The Authors

Dr. Mike Domenghino is a professor (emeritus) for strategy at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) in Basel and an Affiliate Faculty Member of Harvard Professor M. Porter's worldwide course on strategy and competitiveness MOC. Dr. Ingo Pleser is an entrepreneur with extensive experience in the baking industry and the former owner/president of Pleser GmbH and Lucullus Backzutaten GmbH. The authors owe guidance and thanks to Professor Michael Porter, Harvard Business School, whose ideas inspired the case, especially Part C on clusters. (cf. picture of Porter & Domenghino).

The case was written without any outside funding for solely academic purposes: to meet students’ requests/preferences for “living cases” about European businesses and also suitable for distance learning. It is based on (a) information on the internet, internal documents of Dr. Schär AG as well as interviews with its majority owner, President and CEO, Ulrich Ladurner, who has reviewed the case and granted his full permission for publication.