Make mistakes faster. This slogan, and others like it, can be seen prominently displayed on posters throughout Menlo's office, a software-development company known for its casual Mondays and extreme interviews. Menlo's founders are considering opening a new branch to keep up with the demand for Menlo's services, but wonder if they can preserve the culture they have so carefully cultivated within the walls of their Ann Arbor, Michigan office and transfer it to another location. This case studies the work culture of a highly unorthodox company that designs very usable, practical software.
DLF was the largest real estate player in India, possessing a strong home market in Delhi and Gurgaon (the National Capital Region, NCR). The Indian real estate market was growing rapidly, and DLF wanted to convert this growth opportunity into a country-wide presence by building significant land reserves. With huge debt on its balance sheet, the company decided to raise finance through equity. The stock markets were on a rise, and the timing was perfect to raise funds from an initial public offering (IPO). The company filed its draft red herring prospectus (DHRP) in May 2006, but soon afterwards the stock market scenario changed, and the company faced complaints from its minority shareholders. The global macroeconomic scenario had become a cause of concern too. DLF was forced to withdraw its DRHP and put its IPO plans on hold. This case is positioned in January 2007, when DLF had resolved its minority shareholders' issue and had added significant portions to its land reserves. At that juncture, DLF's management began the process of trying to gauge the circumstances before reintroducing its decision to go public.
Monocle, a magazine on global affairs, culture, and business, was founded by Tyler Brule to counter a perceived deterioration in the quality of print publications available at the newsstand. Monocle differentiates itself from other publications through its diverse international coverage and related newspaper, radio, and shop offerings. The case investigates the growth of Monocle and how the publication has developed its unique relationship with readers and advertisers.
On January 18, 2012, President Obama rejected TransCanada's application for a "national interest" determination to approve construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Keystone XL was a 1,700 mile long, 36-inch diameter pipeline to transport 1.1 million barrels a day of Canadian heavy oil from Alberta (and shale oil from Montana) to the American Gulf Coast. But the American environmental community had focused all its resources on stopping Keystone XL-to them, a symbol of the nation's refusal to deal with climate change. Now the head of Keystone had to figure out what had gone wrong, and decide what to do next in order to get the project approved.
As 2012 approached the woes of the financial crisis seemed to be fading, companies were resuming business as usual and some of the scrutiny on corporate governance practices began to recede as well. That is until another major financial scandal emerged in Japan in the fall of 2011. It was slowly revealed that the 92-year-old camera and medical photo-imaging company, Olympus, had been hiding its losses for more than a decade - to the tune of $1.7 billion - long before the current economic pressures, slow job growth, and poor investor confidence plagued the global economy. The fraud renewed the focus on corporate governance policies world-wide, but especially in Japan, where the lack of board independence and a deep-rooted corporate culture entrenched in personal loyalties fostered an environment that made it difficult for scandals such as this to be unveiled, let alone for whistleblowers to come forward about them.
This case outlines Michael Woodford's awards and honors, after having been fired from Olympus in October 2011. It discusses the repercussions following an investigation into the fraud and the report which was released thereafter. It also discusses the lawsuit that followed (filed by Woodford against Olympus), its settlement, and the new Olympus board and the fate of the Olympus executives who were at Olympus while the scandal occurred.
Rock Health was a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization offering accelerator services to spur innovation at the intersection of healthcare and technology. The company was the creation of Halle Tecco (HBS '11) and her HBS classmate Nate Gross (HBS '11), who met early in their first year at the HBS Healthcare Club meeting and decided to undertake a year-long field study that married their shared interests in healthcare, technology and entrepreneurship. Rock Health supported health-tech entrepreneurs with a startup grant of $20,000, office space and a wide variety of professional support services. Entrepreneurial teams that participated in Rock Health's programs promoted services ranging from data-driven technologies that helped manage stress to mobile tools that attempted to diagnosis medical conditions as diverse as Alzheimer's disease and foot ulcers. The case is set in August 2011, as Rock Health is wrapping up its third group of entrepreneurs in a Boston program and planning for its fourth class at the home office. The case should enable students to identify emerging challenges, evaluate Rock Health's funding model, debate the effectiveness of its incubation service and assess its long-term viability.
