For more than a decade, the government of China had sought to develop an automotive industry. The government's initial steps involved the creation of joint ventures in which government-owned firms became partners of foreign privately owned corporations. Most of these joint ventures were extremely successful financially. However, ongoing differences in management preferences created a continual tension within the joint ventures. Of particular concern was a desire of the government of China to ensure that its new automotive industry would adopt the latest advances in technologies. This subject of technology transfer, and how the government of China could best support it, became a central issue in China's automotive industry. From the perspective of the government of China, Geely's acquisition of Volvo would be a major step in achieving technology transfer on an ongoing basis. Geely's China operations would be able to quickly and easily adopt Volvo's cutting-edge safety features and production operations. From Geely's perspective, the Volvo acquisition would provide it with a new set of luxury vehicles for sale in China that would fill a gap in Geely's automotive lineup. Nevertheless, Geely faced the challenge that Ford had continually lost money in Volvo. How to reverse these losses would become a major challenge for Geely.
The case describes the growth of Guggenheim Brothers as one of the largest mining companies in the world in the early twentieth century. Global expansion led the firm to Chile, first in copper and later in natural nitrates. Chile's economic growth was driven by the profits from mining, especially its world monopoly of nitrates. The Guggenheims invested in Chilean nitrates after synthetics were developed by German chemists. Their strategies to modernize the industry collapsed with the outbreak of the Great Depression, during which Chile experienced the greatest fall of incomes of any country. The case serves as a vehicle to explore the devastating economic and political impact of the Great Depression on the countries of the South, such as Chile, which had specialized in primary commodities, and on mining and financial capitalists such as the Guggenheims.
The newly appointed general manager at the Scarborough YMCA was discussing her plan of action with the YMCA senior leadership team of the Greater Toronto Area. The Scarborough YMCA had been a perennial underperformer from a membership, member satisfaction and financial perspective, but the general manager vowed to turn the facility around. Four prior general managers had given their best effort; yet the facility continued to lag behind the average YMCA in Canada. She sensed a complacent organization. The general manager had practically grown up in the Scarborough YMCA, and although she had assumed several leadership responsibilities in the center, she sensed that it would be challenging to advocate change now that she was a formal leader.
Indian financial intermediary matching international capital to local infrastructure decides how to balance range of services, risk-adjusted return, margin pressure, and nation building. IDFC was chartered with partial ownership from the Indian government to help evaluate policy and be a model for how private finance could be attracted to public infrastructure. As the nation and company grow, the firm also grows and embarks on a strategy of rapid expansion, offering a wide new range of financial products and participating in many aspects of the supply chain. Teaching questions include revisiting the original mission, contemplating the reduced margins and increased risks that come with entering a number of domains that already have established incumbents, and the trade-offs between maximizing shareholder return (for example through investments in full tariff power projects in rich cities) and maximizing the benefit to the nation (for example through subsidized tariff water projects in poor states).
The newly appointed general manager at the Scarborough YMCA was discussing her plan of action with the YMCA senior leadership team of the Greater Toronto Area. The Scarborough YMCA had been a perennial underperformer from a membership, member satisfaction and financial perspective, but the general manager vowed to turn the facility around. Four prior general managers had given their best effort; yet the facility continued to lag behind the average YMCA in Canada. She sensed a complacent organization. The general manager had practically grown up in the Scarborough YMCA, and although she had assumed several leadership responsibilities in the centre, she sensed that it would be challenging to advocate change now that she was a formal leader.
Set in November 2007, the case is about a soon-to-launch social networking website (Yumcha) in Australia intended for the country's significant Asian population and diaspora. The case describes the process that Yumcha's founder went through in establishing the entity, including her initial motivations and business rationale. The case goes on to describe the dilemma facing the founder in choosing a web developer for the site, including whether to source the developer from new online bidding platforms. The challenges involved in this relatively new means of sourcing and bidding for technical talent are presented. The case also outlines the strategy questions facing the founder concerning expanding the social networking venture in an external environment that has seen the rapid development and expansion of numerous other social networking websites.
