Matchstick Inc. (A) case introduces students to how brands are starting to put in place non-traditional advertising, such as word-of-mouth campaigns. The founder of Toronto-based Matchstick Inc. is working on a campaign for the Ketel One vodka brand. Ketel One, managed by Diageo, a global beverage firm, is trying to increase its awareness and sales in the Canadian market. Ketel One's brand manager has turned to Matchstick to generate awareness among its elusive target audience.
This is a supplement to Matchstick Inc. (A), product 910A19. The cases introduces students to how brands are starting to put in place non-traditional advertising, such as word-of-mouth campaigns. The founder of Toronto-based Matchstick Inc. is working on a campaign for the Ketel One vodka brand. Ketel One, managed by Diageo, a global beverage firm, is trying to increase its awareness and sales in the Canadian market. Ketel One's brand manager has turned to Matchstick to generate awareness among its elusive target audience.
Starbucks enjoyed tremendous growth over the previous two decades. In 2007, it had a global reach of over 17,000 stores in 56 countries. Between 2007 and 2009, however, Starbucks' relentless march was slowed by three forces: increasingly intense competition, rising coffee bean prices and a global economic recession. In order to remain profitable, the company started to scale back its overseas operations. In 2010, Starbucks was faced with a critical strategic decision: Should the company resume its international expansion and once again intensify its commitments in overseas markets? If so, what approach should the company take? Had the pace of Starbucks' internationalization (i.e. the rate of opening new stores abroad), the rhythm of its internationalization (i.e. the regularity by which stores were opened abroad) and geographical scope of its internationalization (i.e. number of new countries entered) had an impact on the company's performance in previous years? Could Starbucks learn from its prior internationalization within the coffee industry in order to guide its future international strategy?
In 2009, Southwest Airlines produced its first integrated annual report, the Southwest Airlines One Report, combing financial and nonfinancial performance information. This case examines Southwest's environmental and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports produced in the two years preceding 2009 and follows the company's decision to transition to a new reporting format. Preparing for the 2010 report, the Southwest reporting team contemplates how to improve the One Report. The case also allows for debate on the future of integrated reporting, including its impact on internal management processes, integrated audits, and mandated nonfinancial reporting.
The case describes in detail the workings of two mobile banking operators in Africa-WIZZIT in South Africa and M-PESA in Kenya. It explores the dimensions of strategy that make for success in the market for the unbanked. It raises questions regarding the portability of the model to other countries and settings.
Ian Delaney, CEO of Sherritt, a primarily a mining company, visited Cuba in the early 1990s to negotiate a deal to export nickel for their Canadian refineries. The case describes the difficulties of doing business in Cuba and the challenges Delaney overcame to turn Sherritt into a large diversified holding company that operates in mining, oil, utilities, telecomm, hotels, and others. Delaney did this while managing a relationship with an authoritarian regime with an anti-capitalist discourse.
A Spanish company has to decide if they should expand into the fragmented European consumer finance market and has to make important organizational strategy decisions, in the midst of the world economic downturn that followed the 2007 US credit crunch. Since 2002, the consumer finance branch of the Spanish banking Grupo Santander, Santander Consumer Finance (SCF) had grown into one of the largest European consumer finance companies capturing the recent growth in Europe of the consumer finance market. Against a background of growing concern about the sustainability of household debt levels in Europe and the United States, in 2008 the new CEO, Magda Salarich Fernández de Valderrama, had to decide if this was the right time to expand or if instead she should focus on consolidation. She was also facing important organizational strategy decisions. Which functions should be left to national affiliates to decide, and which should be centralized at headquarters? What processes should be standardized, and which left to local initiatives?
Tom Roberts, a founding partner of Compass Maritime Services, a New Jersey-based shipping research and consulting firm, has been asked by a new potential customer in May 2008 for advice on purchasing a capesize bulk carrier. After identifying a suitable ship with his colleague Basil Karatzas, they must determine an appropriate offer price for the ship and justify their recommendations.
This case starts by reporting various factors that may have contributed to the massive Macondo oil spill, noting that BP, its partners, and the government all made decisions that helped cause the accident. It then discusses the response to this spill by BP and the government. This helps provide some context for the decision by the Obama administration to request $20 billion for a fund from BP and for BP's willingness to go along with this request. The case also depicts BP's safety record before this spill, which may also have contributed to the creation of this fund. After this, the case describes the various ways in which the U.S. government is involved in offshore oil, including the leasing of tracts, the regulation of drilling, and the assessment of fines and damages. To provide contrast with BP's payments, the case depicts the payments made by Exxon after the Exxon Valdez spill. The U.S. regulatory regime is then briefly compared with regimes in other countries. After a brief description of the way the fund set up by BP sought to distribute funds and of the temporary moratorium that followed the spill, the case ends with discussion of possible regulatory responses.
