United Beverages' first product, GangBusters Interactive Beverages, has reached the stage of wide brand recognition. However, over the past 12 months, growth has stalled and the product development team at United Beverages is considering several ideas for future growth. The team must consider market and technical uncertainty as well as resource allocation issues as they define the new product-development strategy for United Beverages.
After five months of a fairly relaxed work schedule, Katzu Mizuno found himself wrapped up in an intense analysis. A first-year associate at Lynch Investments, Mizuno had received a morning phone call in February 1996. The caller was his boss, Anna Curti. The subject was a long-time customer, MCI. In contrast to the booming stock market, the performance of MCI's share price had been underwhelming. The board of directors had recently discussed repurchasing shares in order to bolster shareholder value. But cash was tight. If MCI intended to implement a stock repurchase program within the next six months, the company would have to use debt financing to supply the cash. Although the current debt-to-equity ratio of 40% was arguably below the industry average and MCI had excess debt capacity, the decision was far from simple. MCI had contacted Lynch to provide an analysis and recommendation regarding the proposed debt issue and stock repurchase. Curti needed to respond quickly, which gave Mizuno little time. The board planned to disclose the details of its plan to improve shareholder value by the end of the following week. Any recommendation and accompanying analysis would be intensely scrutinized. The heat was clearly on. As Mizuno labored to complete and refine the analysis in front of him, heavy on his mind was how he would relay his findings to Curti. What information and resources would she need in order to advise the client on whether to move forward with the plan?
The CEO of Biogen Idec faces a set of difficult decisions regarding a promising drug for Multiple Sclerosis that is headed for early approval by the FDA. The first in a series, focuses on operational decisions triggered by the drive for early approval. Sparks discussion about a leader's economic, legal, and ethical responsibilities to multiple constituencies, and how a leader can guide a company to execute effectively, fulfilling those responsibilities, in a complex situation. Decisions facing the company include how to sustain credible research on the drug's efficacy and safety, how to increase manufacturing capacity to meet expected demand, and how to secure insurer reimbursement. All of these challenges arise against the backdrop of the accelerated approval process, uncertainty about what the FDA will ultimately decide, and whether the company should indeed pursue early approval.
A marketing team, asked to compile a marketing deck in response to an urgent request by the head of a business, has completed the task. Still the team leader is concerned about the dynamics he observed during the meeting of his marketing group team. He has noticed that a recent recruit to the team, an African American, is being ignored when he contributes to the discussion although his ideas are solid ones. The leader is left with some nagging questions: What happened to this recruit in the meeting? Why wasn't he more integrated into the team? How was he feeling about the meeting? And most important, was there any way to make the collaborative process more effective the next time around?
The case documents an acquisition bid on Air Sahara by Jet Airways. To implement the merger, the two airlines formed a joint management group (JMG) and set March 2006 as the deadline for its completion. The deadline was later extended to June 2006. On 20 June 2006, a day before the expiry of the extended deadline, Jet Airways proposed a new price for the merger deal, leaving Air Sahara with two options: re-price the deal or allow it to expire.
In mid-March 2007, Chris Kryder sat in his office and thought about how to best finance his company's growth. Over the previous five years as founder and CEO of D2Hawkeye, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based healthcare analytics company, Kryder had grown the firm from a six-person start-up into a leading developer and provider of medical analytics in the U.S. He had three term sheets in hand-two from strategic investors and one from a venture capital firm. Each offer had its advantages and disadvantages and Kryder needed to decide which offer to accept.
In 2006, David Zucker, chief executive officer of Midway Games, came under fire for selling a significant amount of Midway stock just weeks before a precipitous decline in the company's share price. One year later, Angelo Mozilo, chairman and chief executive officer of Countrywide Financial, also increased the pace of his stock sales in the months before troubles in the U.S. mortgage lending market led to a similar drop off in Countrywide's share price. Both executives placed their trades through prearranged programs known as 10b5-1 plans. 10b5-1 plans, named after the Securities and Exchange Commission rule which led to their creation, provided a systematic method for corporate executives who were routinely in the possession of material nonpublic information to engage in the sale of company stock. When implemented appropriately, 10b5-1 plans provided a safe haven that shielded these individuals from liability under insider trading laws by demonstrating that certain safeguard conditions were in place at the time the trades were executed. However, the circumstances under which both executives carried out their programs led to an outcry from shareholders that the programs were being abused. Regulators and shareholders were left to decide whether the two men executed their 10b5-1 plans in good faith as required or whether their actions amounted to a sophisticated form of illegal insider trading.
