Describes the situation facing Paul Bentington, the president, CEO, and member of the owning family of BIND, PLC, a large and successful family-owned engineering consulting firm in London. Bentington's sister and brother, both of whom are owners of the firm, confront him regarding family participation both in the governance and management of the firm. Third- and fourth-generation members of the family represent a diversity of backgrounds and experiences, which Bentington's siblings believe would benefit the firm. Yet Bentington has misgivings about whether it is appropriate for his siblings, their spouses, and their children to serve in any leadership role at the family company.
Six Sigma has become a popular management philosophy adopted by several large companies, including Maple Leaf Foods, as a means of reducing waste systematically. The plant manager at the Rivermede plant is preparing for a meeting with the senior manager to discuss the new initiative Six Sigma @ the Edge. Based on the success of Six Sigma at this plant, it was chosen as a pilot for this new initiative. Students will develop a deeper understanding of Six Sigma and the challenges associated with embedding it in the organization.
Incorporated in 1983, Giordano International consolidated its position as a leading casual apparel retailer in Asia Pacific by offering customers value for money, good customer service, and classic, simple designs. By constantly improving its operating efficiencies, the company survived the Asian economic downturn and the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Its newest challenges, however, were increased competition, surging rents, higher interest rates, and the omnipresent threat from the avian bird flu. How Giordano could sustain its past success was perhaps the most critical question confronting its management. Provides an opportunity to examine what strategy would ensure Giordano's continued success over the intermediate and long-term future.
Strategizing is the process of perceiving, analyzing, and shaping competitive situations. This note aims provide some basic orientation and sketches some frameworks that can guide the strategizing process.
Decision trees can be helpful in analyzing the key drivers of profitability and in designing risk-mitigation strategies. When analyzing competitive situations, each player's viewpoint can be represented by a separate decision tree, creating a "decision forest." In some situations, it is also useful to summarize two players' decision trees in a single payoff matrix. This note introduces those concepts step by step.
This note introduces some key game-theoretic concepts and techniques, with an emphasis on their underlying motivations. It covers the following topics: • Domination • Iterated elimination of dominated strategies • Nash equilibrium • Randomized Stra
In May 2005, JP Rangaswami, the chief information officer at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW), wonders how to extend the bank's use of blogs. Corporations are now increasingly using these tools to diffuse news, opinions, and knowledge and improve collaboration. At DrKW, there are already over 300 internal blogs and Rangaswami now wants to encourage their internal spread. He has to make a compelling case for using blogs as well as make them easy to use. In addition, Rangaswami wants the bank to allow external blogs that others can view on the Internet. However, given the strict disclosure regulations that govern the bank's operations, Rangaswami wonders whether there are any safeguards that would help convince the bank's executive staff to allow external blogs.
In October 2005, Myrto Lazopoulou, head of user centered design at the investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW), contemplates how to spread the usage of wikis inside the company. As a "social software" like chats and blogs (both already in use at DrKW), wikis facilitate collaboration. At its barest, a wiki is a Web site that anybody visiting could edit without having to know HTML or Web-authoring tools. The IT department at DrKW had decided to experiment with the technology in late 2004, and now, soon a year later, it had to decide whether and how to roll out the tool for widespread use at the investment bank. Is DrKW ready for such technology?
The Employee Benefit Outsourcing (EBO) unit of BPO, Inc. is experiencing rapid growth as a result of industry trends toward greater outsourcing of business processes. Despite rapid growth in revenues, the EBO unit has not been able to make a profit in part because of problems with its operations. A Six Sigma project has been initiated with the goal of developing a computer simulation model of the Health and Welfare Service Delivery process to help get a better handle on the operational problems. The define-and-measure phases of the Six Sigma project have been completed and the case includes the project charter, a process map, detailed operational data, and process performance benchmark data. Students are to use the data provided to develop their own simulation model, validate it with the benchmark data provided, and then use the model to complete the analyze, improve, and control phases of the Six Sigma project. More specifically, students can use the simulation model to test incremental changes to the current process as well as test more radical changes to the process such as the high-touch, low-cost option proposed by EBO's new Senior VP of Operations.
