Didier Cherpitel, CEO of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), is implementing a new strategy that will fundamentally change the role of its International Secretariat. The organization is in the early stages of implementing a best practice tool called the National Society Self-Assessment and Cherpitel's challenge is to move forward with the implementation of this tool, while ensuring that the International Secretariat takes the necessary actions to strengthen IFRC's brand and image.
Shanghai COS Software Ltd. designs and develops smart card operating systems. The company's marketing manager must decide the best basis for segmenting the burgeoning market for smart cards for wireless devices in China. She has excellent data on this duopoly market, the segments and their buying criteria. In fact, she already has received significant orders for low-end cards from each of the two large customers. However, she and the senior management team must decide on a market positioning for this young high-tech start up. She must select one of the two major customers whose size, structure and procedures are quite different. She must also decide whether the company should market low margin/high volume or high margin/low volume products. Both products seem to have a very short life expectancy in the face of rapidly changing customer expectations. The investors in the company want it to achieve profitability fairly quickly and still adopt sustainable positioning in the marketplace.
In late 2001 and in 2002, investors, securities regulators, the energy industry and the capital markets watched as the details of behind the collapse of Enron Corporation unfolded. Enron was the largest corporation to collapse in U.S. history, with the company's share price losing most of its value in the 10 months preceding its bankruptcy petition. A large shareholder, like virtually all of Enron's shareholders, was unhappy with his losses and he wanted to know how, despite all the checks and balances in the financial reporting system, this collapse happened suddenly and with so little warning. This shareholder wondered whether the system be relied upon to protect him and what he should do in the future if he continued to invest in capital markets.
The unionized warehouse employees at Tepperman's Home Furnishings, a large furniture retailer, had been on strike for more than three weeks. Tepperman's, a family-owned and operated business, had a reputation for commitment to its employees and the community. Since the strike began, store sales were declining and picketers were causing difficulties for customers and other employees. Management needed to make some fast strategic decisions in order to manage the crisis situation. The supplement Tepperman's Home Furnishings (B), product 9B03C029, looks at the situation two months after the strike.
This is a supplement to Tepperman's Home Furnishings (A), product 9B03C028. Two months after the end of a month-long strike by the warehouse employees, Tepperman's executive board of directors had another key decision to make: should the company lay off 12 warehouse employees in order to reap the benefits of using a contract delivery service? Relationships were still strained within the company and management wondered what they should do.
A top student in an MBA program had been pursued by the top-tier consulting firms that were recruiting at his school. Impressed by the prestige of the industry, he decided to choose a career in management consulting. After less than a year in the profession, the recent graduate is disillusioned. He is offered a marketing position that pays much less, but may be a better fit for him in a number of ways. He considers whether he should leave his lucrative career, whether he should accept the offer for the lesser paying position and whether he could be making another faulty career decision. In the case supplement Jack Harris (B), product 9B03C038 the former consultant reflects on his career decision-making.
Elite Inc. is a highly successful public relations firm. Elite's chief financial officer has been spending 18-hour days in an effort to get his work done. The newly appointed chief executive officer must determine the cause of the excessive workload and develop a strategy to deal with the chief financial officer's performance. The supplement Elite Inc. (B), product 9B03C040 discusses the implementation of the strategy and its outcome.
A year and a half after calling off their campaign against fast-food giant McDonald's, the vegan campaign coordinator of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), contacted Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to warn them that they would be the next target. He pointed out in his letter that while many of KFC's competitors had convened advisory panels to help them investigate the welfare of animals raised and slaughtered for their businesses, KFC appeared completely uninterested in the issue. PETA would rather not engage KFC in a campaign, but if the company refused to put together an animal welfare panel and to begin to look into the issue of how to raise and slaughter their chickens more humanely, all the leaflets, action alerts, posters, billboards, T-shirts and press releases PETA was now preparing would be dedicated to KFC and its cruel treatment of chickens. In January 2003, PETA, fed up with what it saw as KFC's lack of open communication, public misinformation, and outright stonewalling on change, announced a campaign against the company to the media in a news event replete with bloody descriptions of the cruelties of KFC's animal factories. Now it was time for Kentucky Fried Chicken to respond.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducted by its newly appointed music director, performed a rarely heard composition. The musical performance was, by all accounts, superb. While most in the audience cheered the performance, a few of the audience members stormed out of the concert hall. These audience members were largely reacting to the high-tech mixed media show designed by a well-known artist that accompanied the performance. This performance was one of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's recent occasional and innovative breaks from concert tradition. The vice-president and general manager of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra recognized that opportunities existed onstage and offstage for broadening and enriching the orchestra's services and the concert experiences of its audience, in order to facilitate growth.
