The B-case of this three part series shows how performance lagged behind expectations. Women dropped out of the scheme, sales decreased during the harvest season, and the system risked losing momentum. HLL needed to decide whether to wait for the system to eventually take off, or to implement changes to the complex system of interdependent variables and players. This case shows how a mere innovation, as outlined in the A-case, is insufficient to create a sustainable model. Learning, facing reality, and giving the system time to evolve are key success factors.
The C-case of this three part series presents the actual changes that were implemented, the rather impressive successes achieved over time, and HLL's vision for the future. Within less than a decade, HLL hopes to build a pool of 100,000 self-employed women covering 500,000 villages, and reaching 500 million people, thus creating opportunities for rural women and their families to live in improved conditions and raise their overall standard of living.
The issue of privacy stirred a tumultuous uproar when the ABC County Health Department (ABCCHD) was planning for an e-Healthcare system that utilized information technology to streamline the administration process of patients. ABCCHD had hired a software vendor, Info-Health, a company that specialized in information system development for the healthcare industry to help in the project. The privacy of patients with Sexually Transmitted Diseases/Human Immunity System was a thorny issue in the implementation of the e-Healthcare system. A trade-off between privacy and cost was discussed and debated. Three alternatives, with varying degrees of privacy and cost, were considered.
In January 2006, Joe Hogan, head of General Electric (GE) Healthcare Technologies, prepared to step into William Castell's shoes as CEO of GE Healthcare, the world's leading manufacturer of diagnostic imaging equipment. In 2004, former CEO Jeff Immelt acquired Amersham for $10 billion. The acquisition was part of Immelt's GE-wide move to reemphasize research and development. Hogan had run GE Healthcare's predecessor organization, GE Medical Systems (GEMS). A 20-year GE veteran, Hogan witnessed three distinct stages of the subsidiary's development as it evolved from the Global Product Co. (GPC) to the modified GPC and then to GE Healthcare. By 2005, the company had a 34% market share of the worldwide diagnostic imaging equipment business. GE executives designed the acquisitions to catalyze the firm's move from an engineering and physics-based diagnostic company to a life sciences-based health care solutions company that could better meet worldwide health care needs. Hogan wondered: What challenges did GEMS' previous quantum leaps portend for this new step-function change?
Innovation was linked to Timberland's heritage. In 2005, CEO Jeff Swartz and COO Ken Pucker hoped the Invention Factory, an advanced concept lab, would develop new breakthrough products and reinvigorate the company's culture of innovation. Since the 1960s, Timberland had relied on innovation, developing the world's first waterproof boot and, in the 1980s, category-defining boat shoes and day hiking boots. Creating variations of these core products, along with expansion into apparel, had sustained Timberland's business for more than 30 years. Timberland's growth in the past six years was due to increased international sales and new customer segments. As Timberland's leaders looked to the future, they hoped Doug Clark, a biomechanist, and his Invention Factory team would bring a scientific approach toward building the next generation of Timberland products and ideas. The team had to convince those in the mainstream business to accept their new ideas and integrate them back into the product line.
Being in charge of cleaning up the March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill accident, meant that Otto Harrison, the general manager of Exxon International Alaskan Operations, was there when the storm clouds over the event were thick. Despite years of learning, wisdom, growth, and dealing with success and failure, Harrison had never faced a challenge of this magnitude. He was sure his experiences would be utilized in full force. The questions he thought about included whether three different governing bodies, the state of Alaska, the federal government, and Exxon, a publicly held corporation, could work together toward a common goal-to leave few signs of the biggest oil spill ever to occur in North America. What type of help was most needed now? Would Exxon's plan satisfy the numerous stakeholders? How would the plan be viewed publicly? What impact would the cleanup plan have on Exxon's business? In the (A) case, the Exxon Valdez accident and immediate challenges are described so students can put themselves in Harrison's place to lead through the crisis. The (B) case (epilogue) outlines more problems and includes actions taken to try to clean up the oil as quickly and effectively as they could. The tragedy changed the oil industry in many ways-some of which are described in the epilogue.
Martin Field, the new controller for the automobile replacement-parts company Run, Inc., is not comfortable with a large write-off that the family-owned company plans to make in 2004. Fairly new to the position, Field had not prepared the financial information for the annual report and he hesitated to alert anyone about the balance between the receivables and inventory items. Although external auditors give Run, Inc.'s financials a clean bill of health, Field was still not comfortable and must decide what steps to take.
A $385 million loss for the final months of fiscal year 1994 signaled Continental might go bankrupt. Could new CEO Gordon Bethune turn Continental around? Continental was in dire straits because the deregulation of the commercial airline industry in 1978 ushered in a new era focused on mergers and acquisitions and bitter employee-management relations. Venerable airline brands with a commitment to quality, like Continental, were prime takeover targets. After Texas Air Chairman Frank Lorenzo (HBS 1963) secured Continental in his hostile takeover bid, tensions escalated between Lorenzo and the old guard--especially when Lorenzo declared Continental bankrupt in the fall of 1983 and then fired and replaced half his staff with cheaper nonunion labor. In October 1994, five months after Continental exited its second bankruptcy, Bethune was elevated to CEO and created a Go Forward Plan to return Continental to profitability. Two years after unveiling the Go Forward Plan, Continental was at the top of the industry in a number of important performance metrics.
