SGE Immersion team developed strategy recommendations for BASF as a B2B chemical company. The team benchmarked strategy, organizational setup, and investment policy of other chemical producers and B2B-related businesses (e.g., DuPont, Dow, DSM, Vestergaard, Sumitomo, Bayer) to develop recommendations for how BASF could most effectively approach key BoP markets (i.e. water, housing, food & health) in Africa and the Sub-Sahara region with an initial emphasis on water treatment.

A123 Systems designs, develops, manufactures and sells advanced, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and battery systems.

Project: A123 Systems was interested in an understanding of the strategic implications of the emerging automotive electrification movement. The SGE Immersion team researched and analyzed a range of market forecasts and product offerings, resulting in a tracking tool for both industry and program specific information, leading to a synthesized market strategy.

Yingli is one of the leading vertically integrated photovoltaic (PV) product manufacturers in China that aims to provide affordable green energy for all. The company designs, manufactures, and sells PV modules and designs, and assembles, sells, and installs PV systems that are connected to electricity transmission grids or those that operate on a stand-alone basis. Yingli has more than 30 offices in countries around the world, has the capacity to manufacture 2.45 GW of solar panels, and has shipped over 40 million solar panels (+10 GW) to more than 50 countries, including Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, France, South Korea, China, Japan, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Mexico and the United States. The company’s products and services substantially cover the entire PV industry value chain from the manufacture of multicrystalline polysilicon ingots and wafers, PV cells, PV modules and PV systems to PV system installation. Its end-products include PV modules and PV systems in different sizes and power outputs.

Project: Yingli was interested in developing a more informed understanding of its competitive landscape so that it might better identify market gaps/opportunities to improve positioning. The SGE Immersion team conducted a high-level analysis of the PV market as well as a competitive benchmark to understand market perceptions/branding messaging, target segments/channel strategies, pricing, products, warranties, and other differentiators.