This case offers students an opportunity to observe employee engagement through key events that took place at YellowStarr Financial Services before and during a software platform migration. Steve Keldan, who served as CEO of YellowStarr, founded the company in 2002. Lisa Murphy was hired as the Human Resources Director for YellowStarr in 2011. In her first few years, Murphy was challenged with building a human resource team that could manage more than 100 new employees for the growing company. In 2015, YellowStarr needed to undergo a software platform migration with FinanceConnect, its proprietary customer data web-based software that presented retirement plans, investment options and pricing in a simple, easy-to-navigate way. As Human Resources Director, Murphy was tasked with the duty of supporting the migration from an employee standpoint, which meant hiring new talent, minimizing employee turnover, and promoting a healthy, positive culture that encouraged employee engagement. Before and during the migration, Murphy made decisions that appeared to both help and hurt engagement. Implementations included fewer training initiatives, relaxed dress code, and employee-led activity committees. As of 2018 with the migration project almost complete, YellowStarr faced high employee turnover rates. No longer having to deal with the firefighting associated with the migration, Murphy needs to decide what steps to take both short-term and long-term to improve upon YellowStarr's employee engagement so the company is an employer of choice for new and existing employees.
RJ Tuckerton, a graduate student, claimed in October 2019 that the student's privacy and other university rights were violated when a faculty member "outed" Tuckerton, who was gender transitioning. The protagonist in the case, John Schuler, was now faced with investigating Tuckerton's claims of university policy violations and a claim of retaliation for filing a complaint. The events of this case present the reader with claims made by Tuckerton, the statements by those alleged to have violated Tuckerton's rights, the statements of other witnesses, and with the university's relevant human resource policies. In studying the case, students will be confronted with an array of input, and will have to place themselves in the position of Schuler and determine if there are policy violations and make policy recommendations. The case presents an emerging issue in organizations-that of non-discrimination of transgender employees, and, with it, privacy and other protections asserted by an organization-and how an organization's policies are or are not responsive to employees.
Excited yet apprehensive after being named CEO of P.F. Chang's beginning July 1st, 2020, Damola Adamolekun was well aware of the extraordinary challenges facing the firm. The closure of businesses deemed "nonessential" owing to the COVID-19 pandemic had devastated the restaurant industry in the United States and abroad. The shock had been particularly unwelcome to P.F. Chang's, an upscale-casual restaurant chain known for serving made-from-scratch, wok-cooked Asian cuisine in contemporary bistros. In recent years, P.F. Chang's had shown weak results in restaurant sales and financial performance. Investment management firm Paulson & Co. had joined hands with TriArtisan Capital Advisors to acquire the firm in 2019, determined to turn it around. However, the new leadership team had not anticipated the havoc a pandemic would soon wreak on the economy and the industry. Adamolekun felt that the opportunity to lead the firm at age 31 was extraordinary, but the future was extremely uncertain in this turbulent environment. He was acutely aware that the future of the company, the returns investors hoped for, and perhaps the trajectory of his own career were all riding on the strategic plan he was developing for P.F. Chang's.
This case details the challenges faced by Marc Jones as the CEO of Aeris Communications (Aeris), a privately owned software company that provided Internet of Things (IoT) networks and services to automotive, fleet, and health care customers. In the case, Jones leads Aeris through a major industry transformation and considers how best to drive continued innovation and growth while navigating increasingly complicated "coopetition" with customers and partners as a result of Aeris's place in the technology stack.
The case describes the growth trajectory of Vodafone Gujarat, one of the most successful circles of Vodafone India. Successive leaders of Vodafone Gujarat followed a highly entrepreneurial approach for building a market leadership position in urban and rural markets. The case provides a detailed description of how to execute growth strategies in the telecom sector, especially by designing a decentralized distribution structure, cementing first-mover advantage through trust, customizing products and services, and integrating with network rollout. The context of the rural market and bottom of pyramid customer segments makes this case relevant to other emerging economies.
