NII Holdings, Inc. is a U.S. firm with headquarters in Reston, Virginia, and wireless telephony operations under the Nextel brand in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Peru. During 2012, as the firm struggled with a weak competitive position and a transition to a new 3G platform, its operating results suffered, and a number of analysts were concerned about the firm's liquidity. Against this backdrop, NII decides to refocus its operations on Mexico and Brazil. In April 2013, the company enters into an agreement to sell Nextel Peru to Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones S.A. (Entel) for between $397 million and $415 million. Through the use of Andean Capital Advisors, and its first-year associate Rafael d'Anconia, the case is meant to demonstrate concepts surrounding the derivation of the cost of capital in international settings. The case was designed for use in first-year MBA courses, but it can also be adopted for courses focusing on international finance.
Founded in 1941, CervecerÃa Polar had kept its position as absolute market leader in beer production and distribution in Venezuela with its traditional Pilsen for over sixty years. In 1997, it introduced its Polar Light beer, which was well received on the market. However, in November 2001, CervecerÃa Regional launched its new Light beer, which soon became a challenge to the market leader. This new product met consumers´ expectations: a light, soft beer packaged in a transparent glass bottle that helped reinforce its attributes. A few months after its launching, it had already achieved 25% market share in the light category. To respond to the threat posed by Regional Light, Polar management awaited its new Chief Marketing Officer for the Beer and Malt Strategic Unit, Cesar Menendez, to recommend future actions aimed at maintaining the company´s leadership position. What action plan would you recommend at the strategic planning meeting?
Deji Akinyanju, founder of Nigerian fast-food chain Chicken Republic, and Ayo Oduntan, founder of an integrated Nigerian poultry operation (Amo Byng Group), are among a growing cadre of skilled food-industry entrepreneurs for whom the opportunities to serve the Nigerian market-a population of over 170 million, including a large and growing middle class-outweigh the challenges of operating there. And indeed, as embodied by Nigeria's status as a net food importer despite having 80 million hectares of arable land, the challenges are considerable. Animal feed is excessively expensive, driving up poultry production costs and limiting production volumes; illegal poultry imports pose food safety threats while undercutting prices of domestic product; corruption is rampant; debt is exorbitantly expensive; commercial real estate is sparse; and electricity is unreliable. Yet, Nigeria has all the natural blessings to be an agricultural powerhouse competitive on an international scale. And it has the large, ambitious population needed to drive its development, both as workers and consumers. Akinyanju and Oduntan believe many of the issues constraining Nigeria's poultry sector can be alleviated with relatively simple solutions-and that doing so can open tremendous growth opportunities for their businesses and the country as a whole. Set in October 2015, this case provides a detailed look at Nigeria's poultry value chain and the complexities of modernizing a traditional and largely informal industry. It also presents an inspiring story of determined entrepreneurs succeeding against tough odds. Finally, for students whose conception of Nigeria is all too often reduced to simplistic headlines, this case offers a more nuanced look into the complexities, potential, and aspirations of what may be one of this century's most dynamic and important economies.
Kamla Nehru Memorial Hospital (KNMH) is a non-profit, non-government trust organization that is managed by the Gandhi-Nehru family, India's premier political family which gave the country three generations of prime ministers. Members of the family continue to be at the helm of the board. The hospital specializes in the areas of Obstetrics and Gynecology (O&G) and Oncology and has several supporting departments. It is a very reputed hospital in Allahabad, in the highly populated state of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India, and draws patients from nearby states, primarily from the Eastern part of India where infrastructure is largely underdeveloped, and from other developing countries such as Nepal and Bhutan. The hospital is endowed by the Trust. Due to its reach, it attracts funds from governmental and non-governmental agencies as an implementing agency for several of their health schemes and initiatives. The hospital operated independently and without a formal administrative structure for many years. Consequently, the governance as well as the efficiency of hospital operations had been going downhill for some time, with the result that patients were choosing other hospitals and nursing homes over KNMH. Decreasing revenues and inefficient operations led to operational losses. After the next generation of the Gandhi-Nehru family joined the governing board, there was some rethinking at the top about the way forward for the hospital. They decided that the time had come to manage the hospital professionally in order to be able to serve patients in a more efficient and effective manner. It was in this setting that Dr. Madhu Chandra, a pathologist and PhD, who had served at a corporate hospital (Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad), was appointed Chief Executive Officer of KNMH. Her goal was to streamline hospital operations and put it back on a growth trajectory.
