This case focuses on the contractual relationship between a state's office charged with forestalling child abuse and neglect and one non-profit provider of social services for those purposes. The case points out the reasons the state of Massachusetts decided to contract for services and how it chose to define that contractual relationship. At the same time, the case also allows for discussion of whether the non-profit provider La Alianza Hispana would be well-advised to take on the work proffered by the state, given its organizational mission and capacity. Ultimately, the final part of the case reveals the disastrous end to which the Massachusetts-Alianza contract led. [See also High Stakes and Frightening Lapses: DSS, La Alianza Hispana and the Public-Private Question in Child Protection Work (C16-94-1265.0).]
In April 1995, Greenpeace boarded a Shell oil platform named Brent Spar in the North Sea to protest its scheduled disposal in the Atlantic. This action took the operator Shell Expro (a joint venture between Shell and Esso) totally by surprise, as this was the first protest of any kind that Shell management had encountered. Describes the circumstances why Shell wants the Brent Spar platform's disposal in the deep sea and why Greenpeace rejects these plans.
The protest of Greenpeace against the deep sea disposal of the Brent Spar led to a major consumer boycott against Shell. Within weeks, Shell suffered a significant loss of market share in Central Europe and faced protests from the highest political leaders across Europe. Despite all this, Shell continues to tow the platform to its planned disposal site in the Atlantic. Meanwhile, strong fights are taking place at sea between Shell and Greenpeace.
The board of directors of the Shell/Royal Dutch Corp. decided to discontinue the Brent Spar sea disposal. Nevertheless, the scientific debate about Shell's plans and Greenpeace's protests isn't over yet.
Requires students to value Boston Beer's IPO. Set in Boston in 1995, Jim Koch, the founder of Boston Beer, must determine the appropriate price for his firm's stock in its IPO.
When Washington attorney and longtime Capital Hill staff member James Woolsey became director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1993, he inherited a bombshell that would soon become public. A joint CIA-FBI investigation had found that Aldrich Ames, a longtime Agency employee, had sold intelligence secrets to the Soviet Union. Ames had compromised the safety of Soviets, who had sought to help the US, in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars, with which he bought a large home and fancy cars. The public announcement of the Ames scandal in February 1994 would pose a dilemma for Woolsey. Public and Congressional reaction -- focused on the failure of the CIA itself to detect Ames' duplicity for almost a decade -- was harshly critical of the Agency. There was a widespread expectation that Woolsey would mete out harsh punishment for those who had failed to detect Ames' activity. For his part, however, Woolsey was unsure as to what sort of punishment, if any, was appropriate. As a public clamor grew for "heads to roll," Woolsey would have to consider what was fair to long-time CIA officials, what was best for the morale of a beleaguered agency, and what was expected by the public. HKS Case Number 1339.1.
Many companies today find themselves with a surplus of cash and a shortage of places to use it. In the past five years, more than 1,300 companies have stashed upwards of $150 billion into their coffers. Yet when CEOs look for ways to spend that cash, they find few options. This litany, however, precludes one important option--nonsynergistic acquisitions. A new study by McKinsey consultants Patricia L. Anslinger and Thomas E. Copeland has found that companies can pursue nonsynergistic deals profitably. In fact, their yearlong research has uncovered a diverse group of organizations, including Thermo Electron, Sara Lee, and Clayton, Dublier & Rice, that have grown dramatically and captured sustained returns of 18% to 35% per year by making nonsynergistic acquisitions.
In this double-barreled review, two leading authors present different but complementary theories of leadership. Warren Bennis reviews Howard Gardner's Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership, predicting that it will become a classic text on leadership. Harry Levinson presents us with "The Leader as Analyst," a review of Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries's Life and Death in the Executive Fast Lane.
In the past, companies took a cost-plus approach to pricing, charging high prices when a product was first released, then lowering prices when production was scaled up. Lean competitors make that approach impossible, however, as they are quick to introduce competitive "me too" products to market. To gain and hold market leadership today, a company must design the cost out of its products from the outset. Target costing is a cost-management technique that lets a company do just that: The company determines how much customers are willing to pay for a product and then designs the product within cost limits that will permit it to sell profitably at the predetermined price.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are by far the two most successful and admired businessmen in the United States. They share a unique friendship, a love of business, and a passion for hamburgers and mathematical puzzles. In a review of Roger Lowenstein's Buffet: The Making of an American Capitalist, Gates reflects on his relationship with the man he affectionately calls Warren. In his first-person account of their time together, Gates talks about creating value and sharing values. Of Buffett, Gates says, "I had never met anyone who thought about business in such a clear way."
