Enron enjoyed a reputation as one of the best managed and highest performing companies of the new economy. In addition to the popular press, a number of leading academics joined in the parade of admirers. Author Gary Hamel featured Enron as one of the leading revolutionaries in his popular book on radical innovation. Another article cited the company's remarkable ability to embrace uncertainty in a highly dynamic competitive environment. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling recognized that in order to support the evolution from asset-heavy energy provider to a knowledge-dependent trading company, they would have to align Enron's human resources management policies and practices with their strategy.
Fidelis is a large Canadian bank with several e-mail systems. The director of E-messaging must decide if it should standardize on one or more systems. He must analyze the various systems with costs for potential solutions ranging from $18 million to $100 million, and consider system complexity, technological nuances, and tradeoffs with technology standardization.
Hill & Knowlton is a division of one of the world's largest communication services group. Tagging e-mail communications to support knowledge management codification and connection strategies is an important issue for managers. Issues related to privacy and performance need to be considered. The worldwide director of knowledge management at Hill & Knowlton needs to assess the degree to which tagging should be enforced in a communication services organization that supports numerous clients around the world.
Computer School is a large post-secondary, career-focused education firm. The chief executive officer of the school has determined that the IT department is in a state of disarray. The IT department was not identified as part of the core business strategy but is deemed as fundamental to the operation of the organization. Before proceeding with growth strategy, the CEO knew that gaining control of this department and establishing procedures for managing these resources more effectively would be an important aspect of laying the foundation for growth.
Palliser is Canada's second-largest furniture company. The company has production facilities in Canada, Mexico and Indonesia, and has experimented with cutting and sewing leather in China. The company is looking at further expanding the relationship with China. Ever since Palliser set up a plant in Mexico, the company has faced increasing competitive pressure from Asia, especially from China. The president of Palliser must decide what form this relationship should follow. Should it be an investment, either wholly or partly owned, or should it be through subcontracting?
Kobe Steel Ltd. started as a large manufacturer of steel products and has diversified into other sectors including iron, aluminum and copper products, engineering, machinery and electronic information. Headquartered in Japan, it established overseas laboratories that were given technology-based missions to assist with the diversification away from the company's core business. One such laboratory, the Electronic Materials Center (EMC) located in North Carolina, evolved from a research oriented focus to a product development focus. The center's major products were expected to launch EMC in a profitable business venture and help spear head Kobe Steel's diversification effort. However, the organization context and economic environment in which Kobe Steel was attempting this were extremely complex. This included multicultural issues, emerging markets, technologies new to the company and even natural disaster. The supplement Kobe Steel USA, Electronic Materials Center: The Commercialization of New Technologies (B), product 9B04M018 looks at the issues faced in a consulting situation.
Audible Inc. is one of the largest providers of audio content, such as books, magazines and newspapers. The company has a large library of hours of content, strong alliances with partners including Microsoft, Amazon and Random House, and a growing customer base, but the company has lost money since it began. The chief executive officer and chief financial officer must decide how to raise funds to keep the company going, while maintaining its partner and customer relationships.
Presents the dilemma faced by Danville Airlines' management when one of its best pilots is found to have the inherited gene for Huntington's Disease. Although he inevitably will develop the physically and mentally debilitating disease, the pilot, who has yet to experience symptoms, does not want to step down from his position. Danville Airlines explores the complicated issues of employee rights versus public safety, employee rights to privacy, and genetic testing and its effects on employees and management.
This exercise defines balance of payments as a statement of a country's economic transactions with the rest of the world and explains its significance and utility, along with other essential economic terms related to understanding and calculating balance of payments. An exercise for calculating a country's balance of payments accompanies the note.
Why are some countries much richer than others? This technical note proposes a framework to begin answering this question. The first part identifies inefficient institutions as the root cause of the economic differences between societies. The second part analyzes how these institutions change. And the final part suggests how lessons from this institutional framework can be applied.
The CEO of ING Direct (U.S.) has to decide: (1) whether and how to coordinate his organization's branding effort with its parent, ING Group, and (2) how fast to grow the business. Includes color exhibits.
BuildingBlocks International (BBI) plans to accomplish its mission to help children in developing countries succeed in school by bringing management expertise to local organizations. Two years after founding BBI, however, the team hasn't figured out exactly how to make it work. In their model, a firm would support BBI in two ways: by donating money and by lending BBI a highly skilled employee for anywhere from four months to a year. This employee would live in the developing country and work with the local organization to improve its effectiveness. So far, they've not been able to convince any firm to sign on, although few have said "absolutely not." Presents the options for the selling strategy. There are three potential entry points into the organization: senior management, philanthropy, and human resources. Moreover, there are two substantial value propositions: social benefit and leadership training of the employee. Where should BBI focus its selling effort, and what should the main message be? Allows for quantification of the social benefits delivered by BBI and discussion of when and whether this would be useful in the selling process. Rich description of BBI's selling process at a single site makes it possible to draw inferences about what is really going on, why things aren't working out, and what might be changed in the sales strategy.
In China, guanxi, or personal connections, can divide the loyalties of the sales and procurement people on which your company depends. If you're alert to its potential to cause mischief, you can head off relationships that could work against you.
Companies voluntarily reducing their greenhouse gases are helping to shape the governmental regulations that are coming soon. If you don't act now, you'll find your competitors will write the rules for you.
Social and professional networks are crucial to innovation. New research reveals that it takes just a few key players to catalyze the agglomeration of many small networks into larger ones and boost innovation across a whole region.
Nonprofits are putting hard numbers on the value of their brands, many of which consumers trust highly. Such organizations are hoping brand valuation will give them greater influence as they negotiate cobranding alliances with corporate partners.