Dr. Curley is an obstetrician that deals with a very difficult birth of the new Santorini child. The Santorinis have been through a stillbirth, and upon getting pregnant again, extreme cautions are taken to ensure the safety and health of their new child. This case takes the reader through the difficult decisions that must be made by the doctor and family as "a perfect storm" of birthing complications ensues. The Santorini's son is born with down syndrome and heart problems that require difficult surgeries. To add on to the strain, the family is tied down by significant financial problems. The doctor must decide how to tell the family their options before they expose their newborn to highly risky surgeries, with the added financial difficulties.
Dystonia is a disease that most of the Marvis family suffered from. Not only this, but mother Stephanie Marvis also was a single mother working hard to finance her four person family. Stephanie and her son David especially had symptoms of dystonia, which forced Stephanie to frequently take her son to the hospital. After much research, Stephanie found the Stanford Hospital's Dr. Fields, who helped implant a device that would halt some of the dystonia symptoms. When the device breaks, David suffers for many months because Stephanie doesn't feel it is necessary to go to the Stanford Hospital. However, when they finally reach the hospital, Stephanie becomes very combative of her situation, defending her choice to not uproot David earlier. The doctors and hospital staff must determine how to communicate with her, while arguing amongst themselves about the appropriate way to address the situation.
Jess Smith, the recently hired director for the magazine division of a small contract publishing company in Manhattan, faces a dilemma when a client wants her company to produce images that go against Smith's personal beliefs. A project she inherited features pictures of a heavy metal band posing with anti-Christian and Satanic/devil worship images. A Christian, Smith finds these images blasphemous and also believes they promote behavior that is both pernicious to society and incongruent with her firm's mission. As the deadline for publishing the project fast approaches, Smith has to decide what to do.
This case describes the history, operations, and economics of Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway) in Sonoma, California, and the challenges facing the racetrack as a result of the economic recession of 2008-9. The racetrack's most important race is a NASCAR Sprint Cup event. It also hosts IndyCar, NHRA drag races, and other events. Speedway Motorsports Inc. purchased the track in 1996, and made substantial a capital investment to improve the spectator experience. The track is heavily dependent, financially, on corporate sponsorship. Its naming rights agreement with Infineon Technologies was expiring in 2012, and many of its other corporate sponsors were cutting back or ending their sponsorships due to economic stress. The case describes the advantages of corporate sponsorship, and the ways in which a company can utilized sponsorship to build its brand, reward and motivate employees, drive retail traffic to stores and distributors, and entertain customers. The case includes a 10 page appendix with background information of the basic types of motor racing and descriptions of major racetracks in California.
In 2003, Rob Carter, CIO of international express courier FedEx, launched the 'Six by Six' (6 × 6) IT transformation program: a major rationalization and centralization effort to improve FedEx's IT service delivery to its business partners. This teaching case deals with the 6 × 6 efforts made by the IT department for Europe, Middle East, Indian sub-continent and Africa (EMEA). The case focuses on two objectives of the 6 × 6 program: (a) creating a consistent IT environment and (b) increasing delivery bandwidth to the business. Historically, FedEx Express in EMEA had granted high levels of empowerment to local business and IT people. Moreover, FedEx had always supported a 'can-do' mentality in both business and IT people. Consequently, the IT department was expected to keep the enterprise systems architecture resilient and supportive of longer-term enterprise growth, while keeping the IT development pipeline aligned with the often unpredictable stream of requests from empowered business constituents. The story begins in 2007, when a new Vice President for IT was appointed for the region. Part A deals with the IT department's efforts to set up a central systems architecture and IT resource estimation review process. Part B deals with demand-side prioritization issues. The suggested teaching plan assumes that Part A is discussed before the students receive Part B. Instructors can use this case to introduce their students to a realistic view on the complex puzzle of establishing enterprise-wide business-IT engagement patterns through IT governance in an empowered and operations-focused business environment.
Anand Piramal and his team sought to "democratize healthcare" in India through the development of a new service delivery model. If Henry Ford could build and deliver cars to everyone in the United States, Piramal thought, then why can't India deliver healthcare to the 70% of its citizens who lack access to it? They began pilots in 2008 but soon ran into unexpected difficulties. After a second round of pilots in early 2010, they had to decide whether to proceed and if so how.
