This case introduces students to the fundamental issues that managers face when deciding what international trade finance terms to use when transacting with other firms. In late 2009, Pam Arnold, the Head of Global Credit at Belco Global Foods must decide which trade finance terms to offer to two new customers and how to pursue a claim against a customer who has missed a payment deadline.
Healthcare has traditionally focused on medical outcomes and financial performance. The big question is always, "How much is it going to cost?" What would happen though if healthcare also considered the question of "How does the patient feel?" This case looks at the Cleveland Clinic's attempt to answer the latter question by attempting to institutionalize empathy as part of its delivery of care.
Peter Löscher became CEO of Siemens in July, 2007. It was one of the most turbulent times in the company's history as the company was reeling from a compliance scandal involving hundreds of millions of Euros in suspected bribes, and had to pay billions of Euros in fines and fees to clear its name. Further, the company's operating groups were underperforming their peers in terms of profitability, and had been for some time. Adding to the challenges, Löscher was the first outsider to run Siemens since the company's founding in 1847. After his arrival, Löscher moved quickly to assess the organization, a global, multi-line technology and engineering firm with over 475,000 employees and over €66,487 million of revenue and €3,345 million of net income. Klaus Kleinfeld, the previous CEO, had improved company performance, driven the company to become more globally focused, and sold off underperforming and non-core assets. However, his tenure was cut short by the bribery scandal. When Löscher arrived, he felt the company was overly complex, individuals lacked accountability and significant tension existed between headquarters and the regions. Löscher took advantage of the crisis to reorganize the company from 10 operating groups to 3 sectors, introduce regional clusters to enable smaller markets to focus on sales, establish the "right of way" of the global business, simplify financial reporting, and enhance the sales effort to market verticals. In addition to the changes that Löscher made to the company structure, he transformed employees' attitudes and renewed the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit among managers in the organization.
Peter Löscher became CEO of Siemens in July, 2007. It was one of the most turbulent times in the company's history as the company was reeling from a compliance scandal involving hundreds of millions of Euros in suspected bribes, and had to pay billions of Euros in fines and fees to clear its name. Further, the company's operating groups were underperforming their peers in terms of profitability, and had been for some time. Adding to the challenges, Löscher was the first outsider to run Siemens since the company's founding in 1847. After his arrival, Löscher moved quickly to assess the organization, a global, multi-line technology and engineering firm with over 475,000 employees and over €66,487 million of revenue and €3,345 million of net income. Klaus Kleinfeld, the previous CEO, had improved company performance, driven the company to become more globally focused, and sold off underperforming and non-core assets. However, his tenure was cut short by the bribery scandal. When Löscher arrived, he felt the company was overly complex, individuals lacked accountability and significant tension existed between headquarters and the regions. Löscher took advantage of the crisis to reorganize the company from 10 operating groups to 3 sectors, introduce regional clusters to enable smaller markets to focus on sales, establish the "right of way" of the global business, simplify financial reporting, and enhance the sales effort to market verticals. In addition to the changes that Löscher made to the company structure, he transformed employees' attitudes and renewed the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit among managers in the organization.
Michael Patterson is an engineering technician at Confederation Kitchen. The company is downsizing its staff in response to declining profitability. Patterson has heard a rumour that he will now report to a supervisor for whom he has little respect and with whom he has had trouble in the past. The engineering and manufacturing manager has called a meeting to discuss Patterson's new role, and Patterson must decide how candid he should be at the meeting.
In this (B) case to Michael Patterson (A), product # 910C24, an engineering technician meets with the new engineering and manufacturing manager. He shares his thoughts about his new immediate supervisor, but the manager believes his comments to be inappropriate and presents the engineering technician with a formal written reprimand. In a time of economic uncertainty, the engineering technician must determine what action, if any, he should take.
