This case describes a real scenario in which an elderly couple's vehicle is stranded in a remote location, causing emergency services to be dispatched at significant effort and cost, whereas an inexpensive tow truck dispatch would have completely resolved the problem. To prevent these kinds of false alarm situations, the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) has developed a free iPhone application called CAA Roadside, which takes advantage of location-based technology that is built into the iPhone. Discussion questions invite students to consider the business benefits of developing mobile apps, tradeoffs involved in choosing one development platform over another, and long-term positive and negative impacts of the diffusion of mobile location-based technologies.
This case introduces Canada's IT-reliant healthcare system, using three real vignettes: an unconscious emergency room patient whose electronic health record (EHR) may have saved his life; a patient whose health problems and complex drug plan was effectively and holistically managed by pharmacists using a shared information system; and a bone marrow transplant patient who was able to remain in his remote community, and retain his quality of life, thanks to a Telehealth videoconferencing system. Discussion questions invite students to consider how IT plays a role in healthcare, the nature of "deep integration', and why it takes so much time and money to develop effective IT for complex systems such as healthcare.
This case opens with a fictitious yet common situation of a corporate executive who is uncertain how to respond to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. It provides some anecdotes and statistics relating to DDoS attacks, and then briefly tells the story of Michael Calce, nicknamed "Mafiaboy," who as a young teen effectively launched attacks that shut down companies such as Amazon, CNN, Dell, eBay and Yahoo! The basic DDoS process is explained, and then students are invited to evaluate whether Calce's punishment fit his crime, the relatively low level of computer expertise required to launch a damaging attack, potential risks to traditional (non IT-focused) firms, and whether doing business on-line is too risky.
This case focuses on Open Text, a Canadian software development firm that offers enterprise class, knowledge management tools. Three major customer implementations of Open Text software tools are described: Hyatt Hotels created an effective centralized meeting platform and improved customer service; Siemens AG dramatically improved its routine workflow processes; and EnCana sped up information access using a map-based interface to its document repository. Discussion questions invite students to consider the difficulties in managing unstructured information, the organizational benefits of effectively managing knowledge, and the potential risks of "missing out" on the information revolution.
After investing $9 million of venture capital, Cake Financial had failed to reach critical mass. In early 2010 Cake's assets were sold and the company was dissolved. Founded in 2006, the San Francisco-based Internet company allowed users to monitor their investments and communicate with each other about their portfolio strategies. The case recounts key decisions made by founder and CEO Steve Carpenter, including several "pivots" -- shifts in business model, position, and strategy -- made by Cake's team in response to market feedback.
Steve Williams, General Counsel of Unilever PIc, has two key decisions to make prior to commencing construction on the redevelopment of Unilever House - the company's London corporate headquarters. The purpose of the redevelopment is to reinvigorate the corporate culture by making the company's workspace more collaborative, transparent, and efficient. Steve has to decide how to finance the project and whether the current design proposed by his architects achieves the project's goals.
This case traces the origins and evolution of the European Central Bank, with attention to its 2010 decision concerning the purchase of Greek sovereign debt.
In June 2010, Naser Tavazo, one of the three owner/manager brothers of both Tavazo Iran Co. and Tavazo Canada Co., was considering the company's future expansion opportunities, including further international market entry. Candidate cities of interest were Los Angeles, Dubai and other cities with a high Iranian diaspora. Another question facing the owners was where to focus on the value chain. Should the family business use its limited resources to expand its retailer business into more international markets, or to expand their current retailer/wholesale activities within Canada and Iran?<br><br>The objectives of this case are: (A) to discuss the typical problems that small companies confront when growing internationally and the implication of being a family business in this transition; (B) to provide a vehicle for developing criteria for market selection; (C) to highlight the importance of focus in the value chain regarding horizontal vs. vertical integration.<br><br>This case can be used in international business, strategic management or family business (entrepreneurship) courses. In international business, it may be used as an internationalization case and positioned early in the course. In a strategic management course, it might be positioned in sections dealing with managerial preferences, or diversification.
The management and marketing of global events has enabled growth at Hockey Canada, the National Sport Organization responsible for the sport of ice hockey in Canada. Indeed, through a planned approach to events, Hockey Canada has established an event program that includes guaranteed profit figures in the millions, high interest from host cities, good attendance, and impressive television ratings. The executive who has led the organization through this growth, COO Scott Smith, is the central figure in the case, which includes background information, financial numbers and strategy elements of the growth over the past decade. The case touches on a number of important topics in sport and event management including international growth, risks, event-hosting, sport development, television, social media, sponsorship, digital media, women's sport, and online viewing.
The case illustrates the challenges faced by a marketing manager when designing, implementing and evaluating trade promotion schemes in a highly competitive, fast moving, consumer goods multinational company in the emerging Asian market of India. The purpose of the case is to provide exposure to the complexities and dynamic context of Asian consumer goods marketing and learn how to design, implement and evaluate trade promotion schemes that are aligned with the branding, marketing communication and marketing strategy of the product/brand. The case illustrates marketing decisions and their implementation in the Indian market for snack foods, where factors such as products at small price points, constant product and brand innovation, and effective design of trade promotion and merchandising schemes are critical in gaining and retaining market share.
This note introduces the importance to family businesses of drafting a family constitution to maintain success and continuity of governance of the family's enterprises. The process of family members/owners being involved in making the draft provides the most value for the enterprise, more so than the content of the finished product.
