The case reveals that Ford decided to open its own e-coating plant in Gujarat, India, and details how the decision was made at different organizational levels.
The case profiles Brad Handler, co-founder of Inspirato, as he contemplates and ultimately founds the luxury and leisure membership-based 'destination club,' shortly after selling and leaving an analogous company that he previously also founded (Exclusive Resorts). The case begins with a biographical overview of Brad Handler and the genesis of and logic for Exclusive Resorts. It provides an overview of the luxury vacation property industry, as well as the timeshare, fractional ownership and destination club industry and then dives into the Exclusive Resorts business model and company growth. After Handler decides to leave Exclusive Resorts, the case delves into his considerations and next steps as he evaluates the opportunity for an improved business model to that of Exclusive Resorts. Given Handler's unique understanding of the industry and a few of its inherent flaws (most notably capital intensity and seasonal demand), he recognizes the unique position he is in to improve upon the Exclusive Resorts model. In particular, the 'destination club' sector had previously been characterized by property acquisition and ownership-with significant capital requirements-as well as demand choppiness and supply constraints during weeks of high vacation interest. Handler considers the implications of entering into long-term leases and rental agreements with individuals and third-party vacation home owners, as well as the use of fluctuating "use rates" for each property in the 'destination club' portfolio in an attempt to both reduce the financial hurdles of entering a 'destination club' and to smooth internal demand. The case brings up a number of important considerations, including new venture formation, how and when an entrepreneur should think about a follow-up to a previous venture-especially one with similarities to a previous business and with customer overlap-business model design, and product launch.
Global Consultancy Canada, the national branch of a global tax, accounting and consulting services firm, is seeking to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its organization. The leader of the sourcing practice has been tasked by the company's chief executive officer to identify opportunities for transforming the firm's marketing and communications, human resources, finance and information technology functions. He must decide on the most suitable models for these business areas and make a recommendation at the next leadership update meeting.
Global Consultancy Canada, the national branch of a global tax, accounting and consulting services firm, is seeking to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its organization. The leader of the sourcing practice has been tasked by the company’s chief executive officer to identify opportunities for transforming the firm’s marketing and communications, human resources, finance and information technology functions. He must decide on the most suitable models for these business areas and make a recommendation at the next leadership update meeting.
NPI is a Shanghai-based social venture that actively promotes social innovation and cultivates social entrepreneurs by granting crucial support to start-up and small- to medium-sized grassroots non-profit and non-governmental organizations. The company was founded in 2006 when the Chinese government had loosened its restrictions on private donations to charitable causes and cautiously welcomed private non-profit organizations to enter the social welfare sector. Its founder’s ability to enlist support not only from national and local government officials but also from foundations and other grassroots not-for-profit organizations has led to its success in the areas of incubation of start-up social enterprises, venture philosophy, resource integration, capacity building, showcasing, outreach and social innovation. However, in 2013, NPI is threatened by a combination of rapid growth, mushrooming projects and limited means to attract and retain professional staff. The founder is faced with devising a three-year strategic transformation of NPI at a critical tipping point for social enterprise in China.
In 2010, the world's third largest retailer created a new centralized sourcing department for fresh food and store-brand grocery products in response to changes in global supply and to better meet the needs of a new multi-channel retail environment. The case, set in late 2013, covers the development of Tesco Group Food and identifies future opportunities and challenges.
The case series focuses on Melbourne Trains' viral advertising campaign to improve safe behaviors around trains among young people. This iconic, low budget campaign swept the Cannes Lions advertising awards in 2013 and became a social media sensation.
The case series focuses on Melbourne Trains' viral advertising campaign to improve safe behaviors around trains among young people. This iconic, low budget campaign swept the Cannes Lions advertising awards in 2013 and became a social media sensation.
