This case illustrates the rise and fall of the former chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Singapore, T.T. Durai. In June 2007, Durai was charged with corruption and sentenced to three months in jail. Just less than two years prior, he had been the prolific CEO who had transformed the NKF from a small foundation into Singapore's largest charity, with 21 dialysis centres. Durai spent 37 years of his life volunteering and working with the NKF, and initiated research, marketing and fund-raising strategies for the charity. Under Durai's helm, the charity's revenue grew from $17 million to $116 million. Dialysis centres in other parts of the world sought Durai's expertise to improve their dialysis programs. This case documents the unfolding events that led to surprising revelations in court. These include Durai's leadership style, controversial decisions, bountiful entitlements and debatable actions taken to achieve his aims. In all, the case provides a perceptive insight into how differing perceptions of responsible leadership affected the stakeholders of the NKF, and encourages readers to analyze and propose how things could be improved, or could have turned out differently.
Praxis Language is a small company in China started by three non-Chinese entrepreneurs. Originally focused on teaching Chinese to native English speakers using podcasting and other online tools, Praxis has also developed content to teach English to native Chinese speakers, which the company perceives as a much bigger market. The case describes the challenges facing the co-founder of Praxis as he navigates emerging mobile technology (hardware and software), the complexities of doing business in China, and the consequences of explosive growth.
The case explores how Tata Motors, India's largest automobile company, developed the Nano, the world's cheapest car. The case focuses on the translation of Ratan Tata's (Chairman of Tata Motors) vision of a safe affordable car for the masses by Ravi Kant, Managing Director of Tata Motors into the Nano Project. The case raises questions around breaking the price - quality barrier and changing existing internal processes to accommodate revolutionary new ideas. The dilemma of success - Tata Nano was a runaway bestseller - left Tata Motors debating how large a bet they should make on the Nano and what kind of capacity commitment this requires.
CEO Bill Nichol must somehow negotiate a surprise ultimatum from Walmart, his largest customer, about his largest and most profitable product line: "We're dropping it." Among its hosiery products, the Kentucky Derby Hosiery Co. produces and sells a branded line of infant socks to Walmart under an expensive license from another manufacturer, subject to unconditional, multi-year sales minimums and significant forward financial obligations. Taking out long-term bank loans, his firm has purchased modern, high-speed machinery to manufacture this line. Yet his Walmart contracts run only one year at a time. Without the Walmart volume and profit on these branded infant socks, Kentucky Derby Hosiery Co. faces financial distress. In a generally bleak North American textile environment, Nichol ponders the most promising negotiating strategy and tactics to rescue this product line.
This case describes the multi-prong negotiating approach that Bill Nichol, Kentucky Derby Hosiery Co. CEO, took to deal with an ultimatum from his largest customer, as well as the outcome of this process. It concludes with a number of Nichol's observations about supplier-retailer negotiations.
This case illustrates the rise and fall of the former chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Singapore, T.T. Durai. In June 2007, Durai was charged with corruption and sentenced to three months in jail. Just less than two years prior, he had been the prolific CEO who had transformed the NKF from a small foundation into Singapore's largest charity, with 21 dialysis centres. Durai spent 37 years of his life volunteering and working with the NKF, and initiated research, marketing and fund-raising strategies for the charity. Under Durai's helm, the charity's revenue grew from $17 million to $116 million. Dialysis centres in other parts of the world sought Durai's expertise to improve their dialysis programs. This case documents the unfolding events that led to surprising revelations in court. These include Durai's leadership style, controversial decisions, bountiful entitlements and debatable actions taken to achieve his aims. In all, the case provides a perceptive insight into how differing perceptions of responsible leadership affected the stakeholders of the NKF, and encourages readers to analyze and propose how things could be improved, or could have turned out differently.
<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER -Euro-Mediterranean Managerial Practices and Issues Award, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>The case focuses on the vice-president and regional head of corporate banking for Noor Islamic Bank in Dubai as she arrives in the United States to promote the first global network for women in Islamic banking and finance, known as Durra. As a result, Islamic banks have been growing at a rate of 15 per cent per year, and have assets approaching $1 trillion, despite the recent banking crisis. Islamic banks also have a hard time filling the 30,000 new jobs created each year because of the specialized training required. One of the purposes of Durra is to help more women fill critical positions in Islamic banking and to help them manage their careers in order to assume leadership positions. The case also raises questions about how best to build a non-profit organization. Issues include how to attract new members and financial backers and how to build a useful and robust website that fulfills the needs of the organization.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has put in place a strong governance structure to ensure that excess contributions (by Canadians) can be invested with a singular mandate - to maximize the rate of return without undue risk of loss. In September 2009, a private member's bill seeks to regulate Canadian government agencies' dealings with Canadian mining companies operating in developing countries. A senior manager at the CPPIB has been asked to help craft the CPPIB's response to the bill.
Marketing tactics such as pricing, promotion, placement, and product decisions all help business owners create a need for their products or services. What managers seldom realize, however, is that the marketing decisions they make primarily to increase sales and market share have a great impact on society at large and thus have significant ethical implications. These seven caselets, which cover a variety of topics (including "the article of the half-truth," "creative interview tactics," and "truthfully representing your company," among others), explore the ethical implications of decision making in the marketing arena.
