In the winter of 2010 in Shanghai, Dr. Zeb Feng, procurement director for Asia at British Petroleum (BP), was acutely aware of the growing burden that quality control imposed over his company’s global operations. Chinese suppliers were masters of cost-cutting, but quality often suffered as a result, which led in turn to an increased need for inspection and development efforts. Almost five years ago, Feng’s company had established an international procurement office (IPO) in Shanghai, which served as a shared service centre for internal customers throughout BP worldwide. Since that time, the IPO had been mainly sourcing non-hydrocarbon goods and services. <br><br><br><br>After a corporate board meeting with Christina De Luca, the vice president of procurement and supply chain management for BP’s downstream operations, it had been decided that the company would start to enhance its global competitive sourcing. As the number-one supplier market in the world, China was a high priority for further oil exploration. The pressing point that concerned Feng was whether Chinese suppliers were sufficiently ready to supply mission-critical supplies for oil drilling, extraction, and refining. During a recent conference call, De Luca had reiterated, “Zeb, our competitors are way ahead of us in their sourcing operations, and they have achieved much lower costs. We’ve got to do something!” Feng had to gather his team for a planning meeting. He knew that supply quality was the key issue, but how could it be resolved?

Ayojak was an online event management product solution offered by Signure Technologies Limited, a firm established in 2007 in India and the United Kingdom that had product development and business development centres in Pune and Bangalore, India. As of May 2011, Ayojak had two operational products and two more products in the development stage. Ayojak provided an end-to-end solution to any event organizer, including such activities as the creation of an event web page, ticket sales, collation of attendee information, event promotion on social media, and customer support for booking tickets online. <br><br><br><br>To promote its clients’ events, Ayojak made extensive use of such social media platforms as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. It engaged in few offline marketing activities and hence depended solely on word-of-mouth through its social media presence. However, in April 2011, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Signure realized that Ayojak’s social media content strategy had been focusing on promoting its clients’ events. Now, with two more products soon to be launched, the CEO needed to rethink Ayojak’s content strategy. He wanted to build Ayojak’s brand among its stakeholders by leveraging its social media presence, instead of using this presence merely as a promotion platform for its clients’ events.

The president of Unimicron must evaluate the degree to which the company's information systems support its business strategy. The case provides an extensive review of the company's history, its strategy and its key competitive and organizational moves. The case reviews the way in which information systems are used in the company, and challenges students to assess the degree of fit between strategy, organization and technology.

This case tells the story of Bank of America, a single cog in the financial machine that survived a major crisis in 2008, though its repercussions continue to be felt in the industry and in the global economy more generally. The mechanics of the financial crisis are examined as well as the part played by Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. While seemingly better positioned than its competitors and able to acquire Merrill Lynch, Bank of America leaders engaged in a number of questionable practices that brought it under ethical and then legal scrutiny.

It was the cold winter of 2010 in Shanghai, and Dr. Zeb Feng was becoming increasingly frustrated. As procurement director for Asia at British Petroleum (BP), Dr. Feng was acutely aware of the growing burden that quality control imposed over his company's global operations. Chinese suppliers were masters of cost-cutting, but quality often suffered as a result, which led in turn to increasing needs for inspection and development efforts. Almost five years ago, Dr. Feng's company established an international procurement office (IPO) in Shanghai, which served as a shared service centre for internal customers throughout the BP organization worldwide. Since that time, the IPO had been mainly sourcing non-hydrocarbon goods and services, such as manufacturing equipment and materials, packaging, catalysts, chemicals and additives, marketing products and retail equipment, as well as drilling services and well-completion services. After a corporate board meeting with Christina De Luca, the vice-president of procurement and supply-chain management for BP's downstream operations, it had been decided that the company would start to enhance its global competitive sourcing. As the number one supplier market in the world, China was naturally highly prioritized for further exploration. The pressing point that concerned Dr. Feng was whether Chinese suppliers were sufficiently ready to supply mission-critical supplies for oil drilling, extraction and refining. During a recent conference call, De Luca had reiterated, "Zeb, our competitors are way ahead of us in their sourcing operations, and they have achieved much lower costs. We've got to do something!" Dr. Feng put down the receiver and went back to his office to gather his team for a planning meeting. He knew that supply quality was the key issue, but how could it be resolved?

Nordea Bank has emerged as the largest financial group in the Nordic region. As part of their consolidated approach, Nordea top management has made the strategic decision to outsource a number of the company's peripheral activities, such as catering, security and cleaning, in order to focus more on the core business, banking. In Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the peripheral activities have been outsourced to one of the leading players in the facility management (FM) market, the global service provider ISS. The relationship between Nordea and ISS on delivering of facility services has a long history, but a new contract was successfully concluded by the end of 2010. Consequently, ISS was chosen as Nordea's FM partner and would continually be providing Nordea with a scope of supportive services across 20 locations in the Nordic region. From 2010 and onwards, a significant switch was made to an output-based focus in the contract, where it was the quality of the delivered services that were specified rather than how to achieve this level of quality, i.e. the input. The change into an output based contract was seen as a new beginning of the relationship that required significant changes on both sides in terms of mentality, organization of work, governance structures and, not least, adjustments of expectations. Both the view of the customer (Nordea) and the supplier (ISS) are presented and contrasted in the case.The case examines the financial, organizational and managerial challenges met by an international company outsourcing peripheral activities to a global facility service provider. Many of the tensions related to the collaboration and the different aims of the two companies are illustrated in the case, and so is the mutual learning and building of trust in the relationship.

Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong Limited (DiD HK) is a social enterprise founded in August 2008 with a vision of providing "insight for everyone". In line with the worldwide DiD, the core values of DiD HK are diversity, quality and sustainability. As a social enterprise, DiD HK aims to achieve both social and financial objectives. Although it has to raise the awareness of the public toward blind or visually impaired (VI) people and promote employment opportunities for them, DiD HK aims to achieve financial success, financial sustainability and dividend payout to investors. In the first two years of operation, DiD HK's innovations have attracted many participants, and more jobs are created for visually impaired employees. It made inroads toward a breakeven in 2010 through its unique ownership and business models. The startup team invented many new programs unheard of in other franchises. Although DiD has franchises all over the world, none of them are sustainable and successful. Geared toward expanding to other parts of Asia, DiD HK was not without its problems. Its product range and market had room for improvement. There was a lack of repeat visitation. DiD HK also needed further financial capital, human resources and other resources. Thus, it is imperative for management to review its strategies, and find ways to sustain its expansion and financial performance. If DiD HK can overcome these challenges, it may serve as a role model social enterprise not just in Hong Kong, but also in other parts of the world.

The owner of a small Ontario-based textiles manufacturer must decide whether to bid on two government tenders and, if so, at what prices. The owner must analyze each bid by calculating its direct, absorption, and full costs, consider the impact of adding each bid’s volume to the company’s current capacity level, and determine the differences between a one-time and multi-year tender contract. The owner also wants to look at the overall “fit” of the contracts with the company’s current operations and direction.

In late December 2011, Hayman Capital founder and portfolio manager Kyle Bass was reviewing Japanese government budget projections for 2012. The projections appeared contrary to Hayman Capital's views on Japan, where the fund had built a bearish position. Japan had the world's highest debt burden, whether expressed as a percentage of GDP or government revenue. Guided by recent global events, Bass forecast that Japan would soon experience increases in interest rates, a devaluation of the currency, and eventually, a restructuring of the country's debt.

This is information for one of the six roles to be used in the V-Cola negotiation exercise. Please see V-Cola General Instructions (912043) and Teaching note (912042) for full information.

This is information for one of the six roles to be used in the V-Cola negotiation exercise. Please see V-Cola General Instructions (912043) and Teaching note (912042) for full information.

This is information for one of the six roles to be used in the V-Cola negotiation exercise. Please see V-Cola General Instructions (912043) and Teaching note (912042) for full information.

This is information for one of the six roles to be used in the V-Cola negotiation exercise. Please see V-Cola General Instructions (912043) and Teaching note (912042) for full information.

This is information for one of the six roles to be used in the V-Cola negotiation exercise. Please see V-Cola General Instructions (912043) and Teaching note (912042) for full information.

This is information for one of the six roles to be used in the V-Cola negotiation exercise. Please see V-Cola General Instructions (912043) and Teaching note (912042) for full information.

A consortium of private equity firms (KKR and Silver Lake Partners) is in the process of acquiring the semi-conductor division of Agilent. To prepare for the signing of the acquisition agreement and the subsequent transfer of ownership, the deal team is revisiting their investment thesis with respect to upsides and risks. Please visit the dedicated case website http://cases.insead.edu/chips-on-the-side/ (copy and paste the url into a browser).

A reliable, safe, supply of drinking water is essential to the survival of communities. In many places the water supply is under stress-a condition that is expected to get progressively more challenging in the future. There are several ways that municipalities can improve their drinking water supply, including conservation, purchases from external suppliers, desalination, and recycling. Recycling wastewater into potable water is attractive in many situations. However, this alternative has not always been successful-in some cases, public opposition has defeated recycling plans, while public concerns have been successfully addressed in others. This case gives an overview of water supply issues and examples of successful and unsuccessful attempts to implement recycling programs. Programs in Singapore and Orange County, California are profiled as examples of successful recycling efforts, while failures in San Diego, California, and Toowoomba, Australia are described.

The Dutch professional service firm Schuberg Philis has within a few years grown into a well-known player in the Dutch IT outsourcing market and regularly wins high customer satisfaction marks. The growing workload and 100% promise to customers have increased the pressure on its non-hierarchical teams of engineers, as well as the hiring speed, which some fear could dilute their corporate culture. The three owner-directors must decide whether it is time to stop customer acquisition for a while to "get their house in order". At that moment, though, one of Shuberg Philis perhaps most important business opportunities so far arises.

The chief executive officer of Mission Hills, a Chinese golf course operator, is reviewing a handful of expansion options. In August 2011, Mission Hills has three large land holdings in Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Haikou, 12,000 employees and 22 golf courses. In addition to golf courses, it owned two luxury hotels and sold houses built within its properties. Mission Hills occupies an average of 60 per cent of the land it currently owns, and Chu is trying to decide if growth should come by expanding to a third Chinese province or if it should continue building in its current land holdings. He wants to identify and mitigate some of the risks that come with running a high growth business.