Primary co-operative banks in India located in semi-urban and urban areas, known as Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs), were traditionally centered around communities and work place groups. The main business of these banks was lending to small borrowers and business houses but the scope of their operations had increased greatly. The case describes Shamrao Vithal Co-operative (SVC) Bank's inorganic growth strategy through acquisition of weaker/loss-making UCBS, and the problems and challenges faced by the bank. It also examines the alternative of organic growth towards its objective of achieving a pan-India presence. One of the fastest growing Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs) in India, SVC Bank was moving towards this objective. From a total of 38 branches in 2005, with a deposit base of ₹24 billion, the bank had grown to more than 100 branches with a total business of ₹100 billion by 2011. This growth had come in three phases. During 2005-2008, when government policy did not permit opening of new branches, SVC Bank had grown by acquiring three weak UCBs with 24 branches. When the curbs on organic growth were lifted in 2009, the bank aggressively added 26 new branches in two years. During 2010-11, it added 16 new branches and also acquired one UCB with one branch. Since the vice-chairman of the bank had experienced the advantages and disadvantages of both organic and inorganic growth, he wondered which route made better sense and whether the bank should continue with the kind of aggressive expansion of the past six years.
HDFC Life Insurance (HDFC Life) was competing in a changing environment as established banks began entering the insurance business. Even though several brands in the category advertised with different positioning strategies, consumers were not receptive. HDFC Life commissioned a survey that seemed to lead the senior manager of digital marketing to a dead end. The challenge was to introduce a differentiation that could be associated with the HDFC brand despite the limitations of the category and the unreceptive mindset of the target segment. The case also takes into consideration the changing lifestyles of potential insurance buyers in India, their new interest in purchasing insurance online and the complexities of developing a services brand in an emerging market.
In 2010, approximately 20,000 barrels of oil being shipped south by Enbridge spilled into Michigan's Talmadge Creek, contaminating wetlands around Battle Creek and the nearby county seat of Marshall, including a stretch of the Kalamazoo River. The timing of the incident could not have been worse. The pipeline had been carrying controversial tar sands oil at a time when Enbridge and its competitors were seeking to greatly expand their pipeline networks across North America. Moreover, the pipeline failure came on the heels of BP's much larger oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, amid a period of heightened public intolerance toward oil spills. As a result, Enbridge faced massive public relations (PR) and regulatory challenges. Enbridge's reputation was clearly at risk since the company had promoted itself as a true believer in corporate social responsibility, which had raised the stakes when dealing with the industrial accident. The CEO of Enbridge faced an almost impossible challenge. He needed to prove to American citizens - and to industry regulators, market watchers, company shareholders and Enbridge employees - that his company deserved to be judged on its own merits, not as a Canadian version of BP. To meet this challenge, he needed to demonstrate that Enbridge was run by people who not only wanted to make amends but could be trusted to do so.
The chief public relations (PR) strategist for SG Media is using the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) as an example in her public relations training session. In 2011, the TTC has been in the news because of a combination of poorly managed fare hike announcements and the perception of lax service quality. Consumers have taken to publishing, on social media sites, images of TTC employees seemingly in violation of service standards. The strategist is thinking about an appropriate PR strategy that the TTC could rely on to rectify its image.
Two avid golfers were having a debate over whether scores were lower on Sundays. One of the golfers believed that courses were made easier on Sunday for viewers who wanted to see low scores. The other golfer countered that all the pressure on the golfers on Sunday would surely raise their scores and, in fact, the television coverage would make things worse. Using a dataset from the 2011 season, various questions about golfers and golf tournament can be addressed. These include: Are scores different from the first day to the last day? Are scores different across the four rounds? Are young people doing better than those who are older? Do long hitters have lower scores? How important is driving accuracy in determining one's score? Do people putt for dough and drive for show? The dataset is available from the case author. The dataset contains over 1,000 responses across the four generations (Veterans, Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y). It also contains enough responses to deal with the question of whether there were three sub-generations of Boomers.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is one of the largest and fastest-growing pools of investment capital in the world and follows an unusually active program of investment management. In October of 2012, Mark Wiseman was just 12 weeks into his role as chief executive officer, and he must decide how to lead the organization to outperform the market as it grows larger and more geographically disperse. After seven years of eschewing the use of intermediaries and successfully practicing its "do-it-yourself mega-investing" approach, CPPIB had garnered admiration from institutions on Bay Street and Wall Street alike. It had even been heralded as a "Maple Revolutionary" by The Economist. With assets under management projected to grow to C$275 billion by 2020, however, Wiseman faced the challenge of how to scale the organization's investment strategy for the future. As Wiseman settled into the chief executive's role, would he be able to lead CPPIB to meet its goals?
This case considers the valuation of Lin TV, a publicly-traded company with 30 TV stations. The case highlights how a change in operating strategy can enhance the firm's value, and considers the effect of consolidation within the industry on firm value.
