Daytun Inc. is a small office equipment company ($6 million in revenues) which focuses primarily on photocopier sales and service in the London, Ontario market. In the 10 years since its formation, Daytun's strategy of high quality products and high levels of service at moderate price has enabled them to outperform local operations of large multinationals such as Xerox and Canon, and they currently have the leading market share position in London. However, industry maturity, impending economic recession, and increasingly threatening moves by major competitors raise concerns about Daytun's ability to grow with their current product lines. It appears Daytun must either expand their product line and/or broaden their scope to new geographic markets in order to achieve their growth objectives. An accompanying industry note, North American Photocopier Industry - 1990 is available.
This industry note outlines the North American photocopier industry in 1990. Several recent developments, including a slowing of technological change and maturation of market demand for photocopiers, threaten to dramatically transform the nature of competition within this industry. This case was written to accompany the Daytun Inc. case 9A92M001, although both the case and this note may be used on a stand-alone basis.
This case highlights Kimberly-Clark's perspective on the fierce competitive battle with Procter & Gamble (P&G) in the diaper industry in 1989. The competitive struggle involves a broad range of issues including: rapid product development, international threats and opportunities, diversification options and public pressure over environmental concerns. In particular, Kimberly-Clark must decide on a response to P&G's most recent product introduction.
The president of Firestone Canada must decide whether or not to go ahead with the marketing program Pay No Dough If It Doesn't Snow. This program, proposed by the Manager of Advertising and Dealer Relations, offers purchasers of Firestone Snow-Biter tires a refund based on the amount of snowfall during the winter. (A Microsoft Excel data file is available for use with this case, product 7A84E002.)
Fairmont Limited is a company involved in real estate development in western Canada. Fairmont (B) deals with complex stock transactions and follows the Fairmont (A) case 9A84K022.
One year after opening a gift shop, a young entrepreneur reviews his results. This exercise requires students to record the business transactions and necessary adjusting entries for the year, and prepare an income statement and balance sheet. This is an introductory transaction analysis case for an introductory finance course.
Saskatoon Country Supplies was a small farm hardware and household supply store located southeast of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Jim Tykoliz, the firm's general manager, was to prepare the August 1985 Bank Reconciliation Statement.
Paul Allaire leads a company that is a microcosm of the changes transforming American business. With the introduction of the first plain-paper copier in 1959, Xerox invented a new industry and launched itself into a decade of spectacular growth. But easy growth led Xerox to neglect the fundamentals of its core business, leaving the company vulnerable to low-cost Japanese competition. Starting in the mid-1980s, Xerox embarked on a long-term effort to regain its dominant position in world copier markets and to create a new platform for future growth. Thanks to the company's Leadership through Quality program, Xerox became the first major U.S. company to win back market share from the Japanese. Since becoming CEO in 1990, Allaire has redirected the company's strategy to position Xerox as "the document company," at the intersection of the worlds of paper-based and electronic information. And he has guided the company through a fundamental redesign of what Allaire calls the "organizational architecture" of Xerox's document processing business.
Managers must build change into their organization's structure. This means being prepared to abandon everything that the organization does as well as constantly creating the new. Without this creation and abandonment, the organization will lose performance and with it the ability to attract and hold the people on whom its performance depends. The nature of the organization drives the imperative of change. Every organization exists to put knowledge to work, but knowledge changes quickly. The organization as well as the knowledgeable individual must acquire knowledge every several years or become obsolete. We have only begun to reckon with the implications of living in a world in which the fundamental unit of society, the organization, is and must be destabilizing. That is why questions of the organization's social responsibility now arise so often and why we need new ways to understand the relationship between organizations and their employees and between organizations and society overall.
Both executives and academics have recently voiced concerns about how business schools can best add value to the business community. The case of Jim Martin frames the dilemma. Martin is president and CEO of Bay International Industries (BII), a $4 billion consumer electronics company. Although he attended Plymouth Business School, one of the world's most prestigious management institutions, Martin has become an outspoken critic of the research and education provided by such schools. Martin himself has grappled with the issues surrounding management education. First, reports within BII show that MBA hiring has yielded disappointing results. Second, a business school has asked BII to participate in a research study. Third, Martin's daughter, who is planning to pursue an MBA, has turned to her father for advice.