Unigrains is a French agribusiness-focused private equity firm that has provided specialized financing to France's agribusiness sector for decades and, as a result, cultivated a strong reputation and relationships in that space. Now that the broader investment community around the globe has become more interested in agribusiness, Unigrains faces growing competitive pressure. This case describes the general private equity model, provides an overview of agribusiness investing trends, and invites students to weigh the relative merits for Unigrains of expanding its reach globally versus maintaining its specialized position in French agribusiness.
Following a turbulent 2014 for Standard Chartered Bank, the bank's largest shareholder, Temasek Holdings, began showing indications that it was seriously considering offloading at least a portion of its massive shareholdings in Standard Chartered Bank. This case seeks to provide a fair valuation of Standard Chartered Bank's intrinsic value, as well as rationalize the most appropriate way for Standard Chartered Bank to raise funds to satisfy the higher capital requirements under Basel III regulatory rules. Assuming that Standard Chartered Bank decided to hold on to its significant bank investments and to raise funds to satisfy the higher capital requirements, what could be some possible financing alternatives? Would it help to attract more bank deposits, raise debt, or go for a seasoned offering? What would be the impact of these financing alternatives? Finally, what would be a suitable recommendation on how to raise the funds if one took the valuation results into consideration?
All Nippon Airways (ANA) became the largest airline in Japan in 2013. Having been designated as a domestic carrier by the Japanese government till the mid-1980s and Japan being the sixth largest domestic airline market, two-thirds of ANA's passenger revenue came from the domestic market. However, the Japanese domestic population was decreasing at a significant rate; thus, the domestic market was expected to decrease. Also, plans of a super-high-speed rail and further improvement of current high-speed train systems would make air travel obsolete in many of the popular domestic routes. The key business problem that ANA faced was that amongst the changes in the Marketing 5Cs (Collaborator, Company, Competition, Context, Customer)-specifically, context (decreasing domestic population) and competition (high-speed trains)-how could ANA maintain/increase its business? As a way to resolve this problem, ANA's management was considering to invest in the international market to enhance its global presence. The case concentrates on specific challenges faced by ANA's management that must decide whether to focus on the international market and, if so, which international route it should pursue. Further, management must decide whether to purchase the Airbus's new super jumbo A-380 to increase operational efficiency and promote the ANA brand globally. The case provides details regarding the concept of product differentiation and the importance of aligning a firm's product policy with its overall marketing strategy.
The Abraham Path board reviews the last five years and seeks to frame and act on its major strategic, negotiating, and operational challenges going forward. The Abraham Path Initiative seeks to revitalize a route of Middle East cultural tourism following Abraham's path 4000 years ago. It begins in the ancient ruins of Harran, in modern-day Turkey, where Abraham first heard the call to "go forth." It passes through some of the world's most revered cultural, historical, and holy sites, ending in the city of Hebron/AI-Khalil at the tomb of Abraham. With Abraham as a venerated patriarchal figure for Islam, Judaism, and Christianity-monotheistic religions whose adherents have so often clashed-the potential unifying power of this conception has attracted a remarkable range of supporters from around the world as well as considerable media interest. Having lengthened the walkable part of the Path from 300km five years ago to over 2000km today, with thousands of people having walked parts of the Path, and having been awarded a major World Bank grant, several challenges nonetheless remain including regional war and turmoil, sustainable funding, tensions over the Path's activities in Israel, and possible next steps for the initiative.
