This note provides detailed guidance for analyzing a complex business problem using the systems thinking tools: reference behavior patterns, systems archetypes, causal-loop diagrams, and stock-flow maps. The step by step guidance is intended to help a systems thinker arrive at a clear, organized outcome, such as a presentation to a client or a professional modeler. The writing process provides a framework for approaching a problem whereby the logical transition from each part of one's thinking to the next is in place. Successfully communicating one's views and hypotheses and making relevant, supported recommendations are an outgrowth of using the writing process to support a systems analysis.
As the engineering of state-of-the-art jet engines becomes more and more complex, Pratt & Whitney leaders face major competitive problems. Product development projects are not meeting the cost, quality, and lead-time targets. The leadership develops a design, development, test, and launch system that treats the engineering resources as a factory and carefully designs and manages the work flows, engineering activities, and hand-offs between tasks. There is promising initial success but some question whether the "engineering standard work" system stifles creativity and whether it is appropriate for the work of other professional functions.
Indian Oil Corp., a public sector undertaking of the government of India, faces 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, a number of 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.
On June 12, 2003, the proposed merger of Random House and Time Warner Book Group was called off by the CEO of Random House's parent company, Bertelsmann. The announcement was welcomed by several critics who had questioned the logic of further consolidation in the book publishing industry, citing the power of the major publishing houses--Random House was already the world's largest book publishing company--and the accompanying commercialization of literature. Peter Olson, CEO of Random House, had to decide how to proceed and confront several other challenges facing the publishing industry: most notably, backward integration by Barnes and Noble into book publishing and the potential for digital devices such as e-books to undermine the traditional value chain of book publishing. Describes each of these tensions.
Details events in the home video-game industry from the late 1970s until the early 1990s. Tells the story of the rise and fall of Atari Corp., the dominant player in arcade and home video games in the 1970s and early 1980s. During this period, Atari became the fastest growing company in the history of the United States, but the wild ride came to a crashing halt in 1983, when the bottom dropped out of the video-game market, partly as a result of Atari's actions (or inaction). Describes Nintendo's revival of the home video game industry in the mid-1980s and its dominance of the market in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Addresses the creation of value by sparking dormant demand and the capture of value relative to other players in the industry. Part of a case series examining the competitive dynamics in the home video-game industry from 1970 into the new millennium. A rewritten version of two earlier cases.
Part of a series on the home video game industry that illustrates the underlying economics and competitive dynamics of the industry. Provides general information about the industry.
Central to the work of leaders and professionals are tasks that entail harming one party to deliver benefits or advance valued and worthy goals. Sometimes a person must, as part of his or her job, perform an act that causes emotional, material, or physical harm to another human being in the service of achieving a greater good or purpose. Examples in management include firing people, laying people off, delivering bad news, delivering negative performance feedback, and, in medicine, performing a painful procedure. Through a series of introspective questions, punctuated by small group discussions and concluding with a large group discussion of insights, students and practicing professionals are better equipped to manage the challenges of necessary evils.
The Developmental Network Questionnaire is an instrument designed to reveal information about the sources of developmental assistance in an individual's career. Teaching Purpose: To facilitate a session on developmental relationships. Includes color exhibits.
Reggae music has swept the world. From its origins in Jamaica, it can now be heard in clubs and bars from Senegal to Samoa. It has also influenced music from other countries, such as American rap. In the late 1990s, annual sales of reggae recordings were estimated to be $1.2 billion, of which Jamaican musicians, producers, and songwriters earned about $300 million, plus another $50 million from live performances and ancillary product sales. Describes the evolution of Jamaican musical forms, the development of the country's music industry, and the industry's structure in the early 21st century; introduces the concept of industrial clusters--localized groups of firms that grow around a single industry and include all the necessary supporting companies required by the industry; and asks how industrial clusters provide benefits to participants, how they can be grown, and how a developing country can build an industry.
With the increased liquidity in markets for credit derivatives around the turn of the century, coupled with dramatically increased corporate default rates, fixed-income investors and buyers of credit protection were receptive to a new generation of structured credit products that would further enhance their abilities to transfer credit risk efficiently, especially products offering improved liquidity and diversification. In April 2003, Morgan Stanley partnered with JPMorgan to co-market and co-design a suite of credit indices. Their first product, named TRAC-X, was a portfolio of underlying, single-name, credit default swaps. To enhance liquidity and make TRAC-X the new benchmark for credit trading, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan offered to make two-sided markets (subject to market conditions) at bounded bid-offer spreads and licensed TRAC-X to other dealers. In early 2004, Lisa Watkinson was the executive director and global product manager for credit default swap and credit indexation products at Morgan Stanley in New York, responsible for the development and marketing of all credit derivatives and credit indexation products globally. Recently, the TRAC-X products had faced criticism in the market and, opportunistically, competing basket credit products had been launched. Although Morgan Stanley was still at the leading edge of an explosive and profitable line of structured credit products, Watkinson faced significant business development risk, trying to maintain the liquidity associated with her first-mover advantage.
The Cartwright Lumber Co. faces a need for increased bank financing due to its rapid sales growth and low profitability. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
Prepares students to view "Path to War"--a movie that depicts the decision-making processes employed by President Lyndon Johnson and his advisers during the Vietnam War. Provides a brief history of the conflict in Vietnam prior to Johnson's decision to commit American combat troops and biographical information about Johnson and the other key participants in the decision-making process.
Family members who either own a business or who could inherit ownership in a business are helped to clarify how they would like to have the business owned in the future.
The Central Intelligence Agency establishes a venture-enabled fund, In-Q-Tel, to allow it to access cutting-edge technologies. Fund managers face a variety of difficulties, some similar to those facing other institutionally affiliated venture funds and some unique.
Lilly ICOS is preparing to launch Cialis, a prescription drug that treats erectile dysfunction, and executives must decide how to position Cialis against market leader Viagra and recent entrant Levitra.