John Martin, Taco Bell CEO, brings the company into line with its competitors through incremental change during the 1980s. In the early 1990s, he adopts breakthrough approaches to improve service levels while reducing prices, providing a distinct competitive advantage. Illustrates the power of breakthrough thinking in a service industry and demonstrates the importance of a coordinated, holistic approach to implementation.
Describes the Puerto Rican manufacturing plant of a transnational company. The award-winning plant has dramatically improved the quality of flexibility of its operations, by taking a radical approach to manufacturing. The methods center on the use of specific techniques along with a building of trust with the workforce. This generates broad participation and creates a strong commitment to continuous improvement throughout the plant. In 1987, the plant was held responsible for quality problems which marred the launch of an important product. Four years later, a new product is to be launched and the plant must develop a plan to ensure that this launch is a success, as well as develop a strategy for the future. Examines, in detail, the development of a manufacturing infrastructure for quality and flexibility and introduces students to the challenges of managing manufacturing in a transnational environment.
Airline frequent flier programs offer members the opportunity to earn free flights by accumulating mileage. Accounting and reporting the obligations of airlines and the cost of frequent flier programs raises difficult measurement issues. In 1991, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began to require airlines to disclose the number of free flights program members took. The case allows estimates of the cost and obligations of the United Air Lines program.
Whelan Pharmaceuticals, a U.S. company with $3 billion in sales, must decide where to manufacture its newest product. In considering possible sites, both foreign and U.S., the firm must identify and make trade-offs between tax, marketing, and manufacturing factors.
Describes the start-up and rapid growth of a company whose founder holds strong, non-traditional beliefs about the role of the corporation and its responsibility to society. After profiling Anita Roddick as a person, the case describes the anti-mainstream approach she took to building her highly successful business (no advertising, simple packaging, non-traditional R&D). After elaborating on the strong values she has imposed on the business, concludes by highlighting questions of the business' transferability to the United States and its survivability as Anita steps back.
Develops the idea that the relevance of costs and revenues depends on what decisions are under consideration. Revenues and costs are relevant if they would be different under one decision choice than under the other. Teaching purpose: Basic background material for decision making under certainty and under uncertainty. Provides a framework under which a variety of costs and revenues, resulting from substitution, complementarity, capacity, etc., can be identified as relevant.
On Thursday, November 7, 1991, Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin "Magic" Johnson announced his retirement from basketball in the wake of having tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Magic Johnson was one of the most popular figures in sports, both nationally and internationally. Among the many affected by Johnson's sudden retirement were his commercial sponsors, a group of companies comprising both sporting goods and other consumer products. The case looks at the situation through the lens of the sponsors. Should they retain their association with Johnson? If so, for how long and in what ways? Provides students with the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of a marketing director, faced with the sudden reversal of fortune of one of the company's key endorsers. Allows for role playing from various perspectives: that of the MD of a sporting goods company compared to the MD of some other consumer product for example.
A capital budgeting problem is viewed from the context of a marketing representative attempting to make a sale of energy saving heavy industrial equipment. Tax law changes promise to have a significant impact on the customer's decision process. Teaching purpose: To surround the capital budgeting decision with the complexities often found in the actual decision making process. These include taxes, inflation rates, and uncertainty about cost savings to be realized.
Describes the innovative use of a cross-level team as a tool for driving change at a troubled AT&T plant. After the team is disbanded, the case raises questions about the group's achievements, and about how well the organization is positioned to tackle the changes that still lie ahead. Teaching Objective: To raise issues relative to teamwork and empowerment and encourage students to examine what it takes for an organization to embrace long-term, continuous change.
This note describes ways in which managers can learn to empower their employees through the way they communicate with them. The note is intended as a thought piece before doing skill-development exercises on the various approaches outlined in the note, including listening, clarity, invitations, and descriptions. Language is our primary means of communication. It constrains our thinking, reflects our basic values, and is the most common medium for the exchange of our thoughts and beliefs. The language we speak allows us to convey certain thoughts and causes us to be confused about how to convey other thoughts. Indeed, language can prohibit us from grasping and understanding certain concepts and can make other concepts available to us. With its power as the central vehicle for communicating goals, thoughts, plans, instructions, requests, and so on, in business settings, language is perhaps the most important management tool we have.
Provides details on the results of the campaign for British Airways (BA) in terms of expenditure by BA, press coverage, effect on bookings, and effect on overall market share.
Israel faces an imperative to grow in the 1990s. This year, Israel welcomed 200,000 Russian immigrants (a number that will double in the coming year). How can this small country cope with its surging population? Israel has one big advantage: brainpower. It boasts the world's highest literacy rate, math skills, and number of scientists and technicians per capita. With market exposure and foreign partners, Israel could do well in world markets. The most important first step, however, is for the government to pursue peace.
War stories about failed alliances make executives wary of forging new joint ventures. However, the strategic benefits of cross-border alliances are compelling. A study of 49 cross-border alliances found several patterns that have managerial implications. For example, alliances must be free to evolve as the environment changes and opportunities arise. Contrary to conventional wisdom, fifty-fifty ownership of joint ventures improves decision making, and most alliances end with one parent acquiring the venture.