In November 2018, a bicycle program specialist who worked in the Planning and Sustainability Division at the Washington, DC, District Department of Transportation, wanted to analyze Capital Bikeshare's bike rental demand for the past two years. Capital Bikeshare was a station-based bike-sharing operator that provided an expansive, multi-jurisdictional transportation system to Washington and the surrounding area. If the bicycle program specialist could determine some significant factors that affected users' ridership patterns, he could best design his expansion plan of adding 40 new bike-rental stations to the system. He obtained the hourly bike rental demand for October 2016-September 2018 to evaluate how sensitive the demand was to some external factors.
The (B) case offers a detailed account of Wendell Weeks's innovation strategy at Corning, and how his approach played a critical role in the COVID-19 pandemic. It illustrates the company's philosophy of making long-term investments in promising new technologies and products well before others believed their time was ripe.
To implement a bold new strategy, Humana needed to decide how to prioritize the pillars; where to own and where to partner; how much risk is acceptable; and how to continue to deliver strong operational performance while implementing a new strategy. Had the firm made the right decisions?
After Humana debuted its new pillar strategy focused on driving integration across members' health care experiences, feedback from investors in private conferences and other forums was positive but stressed the need for execution and faced several questions in order to execute its strategy.
The three cases provide a longitudinal account of the transformation of the Human Resource (HR) division of Mahindra's Automotive and Farm Equipment Sector (AFS). An aspirational nudge from the Managing Director about the need for a more strategic HR role triggered the transformation exercise. The follow-up diagnostic study revealed significant gaps in the readiness of the HR division for the future. The redesigned HR organisation with three pillars of Shared Services, HR Business Partners, and Centre of Excellence turned out to be quite successful. The efficiency improved, and HR gained a reputation for being a strategic partner to the business. With a high degree of standardised processes, the HR organisation seemed ready for digitisation. The three cases have been written in a way so as to provide the readers a detailed description of the diagnostic process in Case A, the restructuring and change process in Case B, and the impact of the transformation exercise in Case C.
This case describes the transformation of the HR organisation of Mahindra's AFS sector from 2013 to 2017. The CHRO and his team designed and implemented a blueprint aimed at enhancing the strategic role of HR. The migration from a traditional to a strategic role entailed anticipating and allaying apprehensions related to the change process. The case offers an opportunity to understand the interventions aimed at building and institutionalising new capabilities and making the change process acceptable to all stakeholders. Case C encapsulates the assessment of the transformation exercise from the perspective of the CHRO and the Managing Director.
This case describes the transformation of the HR organisation of Mahindra's AFS sector from 2013 to 2017. The CHRO and his team designed and implemented a blueprint aimed at enhancing the strategic role of HR. The migration from a traditional to a strategic role entailed anticipating and allaying apprehensions related to the change process. The case offers an opportunity to understand the interventions aimed at building and institutionalising new capabilities and making the change process acceptable to all stakeholders. Case C encapsulates the assessment of the transformation exercise from the perspective of the CHRO and the Managing Director.
Agrawal's 420, a cottage industry started in 1962 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, setup several companies by 2016. Papad business revenues were at INR 70 crores plus. The reasons for setting up the company, its guiding values, facing intensive competitive rivalry, journey of growth, manual manufacturing process, mechanising the process, product portfolio and development, setting up and managing sales distribution system, and challenges of growth to go national are featured here. The case can be used for exploring the factors that impact entrepreneurial motivation to sustain a small business in a highly competitive market, and growing from a small single brand one product local business to a large multi-product multiple brand national one.
The case walks the readers first through the Cambridge Analytica scandal, eliciting its effect and presenting an overview of the analysis the infamous company did. Readers are then introduced with simple steps on how a similar approach may be used today - running surveys on inconspicuous questions very affordably and quickly, and creating simple analytical models (linear and logistic) to infer respondents' age and gender. The raw survey data is available upon request to the co-authors.
In November 2018, a bicycle program specialist who worked in the Planning and Sustainability Division at the Washington, DC, District Department of Transportation, wanted to analyze Capital Bikeshare’s bike rental demand for the past two years. Capital Bikeshare was a station-based bike-sharing operator that provided an expansive, multi-jurisdictional transportation system to Washington and the surrounding area. If the bicycle program specialist could determine some significant factors that affected users’ ridership patterns, he could best design his expansion plan of adding 40 new bike-rental stations to the system. He obtained the hourly bike rental demand for October 2016–September 2018 to evaluate how sensitive the demand was to some external factors.
Organizations depend on data, and keeping data safe from cyberattacks can't be just the domain of IT anymore. Companies need a clear, comprehensive cyber resilience plan for managing all aspects of data and setting cross-functional responsibilities for keeping that data safe. This article outlines the key players and their responsibilities in taking a proactive, cross-functional approach to corporate cybersecurity.
Digital transformation is fundamentally changing the business landscape. It is also affecting the roles of top managers within firms. Our survey of more than 160 senior managers in Europe suggests that digitalization, rather than encouraging more decentralized forms of management, will lead to an expanded role for headquarters and further empowerment of top managers. While acknowledging the benefits of the digital transformation, in this Executive Digest we identify five key challenges for newly empowered top managers and offer solutions for these digitalization traps.
This case study of strategic contracting at Ticketmaster results in a process model for the execution of legally astute contracting. The findings are drawn from a qualitative case study of Ticketmaster led by its legally astute attorney-CEO Fred Rosen. The study offers a novel portrait of strategic legal decision-making and connects the private aspects of contracting with the legal, regulatory, and strategic environment.
The power motive, defined as the desire to impact the behavior and emotions of another person, has long been controversial. On one side, the exercise of power has been put forth as a fundamental human need greater in strength than the need to survive. On the other, it has been vilified for its potentially devastating consequences. We argue the latter view is distorted, and, by relying too heavily on it, we have come to misunderstand the essential nature of power and its use by leaders charged with driving performance. It is not the power motive that leads to corruption and tyranny, but rather how the power motive is channeled into behavior by other personality factors. Consequently, those charged with leader selection should place greater emphasis on how individuals with strong power motives differ in how they channel power. Doing so will support the selection of executives best equipped to deliver organizational performance.
Many employees unexpectedly were required to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. With this abrupt change came the challenge of blurred lines between career and personal life. Lacking designated home office spaces, countless individuals had to create improvised work setups in living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms -- wherever there was space. Moreover, the closure of schools forced many working parents to attempt productivity while concurrently supervising their children. As a result of these changes, numerous employees have experienced lower work productivity, lessened motivation, increased stress, and poorer mental health. One approach that may help employees going through the challenges associated with working from home is mindfulness. Mindfulness may be particularly beneficial as it can (1) help employees mentally disconnect from work when they need to; (2) improve individuals' attention to work tasks and thereby improve their performance; and (3) allow workers to better manage screen fatigue. In this installment of Work/Life Balance, we elaborate on how mindfulness may help employees deal with these work issues, explain how mindfulness can be cultivated, and provide a list of mindfulness techniques. We also provide a set of recommendations for managers and team leaders responsible for their employees' wellbeing and productivity.