In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, the Senate Banking Committee began a much-publicized investigation of the nation's financial sector. The hearings, which came to be known as the Pecora hearings after the Banking Committee's lead counsel Ferdinand Pecora, revealed how the country's most respected financial institutions knowingly misled investors as to the desirability of certain securities, engaged in irresponsible investment behavior, and offered privileges to insiders not afforded to ordinary investors. During the famous "Hundred Day" congressional session that began his presidency, Roosevelt signed two bills meant to prevent some of these abuses, but he also believed that the government should play a more active role in the financial system by regulating national securities exchanges. In February 1934, the president urged Congress to enact such legislation, prompting the introduction of a bill entitled the Securities Exchange Act, which would force all securities exchanges to register with the Federal Trade Commission, would curtail the size of loans that could be advanced to securities investors, and would ban a number of practices (such as short-selling) that were thought to facilitate stock manipulation. Additionally, the legislation would require that all companies with exchange-listed securities publish detailed business reports as frequently as the FTC desired. Wall Street, represented in particular by New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) President Richard Whitney, took a strong position against the Securities Exchange Act. Whitney was ultimately summoned to testify during the congressional hearings on the Securities Exchange Act in late February 1934. Would he be able to convince lawmakers to take a different course, or would his arguments fail to win over those who believed that strict regulations were exactly what financial markets required following the Great Crash?
Dave Roux, co-founder and chairman of Silver Lake, a private equity (PE) firm specializing in technology investments, was meeting with the firm's investment committee via video conference to discuss options for Silver Lake's future growth. While the private equity market had suffered since the economic crisis in the fall of 2008, Roux believed a number of opportunities still existed. There was significant interest within the firm to continue to offer new asset class investment products and to open additional outposts in foreign countries. Nonetheless, questions had risen internally regarding how much and in which directions to grow. Roux wondered how the firm could take advantage of the market potential while continuing to remain true to its original vision.
The 'Cola Wars Continue: Coke and Pepsi in 2010' case examines the industry structure and competitive strategy of Coca-Cola and Pepsi over 100 years of rivalry. The most intense battles of the cola wars were fought over the $74 billion CSD industry in the United States, where the average American consumes 46 gallons of CSD per year. In a "carefully waged competitive struggle," from 1975 to the mid-1990s, both Coke and Pepsi had achieved average annual growth of around 10%, as both U.S. and worldwide CSD consumption consistently rose. However, starting in the late 1990s, U.S. CSD consumption started to decline and new non-sparkling beverages become popular, threatening to alter the companies' brand, bottling, and pricing strategies. The case considers what has to be done for Coke and Pepsi to ensure sustainable growth and profitability. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
Wilbur (1867-1912) and Orville (1871-1948) Wright were fascinated by the mystery of flight and they built on the ideas of prominent earlier figures such as Octave Chanute (1832-1910) the French-born American who was influential in fostering the free exchange of ideas surrounding aeronautics. Information exchange between practical tinkerers from across the globe led to a process of cumulative innovation unhindered by rivalry operating through the intellectual property rights system. Yet in 1903, the year the Wright Brothers achieved controlled sustained flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they applied for and were subsequently granted a US patent for a "flying-machine" which changed the industry irrevocably. While American manufacturers diverted resources from science and technology to patent wars and legal disputes, European aeronautics advanced more rapidly.
This case addresses Bank of America Corporation's contemplated joint venture with China Construction Bank to enter the Chinese credit card market. The case builds on the questions of strategic alliances in foreign markets and the state of the banking and credit industries in China generally.
Grainger is a distributor of MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) equipment, based in the US. Most revenues were from the US in 2008, but Grainger was positioning itself to expand its limited global presence. Grainger was increasing the volume of private-label products, which offer higher margins and meet price points. These private label products were sourced primarily from China, by a separate business unit (Grainger Global Sourcing, or GGS) within Grainger. The GGS network, as of 2008, had significant cost inefficiencies. Furthermore, the network was not well-suited for increasing global sales of the private label products. The task in the case is to re-engineer the supply chain to improve efficiencies and better position Grainger for global growth.
Celanese, a global leader in the chemical industry, had spent a number of years implementing a single instance ERP solution and integrating the divisional IT functions into a shared services model. Around 2007, after years of application and IT service growth, many in Celanese IT believed that their internal operations were in desperate need of tighter coordination and process discipline. They looked to Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) to guide their process integration effort. This case describes the first three years of the IT organization's journey with the ITIL process framework.
Even before Australian lawmakers abolished university tuition in 1973, students in Australia had long benefited from low tuition and large government subsidies. By the early 1980s, however, the nation's universities faced growing budget challenges and an apparent shortage of capacity as demand for higher education surged. Policymakers, cognizant of a growing budget deficit as well as a hard-hitting recession, hesitated to provide increased funding to higher education. The debate over how best to finance Australian higher education finally came to a head in the late 1980s, following publication of the Report of the Committee on Higher Education Funding (commonly known as the Wran Report). Although the Wran Committee had considered several potential funding schemes, it ultimately proposed a radical system in which students would pay tuition financed through income-contingent loans provided by the government. The Wran Report proved to be of particular interest to the Australian Prime Minister, Robert Hawke. The government's fiscal position seemed to demand that educational financing be overhauled, but there was no consensus on how best to do this. Could the Prime Minister convince his Australian Labor Party to abandon the free-education plank in its platform? And even if he could, how could he be sure that the Wran Committee's strategy was the right one and that its recommendations were workable? Would following an American model of full tuition for higher education and government-guaranteed student loans make more sense? These were just a few of the questions that the Prime Minister confronted as he contemplated new approaches for financing higher education in Australia.