The "eInstant Bonus" was an interactive advertising concept designed internally by the Mass Transit Railway Corp. Ltd. (MTR) in Hong Kong. Under this scheme, special discount offers from merchants/advertisers were displayed on a 42-inch Plasma TV in the form of a 10-second static slide or a 30-second TV commercial. Passengers could select items on the touch-screen monitor and a discount coupon would be issued. The discount coupon could then be redeemed for products or services purchased at the merchant's premises. For each coupon issued, a transaction fee of $1.00 would be deducted from the passenger's Octopus Card. This case illustrates the use of information technology by a large corporation for strategic alignment and value creation. Multimedia kiosks are a new phenomenon of the 1990s to provide personalized and interactive customer service on-site. Discussion is provided on the concepts and applications of kiosks for a customer service organization. The MTR eInstant Bonus project is considered a successful innovation by various measures. Also provides an understanding of innovation adoption and diffusion, specifically, how the attributes of the innovation relate to its rate of adoption and diffusion.
China's economic reform program has had many important impacts on business competition in the nation. In many industries, foreign competitors entered, making "strategic investments" that they believed would lose money for a significant period of time and then turn profitable. At the same time, many Chinese companies adapted to the new environment much quicker than many observers expected. Meanwhile, however, a regulatory and administrative system that created substantial uncertainty, links between the state and companies, bank lending that kept money-losing firms in business, and a rapidly changing and reforming economy made business competition in China different from business competition in many other places. This case provides vignettes of four industry sectors in China in which competition was already fierce on the eve of China's WTO accession, including beer, personal computers, steel, and television sets. The class discussion focuses on the nature of competition in the industries and the likely impact of full accession into the WTO on competition. Allows for a discussion of the nature of uncertainty in business and for the development of tools to generate scenarios about future competition in uncertain situations.
ING Group is one of the 10 largest financial services companies in the world. The president of ING Direct USA is considering adding e-brokering to the ING Direct portfolio. He must examine the company's overall strategy, marketing strategy, operations, information technology, and finances to help determine whether the company should grow its own e-brokerage or buy one of three potential e-brokerage targets.
Our Daily Bread was a small boutique bakery, producing a variety of daily and specialty breads. The company had excess capacity and was considering several options to increase revenues by entering the wholesale bread production business. The case allows students to perform process analysis in a multi-product setting with seasonal demand and evaluate the impact on capacity--as well as the profitability of--potential wholesale orders. The case also enables analysis of the option to purchase new equipment.
Insurance giant Marsh & McLennan acquires management consulting firms Temple, Barker & Sloane (TBS) in 1987 and Strategic Planning Associates (SPA) in 1990 and sets out to merge the two. The merger proceeds slowly and painfully. Following the February 1990 merger, George Overholser and Ware Adams face difficult decisions. Overholser, a principal at Mercer, must decide how to meet the challenge of leading an effort to integrate the two firms. Adams, a Mercer associate, must decide whether to leave the firm to join Dean & Co., a spin-off recently founded by former partners Dean Wilde and Dean Silverman. Overholser, who had also been invited to join the Deans, had already declined the offer when the case opens. Overholser, Adams, Wilde, and Silverman are all formerly of SPA, a firm whose culture and business model differed markedly from that of TBS. Walker Lewis, founder of SPA, arrived at the terms "industry knowledge consulting" and "expertise consulting" to describe TBS's approach and "analytical consulting" and "model-driven consulting" to describe SPA's.
Covers the evolution of retail real estate in the United States. Specifically covers types of retail centers, such as neighborhood, community, regional, and super-regional as well as the recent phenomenon of the 1990s to 2002 of the growing emergence of value retail, i.e., discount, off-price, and manufacturer outlet retailers.
Describes how major pharmaceutical firms changed their strategy and pricing policies in the years 2000 to 2002 to respond to the growing AIDS epidemic in Africa.
Todd McKenna, a third-year associate at an investment banking firm, confronts his boss. His boss had told him he would be the top paid associate at the firm, and McKenna finds out that this isn't true. He approaches his boss to find out why he was lied to.
Sophie Wong, president and CEO of North East Medical Services, a health care organization dedicated to serving the underprivileged Asian American community in San Francisco, must decide how to reposition the organization to serve patients from multiple income levels without compromising the mission of the clinic. Wong must reconcile issues surrounding divergent stakeholder preferences and beliefs about the quality of service offered at the clinic.
