CCL Industries Inc. is one of the top packagers of consumer products in the world. Over its 50-year history the company had grown from a small room to a multinational firm employing 7,500 people with over $1.6 billon in sales. CCL faces an uncertain environment that had already led to a major strategic reorientation when its plan to sell its largest division was cancelled. A global economic slowdown and lower consumer confidence coupled with extensive international operations, significantly increased the risk to CCL's sales and already slim profits. In the past, the company prospered through product diversification gained through acquisition. The economic slowdown and increased uncertainty meant that this strategy may not be appropriate in the future. The chief executive officer recognizes the time, attention, advice, composition and operations of the board of directors would likely have to be altered to reflect this new reality.
Thirty years after its founding in 1973, New York City's Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) found itself at a crossroads. The nonprofit, church-related organization that had long-provided tenants with assistance in renovating abandoned properties and converting them into cooperatives, UHAB was under pressure to adapt to a changing business climate, as the number of tax-foreclosed, city-owned properties declined in a resurgent New York city. What's more, UHAB, led by the same executive director for more than 20 years, faced tensions between an idealistic, semi-autonomous staff and the needs and demands of public contracts with requirements that specific tasks be completed in a measurably cost effective manner. As UHAB entered its fourth decade, a new chief operating officer must address its programmatic and managerial challenges, such that its idealism and individualism could happily co-exist with sound business practice. HKS Case Number 1711.0
Presents a framework for the strategic management of corporate brands as seen from a top management perspective. Describes the change processes involved in a corporate branding effort at the LEGO Co. Whereas much of the literature on branding focuses on the initiation of a corporate branding effort (e.g., brand positioning, brand identity formulation, brand architecture design), this case follows the LEGO Co.'s branding process through four progressive phases: stating the brand, linking vision to culture and brand image, involving stakeholders in brand-relevant activities, and integrating the organization behind the brand. During this strategic shift, LEGO's top management vision, organizational culture, and stakeholder images became increasingly aligned.
An operating-level concept known as a process-complete architecture, and commonly called a cell, organizes work based on the start-to-finish processing needs of a family of similar products or services. This outcome-based form of organization contrasts with functional architectures that group similar activities together, but it offers more flexibility than an assembly-line approach. Research and anecdotal reports show strong evidence for the effectiveness of cells in terms of key operating priorities such as quality, cost, delivery speed, and the ability to meet changing customer requirements. Moreover, they are central to most "lean enterprise" efforts and may be applied to service delivery as well as manufacturing. In spite of their many advantages, not all work cells operate effectively over the long run. Many cell failures suffer from the tendency for organizations to drift back to their previous functionally oriented groupings. Identifies the characteristics of cells with staying power--cells that continue to support strategic objectives long after they are first initiated.
Business regulation is greatly shaped by a theory from economics and political science called "public choice." Public choice argues that regulation is sought by existing business organizations as a means to create barriers to entry for new competitors--something incumbent firms cannot do alone in the competitive environment. The Internet introduces different, and more complex, relationships between business and regulatory institutions as the territorial jurisdiction of traditional governmental agencies erodes and control over technology standards by business and nongovernmental organizations arises. With some important caveats, public choice theory offers important insights into exchange relationships between regulatory institutions and firms operating on the Internet. Examines a specific application of public choice to the case of the Linux Standards Base, an Internet-based governing board for the open-source operating system. The Linux Standards Base provides an example of regulation where the regulatory institution is a nongovernmental entity.
Over the last five years, a variety of market mechanisms have emerged to address various issues pertaining to business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. However, there is a general lack of understanding on the part of researchers and practitioners on two key issues: What are the key characteristics of these market mechanisms? What factors drive the choice of one market mechanism over the other? Addresses these questions through a study of 12 different market mechanisms in 200 B2B electronic marketplaces. Four factors--degree of fragmentation, asset specificity, complexity of product description, and complexity of value assessment--significantly drive the choice of an appropriate market mechanism for an organization. To gainfully exploit these market structures, organizations need to devise new strategies and reconfigure their supply chains.
How can a firm most effectively pursue environmental sustainability? Employs a systems dynamics approach to analyze two strategic environmental sustainability initiatives implemented by Norm Thompson Outfitters. Such an analysis provides a way to identify the key variables and their relationships, the roles of key stakeholders, and the leverage points used to support the sustainability initiatives. The experience of Norm Thompson demonstrates how using systems dynamics can assist a company in identifying and implementing environmental sustainability initiatives.
What motivates business firms to improve their environmental performance significantly? Why do some companies achieve better environmental performance than others? Through a study of 14 pulp mills in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, this article shows that more stringent regulatory requirements and increasing political pressure have brought about large improvements and convergence in environmental performance over the last 30 years, with many mills exceeding compliance requirements. In addition, corporate environmental management style and social license pressures from local communities and environmental activists have prodded some facilities further beyond compliance than others, whereas economic pressures have limited just how far ahead facilities have been willing to move.
