Analyzes the measures taken by the United Way of America (UWA) and its board of governors in response to the 1992 Washington Post reports that lead to the UWA scandal.
A young investment banker returns home one night to find that her roommate and best friend has been laid off from Universal Bank because Universal is shutting down its capital finance group. Her roommate makes her promise to keep this information confidential because the news is not to be disclosed to the market for several days. The protaganist knows, however, that Universal's capital finance group is collaborating with her own investment bank on a leveraged buyout deal and that Universal's withdrawal could have potentially disastrous ramifications for the deal if her own investment bank is not notified immediately. She must decide whether to break her promise to her friend or to remain silent and expose her own company to great risk.
A product manager at a health products company is responsible for marketing sharps containers, which hospitals use to store used needles in order to protect medical workers from being pricked with AIDS-contaminated needles. After hospitals report repeated instances of needles penetrating the container walls, she realizes the defective product poses a health hazard for medical workers. The product manager must decide whether or not to fix the containers when doing so would significantly decrease her profit performance for the year. The company mission statement stresses quality commitment to customers, but all compensation and advancement incentives are geared solely toward profit objectives.
Catalina Marketing is a very successful marketing service firm. Their current customers include major supermarket retailers and consumer products manufacturers nation-wide. Catalina provides a unique way for these clients to distribute coupons for their products via point-of-sale technology at the supermarket register. Catalina is currently trying to decide where and how to expand its operations.
Under increasing pressure to make better decisions in less time, managers often use the quickest and easiest decision-making method: going on "gut feel." But recent decision research shows that intuition is much less reliable than most people believe. Managers need to use more sophisticated methods. This article describes a series of increasingly accurate (and demanding) decision-making approaches. It starts with purely intuitive choices, which are quickest and least accurate, and then examines heuristic shortcuts and rules of thumb. It then discusses more demanding and reliable methods, such as bootstrapping and value analysis. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of each approach in terms of speed, accuracy, and justifiability, with illustrative applications to managerial practice. Finally, the authors offer practical advice for managers on how the more sophisticated techniques can be incorporated into the organization.
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. The topic of organizational learning has gained a lot of attention, but there is little agreement on what organizational learning means and even less on how to create a learning organization. The critical issue is how individual learning is transferred to the organization. The author develops a model that links individual and organizational learning through mental models--the thought constructs that affect how people and organizations operate. This model can guide the search for new tools to help organizations learn.
As the third largest economy after the United States and Japan, China's startling economic growth has spurred increasing interest in the economic, social, and political factors that catapulted the country to sudden prominence. This case starts with an overview of the country's ancient and modern history, and then focuses on the dramatic transition in the mid-twentieth century under Communist rule. The case analysis divides recent economic reforms into three distinct phases: reform in the countryside (1978-84), financial and enterprise reform (1984-88), and current efforts at monetary and fiscal reform following the Tiananmen crisis of 1989.
Rhone-Poulenc, France's largest chemical firm, with revenues of more than $7 billion in 1985, seeks to dramatically expand its presence in the United States. From 1986 to 1990, Rhone-Poulenc undertakes 18 separate acquisitions, ranging from small entrepreneurial firms to large divisions of Union Carbide, Monsanto, and Stauffer Chemicals. Having made these acquisitions, however, the French firm is faced with challenges of integrating many disparate operations into a coherent American affiliate. The problem is complicated by differences in the nature of competition (global agrichemicals versus domestic basic chemicals), differences in the attitudes of the acquired employees, and an initial lack of confidence on the part of the acquiring firm. By the end of the case, Rhone-Poulenc management faces a specific choice regarding the best way to integrate several recent acquisitions in the field of specialty chemicals.
Loctite Corp., dissatisfied with the sales growth achieved by its independent distributor in Hong Kong, is considering whether to find a new distributor or acquire a controlling interest in a wholly owned subsidiary covering Hong Kong and possibly other markets. Loctite has a varied portfolio of international distribution arrangements and experience on which to base this decision.
In the over 20 years since Hewlett-Packard (HP) set up a manufacturing site in Singapore to produce calculators, HP has invested managerial talent and resources in developing its licensor into a technology development partner. The case details the growth of high-volume manufacturing capabilities and the setting up of an R&D facility. Various projects are described in which Singapore contributed an increasing amount of skill, leading up to an abortive attempt to completely co-develop a new printer. Singapore now feels ready to develop a printer on its own for the Japanese market, and the case poses the question of whether or not it is ready to do so. There is also an issue of whether the developers understand the Japanese market well enough to proceed.
Deals with an employee who contracts AIDS. The employer, a food-service proprietor, is threatened by an old and valued client with the loss of the account if they do not fire him.
Rhone-Poulenc, France's largest chemical firm, has achieved a major position in the United States as the result of an ambitious series of acquisitions. As it expanded in the United States from 1986 to 1990, Rhone-Poulenc management sought to take a "hands-off" approach and allowed the local management to build a coherent and stable U.S. operation. By 1991, however, there is a perceived imperative for the global management of all product lines. A proposal is made to shift the major axis of the firm toward a worldwide product structure, with the effect of changing the role of the U.S. country management. Whether this move makes sense, what the best structure might be, and how any changes are to be implemented are all topics for discussion in this case.
In February 1993, Curran Dandurand, senior vice president of Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc.'s global marketing group, was reflecting on the company's international operations. Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc. products had been sold outside the United States for over 15 years, but by 1992, international sales represented only 11% of the $1 billion total. In contrast, one of Mary Kay Cosmetics' U.S. competitors, Avon Products Inc., derived over 55% of its $3.6 billion sales (at wholesale prices) from international markets in 1992.