Is investing in new technology always the right choice for a company and its customers? Allan Moulter, the CEO of Quality Care, isn't sure he wants to invest in the computerized reception system that consultant Jack Zadow has outlined for him. But in this HBR case study, the argument Zadow makes is impossible to ignore. Quality Care's rivals have invested in similar systems or are planning to do so. The new system promises to take care of routine busywork, freeing staff up for other interactions with patients. It seems as if the competition hasn't even cut staff and is counting on increased customer retention to pay for the investment. And yet, Quality Care's surveys of its own customers show that they prefer the human touch when checking in. How would customers feel if the first "person" they met when they came in the door turned out to be a machine? Six experts weigh the costs and benefits of technology in a service industry. In 96106 and 96106Z, commentators Thomas O. Jones, Mary Jo Bitner, Eric Hanselman, Christopher A. Swan, Teresa A. Swartz, and Terri Capatosto offer advice on this fictional case study.
Is investing in new technology always the right choice for a company and its customers? Allan Moulter, the CEO of Quality Care, isn't sure he wants to invest in the computerized reception system that consultant Jack Zadow has outlined for him. But in this HBR case study, the argument Zadow makes is impossible to ignore. Quality Care's rivals have invested in similar systems or are planning to do so. The new system promises to take care of routine busywork, freeing staff up for other interactions with patients. It seems as if the competition hasn't even cut staff and is counting on increased customer retention to pay for the investment. And yet, Quality Care's surveys of its own customers show that they prefer the human touch when checking in. How would customers feel if the first "person" they met when they came in the door turned out to be a machine? Six experts weigh the costs and benefits of technology in a service industry. In 96106 and 96106Z, commentators Thomas O. Jones, Mary Jo Bitner, Eric Hanselman, Christopher A. Swan, Teresa A. Swartz, and Terri Capatosto offer advice on this fictional case study.
Is investing in new technology always the right choice for a company and its customers? Allan Moulter, the CEO of Quality Care, isn't sure he wants to invest in the computerized reception system that consultant Jack Zadow has outlined for him. But in this HBR case study, the argument Zadow makes is impossible to ignore. Quality Care's rivals have invested in similar systems or are planning to do so. The new system promises to take care of routine busywork, freeing staff up for other interactions with patients. It seems as if the competition hasn't even cut staff and is counting on increased customer retention to pay for the investment. And yet, Quality Care's surveys of its own customers show that they prefer the human touch when checking in. How would customers feel if the first "person" they met when they came in the door turned out to be a machine? Six experts weigh the costs and benefits of technology in a service industry. In 96106 and 96106Z, commentators Thomas O. Jones, Mary Jo Bitner, Eric Hanselman, Christopher A. Swan, Teresa A. Swartz, and Terri Capatosto offer advice on this fictional case study.
Should politicians turn to business leaders for advice in formulating economic policy? Not according to economist Paul Krugman, who argues that executives' advice is often disastrously misguided. Business leaders who have been promoted to economic advisers are no more likely to be great economists than are military experts. People who have mastered the complexities of running a multibillion-dollar enterprise may think they can make pronouncements whenever the subject is money, but before they can offer sound economic advice, they must master a new vocabulary and a new set of concepts. In short, they must go back to school.
How real is the private-label threat to branded products? What should national-brand manufacturers do about it? On the one hand, manufacturers have reason to be concerned. There are more private labels on the market than ever before; collectively, unit share of store-brand goods place first, second, or third in 177 of 250 supermarket product categories in the United States. But many manufacturers have not fully recognized two important points in considering this threat. First, private-label market share generally goes up when the economy is suffering and down in stronger economic periods. Second, manufacturers of brand-name products can have significant influence on the seriousness of the challenge posed by private-label goods. It is difficult for managers to look at a competitive threat objectively and in a long-term context when day-to-day performance is suffering. But the authors strongly advocate keeping the private-label challenge in perspective.
The electric utility market is in upheavel. Deregulation and a wave of megamergers are sweeping the industry. With states proceeding in piecemeal fashion however, it is unclear what final form deregulation will take. In his article, Peter Navarro, an expert on utility regulation at the University of California, Irvine, argues that removing most regulation and opening up the electricity market to free competition would improve U.S. competitiveness. He contends that the state-by-state approach to deregulation will create more turmoil than a rapid, federally coordinated restructuring.
From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, the nonprofit performing-arts industry in the United States enjoyed unprecedented growth. But in recent years, the arts have been hard hit by shrinking audiences, rising debt, and cuts in government funding. Can arts organizations succeed in this environment and fulfill their own special mission? The authors have observed one way in which they can succeed: through strategic collaborations--intensive, durable commmitments created for mutual gain.
Practitioners of a new technical specialty--financial engineering--can help senior managers achieve their objectives. Financial engineering can not only reduce the cost of existing activities but also make possible the development of new products, services, and markets. Peter Tufano presents five case studies that illustrate innovative applications of financial engineering and help managers determine when such techniques are appropriate.
Provides a framework for developing global strategies for service businesses. Integrates existing, separate frameworks on globilization and on service businesses, analyzes how the distinctive characteristics of service businesses affect globalization and the use of global strategy, and diagnoses which aspects favor globalization and which do not. Applies the new framework to numerous industry and company examples, with particular emphasis on the role of information technology.