This case, intended for MBA and executive education audiences, investigates whether an LLC should invest in a real estate deal. The materials provide a straightforward opportunity for applying discounted-cash-flow methods from the perspective of equity investors in the LLC. The investors know the terms of interest and principal payments on planned debt financing and have made forecasts of rental rates, occupancy, depreciation, future sale price, various expenses, and other items related to the property. The case can be used as an introduction to estimation and analysis of cash flows to the suppliers of equity. The setting provides opportunities for discussion of tax issues and risks.
Rogers Communication's new president and chief executive officer (CEO) contemplated the future growth opportunities of the company that he now controlled. The CEO was taking the reins of Rogers at a high point - it was a force to be reckoned with in all areas of the telecommunications sector including wireless, television, internet telephone and landline telephone. However, competition in the industry was also at an all-time high and innovations were abounding. The CEO knew that in order to successfully develop Rogers' strategic direction for the future, he would have to make a number of tradeoffs that would require a strong understanding of the competitive landscape and the future of the industry. The case provides the following questions: (1) Can Rogers afford to be a leader in all four product areas: wireless, television, internet and landline telephone? (2) Should Rogers maintain the industry trend toward offering quadruple plays? (3) Where should it be willing to lead and where should it be willing to lag behind competitors? (4) Should Rogers think about its future as four (or less) distinct businesses or as one company? (5) Should Rogers think about entering markets in which it does not currently have a strong presence? (6) How do ancillary businesses such as media fit into Rogers' future? (7) How much financial flexibility does Rogers have for enacting any future strategies? In making these tradeoffs, Rogers will have to explore its resource strengths and weaknesses: this will allow it to gain an in-depth understanding of its competitive advantage. Understanding its competitive advantage will help Rogers make decisions concerning future resource investments that will allow it to lead the industry. No matter which tradeoffs Rogers considers making, the results must help Rogers continue to outperform its competitors by maintaining net margins in the 20 per cent and greater range.
Dental Associates of Northern Virginia is one of the largest dental networks in northern Virginia. In this series of two cases, the head administrator is caught between staying abreast with new technology by investing in innovative all-porcelain crown-making machines and holding steadfast to a laggard strategy of wait and see. This choice also aligns with the head administrator making a larger decision of whether to enhance the core competency of his network by developing a complete in-house laboratory or continuing to rely on an expensive, but reliable, outside laboratory for all-porcelain restorations. Together the two cases in the series are rich in concepts dealing with cost, timeliness, quality and flexibility as students are forced to see an operations problem from both patient and doctor perspectives. The cases also consider the ever-changing world of technology and how it impacts a doctor's practice along with an entire network of offices.
Dental Associates of Northern Virginia is one of the largest dental networks in northern Virginia. In this series of two cases, the head administrator is caught between staying abreast with new technology by investing in innovative all-porcelain crown-making machines and holding steadfast to a laggard strategy of wait and see. This choice also aligns with the head administrator making a larger decision of whether to enhance the core competency of his network by developing a complete in-house laboratory or continuing to rely on an expensive, but reliable, outside laboratory for all-porcelain restorations. Together the two cases in the series are rich in concepts dealing with cost, timeliness, quality and flexibility as students are forced to see an operations problem from both patient and doctor perspectives. The cases also consider the ever-changing world of technology and how it impacts a doctor's practice along with an entire network of offices.
This case describes a health care town hall meeting that was derailed by vocal protesters. The case was designed for a very specific teaching purpose: to discuss a variety of alternatives to the tried and true town hall meeting format which, the sponsoring professor believes, is not only quite vulnerable to disruption, but is not a terribly effective or democratic way to involve the public in local decision making, to begin with. Underlying the case is a belief that those who organize public engagements should be deliberate about: 1) the purposes of a public meeting: what a public meeting aims to do 2) the strategy of recruiting participants: who participates 3) the organization of discussion and decision making 4) the extent to which conclusions of the meeting will influence policy or public action The case itself provides a lively starting point for the conversation by describing how a modest Tampa meeting about local health care was overtaken by opponents of national health care reform. The case also provides as context background about the decision by Democrats in 2009 to sponsor health care town hall meetings across the country, in an effort to boost public support for health reform-an effort that was subverted when the meetings became the target of large, vocal, anti-health reform protests. HKS Case Number 1939.0
After working together on a university business plan, two entrepreneurs worked for three years to develop their venture: Shutout Solutions Inc. Their start-up venture was established in response to an issue familiar to most hockey players: notoriously smelly equipment. While their familiarity with hockey equipment helped them identify a specific problem, subsequent research revealed a much broader issue: the need to clean products made of micro-fibre. Utilizing a technology that addressed the micro-fibre odour issue, they believed they had a five-year opportunity window to develop and profit from the business before it was imitated or superseded. As they considered their options, they realized that they might have to choose to focus their resources on a single product line rather than continue to develop their current portfolio of a detergent, body wash, and spray. They also questioned whether they were using the right channel - gyms and sporting goods stores - to reach customers. The opportunity to pursue bulk institutional sales was also intriguing, though it would require a different sales, pricing, and distribution strategy. Also, they considered how they might respond to an offer to sell the company in its current form.
