The management at Monster.com, the leading U.S. provider of online recruitment services, must decide how to proceed with Monster Networking (MN), a new business launched in late 2003. MN helps users identify other individuals who can offer career advice. Monster.com management views MN as: a vehicle for reducing the cost of attracting job seekers to its core matching services and a potential source of subscription revenue. As of early 2005, MN's performance has been mixed. Networkers were deeply engaged, but subscription revenue growth was disappointing. In the face of this performance, Monster.com management must decide whether to proceed with its original plan, eliminate subscription fees to boost traffic, augment MN's scale by acquiring an online social networking start-up, or simply terminate MN.
Exel plc is a global third-party logistics provider, serving clients such as Home Depot, Dell, Unilever, and Marks & Spencer. Describes the range of activities Exel performs for its clients and the capabilities the company has developed. Exel traditionally focused on freight management and contract logistics services and is now considering providing supply chain planning services. Management believes that there is tremendous potential in combining supply chain planning with supply chain execution. However, there are risks involved in entering the new business. Describes the decision in the context of Exel's two-decade relationship with Haus Mart, a leading retailer of home textiles, housewares, and home accessories in Germany.
Majestica Hotels Inc., a leading European operator of luxury hotels, was trying to reach an agreement with Commercial Properties of Shanghai regarding the management contract for a new hotel in Shanghai. A series of issues require resolution for the deal to proceed, including length of contract term, name, and staffing. Majestica was reluctant to make further concessions for fear that doing so might jeopardize its service culture, arguably the key success factor in this industry. At issue was whether Majestica should adopt a contingency approach and relax its operating philosophy or stick to its principles, even if it meant not entering a lucrative market.
In 2001, Seiji Frank Sanda is facing his worst crisis since founding Japan Communications Inc. (JCI) in 1996. His planned IPO was stopped, leaving JCI with a large organization and strong revenues, but losses and a dwindling balance sheet. He is seriously considering severe personnel cuts, however, layoffs in Japan may cause severe damage to his reputation and make it difficult to hire people in the future. Furthermore, JCI is facing decisions regarding implementation of its business strategy, wondering if now is the time to diversify its service offerings.
Introduces the field of project finance and provides a statistical overview of the project-financed investments over the last five years. Defines project finance and contrasts it with other well-known financing structures. Describes the evolution of project finance, from its beginnings in the natural resources industry in the 1970s to the U.S. power industry in the 1980s and to a much wider range of industry applications and geographic locations in the 1990s and 2000s. Provides a statistical overview of project-financed investments over the last five years (2000-2004), featuring industry, project, and participant data. Also discusses current and likely future trends and provides terminology and institutional details.
A previously employed equity trader at a prominent New York investment bank has returned as an MBA summer intern. Her primary responsibility is to assist the heads of the HR department with the integration of a recently acquired California equity research firm. The case opens and ends with the intern trying to manage an irate head of security for a perceived breach of security caused by differences in New York and California labor laws while in between other issues of varying urgency are raised. This case lets students approach real-time post-merger integration issues from both a technical and human relations point of view. Key issues addressed in the case include assembling the "right" integration team, resolving title- and salary-mapping differences, and managing a significant cultural shift.
This case looks at issues facing three National Football League (NFL) teams in 2004: the Arizona Cardinals, Houston Texans, and San Francisco 49ers. The case is written from the perspective of a consultant that will be moderating a debate on business management priorities facing NFL clubs. Each of the three clubs profiled faced different issues in 2004. The Cardinals struggled with poor attendance, an out-of-date stadium, and public reluctance to fund a new facility. The Texans, a new team that had played its first season in 2002, were building their franchise. The 49ers, once one of the league's elite franchises, were struggling with poor on-field performance, salary-cap limits, and an obsolete facility. The case prepares students for a discussion of business management priorities, including competitive success, financial success, and enhancement of fan loyalty and support.
