This article describes the leadership style of Coach Jack Clark, under whose leadership Cal Rugby has won 21 national championships during the last 25 years. The article examines his leadership philosophy and strategies to create a high performance team culture. It discusses how his experiences as an athlete and businessman helped shape his approach to leading and developing teams. He cites the importance of good recruitment practices, setting expectations, constant performance feedback, managing conflict, and having a shared definition of leadership as keys factors to a successful team. In 2010, Clark faced a series of unprecedented challenges, including having his team downgraded from varsity to club status because of budget cuts. This article describes how he addressed these challenges.
This case focuses on a significant problem faced by county-owned Prairie Health Service's administrators: What could be done to reduce multiple billings and other redundancies among the four divisions of the organization? The administrators' goal was to implement an integrated records management system that would streamline the registration and billing processes for patients thereby increasing efficiency and timeliness, as well as reducing financial losses. While this was a fiscally responsible goal for the organization, the records management software package selected by the CEO was inadequate for the task. Rather than listen to the recommendations of his division administrators who had spent considerable time researching potential software, the CEO seemed to be basing his selection decision on the personal relationship he had developed with sales representatives from one of the software firms.
The Oasis of the Seas is the largest cruise ship ever built and was launched in 2009 in the midst of the financial crisis. Two analysts from ELP Equities, a Florida-based research firm, are trying to determine which cruise customer segments the Oasis is targeted at. The information they have gathered allows them to conduct a customer segmentation analysis is preparation for a hypothetical meeting with the marketing director of Royal Caribbean International, the corporation that commissioned the Oasis.
In January 2011, the group medical director of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd (AHEL), India's largest integrated healthcare provider in the private sector, is weighing his options in driving clinical excellence among group hospitals. AHEL has been using a Clinical Score Card, called ACE@25, as a tool to measure and monitor clinical excellence which is becoming a source of differentiation in Indian healthcare industry. ACE@25measures 25 clinical parameters, benchmarked with the best globally, every month. The group medical director is wondering whether his role should be limited to monitoring clinical outcomes or whether, in order to drive clinical excellence, he should also prescribe the steps that the medical supreintendents of individual hospitals should take in improving outcomes in their watch.
As part of the Google Online Marketing Challenge, a team of Darden students devises an AdWords campaign for Motorcowboy, an online source of custom footwear that caters to segments as varied as motorcycle police, cross dressers, movie buffs, equestrians, and plus-size individuals. When an initial keyword list yields low traffic, the team must adapt its approach. This three-part case illustrates the segmentation process and the relative merits of paid search over traditional mass media outlets. It also serves to underscore the importance of monitoring and adapting any advertising plan.
This continuation of the case about a Google AdWords campaign for Motorcowboy, an online source of custom footwear, recounts the Darden team's revised approach.
This third and final part of the case about a Google AdWords campaign for Motorcowboy, an online source of custom footwear, delineated the Darden team's recommendations for future efforts.
Tracy Chan, managing director of the Student Learning and Writing Services (SLWS) at St. Charles University in Calgary, Alberta, was faced with a difficult situation. Her newest employee, Michael Hinske, had just e-mailed her a list of faculty members he had contacted to educate on the SLWS writing program offered to graduate students. Chan quickly noticed that the faculty names were of individuals who had already been contacted. There was no indication that Hinske had made any attempt to discuss the program with other faculties on campus. Since joining the team six months earlier, Hinske’s mandate for the academic year had been to create a series of writing workshops and liaise with different faculties on campus. Chan needed a plan of action before confronting Hinske about his inability to fulfill his job requirements, including his failure to create new contacts between the graduate writing program and faculties on campus.
New legislation in Ontario, Canada, might require all appliance manufacturers and brand owners to take responsibility for end-of-life collection and recycling of products. The senior manager of government relations for Whirlpool Corporation was updating his colleagues on Ontario’s proposed extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation. Whirlpool was the Canadian market share leader in household appliances such as washing machines, dryers, and cooking ranges. With EPR, Whirlpool and other firms would now have to manage — or pay to manage — a more complex model involving reverse logistics. Each appliance manufacturer had at least three options from which to choose: it could argue the legislation was unnecessary, it could join an industry-funded organization (IFO) to meet EPR’s requirement, or it could set up its own IFO.
