Solstice Logistics and the 2026 Mandate: Navigating the Great Divergence

This case is the definitive war game for the AI era. It does not just teach students what AI is; it teaches them how to be the Strategic Architects of firms that survive the “Great Divergence.” In the AI era, efficiency is a commodity, but context is a fortress. This case provides the definitive blueprint for leaders who intend to own the future rather than be optimized by it.

Description

As a record-breaking “Winter Storm Fern” paralyzes over 13% of the U.S. trucking fleet, Solstice Logistics faces a localized version of a global crisis. While the firm remains a respected $600M incumbent, it has entered the “Muddled Middle,” a strategic dead zone where legacy hierarchies are too slow for machine-speed disruption and too fragmented to leverage their massive historical data.

CEO Elena Vance had less than eight hours to decide. She was trapped in a strategic dead zone. She could dismantle the very hierarchy that had built the company to achieve machine speed, or she could double down on human legacy and risk being optimized into obsolescence by an algorithm that had no memory of Solstice’s forty-year history. Should Solstice dismantle its 40-year hierarchy to match machine speed, weaponize its legacy data to build a sovereign moat, or retreat into a high-margin “Human-Certified” niche?