This case describes how significant debt was built up in Pakistan among the private- and public-sector energy and power-generation companies, which were some of the country’s largest organizations. An unexpected slowdown in recovery of payments created debt that affected corporate business operations and the Pakistani economy as a whole. The case discusses the energy and power sectors, along with the reasons for the circular debt. The Pakistani government was heavily involved in regulating the energy and power sectors; to respond to high oil prices, a subsidy was provided in 2008 to keep the price of diesel low. The government, however, had not created an effective plan to recover these funds, and when large public-sector enterprises such as Pakistan International Airlines did not pay their bills, no action was taken. The focus of this case is on resolving the very large amounts of debt that had accumulated in various energy companies. A secondary analysis can explore the impact of regulation on the operations of oil companies.
Grolsch reassesses its international strategy in light of the company's recent acquisition by SABMiller, the world's second-largest brewer. Grolsch was the 21st-largest global beer brand, sold 51.5 percent of its volume in international markets, and exported to 70 countries. However, its poor profitability in international markets--four countries alone accounting for two-thirds of foreign sales--and churn of markets and distribution partners raised concerns about the company's international strategy and execution. Grolsch's 60 years of history in foreign markets provide a rich backdrop to introduce a range of international strategy topics, including performance assessment, rationale for expansion, market selection, and choice of entry mode.
Mittal Steel's remarkable rise to the top of the steel industry spearheaded a wave of cross-border consolidation that aimed to fundamentally change the industry's competitive and geographic structure. This case provides the opportunity to examine how Lakshmi Mittal built his company's position via international acquisitions, to assess the logic of global integration in the steel industry, and to think through how Mittal can continue adding value to its acquired operations on an ongoing basis (i.e., post-turnaround) as a global steel company.
The Indian IT Services sector's rapid, profitable growth has transformed the geography and economics of IT while simultaneously spearheading India's broader economic resurgence. Discussion focuses on what many regard as the iconic Indian sector and illustrates the globalization that is under way in parts of the service sector. The case offers students the opportunity to analyze this industry's rise and prospects at a period when many observers were questioning whether its growth could be sustained.
This case provides an opportunity to examine the growth of offshore services from the perspective of India's oldest and largest IT services firm. Focusing on Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) at this stage of its development offers a window into the process of upgrading within a sector that historically competed based on low prices, as TCS aspires to compete also on a promise of superior quality. The case also provides an opportunity to discuss the international expansion of emerging market-based companies and the shifting geography of the IT services industry in the context of TCS's expansion in Latin America and Western IT services firms' expansion in India.
CEO Kelly Browne wrestles with the design of a new compensation system to promote the collaboration and cross-selling necessary for supporting her firm's new strategy. Marshall Gordon International, a global public relations (PR) firm, has recently expanded its service offering to include Executive Positioning, which requires significantly more teamwork, higher-level client interaction and more strategically-minded consultants than their traditional PR work. The CEO is pressured to find a compensation system that helps retain and motivate the firm's valued PR consultants, attract new talent, and get all professionals aligned behind the new strategy.
A manufacturer of spiral freezers, which allow food manufacturers to replace a batch freezing process with single piece flow in a fraction of the space, reviews the economics of replacing a batch freezing process with a spiral freezer for a customer. The case enables students to demonstrate an understanding of process analysis, bottlenecks, and Little's Law in the context of an economic cost/benefit analysis.
The case provides an opportunity for students to develop practical knowledge of the role of operations management in a product recall situation, particularly in an emerging market context. Product recalls are an integral part of supply chain management (SCM). Companies inevitably face a question of when, not if, a recall will be necessary. These situations combine the complexity of operations with the time-urgency of a mission-critical task. The case also provides a rich context to learn about the interaction of SCM, information systems and reverse logistics, and to understand the marketing, logistics and communication challenges faced by a multinational company operating in an emerging market such as India.<br><br>The case presents the challenge faced by Nokia India in 2007. Nokia had built a strong brand reputation over a ten-year period and was a market leader in the Indian mobile devices. India, incidentally, was also Nokia's second largest market, next only to China. Suddenly, what corporate headquarters considered a routine product advisory for a defective battery, resulted in panic in customers after the Indian media widely publicized the potential dangers that defective batteries could pose.<br><br>Over a three-month period, Nokia India had to recall a few million batteries and replace them with new ones.<br><br>The objectives of the case include 1) developing an effective product recall / reverse logistics plan that would ensure preparedness for the challenges and urgent circumstances that might surface in a recall situation, 2) understanding the key criteria for success of product recall systems and 3) understanding the interface of management action and the logistics system under a crisis situation.
This case unfolds the financial undertakings of Lehman Brothers Inc., which was once the fourth largest investment bank in the world. On September 15, 2008, less than a year after the bank presented its largest profit ever, the world saw it descending. In terms of size of assets, Lehman is considered the largest bankruptcy in history, with assets summing up to US$639 billion and liabilities of US$613 billion. The U.S. credit crisis uprooted the strength of Wall Street, with Lehman announcing a petition it filed under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code. The bankruptcy raised some interesting questions. The biggest among them being: How could a large-sized company such as Lehman with a track record of reporting huge profits, become so helpless that it had to file for bankruptcy?Undoubtedly, the financial scenario in the United States had become bad, especially for those companies that were into mortgage banking. Lehman had some additional drawbacks. This case tries to deal with a couple of such problems, one of them being the accountancy of its Repo 105 transactions. The modus operandi of the company has been unveiled to show how it managed to hide its true financial state by using gaps in the financial reporting system across the borders and remain clean handed for years.
This two-party negotiation exercise features a real-life dispute between Merck and Johnson & Johnson regarding European distribution rights to two highly lucrative drugs.
This two-party negotiation exercise features a real-life dispute between Merck and Johnson & Johnson regarding European distribution rights to two highly lucrative drugs.