Neal Keny-Guyer, CEO of Mercy Corps International, built his organization by following the advice of Theodore Roosevelt: "Be smart enough to hire good people and have sense enough to get out of their way." For eight years, Keny-Guyer helped Mercy Corps grow in size and scope and by 2001, delivered $117 million in social programs to people in over 30 countries. Convinced that much of that success had come from empowering front-line managers to lead the agency by pursuing opportunities in the field, he wanted to continue the approach. But, recent experiences in Afghanistan had exposed some weaknesses in Mercy Corps' ability to maintain an entrepreneurial approach in an emergency situation. What had worked so well in an organization of 200 was encountering difficulties now that worldwide staff exceeded 2,000. At a global leadership conference in late October 2002, Keny-Guyer met with his senior leadership team. In addition to wrestling with the political complexities of working in Iraq, he wanted to get their input on how Mercy Corps should respond if they decided it was the right course of action.
The proposed sale of Hershey Foods during the summer of 2002 captured headlines and imaginations. Six months after making its decision to explore a potential sale, the board of the Hershey Trust Company was examining two serious offers: a joint bid from Cadbury Schweppes PLC and Nestle S.A. and an independent bid from the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. In essence, the board faced both an economic and a governance decision. On the economic side, the board needed to determine the value of Hershey as a stand-alone entity compared with the bids being offered. On the governance side, the board needed to decide whether selling Hershey compromised the board's original mandate from Milton Hershey.
Contains four short stories about small firms challenging large firms. Illustrates some of the ideas that have been termed "judo strategy." In each case, one can argue that the small firm attempts to use the large firm's size and incumbency to constrain the large firm and provide an opportunity for the small firm. The four vignettes are: (1) Softsoap pioneers the liquid soap market with little competition, at least initially, from the incumbent bar soap manufacturers; (2) Red Bull creates and dominates the energy drink market with little early competition from incumbent beverage companies; (3) U.K. supermarket chains attempt to enter the retail gasoline market but trigger an aggressive price response from the integrated majors; and (4) Freeserve makes large inroads in the U.K. ISP market against dominant incumbent AOL. Each occurrence demonstrates ideas considered "judo strategy"--situations in which small competitors exploit the size and incumbency of a larger firm to find opportunities to make inroads against the large firm without effective retaliation or defense (just as, some authors argue, a small person can throw a large person with judo techniques by using the larger person's weight and inertia against him).
Recounts the history of the evolution of browser market shares from 1994 forward. Netscape's Navigator establishes a huge early lead, but is then displaced by an equally dominant offering from Microsoft. Highlights the role of Microsoft's dominance in desktop operating systems and Microsoft's bundling of the browser with the operating system.
Paragon Information Systems is a small business unit owned by NewTel Enterprises Ltd. that manufactures hardware for information technology and systems integration. The newly appointed CEO is facing a crisis. Days after his appointment, two vice-presidents resigned to start a new company. The new company recruited 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 CEO 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.
<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Emerging Chinese Global Competitors, EFMD Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>The Wahaha Hangzhou Group Co. Ltd. is one of China's largest soft-drink producers. One of the company's products, Future Cola, was launched a few years ago to compete with Coca Cola and PepsiCo and has made significant progress in the soft-drink markets that were developed by these cola giants. The issue now is to maintain the momentum of growth in the face of major competition from the giant multinationals, and to achieve its goal of dominant market share.
Jindi Enterprises is a manufacturer of heat exchanger units for residential and commercial markets in China. Recently, the company's top sales representative, who is also the sales manager for one of the company's provincial offices, quit and joined a competitor. A replacement must be found, however, a delay in choosing a strategic direction is seriously complicating the hiring decision. The chief executive officer must determine the corporate strategy and ensure that the hiring strategy reflects these changes. Learning objectives include understanding that corporate strategy and sales hiring and selection strategy are inter-related and must be integrated, that hiring criteria may have to change to reflect strategy changes, and that sales and sales management practices in emerging markets can be different than those in mature markets.
AlarmForce Industries Inc. is a developer and sales provider of home security systems with offices throughout Canada. Since the company's inception, it had become one of the leaders in the Canadian home security market and had established a reputation for being a technological innovator in the industry. The president and chief executive officer of the company must decide whether or not to launch their new product, AlarmFog, which the president believed represented the future of the home security market. The case focuses on past strategic decisions made by the company in differentiating itself in a mature market. The potential folly of making tactical product launch decisions without a solid analysis of underlying strategic issues can be discussed.
An investor is considering investing in Air Canada bonds after reading an article on the attractiveness of the bonds. Trading at US$0.80 on the dollar, the bonds are yielding approximately 14 per cent. The investor must conduct some financial analysis on her own to assess whether the company's financial position has improved or deteriorated since a bond rating downgrade eight months ago. She must also evaluate how off-balance sheet operating leases would affect the analysis. The case illustrates how financial statement users can use lease disclosures to restate financial statements to fully reflect liability arising from operating leases.
