Provides background information on copper and zinc markets as of mid-1996. Discusses supply and demand conditions, forecasts of the spot prices of the metals, and contracts for future delivery (forwards, futures, and options).
Managers introduce a new performance evaluation system based on sales growth and return-on-investment (ROI). A branch manager wonders whether his new warehouse should be leased to mitigate the impact on ROI. Formulas and performance calculations are provided. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
Prior planning prevents poor performance is the moral of this case about predicting bid prices on new personal computer display models based only on past vendors' bids. Students gain respect for a set of 71 data points that might be used to explore the relationships between bid price per unit and the specifications and quantities of previous displays. The case illustrates the importance of understanding the available data and circumstances surrounding its collection before using regression analysis to summarize relationships.
The president and chief executive of a hospital, is anticipating resistance to his newly-formed vision for the hospital. The exact source and reasons for the resistance are not totally clear to him. Notwithstanding the difficulty of the change he would propose, he recognizes that the conventional hospital is no longer able to respond effectively to its demands with the resource constraints caused by government funding cutbacks. With varying degrees of support from the administration, doctors, nurses, and other professionals, he has to take action to get the proposed redesign plan back on track.
For years, small companies have experimented with forms of open-book management. Open-book systems have smoothed change efforts by giving workers the why instead of just the how of initiatives; they have enabled employees to think like owners. Now divisions of large organizations such as R.R. Donnelley & Sons and Amoco Canada are finding that opening the books can work for them, too. It isn't easy, and companies must adapt the principles to their own situations. AES Corp., for example, found that it had to declare all its employees "insiders" when it went public. One of the reasons for large companies' interest in open-book management is the success of a role-model company, Missouri-based Springfield ReManufacturing. Leaders of divisions of large companies have been able to visit and ask questions. Other early adopters are also showing competitive advantages. Among them are Wabash National, now the nation's leading truck and tractor manufacturer, and Physician Sales & Service, a distributor of supplies to doctors' offices. Hexacomb Corp. is another large organization that has done well.
Shakeouts are a fact of life in almost every industry--witness the shrinking number of players in areas as diverse as banking, software, and hospital supply distribution. The key to survival is sensing your industry's shakeout before the competition does. And the first hurdle for managers to overcome is the belief that it can't happen to them. It can and it probably will. This article outlines how companies can detect the early warning signs of a shakeout. Explains how adaptive survivors, such as Dell Computer, successfully adjust their businesses in the midst of a bust, and how aggressive amalgamators, such as Arrow Electronics, cut costs and acquire smaller rivals in order to remain standing after a seismic shift. But the fact remains that most companies will get squeezed out during a consolidation. Although it is enormously difficult for executives to come to terms with the grim news, the sooner they do so, the better. All is not necessarily lost: with the right timing, also-rans can make a profitable exit from an industry.
Many companies are not tapping the full potential of their foreign factories. They establish and manage foreign factories to benefit only from tariff and trade concessions, cheap labor, capital subsidies, and reduced logistics costs. They therefore give these factories a limited range of work, responsibilities, and resources. But there are companies that expect much more from their foreign factories and, as a result, get much more. They use them to get closer to their customers and suppliers, to attract skilled and talented employees, and to create centers of expertise for the entire company. The author provides a framework to help managers classify the current role their foreign factories play.
Never has so much technology and brainpower been applied to improving supply chain performance. But the performance of many supply chains has never been worse. Why haven't the new ideas and technologies led to improved performance? Because, Marshall Fisher says, companies lack a framework for deciding which ones are best for their particular situation. Fisher offers such a framework to help managers understand the nature of the demand for their products and devise the supply chain that can best satisfy that demand.
In the past, companies kept most of their research and development activities in their home country because they thought it important to have R&D close to where strategic decisions were being made. But today many companies choose to establish R&D networks in foreign countries in order to tap the knowledge there or to commercialize products for those markets at a competitive speed. Adopting a global approach entails new, complex managerial challenges. It means linking R&D strategy to a company's overall business strategy. The best individual for managing R&D abroad combines the qualities of good scientist and good manager, knows how to integrate the new site with existing sites, understands technology trends, and is good at gaining access to foreign scientific communities. As more pockets of knowledge emerge around the globe and competition in foreign markets mounts, only those companies that embrace an informed approach to global R&D will be able to meet the new challenges.
