Cases to Accompany Contemporary Strategy Analysis
CASES TO ACCOMPANY CONTEMPORARY STRATEGY ANALYSIS NINTH EDITION Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Case 1 Tough Mudder Inc.: The Business of Mud Runs Really tough. But really fun. When I got back to the office on Monday morning, I looked at my colleagues and thought: “And what did you do over the weekend?” —TOUGH MUDDER PARTICIPANT Tough Mudder Inc. is a Brooklyn-based company that hosts endurance obstacle events—a rapidly growing sport also known as “mud runs.” During 2015, about 600,000 participants will each pay between $180 and $260 to tackle a 10- to 12-mile Tough Mudder course featuring 15 to 20 challenging obstacles. The obstacles include wading through a dumpster filled with ice (the “Arctic Enema”), crawling through a series of pipes part-filled with mud (“Boa Constrictor”), and dashing through live wires carrying up to 10,000 volts (“Electroshock Therapy”). The 2015 schedule com- prises 46 two-day Tough Mudder events (a separate run on each day) in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, and Australia. Tough Mudder’s website describes the experience as follows: Tough Mudder events are team-based obstacle course challenges designed to test your all around strength, stamina and mental grit, while encouraging teamwork and camaraderie. With the most innovative courses and obstacles, over two million inspiring participants worldwide to date, and more than $8.7 million raised for the Wounded Warrior Project by US participants, Tough Mudder is the premier adven- ture challenge series in the world. But Tough Mudder is more than an event; it’s a way of thinking.
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