R.K. Krishna Kumar, managing director and head of Taj Hotel Group, has to decide whether to reexamine a promotion decision. In an attempt to deliver a level of service quality that met global standards at the Indian hotel chain, Kumar had introduced new personnel management systems at the company. As a result, a committee was now responsible for deciding which managers should be promoted to senior positions at the company. Taj's COO, one of the more respected executives at the company, requested that a committee decision be overturned. Kumar must respect the committee's choice or indulge his popular manager's request to reexamine it.
Marilyn Winn, head of human resources at Harrah's Entertainment, must make a recommendation to the company's president and CEO about whether the existing bonus payout program is effective at motivating employees or whether it should be revised and/or replaced. A recent downturn in economic conditions led Winn to wonder whether customer service payouts were the most efficient way to make Harrah's a service-driven and customer-driven company.
Avon has always sold its products through a large independent direct-selling organization. However, it is now considering whether it should sell directly to the consumer. The company's independent representatives number 500,000 in the United States alone. Yet, there seems to be potential for Avon to grow their business on the web in new and different ways. What benefits might Avon reap from using the Web to improve its relationship with its customers, with its representatives, and between the representatives and their customers. Includes color exhibits.
How should WellSpace, a venture capital-backed purveyor of alternative health services, expand? Although it was nearing breakeven in its first location, the right business model remained unclear.
As a major player in Western Canada's real estate market, Mainstreet Equity Corp. has a unique strategy for success: instead of simply buying and selling properties, Mainstreet also upgrades and manages them, thereby enhancing their value. In particular, Mainstreet concentrates its efforts on the multifamily sector, acquiring apartment buildings and townhouses to rented or sold at a profit under the Mainstreet brand. The company president and chief executive officer is at a professional crossroads where the future of Mainstreet is concerned. He wants to ride the wave of rapid growth that his young company is experiencing, yet at the same time, he wants to preserve the values of a small entrepreneurial firm. Control over issues such as quality, service, buying and staffing is important to him and easy to facilitate under current conditions. But the opportunity to expand is also tempting and at hand. Mainstreet's board of directors must work towards a decision regarding whether or not to expand the business, and if so, how rapidly and where? Or if not, the board must decide on an alternative course of action that would prepare the company for expansion in the future.
The president of a new hotel venture faces a financing decision. The choices include: mortgage debt, common stock, or preferred and common stock. The president has to balance the impact of the financing alternatives on the viability of the venture, her investment returns, the investment returns of prospective outside investors and the financial and business risks.
Three years after launching a content-based Web site, a nationwide hard goods retailer invested in software to support Internet shopping. The online component was one element in a multiple channel retailing approach, which also included retail stores, a phone-order service and an annual catalog. Although the company is the country's most shopped retailer, the online retail segment has not turned a profit. The director of marketing must consider the effect of multiple channel retailing on the company's profitability.
The programmer for Camp Happy Valley, a day camp for children, was wondering what he could do to boost the camp's morale and improve its organization. Last summer's disappointing season had resulted in many complaints from staff, campers and parents. Changes would have to be made to ensure that the camp's upcoming season would be successful. The young programmer must examine several aspects of the camp's organization in order to assess where change is needed. Staff selection, staff training and remuneration are some of the obvious areas that need attention. Camp morale and overall environment need a major overhaul as well. The programmer must decide how best to use his own leadership style to influence and motivate his staff to bring about the necessary changes.
A group of international business majors from a large Boston-area university traveled to Spain, France and Germany for a yearlong period of study and work. Some of the students described their initial impressions and reactions to living and studying in another country and functioning in another language. Topics discussed include adapting to life in Europe (including language, pace of life, personal space, smoking, local food, sexual norms, personal appearance, and government and bureaucracy), being away from family and friends during the holiday seasons, academics (including differences in learning and teaching styles), and language. The objective of the case is to help undergraduate students who will be living, studying, and working in another country to prepare for their experience. Supplement cases, The European Experience (B), product 9B02C032, discusses the students finishing their academic term and preparing for their work placement and The European Experience (C), product 9B02C033, follows the experience of one student on his co-op work assignment.