U.S. foundations and nonprofits work diligently on behalf of society's most needy and yet report that progress is slow and social problems persist. How can they learn to be more effective with their limited resources? Foundations should consider expanding their mission from investing only in program innovation to investing in the organizational needs of nonprofit organizations as well. Their overemphasis on program design has meant deteriorating organizational capacity at many nonprofits. If foundations are to help nonprofits be assured of making payroll, paying the rent, or buying a much-needed computer, they must develop hands-on partnering skills. Venture capital firms offer a helpful benchmark. In addition to putting up capital, they closely monitor the companies in which they have invested, provide management support, and stay involved long enough to see the company become strong.
Susan Carter, a partner at a prestigious strategy consulting firm, is caught in a dilemma she never expected: her firm's most important client has made an unwanted sexual advance toward her. As a friend of Susan's observes afterward, "The easy part was saying no. The hard part will be picking up the pieces." Susan is a savvy, successful professional who has spent the 12 years since business school climbing the corporate ladder. But this event throws her off balance, forcing her to confront some of the most subtle issues of power and inclusion at the highest levels of her organization. Her story takes us beyond the legal issue of sexual harassment to explore how gender can influence who is--and isn't--welcome at the top. In 97208 and 97208Z, commentators Gillian Derbyshire, Anthony P. D'Andrea, J. William Codinha, and Freada Klein offer advice on this fictional case study.
Susan Carter, a partner at a prestigious strategy consulting firm, is caught in a dilemma she never expected: her firm's most important client has made an unwanted sexual advance toward her. As a friend of Susan's observes afterward, "The easy part was saying no. The hard part will be picking up the pieces." Susan is a savvy, successful professional who has spent the 12 years since business school climbing the corporate ladder. But this event throws her off balance, forcing her to confront some of the most subtle issues of power and inclusion at the highest levels of her organization. Her story takes us beyond the legal issue of sexual harassment to explore how gender can influence who is--and isn't--welcome at the top. In 97208 and 97208Z, commentators Gillian Derbyshire, Anthony P. D'Andrea, J. William Codinha, and Freada Klein offer advice on this fictional case study.
Susan Carter, a partner at a prestigious strategy consulting firm, is caught in a dilemma she never expected: her firm's most important client has made an unwanted sexual advance toward her. As a friend of Susan's observes afterward, "The easy part was saying no. The hard part will be picking up the pieces." Susan is a savvy, successful professional who has spent the 12 years since business school climbing the corporate ladder. But this event throws her off balance, forcing her to confront some of the most subtle issues of power and inclusion at the highest levels of her organization. Her story takes us beyond the legal issue of sexual harassment to explore how gender can influence who is--and isn't--welcome at the top. In 97208 and 97208Z, commentators Gillian Derbyshire, Anthony P. D'Andrea, J. WilliaM Codinha, and Freada Klein offer advice on this fictional case study.
Conventional wisdom has it that the best way to do business in China is through an equity joint venture (EJV) with a well-connected Chinese partner. But pioneering companies are starting a trend toward a new way to enter that market: as a wholly foreign-owned enterprise, or WFOE. Increasingly, says the author, joint ventures do not offer foreign companies what they need to succeed in China. By contrast, the author asserts, WFOEs are faster to set up and easier to manage; and they allow managers to expand operations more rapidly. That makes them the perfect solution, right? The answer is a qualified yes. First, foreign companies will still need sources of guanxi, or social and political connections. Second, managers must take steps to avoid trampling on China's cultural or economic sovereignty. Third and perhaps most important, foreign companies must be prepared to bring something of value to China--usually in the form of jobs or new technology that can help the country develop. Companies willing to make the effort, says the author, can reap the rewards of China's burgeoning marketplace.
This case investigates an innovative bond issue by Enron. The coupon on the bond is indexed to the company's credit rating, making it a credit derivative structure.
Describes the evolution of the Mexican economy and its relation with the international capital markets in the period leading up to the Peso crisis of December 1994. Emphasizes the role of "Washington consensus" policies in stimulating the inflows, and the inability of the Mexican banking system to intermediate them efficiently.
Provides a framework for maximizing the value of a plant tour, or a single visit to an operation. There are three principal types of plant tours within this framework tht can provide information about four broad types of operational performance.
Describes the response of the Mexican authorities and the international community to the Mexican Peso crisis of 1994 and the banking, financial, and macroeconomic crisis that followed it.
Describes the evolution of the Mexican economy from 1945 to 1982. Describes the import-substituting industrialization strategy pursued in the aftermath of World War II. Discusses briefly why this failed in the late 1960s and then analyzes the change of strategy toward a state-led development financed by bank-borrowing from abroad that culminated in the debt crisis. A rewritten version of an earlier case.