The account manager at the Canadian Commercial Bank (CCB) in Barron, Ontario, reviewed his latest loan request. The co-founder of Druthers Forming Limited (Druthers), a long-time CCB customer, was requesting a $350,000 loan to construct a new building to house Druthers' existing operations. Construction was already well underway. The account manager also noted that Druthers was currently operating without a line of credit and he wondered whether the business could generate enough cash to cover expenses, including the new loan payments. He had one week to decide whether to lend funds and provide supporting rationale for his decision. To aid in his decision, the account manager began by assessing financial performance using statements of cash flows and ratio analysis; financial statement projection; and consideration of working capital requirements, including performing a sensitivity analysis on the days of accounts receivable, inventory and/or accounts payable.
Daniel Lurie headed down Highway 101 in June 2009 to investigate a potential grantee in East Palo Alto, California. As he drove, he reflected on the progress that the nonprofit organization he founded, Tipping Point Community (Tipping Point), had made in just four years of fighting to reduce poverty in the local community. It had raised a total of more than $14 million for recipient organizations, including $3 million from its main donor event in April 2009, and its profile was gaining increasing recognition in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was thinking about Tipping Point's most recent board meeting, where the board members were more relentless than ever regarding the organization's strategy and results, particularly in the areas of performance measurement, sustainability, and key funding. Tipping Point had a tremendous amount of room for improvement and growth. It was difficult to quantify its impact on the target community, which―despite Tipping Point's efforts―was struggling with homelessness, children in need of medical assistance, and limited mobility. With 600,000 people living in poverty in the Bay Area, Tipping Point's goals would not easily be met.
In 2005, China announced plans to "converge with," but not completely adopt, IFRS. China also began to lobby for changes to specific IFRS provisions, such as for related party disclosures by state-owned firms, to bring them more into line with Chinese interests. China's accounting system had already undergone significant reforms during the two decades when its economy had grown to become the fourth largest in the world. However, enforcement of accounting standards remained weak, the financial system was relatively immature, and large state-owned firms still dominated many sectors of the economy.
In December 2007, the Economics & International Affairs director of the competitiveness cluster, Lyonbiopole, was responsible for the international development of the cluster. Lyonbiopole was one of seven biotechnology clusters in France. Although Lyonbiopole performed very well at the national level, its visibility as an international cluster in the biotechnology field was uncertain. Yet, for its member firms to thrive in the globalized world of biotechnology clusters, establishing international connections for the cluster was crucial. That is why the management team of Lyonbiopole developed an internationalization program through alliances with foreign clusters (i.e. interclusteral alliances). By improving its international visibility and reputation through alliances with world-class biotechnology clusters, Lyonbiopole hoped to create new technological partnerships, increase investment, and create other kinds of opportunities for member firms. After having successfully established alliance partnerships in Europe, Lyonbiopole was preparing for the second stage in its internationalization process. The case highlights the questions - in the context of industrial clusters - whether or not a smaller organization can approach an industry leader to create a mutually beneficial alliance, and how it might accomplish this.
Jody Leleck has been appointed the principal of Broad Acres Middle School in Montgomery County, Maryland. The school is underperforming all other schools in the district, and she has been asked to improve the performance.
In May 2007, Amgen Inc. (Amgen) received disappointing news from the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) that its drug Vectibix, developed to fight metastatic colorectal cancer, had been rejected. This was especially surprising news given that a similar rival drug had received approval several years prior. Moreover, Vectibix had also received Food and Drug Administration approval in 2006. During additional trials, Amgen has learned that the Vectibix is only effective with the 60% of the population that has a specific gene marker. Given this development, what should Amgen's strategy around Vectibix be both in Europe and the United States?
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) is an innovator of strategic environmental management in the airline industry. Being a first-mover can have both its advantages and disadvantages. This case looks at the airline's decision of whether they should invest in the best available environmental technology for a fleet of new aircraft that would serve them for the next 25 years. While the technology for these low-emission engines had been around since the 1970s, it had never really been commercialized. SAS was feeling pressure from the regulatory authorities with regards to potential new charges and taxes that could affect the future operating costs of the fleet. Despite these anticipated future costs, at the time of the decision, the director of aircraft and engine analysis for SAS could not make an economic case for the more expensive engines. The challenge was for the fleet development team to try to convince the SAS management team to spend the extra kr5 million (Swedish Kronor) per aircraft for the dual combustor engine. Given that corporations are faced with increasing pressure with regards to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, this case study presents an opportunity for discussion and analysis of various environmental concepts including strategic environmental management, adoption of best available environmental technologies, the role of internal environmental leadership in a large corporation and the effect of market-based mechanisms to improve a sector's environmental performance. The case illustrates the complexities of environmental decisions in striking a balance between meeting ambitious commitments and dealing with real capabilities of companies and external pressures.