The case describes two alternative elective course assignment procedures: Harvard Business School's lottery-based system and Kellogg Graduate School of Management's bidding-based system. The case has been designed to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each system and their desirability (or lack thereof) depending on the context (the broader business system) within which they are implemented. The case also describes the draft used by the NBA to assign new players to teams. This allows for a discussion of whether a similar system may be preferable to lottery-based or bidding-based procedures to assign students to courses in business schools.
An Ocean Yachts 42 Super Sport (42SS) in mint condition and loaded with the latest in sportfishing accessories has been listed for sale at a time when the market for this kind of equipment is slow. The seller inherited the boat and the sportfishing charter business from his father. However, after six months, the seller opted to close the doors and sell the boat. Ads have been placed in specialized magazines, but no concrete interest has materialized. Two days ago, however, an interested buyer came on the scene. The buyer is planning to start his own saltwater fishing business in the Florida area. There are a few similar boats on the market that may satisfy the buyer, but the 2006 Ocean 42SS is almost perfect for the buyer's objectives.
This technical note focuses on common business entities: sole proprietorships, general partnerships (GPs), limited partnerships (LPs), limited liability partnerships (LLPs), limited liability companies (LLCs), S corporations, and C corporations and offers insights into the basic factors to consider when choosing one of these entities. The Appendix provides an overview of other important entities in the federal tax code: real-estate investment trusts (REITs), regulated investment companies (e.g., mutual funds), and publicly traded partnerships (PTPs).
Appropriate for students interested in purchasing a company. Follows two MBA graduates with $5.2 million in equity to invest as they start the process of choosing an entity structure for their new venture.
This case considers attempts by a Turkish manufacturer of cosmetics packaging to trade off quality for cost, in order to compete with the influx of low-cost products from China. It describes the challenges faced by SomPack management in their effort to survive in the face of low-cost Chinese competition as well as the credit crisis. The company had grown because of its focus on quality and customer relations, but had to slash costs first in response to foreign competition and then again due to the global credit crisis. The case discusses many facets of the company's strategy: company efforts at automation to reduce labour costs in conjunction with their efforts to reduce product quality for parts that were to have automated assembly; use of cheaper raw material that required specialized equipment; use of cheaper costs in conjunction with their efforts to reduce product quality for parts that were to have automated assembly; use of cheaper raw material that required specialized equipment; use of cheaper machines that were not acceptable to customers who required high-quality manufacturing; implementation issues with a lower-cost ERP system; and attempts at outsourcing certain components. Decisions to reduce the quality of either processes or products must be made with great care: even though they are meant to be short-term survival measures, they can create significant short-term disruptions apart from potential long-term problems, such as making the company less attractive as a supplier to customers who may still prefer quality and service over cost.
On 11 September 2001, Edwin Lee, a young investment banker from Hong Kong, survived the World Trade Centre attacks in New York City. His office in lower Manhattan, however, and his prestigious job with Credit Suisse were lost as a result of the tragedy. Jobless, Lee decided to take a chance and use his personal savings to start HKBI, Hong Kong's first business brokerage. In the six years that followed, the business went through different stages ultimately establishing itself as Hong Kong's prime business brokerage for small enterprises with a 61% market share and revenues exceeding HK$68m. For 2008, Lee expected revenues to exceed HK$84m. To reach this target he had launched a number of new initiatives including a deal with a local bank to provide prospective buyers with financing. Would Lee be able to grow HKBI at the desired rate?
The case is about the banking system and the financial markets scam with Harshad Mehta as the chief architect. Mehta was able to successfully exploit the deficiencies in the microstructure of the Indian financial system to siphon money from the banking system to the financial markets. With this money he manipulated the Indian capital markets causing a phenomenal increase in stock prices. When the scam was exposed, the capital markets crashed and thousands of investors lost their life savings; it also impacted several domestic and foreign banks operating in India.
The purpose of this Executive Digest is to (1) examine the predictions made for the 21st century, (2) identify what has occurred in the first 10 years of this new century, and (3) recommend approaches to the strategic leadership of organizations needed for survival and success as the 21st century progresses.