Founded in 1970, the Agency for Volunteer Service (AVS) was a non-governmental organization in Hong Kong with the mission of facilitating volunteerism and managing education, health, and welfare services. For more than two decades, it played an active role in the Hong Kong social service sector. However, in the years 1998 to 2001, several factors prompted AVS to undergo organizational transformation: a temporary crisis in management, a change in the source of government funding signalling a shift in the organization's mission, and the United Nations' designation of 2001 as the International Year of Volunteers. These changes compelled AVS to carry out a strategic review in 2001 and undergo radical organizational transformation. How should it implement strategic change to incorporate this new vision? Introduces students to the concept of radical organizational transformation and familiarizes students with managerial competencies common to successful transformations.
In Hong Kong in 2001, a leading eye drop brand's position was threatened. Although it was a top selling brand (from here on referred to as EDB), overall eye drop usage was declining and the entire category was shrinking. Furthermore, customers showed no particular brand preference and price alone determined sales. To better understand the situation, the company surveyed EDB's target customers and discovered that its brand image was outdated and that its core users had aged with the brand. Thus, in order to sustain a long-term customer base, EDB needed to realign with its target audience and reposition the brand. The company hired Beyond Interactive to help them face these challenges. The Beyond team came up with a one-to-one interactive online campaign, EDB and Friends, aimed at achieving three objectives: reposition the brand towards a younger audience, rejuvenate the brand image, and establish brand preference. With its games, its likable virtual personality, and relevant content, EDB and Friends helped the company achieve its objectives and the award-winning campaign was a commercial success. Introduces and illustrates the following concepts: one-to-one marketing, brand revitalization, and repositioning. Provides a best-practice example of a creative online marketing campaign.
Thermaware, Inc., a manufacturer of top-of-the-line industrial thermostat controllers, is considering moving toward a single-piece-flow system. From the demand and production information given, students must determine a schedule that reduces inventory and approaches single-piece flow. The case can be used as a vehicle to reinforce the scheduling concepts found in the book The Gold Mine.
Eugene Isenberg, CEO of Nabors Industries, was listed in a 2006 Wall Street Journal article as one of the highest paid executives in the U.S. over the previous 14 years. He received this compensation as a result of a unique bonus arrangement and large stock option grants with several favorable features. At the same time, the strategy that he implemented for Nabors led to a remarkable financial turnaround as the company emerged from bankruptcy and expanded to become a global leader in the oilfield services industry. Readers are asked to evaluate the structure of Isenberg's compensation agreement in light of the company's industry, strategy, and financial position. Particular consideration is paid to the total compensation, mix of compensation, performance measures, and other compensation terms.
Describes the approach to creative collaboration and leadership adopted by Paul Robertson as leader of one of the most highly regarded string quartets in recent history. Intended to prompt a discussion of a variety of issues surrounding management of creative ensembles. The topics discussed include: the nature and attainment of mastery (as opposed to technical competence); master and apprentice relationships; the details of collaborative work and workspace; and how to make preparations for world class performances.
Marco Suter, Executive Vice-Chairman, UBS Board of Directors, carefully studied the chart on his desk. It showed the public commitment of major financial institutions to help mitigate global warming. Evidently, UBS lagged behind its competitors. The graph was part of a report that environmental specialists and senior executives at UBS had compiled. It suggested the company adopt a more progressive policy on climate change. Suter thought about the options that the working group had generated. These ranged from stabilizing the company's current carbon emissions to complete carbon neutrality. The UBS Corporate Responsibility Committee would meet early next week. Suter wondered which option he should support.
Senior management of a large company learns that its largest and most important information systems project will be eight months late. The developers used the latest technology ( Web-based, distributed, client-server, networked) and architecture (SOA). Some new parts were up and running but many old, legacy pieces were carrying a heavy part of the daily demands and risks of outages were increasing. There were staffing problems and challenges with conversions, and it appeared that some organizational units were resisting adoption of the new systems.
Describes the role accident has historically played in invention and discovery, and raises questions about the importance of variation in business innovation processes.
Describes the reorganization of the drug discovery organization at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and focuses on the decisions to: (1) centralize decision-making within drug discovery and (2) institute numerical metrics--jointly affecting all R&D scientists--for the progression of compounds through the Wyeth pipeline. Highlights issues concerning the degree to which scientific activity can be evaluated via numerical metrics, the extent to which R&D can be structured as a process, and the degree to which decision-making should be centralized in commercial R&D activities.
Describes the economic development of Latvia, a small eastern European country on the shores of the Baltic Sea, from regaining independence in 1991 to European Union (EU) accession in 2004 and is set on May 1st, 2004, the day Latvia became an EU member. Latvia had achieved strong growth since regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. Describes Latvia's economic development over this period, discussing the economic policy efforts that have taken place and includes general information on the country, its history and politics, and the business environment that companies faced in 2004. A special focus is the influence that the EU accession process has on the Latvian economy and on economic policy choices in the country. Challenges students to discuss how the environment changes as EU membership is achieved, and which new priorities the country might need to define for its economic policy.
Focuses on the experience of China's largest shirt manufacturer in managing various aspects of government relations in China. Identifies a wide variety of social initiatives it has undertaken.
In October 2004, SpaceShipOne rocketed into space, winning the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE. This competition for the first privately funded, manned spaceflight was organized by the X PRIZE Foundation, and attracted 26 competitors, who had spent more than $100 million in pursuit of the prize. The success of SpaceShipOne generated intense media and public interest. Many of the competitors for the Ansari X PRIZE also planned to continue their efforts to develop commercial spaceflight businesses. After this success, Peter Diamandis, founder and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation considered the future of the foundation. He saw three options: shutting down, continuing with a focus on space, or creating a "world-class prize institute that uses the prize-incentive model to solve today's grand challenges." He chose the third alternative, with the vision of developing 10-15 prize competitions. The foundation chose to work on fields including space, medicine and genomics, energy and transportation, education, and other social challenges. Describes lessons learned about prize competitions through the Ansari X PRIZE program. Discusses issues in creating and operating a successful competition, as well as the advantages of using incentive prizes, including bringing new thinking to bear on difficult problems and paying out only when an important goal is accomplished (paying for results, not effort). Poses several problems facing the Foundation as it begins to focus on fields outside of space: could prize competitions work in fields that were not technology-centric (such as poverty); could the organization scale up to support as many as 10-15 competitions; and what areas should the foundation focus on. Finally, could the prize model revolutionize philanthropy by using financial incentives to stimulate investment in important fields and leverage philanthropic dollars by paying only for results?
Glitnir Bank is an Icelandic company following an aggressive growth strategy that relies heavily on foreign debt. Access to such debt is suddenly curtailed when there is a downturn in market sentiment regarding the Icelandic economy as a whole. Students will reflect on the essential elements of a communications strategy, including the role of the media and analysts. Class discussion will focus on creating infrastructure that will increase the bank's ability to communicate effectively in an environment of macroeconomic uncertainty.