Process Mapping & Management, written by Sue Conger of the University of Dallas, is a 10-chapter book published by Business Expert Press. The book comprises three sections: Process mapping mechanics, process improvement analysis, and process redesign and justification. Written for executives and graduate students, the text offers practical techniques for simplifying and improving business processes that are immediately actionable. The improvement analysis is based on lean six sigma techniques and discusses leaning for the removal of process waste, cleaning for improving the remaining steps, and greening for evaluating methods that either automate or off-load work. A call-center case study runs through the book to illustrate many of the techniques. Chapter 9 discusses process redesign via techniques examined in the previous chapters. The process for developing a redesign is to evaluate all recommended changes to this point in the project, first rationalizing them into a smaller set, and then analyzing which sets are beneficial in terms of cost to the organization. Many of the techniques used in other aspects of the analysis are applied to making sense of the recommendations, evaluating their worth, and selecting those most likely to result in a coherent, useful process. Topic headings include Compliance Management, Innovation in Redesign, Validation, Case-for-Change Financial Analysis, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis, Statistical Process Management Revisited, and Force Field Analysis.
Process Mapping & Management, written by Sue Conger of the University of Dallas, is a 10-chapter book published by Business Expert Press. The book comprises three sections: Process mapping mechanics, process improvement analysis, and process redesign and justification. Written for executives and graduate students, the text offers practical techniques for simplifying and improving business processes that are immediately actionable. The improvement analysis is based on lean six sigma techniques and discusses leaning for the removal of process waste, cleaning for improving the remaining steps, and greening for evaluating methods that either automate or off-load work. A call-center case study runs through the book to illustrate many of the techniques. In the tenth and final chapter, the author adds quantitative depth to her analysis of processes with a section on techniques of measurement, including a substantive consideration of the Balanced Scorecard model. She also summarizes the contents of a business case that constitutes the final project report for a process improvement project. In that section, the future of project management and the role of process management in moving white-collar work to a service orientation are discussed. She concludes with a brief discussion of processes in the context of information technology (IT) service management.
Dr. Narendran, Director, Indian Medicine (Siddha) College, has been requested by the Head of the College's Pharmacology Department to ensure intellectual protection for, and commercialisation of, a formulation that he had developed for coronary atherosclerosis. Such a request has been made for the first time in the College, and the Director has to decide how it fits into the educational and research mandate of the College. He also has with him a brief market study of the formulation's potential.
Wall Street hedge fund manager Kim Meyer is considering investing in an SFA (slate financing arrangement) in Hollywood. Dave Griffith, a Hollywood producer, is pitching for the investment and has conducted a broad analysis of recent movie data to determine the important drivers of a movie's success. In order to convince Meyer to invest in an SFA, Griffith must anticipate possible questions to maximize his persuasiveness.
The (B) case gives an update on the development of knowledge management at Danone two years after the (A) case: The Networking Attitude spread throughout the company and the question is posed whether Danone should move to virtual networking in addition to face-to-face networking.
The (C) case provides an update on the B-case decision and describes the introduction of Dan 2.0, an internal social virtual network for the purpose of knowledge sharing in a company that was only used to face-to-face networking.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The UFC is controlled by its parent company Zuffa LLC, which is owned by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White. The UFC has seen a great deal of success since its purchase from its founders in 2001 for $2 million. The owners have made MMA a highly marketable product in terms of live event ticket sales, at home pay-per-view (PPV) purchases and general popularity among their key demographic: men aged 18 to 34. However, this success has mainly occurred within the United States and Lorenzo, current UFC chief executive officer (CEO), wants to expand the organization's reach across the globe. With several successful international events in countries that are fairly culturally comparable to the United States (the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada), Lorenzo must decide if the UFC can be culturally viable in several new international markets. Specifically, he is interested in the potential to operate in China, India and South Korea. This case has been designed for use in: International Business, Organizational Behaviour, Strategic Management, Business and Society (Business, Government and Society), Leadership and Marketing to address the following topics: The difficulty inherent in determining if a potential market (i.e. international location) will be a cultural fit for a product or service, competitive advantage, strategic development, analyzing the external environment, government regulation, the impact a leader has on organizational expansion, and brand development and management.
