This is a PELP case study. In the space of three months, all Central Falls High School staff had been publicly fired, told to reapply for their jobs, and then rehired. At the heart of the controversy were low student achievement scores and graduation rates; only seven percent of 11th grade students were proficient in math, 55 percent in reading, and the four-year graduation rate was 52 percent. Coinciding with the state's intense effort to win a share of the $4.35 billion in the federal government's Race to the Top (RTTT) education reform competition, the events were often portrayed in the national media as a fight between responsible reformers and self-interested unions. But, a closer look revealed a more complex situation. The requirements of a 1997 state law, which authorized the state commissioner to intervene in low-performing schools, appeared to conflict with the state's collective bargaining law, which required districts to negotiate with their teachers' union about hours, salary, working conditions, and all other terms of professional employment. The current union contract would not expire until August 2011. In addition, there was confusion about what the process of selecting an intervention model should involve and who from among the potential stakeholders-taxpayers, district administrators, state officials, the teachers' union, teachers, parents, students and others-should participate. The mass firing also raised the issue of whether staff were actually being fired or simply laid off, which had important consequences for the district's future obligations to former employees.
For Carl Zeiss Microimaging, modular hardware and software enabled customers to tailor Zeiss's broad range of microscopy systems hardware and software to meet a wide range of needs from basic scientific research in the biological and medical sciences to clinical applications, materials science, and industrial sectors. Modularity also provided Carl Zeiss' engineers the benefit of decoupling the development schedules of individual components and subsystems. Yet the well codified interfaces at many module boundaries also opened the system up to outside providers of components, mainly software. This served research scientists who were doing cutting edge research extremely well, as they wanted to be able to apply the latest techniques and analysis tools. At the other extreme, clinical and QA/QC applications by their nature had a much higher need for automation, because of the repetitive nature of tasks. Simple, integrated solutions seemed to make more sense in these circumstances, and many applications did not demand the ultraprecision of Carl Zeiss's hardware platforms. Rather there was a call for simplicity and robustness, especially in production environments. The case exposes some of the strategic issues and opportunities facing the microscopy business.
Metrology plays a key role in the manufacture of mechanical components. Traditionally it is used extensively in a pre-process stage where a manufacturer does process planning, design, and ramp-up, and in post-process off-line inspection to establish proof of quality. The area that is seeing a lot of growth is the in-process stage of volume manufacturing, where feedback control can help ensure that parts are made to specification. The Industrial Metrology Group at Carl Zeiss AG had its traditional strength in high precision coordinate measuring machines, a universal measuring tool that had been widely used since its introduction in the mid-1970s. The market faced a complex diversification of competition as metrology manufacturers introduced new sensor and measurement technologies, and as some of their customers moved towards a different style of measurement mandating speed and integration with production systems. The case discusses the threat of new in-line metrology systems to the core business as well as the arising new opportunities.
After Port Aventura's launch as a theme park in 1995, it continued to invest heavily in new shows, rides, hotels, golf courses, a convention center, and a shopping mall, all with the aim of adjusting to seasonal adjusted demand. This transformation from a theme park to a resort posed new challenges for Port Aventura's executive team. In particular, as a theme park, the analysis of its commercial activity focused on aggregated statistical information about groups of customers. By contrast, as a resort, management now needed to know and target individual customers. Yet, the company's existing information management processes and systems were not ready to support such a one-to-one marketing approach. This case is situated in mid-2009 when the general manager asked the chief financial officer and the director of information systems to find a solution to address the marketing needs of the resort. The case discussion encourages students to identify and assess the business problems and relate them to the existing information management processes and systems. Students will also have to present a proposal that addresses this one-to-one marketing strategy.
This case uses first-person sources to put the reader inside the teams that developed and marketed the Firefox browser. A brief overview of the Open Source Software (OSS) development process and the various roles played by members of a software development community, as well as a brief summary of the browser wars of the 1990s that saw Netscape Navigator fall from the dominant browser in the market to a distant second place behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer, help provide context for the case. In order to adapt the OSS development model to support a consumer-oriented product, Firefox developers adopted four rules: 'We want it to be small,' 'Let's not keep too many cooks,' 'All patches are not created equal,' and 'All users are not created equal.' The development team established a goal of 10 million downloads in the first 100 days and a 10% market share in the first year as measures of success for the new browser. In order to compete with Microsoft in the browser market, the Firefox team needed to leverage the development community to reach millions of potential end users. By providing a web-based structure for collaboration, and through a series of top-down initiatives (providing marketing tools to the community), and bottom-up initiatives (receiving and disseminating marketing ideas from the community at large), the team was able to achieve its marketing goals. In so doing, the SpreadFirefox initiative created a marketing community with roles analogous to a software development community.
Marco Polo Marine (MPM) Ltd is a medium-sized Singaporean shipping company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, involved in regional shipping and shipbuilding. The company was part of a larger Indonesian family business group, and had been built from scratch by the CEO, the heir to the group. MPM had started off providing barges to transport mining products and sand, initially for the group's mining operations, but increasingly for third parties. It subsequently entered the shipbuilding industry by establishing a shipyard in Batam, Indonesia, an island near Singapore. As a next step to grow the company, the CEO intended to become an international player in the much more sophisticated offshore marine services sector, but he had yet to decide what strategy to take to achieve it. The case study allows students to analyze a global industry and present recommendations to the CEO for positioning the company within this industry. As a company from an emerging market, MPM is an example of an aspiring "emerging market multinational" and the case discusses the challenges such companies face in catching up with more advanced incumbents in global industries. In order to penetrate this market, decisions are required as to what types of vessels to build or buy, which countries to target and how to enter this market given financial constraints and limited technical expertise.
