Engineering Inspection & Insurance Co. (EIIC) is a small but highly successful company that offers machinery and boiler inspection and insurance services. After years of above-average growth and profits, both are retreating toward the industry average, policy delivery times are excessive, and employee morale is low. There is increasing concern that the company's current strategy and organization are no longer working. The problem appears to be that, while the company initially was organized to provide inspection and insurance services for complex equipment, most of its premium revenue in 1991 comes from relatively simple, low-premium objects for which inspection probably is unnecessary. Reconciling the conflicting demands of these two types of businesses with the company's existing structure and value system is the essential issue. Teaching Purpose: To illustrate the basic operations strategy framework in the context of a service company, and to engage students in a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of different methods for refocusing operations.
The assistant plant manager was trying to decide on production scheduling and inventory management policies for the new computer diskette plant. Students are presented with three demand forecasts of increasing complexity as variability between and within product lines emerges. The case is suitable for students to do an economic order quantity (EOQ) analysis and draft a production schedule.
An introduction to a series of cases with a small, international high technology company. The subsequent cases deal with marketing S-S Technologies Inc. (B) - Marketing, measurement issues S-S Technologies Inc. (C) - Measurement Issues(C), and organizational design S-S Technologies Inc. (D) - Organizational Design.
A consultant wasn't convinced that all relevant items, for example, leading and lagging indicators, were either currently being identified and measured, or would continue to be in the future. That is, he questioned whether the company was adequately following a strategic approach to measurement. At the same time, he wondered what changes were necessary to effectively implement such an approach.
The company's CEO, president, and a consultant took on the task of designing an organization to support the company's growth. They were to develop a structure and set of administrative systems (policies, performance appraisal, compensation and partnering program) that would ensure the achievement of the company's key success factors (see S-S Technologies (A) - Introduction, case 9A94C005), the maintenance of the existing culture and the attraction of the kind of people they wanted working for them.
A managing partner of a leading management consulting firm did not receive an anticipated promotion and is considering leaving the firm. The seven partners of the firm had recently held a Partners' meeting to discuss professional staff performance and to finalize salaries and promotions. The managing partner had been with the firm for six months and had joined the firm after working for five years in the telecommunications sector. His direct superior thought highly of him and his performance and agreed to support him at the partners' year-end meeting. However, most of the other partners did not feel that he met all of the expectations of a senior consultant. They specifically felt that he did not satisfy the total firm and RDMC participation category on the firm's performance matrix which listed the criteria for promotions within the firm.
MicroFridge, a five-year-old, $12 million company based in Sharon, Mass., develops and sells a unique, combination compact refrigerator and microwave oven. All of the manufacturing is done for it by Sanyo in various overseas locations. The founder and president believes the potential market for his product is an estimated 5 million homes in the "home away from home" market.
Describes the challenges facing a cellular telephone company in Mexico as it positions itself in the explosive cellular market and prepares to become a full-service telecommunications provider. Faced with declining market share, revenues per subscriber, and operating income, IUSACELL attempts to understand the economics of its customers and define its customer acquisition and retention strategies.
Defines "diversity" in organizational terms and provides a descriptive framework for understanding the ways organizations identify and respond to its challenges and opportunities. The four components or lenses of the framework are: motivators, mindset, methods, measures. Teaching Purpsoe: To be used as an overview note in a course or module on diversity in the workplace and customer base.
Baxter Healthcare is heir to the fabled ASAP ordering system, one of the best-known examples of the use of technology to provide strategic marketing advantage. By 1994, the proprietary ASAP system is well established. Baxter is beginning to launch On-Call EDI, which is an open platform, multiple vendor (including Kodak, Bergen Brunswick & Boise Cascade) system to help hospitals order. The case focuses on whether Baxter is meeting the new needs of the customer in a way which will help them compete, or whether they are giving away the keys to the kingdom by opening up their strategic advantage to others, including their competition.
Describes the redesign and rollout of the new order-fulfillment process for a flagship product at Pacific Bell. Pacific Bell is one of the Regional Bell Operating Companies comprised of seven regional business units. Rather than implement the new process, roles, and information technology proposed by the original design team, each regional business unit implemented those pieces that most quickly resulted in performance improvements and would not require lengthy negotiations with labor unions. Focuses on managing radical change programs in a decentralized organization.
The largest ski resort in Colorado must determine how to select customer segments to focus its promotional and service-delivery efforts. Making segmentation work depends on reordering its pricing policy and "service packages."
Provides a longitudinal view of business reengineering at CIGNA Corp., a leading provider of insurance and related financial services throughout the United States and the world. CIGNA has been practicing business reengineering since 1989, completing over 20 projects. The case illustrates a number of reengineering projects. Also highlights the different forms and waves of business reengineering that the company has experienced.
The director of marketing and operations for a financial newsletter must deal with a host of issues that surround the practice of renting mailing lists and soliciting new subscribers by direct mail. The case can be used to introduce the concept and calculation of customer lifetime value.
San Francisco Bay Consulting leads the field of economic consulting and litigation support in the application of powerful computers and cutting edge software to manipulate and analyze large data sets. The transfer pricing system, used to facilitate the purchasing and payment of computer resources, is falling apart as computer prices drop and consultant demands broaden. Researchers, forbidden to go outside for their hardware or software needs, range from frustrated to furious when they can't get the software they want or when transfer prices yield charges to clients that are greater than their computer's current market price. The case presents the company as it evaluates the system and discusses possible changes in pricing and sourcing policies.
Many academics and public relations specialists have suggested that, when responding to crises, executives should make full and immediate disclosures about the circumstances surrounding the event. Corporate legal advisors, on the other hand, often caution their clients against unnecessary public statements. This article examines the pros and cons of a full disclosure policy and the circumstances in which it should or should not be used. In some instances, what you don't say can hurt you. For example, nondisclosure might lead journalists--hard pressed by deadlines--to seek other sources, many of which might have a vested interest in making the company appear in the worst light. But in other situations, what you do say can hurt you. Cases are cited in which organizations revealed information that shocked constituents, and such news became a separate and more damaging crisis in itself. The point is, we have scant knowledge about firms that managed crises successfully by withholding information; we see only those cases in which crises were played out in the media, so we have a distorted view of how crises should be handled. Disclosure is rarely an all-or-nothing choice; the decision-maker's goal should be that of finding the appropriate amount and pace of reporting to the public.
John Meek, general manager of the Ontario Dairy Herd Improvement Corporation (Ontario DHI), has to decide what measures should be taken to reduce the membership decline of Ontario DHI. He must evaluate company information and marketing research to determine what might be the best course of action.
Microsoft Corp. has built a highly successful business around computer software (both applications and system software) using a particular organizational structure. Now that the company has chosen to enter the consumer market with a CD-ROM product, how should Microsoft alter its product development process (if at all) for this new product?
Microsoft is about to release an apparently successful CD-ROM baseball product. The company is trying to determine what product(s) should be developed next, how it should organize itself, and what role it should play in the development of such products.