Entrepreneur wrestles with business model using SMS and RFID technology, franchising, and leasing to rapidly grow off-the-grid water purification business without subsidies. The company seeks to provide potable water services to rural and urban India where the public infrastructure does not exist. Past efforts have been stymied by rural operations problems including expensive technologies, challenging maintenance issues, cash management problems, lack of capital, and lack of a business model that makes sense for retail operators without subsidy. Using a franchising model that relies on seasoned local entrepreneurs, communication technology that monitors flows and quality, payment technology that takes cash out of the equation, and a "capital light" leasing model, the company hopes to create and share a new business model. If successful, the model can be copied by other social entrepreneurs with a market-based pricing scheme to provide other forms of infrastructure in emerging markets.
Reviews Rebecca Halstead's career history, detailing how, through her personal attributes, skills, experiences, challenges, and organizational practices she developed into a successful leader and commander in the U.S. Army. The case profiles her leadership style and philosophy. It examines her career strategies and rise through the ranks; strategies she used to deal with challenges faced as a woman in the military; how she turned around a troubled military unit; and how she dealt with a difficult boss who threatened her command of a 25,000 person combat mission.
The case describes the evolution of an interpersonal mismatch between a previously successful manager, Jamie Turner, and his new boss, Pat Cardullo. Turner, a 32-year-old MBA graduate, has been recruited by Cardullo to be vice president of marketing and sales at Modern Lighting Industries, Inc. (MLI). MLI, a struggling regional distributor of industrial lighting systems and equipment based in Chicago, has recently been acquired by a division of the much larger San Diego-based Specialty Support Services (Triple S). Cardullo, the president of MLI, is the chief proponent of the Triple S acquisition, and he has told Turner to revive MLI, implying that if Turner succeeds he will soon advance to company president. It becomes apparent, however, that Cardullo and Turner have very different assumptions and expectations about turning MLI around. The case portrays Turner's developing problems and his unsuccessful attempts to resolve them, and also Cardullo's passage through several managerial challenges.
Various mergers and acquisitions in the Indian information technology (IT) sector had resulted in the newly formed Mahindra Satyam (Mahindra) and the recently appointed chief compliance officer (CCO) was to develop a corporate governance structure that would address and repair previous mismanagement of the company. The CCO also functioned as the chief operating officer (COO) with profit centre responsibility for business verticals. His largest task as the CCO was to restore trust in the company and solidify its future among various stakeholders by bringing back integrity and transparency to the business. The CCO had to consider several criteria: What should his priorities be? What processes could be developed that would ensure corporate governance? What were the metrics with which the company could track the progress in corporate governance?
Students are asked to write a cohesive and comprehensive business plan for a municipally owned movie theatre in small-town Palmerston, Ontario. The theatre building is structurally unsound and major renovations are needed. Students must complete a thorough qualitative analysis (industry, consumer, competitor) and quantitative analysis (two years of monthly cash budgets incorporating sensitivity, two years of projected income statements, and the financing amount required to go ahead with the project). Student analysis should also include a plan for the management of staff; a cohesive marketing plan that addresses the product offered, appropriate pricing, promotion and advertising plans, and the time period required for payback of the loan.
West Ham United was an English football (soccer) team that competed to win the right to move its games to the stadium being constructed for the 2012 London Olympics. It secured financial support from the local government and the backing of U.K. athletics. West Ham’s rival bidder, Tottenham Hotspurs, presented a strong business case for the move and required no public support. West Ham, despite this, won the right to move. The case focuses on ensuring acceptance of the move by fans who have an emotional attachment to the old stadium and are displeased that the new stadium’s athletic track adds distance between fans and the field.
This case examines how Samsung has grown to become one of the world’s leading companies. It presents a detailed description of Samsung’s “top priority to the people” philosophy and its strong cultural values, both of which have been instrumental in ensuring its continued success in recent decades. Since 1982, the Samsung Human Resource Development Center (SHRDC) has played a critical role in supporting Samsung’s corporate strategy of achieving global competitiveness through programs that focus on maintaining Samsung values and developing a cadre of effective next-generation leaders. New Employee Orientation (NEO), an intensive four-week in-house program for all Samsung employees, is one example of an SHRD program. NEO aligns employees across Samsung affiliates to its strategic direction, thereby fostering a stronger “Single Samsung” culture.<br><br>In recent years, however, NEO has been faced with new challenges. First, Samsung’s pool of new employees has become more diverse, with the recruitment of more experienced and foreign (non-Korean) employees in addition to the fresh college graduates whom Samsung has always relied upon. Second, Samsung has become aware of stark value differences between the older employees, who are obedient and easily follow rules, and the younger “digital native” employees, who are more individualistic and prefer egalitarian and open policies. Managers at SHRDC are concerned that the “Single Samsung” spirit, which forms the core of Samsung culture, is being threatened from within.<br><br>Students must address issues related to the need for maintaining a unified organizational culture among diverse groups of employees with conflicting values, and propose ways for Samsung to effectively employ and utilize all of its employees.
