Describes a real estate development project in Cambridge, MA and evaluates the market, financial, and design issues in this $20 million mixed-use property.
Insteel implements an activity-based costing (ABC) system in 1996. It finds pallet nails to be its most profitable product and decides to expand the number of cells making pallet nails from two to four. A repeat of the ABC study in 1997 shows pallet nails have become the least profitable product.
Alexander d'Arbeloff, Teradyne's founder and CEO, is launching his company into the software and network testing business. He has acquired three external start-ups and is beginning to integrate them with the rest of the company. While Teradyne's core business--semiconductor testing--is doing extremely well, it has been nearly 25 years since Teradyne has started a new business that has proven to be successful.
In July 1996, Ross Cunningham, director of sales and marketing for the Delta Grand Pacific Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, needed to devise a marketing strategy that would ensure the hotel's success in its very competitive market. Cunningham wanted to ensure that the hotel would maintain and eventually increase its two key benchmarks of performance (occupancy rates and average room rates) by milking the Sukhumvit Micromarket to its fullest potential. Compounding this challenge was the anticipation of a sharp drop in occupancy at the hotel due to the likelihood that an important client contract would not be renewed.
Unicon supplies pre-cast concrete products to the flourishing construction market in Hong Kong. Mr. Li, the deputy managing director, is evaluating an opportunity to pursue a "blanket" regulatory approval for Unicon's custom-designed concrete products with its largest customer, the Hong Kong Housing Authority. This opportunity promised to offer cost savings to both Unicon and this customer, although questions remain about the broader implications for Unicon's manufacturing operations and other customers. At the same time, management must develop a plan to expand its manufacturing capacity if Unicon hopes to capitalize on the rapidly expanding market and fend off new competitors from mainland China.
The Tata Group began the 1990s as a confederation of loosely coupled firms. This case considers the rise to prominence of the new CEO of Tata Group, Ratan Tata, and his attempts to strengthen the inter-relationships among the group companies at a time when critics claim he should be dismantling the alliance completely. Provides an opportunity to address the benefits and costs of conglomerates in emerging markets. In particular, it demonstrates the ways in which well-run conglomerates might ameliorate the costs that poorly functioning institutions impose through their effects on market efficiency.
After 20 years of strong economic performance, economic czar Zhu Rongji considers whether it is time to rethink China's development strategy. The case reviews China's development strategy since 1978 and considers the challenges facing the country as it enters the 21st Century. Teaching purpose: To develop familiarity with China, its distinctive development strategy, and the immense challenges it faces in the next 10 years.
Records the analyses and actions taken by Merck Pharmaceuticals in its acquisition of Medco, a channel intermediary (called "pharmacy benefit manager"). While many of its competitors seem to be faring poorly, Merck seems to have managed the Medco integration superbly.
Rob Parson was a star producer in Morgan Stanley's Capital Markets division. He had been recruited from a competitor the prior year and had generated substantial revenues since joining the firm. Unfortunately, Parson's reviews from the 360-degree performance evaluation process revealed that he was having difficulty adapting to the firm's culture. His manager, Paul Nasr, faces the difficult decision of whether to promote Parson to managing director. Nasr must also complete Parson's performance evaluation summary and conduct Parson's performance review.
For the Novartis leaders, the decision to "use stretch budgets again next year" highlights the tension between candor and empowerment and command-and-control, between the new and the old, between high performance and business as usual, between Ciba and Sandoz. Management must decide what kind of company and culture they want to build.
Presents a valuation problem in a fictitious firm, Digital Everywhere. Students have the opportunity to compare various discounted cash flow valuation models in an entrepreneurial firm.
Presents recommendations for hurdle rates of Marriott's divisions to select by discounting appropriate cash flows by the appropriate hurdle rate for each division.
This case serves as a foundation for student discussion of the estimation of required rates of return (ROR) on investments in emerging markets. An associate in J.P. Morgan's Latin America M&A department (mergers and acquisitions) is assigned the task of valuing the telephone directory operations ("paginas amarelas" means "yellow pages") of a large Brazilian conglomerate. All cash flows have been converted to U.S. dollars, and present values computed for various discount rates. The remaining step is to determine the appropriate target rate of returns for dollar flows originating in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) is used along with a political risk premium and country beta. The necessary figure work is comparatively light, leaving the student time to reflect on the need for various adjustments in estimating cross border rates of return.