The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) was an ambitious $90 billion infrastructure project covering the 1483-km distance between Delhi and Mumbai. The project would create new industrial townships, high speed freight lines, six-lane expressways, airports, ports and power plants. It would also give the country a unique opportunity to plan, develop and build new cities that were economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. The DMIC could boost India's flailing manufacturing sector, increase foreign investments, augment exports, generate jobs and situate the country on a higher growth trajectory. While the project held many promises for India, there were many risks involved. Its success would depend on land acquisition and unprecedented levels of coordination across various government agencies. This case examines whether Amitabh Kant, CEO, Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC), the nodal agency for planning and implementing the project, would be able to deliver on the project's promises.
Set in 2009, the (A) case explores whether Amgen, a leading innovator of biotech-based drugs, should enter the emerging business of biosimilars (BS), which are essentially 'me-too' products. There appear to be sound reasons to explore this related diversification: innovation is getting harder, regulators are intent on encouraging BS, and Amgen needs renewed growth. But the possibility sparked a strong negative reaction within Amgen, not least because it contravened Amgen's mission. Internal debate was exacerbated by the presence of considerable uncertainty over the regulatory requirements for BS development and how difficult it would be to develop a BS. Some felt it played to Amgen's strengths, others felt that Amgen lacked critical capabilities. Many felt there was simply no need for any change in strategy at all. To navigate through this morass, Amgen needed clear strategic thinking. Amgen set out to see if an objective business case for entry could be built. This involved settling on a set of most likely assumptions, quantitatively estimating likely revenue and profitability, testing out sensitivity to assumptions using scenarios, and assessing the main risks of entry and of staying out. The analysis provided strong support for entry subject to the key assumptions. The (A) case also invites students to think through how CEO Kevin Sharer should handle a positive entry decision given the divided opinions across the senior management team.
The (B) case reveals that Sharer decided that Amgen should the emerging biosimilars business. However, he took the better part of a year to syndicate the decision across the senior team while in parallel investing in some time-critical process development. The (B) case then focuses on how the new business should be implemented, particularly in terms of integration versus separation of a new business unit, choice of unit leader, and whether Amgen should partner with a third party to gain access to skills or resources.
In April 2013, Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, vice president and general manager for Learning@Cisco Systems, was planning the future of the Cisco Learning Network, an online platform hosted at Cisco.com. Since its launch in 2008, the Cisco Learning Network provided content to prepare networking professionals for certification exams, as well as social functionalities to let users interact with each other. To help realize the company's vision for "The Internet of Everything (IOE)," a world where nearly all physical objects, places, people, and processes were connected through the Internet, Cisco estimated that 75 to 90% of all IT workers needed to be re-skilled. The Cisco Learning Network played an important role in that process, helping to train networking professionals to design, build, and manage more complex networks. Aware of just how much was riding on the success of the learning platform, Beliveau-Dunn needed to decide whether to invest heavily in content-and have Cisco employees post videos, tutorials, and study guides to the site-or invest in more social networking tools to enable the community to produce content and help one another master the material in preparation for new certifications.
This case deals with the service operations and quality management issues faced by SMRT Trains, one of the rapid transit rail operators in Singapore. The trigger point for the case was the occurrence of two massive service disruptions on December 15, 2011 and December 17, 2011, respectively. Even though the rail line that faced the disruption had been in existence for over two decades, this was the first time that multiple disruptions of such massive impact (five hours or more of loss of service) occurred and impacted commuters widely across Singapore. The case delves into quality management, service operations and root cause analysis.
There is an important shift in business focus in the United States that is empowering companies to not only declare their intent to be ethical firms which do good while making a profit, but also to submit proof of that commitment for annual review by outside evaluators. A new business model is providing structure for nonprofits that wish to grow, for for-profits that wish to be socially responsible, and for individuals who wish to invest in companies with a commitment to corporate social responsibility and sustainability. B Lab has taken the lead in providing the models necessary for this shift to a focus on the double bottom line: profit and social benefit. It has created the legal documents for state legislatures to use to pass a new corporate structure called the 'benefit corporation.' In the 3 years of its existence, legislatures in 19 states and the District of Columbia have ratified the new corporate structure. Likewise, B Lab offers a performance assessment program to become a Certified B Corporation, independent of legal corporate status, which also serves as an evaluation program for benefit corporations. Additionally, it has created a ratings agency and analytics platform, the Global Impact Investing Rating System (GIIRS), to help institutional investors evaluate the impact of companies' corporate social responsibility initiatives. This article discusses the requirements and benefits of the new models and addresses the issues that have been raised about them. It also identifies companies that are incorporating the benefit corporation structure and are becoming Certified B Corporations.
