Uralkali, the giant Russian potash producer, decided to stop export sales through the Belarusian Potash Company - an export cartel it had formed with Belaruskali. Uralkali planned to increase potash production and export it independently through its own trading company. This move threatened to reduce global potash prices by up to 25 per cent. Immediately, the stock prices of major potash producers around the world plummeted. This set of three cases looks at the potential competitive strategies of three key players in the industry: PotashCorp, the firm with the world's largest potash reserves; Agrium, a firm in the midst of a large potash mine expansion; and BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company planning huge potash mine development. See B case 9B14M031B and C case 9B14M031C.
Through the first part of the twenty-first century, the number of people playing golf in the United States had been in decline. Fewer people played the game, they played less frequently, and more golf courses were closing than opening. Players complained that it took too long to play golf, new courses were too difficult, and the game was expensive and hard to learn. However, the professional game was thriving, with increasing prize money and television viewership. The case looks at the governance of golf, with particular emphasis on the United States Golf Association. It asked students to consider what groups should be responsible for the health of the game, and what might be done to increase participation.
Uralkali, the giant Russian potash producer, decided to stop export sales through the Belarusian Potash Company – an export cartel it had formed with Belaruskali. Uralkali planned to increase potash production and export it independently through its own trading company. This move threatened to reduce global potash prices by up to 25 per cent. Immediately, the stock prices of major potash producers around the world plummeted. This set of three cases looks at the potential competitive strategies of three key players in the industry: PotashCorp, the firm with the world's largest potash reserves; Agrium, a firm in the midst of a large potash mine expansion; and BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company planning huge potash mine development. See B case 9B14M031B and C case 9B14M031C.
Uralkali, the giant Russian potash producer, decided to stop export sales through the Belarusian Potash Company – an export cartel it had formed with Belaruskali. Uralkali planned to increase potash production and export it independently through its own trading company. This move threatened to reduce global potash prices by up to 25 per cent. Immediately, the stock prices of major potash producers around the world plummeted. This set of three cases looks at the potential competitive strategies of three key players in the industry: PotashCorp, the firm with the world's largest potash reserves; Agrium, a firm in the midst of a large potash mine expansion; and BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company planning huge potash mine development. See A case 9B14M031A and C case 9B14M031C.
Uralkali, the giant Russian potash producer, decided to stop export sales through the Belarusian Potash Company – an export cartel it had formed with Belaruskali. Uralkali planned to increase potash production and export it independently through its own trading company. This move threatened to reduce global potash prices by up to 25 per cent. Immediately, the stock prices of major potash producers around the world plummeted. This set of three cases looks at the potential competitive strategies of three key players in the industry: PotashCorp, the firm with the world's largest potash reserves; Agrium, a firm in the midst of a large potash mine expansion; and BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company planning huge potash mine development. See A case 9B14M031A and B case 9B14M031B.
In 2015, King Salman of Saudi Arabia was juggling several balls as the kingdom's new monarch. At home, there were pressures for liberalization, from women and youth, and pressures for more conservative religious observance and policy from the Muslim "ulema." His domestic economic policy, which entailed diversification, infrastructure construction, education and a move towards a "knowledge economy," remained difficult to implement because of oil's immense role in the GDP, trade, and the budget. Internationally, Saudi Arabia's Middle East region was a mess; troubles as always with Israel and Palestine, but also with Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran. In all of this, a central question loomed: could Saudi Arabia modernize without westernizing?
Delivering health care to the global population was a challenge. Health care costs accounted for ten percent of world GDP by 2013. In the U.S., health care costs were expected to top $3.1 trillion in 2014. New technologies, shortages of trained personnel and lengthening life expectancies were accelerating the growth of health care costs. Physicians often failed to engage patients in preventative care, which many believed would help combat the rising costs of treating chronic conditions. Diabetes and hypertension, in particular, afflicted many developed nations and were a growing threat in the developing world. Mobile health (mHealth) used networked devices to distribute or collect medical information from patients and/or medical personnel. Given its low cost and broad reach, many wondered if and how mHealth could help solve the global health care crisis.
Don Valentine participated in the beginnings of two significant milestones: the birth of the silicon chip and the development of the venture capital industry. From humble beginnings, Valentine became a legendary salesman at Fairchild Semiconductor and National Semiconductor, before founding Sequoia Capital in 1972. Valentine was comfortable making high-risk bets on unknown entrepreneurs in markets where he saw great potential. Unlike other venture capitalists of the time that focused on finding outstanding entrepreneurs or groundbreaking technology, Valentine took a different approach. He focused predominantly on the size of the potential market.
In April 2014, Alibaba’s impending initial public offering (IPO) projected to be among the world’s largest IPOs. Alibaba faced many choices regarding ownership structure, trading location, IPO pricing and IPO timing. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange seemed like a natural fit for its IPO due to geographical, cultural and language proximity. Furthermore, 86.7 per cent of Alibaba’s revenues originated within China. However, Alibaba insisted on “partnership governance,” while the Hong Kong Stock Exchange did not allow listing of companies with dual-class share structure. In contrast, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ did not object to Alibaba’s proposed ownership structure. While the Hong Kong investors knew Alibaba’s business better, the New York exchanges provided more liquidity and visibility. Against this backdrop, Alibaba needed to make difficult decisions regarding its IPO.