Unilever, the Dutch-British company with operations in some 75 countries, is often described as one of the foremost transnationals. The company's fast-moving product portfolio of consumer goods requires proximity to local markets, although economies of scale in certain functions justify some centralized control. At the same time, a flexible matrix of individual managers around the world share a common understanding of corporate strategy. Co-chairman Floris Maljers provides an inside look at Unilever's evolution since its founding in 1930. For example, the company's core product group, the foods business, has weathered two major reorganizations in just the last 30 years. Through all of the changes, many based on trial and error, the company has maintained two consistent practices: developing high-quality managers and linking decentralized units through the "Unileverization" of those same managers.
Managers miss out on significant profits because they shy away from pricing decisions for fear that they will alienate their customers. But if management isn't controlling its pricing policies, the customers probably are. Two basic principles, the pocket price waterfall and the pocket price band, show managers how to control the pricing puzzle. The pocket price waterfall reveals how price erodes between a company's invoice figure and the actual amount paid by the customer--the transaction price. It tracks volume purchase discounts, early payment bonuses, and frequent customer incentives that squeeze a company's profits. The pocket price band plots the range of pocket prices over which any given unit volume of a single product sells. Wide price bands are common, with many manufacturer's transaction prices ranging over 60%. Using the pocket price bank enables a manager to control the price range to greater profits.
The U.S. system of allocating investment capital is failing, putting American companies at a serious disadvantage and threatening the long-term growth of the nation's economy. The problem involves the external capital allocation system by which capital is provided to companies, as well as the system by which companies allocate capital internally. In global competition, where investment increasingly determines a company's capacity to upgrade and innovate, the U.S. system does not measure up. Reforms that can make the U.S. capital allocation system work include: 1) Improve the macroeconomic environment; 2) Expand true ownership throughout the system so that directors, managers, employees, and even customers and suppliers hold positions as owners; 3) Align the goals of capital providers, corporations, directors, managers, employees, customers, suppliers, and society; 4) Improve the information used in decision making; and 5) Foster more productive modes of interaction and influence among capital providers, corporations, and business units.
Most American managers have a hard time making sense of Germany. It has a fraction of the resources and less than one-third the population of the United States. Labor costs are higher, paid vacations are at least three times as long, and strong unions are involved at all levels of business, from the local plant to the corporate boardroom. Yet German companies manage to produce internationally competitive products in key manufacturing sectors, making Germany the greatest competitive threat to the United States after Japan. In their review of recent research on the German business system, Wever and Allen argue that managers can learn an important lesson from Germany. In a global economy, competition exists not only between companies, but also between entire socioeconomic systems. Germany's ability to design a cohesive economic and social system that adapts continuously to changing requirements goes a long way toward explaining its competitive success.
Nucor is a minimill deciding whether to spend a significant fraction of its net worth on a commercially unproven technology in order to penetrate a large but hitherto inaccessible segment of the steel market. This case is an integrative one designed to facilitate full-blown analysis of a strategic investment decision.
Depicts the conflict and organizational problems that emerged in a franchise operation owned by Paul Logan, an African American, and John Heyman, a white American. Provides the opportunity to examine the ways in which race influences managerial behavior and organizational dynamics. Also raises issues of organizational performance, headquarters-franchise relations and conflict resolution.
Presents the dilemma of Don Waters, vice president of Franchise Operations at Belmont Beverages. Waters must must decide what to do about the conflict between two partners in one of Belmont's franchises.
Describes the elevator market and Otis's competitive position in four markets: Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, and Japan. The student is asked to evaluate the strategic and competitive challenges in each market, especially in light of strong Japanese competition across the region. Designed to give students appreciation of operating in the heterogeneous Asian environment in highly competitive markets.
Describes Otis's effort to build a regional organization linking its previously autonomous opportunities across the Pacific Asia region. Describes changes being made in several key functions, including manufacturing, marketing, engineering, and finance. Presents major challenges being faced as the company tries to move toward a coordinated regional organization. Designed to examine issues associated with building an integrated organization in a highly competitive environment.