Molson Canada produced Molson Canadian, Canada's best selling beer. Canadian's previous advertising campaign The Rant had been incredibly popular making it one of the most successful ads for Molson in a long time, and winning numerous international and domestic advertising awards. The marketing team for Molson Canadian had to find the theme for the next advertising campaign, and must decide whether to move towards more traditional beer advertising or maintain the non-traditional them of The Rant. (A 9-minute VHS video is available, product 7B01A025 containing Molson's and Labatt's advertisements.)
With revenues of over US$1 billion, UPS Logistics Group was a wholly owned subsidiary of United Parcel Service, which offered a full range of supply chain services in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. UPS Logistics was responsible for distribution in Eastern Canada for the Canadian Pharmaceutical Distribution Network, an association of pharmaceutical manufacturers that jointly distribute products to hospital pharmacies. Members of this association are unhappy with the current performance of the supply chain, and have asked UPS Logistics' general manager for operations to establish a set of key performance indicators for the network's distribution operations. The general manager must determine how the logistics would be measured before setting specific improvement targets.
Textron Ltd. is a family-owned manufacturer of cotton and sponge fabricated items. The company wants to expand its business with an offshore manufacturing enterprise that will fit with the company's policy of caring for their employees and providing quality products. The company is looking at two options: a guaranteed outsourcing purchase agreement or a joint venture. After several meetings with offshore alliance candidates the vice-president of the company must analyse the cross-cultural differences to established corporate guidelines of global ethics and social responsibility that the company can use in their negotiations with a foreign manufacturing firm.
A financial analyst for Dell Computer Corporation, one of the world's largest computer systems manufacturers, has been asked by the treasurer to develop a report on the company's recent financial performance. Over the last few years, the company has realized it has lost approximately 50 per cent of its stock. Did this decline reflect industry and market wide effects or were there some emerging problems with Dell's operating performance? The financial analyst must analyse the company's financial statements and the cash flows of Dell and its competitors.
As Canada's largest direct online grocer, Grocery Gateway provided home delivery to approximately 125,000 customers in the Greater Toronto area, which covered a territory of approximately 3,200 square kilometres. Grocery Gateway's management staff was concerned that the company had been met only 67 per cent of its target of making four deliveries per hour. Consequently, the vice-president of industrial engineering and operations had been asked to make some recommendations aimed at improving delivery operations. These recommendations would be presented at Grocery Gateway's next weekly management meeting. There are a number of options that were worth considering. The vice-president's job was to pinpoint those options and assess how each one might affect the company's existing operation. The final choice would have to reflect and maintain Grocery Gateway's focus on low cost and high service.
Blue Ridge Spain was a joint venture established between a well-known American fast food chain and an old guard family-run agricultural company that was seeking to diversify in the wake of Spain's entry into the European Union. The European Regional director of the company has been dealt an unexpected professional blow. After several years of fostering a successful joint venture, the regional director is stunned to find out that the new owners of Blue Ridge want out of the arrangement. In spite of the fact that this particular joint venture has been profitable since its inception and the company has experienced brisk growth during that time, the new owners are determined to end the partnership. The regional director is left examining how he is to respond to a request that he feels is not only detrimental to his company, but also contrary to his principles. He questions the ethics of secretly undermining the joint venture in order to achieve the upper hand in buyout negotiations. As a Greek, the importance of personal relationships and social contracts only adds to his dilemma.
Presents an introduction and overview of corporate venturing. Describes the need for companies to create new businesses, the stages in the process, predictable problems and challenges, the strengths and weaknesses of alternative approaches such as internal venture divisions and corporate venture capital funds, and guidelines for successful practice.
Describes the entrepreneurial process through which the September 11th Fund was created, developed, and operated, focusing primarily on the furst seven weeks of the fund. This case details the genesis of the fund as a partnership between the United Way of New York City (NWNYC) and the New York Community Trust, New York City's largest funders-to its development/fundraising efforts and operations with pro bono consulting from a team of McKinsey consultants. Describes how the social entrepreneurial process was facilitated by key leaders from McKinsey, who were instrumental in initiating and executing McKinseys involvement in the fund development and operation. Discusses how the UWNYC executive staff and the McKinsey team worked to maximize giving to the fund, develop the infrastructure to process donations, and create an early distribution strategy highlighting how the McKinsey team and United Way staff adapted to respond to this crisis.
