Whoosh, is that all there is? On the eve of becoming a partner at a well-known consulting firm ("the stuff MBA dreams are made of"), a senior executive starts to question what he is doing with his life. Walt Shill had graduated eight years earlier from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and had worked his way up at McKinsey Consulting to become the first American partner in the Japanese office. Shill and his family move back to the United States, where he starts to question his goals. For the first time, it seems that Shill has no target to aim for. Having reached his goals, Shill sets out on an adventure to seek his own meaning of life. He gets into good-enough shape to take a cross-country bicycle ride, which he completes. This undisguised case tells Shill's story and what he learned along the way. It ends with Shill's promise to himself to be less judgmental and to start walking through life with eyes wide open. A CD-ROM containing clips of an interview with Shill accompanies the case.
Examines the transition of an orthopedic surgical group at a premier teaching and research hospital from a system in which the surgeons are compensated with flat salaries to a system where they are compensated based on profitability. Allows for an examination of several critical issues in incentive strategy, including pay-to-performance in a not-for-profit environment, whether a compensation system is truly aligned with value creation (issues of quality of care and research time), and the difficulty in designing a compensation system in a competitive labor market when the objectives of the institution extend beyond pure profit maximization. This is a rewritten version of an earlier case.
Towngas, an exclusive supplier of piped naphtha gas and one of the oldest energy suppliers in Hong Kong, invested millions of dollars in its customer relationship management program. The results were higher customer satisfaction as well as new products that generate extra revenue. Explores the reason behind Towngas' choice to use CRM as a tool to strengthen its business and the ways it successfully implemented its CRM strategies. Also discusses why many other companies that had also invested a lot of money in CRM did not succeed in getting the expected return.
Examines the tensions multinationals cause by focusing on Europe's reaction to the growing U.S. multinational investment in the 20th century. Initially, Europeans rarely felt threatened by U.S. investments, however, tensions grew over time. After the Second World War, there was a major political and cultural storm over the "Coca Colonization" of France. Takes its name from the often-cited book by Jean Jacques Servan-Schreiber, published in 1967, which symbolized the ambiguous feelings of many Europeans toward U.S. investment. In other countries, U.S. management practices aroused antagonism.
Examines Wal-Mart's development over three decades and provides financial and descriptive detail of its domestic operations. In 2003, Wal-Mart's Supercenter business has surpassed its domestic business as the largest generator of revenues. Its international operation seems poised to become the next growth driver for the company as it marches toward the trillion dollar sales mark. But problems are starting to surface even as the company is winning recognition as the number one company in the Fortune 500--unions keep pressuring its minimum-wage employees and allegations of gender discrimination are alleged. Teaching purpose: To introduce students to creating a competitive advantage.
Following the liberalization of India's telecommunications service industry in the early 1990s, Bharti Tele-Ventures grew from a small entrepreneurial telephone equipment importer and manufacturer to become India's largest private-sector telecommunications service group in terms of numbers of customers. Attracting over $1.2 billion in foreign equity investments, more than any other Indian telecom firm, by 2001 Bharti had achieved the country's leading market position in mobile telecom service. By 2003, however, the nature of the game had changed. A spate of mergers and acquisitions had reduced the field to the most successful and best-financed contenders. At the same time, telecommunications regulatory changes let in new, lower priced competitors, significantly altering the rules of the game. Suddenly, in addition to government-owned BSNL and the stately Tata Group, India's oldest business house, Bharti was up against Reliance, the largest and most profitable of a new generation of business groups. Bharti's management and equity partners at Mittal and his partners at SingTel and Warburg Pincus had to determine what to do next.
Holt Lunsford is debating how to grow his Dallas-based commercial real estate services firm and how to advise a long-time client who is wondering whether to lease or buy an industrial warehouse. Focuses on the highly competitive and increasingly institutionalized $50 billion real estate services industry, which encompasses property management, leasing, tenant representation, and other activities. What makes Lunsford's firm, The Holt Companies, special? Explores what corporate strategy Lunsford should choose for his firm, and what recommendation he should make to his client.
