Infusion had grown over the 10 years between 2000 and 2010 to become a $50 million per year international software services business with 350 employees. The president is wondering how he could move the company towards becoming a $100 million per year international business through a mixture of organic growth and initiative with partners. The entrepreneurial vision of its original founders lived on in many ways, but the company had found it necessary to install an administrative structure with a professional management layer to underpin delivery in both domestic and international markets. It had not been an easy ride. The company had encountered problems in India, and there had been periods of staff attrition and challenging deliveries to clients. Clients were beginning to pull the company in new directions. The pace of technology change appeared to be relentless. While entrepreneurship was still encouraged in the form of an incubator called Infusion Angels, the CEO was faced with some critical decisions.
As Southwest neared its 40th year of service, the company was facing some major challenges. Legacy carriers in the United States had become more efficient, and the recent mega-mergers involving Delta/Northwest and Continental/United were shaking up the industry. Smaller companies like JetBlue and Allegiant were pressuring Southwest's cost-advantage and low-fare focus. A major internal challenge for Southwest would be managing its acquisitions of AirTran, a deal announced in late 2010. To make the acquisition a success, the company would have to integrate a workforce of more than 8,000 (about 25% the size of Southwest), a fleet of aircraft different from the Boeing 737s used by Southwest, and new markets that included non-U.S. destinations.
Can an online discussion forum supply insight into the evolution of brand meaning? In 2003 Porsche launched a sport utility vehicle, dividing Porsche purists from newcomers to the brand. Vocal members of online and offline Porsche communities ridiculed the Cayenne SUV and disapproved of the new breed of driver. Some opposed offering Porsche Club membership to them, and some even refused to extend the fraternal Porsche "wave" or headlight flashing to them on the road. Porsche's values of speed, luxury, and a certain masculine zeal resonated strongly with its devotees, while drivers of the Cayenne (which came to be known as "the SUV for soccer moms") tended to be safety-conscious, family-oriented, and conservative. Evolving debates on forums allow a class to debate whether the brand had strayed too far from its core values and was at risk.
In late 2008, executives at Coca-Cola had to decide what to do with a fan-created page on Facebook that had amassed over one million followers in three months. From a legal point of view the fan-created page was in violation of Facebook's terms of service, because a non-copyright holder was using the imagery and logo associated with a known brand. Facebook contacted Michael Donnelly, Group Director, Worldwide Interactive Marketing for The Coca-Cola Company, to let him know that he was in the position to take down the hugely popular fan-created site or, conversely, he could take it over and make it an official marketing channel for the company. Coke was already revisiting its social media policies, with the Diet Coke and Mentos user-generated video incident fresh in its memory. Those videos, which featured elaborate geysers with Diet Coke as their main ingredient, were among the most viewed online videos at the time but were not initially sanctioned by the company. Donnelly knew that opening up the brand to creative consumers was necessary, but he and his team had to figure out how and to what extent they should do so while still protecting one of the world's most valuable brands.
Executives at Ford wondered if social media could be the marketing solution for the launch of the youth-oriented 2010 Fiesta. But with social media came a ceding of control. Some at the company believed that if Ford was going to move beyond its conservative brand image for the launch of the new subcompact chances had to be taken. Others erred on the side of caution. Chantel Lenard, Ford's Group Marketing Manager for Global Small Car and Midsize Vehicles and Connie Fontaine, Manager of Brand Content and Alliances championed a new approach for the new vehicle and set into motion a comprehensive 6-month social media initiative targeting a younger, ethnically diverse, and urban-based market, called "The Fiesta Movement". In doing so, a large portion of the marketing campaign was handed over to 20 and 30-somethings across America, and Ford had to acclimate to a new way of doing marketing. To what extent should the company guide the activities and messages of their army of bloggers? The case is set two months into the Movement, as the team evaluates the metrics from YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and their website, and wonder if they're doing everything they need to do in order to make the Fiesta a success with a new target market.
