Ten years after having launched a chain of non-profit health clinics, its founder is now debating the merits of scaling the operation by converting to a for-profit enterprise.
Microsoft Excel offers a suite of graphical user interface (GUI) tools that can be used with Microsoft’s Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code. These tools enable the creation of programs with a customized appearance and function. Thus, highly complex models can be made simple to use.<br><br>This note, using explanations and examples with screenshots, is designed to give readers an overview of the available GUI and debugging tools within Excel VBA. It is intended for students who already have experience with basic VBA programming.
Variables are used to keep changeable information or values such as text, dates, and numbers used in a macro or Visual Basic Application (VBA) code. A logical statement is a collection of Boolean-type expressions that can be either true or false, and logical operators are used in Excel VBA to connect logical statements. <br><br>This note is an introduction to variables and logical statements in Excel VBA with brief definitions and examples. It includes different data types for variable declaration, logical statements, logical operators, if-then statements, and case structures.
Two entrepreneurs were investigating Fabric Super-Store franchise ownership opportunities available to them in Ontario, Canada. The Fabric Super-Store had 68 locations worldwide, comprised of both corporate-owned and -operated stores and licensed franchises. It had recently undertaken to convert all existing corporate-owned stores to franchises. The entrepreneurs had recently re-located to the area after several years pursuing different careers in the United States. Unable to find significant meaningful employment, they decided to pursue franchise-ownership. The Fabric Super-Store appealed to them due to its high-margin product, little competition, low overhead, and steady supply of customers. Recognizing their limitations in terms of finances and product unfamiliarity, the entrepreneurs had to determine the critical points to be negotiated into their proposal for becoming a Fabric Super-Store franchisee.
On April 11, 2011, the merger between Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (the parent company of XM Canada) and SIRIUS Canada Inc. received the approval of CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission). This was the last obstacle standing in the way of the president and CEO of the new organization. The president had had plenty of time to prepare for this merger since it was first announced in November of 2010. However, with only a few months before the implementation plan was to go into place, the president was once more reviewing the proposal that he had prepared. The merger of XM Canada and SIRIUS Canada was not going to be easy. Both organizations had been fierce competitors, but it was clear that their survival was dependant on a successful merger. The president’s plan had to consider the make-up of the management team, the consolidated marketing strategy, operations and information systems integration, and how all of this was to be financed.
Suitable for MBA, EMBA, GEMBA, and executive education programs, this note sets the stage to unfold an analysis of popular notions about how the world works. On one hand, some believe that global competition has created a flattened world and that globalization has leveled the playing field. Yet a zest to view the world as flat, others have said, results in an underestimation of the differences between countries-standardization, exact replication, and scale expansion on a global basis could be problematic. In this note, we acknowledge that the flat world has some lumps, but regardless of whether the world is considered to be flat or round, there are certain implications on both sides that business leaders need to be aware of in order to create global efficiency. The note offers three practical examples that students can work through and apply their learning.
This survey of Google's rise to prominence as the de facto search engine of choice focuses on the theme of relevance as a guiding principle. As Google has diversified its offering through both organic growth and acquisition, the potential manifestations of relevance have multiplied, to the point where the nature of its market may need to be reassessed.
The vice president of business development for the Better Living Spaces company is excited about the prospects of his first acquisition, Juno Manufacturing, Inc., (JMI). He decides it would be prudent to verify that the reported assets on JMI's balance sheets are legitimate. Students will learn the paths he decides to pursue to gain firsthand knowledge of JMI's assets.