In February 2011, Nintendo released the next evolution of the DS line of handheld gaming devices in Japan: the Nintendo 3DS. Despite initial rave reviews of the new device, sales figures were much lower than expected. In July 2011, Nintendo announced that it would reduce the price of 3DS by 30% to boost sales. At the same time, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata declared salary reductions for all of Nintendo's directors, starting with a 50% cut of his own salary. In October 2011, Nintendo predicted that the net loss for the year ending in March 2012 would be US$264 million, a first in the company's 30-year history. Back in 2006, the Nintendo Wii disrupted the video game industry, and in the following years, Nintendo was disrupted by Microsoft with Kinect and by Sony with PlayStation Move as well as by Apple and Google with their game-changing products targeting the mobile industry. It remained unclear how Nintendo could turn around and reclaim the few glorious years after the release of the Nintendo Wii game console and the Nintendo DS handheld game device.
In this updated case on Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, the company remains actively committed to rolling out and refining its Every Day Low Price ("EDLP") strategy across China, while making smaller, yet important strides to be locally relevant to its Chinese consumers. As recently as April 2012, then-CEO Scott Price shared his enthusiasm about Wal-Mart's growth and expansion in China. However, only a few short months later, by mid-summer 2012 (although not captured in this case), the company announced it would cool the rate of its expansions in China. Michael Duke (Wal-Mart's president and CEO) and other company executives cited a persistently hard economic climate in the United States and abroad, difficulty securing real estate on the mainland to allow for better laid-out stores, and a desire to hone its EDLP strategy as the reasons for the apparent pullback. This case uncovers issues that, to some foreign retailers, might be unsolvable, forcing an exit or, as was recently announced, a slow-down. At the same time, the case data suggests that Wal-Mart will do whatever it must to prevail in China, one of the largest markets in the world. Key discussions will emerge on whether or not the sheer tenacity of Wal-Mart to stay and thrive in China will overcome the company's seemingly endless issues with local governments, poorly managed store employees, high turnover and struggles with less-than-ideal store formats. This case is an update of the original case entitled "Wal-Mart in China-Every Day Low Price", published in 2005 by the Asia Case Research Centre. This updated case, in contrast to the original, addresses how Wal-Mart's American model for doing business in China has since broadened into a more culturally sensitive, two-pronged strategy.
The partners at Innova Capital, a leading mid-market private equity investor in Poland, must negotiate a transition of power between the two ex-patriate founders and three talented young Polish partners. If they fail to find an accomodation, the entire firm will self-destruct. This case explores the long-running process through which they were able to reach an agreement and the different motivations and goals that each partner wanted to achieve.
In spite of its abundant energy resources, Nigeria in 2012 had one of the lowest levels of energy use in the world. Self-generation of power from costly generators was double that of grid-supplied electricity. The history of its power sector was one of inefficient monopolies, missteps, and corruption. But a wholesale change to the market, designed under reformist President Obasanjo and pushed forward by President Jonathan, promised greater efficiencies and investment guided by private-sector principles including widespread privatization, pricing reforms, and reliance on firms to produce and distribute the electricity. Power producer firms on the sideline needed to decide whether they wanted to be a part of this new market.
The purpose of this paper is to present a case about SYSCO's 'Best Business Practices' (BBPs). The analysis focuses on both the system and the impact of the system, particularly the measurable effects and the overall organizational impact. Perhaps, the most interesting issue is how a system for BBPs is used to manage a highly decentralized firm, and push the individual corporate entities to better performance, without requiring specific processes or best practices. Use of the system is illustrated through an example.
This exercise is one in a series intended to help students learn how to perform financial calculations in marketing contexts. Kookaburra, a maker of cricket equipment popular in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and India, was considering two strategies for positioning a new cricket bat in India. Both strategies would cannibalize current sales, and Lulu Popplewell, category manager responsible for the Indian market, needed to calculate the financial impact of both to determine which one she would recommend. This exercise poses a fictional problem about branding strategy on a new product, and asks students to consider the financial impact of different branding strategies and cannibalization rates.