Through a series of mergers, Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon chairman and CEO, successfully shared the co-CEO title twice while building the largest telecom company in the United States. The strong and complementary cultures of the companies that Seidenberg and a key group of executives had merged was a major factor in their success. However, in the steps leading up to this, decreased revenues in their traditional wireline business intensified their dependence on the growth of wireless and broadband services. As Verizon moved into this less familiar territory, the culture that had sustained them through change would have to be evaluated as they embarked on a new wave of growth. As the future of Verizon become more dependent on business in areas that bore little resemblance to the Baby Bells, were the lessons from past successful mergers less applicable?
This competitive bidding game consists of four teams, which can be two to four students. (Several games can be played simultaneousely.) Each team runs a printing company that has a capacity of forty press hours a week plus overtime. The case gives budgeted costs, saying which are likely to be variable. Teams bid on lists of jobs and schedule the work they win. Too much work incurs late penalties; two little leaves unused capacity. Four rounds of bidding are scheduled and at the end each team computes its income statement.
HP had been a highly successful and respected company for decades. It was well known for its company culture and management practices--the HP way--which emphasized both profits and people. Changing markets, strong competitors, and the growth of its computer business, however, battered the company in the mid-1990s. To turn things around, HP hired Carly Fiorina, the first outsider to lead the company. Describes Fiorina's strategy and the impact of decisions she made with respect to the acquisition of Compaq and HR policies on HP's venerable culture and performance.
In October 2002, Brazilians elected a left-wing president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, for the first time in that country's history. As markets faltered in response, Lula sought to reaffirm his commitment to fiscal discipline, a floating exchange rate, and inflation targeting. By August 2003, however, his attempt to change market sentiment was threatened as the country faced a looming recession. Skeptics began to worry that the new PT (Worker's Party) government would be forced to resort to printing money to meet its campaign promises. Furthermore, after Argentina's massive default on its public debt at the end of 2001, observers were questioning the sustainability of Brazil's debt situation. Lula was under intense pressure to deliver results immediately and implement measures that would help spur the economy.
George Barker, the 40-year-old CEO of his family's commercial real estate design and development firm, must deal with the unsatisfactory performance of his brother Peter, who is also in the business. Although Peter's performance is upsetting to George, George feels that it will be difficult to navigate the family ownership and other business factors to deal with the problem.
Toyota is a large, international automobile manufacturer with plans to become the largest worldwide automaker, striving for 15% of global sales. Toyota is committed to becoming the leader of the hybrid-electric automotive industry and is relying on changes in the industry and customer perceptions to bring its plan to fruition. Toyota's challenge is to develop consumer attitude and purchase intent from an early adopter, niche market model into universal mainstream acceptance.
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 must assess the degree to which tagging should be enforced in a communication services organization that supports numerous clients around the world.
The senior managers of the India Design Center used 360-degree feedback to develop their team competencies. Now, three new managers are about to join their management team, and Ashok Kumar, director of the center, must decide how to integrate the new managers in a way that maintains the team's newfound trust and camaraderie. Describes the managers' work activities, including engineering, human resources, and finance responsibilities, to allow a diagnosis of how the managers can benefit from working together as a team. Also notes the challenges these managers face as they work with their bosses and counterparts at the company's headquarters in California, which is 13.5 time zones away. The team is one that could presumably benefit from better cross-functional coordination and communication regarding their collective relationship with the company's headquarters in California.
The Shun Electronics' KL Radio division wants to expand the three departmental cost centers to eight, each with its own overhead cost allocation rate. As a result, it appears that the total costs for four of their six radios will increase, while two will decrease. The case puts students in the role of having to (a) understand why such a result occurred; (b) explain the specific changes made in the cost allocation system; and (c) evaluate whether the changes are an improvement.
This appendix supplements the multimedia case, "Hugh McColl and NationsBank: Building a National Footprint through M&A". The instructor can use this appendix as a supplement for the convenience of the reader. This document is not intended to substitute for the digital case. Note that Darden Business Publishing also makes available an Appendix that contains 68 pages of printed material drawn from the case: UVA-F-1420. In contrast, this document is an abbreviated supplement that contains only tabular material of financial information. **************************************** This appendix supports student preparation of the associated multimedia case study. See the abstract and teaching note for that case to obtain a summary of the teaching purpose, subject, issues, and classroom applications. Information contained in this appendix is a subset of the information available in the multimedia case and is prepared mainly for the convenience of the student. In particular, this appendix would be useful in executive education settings and where the student needs hard-copy reference to the material in the case. Generally, students who are heavy computer users will find this appendix redundant. Thus, the instructor's use of this appendix is entirely optional and should be linked to the needs of the student.