Jimmy Fu is interviewing for a job at Moog, Inc., a worldwide designer, manufacturer, and integrator of precision motion and fluid controls and systems. He learns that a job offer from Moog typically includes stock options and restricted stock in the compensation package. The vesting and termination language for the stock plan leads Jimmy to investigate the Shareholders' Equity section of the Moog balance sheet, where he finds more activity than he expected. The case introduces students to the concepts of employee stock options, stock-splits and buybacks, multiple share classes, and the basics of equity investment and diversification. Students must complete a quantitative analysis of the financial transactions related to Shareholders' Equity.
As a key means for improving student performance, over the past three years, the central office of Baltimore City Public Schools has steadily shifted responsibility for resource management to schools. Since 2007, when Andres Alonso became CEO, principals have gone from controlling 3% of their budgets to controlling roughly 80%. This case discusses how pushing resource management to the schools fits into a broader strategy that links a principal's autonomy to improved academic results. It delves into the rationale for the change, challenges and benefits of this strategy, and the system of supports and structures that have been developed in response to the implementation challenges.
Should a fast-growing, employee-owned solar electric company accept a buyout offer from a private equity investor? Could it do so without sacrificing its distinctive, high-involvement culture? Namaste Solar, a 55-person firm based in Boulder, Colorado, designed and installed solar electric systems for residential, commercial, non-profit and government customers. In 2008, the company had been growing at breakneck speed for the past four years, since government incentives for the purchase of renewable energy had created a market for solar electric systems in Colorado. Now, two investors had approached the firm with serious buyout offers. A buyout would bring a new infusion of capital to the firm, enabling it to expand more quickly and install more solar systems, and employees with vested shares would benefit from an attractive sales price. However, Namaste, from the outset, had been committed to building a democratic, high-involvement culture. Ownership was widely shared, and all employees, whether or not they held equity, were encouraged to participate in strategic decisions facing the firm. Many were concerned that selling the company would mean sacrificing the firm's carefully crafted culture. What was the best way forward for Blake Jones and the green energy company that he and two partners had founded?
Normally, serving on a company's board of directors is not a full-time job, but in the summer of 2002, Nick Donatiello (GSB 1986) found himself in exactly that position. As a member of Gemstar-TV Guide International's (Gemstar's or the Company's) board of directors and its Audit Committee, Donatiello was caught up in a storm of accounting issues, shareholder lawsuits and a power struggle between the Company's largest shareholders. Donatiello, one of only three independent directors on the board, wanted to do what was right for shareholders. However, the decisions required to arrive at that outcome were far from clear. This case centers on accounting and governance issues that arose during the 2001 audit of Gemstar TV Guide International. In summary, although management and the company's auditors, KPMG, agreed with the recognition of certain revenues, the company's audit committee believed that those revenues should be restated. The case discusses the specifics of two accounting issues, in particular, and also provides an overview of the company and the various parties involved.
Aliza Freud partnered with Josh McKay (both CBS '01) to launch SheSpeaks, a word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing community, in 2007. What business model would help them to compete in the world of Facebook and Twitter - and by what means should they measure the success of their marketing campaigns?
The Wraparound Milwaukee program was created in 1995 by Milwaukee County, Wisconsin and provides services and treatment to severely emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children and youth. The program utilizes the "wraparound philosophy" to provide the children and youth it serves with a highly individualized, community and strength-based approach to care. The delivery of services are facilitated by a Care Coordinator who works with the family to choose the right services from Wraparound Milwaukee's network of individual providers and community based organizations. The program's funding is pooled from several state and county agencies. Wraparound Milwaukee's innovative approach to care has brought considerable savings to the county $3,878 per month per child for Wraparound Milwaukee versus $8,000- $10,000 per month per child that the county paid for residential placement. Wraparound Milwaukee has seen positive outcomes in the youth it serves after disenrollment in terms of clinical health indicators as well as other indicators. HKS Case Number 1927.0
The case describes how Radio Mirchi dealt with competition in the Bangalore FM radio market. Radio Mirchi's market share in Bangalore started declining within a few months of its successful launch, following the entry of new competitors in the market. The case discusses strategies adopted by the company to regain its market share and become the market leader. It describes the initial product offering of the channel, why it felt the need to redesign its product mix, and eventually how the company changed its product offering. The focus of the case is on the dilemma faced by the organization while shifting to a new product and service design in the face of emerging competition. The case highlights the importance of continuously monitoring the market environment and developing a keen understanding of the consumers' behaviour for an organization to gain and sustain its leadership position in the marketplace.