Dr. Richard Planter, a dentist, asks his financial adviser, Michael Saris, to review an offering memorandum for a new, private real estate investment trust. After reviewing the documents, Saris needs to develop an analytical framework and provide concrete advice regarding the investment.
The Singapore Public Library system was transformed from being mediocre at best to world class using information technology, progressive human-resources management, and marketing approaches unusual for government agencies.
Examines growth options for a start-up that has parlayed its core technology in flash memory controllers into a rapidly growing position in the emerging digital photography industry. The new CEO must decide whether LexarMedia should maintain its identity as a digital photography company and pursue market-driven growth by extending its photography presence, or pursue technology-driven growth by applying Lexar's technology in emerging markets such as USB flash drives and MP3 players. Key learnings include: managing new industry creation, managing start-up growth, and the role of firm identity in guiding strategy.
Provides information on the foreign exchange market and exchange rate movements. Describes the different types of foreign exchange transactions, including spot transactions, forwards, swaps, futures, and options. Includes worked examples to help students understand the different instruments and an appendix with additional exercises. A rewritten version of an earlier note.
In the context of Japan's struggling economy of the 1990s, ORIX, a leading Japanese financial services company, implemented a new performance evaluation and compensation system. At the time, many higher-paying western firms were entering the Japanese market and threatened to take ORIX's talent. ORIX's system had always included performance-based pay and now sought to make it a bigger part. The CEO sought to create a system combining the best elements of Japanese Western corporate culture. In 2001, ORIX further refined and expanded its evaluation and compensation system. Several managers comment on the system's strengths and weaknesses. Examines these issues in the light of Japan's economy and unique corporate culture.
The founder of Kids Market Consulting, a market research firm dedicated to kids, tweens, and teens segment, faces increasing competition and slowing revenue and is exploring the future strategic direction of the business. In particular, she must formulate the best plan for protecting the niche market and decide how aggressively to pursue expansion. In addition, Kids Market Consulting is part of her business partner's group of marketing firms. Any changes the founder chooses has to respect this relationship, restricting her options. The over-arching corporate objective for the company is to defend the market from larger businesses that want to increase their share of the market research industry.
Describes the multinational growth of Shiseido, the world's fourth-largest cosmetics company, with a focus on its strategy in China since 1981. Explores the challenges facing firms in the globalization of a culturally specific industry such as cosmetics. The Japanese company displayed an early interest in international expansion, but its early investments were lost during World War II. Thereafter, it sought to build businesses in Europe and North America, but was challenged by market conditions quite different from those in Japan. Even within its home market, deregulation and the entry of foreign firms during the 1990s led to a significant loss in market share. Shiseido entered China in 1981 and built Aupres, a large cosmetics brand specifically aimed at Chinese women. Further growth followed, and in 2003, plans were announced to build a large network of voluntary chain stores. Highlights managerial challenges of growing the China business further in the face of increasing competition and provides a framework for discussing the challenges of prioritizing the allocation of resources in a global business.
Discusses the process of generating implications from life themes, a necessary step for completing the Self-Assessment and Career Development final paper.
An undergraduate business student has finished his first term of study and is pursuing numerous summer job opportunities. He is interested in the field of investment banking and is aware this area requires a strong skill set for financial analysis. A friend, who had worked in investment banking, helps him to prepare for these interviews by providing an exercise where he must match the financial data with its respective industry.
Associate Jack Hereford must analyze the earnings quality of Nuware Imports. His specific task is to assess the accounting policies of Nuware as aggressive or conservative and then recast the current earnings of the company as if it had employed the accounting policies used by its closest peer. A number of adjustments are required, including those related to inventory, receivables, fixed assets, stock options, investments, and pensions. Through this exercise, one sees the interplay of various discretionary accounting policies followed by management, how to infer the monetary impact of that discretion, and how to assess adequately the profitability of one company relative to another.
A senior analyst has recently completed an on-site visit to the Las Vegas properties of MGM Mirage. She must value the enterprise after her preparation of projected financial statements. Assumptions for these statements come from a combination of standard account relations delineated in the case and from specific company projections that must be gleaned from MGM's MD&A. This case introduces students to pro forma financial statements and their relevance to cash flow and earnings-based valuation. Tools relevant to spreadsheet modeling can also be introduced. The case precedes MGM's announced acquisition of Mandalay Bay Corporation in 2004.
While reading the Wall Street Journal, Edward Rogers notices an advertisement for a Knowledge Management Architect at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Rogers is an academic whose scholarship centers on developing models of how and why people cooperate intellectually. After submitting his resume and completing the interview process, Rogers is offered the position for a term appointment of three years. After one month on the job, Rogers wonders how he should proceed in helping the Goddard Space Flight Center become a learning organization. It is, in fact, the kind of opportunity Rogers has looked forward to for many years, but what will his plan of attack look like? How can he help this collection of rocket scientists work better together? The A case presents an undisguised picture of a NASA center that is fostering a learning approach to developing the organization. See also the B case (UV3264).
Takahiko Naraki is a young entrepreneur in Japan who is trying to make his Internet-based business model work in the challenging Tokyo business world, and must make a key decision: whether and how to expand his business. In addition to discussing the work-life balance of entrepreneurs in general, and this one Japanese entrepreneur in particular, the case also introduces aspects of the Japanese entrepreneurial environment including the importance of networking, the business laws regulating entrepreneurial activity, social perceptions of entrepreneurship, and the capital market for small companies in Japan.