First conceived as a business plan in Stanford Business School's "Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities" class, the Golden Baseball League is an independent baseball league in California and Arizona. Tracks the development of the business from idea to launch of the first season of play.
Under Jack Rivkin's leadership, Shearson Lehman's research department rose from relative obscurity to the highest ranking research department on Wall Street within three years. When Rivkin is promoted to head of equity, he wonders how to succeed in his new position.
In 2006, Ruth's Chris Steak House was fresh off of a sizzling initial public offering and was now interested in growing their business internationally. With restaurants in just four countries outside the United States, a model to identify and rank new international markets was needed. Provides a practical example for students to take quantitative and non-quantitative variables to create a short list of potential new markets.
Esquel Group is one of the world's leading producers of premium cotton shirts, and among the most dynamic and progressive global-scale textile and apparel manufacturers. The company was founded in 1978 in Hong Kong. Over the years Esquel, which was part of an old-fashioned industry, gradually grew to become a larger and more modern organization: it expanded its product offering as well as its scope of operations, adding to garment manufacturing the production of woven and knitted fabric, spinning operations, and eventually cotton ginning and farming; it opened manufacturing facilities outside China and multiple representative offices in the U.S., the U.K. and Japan; developed strong product development capabilities and expanded its service offering to its customers; and invested in supporting IT and supply chain management applications and applied advance RFID solutions to improve efficiency of internal operations. In parallel, a strong corporate culture was established, emphasizing ethical business practices, creativity, and continual improvement. All these initiatives provided Esquel with the means to offer high-quality, innovative products and services, and to secure a loyal customer base consisting of some of the world's best known and most highly respected brands. While striving to run a successful business, Esquel also took steps to ensure the well-being of its employees and to have a positive impact on society, and was devoted to protecting the environment in areas where it operated. Describes in detail the transformations the company has gone through over the years, and the uniqueness of its corporate culture, and product and service offerings. In addition, discusses the pros and cons of Esquel's strategy and provides some perspective about the future of the company (e.g., what steps it should take to meet its growth targets; how will the elimination of quota restrictions impact Esquel; etc.).
A retired bank CEO, one of Turkey's most admired leaders, wants to start a leadership institute to develop emerging leaders in the eastern Mediterranean region. Describes his biography and values, the models he established for excellent financial performance and corporate social and environmental responsibility at the bank, and his attempt to partner with an American university to establish the institute. His first approach did not work; what should he do now?
The proposed takeover of Noranda Inc. (one of the biggest mineral players in the world) by the Chinese state owned enterprise, China Minmetals Corporation, was cause for Canadian government concern as it required some understanding about the workings and objectives of state owned enterprises. There was particular concern around the labour issues and human rights violations in China, and the possible impact of these on the proposed takeover. Equally important, Canada ran the substantial risk of sending the wrong message to the People's Republic of China if it was to block such a takeover, and in some respects, to be seen as shutting its doors to one of the world's largest and most powerful emerging economies.
Scalix Corporation, a Linux-based, e-mail and calendaring software company, was founded in 2002 by Julie Hanna Farris while she was an entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) at Mayfield, a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, CA. Describes the evolution of Scalix's sales model. As a start-up company, it attempted to sell directly to CIOs of large enterprises. After facing an uphill battle in that market and then experiencing a few successful sales to small public sector accounts, the company corrected its course.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club had grown from simple origins into an enormous gaming operator, with a statutory monopoly on horse racing, football betting and lotteries. At the same time, the Club served as Hong Kong's largest charity and community benefactor. It was also Hong Kong's largest single taxpayer, the operator of a prestigious membership Club and had undertaken some of the most sophisticated implementations of information technology in Asia. Under the leadership of Lawrence Wong, the Jockey Club's first ethnic-Chinese executive, the club had set about installing management discipline in the organization and raising betting revenues. He had also overseen the launch of football betting in 2003. By 2005 the emergence of local illegal and unauthorized offshore gambling operators, typically Internet-based and which paid no taxes, operated with little overhead, few regulatory restraints, and could thus offer bigger payout and more betting options posed a significant threat to the club's revenues. Wong would have to lead the club's efforts to defend gaming revenues against a host of threats and competitive forces.
As 2004 came to a close, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, found itself facing a variety of stakeholder issues. The largest company in the world, which had ranked number one on the Fortune 500 for several years, was accused of, among other things, sending jobs overseas, destroying small-town America, paying its workers substandard wages and providing abysmal healthcare coverage, and discriminating against women and minorities. Many outsiders accused the retailer of circumventing or ignoring the principles upon which the legendary Sam Walton founded the company: respect for the individual, service to customers, and constant striving for excellence. As 2005 began, Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott and other Wal-Mart executives had to address the various issues. This case details not only the rise of Wal-Mart and its notable capabilities and strategies, but also how the retailer had inadvertantly found itself with such a negative reputation.
One of the critical tasks in the marketing of new innovations is predicting demand and rates of diffusion for those products. Focuses on four innovative products from different domains. Although one can speculate on the scope and rate of diffusion for each of these products independently, it's helpful to compare and contrast diffusion across these products. Doing so allows one to focus on the "levers" or product characteristics that influence product diffusion, making one product a star and another a dog. Importantly, looking across products allows one to pick up on things that get lost in discussing a single product.