Provides an overview of the retail sector within the United States as online shopping captures an increased percentage of consumer spending. The role of enabling technologies and applications, including comparison shopping sites and recommendation systems, are covered. Additionally, the strategies, specifically the evolution of multi-channeling retail, are discussed.
Describes how Bankinter, a mid-sized Spanish bank, altered the information set available to its customer-facing employees. In the spring of 2003, Bankinter introduced an Excel-based program called the mortgage simulator that helped branch managers calculate the price of a mortgage and estimate the customer lifetime value (CLV). Facilitates a discussion of the impact of such a change in the information set for employees when the incentives and decision rights remain unchanged. Also examines the tradeoffs front-line employees face as they divide their efforts between reaching new customers and increasing the amount of cross-selling to existing customers.
In April 2001, Japan curbed imports on three Chinese farm products--fresh shiitake mushrooms, rushes for grass mats, and Chinese onions. In retaliation, in June 2001 China imposed a 100% punitive tariff on imports of three Japanese export products--motor vehicles, mobile phones, and air conditioners. Japan was accused of violating WTO rules. The dispute was subsequently resolved, but given that China was not a WTO member at the time of the dispute, the dispute generated a lot of controversy regarding trade safeguard measures. Introduces students to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and compares it to the old GATT system, and highlights the role of political interest groups in trade policy. Questions whether Japan had a case for citing their safeguard measures or was it just protecting its powerful shiitake mushroom farmers. In addition, questions whether WTO membership would in turn protect China from trade disputes such as this one.
The CFO of JetBlue is trying to decide which of two financing proposals to pursue. A straight equity issue will dilute his principal shareholders' ownership, but seems like the safer alternative in an industry that is notorious for its high failure rate. On the other hand, a convertible debt alternative seems less dilutive, and cheaper, but brings with it an increased risk of default and financial problems. Which option should John Owen pursue?
While preparing a financial forecast, the newly promoted CFO of a small and profitable, but financially constrained, ready-mix concrete company must choose between renegotiating debt obligations, postponing long overdue capital improvements that will prevent more costly future repairs, or reducing the dividend payment to a parent company that just recently purchased the firm. A potential slowdown in the business due to a slowing economy and pressure from the new parent company add additional layers of complexity.
Sometimes the good old tried and true American business team building exercises just don't work. Although frequently successful with teams made up of employees from different sections of an organization, what happens when teams consist of employees from different geographical areas like the United States and Asia-which has a whole set of unique differences. This case follows the experiences of an executive sent to Bangkok Thailand with two other managers from corporate headquarters to clean up and team build following the discovery of fiscal mismanagement and a popular senior executive's high profile firing. This three part case series puts students in the shoes of a financial auditor sent to try and strengthen weakened relationships and performance at Fasco Motors in Thailand. The material describes his efforts to rebuild trust on the Bangkok management team and the difficulties he encounters working as an outsider in every way.
Sometimes the good old tried and true American business team building exercises just don't work. Although frequently successful with teams made up of employees from different sections of an organization, what happens when teams consist of employees from different geographical areas like the United States and Asia-which has a whole set of unique differences. This case follows the experiences of an executive sent to Bangkok Thailand with two other managers from corporate headquarters to clean up and team build following the discovery of fiscal mismanagement and a popular senior executive's high profile firing. This three part case series puts students in the shoes of a financial auditor sent to try and strengthen weakened relationships and performance at Fasco Motors in Thailand. The material describes his efforts to rebuild trust on the Bangkok management team and the difficulties he encounters working as an outsider in every way.
Sometimes the good old tried and true American business team building exercises just don't work. Although frequently successful with teams made up of employees from different sections of an organization, what happens when teams consist of employees from different geographical areas like the United States and Asia-which has a whole set of unique differences. This case follows the experiences of an executive sent to Bangkok Thailand with two other managers from corporate headquarters to clean up and team build following the discovery of fiscal mismanagement and a popular senior executive's high profile firing. This three part case series puts students in the shoes of a financial auditor sent to try and strengthen weakened relationships and performance at Fasco Motors in Thailand. The material describes his efforts to rebuild trust on the Bangkok management team and the difficulties he encounters working as an outsider in every way.
Cleveland Clinic is consistently ranked among the nation's most eminent hospitals, and for decades has been a leader in pioneering cardiac care. Explores the methods, processes, and personnel that the hospital has cultivated over the years in order to develop its track record of excellence. In light of this, three expansion opportunities are explored and the operational fit of each is investigated.
