The Securities and Exchange Commission and investors question PolyMedica Corp.'s practice of capitalizing rather than expensing of direct-response advertising.
Jennifer and Philip Raiser, a sibling partnership who inherited a real estate management and ownership company from their father, ponder the strategic and financial challenges facing their family business. Reviews the history of the business and asks what the best strategic direction is for the business. Considers implications for the business and family and what role tradition should play.
Describes a situation confronting the management of a highly successful venture capital firm in April 2002. The industry has changed materially since it raised a $1.2 billion dollar fund, and the partners must decide whether to scale back the size of the fund.
Alessio Alessi, head of distribution at family-run Alessi S.p.A., is facing price and brand confusion among customers and is considering reorganizing Alessi's worldwide network of distributors. By describing the challenges facing Alessi, an internationally acclaimed design and manufacturing company of household objects for the table and kitchen, the case examines consumer marketing and distribution in general, as applied in the niche market of highly designed household goods for an Italian design factory. Includes color exhibits.
Since the 1970s, world-renowned architect and designer, Alessandro Mendini, has acted as adviser and counselor to Alessi, the Italian household goods design factory. By discussing Mendini's role as art director, the case introduces the artistic side of Alessi, where design ambitions need to be balanced with business considerations. Includes color exhibits.
The import-export trading industry had long been one of the leading industries in Hong Kong. The sector, with about 500,000 people working for 100,000 companies, accounted for roughly 20% of Hong Kong's employment and GDP in 2002. However, in the early 2000s, the industry was under challenge as there were signs that the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions of mainland China might eventually threaten Hong Kong's position as a major trading center. Could Hong Kong's multitude of small trading companies continue to thrive? What were their major competitive advantages? And how substantial would these advantages be? Serves as an overview of an important industry sector in Hong Kong that is dominated by SMEs and presents important strategic issues at a time of economic changes.
Executives who were rated "outstanding" by superiors used humor more than twice as often as those deemed just average. What's more, the funnier the executives were, the bigger their bonuses.
IBM director of web infrastructure software, Robert Sutor, is a key leader in the arcane world of web services. In this interview, he says it's just a matter of time before companies seamlessly connect their systems and software via the Internet through all-but-invisible applications. Web services will change the way we do business.
With companies' financial statements being scrutinized as never before, executives are under pressure to forecast the cost of major projects accurately. Earned-value management lets you do just that, alerting you if you're headed for an overrun.
Many investors and their advocates believe that separating the roles of board chairman and CEO would improve corporate governance. But the practice could encumber well-functioning businesses and harm shareholders.
McDonald's, one of the world's strongest and most recognizable brands, intends to extend its world's best quick service restaurant experience brand into the hotel industry by launching a hotel in Illinois. An industry observer examines the hotel venture's positioning options and the McDonald's brand extension into a different product class.
<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Regional Asia-Pacific Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>Worldwide Equipment Ltd. is one of the world's largest manufacturers of heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment. The Beijing regional sales manager has just heard that the sales performance of his office ranked the lowest among the sales offices in China. The sales Beijing force will not receive their year-end bonus unless the situation can be turned around quickly. He must determine whether the sales management process or a recent new hire on the sales force, whose hiring was strongly suggested by the manager's boss, are to blame for the poor sales performance and how to keep the situation from recurring.
Loctite Corporation is a large industrial adhesives company. The company has implemented the five principles of lean management on its customer service operation. A recent merger of the customer engineering service operation with the dispensing equipment operation has the vice-president of technical service and application engineering looking at applying the lean principles on the equipment operations. The company initially considered equipment a secondary product line needed only to augment its service offering in the support of the core product, industrial adhesives. In addition, most of Loctite's equipment manufacturing activities were outsourced so suppliers played a key role in lean transformation. The vice-president must prepare a plan to implement the principles of lean management while meeting the goals set out by the president of the company.
Paragon Information Systems is a small business unit owned by NewTel Enterprises Limited that manufacturers hardware for information technology and systems integration. The newly appointed chief executive officer is faced with a crisis. Days after his appointment, two vice-presidents resign and start a new company. The new company recruits the entire sales team, members of the technical unit and support staff from Paragon Information Systems, a loss of almost one third of Paragon's staff within two months. The new chief executive officer must meet short-term stakeholder needs, assess, formulate and implement long-term strategies, deal with the competitive threat of the new company, and consider the leadership style and control systems required to make the necessary level of change.
Modine Manufacturing operates primarily in a single product category consisting of the manufacture and sale of heat transfer equipment. A major customer announced the cancellation of an agreement with Modine to develop a key engine component, which was needed by automotive companies in order to make their engines comply with new emissions guidelines set to take effect in several years. However, the expectation that the government would relax emissions guidelines was believed to have led to the cancellation of the project. Would other customers do the same? Considerable resources were spent on this project, causing projects that would be handled by the new product development area to be developed outside of this unit. The vice-president of technical services must analyse the company's new product strategy to determine its effectiveness in developing new products and what model the company should use for product development.
Planet Intra sold information management systems used to share information and data through a Web-based interface, giving the employees of an organization and its respective suppliers and customers access to the services. The chief executive had to determine what changes, if any, would be required to Planet Intra's overall strategy so that the venture capitalists funding the firm could achieve their desired return on investment. He must complete a valuation of the firm and formulate a detailed strategy by which the company can increase its sales and profits, becoming even more attractive to a potential purchaser.