The managing director and founder of Bangkok-based Siam Canadian Foods Co., Ltd., was considering the emerging business opportunities in neighboring Burma (also known as Myanmar). Although relatively undeveloped compared to the rest of Southeast Asia, Burma had been experiencing increasing levels of foreign investment activity in recent years. Siam, who had considered entering Burma in the past but declined, needed to determine if the time was now appropriate for the company to enter the market.
In 1994, William Booth, a member of the management team of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, was asked to re-examine the diversification strategy that the $30 billion fund had been pursuing since its inception and to determine an optimal long-term asset allocation policy for the fund. After inheriting a portfolio that consisted entirely of fixed-income securities in 1990, by the end of 1993, the allocation to equity was only 20% short of a 1995 interim policy target of 66%. Booth's primary task was to determine whether the shift in asset mix should stop at 66% equity in 1995, which was above the allocation to equities for the average pension plan, or whether it should continue to some higher amount (an independent consultant recommended an 80% allocation to equity). Booth knew that a higher allocation to equities would likely increase total returns over the long-term, thereby reducing the cost of funding the plan. However, equities exhibited greater volatility than bonds and a higher allocation to equities therefore created some risk that future funding costs might rise above current levels.
Emergency Vehicle Positioning, Inc. (EVPI) has developed a satellite-based tracking system that continuously updates and displays the location of every vehicle in its network. A recently signed contract presents new technical challenges that may make the normally installed system inadequate. While it is possible to augment the system so that it will definitely work, doing so would entail considerable cost. This case is a modified version of "Integrated Siting Systems, Inc." [UV0355]. The only difference is that the latter case provides all possible conditional probabilities, offering a slightly different introduction to Bayes Theorem. In this case, only the recent conditional probabilities are provided. Indeed, except for the name, date, final paragraph (which mentions the other probabilities), and the exhibit on conditional probabilities, the cases are identical. Therefore, the teaching note for the Integrated Siting Systems case [UV0356] is also appropriate for this case.
This note presents a six-step model of leadership effectiveness: (1) clarifying who you are (personal values and mission), (2) clarifying what you want (strategic vision), (3) clarifying what others can contribute (participative leadership), (4) supporting others so they can contribute (organizational redesign), (5) relentlessness, and (6) monitoring and celebrating progress.
This note describes the world-class-performance model developed by Doug Newburg at the U.Va. Medical Center. Newburg's sample includes Olympic athletes, successful CEOs, world-famous musicians, and leading heart surgeons. The model also relates to the concept of "flow" and suggests an answer to the question, "What is the meaning of life?" The note is useful in courses on leadership, career management, and organizational behavior.
Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble is faced with an urgent need to revitalize new-product innovation, given its recent focus on incremental product improvements and its aggressive growth goals. As part of this effort, the company's top executives form a small, autonomous, cross-functional Corporate New Ventures team led by a young former brand manager. Operating within a conducive work environment, the team invents a systematic approach to gathering information and producing creative ideas for radically new product categories.
The DSL de Mexico case series consists of four cases (one primary case and three one- page case extensions) which focus on the ethical dilemmas managers often face in international business. DSL is a $200 million, US-based shipping company, which is relatively new to Mexico. The DSL (A) case documents the history of DSL in Mexico; reviews industry conditions and provides background on the devaluation of the Mexican peso. The case focuses on Lane Cook, the 28 year old General Manager of DSL de Mexico, as he contemplates how to respond to a questionable request by a potential customer. The accompanying DSL de Mexico (B) and (C) cases present a series of follow-up ethical dilemmas for Cook to address. The (D) case can be handed out at the end of the class period as an up-date. The entire case series should fill a 90-minute class.
