PageWell, an e-reading platform provider, was preparing to launch PageWell 2.0 to the larger full-time MBA student market after a successful trial of PageWell 1.0 in Executive MBA (EMBA) classes at the Kellogg School of Management. Research had shown that full-time MBA students would be very interested in using products that allowed electronic access to course materials everywhere and across many platforms and that allowed electronic note-taking and storage. To better understand this user group, PageWell conducted a market research survey of students, faculty, and administrators to gauge their needs, preferences, and potential interest in the PageWell product. The study revealed that MBA student usage patterns, scenarios, and behavior varied significantly from EMBA student needs and perceptions. PageWell now had the task of prioritizing the product requirements and recalibrating the market requirements document to more accurately reflect student needs and thus create a viable product.
Sandoz, which made a significant investment in bio-similars as a way to differentiate itself from its generic drug industry peers, has to negotiate with its parent company and the innovative pharma division on how best to commercialize its bio-similar portfolio. What is the best way to balance the parenting advantage of Novartis with the unique demands of the generic drug industry?
At the end of 2005, Tommy Hilfiger is taken private by Apax Partners after years of disappointing performance and strategic impasse. Students are asked to evaluate alternative strategic options for the company, and to propose a concrete turnaround plan for the first 100 days after the acquisition.
Alliance Design Concepts provided audio system solutions, which involved installing high-quality sound systems in customer facilities (such as large churches). A major cost component (60–80 per cent) for these systems was the equipment (speakers, amplifiers, etc.), which was sourced from the United States and paid for in U.S. dollars (USD). Alliance quoted prices to customers in Canadian dollars (CAD) by converting equipment costs from USD to CAD based on the exchange rate on the day of the quotation. Since it was often months later that Alliance actually converted cash and paid the supplier in USD, it found that a change in the exchange rate during that time could directly reduce the margin on the sale. The operations manager had to devise a risk mitigation strategy and/or business process change.
In October 2013, the Health and Human Services Secretary of the United States is tasked with making decisions about a website project, Healthcare.gov, that is a critical component in delivering the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare," to the American people. The act is a cornerstone but controversial policy of the Obama administration aimed at increasing access to health care services by providing health insurance to uninsured Americans. Unfortunately, the project is over budget and late. Forced to roll out before it is ready because of political considerations, the website crashes, causing anger and frustration for users unable to sign on or get information about the program. Because the act never really had the support of Republican Party representatives, the failure of the website stokes a political storm that appears to have more to do with reopening a debate in the media about Obamacare than it does with the website launch issues. Also in the spotlight is CGI, a technology company headquartered in Canada that is responsible for the overall design, development and execution of the project.
<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Responsible Leadership category, 2014 European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>In February 2014, a McKinsey Global Institute report proposed tracking an empowerment line that could enable India’s citizens to get out of poverty by providing the resources they needed to build better lives. This prompted Ela Bhatt, founder of the India-based Self-Employed Women’s Association, to take stock of her initiative to empower women working in India's informal sector. Since 1972, her organization has been widely acclaimed as a global first mover and active champion of grassroots development. Quickly approaching two million members in India and six neighbouring countries, and inspiring similar efforts in South Africa, Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso, it exemplifies a unique form of positively deviant organizing by speaking to the centrality of human beings at work. Given resources, support and encouragement, its many members have used their own human agency even in the direst of circumstances to better their lives in ways most meaningful to them, for instance, by creating childcare, health care, banking, farming and education cooperatives. However, as she reaches retirement and contemplates the future, Bhatt wonders if the new generation of Indian leaders will take up the Gandhian socially minded path or follow the commercial careers opening up in the country’s multinational sector. Also see B case 9B14C019.
GoodJobz was a non-profit organization that funded its job training and education programs by re-selling donated goods through its retail stores. The organization helped train over 11,000 people in 2012 and hoped to double that number within five years. To do so, the vice-president of marketing and community development believed that the organization should adopt a “giver” culture. After making significant progress in instilling a giver culture within his own department, he shifted his focus to another department: Business Services. However, the vice-president of business services hindered any efforts to do so. The vice-president of marketing and community development was faced with the challenge of how to handle this crisis.