Describes the circumstances surrounding the introduction of www.google.cn. In order to comply with Chinese government requirements, Google.cn censors web results. This appears to contradict Google's stated philosophy and its mission to organize and make accessible the world's information. A public outcry ensues and Google is forced to defend its controversial decision. Presents both sides of the debate and asks students to consider what they feel is right.
Based on a combination of exploratory field research and executive experience, proposes that defining the "Minimum Winning Game" (MWG) is a difficult yet critical responsibility of top management. It is essential to keep a high-technology venture focused and to enable managers to learn from their ongoing efforts in the face of rapidly evolving technological and market uncertainties. Achieving the MWG requires the intelligent balancing of three "key drivers of strategic action": technology, product, and strategy development. Finally, instilling the discipline necessary to define the MWG and balance the drivers of strategic action is facilitated by the use of a strategy-making process informed by key data gathering and analysis tools such as the Market Requirement Document and the Product Requirement Document.
Despite the boom in IT-enabled business process outsourcing (BPO), clients and vendors alike are struggling to grasp the impact of their relationship and the significance of the transfer of organizational assets between them. The limited attention to BPO risks is not surprising, since over 90% of the outsourcing projects handle IT infrastructure or business processes for what most companies regard as non-core activities, such as payroll, transaction processing, and billing. Provides an overview of the different types of risks that a BPO client is faced with, including the damaging impact to client companies in areas such as customer services, overall operations costs, information security, business continuity, and other short-term market performance metrics. In an attempt to address this issue, introduces a mechanism by which BPO clients and vendors can work together to solve outsourcing project management problems and manage the organizational and market performance risks.
Most firms struggle to adapt to discontinuous changes in their environment--witness Lego's very slow adaptation to the world of digital devices and online games. One key reason for this is that they get locked into established networks of relationships and struggle to break out of these relationships and establish new ones. Examines the approaches firms can use to build relationships with new prospective partners that are more suited to the opportunities and threats they face in new competitive environments. Identifies the key barriers that prevent firms from accessing these "networks for discontinuous innovation" and presents specific strategies that firms can adopt to overcome them. The challenge involves three steps: finding the right partners to engage with, forming relationships with them, and then building high-performing networks. By following the guidelines proposed, firms will be more likely to create high-performing networks for discontinuous innovation.
Executives today must implement large-scale organizational change initiatives in ever-tighter time frames with fewer resources. Yet, anticipated performance outcomes often do not materialize as internal resistance slows or derails their change initiatives. A combined assessment of culture and informal structure can help identify barriers to change and facilitate change initiatives. Based on work with 10 organizations, demonstrates how this approach can help drive change through people and values in certain network positions; diagnose cultural drivers of network fragmentation; identify dominant beliefs or paradigms impeding cultural change; and intervene with a balanced emphasis on instrumental and expressive relationships.
Examines the career of Ernesto Tornquist, a cosmopolitan financier considered to be the most significant entrepreneur in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. Tornquist created a diversified business group, linked to the political elite, which integrated Argentina into the trading and financial networks of the first global economy. Provides an opportunity to understand why Argentina was such a successful economy at this time, and to debate whether its very success laid the basis for the country's subsequent poor economic performance.
Starbucks Corporation was the world's largest specialty coffee retailer, with 2005 annual revenue of $6.4 billion. Despite gigantic growth in specialty coffee in the 1990s, a worldwide oversupply of lower-grade coffee had depressed market prices in the previous few years, making it difficult for coffee farmers to earn enough revenue to cover the cost of production. By the end of 2005, Starbucks was at a challenging point in its history. It boasted more than 10,000 stores--up from 676 a decade before--and roasted 2.3% of the world's coffee. Each day it opened an average of four stores and hired 200 employees. To support such a high growth rate, the company's future success depended on a secure supply of high-quality coffee beans to meet increased demand--Starbucks had to ensure a sustainable supply of this key commodity. The company decided to partner with Conservation International, an environmental nonprofit organization, to develop C.A.F.E. Practices (Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices). The goal was to contribute to the livelihood of coffee farmers and to ensure high-quality coffee for the long term. If Starbucks were able to overcome the issues it faced with a widespread implementation of C.A.F.E., the initiative could go a long way towards improving the sustainability of its coffee supply chain while at the same time improving Starbucks' image as a socially responsible corporation.