This case describes the operating model and history of Red Tomato, a non-profit organization dedicated to branding and logistical support for locally grown produce farmers in the northeast U.S. The case highlights the challenges involved in making locally grown produce available to large consumer markets.
This case examines VF Brands global supply chain strategy. Historically, VF has used a combination of in-house manufacturing and traditional arms-length sourcing arrangements. At the time of the case, the company is considering a third approach to supplier relations that involves much closer cooperation and partnerships. The goal of this "third way" approach is to create a sourcing relationship that combines some of the virtues of vertical integration with the flexibility of sourcing. Such arrangements are increasingly discussed in the operations literature and in practice. This case provides students an opportunity to do an in-depth analysis of such an arrangement, and develop an understanding of the trade-offs involved.
A growing folding carton company is contemplating the replacement of an old machine with a new one. The case challenge is to develop a cash flow forecast and determine the proper discount rate for the machine replacement. In addition to increased capacity and reduced waste, the new machine offers strategic advantages to the firm in its chosen market niche. Issues related to operations are central to appreciating the importance and implications of this captial investment: Operating excellence is a key competitive advantage for this firm. A teaching note and student and instructor Excel spreadsheets are available to accompany the case.
In early 2009, the executive director of the Habitat for Humanity London (HFHL), located in London, Ontario, was faced with the responsibility of determining how to increase revenue for the non-profit organization. The organization provided safe, decent and affordable housing to those in need, and the board of directors had pledged to build 12 units in 2012. Funding generally came from the organization's ReStore; however, revenues had begun to level off in the preceding years. The executive director was evaluating several options of generating additional revenue. After examining HFHL's statement of cash flows and 10 years of ReStore earnings, the executive director had identified three options to increase revenues: relocation of the ReStore to increase efficiencies and increase inventory; increasing their salvage operation; and/or launching an automobile sale program. Or was there a better way to generate revenue that she hadn't yet considered?
This note presents an overview of ways in which statistical arguments are used in court cases. Topics covered include linear regression, significance, independence, bias, conditional probability, Baye's Theorem and inversion of conditional probabilities. In addition to these topics, the note contains a number of true examples where statistical reasoning has been used or misused as part of a legal argument.
This note gives step-by-step instructions on how to build a Monte Carlo simulation model in Microsoft Excel without using spreadsheet add-ins. The note explains the difference between random and uniformly distributed. The note also explains: how the Excel function RAND() works, how to use Excel functions like NORMINV() to simulate random numbers from distributions other than the uniform; how to use VLOOKUP() with tabulated data to simulate numbers from any arbitrary distribution, and how to use Data Tables to produce multiple iterations of a simulation model. The note concludes with an example that illustrates the use of all of these concepts.
The case describes the political, regulatory and stakeholder challenges confronting the founder of Porter Airlines, located in Toronto, Ontario, during the 2002/03 period when he was seeking formal permits to launch the airline from Toronto City Centre airport. The case also includes information on the market opportunity for a new airline, enabling students to assess a) the business case for new entry into a hyper-competitive industry, b) the appropriate competitive strategies for successful performance and c) the political or non market strategies for managing stakeholder and political opposition.
A retired scientist and her partner want to start a company near London, Ontario, specializing in training horses for dressage competitions. The partners must ascertain whether the $100,000 they plan to invest will be sufficient to cover cash requirements, or whether a loan is required. Neither partner has had any business training, and they are unsure how to prepare proper financial statements. The partners wondered whether any further information was needed and what steps they would take to start the venture.
The manager of an upscale hotel in the heart of London, Ontario - The Clonlara - wanted to apply revenue management techniques to increase revenue at the hotel. Specifically, she wanted to apply quantitative analysis to determine how many rooms to discount for a Saturday night stay.
Examines the process used by a major motion picture studio to develop and select movie projects. Warner Bros.' strategy is to focus its efforts on a small number of major "event" films (i.e., films with the potential to generate gross box-office receipts of $300 million or more). This strategy--which has worked for the past two years--entails risks. The studio is now asking how it can better manage these risks and, specifically, how it can improve its odds of success.