A new administration in the City of Indianapolis is initially determined to privatize many municipal services. Before taking this action, however, the city managers want to know the current cost of performing these services with the municipal workers. Existing financial systems record how much the city has been spending by functional categories and departments, but contain no information about the cost of providing services. The city establishes a task force to develop activity-based (ABC) estimates of the cost of filling potholes. It shows the information to the municipal workers and allows them to institute new cost-saving procedures so they can submit their own bid in competition with private contractors. This case describes the development of the ABC model and the reaction of the city workers to the newly revealed information.
In 1995, Toshiba was the market leader in portable computer sales worldwide. This case describes the assembly of portable notebook computers in Toshiba's Ome factory in Ome, Japan, providing insights into some of the reasons for Toshiba's success. In addition to describing production techniques such as dynamic line balancing, this case probes the nature of the Japanese workforce and the unique problems faced by Japanese businesses.
On April 12, 1995, Kirk Kerkorian made an unsolicited offer to buy the outstanding shares of Chrysler Corp. This case analyzes the proposed deal and addresses the key contextual elements contributing to the takeover attempt.
Executive Vice President Durk Jager was convinced that the huge sums being spent on trade and consumer promotion could be put to better use, and that P&G should overhaul its pricing strategy to one of consistent list prices with little, if any, promotional spending. Two category managers (for hand-dishwashing liquids Dawn, Ivory, and Joy, and for Folgers coffee) were considering the potential consequences of putting their products on the "value pricing" bandwagon. Should they implement value pricing? And if so, how much should they reduce list prices for these national brands? Major changes to the original budget and marketing plan would be required, and these changes would have to be accomplished without compromising the profitability of the category.
E. Rachel Hubka, general manager of a Chicago school bus company, has the opportunity to start her own bus business. The industry she will be entering is highly competitive, heavily regulated, and faces chronic labor shortages. Hubka hopes to tap a new labor pool and help her community by locating her business in an inner-city neighborhood that most business has abandoned. But this approach invites a new risk: relying on workers with marginal work experience.
A professional turnaround manager attempts to implement a massive global downsizing program at the world's largest producer of consumer tissue products. The plan involves laying off almost one third of the company's 34,000 hourly and salaried employees and dramatically changing the company's business focus through massive asset sales-all in less than a year.
People from different national cultures often operate under different assumptions about what is appropriate behavior. In organizational settings, these cultural differences in underlying assumptions can significantly affect interactions when individuals from various nationalities meet. This note describes a landmark study by Geert Hofstede of the impact of national culture on the work-related attitudes and values of IBM employees in 40 countries.
Describes a manager's role in developing a staff group responsible for enhancing the efficiency of Xerox's worldwide logistics and inventory management systems. Illustrates a range of management strategies for upward and lateral influence in a complex organizational context, as well as the use of a number of innovative human resource management techniques. If used with John A. Clendenin it allows for the discussion of career development issues.
Materials Technology Corp. (MTC), a high-tech materials company, is struggling in its development portfolio and to achieve a better record of delivering new products on time.
Biogen, Inc., a Cambridge, MA-based biotechnology company, is wrapping up a project to develop a new manufacturing process for a new drug product that will reposition the company from a purely research-oriented company to a fully integrated pharmaceutical manufacturing organization. Morris Rosenburg, a senior scientist at Biogen, has been asked to perform a major evaluation of the project in order to report on lessons learned as well as to make recommendations on how to improve project management moving forward.
Describes the application of statistical process control in a service industry. In this case, Annette Kluck must decide how to adopt manufacturing-based principles to a service process ranging from customer account setup to legal services.
The human resources/operations manager must design an action plan to implement the mission statement he has developed: the store will offer the best in customer satisfaction. The challenge lies in translating this goal into specific actions for the three groups of employees involved in sales: sales supervisors, department heads, and sales associates. Each of these groups will play a different role in attaining the goal and, therefore, each group will require training and motivation.