A policy advisor in the Ministry of Industry, working on a summer job, has received an offer from the Minister of Industry to stay in his current position for another year, and to pay for his MBA degree at the end of it. He must decide whether to accept this offer, or leave as planned to continue his studies. He must consider whether short-term financial gain outweighs long-term career objectives.
North American Motors is a large automobile manufacturer. The facility engineer for a particular assembly plant has to decide what to recommend concerning a new oven. The current oven, used to remove excess paint from various materials handling equipment in the plant's painting operations, did not clean the equipment adequately. The engineer, who has been in the position for only a short time, must analyse the situation both quantitatively and qualitatively before reporting to the plant engineering manager.
The health and fitness trend that started in the 1980s and became a staple of American lifestyle in the 1990s created numerous opportunities for new firms to introduce niche products. The founder of No Pudge! Brownies worked with a consultant to develop a fat-free brownie mix. She then designed a lean organization where production, distribution and Internet orders were all outsourced. Immediately she is faced with her Achilles heel, the slotting fees required by supermarkets to obtain shelf space. After two years of negotiating with supermarkets, an important grocery chain finally agrees to carry her product without any slotting fees. By 1997 sales totaled a meager $250,000. Aggressive lobbying with the National Food Distributors Association and a multi-pronged strategy for dealing with slotting eventually pushed sales above the $2 million mark. No Pudge! is at a major decision point. New growth opportunities, such as muffin mix and fast-food distribution of pre-made brownies are abundant. Slotting continues to be a source of frustration for the firm, and No Pudge! is now on the radar screen as a possible acquisition target by major food purveyors.
The vice-president of a venture capital fund is reviewing the due diligence package on a deal that involved financing the merger of two operating companies. He must assess the merits of the deal and prepare a term sheet outlining a proposed financing package for one of the potential investors.
Chronicles the origins and evolution of a landmark intellectual property dispute between Cadence Design Systems and Avant! Corp. Cadence was the leading developer of electronic data automation software used in the computer-aided design of sophisticated integrated circuits. In 1991, four Cadence employees left to form a competitive firm, ArcSys (later changed to Avant!). In 1994, Gerald Hsu, a senior Cadence executive, resigned and joined Avant! as its new CEO. This move started a series of legal disputes between the companies revolving around trade secret protection. Shortly after Hsu's departure, Avant! continued to hire many Cadence employees, including a number of critical programmers. In addition, there was evidence that some of these people stole some of Cadence's most valuable source code. Cadence began legal actions, including criminal charges, against Avant! and some of its employees for violation of trade secret laws. Chronicles the highlights of the legal battle, the marketplace battle between the firms, and the public relations struggle. Concludes by asking what the two CEOs should do in their respective positions. The central issues are: what is intellectual property, how to protect intellectual property, and how to respond effectively to perceived theft of intellectual property. Background on the industry and company is given.
In 2000, the Hong Kong government introduced the Language Benchmark Assessment for all teachers in Hong Kong. As part of its education reform, the government wanted all teachers to take the tests to prove that they were skilled enough to teach. The pressure to upgrade English raised hackles and drew severe criticism from the 75,000-strong Professional Teachers' Union. Provides a study of why the government introduced the test, the critical issues in implementing the test, and how the government is managing the results of the first benchmark test. Presents issues such as the validity of the test, what the testing proved, and what has been solved in administering the test. Also presents the issue of whether the test is being used for selection and/or recruitment purposes.
Discusses Hong Kong's attempt to become a knowledge-based economy, its socioeconomic condition, and key trends in labor and manpower as well as manpower projections to 2005. Questions what it would take for Hong Kong to achieve the status of a knowledge-based economy, what industries Hong Kong should focus on, what kind of people it should develop and attract, and how it can develop its human resources. Highlights the mismatch between the skills of the workforce and the needs of industry, examines how to bridge the skills gap, and outlines Hong Kong's challenge in attracting talented, skilled people and specialized resources. Also focuses on Hong Kong's population policy and its new approach to bringing highly skilled knowledge workers and other skilled professionals from Mainland China and other foreign countries through the Admission of Talents Scheme and the Admission of Mainland Professionals.
Examines the challenges and opportunities that entertainment conglomerate Disney faces as it tries to commit itself to embarking on a "Digital Decade" in 2003. The company has built its business models largely around analog distribution technologies. Although the company has had a difficult time in the past few years, it still generates a tremendous amount of cash.
A new publishing company has just purchased the Pacific Sentinel, a fictional West Coast newspaper. The new publisher is willing to invest $1 million in the future success of the paper and has asked the executive editor and advertising manager to develop a joint plan for how the money should be spent.