Group Case study

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Anthony ()
Niyeto (119)
Vikrant (229)
Hitesh (74)

CASE= Netflix: Leveraging Big Data to Predict Entertainment Hits

This case is about the big data capabilities developed by Netflix, the largest player in USA in
video streaming services with a global streaming subscriber base of around 33 million.
Netflix had complete details of the viewing patterns of each of its subscribers, including
aspects such as when they hit the pause button and whether they switched off before the
credits rolled. It had deployed this data to come up with recommendations for each of its
subscribers. According to experts, Netflix's data mining competencies got a boost when the
company shifted its information technology infrastructure to the cloud - this gave Netflix the
flexibility to scale up - and had opted for the Hadoop architecture. Netflix also employed the
huge dataset it had about the viewing patterns of its subscribers to get into original
programming. It was so confident about the popularity of the original version of the
television show 'House of Cards' and of the director and the lead actor of the show's remake
among its subscribers, that it bought the exclusive licensing rights of the show's remake for
US$100 million. The show, as predicted by Netflix's executives, proved to be a success.
Netflix was to come up with more original content shows by relying on its assessments of the
viewing patterns of each of its subscribers. The case also discusses some of the concerns that
experts had about Netflix's big data technologies infringing on the privacy of its subscribers.
Experts also raised concerns about the outages faced by Amazon Web Services, the vendor of
cloud computing services to Netflix which had resulted in the latter's site being down three
times. Industry observers were apprehensive that players such as Netflix would constrain
artistic creativity by employing big data to come up with predictable content merely on the
basis of the past viewing patterns of their audiences. This case is meant for MBA/MS
students as a part of the Information Technology and Systems curriculum. It can also be used
in a Marketing Research/ Strategy curriculum.
Case=Big Data Strategy of Procter & Gamble: Turning Big Data into Big
Value
This case is about the challenges faced by the new CIO of P&G, Linda W. Clement-Holmes
(Linda), in taking the big data strategy of the leading consumer packaged goods company
forward. Under her predecessor, Filippo Passerini (Passerini), P&G had leveraged big data
successfully in all its business decisions - marketing, product development, supply chain, etc.
The company collected consumer data and other data from multiple touch points as part of its
digitization drive. The case elucidates the benefits that the company had derived from big
data, including cost savings and the speedier roll-out of new products. The case also explores
the potential downside of an excessive focus on big data and digitization, including diluting
the human touch in the company's interactions with its customers, and other potential risks of
employing big data. Linda faced a challenging situation as she tried to take the company's big
data strategy forward at a time when P&G was facing difficult times.