Daudnagar Organization for Rural Development (DORD) was determining how to expand its successful eye-care hospital into reproductive and child health services. The case lays out the financial and organizational risks and asks the student to evaluate the possibility of expansion given the economic and governmental constraints in one of the poorest parts of India.
New legislation may require all appliance manufacturers and brand owners to take responsibility for end-of-life (EOL) collection and recycling of products. The senior manager government relations for Whirlpool Corporation (Whirlpool) was updating his colleagues on Ontario's proposed extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation. Whirlpool was the Canadian market share leader in household appliances such as clothes washers, dryers and cooking ranges. With EPR. Whirlpool, among others, would now have to manage - or pay to manage - a more complex model involving reverse logistics. Each appliance manufacturer had at least three options from which to choose: it could argue the legislation was unnecessary, it could join an industry-funded organization (IFO) to meet EPR's requirement, or it could set up its own IFO.
The case is designed to explore the structure and rationale behind the standard compensation arrangements in the private equity (PE) industry. It effectively introduces students to commonly used terms of limited partnership agreements (LPAs), such as fees, carried interest, and preferred terms or hurdle rates. The backdrop for the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (OPERF) case is the changed market conditions following the 2007 financial crisis that spurred a reevaluation of the basic terms of LPAs across the PE industry. This case has been taught in a second-year elective course on entrepreneurial finance and private equity and would be suitable for similarly focused courses on venture capital, private equity, or entrepreneurship. The case can also be used in an investment class designed to explore private equity as an asset class.
By mid-2007, Wawa, headquartered outside Philadelphia, had grown into a chain of 564 convenience stores (200 of which sold gasoline) within a 250-mile radius. A privately owned firm, Wawa employed over 16,000 people and had $4.67 billion of sales in 2006, an increase of 19.6 per cent over the prior year. It was widely admired as a highly effective and humane organization with a loyal and expanding body of customers. <br><br><br><br>This case addresses Wawa’s supply chain management (SCM) in the context of strategic direction, organizational design, and future growth opportunities. Over an eight-year period, Wawa had transformed its supply chain from a disjointed array of parts into a coherent, high-functioning system. Issues before the company now included (1) the relation between SCM and competitiveness; (2) the nature of the typical store and store manager; and (3) possible expansion beyond Wawa’s current area of operations. Another question concerned Wawa’s stores. Historically, these had featured a friendly ambience where “everybody knows your name,” but the company was moving towards larger, more standardized units with fewer offerings, with the goal of minimizing customer throughput time. What would this shift mean for the role of the store manager, and for the overall customer experience? Finally, to what extent was Wawa “landlocked” in its concentrated, middle-Atlantic market? Could — and should — the company attempt to export its distinctive value proposition, culture, and methods to other geographic areas?
Shamit Bagchi, owner of the online art company Dhonuk, recognized that art was a niche market in India. He wanted to utilize psychographics in order to better understand art buyers and properly position his company, so he undertook a survey of art consumers’ behaviour. He believed that through selecting the appropriate demographic segments, analyzing his competition, and using the behavioural insights of the survey, he could create the proper platform for his art company.
Oded Carmi was a social entrepreneur striving for a “green Bali.” He started Sari Organik as a model farm intended to grow according to market demands and to benefit the local community while serving as an educational centre for small-scale farmers in the region. Thirteen years later, the idea was not as well embraced as he had hoped. The case discusses some of the challenges the entrepreneur was facing as the founder and owner of Sari Organik farm and the restaurant Warung Bodag Maliah (“overflowing basket”). His main challenge was to replicate and sustain his organic rice-farming model across Bali and eventually other parts of Indonesia. His initial thoughts involved some options: (a) to utilize the established village system and its leadership to re-introduce traditional rice-farming culture in Ubud, Bali, and eventually Indonesia; (b) to introduce a new model such as micro-franchising through which he would recruit a number of local farmers and provide them with the resources to grow rice organically; (c) to go into a joint venture with the few existing organic rice farmers in the region; and (d) to expand his business as a sole proprietor. The case may be a good starting point for a discussion on the impact of modernization on a traditional society and the role of business in society. Carmi, a native of Israel, tried to revive traditional farming techniques that were more sustainable and healthy. He realized he had to come up with a strategy soon.