In 2012, the energy sector in the United States was demanding major reform. Prices of oil and gas had continued to cripple the middle and lower class as the U.S. economy slowly recovered. At the same time, the U.S. lagged behind developed economies in production of renewable energy. The acceptance of climate change remained a partisan issue. The development of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) promised an abundance of accessible, cheap, domestically produced natural gas, but the cost to the environment remained a point of debate. As incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama faced Republican opponent Mitt Romney in the 2012 election, their (and their parties) stances on energy policy and the environment differed in several major areas. The results of the election would shape the country's energy policy for at least the next four years, and potentially create enough momentum to set energy policy of the United States for many years to come.
Royal Dutch Shell has been among the early players to implement diversity and inclusion policies in the 1990s, first in the U.S. and then globally. In May 2009, Peter Voser, CFO and soon-to-be CEO, wants to adjust the company's business, head count, and cost levels to adapt to changing economic conditions after one of the worst economic downturns in decades. His all-male executive committee has raised eyebrows because it is a step back from that of his predecessor, and he must decide whether to continue to promote the firm's emphasis on global diversity and inclusion while it restructures its business and reduces its managerial workforce.
Backsourcing, defined generally as bringing services outsourced to a third party back in-house, is now a growing phenomenon. The decision to backsource has several significant implications for an organization, as it requires the organization to manage organizational change, reintegrate knowledge, and develop new capabilities and competences. Taking into account there is very limited empirical evidence of how to successfully accomplish the backsourcing process, two case studies included in this teaching case offer additional insight into the process of backsourcing. To prepare students for case analysis, this teaching case starts by describing the backsourcing phenomenon, followed by an overview of the backsourcing trend, and includes a brief review of the relevant literature that mainly focuses on backsourcing decisions and touches on critical success factors for implementing a backsourcing initiative. This is followed by two case studies that describe two essentially different examples of backsourcing. The first case study (MediaCorp) deals with the example of backsourcing IT hosting services, which is considered a business process, whereas the second case study (ITServCorp) talks about bringing an IT product development back in-house. However, regardless of the nature of the backsourced activity, analysis of these two cases allows deeper understanding of the process through which the backsourcing initiative has been implemented. Therefore, while each case can be used separately to analyze different aspects of backsourcing, they also can be analyzed in a comparative manner to better understand the process of backsourcing.
This teaching case has been developed for a global consumer products company. Interviews from several outsourcing managers and executives within the company have contributed to the case. This case focuses on how a company can build innovation into an outsourcing relationship when it has not been explicitly stated in the outsourcing agreement. The two fictitious companies in this case are Bentley & Brooks (B&B) (the client) and AlphaCorp (the provider). Both companies are based on, but are not accurate portrayals of, actual companies that are anonymous. The case is a composite of several actual outsourcing cases between the two companies. B&B has outsourced much of their human resource operations and IT support. They have been frustrated that their global outsource provider, AlphaCorp, has not been able to bring innovation to the relationship. In the outsourcing contract, innovation was not expressly identified, but was certainly discussed during the outsourcing proposal and negotiations. In addition, the ability of AlphaCorp to deliver consistent quality of service on a global basis has been uneven, particularly in Latin America. You will be asked to take on the role of a B&B employee who is part of a team looking into the innovation problem. The team has been asked to provide answers to three key questions and to present their recommendations to a panel of senior executives of B&B.
In 2011, two avid golfers were having a debate over whether scores were lower on Sundays. One of the golfers believed that courses were made easier on Sunday for viewers who wanted to see low scores. The other golfer countered that all the pressure on the golfers on Sunday would surely raise their scores and, in fact, the television coverage would make things worse.<br><br>Using a dataset from the 2011 season, various questions about golfers and golf tournament can be addressed. These include: Are scores different from the first day to the last day? Are scores different across the four rounds? Are young people doing better than those who are older? Do long hitters have lower scores? How important is driving accuracy in determining one’s score? Do people putt for dough and drive for show?<br><br>The dataset is available from the case author.<br><br>The dataset contains over 1,000 responses across the four generations (Veterans, Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y). It also contains enough responses to deal with the question of whether there were three sub-generations of Boomers.
The chief public relations (PR) strategist for SG Media is using the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) as an example in her public relations training session. In 2011, the TTC has been in the news because of a combination of poorly managed fare hike announcements and the perception of lax service quality. Consumers have taken to publishing, on social media sites, images of TTC employees seemingly in violation of service standards. The strategist is thinking about an appropriate PR strategy that the TTC could rely on to rectify its image.
In the first part of a two-part case, a strategic finance manager at Wells Fargo with experience installing solar panel systems on bank branches crunches the numbers for a similar project in the Los Angeles area given the uncertain future of a government rebate.
Hill Country Snack Foods, located in Austin, Texas, manufactures, markets, and distributes snack foods and frozen treats. The CEO is passionate about maximizing shareholder value and believes in keeping tight control over costs and operating the business as efficiently as possible. The company invests in additional capacity and new products only when attractive, low-risk opportunities are identified and can be funded internally. The firm's culture of risk aversion extends to financing decisions with a clear preference for equity finance over debt finance. The CEO believes a strong balance sheet with large cash balances provides the company with maximum safety and flexibility. Sales growth has been steady but unspectacular. As the CEO approaches retirement, investors and analysts speculate that the company will change to a more aggressive capital structure. Students must analyze the firm's current capital structure, explore three alternatives using debt finance, and determine the optimal debt-to-capital ratio.