Describes the economic development of Indonesia from independence after World War II to 2006 and the post-Suharto period. The coverage of the post-Suharto period provides evidence of how political and economic conditions are intertwined after a change in the political regime. Profiles the business environment in 2006, including a documentation of past and present policies that shaped the current situation. A particular focus is Indonesia's stance towards attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). The country has a checkered history of oscillating between seeking and fighting foreign investors. Provides a perspective on the relative importance of FDI policies, general economic policies and business environment conditions, and the nature of competition from other locations on FDI flows.
"China Rising: An Economic Snapshot" provides readers with an overview of China's economic transformation, relying on economic data from a variety of sources. It is organized into three sections: (1) "The Big Picture" explores macroeconomic indicators, as well as those associated with the opportunities and constraints of the business environment; (2) "Regional Variation" makes a strong case for situating any analysis of China's economy in context; and finally (3) "China and the Global Economy" shows how China's engagement with the global economy has changed overtime. These materials should be of interest to observers and participants of Chinese business, and as a means to consider the bigger picture shaping the environment in which they must operate. In addition, they may be used as a basis for class discussion and lecture, or as a complement to cases focused on companies doing business in China.
Provides the opportunity to examine the nature and extent of a company's responsibilities to its bondholders, and to develop an enhanced understanding of the challenges in managing contractual obligations, and circumstances under which business leaders might agree to terms outside the contract. Here, the context is a "going private" transaction in Europe, where the financing plan called for the addition to the company's balance sheet of a significant amount of new debt and a reshaping of the capital structure. While leveraged buyouts had been used in Europe for several years, this was likely the first LBO done with a company that had publicly traded investment grade debt outstanding. The increased debt from the deal would increase the risk to the company and to the existing bonds, and the bonds' prices would fall significantly as a result. Focuses on how the private equity buyers might consider the reaction of bondholders to the structure of the acquisition, and on their possible response. Students need to evaluate the transaction and its effect on the bonds, understand the principles governing contractual duties (and how they differ from fiduciary obligations), and account for a business and social culture outside the United States.
In rural India, farmers historically had limited access to quality input items for both their fields and homes. Indian conglomerate DSCL has undertaken a Rural Business Initiative to address this issue, establishing a chain of retail outlets throughout rural India geared toward farmers and their families. Through its growing network of stores, DSCL is able to establish relationships with farmers and provide them with a host of agricultural services, including improved crop inputs, agronomic support, fuel, banking, and consumer goods. The outlets also buy back some of the farmers' production at harvest time. In utilizing the products and services offered by the stores, farmers are able to improve the quality of their crops and access a network of helpful resources in an environment that was once considered completely tangential to the benefits of agricultural research and technology reaped in other parts of the world. DSCL strategizes about how the company can also benefit from these freshly forged connections with India's rural millions.
Offers a detailed overview of the structure and operation of the Chinese political system today. Key issues that are discussed include: 1) the relationship between the Communist Party of China and the state; 2) the relationship between central and local levels of government; 3) the Chinese electoral system; and 4) current pressures for change. Also includes a number of useful exhibits on Communist Party membership, political structure, and the administrative system. Can be assigned alone as an introductory piece to a course on the Chinese business environment or used along with any individual case.
The event arbitrage module includes two simulation sessions. The first simulation focuses on analyzing and evaluating individual merger transactions, while the second simulation emphasizes managing a portfolio of individual positions and the limitations of arbitrage investing in real world capital markets. The underlying data and information are derived from actual merger transactions and have been disguised to prevent students from knowing the outcome ahead of time.
Basic telecommunication services in India, provided by the government as a natural monopoly service, have over the years seen drastic changes in terms of competition, service offerings and technology used. This case highlights the technology, marketing and financial strategies adopted by Bharti Airtel, a leading private telecom service provider in India. While Bharti succeeded in carving a niche for itself in its fixed line service offering, the case brings out Bharti's need for agility as it confronts the competition of the cash-rich government operators and the strong emergence of mobile services and related technologies. The case can also be used to study India's evolving telecom regulations and the effects of migrating from a monopoly to a perfectly competitive basic telecom service in an emerging market. Government Monopoly, Business Strategy, Telecom Services, Fixed Line Services, Telecom regulations, Market penetration
In 1908 Henry Ford revolutionized the car industry by drastically cutting production costs using assembly lines. A century later, on the other side of the world, an unknown Chinese car manufacturer, Chery, was partaking in an ostensibly similar revolution: producing inexpensive cars, priced around US$5,000, for the masses of the Chinese middle class. To achieve its objective, Chery originally adopted a cost strategy based on imitation. In December 2004 GM Daewoo filed suit against Chery for design piracy. The success of the QQ model and the possibility of greater future success nonetheless led Chery's management to dream of evolving Chery into a more mature auto-maker. In December 2006, two years after GM launched its lawsuit, Chery was the top candidate on Chrysler's list to produce a small car for sale in the United States. The question remained whether Chery could transform itself from a local manufacturer to a truly global player in the crowded and largely unprofitable car industry