The case is set immediately following a catastrophic fire that destroyed the Triumph Motorcycle Company’s manufacturing facility in England. After having gone out of business in the 1980s, the company was resurrected by British entrepreneur John Bloor and, at the time of the fire, was in its tenth year of renewed operations. The decision facing Bloor and his team after the fire was to either rebuild and resume their strategy as before or consider whether another course of action might be worthwhile. <br><br>Students are challenged to identify and articulate Triumph’s strategy during its renaissance and evaluate whether other alternatives might be more appropriate. This mirrors the assignment given to McKinsey and Company when it was engaged to help Triumph during its post-fire recovery. The case provides information about Triumph’s history, as well as a current picture of the motorcycle industry.
This case describes a wallet maker's application of seven Internet marketing technologies: display ads, algorithmic search, sponsored search, social media, interactive content, online distributors, and A/B testing. It provides concise introductions to the key features of each technology, and asks which forms of online marketing the company should prioritize in the future. Also discusses similarities and differences between online and offline marketing, as well as issues of marketing campaign evaluation.
One of the leading publishers of textbooks and other educational materials for the U.S. K-12 educational instruction market has suffered a dramatic decline in sales and profits in the wake of the 2008-2009 financial market crisis and economic recession, and it now overburdened with debt. To regain its competitiveness, the company has to significantly reduce its debt, by billions of dollars. Company management is trying to decide which of several options is best for achieving this goal, including filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, restructuring its debt out-of-court, or filing a "pre-packaged" Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Jorge Tarasuk, VP of Operations and Supply Chain for PepsiCo South America Foods, and his team had worked for 10 years to realize their dream of creating an agro research center in Peru that could provide more productive and healthier varieties of potatoes for the Frito-Lay businesses in PepsiCo's tropical regions, including Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Thailand, and Vietnam, where much of its future growth would come. They were denied several times but kept the idea alive through other projects until conditions presented themselves. But now that they had secured initial funding for the center, the hard work would begin.
This case addresses the theme of crisis leadership in a multinational enterprise in a powerful way, to help students internalize the critical challenges of a multinational company in an emerging market. In August 2007, a routine product feedback and defect analysis process identified a defective batch of batteries supplied by a Japanese vendor, Matsushita. India happened to be the recipient of the largest proportion of the defective batch. Nokia's corporate communications team, based in Finland, in cooperation with the Indian team, responded with a customary global product advisory. Instructions were made available on the Internet for customers to diagnose a defective battery and get a free replacement. Nokia was shocked to see the antagonistic response from the Indian press to the product advisory and the ensuing mayhem that spread quickly through the country. The head of Nokia India, and his team, had to act swiftly to preserve the company's hard-earned reputation and market share.<br><br>Case A is set as a midnight strategy session at Nokia's Indian headquarters to chart out the way forward. Case B is a short version of what actually happened: how Nokia and the team successfully steered the organization through the crisis and not only survived but used the situation it to create new organizational capabilities.
The Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority (SAGIA) is an agency established in 2000 to improve the business environment and encourage foreign investment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This agency was created out of the Kingdom's landmark Foreign Investment Law of 2000 with the mandate to diversify the economy and provide jobs for its burgeoning young population. The fledgling agency was expected to enlist the aid of other government ministries and agencies in reducing barriers to investment-including the politically sensitive "Saudization" policy, which gave employment preference to Saudis over foreign workers-and in marketing Saudi Arabia as a welcoming location for foreign investors. However, the law that had formed SAGIA, gave it few tools to work with. Therefore, it had to find a way to cooperate with the rest of the government to effect change. SAGIA's first governor, Prince Abdullah, retired in 2004, and it would be the task of his successor, Amr Al Dabbagh, to advance SAGIA's mission. It remains to be seen whether Al Dabbagh, a successful businessman, could overcome the challenges that had thus far stymied the young agency. The case should be used for class discussions of several important themes: the difficulty of collaboration across government bureaucracy with little authority or resources; effecting change in an unfavorable political climate - both external and internal; human capital development with the skill for strategic planning and communications; and the impact of an individual dynamic leader on an organization. HKS Case Number 1926.0
Ross Walker had come a long way. A child of modest upbringing in Marin County just north of San Francisco, Walker had earned both undergraduate and MBA degrees from Stanford. He had been chosen to serve a five-year term as the youngest alumni representative on the Stanford University Board of Trustees and had a great job at Wolff Urban Development in the industries he loved, hospitality and real estate. Most importantly, Walker was well-known and well-liked by a very large number of people, with an extensive network that went far beyond hospitality and real estate and a great reputation among administrators at Stanford and with his GSB classmates. But like all successful people, Ross Walker faced a potential challenge. As his career unfolded, he would inevitably face more intense competition as he moved on to even bigger platforms and more responsibility. Walker had been able to build numerous relationships by the qualities that had thus far served him so well-incredible generosity with his time and advice, modesty, hard work, self-awareness, and by not being flashy and thus, on occasion, being underestimated by others, including rivals. Some observers wondered, however, if those qualities would continue to serve him just as well in the future as they had in the past.
Economic game theory can be a tedious and difficult concept, but it doesn't have to be. This exercise allows students to learn about game theory via an entertaining medium - video games. After considering a pricing war between two video game giants, Microsoft and Sony, students are asked to calculate pricing strategies based off game theory predictions. Students must use a 2-by-2 simultaneous one-shot game (like the Prisoner's Dilemma framework) to determine if one or both companies will cut prices.