Bristol Myers Squibb, a multi-national pharmaceutical company, is seeking to globalize its R&D strategy while managing costs. It has formed a joint venture with an Indian company, which has worked well, but now faces a strategic decision on how and whether to continue.
The director of Lands and Economic Development in the Ministry of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) must make recommendations on how to handle challenges around a large farming company that leases land from First Nations communities in Western Canada. New Horizon Farms (NHF) has already leased over 180,000 acres from First Nations communities and plans to grow to one million acres. An immediate challenge is the leasing process whereby INAC must review and sign leases and receive lease payments, which are later turned over to the First Nations. The process slows the partnering process and the speed of cash flow to First Nations and many First Nations object to government control over their land on principle. However, without INAC involved, the leases are not legally enforceable, an essential factor for NHF and its public parent company. NHF provides leasing revenue but also training, employment, and shares in the company to the First Nations it partners with. On the surface it looks like a good opportunity, but it raises several questions for policy makers. Will NHF’s control of one million acres of First Nations land be seen as a form of economic colonialism? How does this kind of initiative fit with INAC’s and First Nations’ mandates to improve economic and social conditions among First Nations communities? How will the provinces and neighbouring communities perceive and react to the situation?<br><br>New Horizon Farms also needs to consider its long-term strategy. Will the operation meet its target of one million acres? What are the risks for the company? How should it approach the training issue now that funding has finished?
Material requirements planning (MRP) systems have been widely used by manufacturing firms to maintain an optimum flow of inputs for the best production results. By using an MRP system, a firm can prepare a production plan that specifies the number of sub-assemblies that go into a final product along with the exact timeline of an order, from placement to completion. <br><br>In the case, an A-CAT employee is assigned the task of preparing an operating plan for the next eight weeks for a product. She has to decide how much to produce to be able to meet the requirements economically, taking into account the forecasted demand. The case examines the intricacies of procurement, warehousing, and processing costs of various material components by critically evaluating different techniques in practice. Using situational scenarios, the case presents lot-sizing techniques — including lot for lot, economic order quantity, least total cost and least unit cost — for balancing costs such as set-up costs, ordering costs, and inventory-holding costs.
Josh Wyatt, Director of Patron Capital Partners, needs to make an exit decision for a successful investment in Generator Hostels. After five years of explosive growth and in the middle of a financial crisis, Wyatt needs to evaluation Patron's alternatives: IPO the platform, seek a strategic investor or sell the platform outright.
This case explores social media marketing as both business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) strategies. In spite of a challenging real estate environment, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate (BHGRE) was launched in 2008 by Realogy Corporation, the largest franchisor of real estate brands in the world, to maintain and grow market share with a new type of real estate company centered around lifestyle. BHGRE has grown rapidly and has experienced tremendous success with its B2B social media efforts. Now, several years after the formation of the company, the president and chief executive officer must decide how to leverage what she has learned from the B2B effort to create a B2C social media program. Additional factors include a concurrent Canadian market entry.
In December 2011, the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Environmental Protection Agency issued a joint proposal to dramatically increase fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions of passenger cars and light trucks sold between 2017 and 2025. The joint proposal was created in response to President Obama's call for both agencies to build on a national program that would "produce a new generation of clean vehicles." By 2025, new cars and light trucks were expected to achieve an unprecedented average fuel economy of nearly 50 miles per gallon (mpg), reducing fuel consumption by 4 billion barrels of oil and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide over the lifetimes of the new vehicles. The NHTSA predicted that the national program would generate benefits of $323 billion-primarily in the form of savings in fuel costs for vehicle owners-amounting to four times the cost. This case takes an in-depth look at the NHTSA's regulatory impact analysis for the 2017-2025 fuel economy regulation and examines the proposed social benefits and costs of the program. According to NHTSA's analysis, the private benefits to vehicle owners are several times the cost, while the external benefits are modest and more than offset by the loss in gas tax revenues. The case explores the NHTSA's explanations for the apparent paradox: if there are large net gains for vehicle owners (and for manufacturers who better meet buyers' preferences) from vehicles with higher mpg, why does the market not generate more fuel-efficient vehicles on its own? Could it be standard market failures, perhaps inconsistencies in consumer behavior patterns, or errors in the agency's estimates of costs or benefits? Are the more traditional market failures suggested by the NHTSA (imperfect competition in the auto industry and limited information) valid explanations? Case Number 1973.0
When Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Judy Monroe learned of the emergence of H1N1 (commonly referred to as "Swine Flu") in late April 2009, she had to quickly figure out how to coordinate an effective response within her state's highly balkanized public health system, in which more than 90 local health departments wielded considerable autonomy. Over the next several months, she would come to rely heavily on relationships she had worked hard to establish with local health officials upon becoming commissioner -- but she and her senior advisors would also have to scramble to find new ways to communicate and coordinate with their local partners, who represented jurisdictions that varied considerably in terms of size, population demographics, resources, and public health capacity. Case Number 1974.0
Companies work hard to persuade their customers to buy additional products. But a sizable segment of cross-buying customers are unprofitable, and the more they buy, the more companies lose. It's important to identify and neutralize the impact of these profit-destroying customers.
Research on the variables that affect whether employees "get" and execute company strategy. The biggest factor is communication from top management all the way down through the organization.
Though innovation is critical to a company's growth, investors don't seem to factor companies' strength or weakness at R&D into decisions to buy stock.
How 27 cities worldwide stack up on measures of international appeal--including number of hotel rooms, number of international tourists, airport activity, and international association meetings--and on livability: cultural vibrancy, quality of life, ease of driving and efficiency of public transportation. Overall, Paris and London rank first and second respectively, with New York in fifth place.