Managers who pride themselves on giving employees what they request may be shortchanging women, simply because men ask for a lot more than women do. This can be costly for companies, and it requires management intervention.
People's tendency to hoard their information and release it only selectively is often a core problem in many corporate cultures. But some firms are finding that their employees are more eager to share when they perceive there's something in it for them--like appearing more valuable to their companies.
Airstream's ability to innovate and grow depends on balancing longtime owners' expectations with new buyers' desires. In this conversation, president and CEO Dicky Riegel speaks about making sure that the more the iconic, egg-shaped aluminum trailers change, the more they remain the same.
Regulators are trying to clear up the muddle created by earnings-report adjustments called "pro formas" that companies issue. Constraining such reporting, as the regulators seem bent on doing, isn't the solution. Firms should increase alternative reporting--and fully account for their accounting.
Laura Esserman, a surgeon and faculty member at the University of California at San Francisco as well as a graduate of Stanford Business School, is engaged in a major effort to change the delivery of breast cancer services and the information systems used to support both research and patient care. A true visionary with enormous personal charm and charisma, Esserman has run into obstacles and opposition as she tries to get support in a bureaucratic, complex, academic medical organization. Focuses on Esserman's accomplishments and various other actors and brings up the issue of how she should develop more power and influence to move along her vision.
Set during the devastating earthquakes in 2001 in El Salvador, the case narrates the process of implementing SUMA, a supply management system. It addresses the complexity of a humanitarian operation where numerous un-coordinated parties are involved in a highly politicized environment. Beyond providing managers and the public with information about the amounts of aid collected, stored and distributed, SUMA contributes to the situation with a degree of visibility and accountability essential to prevent the aid from manipulation or diversion.
Dell has recently concluded a site selection process in Brazil to determine where it will locate its manufacturing plant in that country, which will be its first manufacturing plant in Latin America. After a lengthy site selection process in the first half of 1998 involving five states in Brazil - São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, ParanaÌ, Minas Gerais, and Rio Grande do Sul - Dell has decided to locate the plant in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Although a number of factors influence Dell's decision, one of them is the generous incentives that Governor Antonio Britto of the relatively centrist Partido do Movimento Democratico Brasileiro (PMDB) has offered Dell. However, after Dell makes this decision, a new governor, Olivio Dutra of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, or Workers' Party) is elected in October 1998 and takes office in January 1999. The PT is a socialist party. Having made an issue of what he considered to be overly generous incentives offered to transnational corporations during his campaign, Governor Dutra seems likely to rescind the incentives that the Britto government had offered. Given this situation, Keith Maxwell, Dell's Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations, must make a recommendation to Michael Dell. The case presents three possible options for Dell: (1) leave Brazil entirely; (2) move the plant to another state within Brazil; (3) try to renegotiate with Governor Dutra.
A new CEO, Steve Luczo, together with COO Bill Watkins, have led a turnaround of Seagate, raising productivity dramatically and increasing innovation through teamwork, cross-functional collaboration, and other transformations in the culture of this manufacturer of disk drives for computers. After going private as part of the turnaround, Seagate executed a successful public offering in 2002. Several months later, the CEO wonders how to convince investors that the capabilities built in Seagate's turnaround will help the company flourish and innovate in a demanding technology industry.
The Yale Investments Office must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments--hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and so forth. Considers the risks and benefits of a different asset allocation strategy. Highlights the choice between different subclasses, e.g., between venture capital and leveraged buyout funds.
In a world context of international institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund and their interaction with developing countries, this case looks at an African development initiative to address its own problems: The New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). With an emphasis on democracy and governance, NEPAD's primary objective is to eradicate poverty in Africa and bring long-term and sustainable political, economic, and social change to the region. Examines in depth this initiative "by Africans for Africans" and how it is likely to evolve.
This case focuses on implementing and sustaining improvements designed by a Six Sigma team working in the emergency department of an academic medical hospital. Execution details of the various phases of Six Sigma are presented in the A case (UV0339). The team's Black Belt has decided to use stakeholder-resistance analyses to help the team increase stakeholder acceptance of the process-improvement changes that have been tested via a pilot study. The B case asks students to conduct a stakeholder's resistance analysis, develop influence strategies and communication plans for addressing the project's acceptance challenges, and prepare elevator speeches for key stakeholders identified in the A case. The B case also provides an opportunity for the instructor to build on the Change Acceleration Process (CAP) and the CAP tools that were presented in the A case. See also the C case (UV3524).