On the night of November 28, 2006, Reverend Jeffrey Brown, a Baptist minister and co-founder of the Ten Point Coalition in Boston, Massachusetts, received bad news: 20-year-old Jahmol Norfleet, a leader in one of Boston's warring gangs, had been shot and killed near his home. Norfleet's death did not simply represent one more grim statistic in a year marred by gang violence in Boston: it threatened to undo a fragile truce between two gangs that had been locked in a deadly feud for years. Brown, along with a handful of police and other officials, had been instrumental in coaxing gang members, Norfleet among them, to the table and forging peace between the rival groups. Less than a decade earlier, the so-called "Boston miracle"-a dramatic decline in homicides, especially among the city's youth-was singled out by President Clinton as a model for the rest of the nation. Among the heroes of that miracle were Brown and his fellow co-founders of the Ten Point Coalition, a group of African American clergymen. In addition to walking the most dangerous streets in the city in an effort to reach out to gang members, Brown and other Coalition members had also become participants in a citywide initiative-Operation Ceasefire, a "partnership" of the Boston police, probation officers, court officials, youth workers, prosecutors, academics, and others-which was widely credited with the steep in gang-related killings. The success had brought national and international acclaim, but ultimately led to a fracturing of both the Coalition and the Operation Ceasefire alliance. Now, faced with a resurgence in gang shootings, Brown, along with others who had participated in Operation Ceasefire, sought not only to revive the strategies that had proved so successful in the past, but also to find new ways to halt the cycle of retaliatory killings that had brought Boston's homicide rate to a ten-year high. HKS Case Number 1887.0
Provides an opportunity to examine the risk-reward tradeoff and the travails of entrepreneurial venturing in the nascent U.S. economy. Traces the origins and development of Frederic Tudor's Ice Company, a business which developed during the 19th century to hack chunks of ice from New England freshwater ponds and transport it by ship for sale around the globe. Explores how Tudor managed operations in ports as far flung as New Orleans, Charleston, Havana, Bombay, and Calcutta, and how he overcame personal difficulties to create a successful business enterprise.
Uses Ida Rosenthal's entrepreneurship in brassieres to explore how economic, social, and demographic changes reshaped gender and business enterprises in early- to mid-20th century America. It shows the importance of timing and geography to Rosenthal's new firm in New York City, as well as the significance of her own entrepreneurial agency. Explores the challenges Rosenthal faced in defining products, consumers, and the company's image in an environment where gender divisions still remained the norm.
Control Data Corporation is considering its response to the assassination of renowned civil rights activist Martin Luther King. Four months prior, William Norris, president of the Minneapolis-based computer firm had already committed to building a plant in a low-income area of Minneapolis, but with pressure rising on businesses to respond to inner-city needs and increase minority hiring, Norris urges the company to consider building yet another inner-city plant, this time in Washington, D.C.
This note can be used to establish a baseline of common understanding about why people behave the way they do and the nature of Level One, Two, and Three Leadership Techniques. A discussion of degrees of "buy-in" includes an innovative seven-point scale that goes beyond "yes, no, or maybe" and "positive, negative, and casual" to characterize people's alignment with a new degree of accuracy.
This chart can be used to help students reflect on and document their feedback conversations. In the course of giving or receiving feedback, we often become so embroiled in what we are saying or in what is being said to us that we fail to reflect on the quality and impact of the communication. Though intended to accompany the technical note "Feedback" (UVA-OB-0746), the chart is useful with many other materials on assessing performance.
Sold as a set, this role-playing series encourages students to clarify different points of view when in leadership roles. Before seeking solutions, students must get a clear, comprehensive picture of the problems at hand. Using the "want-got-gap" model works well. The material affords students an opportunity to develop persuasion techniques. The exercise involves three roles: 1) An executive with the Metropolitan Airports Commission at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport who must ensure that taxi companies maintain a high level of quality customer service; within the past year the commission has received close to 4,800 complaints about taxi drivers who refused to transport passengers carrying alcohol; 2) One of 900 Islamic Somali taxi drivers whose mosque leader ruled it was against Islamic law to carry passengers with alcohol; 3) A passenger who, after a long journey, just wants to get home with a few bottles of wine, but struggles to find a taxi driver who will take him or her home.
Sold as a set, this role-playing series encourages students to clarify different points of view when in leadership roles. Before seeking solutions, students must get a clear, comprehensive picture of the problems at hand. Using the "want-got-gap" model works well. The material affords students an opportunity to develop persuasion techniques. The exercise involves three roles: 1) An executive with the Metropolitan Airports Commission at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport who must ensure that taxi companies maintain a high level of quality customer service; within the past year the commission has received close to 4,800 complaints about taxi drivers who refused to transport passengers carrying alcohol; 2) One of 900 Islamic Somali taxi drivers whose mosque leader ruled it was against Islamic law to carry passengers with alcohol; 3) A passenger who, after a long journey, just wants to get home with a few bottles of wine, but struggles to find a taxi driver who will take him or her home.
Sold as a set, this role-playing series encourages students to clarify different points of view when in leadership roles (UVA-OB-0921, 0922, and 0923). Before seeking solutions, students must get a clear, comprehensive picture of the problems at hand. Using the "want-got-gap" model works well. The material affords students an opportunity to develop persuasion techniques. The exercise involves three roles: 1) An executive with the Metropolitan Airports Commission at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport who must ensure that taxi companies maintain a high level of quality customer service; within the past year the commission has received close to 4,800 complaints about taxi drivers who refused to transport passengers carrying alcohol; 2) One of 900 Islamic Somali taxi drivers whose mosque leader ruled it was against Islamic law to carry passengers with alcohol; 3) A passenger who, after a long journey, just wants to get home with a few bottles of wine, but struggles to find a taxi driver who will take him or her home.