ALAC was a small importer of specialty industrial chemicals. The case explores the different financing alternatives to facilitate the company's explosive growth in working capital. At the end of 2009, the company was awarded the United States distributorship for the specialty chemical di-isononyl phthalate (DINP) from a large Taiwanese producer and had almost tripled its sales in 2010. It expected to double its sales in 2011 and to dramatically increase its profits. ALAC critically needed to obtain financing for the explosive growth in its inventory and accounts receivable balances.
Gemini Investors was a private equity firm focused on small and lower middle market businesses. Gemini's target investment size was between $4 million and $6 million and a typical portfolio company had revenue of between $8 million and $30 million. In early 2015, Gemini was completing the investment of Gemini's Fund V and it was deciding whether it should raise a fund sized similarly to their prior funds, or alternatively, raising a significantly larger fund.
Private sector entrepreneur in China with advanced solid waste management capability competes with state owned enterprises and also government policies supporting a rival technology. Wen Yibo has used engineering expertise and political savvy to build a major privately held company providing the entire supply chain of water treatment, waste water, and integrated municipal solid waste capabilities. The company's services include engineering, manufacturing, consulting, "engineer, procure construct," "build operate transfer," and other forms of public-private partnership. The handling of municipal solid waste takes up to 50% of the annual budget of many urban areas in the developing world. The ability to use private sector funds and expertise could be critical to urban development. However, state owned enterprises can observe the success of private business and can enter and compete using their own skills, contacts, and inexpensive capital. The government may also be interested in subsidizing incineration over composting as a part of "waste to energy" strategy, even though this is less efficient than generating electricity from a coal or gas plant. The company has to decide whether to stick to its waste management roots or expand into an opportunistic incineration technology with minimal and nominal waste-to-energy benefits.
A123 Systems, the largest manufacturer of lithium ion batteries in North America, is producing and selling batteries for electric vehicles in China and electric buses in Europe and America. It just opened two plants in Michigan, partially funded by a grant from America's stimulus fund. At the same time, the company is expanding its business in large, grid stabilization systems, in California, Chile and New York. The simultaneous pressures of these two businesses, plus dozens of potential deals pending, are testing the company's management skills, cash reserves and abilities to execute.
First-year Columbia Business School student Kristen Peters hoped her summer internship with Taylor Reed (TR) would lead to a job offer in private wealth management. Yet mid-way through the internship, Peters received poor feedback, with TR executives citing her low energy and disregard for the firm's rules by checking her phone during classroom time. Vowing to improve her image, Peters completed extra work and extended her networking efforts. By summer's end, Peters remained unsure whether a job offer would be forthcoming. In this case students examine Peters' performance and TR's culture before discussing strategies for building influence. This two-part case series asks students to identify Peter's goals, detect office politics, and discuss how she handles the company culture. It concludes that jobs often possess both meritocratic and political components.
This case is a follow up to HR-29A, and explains the actions taken by Keller Williams in response to the residential real estate market downturn in 2008 and 2009. The case explains the programs and initiatives put in place by the company to boost agent count, increase productivity, and reduce expenses throughout the organization. It also explains how the company relied on these initiatives to not only survive the market downturn but to thrive, achieving success by leveraging the strengths of the company's operating model, core principles, and values.
This case examines the drivers of economic value creation for shareholders, and how these drivers are reflected in various incentive compensation programs for management. The case also looks at how the economic performance of business units can be evaluated using measures of economic value creation.
This case allows instructors to explore shareholder value creation and transfer opportunities in merger and acquisition transactions. It also invites an examination of corporate governance issues surrounding CEO compensation. This case is quite brief (a total of four pages), so the balance between thinking time and reading setup time for students is quite attractive.
One of the world's leading investors in distressed companies, Oaktree Capital Management, is contemplating a "loan to own" investment in the debt of Countrywide plc, a financially troubled residential real estate agent based in the U.K. Only sixteen months earlier, Countrywide was acquired by private equity investor Apollo Management L.P. in a leveraged buyout. Although Countrywide is the largest real estate agent in the U.K., and has a strong portfolio of assets, its economic fortunes have declined suddenly with the widespread collapse of global financial and real estate markets, putting it in danger of defaulting on its debt and having to restructure under a U.K. Scheme of Arrangement.