The president of Taino Construction has to make several strategic decisions that can guide the firm during very difficult times for the construction industry - globally and locally. He is trying to find ways to capitalize on the company's innovations and international advantages. At the same time, he is trying to adapt the company to the needs of the local market, which requires smaller volumes and simpler products. In order to do this, management must assess the level of risk inherent in the company's portfolio of innovations by estimating the potential of the markets for these products, determining how to strategically position the products in the markets and making a sober assessment of the company's financial strength. The case can be used in a management of innovation course as well as in an international business or marketing strategy or integrative strategy course. It could also be used in a family business course. It lends itself to use in a green products/sustainability module. The objectives of the case are 1) to allow students an opportunity to analyze a company's innovation portfolio and, more specifically, the level of risk inherent in market opportunities 2) to explore how innovative international strategies can help a company survive adverse local market conditions, though it may add to the overall risk of the innovation portfolio of the company 3) to showcase a company committed to green products, allowing for a discussion on sustainability in the construction industry, as well as on how what is considered a "green product" by some stakeholders is not considered a green product by others 4) to showcase the complexity of the relationship between a company's clients/competitors/partners and the way in which government initiative can offer opportunities and challenges to a company 5) to offer an opportunity to conduct financial performance analysis.
Polar Challenge was a company that offered an annual 320-nautical-mile race to the magnetic North Pole organized by Arctic experts. It had been successful in the United Kingdom, establishing marketing partnerships with the BBC, Sony, Fujitsu and others. Polar Challenge saw the United States market as untapped potential for both sponsors and racers. In 2008, with the centennial of polar exploration approaching in 2009, the company decided to offer the race to Americans. The director of marketing is given responsibility for establishing a presence in the United States, but he soon finds that U.S. companies and media outlets do not have the level of interest he expected. In addition, companies worldwide were cutting back on advertising spending in response to the global economic crisis. This case examines a number of issues focused on expansion into new markets and resource commitments to such endeavours. It can be used to discuss the importance of understanding the target market, targeting the unique needs of different customer segments, adapting product offerings to international markets, and establishing realistic goals.
Bridge International was founded in 2007 as a for-profit social enterprise to address the educational needs of poor children in Africa. Ten schools were operational in Kenya by 2010. The plan was to franchise nearly 3,000 schools all over Africa. The case is meant to discuss the challenges of scaling.
The case deals with issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability in the specific setting of a medium-sized enterprise (Host Europe) in the IT industry. Host Europe is the third largest webhosting company in German-speaking Europe. In recent years, the company has put substantial efforts into living up to its CSR and improving sustainability. The case presents the IT sector in Europe and Germany and highlights several industry-related issues such as green IT (especially in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and e-waste) and the digital divide. Host Europe has already implemented a couple of measures, such as building a new energy-efficient green data centre, switching to renewable energy, promoting virtualization, introducing several workplace measures, pursuing efforts to improve family friendliness, and publishing a sustainability report. However, there are still some challenges ahead and students are asked to think about further efforts of Host Europe to complete its path to becoming a responsible and sustainable medium-sized IT company.The case can either be used as an introductory case for CSR in medium-sized businesses and sustainability in the IT industry, or in advanced-level CSR and sustainability courses. As an introductory case it provides in-depth insights into a company that has already put substantial efforts into becoming a responsible and sustainable IT company. Students learn about various sustainability and CSR issues and measures in the specific context of a medium-sized enterprise. As an advanced case for CSR and sustainability, it can be used to build upon the existing knowledge of students and to ask them to come up with other ideas and a sophisticated strategy to pursue further CSR and sustainability. For example, since Host Europe is not certified according to environmental or social standards yet, students could come up with a detailed and customized plan on how to implement such a management system for the company.
Ten Thousand Villages (TTV) is a nonprofit fair trade retail organization with a store located in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the store's opening and first two years of operations (2002-2004), Karen, the chair of the board of directors, and Cheryl, the store manager, struggle to develop a customer-focused plan to ensure sales increases for their unique operation. Marketing issues ranging from store location selection to inventory selection and promotion are presented. In addition to covering an alternative method of doing business - nonprofit enterprise - the case provides a platform for customer relationship management (CRM) implementation in a small, nonprofit environment.
