From its beginning in 1947, the Torvald Klaveness Group succeeded in the shipping business through innovation and the vision of one man, Torvald "TK" Klaveness. The company grew and prospered until 1989, when TK handed the reins over to the second generation. His eldest son remained true to his father's principals and business philosophy. As yet another management transition drew closer, the next generation considered changes to the founder's succession plan and the company's strategic approach.
The Torre Almirante office tower, Hines' newest project in Rio de Janeiro, was a 36-story, Class AA office tower with an adjoining 420-stall parking structure and a preserved 14-story historic facade. It was completely different from anything that had previously been built in the city. It was also the first time that a developer took the risk of publicly announcing to the Brazilian business community its intention and commitment to complete such a complex real estate project on schedule. It was an impressive and unprecedented enterprise, but at this stage, the project was enmeshed in some operational complications. Several project designs were not yet ready, and discussions among the different companies involved in the development had intensified in the past weeks. Robert A.M. Stern Architects, the New York-based design architect, was debating with Hines about issues ranging from the glass window specifications to the material for the gold leaf lobby ceiling. Pontual Arquitetura, the local production architect, was concerned about the fire protection system. In addition, Racional, the local general contractor, just pointed out a serious problem in the freight elevator shaft that could force Hines to modify substantial parts of the project and, consequently, trigger a new round of required approvals. Includes color exhibits.
Describes Novell's open source software strategy and the business environment in which it has arisen. Introduces open source software and strategies based on open source and offers opportunities to discuss IT strategy, IT management, and organizational change. One key issue is how to capture value via a strategy that leverages intellectual property that is in the public domain.
This case asks students to select and implement a methodology for estimating the damages in a complex lawsuit filed under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Students are given market-price information to facilitate an event study to measure damages for the firm. The case works well as an introduction to and example of efficient capital markets.
This case describes the brand-building efforts of Harley-Davidson and some of the programs the company has used to maintain a dialogue with consumers. The case discussion is anticipated to focus on the causes, consequences, and threats to almost fanatical brand loyalty exhibited by Harley owners.
Pat Tallon is the corporate attorney for Monitor Technology's parent company and has been asked to mediate a job-performance conflict between Chris Kerns, the manager of MT Engineering, and Shannon Allen, an engineering-support technician who works for Kerns.
Four venture capitalists from leading Silicon Valley firms are interviewed about the frameworks they use to evaluate potential venture opportunities. Questions include: How do you evaluate the venture's prospective business model? What due diligence do you conduct? What is the process through which funding decisions are made? What financial analyses do you perform? What role does risk play in your evaluation? and How do you think about a potential exit route? Russell Siegelman, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Sonja Hoel, managing director at Menlo Ventures; Fred Wang, general partner at Trinity Ventures; and Robert Simon, director at Alta Partners, are interviewed.
RelayHealth provides secure, online communications for doctors, patients, and health plans. The company's services include online consultations, prescription renewals, and appointment scheduling. RelayHealth's business model derives subscription revenue from doctors and licensing fees from health plans. RelayHealth recently completed a successful pilot study and has been able to sign on a number of high-profile health plans and physician groups. The company is struggling with ways to spur growth and drive usage and adoption of its product among its three market segments: physicians, patients, and health plans.
From his humble beginnings in China as a teacher's son, a refugee, and later as a salesman, Li provides a lesson in integrity and adaptability. Through hard work, and a reputation for remaining true to his internal moral compass, he was able to build a business empire that includes: banking, construction, real estate, plastics, cellular phones, satellite television, cement production, retail outlets (pharmacies and supermarkets), hotels, domestic transportation (sky train), airports, electric power, steel production, ports, and shipping. Teaching Purpose: To examine leadership.
In the spring of 1999, Matrix Semiconductor was a young start-up on the verge of what the founders considered to be a major technological breakthrough. For more than a year, the company had focused almost exclusively on the invention of its technology: 3/4 3-D semiconductor memory chips that would offer acceptable performance at lower prices. As the company neared the completion of its first prototype, the founders needed to create a more holistic business strategy for the organization. Dan Steere recently joined the Matrix team, and in his new role as director of marketing, was asked to help define the practical parameters of a 3-D product, choose what markets to pursue, and decide on an appropriate business model for the company (drawing on input from the rest of the Matrix team). Evaluates the alternatives available to the company, exploring the importance of strategy and strategic decision making. Also highlights some of the success factors and pitfalls young companies must address as they prepare to stop focusing solely on the definition of a business opportunity and begin focusing on the development of a legitimate new business.