With cost advantages from manufacturing in Asia and Mexico steadily deteriorating, U.S. firms are reassessing the option of domestic outsourcing to remain globally competitive. The challenge in evaluating international versus domestic outsourcing strategic options lies in that first-movers are extremely and intentionally vague about how they reach their decisions. The purpose of this article is to reveal these reasons by providing statistical and firm-based evidence on five major factors that are influencing the decision regarding where U.S. companies should manufacture to optimize their gross profits. The factors include (1) increasingly competitive U.S. labor costs; (2) increasing productivity of the U.S. workforce; (3) increasingly competitive domestic production costs; (4) incentives from federal, state, and local governments; and (5) improved synchronization of production with other business functions.
Apple, 3M, Procter & Gamble, and Google know the importance of an internal environment supportive of innovative activity. But how is that environment identified or measured? As research on corporate entrepreneurial activity has evolved, numerous researchers have acknowledged the importance of internal organizational dimensions to promoting and supporting an environment for innovation. This research has identified five specific dimensions that are important determinants of an environment conducive to entrepreneurial behavior: (1) top management support, (2) work discretion/autonomy, (3) rewards/reinforcement, (4) time availability, and (5) organizational boundaries. If an organization is serious about developing an internal environment conducive to entrepreneurial activity, then it must seek to measure the specific dimensions associated with an innovative environment. In this article we introduce an instrument, the Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument (CEAI), as a diagnostic tool used for assessing managers' perceptions of the five major dimensions critical to creating an entrepreneurial/innovative environment. This instrument provides an indication of a firm's likelihood of being able to successfully implement an innovative strategy, and highlights areas of the internal work environment that should be the focus of ongoing development efforts.
Statistics about women's presence as CEOs, directors, and board members show relative stagnation over the last few years. Many theories exist to explain this problem, but there is a paucity of specific suggestions targeted at individuals seeking to rise to the top of their organizations. In this article we propose that changing the way women talk about accomplishments can improve leadership presence and aid in promotion. We analyzed video interviews of 20 men and 20 women in leadership roles at Fortune 50 companies. Since leaders will inevitably confront this when interviewing for promotions, we chose to focus on the question: ''In your career, what are the accomplishments you are most proud of?'' We analyzed content, syntax, gestures, and facial expressions, and identified significant differences in the way men and women talked about accomplishment. Based upon our research, we identify six communication essentials that can help women project confidence: (1) starting strong, (2) staying succinct, (3) dimensionalizing content, (4) owning voice, (5) controlling movement, and (6) projecting warmth.
The gender stigma of work-life balance (WLB) policies as concessions for mothers and female caregivers originated with the push by the Women's Movement for gender workplace equity in the late 20th century. Unfortunately, this perception continues in the 21st century and retains the additional stigma of employee participation in these policies--regardless of gender--as a detrimental career move. Thus, home and work responsibilities for professionals of all genders who desire more occupational flexibility remain unreconciled. Despite this dominant national and international outlook, this article encourages new century organizations and professionals to reject the traditional perception of occupational inequity through gendercolored glasses and instead contemplate the benefits of WLB policies void of gender stigmas. Specifically, organizations could re-create workplace culture with stigmafree WLB policies through administrative leaders' embracement of and participation in such policies, which may pave the way for establishing occupational equity. Through workplace culture re-creation, organizations may then offer employees--regardless of gender, marital status, or company position--flexible work options to assist them in leading happy, healthy, and more productive lives.