Madhymam was a Malayalam-language newspaper headquartered in Kerala, India. Launched by a conservative Islamic trust, much of the newspaper’s coverage and content were dictated by the trust’s conservative values. Though the high quality of Madhymam’s content was widely appreciated, this did not translate into the anticipated sales revenues. At least part of this shortfall was because of Madhymam’s public image as a pro-Muslim newspaper — an image that the newspaper’s management team had been making efforts to shed. Driven by its vision of becoming the largest newspaper in India, the management of Madhymam had been exploring various options to stimulate readership and sales. The task was made more difficult by the trust’s exclusionary policies on advertising, stiff competition from major local players, the entry of national players and the proliferation of regional news channels. In light of such challenges, how should Madhymam move forward?
A stock market analyst was reviewing one of his fund’s holdings, Alliance Grain Traders Inc. (AGT). One of the world’s largest traders of pulse crops, AGT was in the midst of entering a new line of business and expanding its non-core operations. On one hand, AGT would have been able to use its dominance in pulse trading as an advantage in expanding up the value chain. On the other hand, it was moving into sectors that were already mature and highly competitive. The key question for the analyst was whether he should continue to hold AGT stock given its stated objectives.<br><br>The case set is split into an “A” case, where AGT’s history and the food value chain are laid out. The “B” case, 9B14A043, provides an update two and a half years later when it became evident that AGT had committed to expanding beyond the trading and distribution of pulses.
On July 16, 2014, the finance manager of the Powertrain Department in the Whitby, Ontario branch of Astra Automotive, a global automotive parts manufacturer, was summoned to a meeting. He had been with the company for 11 years, steadily rising through the ranks because of his analytical capabilities, grasp of business complexities and intense work ethic. He was ambitious and driven to succeed; as a result, he was sometimes perceived as unnecessarily harsh and somewhat disrespectful toward colleagues and those under him when mistakes were made. He had been in his present role for just over a year, and though the company was pleased with his results, they were insistent that he enrol in training to help him better lead his department and staff. Overcome with preparing for a major presentation, he neglected to do so. As a result, he was suspended with pay for one week for allegedly not treating a colleague with respect. Now, his director, the Canadian president of operations and the human resources manager were waiting to give him the bad news: he was being fired.
In an initiative to develop its herbal soap offering and create a repositioning strategy for its soap products, one of the front-runners in the Indian skincare market explored the perception of the brand image, using survey data to compare its own image with those of two of its strongest competitors. The challenge for this brand was to reposition itself and build its equity after taking into consideration the perceptual results of the study and the existing positioning of soap brands.
Sound financial management is the most important element in the viability of any business undertaking, and capital investment decisions are the foundation stone of this process. A company can pursue either an internal, organic approach to its financing options or an external, inorganic approach that uses borrowed funds to make acquisitions it hopes will increase its business. This is the route taken by Bharti Airtel Limited, India's leading telecommunications giant. Beginning in 2010, it has borrowed heavily on the international market to invest in acquisitions of a 3G licence in India, in Zain Africa and in the broadband wireless access branch of Qualcomm Inc. However, due to many causes - including the effects of the global recession on the industry; the highly competitive Indian telecommunications market; restructuring and disorganization in the firm's top management; and lack of innovation in offering and delivering new services in India - the company has experienced not the growth it expected from its expansion strategy, but a steady decline in profits. How can the management turn this situation around and regain the company's position as a leader in the telecommunications market in India and globally?
Tapestry Networks assembled industry leaders and their regulators in small, private meetings to build new frameworks for pressing regulatory challenges. Tapestry's motivating principle was to reimagine solutions to complex problems (e.g., drug-approval standards) in ways that created a win-win for firms and society. Tapestry meetings on bank-governance standards-initiated after the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis-had experienced some success in rebuilding trust between regulators and banks. But, five years on, the initiative faced important challenges. First, as the urgency of the Financial Crisis faded, it was becoming more difficult to show concrete successes, particularly to the meetings' sponsors-one participant described Tapestry as "sculpting fog." Second, participants differed on what they wanted to get out of the meetings-with some participants less focused on the meetings' broader social objectives. Third, Tapestry faced lingering questions about the meetings' legitimacy and whether they facilitated greater "coziness" between regulators and the regulated.
Mark Fields, Ford Motor Company's COO, had to ensure the company's current business model of building cars and trucks remained strong, while concurrently navigating the company into the radily expanding industry of personal mobility. Personal mobility required new technologies and business models that were intraditional at Ford, and Fields had to evaluate the traditional business model colliding with the new business model. To direct these new technologies and business models, Ford released its "Blueprint for Mobility," which established near-, mid- and long-term goals to make mobility accessible and affordable to all. The case focuses on the launch of three mobility experiements (car sharing, parking, and on-deman ride sharing), and ask students to determine how Fields should balance these types of experiments with the company's traditional operations. Further, was Ford doing enough in the mobility space, and if so, was it moving fast enough? What new sources of revenue could Ford derive from mobility solutions?