The Zambian government embarked on a divesture of its mining industry in 1992. However, by July of 2004, 67 per cent of the mining assets were still in government hands and the government is still looking for equity partners. This case can be used as a basis for discussing political and country risk analysis, international negotiations, feasibility study analysis, managing strategic failure, and ethical and social responsibility issues.
CQUAY Technologies Corp was a privately-held Canadian software company with offices in Toronto, Calgary and Washington, D.C. CQUAY marketed a patented location intelligence engine called Common Ground. The company's technology was designed for an emerging, multi-billion dollar segment of the spatial information management market. A year earlier, the board had asked the chief executive officer to shape the company into an acquisition target over the next 18 to 24 months. A year later there were no imminent acquisition discussions, and recent customer traction and the sales pipeline seemed to merit raising growth capital instead of following the acquisition-focused plan. The CEO wanted to keep his stockholders and board happy by executing the plan they had given him, but did not want to jeopardize possible customer growth. If he refocused the plan, he feared it might change acquisition opportunities. Without further contracts, the existing cash would sustain the company for only another six to eight months. The CEO thought the most likely outcome was to sell the company, but he needed to make the company more attractive. He planned to present options and a recommendation to the board of directors later that month.
Two brothers have developed Williams Coffee Pub into a 44-unit, quick service restaurant franchise in Southwestern Ontario. Williams Coffee Pub has a very broad positioning with different segments frequenting it in different parts of the day. The brothers have hired a new chief executive officer and they are about to hand significant operational and strategic control to this new executive and the new board of directors. The broad positioning is an issue and the future communications campaign is also an issue.
The director of marketing for Levi Strauss Canada needs to decide the future fate of the GWG brand, a fallen giant in the Canadian jeans market. For the last three years, GWG had been licensed to a small manufacturer, who has failed to meet the requirements in the license agreement. While the director is keen to use some of the latent brand equity in GWG, she know that Levi's and Dockers brands come first and that she can not divert marketing dollars towards the brand's revival. As well, she must be careful to manage her small but powerful portfolio of brands in the five main channels without cannibalizing the already declining volumes of the Levi's brand.
Two partners have converted an abandoned bingo hall into a 40,000 square foot self-storage unit. It appears to be filling up quickly. The father wants to build four or five similar self-storage units each year in the surrounding cities and towns, by converting former factories and supermarkets into self-storage units. The partners want to build one unit each year in order to retain a larger ownership stake and a smaller debt component. In either situation, there are pricing and feasibility issues that must be considered.
The new chief executive office of a struggling dotcom is faced with high costs and slow revenue generation - sufficient to have burned $Cdn20 million, and profitability was not yet in sight. Fortunately, his venture cap company was still willing to advance funds and he believed that he could nail down some elephant deals to save the enterprise. He had the option of chasing smaller deals for immediate cash. In what priority should he attack his strategic issues, and in particular, what size and type of selling opportunities should he pursue.
Eastern Bank Limited has taken over the Bangladesh operations of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International after its collapse. The new chief executive officer of Eastern Bank must make decisions about which corporate banking clients to target, how to develop and position the Eastern Bank brand, what products to emphasize, in what price structure and whether to centralize or decentralize the bank's operations. The supplement Eastern Bank Limited (B), product 9B04A031 updates the situation. This case provides a good vehicle for discussing relationship management in a complex service analysis of market segments and the present and future profitability, so that the marketing strategy decisions are customer driven.
Biovail was a large international pharmaceutical company with reported revenues of $788 million. Banc of America has issued a research report which indicates that Biovail Corporation's financial statements raised a number of issues that warrant caution for investors, and as a result, Biovail's stock was given a sell rating by Banc of America. A member of Biovail's audit committee is preparing for an upcoming audit meeting and considers the implications of this report for the company and for the audit committee.
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.
Indian Oil Corporation, a public sector undertaking of the Government of India, is faced with the prospect of the deregulation of the oil industry in India and the need to compete with nimble new market entrants. A major initiative toward this end is the enterprise resource planning system that the company has commissioned. Now, several years into the implementation, several snags arise; the implementation is clearly not going as planned. The company must decide how to bring the implementation back on track and also use the lessons it has learned to re-evaluate whether it is headed in the right direction.
Agnes Insurance calls in KPMG Forensic to conduct a routine fraud and misconduct diagnostic requested by a potential merger partner. The diagnostic reveals a money laundering operation that has gone undetected for several years. The chief financial officer must decide what to do about the money laundering incident as well as how to ensure it does not happen again.
Money laundering is not an activity far removed from the corporate world; in fact, many organizations are unwittingly drawn into the web of money laundering with often damaging results. This note traces the history of money laundering, explores the different stages in the money laundering process, and investigates the growing phenomenon of cyber-laundering. Its intent is to raise awareness of the phenomenon as it relates to the corporate world and to help inform corporate personnel and business students how it might affect their workplace and their work lives.
In teams of four to six people, each team works to develop a structure using building blocks. Various alterations to the terms of the assignment are made as the exercise unfolds, simulating the unpredictability of information systems development. Difference in the technology available to teams (both in terms of amount and type) simulate the challenge of differences in technology resources and later the challenge of integration, even with standard and simple technology.
Jay Nielson has done charity work in India with Akka International for a number of years. After a recent trip, the president of Akka proposed that Nielson enter into a joint venture with Akka to provide information technology outsourcing services to American companies. Akka was willing to provide $100,000 in seed money to fund the venture. Nielson must decide if he wants to undertake this challenge and what it would take to make this work. This also poses an ethical dilemma for him. Should he risk losing the much-needed funds in the hope of bettering a number of lives, or request the seed money be used to provide direct services to the most needy?
Paybox.net AG was the world's first mass-marketable mobile payment system. Launched in 1999 at the height of the dotcom boom, it had been steadily losing ground. The company's founder, and architect of the technology underlying Paybox, must decide if his product has a future, and if so, what the market strategy should be.
After selling their high-tech company, three entrepreneurs decided to form an angel investor group. The process of generating and researching new business ideas narrows their search to two possibilities: a technology for Internet data centres and a new supercomputer. Both projects were discussed with venture capitalists that were willing to fund the project, only if the three partners managed the company. The partners must decide whether to leave their angel investment group to become full-time entrepreneurs and which of the two concepts they should pursue.
IIF (Institute of International Finance) was eight months into the customized development of a customer relationship management system (CRM) by a small software development firm, QuaTeams. IIF, a member organization, wants to replace its current CRM, an Access database, by integrating member information from different departments: economic research, membership, events, and finance. In addition, it wants to be able to handle the growing number of members and track the interactions between its staff and membership. With two months to go before the scheduled launch, both sides must make decisions to overcome the remaining technical hurdles with the database and security. The IIF must also consider implementation issues and think of creative ways to use the CRM system once it is operational.
Describes the steps the vice-president of human resources takes in revamping an HR function that was noncooperative and, at times, competitive and introducing the company to the notion of HR as a strategic business partner. Explores changes made to the company's compensation, performance management, and succession planning processes. Teaching Purpose: To allow students to think strategically about reorganizing the human resources department to support business strategy and serve as a business partner.