This note discusses the appropriate accounting treatment for contingencies under International Financial Reporting Standards and identifies key differences relative to Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises. Accounting for contingencies covers provisions, contingent liabilities, and contingent assets. The note discusses both how to decide whether a provision should be recorded and how to measure a provision. Further, the note clarifies the differences between provisions and contingent liabilities, discusses when contingent assets should be recorded, and identifies specific guidance for restructuring provisions. Finally, disclosure requirements are identified.
In this dialogue-styled situation, Binnj's CEO has assembled a team of people for a 100-day "science experiment" to determine whether a new high-tech business venture is worth pursuing. He is focused on an untapped market - a new kind of restaurant menu service built on the Apple iPad platform. Members of the team are excited and have been furiously working on the project while retaining their full-time jobs. They have developed a prototype of the technology and business offering, pitched the idea to several clients, and generated significant interest. The case is set at the end of the first 100 days, when the CEO must decide on the next steps.<br><br>This case introduces students to information technology entrepreneurship, technology development approaches, service pricing issues, virtual project management techniques and tools, brainstorming revenue generation opportunities, and the challenges of prioritizing decisions.
The case examines HelloWallet, the online, independent financial guidance service, in the context of behavioral finance concepts. It also looks at the specific challenges faced by online personal financial management (PFM) systems. In addition, the case has a detailed overview of American household finance, including data regarding Americans' ability to save money, readiness for retirement, and level of financial literacy. HelloWallet offers a range of services including PFM, financial planning, a system to aggregate users' financial accounts, and an application to help users find financial products that are better deals than their current ones. While not the first to market with this type of service, HelloWallet differentiated itself in three major ways. First, it was independent, meaning it did not receive monetary incentives from financial institutions to push their products, nor did it receive payments (i.e., commissions) when individuals made buying decisions. Second, it looked at over 130,000 financial products to help users find the best products for them, compared to its competitors, which searched through a much smaller number of products. Third, because it was independent, it used a subscription model in which individuals paid a monthly fee. The case is set in March 2010, just after the beta launch of HelloWallet's web site, and it examines two key issues HelloWallet is grappling with: 1) How to price its product for its two different channels - the direct-to-consumer channel and the enterprise channel - and 2) How to proportionately allocate its resources for the two channels.
Mexico went through a major political transition in 2000, when Vicente Fox was elected President. Change was in the air throughout the country, and especially in government entities. One such entity was NAFINSA, the national development bank that had a stellar history in the first half of the twentieth century building the Mexican stock exchange and financing public projects. Its more recent history was less impressive, with charges of political influence, inefficiency and major problems in leadership. Fox had special plans for NAFINSA, however, wanting it to be a preeminent player in stimulating small and medium-sized business. He hired Mario Laborin, previously responsible for successful management of a private sector bank in Mexico, to turn NAFINSA around and advance this new policy mandate. The case, in two parts, centers on the approach Laborin and his team took to address this challenge. It intends to provoke discussion about the role of strategic management in complex contexts, the way different technical interventions can be used to facilitate change, and the question about where money should come from to facilitate change processes. HKS Case Number 1918.0
Mexico went through a major political transition in 2000, when Vicente Fox was elected President. Change was in the air throughout the country, and especially in government entities. One such entity was NAFINSA, the national development bank that had a stellar history in the first half of the twentieth century building the Mexican stock exchange and financing public projects. Its more recent history was less impressive, with charges of political influence, inefficiency and major problems in leadership. Fox had special plans for NAFINSA, however, wanting it to be a preeminent player in stimulating small and medium-sized business. He hired Mario Laborin, previously responsible for successful management of a private sector bank in Mexico, to turn NAFINSA around and advance this new policy mandate. The case, in two parts, centers on the approach Laborin and his team took to address this challenge. It intends to provoke discussion about the role of strategic management in complex contexts, the way different technical interventions can be used to facilitate change, and the question about where money should come from to facilitate change processes. HKS Case Number 1919.0