Indupalma was managed as a plantation since its creation in 1961. Labor conditions were grim, and labor unrest was at a peak when the general manager of Indupalma was kidnapped by the guerrilla group M-19 in 1977. Highlights the importance of corporate social responsibility.
Indupalma was managed as a plantation during its first 30 years. Labor cooperatives emerged as a response to a financial and governance crisis that led Indupalma to the brink of bankruptcy at the beginning of the 1990s. Workers and peasants formed associations to create autonomous business units (such as cooperatives, microenterprises, and associations), which sold their services to Indupalma. The company invested a great deal of resources in technical and administrative training and in human resource development for associates. The performance of workers improved, and the financial viability of the company was regained. Today, cooperatives face multiple social and economic challenges; the role of Indupalma in facing these challenges (intervention, paternalism, empowerment, or indifference) will put to the test the solidity and true impact of the development process.
The B case reveals Bubatunde's decision to let Li settle on a solution to the problem. She decided that Hsu should continue to report to her and not be transferred. Hsu received the news poorly, refusing to comment, and within a short period of time the entire team felt the weight of Hsu's poor attitude. Hsu continued to approach Babatunde about his displeasure, and Babatunde kept telling him to talk to Li-which he refused to do. Li fired Hsu and then asked to be removed as manager and reinstated as a senior support engineer. To continue with his organizational changes, Babtunde hired Li's replacement from outside the company.
This case is designed to illustrate the methods that small-business lenders use to evaluate the creditworthiness of potential commercial borrowers. It is set in South Central Los Angeles, the commercial loan officer is of Mexican descent, and the potential borrowers are Mexican immigrants. The unique setting allows students to evaluate the creditworthiness of the borrower, while discussing many of the nonfinancial considerations that accompany the lending process. The case explores several issues, including immigration, urban development, and the challenges facing mainstream banks trying to expand into new markets.
Describes the acquisition decision-making process employed at Polycom. Focuses on the potential acquisition of the firm's archrival, Picturetel, in mid-2001.
Debra Taeschler, CEO of Grafica, is considering how to structure her agency's bid for the New Jersey Lottery account. The Lottery is facing declining sales in all major categories and plans to slash its 1999 marketing budget by 32%. Taeschler is debating whether to take a conservative approach and submit a bid that builds on the Lottery's current product-focused marketing strategy or take a riskier approach and advocate an entirely new umbrella branding campaign.
General Electric launched Bridges to Excellence Diabetes Care Link, a program through which enrolled physicians receive bonuses of up to 10% of their salary for delivering quality care to diabetic patients covered by a participating employer or health plan. A day later, the Wall Street Journal labeled the program a "bribe." The case explores this accusation and the assumption that purchasers and consumers must explicitly pay for quality in heath care. Also allows evaluation of a specific program from design (e.g., financial reward structure) to implementation (e.g., parties involved). The question of scalability arises, as does the criteria by which to judge success.
In the early 1990s, Enterprise Rent-A-Car was experiencing dramatic growth, but future CEO Andy Taylor grew concerned that the quality and consistency of customer service might become a victim of that growth. Under his direction, the company took the bold step of tying field managers' career advancement directly to their operations' customer satisfaction performance, as measured by a monthly customer survey, the Enterprise Service Quality index (ESQi). Many managers were skeptical at first. But after ESQi was firmly in place, the company's average score for "completely satisfied" customers began to climb--and has been climbing ever since, along with market share.
Open source software programs (OSS) such as Linux and Apache give any interested party access to the source code, leading to a distributed innovation model in which users actively participate in the product's development. Often free, OSS products are distributed under many public licenses, are more reliable, and provide greater flexibility and choice. On the other hand, OSS leads to a proliferation of versions and may appeal only to high-end users. The system leads to fascinating competitive and cooperative relationships among companies, between a company and a community, and among communities. How can managers choose?