The term "White Box" is often used to describe products without a brand name. Such products are assembled from standardized parts, and they became a very popular category of desktop PCs. Hsinchu, Taiwan based MediaTek is a fabless semiconductor company that unleashed a white box market in mobile phone handsets by offering an innovative "complete solution" for 2.5G and 2.7G handset manufacturers, dramatically lowering the barriers to entry into the business. Besides enabling many Chinese branded manufacturers to enter the business, the grey market in components unleashed a complementary market of "Shanzhai" makers. Together these firms captured a significant fraction of the China market, as well as exports (both legal and grey) to 102 countries. CEO Ming-Kai Tsai is faced with the question of the best growth path. While multiple tier one handset makers are dismissive of MediaTek, perhaps because of its role in enabling the Shanzhai, the company's offerings have enabled an "army of ants" to challenge the leaders. Can MediaTek move up-market to sell its chipsets to the likes of Nokia? Under what terms?
Groupe Ariel evaluates a proposal from its Mexican subsidiary to purchase and install cost-saving equipment at a manufacturing facility in Monterrey. The improvements will allow the plant to automate recycling and remanufacturing of toner and printer cartridges, an important part of Ariel's business in many markets. Ariel corporate policy requires a discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis and an estimate for the net present value (NPV) for capital expenditures in foreign markets. A major challenge for the analysis is deciding which currency to use, the Euro or the peso. The case introduces techniques of discounted cash flow valuation analysis in a multi-currency setting and can be used to teach basic international parity conditions related to the value of operating cash flows.
This note provides a background on the US life insurance regimes for the life insurance industry, including descriptions of different types of insurance, annuities, and regulation.
Few CEOs successfully manage the evolution of their companies from OEM outsourcer to branded manufacturer to expert consumer marketer as well as Tony Lo, CEO of Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd., now the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world. In the mid-1980s, Giant produced over a million bikes per year with the Giant brand on fewer than 15% of them; by 2008, Giant was producing 6.4 million bicycles with 70% carrying the Giant brand. And in 2010, the transition was still in-process as CEO Lo experimented with a new business model for women cyclists in Taiwan and globally--leveraging some of Giant's lessons learned and challenging others. The case explores Giant's historical evolution from OEM outsourcer to branded manufacturer, which relied heavily on Giant's forward integration into the construction of a world-class, global retail organization. Giant's ability to understand the customer and move him/her up-market has driven both sales growth and profitability (e.g., average sales prices in 2006, 2007, and 2008 were $325, $345, and $360 respectively). That sets the stage for Lo's latest challenge: a realization that his products were not meeting the needs of women customers (including particularly his wife). As a result, Lo commissioned his CFO Bonnie Tu to open the first all-women's bicycle store in Taipei (owned by corporate, not the traditional retail organization), and charged her not only with figuring out the needs of women customers, but also mandating that she turn a profit. "Because your only customers are women, if you don't know how to sell to them, you're out of business -period. So you experiment for survival," explained Lo. The case concludes by examining the company's continuing integration into retail stores, looking closely at the Liv/giant pilot and the surprising business model that it developed.
The chief financial officer (CFO) of the Richard Ivey School of Business (Ivey) is reflecting on the state of the school. Ivey's MBA program was just beginning its inaugural year in the new 12-month format at the Spencer Leadership Centre (Spencer), and all signs pointed to a successful start. However, it was becoming obvious to the CFO that the Executive Education programs at Ivey would face some serious capacity constraints, given the resulting reduction in available space in the building. The CFO was considering the need for a $7 million expansion to Spencer to ensure that Ivey would be able to continue its number one position in the executive education market in Canada.
Sara Tsien must decide what performance assessment to give one of her employees who has, uncharacteristically, failed to meet one of her key objectives for the year. The situation is difficult for several reasons; the causes of the unacceptable performance are not clear; the employee has previously received excellent appraisals, including a recent one by the vice-president; and the employee was absent for a good part of the year on maternity leave. The various factors that influence sustained performance (ability, motivation, resources, role clarity, reinforcement) are examined, as well as steps leaders can take in improving performance of those for whom they are responsible.
Sara Tsien must decide what performance assessment to give one of her employees who has, uncharacteristically, failed to meet one of her key objectives for the year. The situation is difficult for several reasons; the causes of the unacceptable performance are not clear; the employee has previously received excellent appraisals, including a recent one by the vice-president; and the employee was absent for a good part of the year on maternity leave. The various factors that influence sustained performance (ability, motivation, resources, role clarity, reinforcement) are examined, as well as steps leaders can take in improving performance of those for whom they are responsible.
This case takes an inside look at CEO succession planning at Energy Corp. The case provides an overview of various models of succession planning, including external search, COO appointment, a horse race, and the inside-outside model. The case then outlines the process by which Energy Corp chooses to identify a successor. Readers of the case are expected to evaluate Energy Corp's effectiveness, and discuss the various risks of succession planning and how they can be mitigated.
In March 2008 the CEO had just received a surprising and unsolicited offer from a Japanese company to purchase his AmData Software China company which owns the exclusive mainland China franchise to distribute this U.S. vendor's software. The Japanese company owns a similar exclusive franchise in Japan. After preliminary negotiations, including a demand by the Japanese company to state the business sale amount in U.S. dollars, the initial $2.5 million offer was raised to $5.5 million. However, this amount was not yet agreed to by both parties and a business valuation analysis would be critical to the key decision of the case: should the CEO sell the company now or continue to develop it for sale at a future date? Such a subsequent sale might be an IPO on one of the Chinese stock exchanges.