Barrick Gold, the largest gold producer in the world, has taken steps to eliminate its longstanding gold hedging program. In its early years, Barrick’s hedging program was a key factor allowing the firm to grow amid falling gold prices. But Barrick’s management team faced questions about its hedging program when gold prices started to rise in the 2000s. The case allows students to review Barrick’s hedging program and consider the impact of its decision not to hedge going forward.
A consumer goods analyst has been asked to understand the governance structure and various risks facing Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA, a Swiss-based luxury goods conglomerate. Richemont has emerged as one of the premier luxury brand houses in the world and is controlled by a single person, Johann Rupert. The case describes the development of Richemont and provides information on various aspects of the firm, including its many luxury brand houses, management’s preferences, and competitor information with which to conduct a comparator analysis.
The superintendent of the St. Thomas Golf Course had to develop the 2010 operating budget for the maintenance of the golf course and recommend the extent of infrastructure expenditures for the upcoming year. The course was facing increased labour costs due to recent government-mandated increases in the minimum wage. The recommendations had to be made in terms of a weak economy in the area and a recent decline in membership. The student must first assess the financial position of the course prior to determining the extent to which discretionary expenditures should be recommended. The case requires the development of an operating budget and permits a discussion of follow-up procedures for monitoring the budget.
This supplement to Maple Leaf Foods, Inc. (A): The Listeriosis Crisis describes what the company and its chief executive officer did to cope with this crisis in the days and months following.
It was early 2010, and the Twitter Trio, the founders of Twitter, were faced with a changing market situation and pressures to make money. Twitter was a free service that had been operating without a viable business plan since 2006. In early 2010, Twitter was still not making enough money and it was time that Twitter showed a real return on investment. The Trio had to decide on a business model that was competitive. There was a data-mining project that could bring all the funds Twitter needed to stay in business, make profit, and compete with others. However, the founders were concerned that this project might be perceived to intrude on users’ privacy, even in a company that was founded on the basis of sharing information publicly.
This case identifies the approach taken by Partners HealthCare to better manage the commercialization of its intellectual property (IP). Existing processes did not leverage the shared resources, such as business development efforts and the research centres created as a consequence of the formation of Partners HealthCare in 1995. Partners was the largest hospital organization and second-largest non-university recipient of research funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH). As such, it generated a vast and varied body of IP constituting an asset of considerable value to Partners and those it served. The leadership of Partners viewed it as their mission to the organization and to the greater health care community to vigorously pursue commercializing innovation generated through research efforts. <br><br>The case considers the organizational structure and how this structure enabled a cohesive commercialization effort. It includes three vignettes that involve research projects that precede the creation of the Research, Ventures and Licensing (RVL) unit in 2005. RVL served as the centralized office for overseeing the processes of IP protection, licensing, translational research project funding, new venture creation, and industry partnerships to bring forward the inventions that emerged from the research of Partners affiliates and their primary investigators. The case demonstrates how a large health care organization can bring innovative products and services to market through appropriate organizational transformation.
Ornge’s management team is taking a look at its helicopter service contract, which accounts for 42 per cent of its annual costs. The firm is a not-for-profit organization tasked with providing air and ground ambulance services for Ontario, Canada. In the past, Ornge has subcontracted helicopter service to a service provider. But an analysis conducted within Ornge suggests that owning the helicopters might save the firm a lot of money. Any savings could be reinvested, allowing Ornge to respond to more service calls per year. There are benefits and drawbacks to each of the options facing Ornge, and Dr. Christopher Massa and his team are trying to determine which option makes the most sense for the firm.
A young man in India follows his passion through to near-bankruptcy. Equipped with an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, he avoids a high-paying corporate job and instead starts a stockbroking firm. After ups and downs in several businesses, he finally decides his real fulfilment will come from producing a full-length movie — Ashta Chamma, based on the Oscar Wilde play The Importance of Being Ernest. The case chronicles the various issues he faces: funding the production, choosing the director, choosing a story that will satisfy his requirement of family entertainment, casting the principal characters, and creating a team that can bring the production to the movie theatres. The case goes behind the scenes of the film world in Tollywood, the Teluga film industry in Andhra Pradesh, and highlights the pressures faced by an entrepreneur in the industry. A rare combination of creativity, professionalism, and good business sense bring about success for the entrepreneur. Part B of the case presents the outcome after the release of the movie.
This is a supplement to Tata Steel Limited: Convertible Alternative Reference Securities (A). Tata Steel’s launch of a convertible bond offering in exchange for its convertible alternative reference securities issued in 2007 was in response to shifts in environmental factors. An analysis of the offer allows for a valuation exercise and an assessment of a capital restructuring decision that considers the interests of the issuer and of the investors.
A successful Canadian road construction and maintenance company is contemplating U.S. market entry via a subsidiary in Texas. The case deals with market entry considerations: speed of entry, the need to invest in learning about a market, and the importance of staying focused on what is a reasonable, original strategy.
This is a supplement to Currie Road Construction Limited (A). Having operated for two years in the Texas market, the company is confronting a variety of difficulties. The case looks at the organization issues of reporting relationships, control systems, and staffing.