As a central component of its Vision 2020 strategy, the city of Wellington, New Zealand has developed preliminary plans to transform itself into a wired city. The overarching project was called Info City. One of the sub-projects was called City Link. The objective of City Link was to create a high-speed digital communications infrastructure for the downtown business district. Fibre optic cable was to be used to wire up, simply and inexpensively, the city's downtown businesses, to provide a backbone network that businesses could utilize, however they wished, to make themselves more competitive. A consortium of interested parties had recently been formed, a telecommunications architecture was being developed, and plans for stringing cable were under way. While the project champion was unclear about the utility of the new system, he was confident that once the infrastructure was in place, ideas for its utilization would readily emerge. This case provides a setting for exploring the issue of the role of IT in competitive strategy. It also raises interesting social policy questions, about who should pay for such undertaking, who should benefit, and so forth.
The purchasing officer at the Hillview Hospital in London, Ontario, was reviewing four suppliers' quotes for antiseptic handsoap. He had asked for new quotes after receiving a large number of complaints from hospital staff about sudden problems with the current handsoap. Testing revealed that the current supplier had changed the soap's formulation without informing the hospital.
Sandra Hawken is faced with the challenge of developing a marketing plan for Romil Reyes, vice-president of operations of Purely Gr...8! Water Company Inc., a premium purified bottled water company in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Romil, a 20 per cent owner of the business, wants to expand the target market from its current client base of Filipino home users. Romil's father, the majority shareholder, enjoys servicing the small client base and does not want to take risks with his business. Sandra is left with the task of making product positioning, pricing, promotion and distribution decisions that will appease both owners.
FastLane Technologies was a young entrepreneurial software company that had developed a powerful language that could help organizations manage, administer and control large enterprise networks. In late 1996 they received an infusion of capital from Newbridge Networks and Celtic House, a venture capital firm. In May 1997, the new vice-president of marketing at FastLane must make his first presentation to the Board of Directors about his proposed marketing strategy for FastLane. The company faced a number of important issues, including whether to focus on the language or application tools based on the language and the most effective strategy for rapidly moving its products into a dominant position in its segment of the emerging market for Windows NT services. Developing effective channels to reach the large organizations that were its target customers was a particularly challenging issue. The case can be used in business-to-business marketing, marketing strategy, strategic market planning courses or in small business or entrepreneurship courses. (A 43-minute video can be purchased with this case, video 7A98A006.)
A bank supervisor must contend with various personnel problems, specifically highlighting individuals- both subordinates and superiors. his immediate supervisor said that the new group was supposed to be great, his new position fun. In the view of his boss' boss, the group had major problems. He soon discovered that he had more problems than he had anticipated. How was he to deal with a dysfunctional group when his superiors disagreed about whether or not there were problems and were also personally antagonistic.
The purchasing officer at the Hillview Hospital in London, Ontario, was reviewing four suppliers' quotes for antiseptic handsoap. He had asked for new quotes after receiving a large number of complaints from hospital staff about sudden problems with the current handsoap. Testing revealed that the current supplier had changed the soap's formulation without informing the hospital.
The rapidly changing environment of the pharmaceutical industry has lead to the acceleration of a rift between marketing and sales in a pharmaceutical firm, and to a stronger need to tightly integrate these two functions. The case is a vehicle to initiate discussion around potential structural, systems, and informal approaches to building bridges between marketing and sales.
The general manager of a beverage company must decide what to do about the declining performance of its' Vietnam-based operation. Employees seem unmotivated and lackadaisical about their work and these same workers blame the weather for the poor results.
The president of Bristol Compressors, Asia-Pacific, chaired a meeting of his top management team to discuss the company's ongoing management challenges in the region. The Hong Kong-based team, known as the management committee, was made up of the president and seven other senior functional managers. Despite attractive markets in the region, Bristol Compressors' growth in Asia-Pacific had not met expectations. Some individuals attributed this to a slow entry strategy, weaker markets than anticipated in the region, unexpectedly fierce competition and ineffective strategy and execution. However, over the last two years a consensus was emerging among committee members that there was a lack of management depth that was contributing to poor performance. Although everyone was convinced that something had to be done, a specific plan of action had not yet been developed. The president charged the committee members to come up with a set of recommendations to increase significantly management bench strength in the region. This case focuses on the challenges of building a high performance organization in a short period of time in Asia.
An entrepreneur is hoping to open Caribbean Internet Cafe in Kingston, Jamaica. He has gathered data on all the relevant costs: equipment, rent, labor, etc. He has also found a partner in the local telephone company, Jamaica Telecommunications Limited (JTL). JTL has provided equity and a long-term loan at favourable interest rates. He is now faced with the task of analyzing fixed, variable and start-up costs, contribution margin, and the concept of break-even to guide his decision.
Examines the on-line division of Barnes & Noble, barnesandnoble.com. The on-line bookselling industry is examined, with emphasis on its biggest competitor, Amazon.com.
Launch has developed an entertainment publication on CD-ROM with 240,000 subscribers and has recently introduced an on-line entertainment product (www.mylaunch.com) to complement the CD-ROM. Deals with multiple-channel delivery and platform selection and branding on the Web.
ONSET Ventures, is a venture capital firm focused on seed-stage start-ups. Describes the principles and strategies the firm has developed over its life. Also presents an in-depth discussion of one of the seed-stage companies ONSET has been incubating.
Mark Johnson, general manager of HCM Beverage Co., must decide what to do about the declining performance of Vietnam-based HCM Beverage. Employees seem unmotivated and lackadaisical about their work. These same workers blame the weather for the poor results. Figuring out the problem and solution is Johnson's major challenge.
After three years of investments, Bristol Compressors' performance in Asia-Pacific has been disappointing. The lack of management bench strength is perceived as the number one problem for the company. This case focuses on the challenges of building a high performance organization in a short period of time in Asia.
Samina Quraeshi, principal of Boston-based Shepard Quraeshi Associates, must decide whether to take legal action against her key employees after they leave her firm to start their own, taking with them key clients and data. Quraeshi sees the situation as reflecting cultural tension between Eastern and Western ways of doing business. This case details Quraeshi's cultural journey from her Muslim past in Pakistan to her life in the United States, including service as the director of the Design-Arts Program for the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts.
Xedia, a networking equipment manufacturer that helps provide high-speed Internet service for corporate clients through access routing, wants a bridge loan to fund daily operations until it raises its next round of equity financing.