In mid-2014, revenue market share of Vodafone Gujarat declined slightly ending decades of consistent growth. The cirlce had emerged as the market leader against some stiff competition from other leading players, viz. Airtel and Idea in one of key circles- Gujarat- in western India. Successive leaders had followed growth principles of superior network coverage, customer centricity, and innovation. The aggressive entrepreneurial approach was supported by autonomous structure. The new head of circle had the onerous task of arresting the decline and reviving local team.
The central theme of this case is corporate restructuring; in particular, its thematic unit is the process of financial stress within an organization. The courses and programs are for undergraduate courses such as Finance iii and Financial Strategy, with emphasis on financial analysis and modeling; for postgraduates such as the Masters in Finance in courses such as Financial Analysis and Corporate Finance; in the MBAs in the Financial Management course. These last three courses at the graduate level, although they contemplate financial analysis and modeling within their dynamics, would focus on the evaluation of restructuring alternatives. Likewise, this case can be applied to different executive education programs related to crisis management in family businesses, financial issues in general, and crisis management. In general, the case provides a situation for management decision-making in the process of financial stress, supported by financial modeling tools.
The longest corporate takeover battle in the history of Switzerland - and possibly the world - pitted Sika, a Swiss chemicals manufacturer, against Saint-Gobain, a French conglomerate. At the heart of the dispute was a family business. Sika was a very successful family-controlled firm whose fourth-generation descendants decided to sell their stake in the company. The sale created a quandary for Sika's board of directors, however. How could the board reconcile the wishes of the family owners with the interests of the other shareholders and the company itself? The case highlights the governance dilemma faced by Paul Hälg, the Chairman of Sika's board of directors, and discloses how all parties came to an agreement after a protracted legal dispute lasting 41 months.
In 2018, the Seattle City Council unanimously voted 9-0 for a tax that would require companies whose annual revenue surpassed $20 million to pay the city $275 per employee per year. The tax money would then be used to combat homelessness in Seattle. In response, Starbucks Senior Vice President John Kelly released a statement: "There's no reason why one of the wealthiest cities in the world should have children sleeping in cars. But the solution is not to funnel more money through a city council that has thus far failed to show it can spend it effectively." Ultimately, Starbucks, Amazon, and other large Seattle-based companies mounted a campaign to put a tax-repeal referendum on the ballot. The controversy grew, and less than a month after unanimously approving the tax, the City Council voted 7-2 to repeal it. Starbucks has been very public in its commitment to being socially responsible and a good citizen of the communities in which it operates, so how would customers react to the company not wanting to pay local taxes to support social initiatives?
Allstate's Data, Discovery, and Decision Making group (D3) had started as a small group of data scientists helping to quantify insurance risk accurately, but by 2017 the group had ballooned to 300 employees offering data capabilities to the firm's business verticals (e.g., Claims or HR). Allstate's senior leadership team had recently defined the strategic objectives that should be driving D3 projects, but it quickly became apparent that D3's current structure was incongruent with these strategic goals. Both D3 members and leadership agreed: A reorganization was necessary. However, an earlier reorganization, which had reassigned employees without their input, had left them feeling burned. Senior leaders didn't want to make the same mistake twice but knew they didn't have time to post and review applications for each position in the new structure.
Toyota Argentina (TASA) and the union representing automotive industry workers in the country had been working together since 2011 to address the challenges faced by Toyota's manufacturing plant in Zárate (Argentina). In 2019, after achieving all the goals set forward in its plan for the "Reborn Plant," Daniel Herrero, TASA's CEO, looked forward to the future.
Wearable electronics were endpoint devices designed to be worn, sense the human body and interact with the environment around the wearer, connecting humans to the Internet of Things. Wearable technology received a great deal of attention in the past decade and reached a peak state of hype in 2015. After 2015, there was increased doubt in the future of the technology after early product releases were underwhelming. Wearables in 2020 provides an in-depth analysis of wearable development in recent years across eight different form factors.