A3 Live Case | questions & resources

For our final assessment, we will examine a live case study in an emerging industry to apply our entrepreneurial frameworks in critically analysing the strategies that may deliver growth.

The case to be studied is VoW Food - a Svdnev-based biotech startup for clean meat, While clean - or manufoctured or cultured - meat has received some scholarly attention over the nast few vears this live case study allows us to examine the forres arting on an emergent venture in real-time to ranture the innovations. successes & challenges in this highly uncertain industry-both in terms of the technology being developed and the markets to be addressed.

Three valuable resources are provided below: firstly, a commercial-in-confidence report from a former insider to vow who has since left the venture, Interestingly, this insider is an entrepreneurship graduate of mine from a few years ago, so these insights are deeply privileged as they have been written expressly for our analysis. and recently updated. Secondly, a recent investigation on the clean meat industry and thirdly a media report (reoding & video) acknowledging the FSANZ approval a few months ago to sell clean meat into the Australian market:

• Investment Thesis: Vow investment thesis.pdf commercial-in-confidence provided for this live case study; original from May 2023 - updated May 2025 (reading: 9 pages)

• Investigation: Cultured Meat: The next step in how we feed ourselves by Slobodan Kovrlija; Isle of Tech 19 May 2025 (reading: 4 pages)

• Media: Lab-grown meat has just been approved for consumption in Australia by Nadia Daly, ABC News 24 Jun 2025 (runtime: 4'08")

You ara ronuiead to sneuae asch of tha 3 aunetione holouu cohoronthu annluinn neincioloe counrod in elaee fos dieeuntiun innouation chaem thoonu and entrepreneurial strategy. While a range of instructive resources are offered for each question-sufficient to provide a full response in conjunction with class materialsyou are free to access additional resources from your own research. All materials - including those cited here - must be attributed & referenced in your answers.

Your resnonses to the 3 nuestions are to he solely vour own work Do not disruss vour answers for the case or vour case research with any others  whether from our TIMS7301 cohort or elsewhere - even after the submission date has passed - since some students will be sitting supplementory or deferred assessments.

Use of Al tools

As outlined in our final class and the course profile, do NOT use Al models (chatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, NotebookLM etc) in compiling your response - this exam case draws on your own analysis of VOW Foods as you derive from your application of the frameworks covered in class. Experience from previous cohorts indicates that Al models distract from such analysis: entering a simple prompt then pasting the response directly as your answer will not evidence critical analysis. in any case, these models are of no value here since we are dealing with a live venture with very contemporary data and a particular application of entrepreneurial frameworks that draw on your personal complex experiences gathered through the semester from RiPPLE moderations, simulations and entrepreneurial reflections. UQ policy towards generative Al is covered in the course profile | Assessment | section 6 A3 exam case

Question 1 | Entrepreneurial Strategy (15 marks - in 3 parts - limit: 1,500 words, excluding references & tables)

The growth strategy VOW ought to adopt is far from clear. The innovation thesis indicates approaches the company has been taking as they develop new cell-types and adopt novel marketing campaigns. Drawing on your analysis of the company website, the innovation thesis & the Isle of Tech report:

1. determine alignments with each of the four quadrants of the strategy compass to derive four distinct entrepreneurial stances VoW may adopt in chasing the clean meat opportunity;

2. argue how these alignments for each quadrant (in terms of customer, technology, competitors & organisation) serve to create value and to capture value that may enable future growth through that strategic stance;

3. drawing on evidence from across the provided resources, derive a boundary condition for each quadrant where that strategy may no longer serve vow's growth aspirations in comparison to one or more of the competitors outlined on page 5 of the innovation thesis.

The strategy compass as well as the industry context are linked below:

• Article: Do entrepreneurs need strategy? by Gans. Scott & Stern: HBR lun 2018 (strategy compass reading: 6 pages)

• News: Cell-cultured meat gains traction with regulatory wins and scaleups by Deniz Ataman; Food Navigator 10 April 2025 (reading: 1 page)

Question 2 | Chasm theory & growth (10 marks - in 2 parts - limit: 1,200 words, excluding references & tables)

Chasm theory offers an explanation for why otherwise compelling new technologies fail to reach mass market dominance. Most critically, the theory proposes distinct moves for a new product or service to progress from innovators through early adopters, into early & late majority markets, perhaps even ultimately serving laggards.

