Should Hewlett-Packard cooperate with other firms in the electronics industry to develop a common code of conduct for suppliers? HP, a leading provider of personal computing, imaging, and printing products, had developed a comprehensive set of labor, environmental, and human rights standards for its suppliers. However, the company remained concerned about its reputational vulnerability and lack of supplier compliance. Ken Larson, HP's Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility, considered whether the company could best advance its interests through industry collaboration on a common code of conduct.
Farmacias Similares, serving Mexico's low-income sector, grew to $600 million sales and 3,400 drugstores while deep reforms to help the poor swept the public health system. Adjacent to each store, for $2 per visit, medical clinics provided access to doctors for 2.3 million people a month. Narrates the growth of the chain, examines the reasons for its success, and projects a pro forma of the company's financial returns. Places Farmacias Similares in the context of Mexico's public health system and the pharmaceutical industry.
The founding partners of ABC, LLC, one of the leading private equity firms in the world, are trying to understand why some of the other top firms in the business, such as KKR and Apollo, have been tapping the public equity markets for their own funds, and whether they should do the same. They are also pondering how to monetize their own stake in the firm, and whether taking the firm itself public may be a viable option.
Candor ranks very highly among the characteristics we look for in good leaders. A culture of candor, established and reinforced by leaders who value and model it in their own behaviors, can be a source of competitive advantage for organizations. It ensures that good news travels fast and bad news travels faster, allowing mistakes to be recognized quickly and fixed promptly; people own their actions and own up to their errors so that they can learn from them; people know where they stand, know what's expected of them, and know what it takes to get promoted and fired. Candor is at the heart of aligning people with strategy, and is essential to effective execution, performance management and people development.
Anduro Marketing is a Canadian company that sells technical services to companies wanting to improve their search engine website rankings. Though small, Anduro has attracted several major clients in both Canada and the United States, and expects steady profitability and growth. Anduro believes it can generate substantial additional profit by developing and selling a suite of software products that automate its technical service offerings. Anduro's managers must decide whether Anduro is better off staying with its current safe and profitable strategy or if Anduro should instead pursue a riskier but potentially more profitable software sales model. Several tough questions must be answered to determine whether the risk is worth the reward. The Anduro case provides an interesting description of an Internet technical/marketing services business and contrasts this with software sales.
The chairman of Gome Ltd, a well known appliance retail chain, congratulated his management team for their excellent performance over the past year. For three consecutive years, Gome had been ranked the largest electrical appliance retail chain in China, and the second largest overall retail chain. Claiming to be the only true national player, Gome achieved total sales of RMB23.9 billion in 2004, and in 2005 doubled its number of stores to 426. The company's four-year plan is to capture 10-15% of the market share nationally. Gome would need to double the number of stores in the coming three years, and more importantly, work out a strategy to fend off its local and global competitors.
Describes the retailer-supplier negotiations of Tom Muccio, one of the earlier Procter & Gamble (P&G) employees to be based in Bentonville, Arkansas, in negotiating the early operational components of the supplier-retailer partnership between P&G and Wal-Mart in the late 1980s. Provides background on the supplier-retailer relationship and negotiation barriers encountered when executing operational components of the partnership.
In January 2000, Jose Antonio Justino, accepted an offer to become the Managing Director of the Consumer Division of Johnson & Johnson Brazil (in Portuguese-Johnson & Johnson Comercio e Distribuicao Ltda.). Johnson & Johnson Brazil (J&J Brazil) had been the early leader in Brazil in a variety of products, including disposable diapers, sanitary napkins, bandages, cotton swabs, sunscreen, and baby care products. Unfortunately, performance had deteriorated in recent years, with both sales and profitability dropping significantly. Market share in many categories was falling because of increased competition from local firms and multinationals. The company group chairman of J&J's global consumer business told Justino in February that he would have to present a business plan at a J&J meeting in Mexico in May 2000. The business plan would have to identify the specific steps that would allow J&J Brazil to restore profitability by the end of 2000 and position the company for future growth
In January 2000, Jose Antonio Justino, accepted an offer to become the Managing Director of the Consumer Division of Johnson & Johnson Brazil (in Portuguese-Johnson & Johnson Comercio e Distribuicao Ltda.). Johnson & Johnson Brazil (J&J Brazil) had been the early leader in Brazil in a variety of products, including disposable diapers, sanitary napkins, bandages, cotton swabs, sunscreen, and baby care products. Unfortunately, performance had deteriorated in recent years, with both sales and profitability dropping significantly. Market share in many categories was falling because of increased competition from local firms and multinationals. The company group chairman of J&J's global consumer business told Justino in February that he would have to present a business plan at a J&J meeting in Mexico in May 2000. The business plan would have to identify the specific steps that would allow J&J Brazil to restore profitability by the end of 2000 and position the company for future growth
Small business owner Tim Bono must decide whether to accept business from a customer that involves transferring film with homosexual content, and if doing so violates his company's "Christian and ethical values."
Leaders expect their followers to be loyal and to be able to depend on their loyalty. Good leaders understand that there is a difference between real loyalty and a related but different concept - fealty. Smart leaders understand that fealty is demanded whereas loyalty is earned. In this article, the author notes some things that leaders can do to earn loyalty.
The new chief executive officer (CEO) of ING Insurance Asia/Pacific wants to improve the regional operation of the company. ING Group was a global financial services company of Dutch origin with more than 150 years of experience. As part of ING International, ING Insurance Asia/Pacific was responsible for life insurance and asset/wealth management activities throughout the region. The company was doing well, but the new CEO believed that there were still important strategic and operational improvements possible.
A recent MBA graduate was about to return to the family business, Biomed Co., Ltd., as its general manager. Biomed's parent company, Thai Drugs Co., Ltd., has just revised Biomed's market strategy, a change that created the need to realign the sales compensation system to fit with the new strategy. The new general manager was charged with this responsibility. Follows the path from strategy to a powerful sales compensation plan that will support the strategy and encourage salespeople to execute their role within this strategy.
A strategic planner for an international oil and gas firm, Ed Chen was tasked with reviewing China's petroleum refining industry to seek out potential investment opportunities. Globally, demand for transportation fuel was on the rise and government clean fuel standards were becoming strict. As refineries struggled to adapt to tightening product quality requirements, those able to efficiently produce a high proportion of light products from heavy and sulfurous crude oil prospered the most. World refining capacity was expected to substantially increase over the next few years, with China contributing much of the growth. Building a refinery was an expensive task anywhere, though construction cost estimates were much lower for Asia. Ed questioned whether there was room for foreign competition or if it was a locals-only game.
An undisputed success story, Daksh eServices was one of the leading Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service providers in India. Launched by a group of friends in 2000, it started by providing web-based customer support services for global clients. By 2004, having added voice capability to complete its service offering, it had grown into a 6,000 strong company with reported revenues of over US$50 million. Given the market conditions, Daksh had all the right numbers to be a sell out IPO. At the same time, IBM had expressed a concerted interest to buy out the company. What had emerged as the relevant question was, whether or not the IPO was the best way to go ahead. Alternatively, was the sell out to IBM a better option? If so, what should be the asking price? While the top management at Daksh evaluated both options, industry analysts reflected as to why a BPO company like Daksh made sense for IBM in the first place.
On February 19, 2005, British Airways flight 268, a 747, took off from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) headed for London's Heathrow Airport. It would be an 11-hour, 5,000-plus-mile flight. Shortly after takeoff, only 296 feet in the air, one of the jet's four engines exploded. The pilots had to determine what course of action to take: return immediately to LAX or continue the flight. This case outlines the various options and the potential consequences of each. See also the B case (UV0774).