All executives would like to see their organizations perform better, and most search for tools that can help make this happen. For decades, human resource managers have believed that their function enhances performance. This contention has been met with skepticism on the part of executives, however, who wonder whether funds allocated to the human resource function are good investments. Dozens of studies have examined this issue, but their inconsistent results have provided no conclusions. To resolve a long-standing and controversial question - does human resource management matter for organizational performance? - we take stock of the available evidence. Based on data from over 19,000 organizations, we conclude that human resource management adds significant value for organizations. In addition, the value added is strongest when human resource systems are emphasized rather than individual practices, when human resource management decisions are tied to strategy, and among manufacturing firms.
Over the 1980s and 1990s, America's changing health care payer environment resulted in mergers of numerous community hospitals into hospital systems. Based in Appleton, Wisconsin, ThedaCare stood out among community hospital systems in its pursuit of service rationalization, clinical quality improvement, and value-based delivery. Driven by determined leadership, ThedaCare began site-based service line rationalization and introduced innovative care delivery models. ThedaCare is a metaphor for the challenges of transforming American community hospital systems. Can be used to teach: the evolution of structure, organization, and strategy of U.S.-based community hospital systems; integrated practice units and care cycles; management of health care quality improvement processes; challenges in diffusion of care delivery innovation; and cost transparency and quality measurement.
Provides the complex historical background to understanding the development of family businesses in China from the late 19th century to the present. Using the example of the Rong family, China's most prominent industrialist family in pre-1949 China, analyzes the organizational structure and transformation of Chinese family firms in terms of managerial hierarchies, kinship alliances, and local networks. Emphasizes the response of the family business to major political crises, demonstrates how they dealt with the transition to a socialist government in 1949, and interprets the success of overseas Chinese family business as well as the revival of family business networks in the wake of China's economic reforms.
The Haier Group, the first mainland Chinese company to make the Financial Times list of Asia's "most admired companies," attributes its success in large measure to the new value system it has sought to instill throughout the organization. However, when Haier takes over the Yellow Mountain television factory in the distant Hefei province at the behest of Hefei's government, workers strike against the Haier culture and what it stands for. The immediate catalyst is the labor contract Haier has asked them to sign. Haier's management must decide what's fair and how to respond to the workers' demands in the face of local government pressure to compromise.
China is an ancient civilization, but it is really a very young country. How we understand modern China is rooted in our understanding of history. Thus, the authors examine several myths surrounding important historical themes, including unity, economic and political isolation, the growth and development of capitalism, internationalization, and governance. Following the dispelling of these myths, the authors then examine several lessons of more recent Chinese history, exploring where this young country has been in its first century.
Examines how Tyco and its board recovered from its corporate scandals. Describes how its CEO and board set out to institute processes, guidelines, and a culture that would make Tyco into a company widely recognized for its world class corporate governance.
Provides an overview of the Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) industry and highlights the leadership role that Barclays Global Investors (BGI) has played in this developing asset class. BGI launched its first ETFs under the iShares brand name in 2000, and by mid-2007 BGI was the global leader in the $600 billion ETF market. BGI's success had started attracting the interest of other large asset management firms, and Lee Kranefuss, CEO of BGI's iShares business was thinking about how BGI should compete in the increasingly crowded market. Should BGI expand into Europe and Asia more aggressively? Should BGI, already a large manager of 401(k) assets for corporations, pursue the 401(k) market with its iShares products? Would BGI need to cut its fees as other competitors such as Vanguard started marketing its "low-cost" ETF products?