Genzyme has made money with external technology in orphan drug markets generally considered to be too small to be attractive to other drug companies. Now competition is entering these same markets, placing Genzyme's business model under new pressures.
This case details the experience of Metalclad, a small California company, with an investment in a hazardous waste treatment and disposal facility in Mexico. Led by its new president and CEO, Grant Kesler, Metalclad shifts away from its core business and attempts to become a major player in the emerging market for hazardous waste disposal in Mexico. Despite support for the project at the highest levels of Mexican government, the project fails because of local opposition. The case ends with Metalclad charging illegal expropriation and filing the first ever suit by a private company against a NAFTA government.
Following from "Metalclad In Mexico (A)," this case details two parallel processes. The first traces the process by which Metalclad, a small California company, ultimately wins a NAFTA dispute settlement process judgment against Mexico for illegal expropriation of the company's property in the state of San Luis Potosi. Second, the case discusses the problems that led to the company's failed investment in a second waste disposal facility, this time in the state of Aguascalientes. With this last failure, Metalclad sold its assets and left Mexico. .
Develops a framework for exploring the idea of, how service affects the economics of Internet organizations. Development of the framework requires an understanding of the different forms service takes in organizations that conduct business through the Internet. These forms are described as "virtual" (either pure information or automated) and "physical" (requiring some degree of human intervention). Because the nature and quantity of physical service necessary to deliver value to customers influence the quantity of human intervention required, they also influence a firm's ratio of variable to fixed costs, which alters its "scalability." A paradox occurs: many venture capitalists and proponents of Internet business view reduced scalability negatively; yet the cause of that reduction in scalability, human intervention, often helps a firm to differentiate its offering to customers, thus providing a source of competitive advantage. Also illustrates that scalability alone is insufficient to generate profit.
The owners of the Video Vault struggle to determine the optimal stocking levels of home videos in an industry fraught with new technology, new pricing paradigms, and stiff competitive pressure from large national chains. Teaching Purpose: To demonstrate the role of incentive contracts in achieving supply chain coordination.
The FBI indicates that three purchasing agents are suspected recipients of bribes. After an inconclusive investigation, the agents leave. The superiors are unsure what to do. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
In April 2001, Dietmar Kuhnt, CEO of the German energy giant RWE, had to make a decision that would affect his company's future. Profits in the electricity sector depended heavily on regulatory rules that influenced industry structure and pricing. RWE had emerged through deregulation as one of the largest electricity companies in Germany and a multiutility. Now there was a proposal on the table to replace the largely lighthanded regulatory model based on negotiation between private parties with a more traditional regulatory model of an industry-specific regulator. What type of regulatory regime would be best suited to RWE's ambitious strategy to grow and prosper?
In its first quarter of 2002, Wal-Mart became the largest company on the globe (by sales) and expanded into Japan. Was the giant retailer unstoppable? This case explores Wal-Mart's top issues in fueling top- and bottom-line growth: diversification into groceries, new retail channels such as the Neighborhood Markets, and continued international expansion.
In 1980, Apple was the leader of the personal computer industry, but by 2002 it had suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Wintel camp. This case examines Apple's strategic moves as the PC industry evolves in the 21st century and poses the question: Can Steve Jobs make Apple "insanely great" again?
Michael Bailin, president of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF), embarked on a three-year effort to transform the foundation's grant-making in theory and practice. This case details his efforts to move from an "initiatives-based" approach in philanthropy to a focus on "institution and field building." Bailin felt that instead of simply devising better services for people in poor and disadvantaged communities, the foundation could bring these services to more people through better-run, more efficient, and more durable organizations. Yet, questions remain on whether EMCF can find the capabilities needed for the new model to work. Also, can EMCF succeed independently, or does a shift in thinking of this magnitude require a major restructuring in philanthropy, which would be outside the foundation's control?