In January 2015, Jibo Inc. had completed a raise of $25.3 million in Series A financing after a successful 2014 crowdfunding campaign for pre-orders of Jibo, the first social robot for the home. Over 4,800 Jibo units were pre-ordered, generating $2.6 million in sales. On one snowy morning in January, CEO Steve Chambers met with co-founder and Chief Scientist Dr. Cynthia Breazeal and newly-hired VP of Consumer & Development Relations Lynda Smith to prepare for their first meeting with the board. The team planned to discuss Jibo's business development strategy, and considered how best to engage with the developer community to expand Jibo's portfolio of capabilities. How could the team best attract third-party developers to create Jibo Skills (apps) for this new platform that would not ship until 2016? Should the team develop a full set of Jibo Skills in-house? The team also hoped to establish partnerships with large content providers. How could they convince potential partners that Jibo was a worthwhile investment?
This is the (B) case to P&G Canada: Old Company, New Tricks. It details the outcome of the drastic reduction in office space from eight floors to three floors.
The chief executive officer (CEO) of a family business is considering options available to owners of the business to monetize their shareholdings. Since the shares in privately-owned firms are illiquid, the family members may have significant wealth on paper, but they do not have large amounts of cash available. The second generation looking at retiring would like to realize some of the value from the firm they have worked to build and, at the same time, coordinate that planning with the best interest and intent of the other, younger shareholders. The owners need to consider not only the alternatives available to monetize illiquid shareholdings for investors in private firms, but also how to value illiquid shares based on the CEO's recommendations. The challenge facing the CEO, however, is reconciling the conflicting business ramifications involved in the process without compromising the company's strategic vision and the interests of family members.
In early 2014, Ferio Pugliese looked back on his turbulent first year as president of WestJet Airlines Ltd.’s new regional air service Encore. Encore represented the company’s most significant organizational change in its 18 years of dramatic growth. Expanding the airline’s fleet to include smaller, short-haul aircraft that could service smaller destinations throughout Western Canada had not been without growing pains. For example, a number of employees reportedly felt they were losing their sense of belonging in the company that prided itself on employee satisfaction. Pugliese wondered how he should proceed in putting Encore on a successful path.
In July 2012, a senior manager in the corporate strategy team of General Electric (GE) was wondering what changes he should recommend for its strategic plans in the MENAT region (the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and Pakistan). First, the senior corporate strategist wanted to get a better understanding of how regional management had succeeded in growing its business despite the barriers it had faced, such as political instability, difficulties in dealing with family-owned firms with affiliate relationships, and institutional corruption. Second, given predictions of sluggish growth in developed markets, it was clear that GE MENAT would be an increasingly large part of GE’s revenue base. The key challenge was how to continue to sustain GE MENAT’s growth rate while maintaining the high corporate standards for which GE was known.
Many companies go to extraordinary lengths to build bonds among workers, often to no avail: Think of trust falls, a frequently mocked symbol of wrongheaded attempts to create intimacy among workers. New research suggests there's a better way, and it's pretty simple: Encourage teams to eat together. Cornell University's Kevin Kniffin and colleagues researched meal preparation practices among firefighters in one U.S. city and identified significant positive correlations between eating together and team performance. Cooperative behavior, for example, was about twice as high among team members that ate with one another. Companies can take advantage of these findings by investing in such things as onsite cafeterias, encouraging team leaders to organize lunches, and including meal preparation activities in offsites. This reprint includes three additional Idea Watch articles. "How to Prevent Overbilling" presents research showing that simply changing how you ask vendors to account for their work--focusing on units rather than overall price--encourages more-ethical behavior. "What Makes a Start-Up an Employer of Choice?" examines how six nonfinancial attributes, such as office location and founder qualifications, influence the appeal of new ventures for prospective employees. "Straight Talk About Pay" is a visual depiction of people's perceptions about their compensation. Most people have no idea whether or not it's fair--and that has a big effect on how long they stay in their jobs.