In June 2007, the governor of Pennsylvania, was negotiating with the state's legislative leaders about his proposal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to private investors. Leasing public highways to private companies was unheard of in the United States until the City of Chicago leased the Chicago Skyway, an 8-mile toll expressway, for $1.83 billion in 2005 and the State of Indiana leased the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road for $3.85 billion in 2006. The sums astonished state and local governments around the country, and encouraged many, like Pennsylvania, to consider leasing as a means of covering budget shortfalls. This case is designed to support a discussion of the pros and cons of leasing assets as a means of raising public resources and of having the private sector finance and operate infrastructure. HKS Case Number 1878.0
Explores the opportunities and threats to Unilever's global business in 1978 based on the commercial and political challenges faced by three of its subsidiaries, Lever Brothers in the United States, Hindustan Lever in India, and United Africa Company in West Africa. Management faced several problems: criticism of multinational companies, anti-trust legislation, expropriations, and rising competition from international and local rivals. Focuses on developing a new global strategy for a company that placed a premium on a consensual management style and local autonomy.
Riding the early morning Metro North train from Grand Central to Greenwich in late December 2004, the euro dominated Luke Anthony's thoughts. After bottoming out at about 0.85 $/€, in 2000 and 2001, the euro had appreciated sharply and now stood at 1.35 $/€ (Exhibit 1). Luke, an FX Strategist at a hedge fund, had to form a view about the likely path of the euro going forward. The evidence was in no way clear cut. Of the traditional factors, some were pointing toward further euro appreciation, but others seemed to favor the dollar. And there were a host of "new" factors to sift through. Sorting through the evidence would require both relatively standard thinking about forex markets and the more recent emphasis on prospective capital flows. And Luke had only this quiet week between Christmas and New Year's to form a cohesive plan for early 2005.
Examines some parts of Stryker Corporation's systems and procedures for approving and authorizing capital spending of many different types, including buildings, machinery, and working capital for existing businesses, as well as transactions with third parties such as acquisitions, joint ventures, and licensing agreements. Set in early 2007, nearly two years after significant modifications in these systems and procedures. Stryker has compiled a remarkable track record of consistently high growth in profitability over more than 20 years. The modifications to its capital budgeting procedures are partly intended to support the company's efforts to continue this success.
In April 2007, Grand Central's publisher Jamie Raab and editor Karen Kosztolnyik were involved in a frantic bidding war for a proposed book on the life of cat Dewey, billed as the feline answer to the best-selling "Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog." Literary agent Peter McGuigan, who represented the author and ghost writer, had just notified them that a second publisher seeking to close the deal was "shadowing" Grand Central's every move and a preemptive offer of well over a million dollars would be required to secure the acquisition--an exceedingly high amount for a book by a first-time author. Should Grand Central continue to bid for Dewey, wait for the scheduled auction with several interested publishers, or pull out of the race? Allows for an in-depth examination of new-product acquisition, development, and launch strategies in the context of the book publishing industry. Provides rich insights into how media and entertainment firms aim to replicate success, and how they find, foster, and sell potential blockbuster products. Also illustrates how similar efforts by competitors increase each firm's dependence on a handful of hits. Contains detailed unique economic data that illustrate the high level of concentration in the distribution of sales and profits across products. By enabling an analysis of the book acquisition, development, and marketing process from the perspective of the publisher, author, and agent, serves as a vehicle for contrasting different approaches to the new product development process.
In late November 2002, halfway through the vital Christmas selling season, William E. Aziz, hired to turn around White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited (White Rose), has to decide what to do. White Rose is under Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) protection, having breached its debt covenants. The company's upper and middle management is frustrated that their efforts since 1999 have not turned the firm around. The remaining employees blame the firms' situation on the change in strategy that occurred in 1999. The changes led many of White Rose's original employees to leave. At least partly due to an attempt to compete head-on with new U.S. entrants into the garden and crafts industry, the company endured three straight years of losses. In November 2002, White Rose launched a strategic review of its operations and asked its chief executive officer of three years, Dave Symons, to resign.
