It is the August, 2011 and Shanghai and China are in a real estate bubble. But the office leasing market seems to be still healthy. Camille Ping has a 2000 square meter tenant prospect, Advanced Furniture Systems, to move into Corporate Avenue, a new 67,000 square meter first class office building which is part of the Shui On Land Taipingqiao development in Puxi. The landlord and the tenant have agreed upon a letter of intent and Camille, also known as the "Iron Lady", has sent a draft lease for the tenant's review and signature. In response, the tenant's lawyer has sent back a detailed written response raising 25 questions. The leasing broker is anxious to close the deal. Camille has to decide how to proceed with the negotiation and how to respond to the myriad of issues raised in the tenant's lawyer's letter.
The founder of Sushilicious, a new restaurant in California, was thinking about how to make his second year in the business even more successful. His objective is to grow the current base for his restaurant with a limited marketing budget. The founder has had success building his first restaurant using a combination of social media tools and now wonders how he can build upon his current communication strategy.
This note is an introduction to simulation in Excel and VBA. The note demonstrates different ways of doing simulation in Excel and Excel VBA with examples. The concepts used and explained in the note are random number, probability distributions, data tables, loops and arrays, histograms and descriptive statistics.
For the last 24 years Nouveau Event Planning has been operating the largest wedding expo in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, an event called the Wedding Extravaganza. In 2001 the Wedding Odyssey became the second Wedding Expo in Windsor, and started to pose a significant threat to the Wedding Extravaganza. Some strategic decisions in the case include pricing, customer retention, and selection of an appropriate target market. Students are asked to determine the best course of action for the exhibition through analysis of the competitive landscape and future potential of the wedding industry.
On Wednesday, July 6th, 2011, the communication director, for the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS), in Toronto, Ontario, was faced with a challenging situation. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) had just released an online article that focused on the 2011 CCS budget, more specifically how the CCS allocated millions of dollars each year. Furthermore, the CBC article provided details on how the proportion of donation money the CCS spent on cancer research each year had decreased from 40 per cent in 2000 to under 22 per cent in 2011. With the CBC report circulating in both television and online media, public speculation into CCS's financial management of public donations was starting to grow. It was clear that the CCS communication team would need to respond. A communication strategy would need to be developed for the CCS to follow moving forward, along with a press release to be posted the next day on the CCS website.
Bannari Amman Group (BAG) was one of the largest industrial conglomerates in South India with manufacturing, trading, distribution and financing corporations in the group. This group had the legacy of conducting business ventures over the past 40 years. Starting as a group of related and unrelated businesses in a purely family-owned entity, now the group had three publicly listed companies and over 15 family-owned businesses in its fold. Following the tradition that the eldest in the family headed the group, the group performed under the leadership of the chairman. The chairman of BAG had a day long meeting with the unit heads of BAG on January 6, 2011 to review whether the business heads were capable of handling their units by themselves, what was the appropriate method of hand holding for the new generation of entrepreneurs and how would the unit heads act to optimize performance of their units. He observed that the business group's units emerged as independent entities, but the businesses were complementing each other to a certain extent. This was especially true for the logistics. Due to this, the group's businesses enjoyed an inherent advantage. As he looked at the challenges that the units would come across under new leadership in the forthcoming years, he was also aware of the need to develop the vision across the spectrum of units big and small, flagship companies and the smaller stragglers. The chairman looked for processes to keep the group synergies in place and identify the businesses that could be strengthened over time.
Palm Inc. was the "founder" of an entire industry. In the mid nineties, the firm had developed the first hand-held which could be marketed successfully. They became the uncontested leaders within the young and extremely dynamic industry within short time - both with regard to hardware as well as software. By 2010, however, Palm was not in a good shape. The new product, a top-notch smartphone was not very successful and there were even signs of Palm's bankruptcy on the horizon. But how could it have come this far? Palm had been the leader in the market of handheld computers with high market share and profitability, and a brand name recognition level many other firms could only dream of. So what had happened to Palm?
This auto parts company has just ousted its longtime CEO and founder, and the new, professional CEO is badly in need of a coherent strategy, clear objectives and metrics, and initiatives that are aligned with the strategy and objectives. Will the balanced scorecard approach help his leadership team create an action plan that makes sense for the company's strategy? This case is designed to be used with the "Balanced Scorecard Simulation Game."
