Discusses the role of conflict in organizations, how it can be managed, and the rationale for developing mechanisms to generate it in order to improve the organization's performance.
Discusses the role of organizational culture, including a definition and its role in helping an organization to achieve its objectives. Also discuss ways that senior management can maintain or change the culture.
Discusses the concept of a flexible budget (I.e., a budget adjusted for changes in volume and mix) and then how it can be supplemented with an analysis of other reasons for a variance from budgeted projections
Discusses the role of full costs in managerial decision making, and shows how to prepare a stepdown analysis as part of the Stage 1 effort. Discusses cost behavior and the analysis of differential costs in alternative choice decision making.
Discusses some of the complexities associated with capital investment decision making in nonprofit organizations when issues such as the value of a life are involved.
Dominion Resources is an industry giant, generating and distributing electricity throughout much of the northeastern United States. The company has continuously explored and expanded into new markets. Its portfolio includes fossil-fueled electricity, nuclear power, renewable energies, gas exploration and more. This standalone A case considers a recent question of the proper mix between regulated and unregulated markets and the impact of such a decision on the firm's future success. The standalone B case, Dominion Resources, Inc. (B) 9B13M009, examines how the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan affects Dominion's strategic planning given the change in public perception of nuclear power following the incident.
The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA) had two primary purposes: (1) to protect Canada’s boreal forest from harmful logging practices; and (2) to improve and protect the reputation of Canada’s forest industry and companies. But the CBFA’s ambitious plans overlooked the fundamental challenges associated with the agreement’s implementation. Two years after its signing, the agreement suffers from a severe lack of funding, the withdrawal of one signatory and major hurdles at the regional working group level. The CBFA’s secretariat needs to develop a plan of action to realize the full potential of the agreement but faces numerous issues in terms of implementation: (1) the CBFA’s exclusion of First Nations communities; (2) funding issues; (3) disagreement at the local regional levels and among some signatories; (4) slow pace of implementation and (5) limited concrete signs of success thus far.
The newly appointed general manager (GM) of a private golf club in a small community must step in to clean house after the club chooses not to renew the previous GM’s contract. The club has suffered a sizable revenue loss during its most recent year, and membership has declined well below the targeted level. Additionally, three senior managers have departed in the last few months and have been replaced with individuals who have very limited experience in the golf industry. The new GM must identify the issues he needs to address, prioritize them and develop an action plan. The golf season is set to begin in less than three months’ time, and the club cannot experience another disastrous financial year.
The emergency department of any large hospital is frequently subject to substantial patient crowding, a result of arrivals by foot and ambulance, and limited resources. The San Francisco General Hospital is particularly crowded due to its prominence as the only trauma centre in the city. As a result, it is on ambulance diversion almost 25 per cent of the time, more than any other hospital in the area. Hospital managers are looking for ways to alleviate emergency department crowding and ambulance diversion.
Moe Miller, the new managing director of M&M Pizza, is considering changing the company's capital structure to reduce the cost of capital. With the cost of debt at 4% and the cost of equity at 8%, adding a cheaper cost of funds through debt appears to be obvious. The case provides a simple framework for understanding the powerful intuition behind the foundational capital structure irrelevance propositions of Modigliani and Miller (1958). The case is written as an introductory experience in financial policy. Students are required to generate simple estimates of the cost of capital and estimate the value of debt and equity claims under various recapitalization scenarios. As the business is very simple and operates in a quasi-perfect market, the calculations require only that students are comfortable with the estimation of firm cost of capital.
New Earth Mining is one of the largest producers of precious metals in the U.S. While the firm operates mines primarily in the U.S. and Canada, it has also made substantial investments in gold exploration projects in Australia and Chile. New Earth has been very successful and has a large amount of cash on the balance sheet, a simple debt structure, and a reasonable leverage ratio with liquidity risk. With a strong financial position, the firm considers reducing its dependence on precious metals by diversifying into base metals and other minerals. An investment opportunity for mining iron ore in South Africa looks promising but still carries substantial risk. A high risk of civil war in neighboring countries along with strong fears that the South African government will nationalize mining operations combine to create an unstable political environment. The tentative financing package is complex and creates challenges for determining a value for the project. Students must complete a quantitative analysis of 4 proposals with different valuation methods before making a final recommendation.
This case describes the strategic and organizational challenges that Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) faced at the turn of the millennium. Until then, JLL sold piecemeal commercial real estate services to its corporate clients, who maintained relationships with a variety of vendors. In 2000, JLL's large corporate clients started globalizing their activities and seeking to outsource their real estate needs. They were looking for integrated solutions delivered through a single point of contact, and they cut their providers to a few strategic vendors. JLL's organizational structure, configured around largely autonomous service lines, was not well suited to supporting the development of integrated services. Executive Peter Barge was put in charge of a new team, called Corporate Solutions, whose mission was to draw connections between the service lines in order to foster integration. How should Barge structure Corporate Solutions to make sure it succeeds in its mission? And how should he configure the group's ties to the service lines to ensure their collaboration? The retention of JLL's most profitable clients was at stake. This case is the first in a series that also comprises cases B, C, and D and collectively covers JLL's evolution between the years 1999 and 2012.