In mid-2013, the executive chairman of Loblaw Companies Ltd. was considering whether it was in his company’s best interest to acquire Shoppers Drug Mart. In December 2012, Loblaw had announced a proposal to create a real estate investment trust to which it would initially transfer approximately 75 per cent of its substantial real estate holdings, thus unlocking value for its shareholders. At the same time, Shoppers’ shares were trading at an historically attractive valuation. On the other hand, competition was heating up with the move of big box stores, such as Wal-Mart and Target, into Canada and the growth of online purchasing. Moreover, new government regulations aimed at decreasing the high cost of drugs had an immediate impact on pharmaceutical companies. With Loblaw’s shares trading near a six-year high, there was now the attractive opportunity to use them as currency to make an acquisition whose potential synergies were estimated to be in excess of $300 million per year. Was this a good time to act on what had been perceived for a number of years as an attractive merger option? Did it make strategic sense? If so, what price should Loblaw pay for Shoppers?
This case presents a role play between a buyer, seller and consultant. In January 2012, India Steel Ltd., a successful, family-owned, mid-sized steel manufacturing company headquartered in India but with agents in Europe, the United States and some parts of the Middle East, is about to enter into a negotiation to buy a steel plant owned by Swedish Steel AB, a large Swedish steel company with more than 7,000 employees working in nine production facilities all over the world. Encouraged by a family friend, India Steel's CEO has hired an Indian consulting firm to go to Sweden and evaluate the offer.This case involves the buyer and is used with Indian Steel Ltd.: Tri-Party Negotiation - The Seller (B) and Indian Steel Ltd.: Tri-Party Negotiation - The Consultant (C).
This case is used in the Marketing Analytics elective at Darden. A Sticks executive team is interested in opening a second quick-service restaurant in Richmond, Virginia. But before doing so, the team wanted to gain a better sense of who were Sticks' customers, which location would attract the best customers, and how to best connect with customers. An opportunity to gather survey data presented itself. Would the demographic and psychographic assumptions the team had gathered from talking to people in stores align with the survey answers? And what would the data suggest about where to locate new stores and about what marketing channels and messages to use to promote them?
In 2012, Mr. Zablah, general manager at Operadora LogÃstica Salvadoreña (OPLS), a third-party logistics operator (3PL) in El Salvador, had to introduce changes in company operations in order to outsource Christmas logistics operation of the largest supermarket chain in the country. To this end, he instructed the Process manager to do some research into world-class performance metrics and storage practices in order to compare them with those used by OPLS. He also asked the Operations manager to present warehouse options to run the Christmas operation. With this information, Mr. Zablah had to identify improvement opportunities and choose a warehouse.
This is a two-part case which examines the events that led to CEO Michael Dell's decision to bring his company private in 2013. Case A is a global business strategy case about transforming and turning around a $60 billion technology company, and the challenge of valuing that business as its legacy declined and its ambitious diversification program progressed; and case B is a deal case about a very public going private process and the financial and transactional issues that gripped the market for close to a year, prompting both public and private market participants to debate the value and future of Dell. The cases also address important policy questions about the incentives and roles of various participants, the adequacy of public disclosure about large complex businesses, and the problems board face in managing turnarounds and exits of large complex enterprises. The case presumes some working knowledge of corporate finance.
This is a two-part case which examines the events that led to CEO Michael Dell's decision to bring his company private in 2013. Case A is a global business strategy case about transforming and turning around a $60 billion technology company, and the challenge of valuing that business as its legacy declined and its ambitious diversification program progressed; and case B is a deal case about a very public going private process and the financial and transactional issues that gripped the market for close to a year, prompting both public and private market participants to debate the value and future of Dell. The cases also address important policy questions about the incentives and roles of various participants, the adequacy of public disclosure about large complex businesses, and the problems board face in managing turnarounds and exits of large complex enterprises. The case presumes some working knowledge of corporate finance.