SKS, India's leading microfinance firm, is challenged when politicians declaim microfinance as exploitation of the poor and severely restrict business practices.
Kinross Gold is considering changing the stock-based compensation plans that it uses for medium- to long-term executive incentives. A human resources consultant has been retained to make recommendations. The consultant must determine whether the current split between stock options and restricted share units should be altered. In addition, she must consider whether to recommend that Kinross Gold adopt restricted performance-vesting share units. If so, appropriate performance benchmarks must be established. Finally, the consultant must quantify the impact of her recommendations on stock-based compensation expense.
Palm Inc. was the “founder” of an entire industry. In the mid-1990s, the firm developed the first successful hand-held on the market. It became the uncontested leader within the young and extremely dynamic industry within a short time, both with regard to hardware as well as software. By 2010, however, Palm was not in good shape. The new product, a top-notch smart phone, was not very successful and there were signs of Palm’s bankruptcy on the horizon. Palm had been the leader in the market of hand-held computers with high market share and profitability, and a brand name recognition level of which many other firms could only dream. What had happened to Palm?
First Class Trading Corporation, a Montreal-based company, had two partners: Jeff Morahan, the founder of the company, and David Sciacca. After evaluating the school supplies industry, Morahan had identified an opportunity to market a fully stocked school bag to schools and parents. The bag was filled with various items that a child needed as determined by a given teacher’s requirements. The strategy of the company was to target elementary and secondary private schools in the greater Montreal area, with elementary schools as the initial target. To date, the partners had generated a disappointing level of sales through cold calls and sales visits to schools. They had drawn up a strategic plan with objectives, positioning, and a marketing mix and were now wondering if they were on the right track. Had they missed something? Should they seek additional advice? Should they move ahead? The situation was complicated because of the stakeholders (school directors, teachers, parents, and students) involved in the marketing process.
The collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 was the largest bankruptcy in US history. The case examines the economics of the off-balance sheet transactions Lehman undertook prior to the collapse, and highlights the corporate governance challenges in situations where firms face capital market pressure and market downturns. In particular, the case examines the financial accounting, auditing and internal management control practices around the Repo 105 transactions, which had a significant effect on the leverage position of the company. Based on the findings of the bankruptcy examiner's report, the case focuses on the role that management, external auditors, and the audit committee played in what amounted to a significant control failure.
First Class Trading Corporation, a Montreal based company, had two partners: Jeff Morahan, the founder of the company, and David Sciacca. After evaluating the school supplies industry, Jeff had identified an opportunity that involved marketing a fully stocked school bag to schools and parents. The bag was filled with various items that a child needed as determined by a given teacher's requirements. The strategy of the company was to target elementary and secondary private schools in the greater Montreal area with elementary schools as their initial target. To date, the partners had generated only a disappointing level of sales through cold calls and sales visits to schools. The two partners had drawn up a strategic plan with objectives, positioning and a marketing mix and were now wondering if they were on the right track. Had they missed something? Should they seek additional advice? Should they move ahead? The situation is complicated because of the various stakeholders (school directors, teachers, parents and students) who are involved in the marketing process.
Using the financing history and exit choices of a German clean-tech startup as a lens, this case explores the reasons why venture-backed entrepreneurship is much lower in Germany that the US, despite a robust SME sector and large-corporate innovation in Germany. It also shows the tight link between investor incentives and a startup's product market strategy, including differences between "pure-play" VCs and corporate venture capital investors.
In March 2011, CSN Stores is a collection of nearly 200 Internet retail websites, including Cookware.com, Strollers.com, and Luggage.com. Co-founders Niraj Shah and Steve Conine were considering making a major investment to build brand equity at the corporate level.
Eloise Bune successfully turned an idea into a product, but could she persuade angel investors that she had a business worth investing in? The case details her interactions with the angel investors and explores the role of angel investors in providing financial capital, business experience, and other assistance to start-ups.
Having received an extensive critique of her business plan but only a small amount of financing from an angel group she pitched in 2010, Eloise Bune responds to the angels' concerns, refines her presentation, and pitches her company again.
ATR KimEng is a Philippino asset management business. It is making an important decision on its own strategy going forward: should it stay independent, or be taken over by a large bank in the region. Through this case, we disuss the financial service industry in South East Asia, and study the opportunities and challenges presented by the changing global market dynamics.