This case presents a situation in which a large financial institution has acquired a sizable portfolio of new clients of travel (corporate expense) cards. The bank must decide on the optimal mix of clients to retain in order to achieve their goals of maximizing profitability, entering a new product market successfully and maintaining reputation. The optimal mix depends on a number of different factors, including annual account spend level, complexity of serving the account, the number of cards in each account, account risk and account retention level. The selection and number of clients chosen will affect the bank's future profitability and long term strategy. The bank is limited by attempting to achieve a three-year payback, and facing costs that can vary significantly (and which are not in the bank's control).
The case examines the supply chain, managerial, and organizational challenges facing a large European industrial company competing in a mature industry with strong price pressure. Established in the 1930s in Southern Jutland, Denmark, Danfoss initially produced automatic valves for refrigeration plants. The company has since grown into a major industrial group. Until the mid-1990s, Danfoss was very Europe-focused, having the majority of its sales and production there. This changed, however, with the arrival of the founder's son, Jorgen Mads Clausen, as the new CEO of the company. He initiated a process to change the company into a global player within all of its main business areas. Following this process of internationalization, the company was facing various challenges. There were three main issues which top management was concerned about: namely, Danfoss's manufacturing network; its continued global growth; and its highly engineering-based culture. The first issue came from the fact that Danfoss had followed a strategy of one product, one plant. This meant that all of its plants were set up to focus on the production of one product. This had created a situation with a lot of very specialized product lines and very few common features between them. On the other hand, the internationalization strategy had so far been quite successful for Danfoss in both Eastern Europe and China. In the United States, however, the company was still experiencing difficulties despite heavy investments in its manufacturing capacity in Mexico. In China, the company had experienced success and wanted to secure long-term growth in the market. The third issue was the very engineering-based culture of the company, which among other things was manifested in the fact that Danfoss previously developed products at the expense of consumer demand and preferences.
In July 2010, William Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square, is considering a potential new opportunity: the acquisition of the distressed Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village ("ST /PCV") complex. The property had recently been abandoned by its owners and had come under the control of CW Capital, the special servicer for the vast amount of debt that was in default. Any investment in a distressed property could be very risky and might require the company to seek protection in the bankruptcy courts. While the bankruptcy process was not new for Ackman, it could add significant complexity and unknown outcomes. Ackman must consider whether this is a worthwhile investment, given the ambiguous valuation and significant public scrutiny of any investment deal.
Location choice is a critical decision for entrepreneurs. This note explores how entrepreneurs should think about different city options through a systematic framework that encompasses professional and personal issues. We use the intellectual frameworks of the cluster and industry agglomeration literatures to organize these factors. We then provide some tactical advice and worksheets for entrepreneurs to consider when selecting the location for their new venture.
The case examines the issues faced by a hotel management and development company as it tries to increase the return to its shareholders. The firm’s major shareholders have commented that they believe the firm is currently under-valued, so management is considering several means of unlocking extra value. Due to difficult economic conditions resulting from the global economic crisis, there are many opportunities as well as many risks to the alternatives the company is considering. The case provides the opportunity to use several different valuation methods to determine if the company is, in fact, undervalued. It also leads to a discussion of several alternatives for unlocking value, including starting an active acquisition strategy or re-organizing the corporate structure with either an updated capital structure or conversion to a real estate income trust.
In 2002, Tyco International experienced a corporate crisis which put the conglomerate in danger of bankruptcy. The case follows how the company succesfully tackled a short-term liquidity crisis as well as the steps taken to establish a global treasury management structure to position Tyco going forward.
This is an international version of the classic ratio detective exercise that is found in many US-based textbooks and other case series. The objective is to initiate students into balance sheet analysis via the use of common-size balance sheets. The case helps students to understand how the economics of the firm are revealed in the firm's financial statements. Effectively employed, it can also teach students to think about the links between asset composition and financial structures, and how these relate to industry economics.
When ChiNext opened in October 2009 as the second tier market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), it aimed to provide Chinese entrepreneurs with equity capital and to facilitate the exits of venture capital firms and other investors which had previously relied on the New York, London, and Hong Kong markets for public offerings. A year into ChiNext's operation, Dr. Wei Chen, Chairman and founder of Oriental Fortune Capital, one of the fastest-growing venture capital firms in China, met with an SZSE research fellow to discuss how the rules governing the market might be adjusted to allow more firms to list and, more importantly, to improve efficiency and transparency in order to make ChiNext a better stock exchange.