Covers the phenomenon of outsourcing jobs from the United States. Reviews the evolution of Mexico's Maquiladoras, manufacturing special economic areas in China, and information technology and service-sourcing in India. Also reviews exports/imports, exchange rates, wages, and jobs. Considers major outsourcer General Electric's moves to these countries and its plans. Compares Mexico and China, and India and China, asking what the United States and GE should be doing.
Describes the organization and operations of the Handleman Co., an intermediary in the music industry that buys recorded music and resells it to mass retailers such as Wal-Mart. The company provides distribution, inventory management, retail merchandising, and category management to its retail customers. It differentiates itself by keeping track of trends in the music industry and ensuring that the trends in music popularity translate to the appropriate assortments in each retail store. Recounts the changes that Handleman has made in organizational structure, processes, and system to support its business. Describes the challenges facing the president of the entertainment division in light of increasing product proliferation, price pressure, the need for growth, and the advent of online music.
Evergreen Investments has had a troubled history with its customer relationship management (CRM) system. Sales agents feel that they derive no value from it and that it is a tax on their jobs. Evergreen is investigating whether it can improve CRM by making its data available wirelessly to Blackberry devices. These devices would also provide mobile phone and e-mail capabilities.
Describes Yahoo!'s management of the launch of version 6.0 of its Instant Messenger (IM) product, which incorporates features from 12 other Yahoo! properties, including Search, Music, Games, Photos, Personals, News, and Shopping. The integration of features from so many properties--all of which face urgent competitive priorities beyond their support of IM--presents a complex set of product and strategy development problems. Yahoo! has a distinctive approach for managing such "network integration," which it sees as its key competitive advantage vs. Google and Microsoft's MSN.
Managers of DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile phone company, are formulating a strategy for mobile FeliCa: contactless integrated circuits that will be built into DoCoMo phones, allowing them to be used for quick and convenient retail or commuter fare payments, building entry, airline boarding passes, and other applications. DoCoMo's managers must determine how best to profit from mobile FeliCa. The options, which are not mutually exclusive, include: increasing mobile phone subscriber acquisition and retention rates by offering "sticky" differentiated new services; extracting monopoly rents from a joint venture (with Sony, FeliCa's inventor) that will license FeliCa technology to other mobile phone companies and application providers; and profiting from eMoney (retail payments) either through partnerships with incumbent financial services firms or by offering payment services directly.
ABN AMRO REAL made corporate social responsibility central to its brand, adding to customer focus and reflecting its values. Leaders developed the Bank of Value theme and implemented it through activities such as microfinance in poor communities, environmentally oriented lending products, socio-environmental screening of customers and suppliers, employee diversity, and reduction of waste and recycling. Now the fourth largest private bank in Brazil, its top leaders are assessing the first four years and wondering what to do next, as competitors adopt similar practices, reducing its competitive advantage, and as it wants to ensure its impact on social change in a country with daunting social problems.
In February 2005, Jeffrey Tarrant (HBS '85) and Ted Seides (HBS '99) considered their strategy for Protege Partners, founded in July 2002 as a fund of hedge funds (FOHF) specializing in small hedge funds. Protege's assets under management had grown to $1.1 billion, and Protege's development almost exactly mirrored the founders' expectations from 2001. Although the founders saw benefits to growth, they remained committed to the integrity of managing a small fund and wanted to continue generating superior performance for their clients. Should they close the Protege FOHF to new investors and focus on managing the existing assets as they originally intended? Could they continue to increase assets under management without taking on more top-level professionals? Should they hire additional analytical staff to help them grow Protege? Should they leverage Protege's special relationships with seeded managers to create a multistrategy hedge fund? Perhaps most important, how would their valued clients react to change?
Examines the decision of a hedge fund manager who is considering investing in a retail stock. The protagonist is concerned about the retailer's inventory level. Explores the relationship between the retailer's inventory and future earnings--and, hence, the relationship between inventory level and stock price.