After 2 years of on-line experiments, Tom van Vianen, CEO, felt certain it was time to fully implement STATER NV's new 'e-servicing' concept with a cohesive strategy. Established in 1997 in The Netherlands and headquartered in Amersfoort, STATER had 27 business clients and serviced over 80 different mortgage portfolios of more than 450,000 mainly residential loans in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Their mortgage service operations and information systems were considered state-of-the-art in 2002, but they were moving business on-line while simultaneously increasing the types of services provided and expanding operations into Spain, France, and Italy - within the next five years. In a land known for taming the forces of the sea, Tom faced what seemed like a sea of 'e-uncertainty.' What exact roles should STATER play in an on-line loan market? How should they position themselves to lead in those roles? The E-Servicing Steering Committee looked to Tom to direct them, and he knew he needed a clear vision for the next Steering Committee meeting in 2 months, in May 2002.
To support a strategy that puts decisions about instruction and resources in the hands of school communities, the superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School district implemented a weighted formula to allocate resources to school sites based on the learning characteristics of the students attending each school. Considers full in-district choice for parents regarding which school their child will attend, academic planning and resource allocation by local school site councils, and an accountability system with performance consequences for schools unable to meet academic targets or attract enough students to remain financially viable.
As one of the world's leading manufacturers of houseware products and cleaning products, Hayco produced over five million brushes a month in its Shenzhen plant in 2003. When setting up its new factory in Shenzhen in the mid-1990s, Hayco had to decide how best to manage the issue of staff welfare for its growing number of factory workers. Senior management firmly believed that providing for the well-being of the company's staff would be crucial to ensuring low staff turnover and good workplace morale and, therefore, provided a "Hayco home-away-from-home" for the workers. The labor market has generally always been in favor of employers, and in the mid-1990s many factories were providing just the bare minimum of facilities and benefits for workers (in fact, the working conditions in many factories were appalling). In such an environment, why did Hayco invest money and effort in building the Hayco home-away-from-home? What message or management philosophy did such benefits convey?
When Jeffrey Swartz became the third generation in his family to lead the Timberland Co., he pursued a strategy in which commerce and justice were "inextricably linked." Community involvement, environmental management, and global labor standards became not addenda to the commercial strategy, but integral parts of it. Spanning more than 10 years of Swartz's innovative leadership, this case presents a well-developed, value-centric business in which management faces two emerging challenges: how to measure the impact of its social justice activities and how to export its values-based strategy abroad. Focuses on strategic management of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. The development of Timberland's innovative commerce and justice strategy sheds light on ways in which strategic alignment can provide energy, synergy, and resources critical to developing a successful CSR program within a for-profit company.
Mike Ward, the producer in charge of developing the Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer game for Activision, must decide whether to launch the game in time for the 2002 Christmas season. Complicating his decision are the lukewarm response from consumers to TV test spots of the game and the need to fund a multimillion dollar marketing campaign. Also describes Activision's approach to game development, which was based on a green-light process adopted by the firm in 2000 to better control new game development better.
Management must extract relevant cost data from the company's cost accounting system for product line decisions. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
Tyrannical leadership can lead to extraordinary performance and intolerable human effects. When performance matters, its currency soars. Contrary to modern prescriptions for CEO approaches, the phenomenon of managerial tyranny endures in the business world, where performance matters on a quarterly basis. Several celebrated CEOs and leaders who were tyrannical in their methods and yet delivered spectacular results can serve as examples of the paradox. Rather than make moral judgments on a leadership style unpalatable to many, this study presents a typology of managerial tyrants based on their individual traits, objectives, and roles and offers several strategies for coping with them.
The 1990s saw the world's industrial companies turn away in droves from the strategy of product diversification. The causes for such change include recognition of the poor performance of highly diversified firms, a trend toward decision frameworks based on market allocation of resources among disparate activities, and the rise of institutional shareholders that demand performance and clarity. These developments will continue to raise the intensity of global industrial competition, requiring managers to cope by thinking more about multinational than multiproduct expansion. Will the few remaining conglomerates and highly diversified corporate holdouts remain strategically viable? And what will happen to firms that persist in diversifying outside their core industries in spite of all the evidence?
In early 2004, with the organizational integration of the Compaq acquisition mostly completed, top management was looking toward capitalizing on the potential competitive advantages of the strategic integration of both companies to achieve the goal of becoming the leading technology company in the world. Top management had to make sure that HP would achieve superior profitable growth with its portfolio strategy. This would require high performance from its individual businesses in increasingly competitive environments, the development of new strategic leadership skills to capitalize on opportunities for strategic integration across the organization, and continued significant innovation.