This series of cases (see also the B [UVA-E-0108], C [UVA-E-0109], D [UVA-E-0110], and E [UVA-E-0147] cases) takes students through five design-and-manufacturing decisions confronting Albin Kalin, managing director of Rohner Textil AG, a textiles manufacturer in northeastern Switzerland. Faced with community pressure to use quieter machinery and challenged by increasingly stricter environmental regulations, Kalin has committed himself to improving the ecological profile of the mill. He has adopted a set of rule-based design imperatives proposed by William McDonough based on McDonough's concept "waste equals food." Given these strict environmental parameters, Kalin attempts to design and manufacture a compostable fabric for DesignTex, a division of the U.S. company Steelcase. The A case examines Kalin's choice of a twisting-yarn supplier: the two alternatives pose significant differences in product quality, reliability, and performance.
Moral theories provide us with reasonable criteria for making moral judgments and evaluating decisions and actions. There is, however, one difficulty with approaching moral reasoning strictly from a "moral-theories" approach: Despite their knowledge of ethical theories, intelligent, reasonable people make moral mistakes. These mistakes cannot be attributed solely to ignorance or insensitivity or even merely to weakness of character, but rather to a paucity of moral imagination. Moral judgments involve a delicate balance of context, evaluation, projection of moral standards, and imagination. The linchpin of this process is a highly developed moral imagination that perceives the nuances of a situation, challenges the framework or scheme in which the event is embedded, and imagines how it might be different.
A manager's ability to build profitable firms depends upon the business environment within which firms interact. This note presents a framework to help understand, anticipate, and perhaps foster changes in the business environment. Describes building a picture of the business environment as country analysis. The country analysis framework has three interdependent components of strategy, context, and performance. Focuses on identifying and evaluating the national and international context. In particular, clarifies the role state actors, nonfirm organizations, and "rules of the game" can play in firm decision making.
The marketing director of Oscar Mayer faces a series of strategic marketing options regarding established and new products, including budget and capacity allocation decisions.
In July 1996, Jim Gulkin, managing director and founder of Bangkok-based Siam Canadian Foods Co. Ltd., was considering the emerging business opportunities in neighboring Burma (also known as Myanmar). Although relatively undeveloped compared to the rest of Southeast Asia, Burma had been experiencing increasing levels of foreign investment activity in recent years. Gulkin, who had considered entering Burma in the past but declined, needed to determine whether the time was now appropriate for him to enter the market.
The cash flow statement provides a potential wealth of information about how a company uses its assets. Unfortunately, too many readers of financial reports gloss over this part of the document and head to the long-familiar income statement and balance sheet. They probably do this because of the comparative recency of the cash flow statement and because their business schooling did not expose them to it. Contrary to most readers' assumption, though, the cash flow statement does not require sophisticated analysis of ratios in order to appreciate its value. This article provides a straightforward sequence of steps for tapping into the trove of information that a cash flow statement offers: 1) scanning the big picture; 2) checking the power of the cash flow engine; 3) pinpointing the good news and the bad news; and 4) putting the puzzle together. A self-test is provided so that readers can assess their ability to follow these steps and thus use the cash flow statement to generate powerful information about a firm's financial operations.
Didier Pineau-Valencienne (DPV), the CEO of Schneider SA, a leading French multinational company in the electrical distribution and industrial automation industry, is faced with the prospect of failure of joint venture discussions with the US company, Square D. The negotiations have already consumed two and one-half years. Mr. Pineau-Valencienne must decide whether to call off the discussion and go ahead with a tender offer for the US company, and if so, determine how much he should pay for Square D's equity. The case addresses issues of strategic fit between the bidder and the target, target performance, valuation (both base-case and synergies), financing decisions associated with the acquisition, and how the target's poison pills and anti-takeover amendments might affect outcomes in the battle for corporate control. An additional aspect of the case involves putting participants in the shoes of risk-arbitragers on Wall Street through a bidding game to make "buy-sell-hold" decisions. This involves forming judgments about Schneider's moves and Square D's counter moves, and DPV's (and their own) assessments of how high a price is likely to be paid if the acquisition goes through.