The founder and executive director of E+Co faces the challenge of ten-fold growth and reviews the core parts of the company's innovative business model, the changes in the energy markets around the world, and the rationale for local solutions to energy scarcity and inefficiency. Also presented is a set of entrepreneurial growth strategies that preserve the core of the model - i.e., simultaneously tackling energy poverty and energy waste, and bringing people up the energy ladder with locally suitable and affordable solutions. These strategies help consolidate and leverage E+Co's 12 years of experience and strong local presence through an innovative combination of complementary wedges.
The director and co-founder of Honey Care Africa (Honey Care) looks back over the six years of operations and describes the original business model and several sequential changes based on feedback from rural communities, partner organizations, and learning by doing through field operations. Increasing international recognition highlights the potential impact of the model on inspiring sustainable grassroots ventures in the agriculture sector in Kenya. For Tanzania and other developing countries, he ponders the potential opportunities and challenges in replicating the Honey Care model elsewhere. The case also tackles alternative routes for scaling up the model in East Africa. Students are presented with several specific challenges which illustrate the growing tension between Honey Care's original commitment to the farmers and its prospects for international take-off, and are asked to propose alternative model reconfigurations to resolve this tension.
The president and founder of the non-profit organization, Let's Talk Science, needs to ensure that the marketing plan provided by her staff for a new training package would meet the sales goal of 100 units each year. The package, called Science with Impact is intended to train scientists and engineers on educational techniques to use for delivering effective and age-appropriate presentations to children and the non-scientific community. This marketing case focuses on the development of a pricing and promotion strategy for a product in a non-profit environment.
The corporate manager of vehicle planning at Nissan Canada Inc. had been asked by the director of vehicle ordering for Nissan North America (NNA), to review the proposed vehicle ordering process as part of the new Integrated Customer Order Network (ICON). The ICON project would change Nissan's North American vehicle ordering process from a 'make-to-stock' into a 'make-to-order' environment which called for a significant process transformation for Nissan's operations in North America and Japan. The corporate manager of vehicle planning was hoping that the new process would be exactly what the dealers were seeking in an effort to closer align production with customer demand. However, he needed to evaluate the new process from the perspective of all stakeholders to ensure that Nissan's business objectives could be met.
This case looks at an in-house experiment conducted by a plant manager to determine whether his quality control machines are functioning properly. The case can be used to help students understand the concept of variation and sources of variation. It is also useful for illustrating the effective use of descriptive statistics, single sample tests, paired tests and their non-parametric equivalents.
This case examines the interpretation of political polls. It discusses margin of error, confidence intervals and the relationship between sample size and margin of error. An Excel spreadsheet is included, Ivey product # 7B07E016, to help students understand the concepts.
In December 2006, Sinchong Property Investment Pte Ltd (SPIPL), a Singapore-based property investment firm, signed a letter of intent to take over a partially completed hotel project from the Wuxi City Authority for consideration of a sum of RMB45 million. The original property development called for a 22-storey three-star hotel building with 220 rooms and a four-storey staff building. The concrete structure had already been built, but due to financial difficulties, the Chinese owner had to relinquish the project. Within 60 days prior to the signing of the final agreement to take over the project, SPIPL was keen to ensure that the project was feasible and that the new hotel, its first such project in China, would succeed. During this period, Liang Chee-Sian, the Chief Executive Officer of SPIPL must assess the business challenges of developing and operating the new Hotel Wuxi International.
This note describes several approaches one could employ to size a sales force. It addresses the advantages of each approach as well as the weaknesses. The case entitled "Z Associates: Sizing the Sales Force" provides a real-world example of one company's attempt to select the correct approach, and includes a supplemental Excel file for students.
In September 2005, after years of bitter competition, Siebel Systems Inc. finally agreed to be acquired by Oracle Corporation. The two companies preferred different forms of consideration as payment for Siebel Systems and used a deal structure known as a "double dummy" to satisfy both parties. The case requires students to examine how the unique deal structure meets the tax and non-tax preferences of the corporations and their shareholders.
As a major player in a $200-billion market with only a 15% market share, SYSCO outperforms its industry competition. This execution champion and organic growth winner has figured out how to balance and manage tensions between decentralized entrepreneurial autonomy and centralized controls. But what makes SYSCO different is that its leaders have figured out, on a daily basis, how to keep everyone, from the CEO to the truck driver, focused on the details that count to customers. In 2005, however, the growth of its underlying market had leveled forcing the company to face the challenge of continuing to grow and maintain its margins in a plateauing market.