The case sketches the story of a charismatic and ambitious young business leader who, through value-adding commercial transactions, has helped set a South African pharmaceutical company, Adcock Ingram, on a trajectory of growth. In May 2009, he faces lack of closure and an ambiguous outcome to an offer to acquire a smaller pharmaceutical company. The case demonstrates the power of relationships, where the ambitions of different parties around the negotiations table and the incentives that shape their alliances can make or break a strategic business deal. The case presents students with an opportunity to analyze an unfavourable outcome of a business deal, and build a concept of behavioural requirements of success in business transactions. The case has been designed for class discussion and analysis of factors of leadership that underpin or influence acquisitions. It focuses on the behavioural components of leadership decision-making and their effect on business results. The case can provide a platform for the discussion of motives, interpersonal skills and relationships, and business activities in acquisitions.
It was June 5, 2008 and the senior promotions coordinator was beginning to feel the pressure of managing a major sponsorship event for the Toronto Sun, a daily newspaper publication in Ontario, Canada. She had recently been hired and had received the responsibility of organizing the Toronto Sun's presence in the city's annual Caribana Parade after her colleague failed to make any progress following months of handling the assignment. With only eight weeks until parade day (August 2), she felt challenged to make the company's float a success. The Toronto Sun earned its place in the parade as the primary print media sponsor for the event. Pulling the company's float from the biggest parade event in the city would mean forfeiting valuable marketing exposure. This case was designed for use in an undergraduate or MBA operations management or introductory project management course. Developed to aid instructors in facilitating discussions of key project management concepts, the case content allows for an analytical approach to covering the basic skills in planning a project, including precedence relationships, critical path, due dates, uncertainty (PERT tasks), crashing, etc. It can be used to teach students MS Project or other project management software. It can also be used for a less analytic, more managerial discussion of project management.
This case traces the evolution of Taiwan's high-speed railroad from project inception in the late 1980s until its financial problems in 2009 describing the planning efforts, ridership projections, financial plans and cost-benefit analysis involved in the project, as well as the contracting process for the project. This project was one of the largest infrastructure projects in the world and one of the largest infrastructure projects ever built, using a "public-private partnership" (PPP) - a method for infrastructure development where the private sector would build and operate a project for several decades and then transfer ownership to the government. However, in 2009, after only two years of operation, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation (THSRC), the private consortium responsible for building and operating the high-speed rail system, was in deep financial trouble due to low ridership and the worldwide economic crisis. Unable to pay back the principal on its bank loans, the President of THSRC requested a meeting with Taiwan's Minister of Transportation and Communications asking to hand the railroad over to the government to run. THSRC requested that compensation be set by an independent third party, as provided for in the event of a government takeover in the government's original contract with the company. Readers are left with the question of what Taiwan's Minister of Transportation and Communications should do in response to THSRC's request. The case can be used in class discussions on the management of public-private partnerships, government procurement/contracting, and on decision-making. HKS Case Number 1910.0
Canyon Mining intended to purchase four haul trucks to use for heavy mining, and a team from Censeo Consulting Group must to identify a methodology to track cost changes over time for that purchase. The current project's primary objective was to estimate the year-over-year trend in factory manufacturing margins for these four pieces of heavy machinery. These estimates were crucial to Canyon Mining as contracts for heavy machinery lasted for five years and served as a baseline for future negotiations. Although the team arrived at 2008 cost figures for the four haul trucks, it still lacked insight into cost trends and accurate cost forecasting.
In this, the second of a two-case decision analysis series, an entrepreneur must decide whether there are additional benefits from operating in more than one U.S. city. He explores the business model of operating local production facilities in major cities, metro areas with a population of over one million. Going national in year three would allow for a year four launch. Again, the entrepreneur must choose between a discounted and a premium strategy. He must also consider how the U.S. national florists might react to whatever strategy he chooses. Student spreadsheets are available for both the A and the B cases.
This note discusses competing theories of governance in family-owned firms and focuses on agency theory, stewardship theory and the sociological concept of embeddedness.