CVS

Founded in 1963, CVS Health (CVS) was the leading drugstore chain in the United States. Headquartered in Rhode Island, the company had grown to more than 9,600 retail drugstores and 215,000 employees operating in 47 states in 2015. Since 2006, the company had been expanding its role in health care, moving beyond traditional drugstore alone. In 2014, reflecting its new approach, the company changed its name to CVS Health and stopped selling tobacco products in its retail stores. In 2015, the U.S. health care system continued to evolve. Health systems were expanding and consolidating, new health care delivery models were emerging, reimbursement was changing, while some physician lobbying groups were opposing the expansion of care in non-traditional settings. CVS had to navigate a rapidly shifting competitive environment.

Discovery Limited

Discovery Ltd. is a South-African based insurance company. Started in the early 1990s, Discovery used behavioral economics and data collection to innovate in the health care insurance industry. Its founder Adrian Gore believed that the company's products needed to not only make money but have a positive impact on society. Using its Vitality Wellness program as its strategic lynchpin, Discovery expanded into other insurance areas and financial services products and also entered new markets abroad. In late 2014, Gore and his team had to decide how to further develop the company and prioritize among many growth opportunities.

Nestle

In 2014, Nestle was the world’s largest food and beverage company with $90 billion in revenue, $15 billion in profits, and 8,500 brands sold in 197 countries. For most of the 20th century, Nestle enjoyed steady growth and profitability. The company had been early to establish factories in developing countries, improve local infrastructure, utilize locally produced raw materials, and work with local farmers to increase productivity. By the late 1990s, however, the entire processed food and beverage sector was facing severe challenges. In the face of these challenges, Nestle began in 2000 to re-position itself as a nutrition, health and wellness company, reformulating products, adding micronutrients, developing disease-specific nutritional supplements, and expanding into skin health. In 2005, the company embraced an approach it called creating shared value, not only to improve nutrition, but conserve water conservation, and improve productivity of its many smallholder farmers and their communities. A decade later there had been much progress, but Nestle was still working to embed this approach throughout the company and communicate it to shareholders, external stakeholders, and the public.

DOW: BREAKTHROUGHS TO WORLD CHALLENGES

Dow had adopted the "Breakthroughs to World Challenges" (BWC) program as part of its ten-year 2015 Sustainability Goals. BWC was an internal award recognizing products that effectively addressed one of five world challenges: energy and climate change, sustainable water supply, decent affordable housing, personal health, and food supply. By late summer 2014, two products had been designated as BWCs and two others were set to be announced in the fall. Dow senior executives believed that Dow was creating shared value through its BWC products. As management began drafting the company's sustainability plan for 2015 and beyond, CEO Andrew Liveris confronted the question of whether to maintain, modify or terminate the BWC program.

SOCIAL BUSINESS AT NOVARTIS: AROGYA PARIVAR

Late in 2013, Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez was considering how and whether to deepen the company's investment in Arogya Parivar, its profitable program that sold Novartis medicines in rural India, while expanding access to medicine and health information to millions of Indian villagers.

WALMART: SEGMENTING SOCIAL IMPACT

This case provides a sample of Walmart's social engagement activities and asks students to categorize each as philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, or creating shared value.

YARA INTERNATIONAL: AFRICA STRATEGY

Leading fertilizer producer Yara International demonstrates the concept of creating shared value through the Southern Agricultural Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) initiative, which brought together multiple organizations to enhance agricultural development in rural regions.