The case looks at the two dominant Finnish retailers: S Group and Kesko. S Group is a customer-owned cooperative, which has a unique structure of the holding that 1.7 million people (or 70 per cent of Finnish households) owned by 22 regional cooperatives. In turn, the regional cooperatives own SOK, a centralized company, which provides services in regional cooperatives. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, S Group lagged behind the market leader, Kesko. However, beginning in 2005, S Group has a leading position in 2007, he captured 41 percent of the market, and Kesko was 33.9 percent. Kesko Plc is publicly traded and has the model in which retail businesses use their own funds to invest in stores and operate them completely. The case requires students to consider sources of competitive advantages that flow from the companies differ markedly business model.
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by Ramon Casadesus - Masanell, Tarun Khanna, Samuli Skurnik, Jordan Mitchell Source: Harvard Business School 39 pages. Publication Date: August 12, 2008. Prod. #: 709409-PDF-ENG
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