The flow of product returns is becoming a significant concern for manufacturers. Typically, these returns have been viewed as a nuisance, resulting in reverse supply chains that are designed to minimize costs. These minimum cost reverse supply chains often do not consider product return speed. The longer it takes to retrieve a returned product, the lower the chances that there are financially attractive reuse options. Unlike forward supply chains, design strategies for reverse supply chains are unexplored and largely undocumented. The most influential product characteristic for reverse supply chain design is the marginal value of time. Responsive reverse supply chains are the appropriate choice when the marginal value of time for products is high, and efficient reverse supply chains are the proper choice when the marginal value of time for products is low. Product returns and their reverse supply chains represent a potential value stream and deserve as much attention as forward supply chains.
Although companies spend much effort on the design, analysis, and management of their forward supply chains, they need to pay the same attention to their reverse supply chain. Pioneering firms have learned that making product returns profitable relies on good design of the reverse chains' business processes, including integration with the forward chain. Product modularity offers new possibilities for supply chain design. Optimal closed-loop supply chain management requires three things. First, the type of return needs to be matched with the appropriate closed-loop supply chain. Second, through modular reuse, it is possible to regain optimal value in closed-loop applications. Third, the value of reuse information may in some cases be higher than the value of the returns themselves.
Information and communication technology can help companies realize new, innovative business opportunities in the area of closed-loop supply chains. Examines closed-loop supply chains from three perspectives: processes, customers, and products. Exploiting the possibilities of closed-loop supply chains involves handling uncertainties by providing adequate information. Information on recovery options for a product, product preferences of the customer, and the state of the product can be used to reduce uncertainty. Data that is retrieved from the closed-loop supply chain by new technologies can be transformed into management information in a systematic way. Presents a framework to address uncertainty reduction strategies.
An increasing number of firms in Asia, Europe, and North America engage in voluntary or mandatory end-of-life product management. Because developments in product take-back are driven by a mixture of environmental concerns and economic opportunities, the most promising corporate end-of-life strategies create both economic and environmental value. Introduces a framework that can help managers identify and assess such supply loop strategies. Application of the framework to two specific supply loops demonstrates the usefulness of the framework: recycling and reuse of structural steel sections in the U.K. construction sector. Highlights the importance of supply chain constraints and also shows how lack of data can be a major obstacle to the evaluation of potential win-win supply loops.
Details the planning, implementation, and assessment of a worldwide electronics packaging take-back system by a key supply chain partner. The take-back system was a financial and environmental trade-off between reducing cardboard packaging against increased use of ground and water transportation. Through Internet-enabled life cycle analysis, the new system was shown to reduce waste as well as energy and environmental impacts significantly. The formal introduction of such methods in the electronics industry could save $150 million as well as billions of pounds of waste.
A growing concern for durable product manufacturers is how to manage the products they manufacture when they reach their end of life (EOL). In part, this attention is motivated by a growing number of countries across Europe and East Asia that are enacting legislation that imposes greater responsibilities on manufacturers for managing their EOL products. Even in nonregulated markets, however, some manufacturers are engaging in product recovery to reduce production costs, enhance brand image, meet changing customer expectations, protect aftermarkets, and preempt pending legislation or regulations. Explains when manufacturers should engage in product recovery efforts through partnerships, alliances, or vertical integration and when they should leave this task to independent firms. Technologies that enhance the productivity of product recovery, the level of uncertainty associated with reverse logistics, diverse manufacturing-related capabilities, the uniqueness of recovered assets, and the desire to avoid dependence on other organizations are key determinants that shape the industrial organization of EOL product recovery.
The resignation of Mississippi Senator Trent Lott from his position as Majority Leader was an event unprecedented in the history of the US Senate. It occurred precipitously, in the wake of remarks he had made at an event where no one expected controversy-the 100th birthday party of the Senate's oldest member, South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. Lott's remarks, in which he praised Thurmond's 1948 run for the Presidency as the candidate of the segregationist Dixiecrat Party, only gradually sparked a firestorm, however. This case tells the story of how the controversy grew, with particular emphasis on the role of non-traditional media-specifically on the role of those political writers who distributed their views through "web logs". The case describes how the Lott story spread from the keyboards of such "bloggers" to the more mainstream print and television press-to the point at which public pressure culminated in Lott's resignation from the Senate leadership. This case allows for discussion of the evolution of the press, as new electronic media facilitated the efforts of a range of voices to reach a wider public, and of the life-cycle of what some have termed press feeding frenzies, wherein the fate of major public officials or policy issues seemingly follows a sort of dramatic script, as they take center stage in the reporting of the moment. The case can be used either by those with a special interest in the way in which public officials deal with the press, or by those with a special interest in the internal dynamics of the mass media. It can be used in conjunction with "Managing a Press Feeding Frenzy" (1135.0, 1135.1), "Breaking the Bad News: Divad" (841.0), and/or "Siege Mentality: ABC, the White House and the Iran Hostage Crisis " (823.0). HKS Case Number 1731.0.