VANDEPUTTE - OLEO: From Family Tradition to Entrepreneurial Innovation

As fourth-generation owners, Luc, Christian and Pierre Vandeputte developed the company founded by their great grandfather in a way he would certainly have approved.  Still based in Mouscron (a small town in the west of Belgium) and still operating in the linseed sector, the three brothers developed the family company  to best exploit the properties of linseed. As well as producing linseed oil (1876), the company also produced soap (1950) and liquid detergents (1987).

A world leader in the production of linseed oil (by mechanical pressing) and well known across Europe for soaps and detergents, in 2000 the family decided to diversify their business portfolio by creating a new company, Vandeputte Oléochemicals. The main activity of this company was to develop, perfect and produce new polymers from linseed oil.

The challenge for the Vandeputte brothers was substantial: how to create, from an essentially low-tech, traditional industrial business a new company aimed at developing and marketing innovative and technological products.

Written by Bernard Surlemont, Fabrice Pirnay and Emilie Vandermeiren from the University of Liège. Download case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org or request them from F.Pirnay@ulg.ac.be.

GREEN PROPULSION: Is small beautiful? The projected launch of a hybrid roadster in Belgium

In January 2010 Brigitte Bardot, a freelance writer for a business magazine, was commissioned to write a special report on entrepreneurs working in the field of green technology, more specifically hybrid vehicles. The core of the assignment was to understand how small companies developed: the strategies they put in place and how they managed change. A secondary aim was to analyse how they fixed their priorities and where they found the necessary financial and human resources for growth.
While researching the industry Bardot came across Green Propulsion (GP), a small spin-off situated near Liège in the French-speaking part of Belgium. GP had just created a new company called 'Imperia' to produce a hybrid roadster. To the reporter, the interesting issue was how they were going to manage a dual-focus organisation: research, development and innovation on the one hand, and car manufacturing on the other.
The day of her visit to GP it was snowing heavily. Parked in front of the company gates and early for her appointment with the CEO, Bardot began to read through her notes on the hybrid car industry. She had already watched several videos on the subject to understand what the battery-driven cars were all about. Now as she waited in the warmth of her car she reviewed the main facts and figures on the industry and markets…

Written by Bernard Surlemont, Fabrice Pirnay and Michele Johnson from the University of Liège. Download case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org at F.Pirnay@ulg.ac.be.

Hydrometeorological Innovative Solutions HYDS: Overcoming the Oedipus complex

Established by Sempere, Sánchez-Diezma, and Berenguer in 2006 and located in Barcelona (Spain), HYDS S.A. offered innovative solutions in hydrometeorology, a science that develops predictive modelling and data processing tools to facilitate the forecasting of precipitation in the short to medium term. Emerging out of CRAHI, one of the world’s leading public research centres in hydrometeorology, HYDS became one of the most innovative companies in its field.
In 2008 HYDS was focused on CRAHI markets and customers, basically regional weather and water public agencies, and large companies involved in water cycle management. However, it soon became clear that what was good for a research centre was not necessarily good for a spin off. The entrepreneurs had invested more than €200.000 and the return on the investment was not at all clear.
By using radar data input, HYDS software solutions were able to predict whether or not it would rain within the next two to six hours. But who might be interested in this kind of services? Outdoor sports organizers, farmers? One point was clear; whoever interested in these services would be completely different from CRAHI customers. So, if HYDS was to grow, its management had to come up with new approaches, processes, products and markets.

Written by Pere Losantos and Xavier Estaran from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. Download case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org or request them from pere.losantos@upc.edu.

juwi: What next?

During the decade 2000-09, the renewable energy industry and in particular, power generation by photovoltaic (solar) cells and wind mills, experienced steep growth rates in Germany and the rest of Europe. juwi Holding AG, a German company founded in 1996 and located near Frankfurt was, until 2010, considered a successful company operating in this industry. However, due to regulatory changes, for example reductions in the feed-in tariffs for the European renewable energy market, and also as a consequence of its fast growth, by 2010 juwi was facing a variety of challenges. The case focuses on the company’s reactions to these challenges.

Written by Malte Brettel, René Mauer and Tobias Karmann from RWTH Aachen University. Download case and teaching note at www.ecch.com or request them from karmann@win.rwth-aachen.de.