Canadian Tire Corporation consists of five main business groups: a large retail chain providing automotive parts, sports and leisure and home products; a financial division; a petroleum division; a specialty automotive parts division; and a retailer of casual and work wear clothing. The information technology group is faced with developing an implementation plan for the development of a business intelligence infrastructure and business capability at Canadian Tire Retail. Concurrent to this initiative is the development and implementation of an information technology strategy for Canadian Tire Corporation, which places a number of programs on the priority list, with business intelligence seen as a high priority item for which the organization can score some quick win business success.
Henry Birks & Sons, Inc. (Birks) is a large fine jewellery retail chain. The president and chief executive officer has spent several years streamlining the Canadian operations and building his management team in anticipation of an expansion. Its parent company, Iniziative Regaluxe, is looking for a return on its $65 million investment in Birks. This return will come about only if Birks proceeds with an initial public offering, or is bought out by a major competitor. Although the chief executive officer believes that expansion in the United States is the only way to find growth, this strategy is called into question when environment factors are examined. He must decide if expansion into the United States is the answer.
This note discusses the impact of immigration on attitudes and government policy in Western Europe's three largest countries, Spain, France and Germany. It also examines how the histories and political structures of these countries have influenced immigration policy and the integration of immigrant populations. Finally, it predicts the impact that immigration policy will have on employment and productivity in what some observers have dubbed Fortress Europe.
Pinnacle Technologies is an unusual company in that it acts essentially as a subsidiary of U.K.-based Psion Teklogix although it is 100 per cent independent. Psion Teklogix manufacturers wireless data communication devices that are used primarily in inventory management activities performed in warehouses, ports, factories and airports. In the mid 1990s, Psion gave Pinnacle Technologies exclusive Middle Eastern rights to the Teklogix technology and product line. It also assisted in training Pinnacle's development staff, programmers and sales representatives. By 2002, Pinnacle was prospering and was thinking of diversifying into related and unrelated software services. The chief executive officer must decide to what degree Pinnacle should diversify from its core business and determine what financial and managerial resources are required for the diversification. (A 27-minute video is available featuring a discussion with the chief executive officer of Pinnacle, product 7B03M054.)
Describes in detail customer management strategies in business markets, including selection decisions, design and management of customer relationship strategies, monitoring the health of customer relations, and linking the vendors' customer management effort to customer profitability.
On Wednesday, May 29, 2002, the board of directors of Renault-Nissan BV (RNBV) met for the first time to discuss the state of the alliance between Renault SA and Nissan Motors-two of the world's largest automakers. RNBV was a 50/50 joint venture company established in March of that year to oversee the strategy of the alliance and all activities undertaken jointly by Renault and Nissan. The new company would "steer alliance strategy and supervise common activities on a global level, while respecting the identity and culture of each company and not interfering in operations." Executives at both companies believed much had been accomplished in the first three years of the alliance. Nissan, under Carlos Ghosn's leadership, had improved its finances dramatically and was rapidly reemerging as a major player in the global auto industry. Moreover, the alliance partners were in line with their initial forecast of $3.3 billion in cost savings and synergies promised by 2002, according to their internal reporting. As the board prepared to meet, Louis Schweitzer and Ghosn believed the alliance faced difficult challenges ahead. To what extent would the two companies be able to realize further savings and synergies, particularly in the areas of manufacturing and additional sales? How should the RNBV board address issues that had surfaced as employees of the two firms worked together across disparate corporate and national cultures, functions, and geographies? Ultimately, would the two firms be able to strike a balance between deepening their alliance while "respecting the identity and culture of each company and not interfering in operations?"
Sun Hydraulics, 32-year-old global hydraulics engineering and manufacturing company headquartered in Sarasota, Florida; confronts tough choices due to the economic downturn in 2001. The company leadership debates how to maintain profitability and reduce labor costs without destroying the company's innovative culture, which is based on horizontal management and has no defined corporate hierarchy. This case includes an overview of the company's history, from its founding in 1970 to its IPO in 1997, and asks students to step into the shoes of Allen Carlson, Sun's president and CEO, to recommend specific cost-cutting actions.
DuPont Canada manufactures and sells the raw materials that are used to produce brand name home renovation and home decorating products, including fabrics, carpets, countertops, and paints. To develop relationships with consumers and acquire information on their purchasing needs and purchasing patterns, the company launched a web site that offered decorating idea and product information through a virtual home. After 12 months, the company's project team must decide whether the project was a worthwhile investment and whether they should invest in the second phase. In making their decision, they need to identify the performance metrics to use in estimating the return on investment. They also need to determine whether to pursue revenue generation through the sale of advertising space or online sales through the web site. Finally, the project team must assess whether their value chain partners would be willing to invest in the second phase of the project.