Reverse e-auctions, which enable suppliers to compete online in real time, are changing the way organizations select their suppliers. Explores how five large firms in different industries learned to use e-auctions and how e-auctions were integrated into their purchasing processes. To implement e-auctions successfully, organizations should: build e-auction competencies; organize for knowledge management; create a holistic sourcing process; focus on the total cost of ownership; and experiment with e-auction designs. Draws key observations from the case studies and presents implications for supply managers.
Although e-marketing is highly prevalent, there is currently no template for managers who wish to use the Internet/Web and related information technologies to market their products and services. Provides managers with a comprehensive, actionable, and practical methodology (E-MARKPLAN) to plan, enact, and analyze e-marketing activities. Uses five case studies to illustrate the diversity of e-marketing actions. E-MARKPLAN consists of five parts: goals, actors (i.e., those who take e-marketing actions), spaces (i.e., theaters of engagement), actions, and outcomes. The E-MARKPLAN methodology is versatile and is not limited to companies with e-commerce operations.
Practitioners, academics, and consultants are all calling for firms to drop their guard and collaborate with their business partners. At best, reports to date are mixed. Does collaboration work? Can firms do better? This research indicates the answer is "yes" to both questions, but managers must do more to reap long-term gains by formalizing relationships. Executives at many of today's most successful companies provide important insights about how this can be accomplished.
This case follows a classic student venture from on-campus conception in 1994, to harvest during the late 90s Internet wave, to its rebirth as a virtual business model. The enterprise began as a paper-based debit card that enabled Dartmouth College students to purchase merchandise at participating local pizza shops, copy centers, coffeehouses and the like. By the time founder Taren Lent and his partner took their system online in 1996, the 'Green Card' had a broad campus following, significant vendor participation, and average monthly revenue of $160,000. The entrepreneurs funded their expansion with informal investments from family, friends, angels, and a bank loan. In 1999-near the peak of the Internet bubble-they were scooped up by Student Advantage, a 'high-concept' venture-backed dot-com that was spending millions to build online market share in the higher-education space. Taren, who was heading up the campus card division, was astounded at how little attention was being paid to pursuing viable revenue models. When Student Advantage ultimately (and somewhat predictably), ran out of money and was liquidated, the campus card segment was sold to Blackboard. Taren Lent, however, had other ideas. He and a new partner left to start a virtual card venture focused on the higher education market. That focus would soon be put to the test by compelling opportunities that are doable, but not within their narrow strategic focus; e.g. business campuses, theme parks, and government agencies like NASA.
Sante Fe Relocation Services was a premium provider of relocation services based in Hong Kong. Founded in 1980, the company had built a reputation as a reliable, high-quality packer and mover of household goods. By 2000, the company also offered a full range of relocation support services, including visa and immigration applications, home searching, and cultural and language training. Santa Fe relocated expatriates and their families between Asian countries and between Asia and other regions. The company had its own staff and assets in Asia and managed its international operations through a network of partners. In 2005, the chief operating officer faced three key challenges: differentiating and positioning the brand in a crowded and often price-driven market; incorporating an expanded service line under the original brand and gaining market recognition for those additional services; and managing the brand across the Asian region with an effective balance of standardization vs. local adaptation.
Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd., the most famous Chinese beer producer, was surpassed by Yanjing Beer in the mid-1990s due to an inefficient operations system and fierce competition from home and overseas competitors. From 1994 to 2002, Tsingtao Brewery took over 47 small and medium-size companies and regained its dominant position in the beer industry. However, the quick expansion incurred many problems--capital and managerial pool bottlenecks, cultural conflicts, multiple brands, low profitability, and the other ailments associated with being such a big company. In July 2001, general manager Zuoyi died suddenly of a heart attack and Jin Zhiguo succeeded Peng. Jin decided to transform the business strategy of Tsingtao Brewery from "growing large to become powerful" to "growing powerful to become large," which focused on post-acquisition integration.
The national manager for technical training at Mercedes-Benz USA is considering using streaming media and distance learning as a supplement to classroom-based education, but is concerned that this innovative and risky IT investment could have a negative affect on the company's quality reputation. He needs to evaluate the viability of the e-learning option, including selecting between two vendors, Microsoft and Real Networks.