Bannari Amman Group (BAG) was one of the largest industrial conglomerates in South India, with manufacturing, trading, distribution, and financing corporations. Starting as a set of businesses in a family-owned entity, the group now had three publicly listed companies and over 15 family-owned businesses. <br><br>The chairman of BAG — the eldest in the family, according to tradition — held a meeting with the unit heads of BAG on January 6, 2011, to discuss their yearly performance and future plans. At the annual meeting, each unit head had to make a presentation on their unit’s performance and provide a detailed business plan. <br><br>The chairman wondered if the business heads were capable of handling their units by themselves. Until now, he and his brothers had always been ready to offer guidance. He wondered, “What is the appropriate method of guidance for the new generation of entrepreneurs?” How would the unit heads act to optimize performance of their units? He observed that while the group’s units were independent entities, the businesses complemented each other somewhat. Due to this, the group’s businesses enjoyed an inherent advantage. As he looked at the challenges that the units would face under new leadership in upcoming years, he was aware of the need to develop a common vision across all units. The chairman looked for processes to keep the group synergies in place and identify the businesses that could be strengthened.
In 1994, US-based building-control systems specialist ECG US created a joint venture with China-based CIG Ltd, Realton JV, in order to manufacture and sell building-control system products, such as air-conditioning valves and fire safety equipment, on the mainland. The joint venture was out of control from the beginning. Sales were weak and, unbeknown to ECG US, the joint venture used complex maneuvers in order to gain contracts. With Realton unable to generate a profit, ECG US decided to dissolve the venture altogether by 2001. Nonetheless, the Chinese partner was adamant about continuing its operation, maintaining that Realton was profitable by Chinese accounting standards. As the two parties enter negotiation, how can they find a solution to this quagmire and protect their interests at the same time?
Describes the issues facing a founder-ceo regarding building a board, assembling an executive team, managing tension between co-founders, and outsourcing development work.
Describes the issues facing a founder-ceo regarding building a board, assembling an executive team, managing tension between co-founders, and outsourcing development work.
Dynamic capabilities have been proposed as a useful way to understand how organizations are able to adapt to changes in technology and markets. Organizational ambidexterity, the ability of senior managers to seize opportunities through the orchestration and integration of existing assets to overcome inertia and path dependence, is a core dynamic capability. While promising, research on dynamic capabilities and ambidexterity has not yet been able to specify the specific mechanisms through which senior managers are actually able to reallocate resources and reconfigure assets to simultaneously explore and exploit. Using interviews and qualitative case studies from thirteen organizations, this article explores the actions senior managers took to implement ambidextrous designs and identify which ones helped or hindered them in their attempts. A set of interrelated choices of organization design and senior team process determine which attempts to build ambidextrous organizations are successful.
Companies operating in multiple countries face different and often changing regimes of environmental regulation. This regulatory turbulence raises the question of what environmental strategies multinational enterprises with a portfolio of divergent regulatory regimes should develop in relation to their international business expansion strategies. Forward-looking multinationals seeking to develop an effective environmental strategy should integrate relative regulatory stringency and international market interdependence. There are four environmental strategies that match different regulatory/market configurations for multinationals from both developed and emerging markets, and which identify the factors that drive strategic changes. The article presents a "regulatory turbulence tool" that describes relevant regulatory/market configurations and prescribes contingently effective, dynamic environmental strategies.
More than ever, commercializing new patent-based products requires drawing on multiple inventions typically spread among a variety of organizations. Success requires overcoming the organizational barriers and transaction costs involved with accessing intellectual property. Innovators must also evaluate how best to appropriate value from the unique combinations that they create. This article presents a framework that provides ways of approaching both these challenges. These include a set of guidelines to assist managers in choosing from among three types of commercialization arrangements: licensing, componentization, and integration. This article then explores three strategies for appropriating the value of the innovator's own patent(s): proprietary, defensive, and leveraging. The choice of a strategy determines the scope of the intellectual property portfolio that needs to be assembled to best capture value. Four case studies demonstrate the application of the key theoretical concepts in real-world situations.
Getting customers engaged is one of the most significant challenges for firm-sponsored virtual communities. This article describes the efforts that managers can undertake to foster and sustain customer engagement through a firm-sponsored virtual community. A sponsor must understand consumer needs and motivations, promote member participation, and motivate members to cooperate by making them feel embedded and empowered. In assessing and communicating the benefits of engagement, managers should consider three interlocking sources of engagement value, namely, participatory value, relational value, and financial value.