VOW seems to be using eve-catching, imagination-stimulating, climate-change-tackling product development campaigns to signal their chasm-crossing potential-a widely acknowledged campaign is shown below along with a media commentary, then the intriguing suggestion of putting 'unicorn steak' on the menu! The current menu from a Melbourne hotel evidences a current offering for the 'forged gros' product, alongside the more regular hotel fare. Drawing on your experience with the SDV chasm simulation in class:

1. explain how the quail restaurants, the mammoth campaign and the unicorn hype assists VoW in crossing the chasm into mass-market appeal

2. explore the approaches voW can adopt in advance of navigating the forces each pre- and post-chasm stage unleashes with their new technology if they are to navigate hypergrowth conditions.

Your answer can be informed by these items:

• Promotion: Mammoth Meatball produced by VoW Food 2023 (video: 5'10" runtime)

• News: The Woolly-Mammoth Meatball Is an All-Time Great Food Stunt - The Atlantic 30Mar23,pdf by Yasmin Tayag, The Atlantic 30 Mar 2023 (reading: 4 pags)

• News: IDEAS unicorn meat 9jul23.pdf by Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic; 9 Jul 2023 (reading: 15 pages)

• News: How can chefs creatively use lab-grown quail? by Laura Box; Hospitality Magazine; 29 April 2025 (reading: 2 pages) 

• Menu: Lincoln a la carte by Lincoln Hotel, Cariton accessed 6 Nov 2025 (reading: 3 pages)

Question 3 | Disruptive Innovation (15 marks - in 3 parts - limit: 1,500 words, excluding references & tobles)

VOW have achieved some success in raising investment funds, closing a A$73 million round late 2022. They are also experimenting with non-mass-market cell-types such as quail and 'mammoth' and possibly 'unicorn' and have begun to accrue revenues from real customers, such as the Lincoln Hotel. Their approach would seem to suggest they are seeking to become a disruptive innovation. However, just as being experienced by Polaitybio in case topic 3, it's not all plain sailing. Drawing on your knowledge of the dynamics of such innovation:

1. explain how the asymmetries of motivation play out for VoW against incumbents for both a low-end and new-market disruption, assuming they successfully scale their meat outputs

2. given their focus on exotic meats with their restaurant partners, argue how VoW may or may not represent a high-end disruption, highlighting the innovation focus such a categorisation represents in comparison to their rivals, the market alignments that suggest such a categorisation and what comes next if they are to adopt this framing

3. incumbents (that is, pasture-grown meat producers) aren't necessarily staying still. Using the example of Horizon Meats linked below, argue the defences available to incumbents against an upstart like VOW and how these defences may play out for pasture-grown animal meat producers against both a low end and new-market disruption.

Links to the resources that present VOW as a disruptive innovation are provided below:

• News: Australian company behind woolly mammoth meatballs axes 30 per cent of workforce by David Swan, Sydney MorningHerald 14 January 2025 (reading: 3 pages)

• Blog: Vow raises 73 million dollars 15Nov22.pdf by Tegan Jones, Smart Company 15 Nov 2022 (reading: 3 pages)

• News: Vow Food's lab grown quail 27Feb23 pdfby Yolanda Redrup, Australian Financial Review 27 Feb 2023 (reading: 3 pages)

• News: Vow from mammoth 29Mar23.pdf by Amila Dedovic & David Simmons, The Australian 29 Mar 2023 (reading: 4 pages)

• Video: Horizon Grazing with Brodie family, Mckinlay, Qld: Oct 2020 (runtime: 1'43")

• News: New beef business highlights animal welfare by Eric Barker: ABC Oct 2020 (reading: -2 pages)