The CEO of Pinkerton, a security guard service firm, is considering options to alter the company's current restrictive and expensive capital structure. A leveraged recap and initial public offering are considered.
A two-year bank employee is at a decision point in her career. She must assess whether or not the actions and recommendations of the Task Force on the Advancement of Women in the bank will be successful in managing change. Specifically, she is concerned with the glass ceiling - the barriers to the advancement of women - and the process used by the bank to eliminate the barriers. (A sequel to this case, The Bank of Montreal - The Task Force on the Advancement of Women in the Bank (B) is available.
A project team manager faces the issues of managing employee's expectations and minimizing the resistance to change while implementing an automated Job Vacancy Notification System (JVNS) at the bank. The JVNS was proposed by the Task Force on the Advancement of Women to promote equal access to job information to all employees. This is a continuation of The Bank of Montreal - The Task Force on the Advancement of Women in the Bank (A).
The case traces Bryan Upton's 20-plus years as managing director of a Sheffield-based cutlery company and describes the strategic and organizational actions he took to raise sales and earnings at more than 25% annually, even as the local industry was in steep decline. After outlining how the U.K. cutlery industry has evolved, the case describes the major changes introduced by Upton and his mentor Jerry Hahn in Richardson Sheffield to upgrade production technology, innovate the product line, and instill customer orientation. The case focuses on the impact of Upton's controversial approach to human resource management in general and to management selection and development in particular on the organizational climate at the firm. The case closes by identifying some major changes that threaten Richardson Sheffield. In 1986, Hahn's ownership position is sold to an Australian industrial company with a different operating style and different strategic objectives for Richardson Sheffield. Top management is also undergoing a transition, with Upton gradually moving aside and outsiders being introduced. Finally, the approaching 1992 EC market harmonization presents new competitive challenges and market opportunities.
Explores Bob Woodell's tenure as Nike's first COO. Describes development of Woodell's management style, his attempts to develop the organization, and his responses to unforeseen business problems. Changing market forces, new competitors, a build-up of low-end inventory, and the absence of Phil Knight, the company's founder, in daily operations, make this a difficult time for Nike. Against the backdrop of disappointing financial results and an upcoming shareholders' meeting, students are asked to assess Woodell's performance, whether management is truly in control of the organization and the company's business, and what role Knight should be playing in the organization.
After returning to the CEO/COO job, Phil Knight makes changes to Nike's strategy, organization, and management between 1983 and 1987 aimed at making Nike more responsive to the market place. He takes cost-cutting measures, and experiments with several management and organizational changes. After much strife within the company, Knight ends up with a hybrid matrix, a new group of managers, and a new strategy. Has Knight made the right choices? Has he squashed Nike's entrepreneurial culture? Is Nike poised for recovery?
After two years of stunning financial results, Knight again appoints a new COO, Dick Donahue. Are Knight and Nike ready for a new COO? How does Donahue differ from Woodell? Will his personality, style, and agenda fit with the new Nike Knight has created? Also describes how the matrix organization has changed over two years.
Media critics charge that CEOs with outrageous salaries are running U.S. corporations into the ground. Politicians claim overpaid CEOs are the root cause of the U.S. competitiveness problem. Add a recessionary business climate to the fact that some CEOs earn 130 times more than their lowest paid employees and you have the makings of a populist rebellion. Most U.S. corporations use stock compensation to link company long-term performance to executive salaries. Rather than cut executive pay, corporations should extend incentive-based compensation plans to all employees, thus narrowing the salary gap and establishing pay-for-performance at every level of the organization.
Managers are right to break down the boundaries that make organizations rigid and unresponsive. But once the traditional boundaries of hierarchy, function, and geography disappear, a new set of boundaries becomes important. These new boundaries are psychological rather than tangible and they reflect the dimensions of authority, task identification, politics, and personal identity encountered by all employees in any company.
Manufacturing companies now face the challenge of globally integrating their operations. Multinationals can no longer rely on sheer size and geographic reach to dominate the volatile global arena. By integrating far-flung plants into tightly connected, distributed production systems, companies can seize the opportunity for a new manufacturing scale advantage. In becoming globally integrated, companies must balance the tension between a central authority and independent units. They must also focus specific changes in functions by articulating a vision shared by the entire organization.
Sony's chairman addresses the present deterioration of U.S.-Japan relations and offers his view of how the two countries can patch up their differences and work as partners toward mutual economic success. He argues that the mistrust and fear embodied in "bashers" and protectionists on both sides are holding back a relationship of historic importance. Morita suggests that by moving more manufacturing operations to the United States, Japan can make meaningful contributions to revitalizing the U.S. economy. Japanese capital added to American technology can create new competitive companies that are beneficial to both sides.
Establishing competitive advantage and creating shareholder value both stem from a common economic framework. The stock market values the long-term productivity of companies. It is not necessary to depart from the shareholder-value model to improve a company's competitive position. Maximum returns for current shareholders will materialize only when managers maximize long-term shareholder value and deliver interim results that attest credibly to sustainable competitive advantage.
Globe Metallurgical Inc., a $115 million supplier for specialty metals, is best known as the first small company to win the Baldrige Award in 1988. But there is more to this company than total quality. During the 1980s, Globe transformed itself from a rust-belt has-been on the verge of bankruptcy into a high-technology, high-quality industry leader. The company also underwent a management-led leveraged buyout, embraced flexible work teams, adopted a high value-added niche marketing strategy, and took its business global. Leading the way was Chief Executive Arden C. Sims, who is interviewed here.
Singapore is well on the way to becoming the first fully networked society, in which all homes, schools, businesses, and government agencies will be interconnected to an electronic grid. Through development of a superior infrastructure and world-class transportation and materials-handling facilities, Singapore has created an extremely attractive environment for multinational business on all levels. The ability of any country with few natural advantages to bring itself to the forefront of technological and economic competitiveness holds important lessons for other countries and organizations. However, Singapore's astounding achievement is due in large part to governmental control.
Explores the risks and rewards to both the Russian defense contractor (Tantal) and a potential Western collaborator from the United States (Webber Controls) of launching a new product that would be competitive in the European, Asian, and U.S. markets. Questions of quality control, managerial oversight, brand name, cost structures, and political forces beyond the control of either party arise. Written to be used in a negotiation-style exercise, with small teams representing each side to the negotiation.
Explores the risks and rewards to both the Russian defense contractor (Tantal) and a potential Western collaborator from the United States (Webber Controls) of launching a new product that would be competitive in the European, Asian, and U.S. markets. Questions of quality control, managerial oversight, brand name, cost structures, and political forces beyond the control of either party arise. Written to be used in a negotiation-style exercise, with small teams representing each side to the negotiation.
Riots in 1969 bring martial law and a new, more firmly Malay government which sets out to promote redistribution of opportunity, income, and wealth by race-based quotas. Dr. Mahatherl, a Malay nationalist says Malays have a non-competitive alliance which must be forced to change.
In April 1987 the management team of CFM International, Inc. (CFMI) was considering developing a new jet engine for the Airbus A340. The withdrawal of a competitor's engine had created an unforeseen opportunity for CFMI to re-enter a competition it had apparently lost several months earlier. Complicating the decision was the fact that CFMI was a corporation jointly and equally owned by General Electric (U.S.) and the Societe Nationale d'Etude et de Construction de Moteurs d'Aviation, or SNECMA (France), both of which had to approve any new programs. Both General Electric and SNECMA, the owning companies, had already moved on to other projects. Allows for discussion of international alliances in a high stakes, politically salient, global industry. Also addresses large investment decisions in an uncertain environment.