This case describes the strategic and organizational challenges that Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) faced between 2001 and 2005. Faced with the need to deliver integrated services to corporate clients in 2001, JLL created Corporate Solutions, a group that aimed to draw connections between JLL's semi-autonomous service lines. Despite initial success, by 2005 the group was finding it challenging to foster integration. Account managers and service line leaders clashed as decision-making power, pay and incentives, and clout were altered and redistributed. JLL realized that its organizational structure was hindering the firm in achieving key strategic goals, such as rapid scalability of corporate accounts and effective local market penetration. America's CEO Peter Roberts outlines the alternatives JLL's top management analyzed as they considered how to move the organization forward. This case is the second in a case series that also comprises cases A, C, and D, and collectively covers JLL's evolution between the years 1999 and 2012.
This case describes the strategic and organizational challenges that Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) faced between 2005 and 2008. Having dismantled its long-standing service-line-oriented structure, JLL created two interdependent groups: Accounts and Markets. Accounts housed account managers who served JLL's corporate clients. Markets housed brokers specialized in a certain geography. JLL helped drive integration between Accounts and Markets by emphasizing work at the "intersections" between both groups, i.e., instances that required combining both groups' resources. By 2008, however, JLL was facing challenges associated with harnessing the potential of this new structure. There was more growth that could be obtained from penetrating local markets, and top management wondered how to best strengthen their brokerage team. The acquisition of Spaulding and Slye, a renowned Boston-based firm, provided instant growth in some key markets, but organic growth was harder to achieve. While the industry paid brokers with a commission model, JLL did so with a salary and bonus model that aligned well with JLL's culture but proved unattractive to new recruits. America's CEO Peter Roberts outlines the alternatives JLL analyzed as they considered how to strengthen the organization while maintaining its values and integrity. This case is the third in a case series that also comprises cases A, B, and D, and collectively covers JLL's evolution between the years 1999 and 2012.
This case describes the strategic and organizational challenges that Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) faced between 2008 and 2012. In 2008, in order to strengthen the firm's brokerage team, JLL merged with The Staubach Company, a real estate services provider with a first-rate brokerage team and great cultural fit with JLL. Staubach paid its brokers with a commission model, which accelerated JLL's decision to let go of its long-standing salary and bonus approach. The merger also surfaced two interesting business opportunities. First, local brokers were now empowered and motivated to open up their client relationships to the rest of the company, growing their business from just local transactions to the full array of services JLL provided. Second, local brokers became aware of a great number of mid-sized clients whose real estate needs were not as sophisticated as those of large corporate accounts but who required multi-service solutions in selected geographies. JLL thus created a group called Markets Corporate Solutions, which specifically targeted mid-sized clients. Toward 2012, with its organizational structure expanding to tackle opportunities for multiple types of clients in a myriad of geographies, JLL was facing challenges associated with managing internal and external complexity. America's CEO Peter Roberts outlines the opportunities and challenges that lied ahead for JLL. This is the final case in a series that also comprises cases A, B, and C, and collectively covers JLL's evolution between the years 1999 and 2012.
In early May 2013, Abercrombie & Fitch, a high-end clothing retailer in the United States, faced a loss of consumer confidence in its brand after quotes made by its CEO in an interview seven years earlier resurfaced. His remarks fostered the perception that the company was prejudiced against overweight people. In response, angry consumers released a YouTube video entitled #FitchTheHomeless urging people to donate their Abercrombie & Fitch clothing to homeless individuals. This video went viral and inspired negative feedback towards the company from both social media networks and mainstream media outlets. Abercrombie & Fitch’s first response came 12 days later with a second apology issued the following week. Nonetheless, the controversy continued, and by June, Forbes announced that the company’s BrandIndex Impression was at an all year low. How can Abercrombie & Fitch reverse the negative feedback and regain its consumers’ loyalty?<p><br><br>You might also like: Abercrombie and Fitch, Mountain Dew: The Most Racist Soft-drink Commercial in History?, Domino’s Pizza
The founder of ServiceForce, a company that provides repair and maintenance for motorized two-wheel vehicles in India, has a dilemma about whether he should sell the rights of his franchisee business, join hands with a venture capitalist, borrow money for capacity building or see the business grow through franchising. The start-up was initiated with his own money and family investment. A mere 18 months has shown great success with two service stations, a mobile workshop to service rural and industrial clients and a system of card packages that allow customers to pre-pay for a range of services. The company is a recognized brand for customer satisfaction and quality workmanship, and the employees are happy and contribute to the company well-being by participating in customer promotion schemes. However, competition from both vehicle manufacturers’ service stations and unorganized garages is growing in tandem with the skyrocketing sales of two-wheel vehicles, especially to the younger demographic. In order to grow, the company is at a crossroads: should it borrow money to ramp up the growth of the business through new capacity building or invest in more franchises? Should the owner accept the offer to buy the franchise rights from him outright or the offer from a venture capitalist, which will result in losing some control?
<p>At the end of the year’s third quarter, the sales team at a generic-pharmaceutical company has achieved just 91 per cent of its sales target, and growth is less than what was anticipated. The general manager of sales needs to decide whether he can revise the sales targets for the last quarter of the year without compromising growth. He also needs to address the impact of launching a new product when the sales team is striving to achieve its budgets and devise strategies the sales team can use to achieve their sales targets during a selling downturn.</p>