Two executives at Express Trucking—the vice-president of legal affairs, and the vice-president of sales—were preparing for an executive team meeting. The two vice-presidents were disputing the terms of a customer contract to be signed the following day. According to the vice-president of legal affairs, the contract needed to be revised to include a standard clause regarding Express Trucking’s liability, whereas the vice-president of sales feared losing the contract if any changes were made. The company’s chief executive officer asked the two executives to resolve this dispute before the upcoming executive team meeting. How would the two executives resolve their differences?<br><br> The case involves the students in a role play to develop their competence to address typical conflicts between executive team members, by reproducing the complex environment in which executives operate. Students will be assigned the role of the vice-president of legal affairs (9B18M014); the vice-president of sales (9B18M015); or the observer (9B18M016).
Two executives at Express Trucking—the vice-president of legal affairs, and the vice-president of sales—were preparing for an executive team meeting. The two vice-presidents were disputing the terms of a customer contract to be signed the following day. According to the vice-president of legal affairs, the contract needed to be revised to include a standard clause regarding Express Trucking’s liability, whereas the vice-president of sales feared losing the contract if any changes were made. The company’s chief executive officer asked the two executives to resolve this dispute before the upcoming executive team meeting. How would the two executives resolve their differences?<br><br> The case involves the students in a role play to develop their competence to address typical conflicts between executive team members, by reproducing the complex environment in which executives operate. Students will be assigned the role of the vice-president of legal affairs (9B18M014); the vice-president of sales (9B18M015); or the observer (9B18M016).
Two executives at Express Trucking—the vice-president of legal affairs, and the vice-president of sales—were preparing for an executive team meeting. The two vice-presidents were disputing the terms of a customer contract to be signed the following day. According to the vice-president of legal affairs, the contract needed to be revised to include a standard clause regarding Express Trucking’s liability, whereas the vice-president of sales feared losing the contract if any changes were made. The company’s chief executive officer asked the two executives to resolve this dispute before the upcoming executive team meeting. How would the two executives resolve their differences?<br><br> The case involves the students in a role play to develop their competence to address typical conflicts between executive team members, by reproducing the complex environment in which executives operate. Students will be assigned the role of the vice-president of legal affairs (9B18M014); the vice-president of sales (9B18M015); or the observer (9B18M016).
In late 2015, the executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Fortis, Inc., a homegrown energy delivery company based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, was preparing to meet with the company’s leadership committee. On the agenda was whether Fortis should make an offer to acquire ITC Holdings Corporation, the largest independent transmission utility in the United States. Fortis had a proven track record of acquiring regulated utilities, and if the ITC deal went ahead, it would mark Fortis’s most significant acquisition in its history. Should Fortis move ahead with the acquisition, or was taking on ITC too big a risk?
This note provides context regarding financial inclusion in the Philippines. It discusses the nature of poverty in the country; provides details on the financial system, especially the financial organizations that serve the poor; and presents some initiatives to broaden access to finance.
By 2015, China had one of the world's largest and most complex healthcare industries. This industry had been undergoing unprecedented change in diverse areas, from policies to technologies. Shanghai Pharmaceuticals, China's second-largest pharmaceutical company, spanned the entire pharmaceutical value chain, from product research and development to sales. The company's core competency was in drug distribution, which generated 70 per cent of the firm's revenue. The company's leadership in distribution was enabled by its information technology infrastructure and data. However, with the Internet and digital technologies becoming key drivers of China's healthcare sector, the company needed to rethink its business and develop a future strategy to sustain its success in the age of digital disruption.
In October 2015, Squatty Potty's chief executive officer (CEO) launched the first viral video campaign in the U.S. company's history. In terms of cost, it represented the largest single marketing promotion ever for the company's home remedy for constipation-a foot stool that made going to the bathroom more ergonomic. Further raising the stakes of his decision, the CEO's three business partners had reservations and objections. The partners worried that an irreverent viral video could be expensive, ineffective, and even offensive to the target markets. For the good of the business, the strength of the partnership, and the efficacy of future marketing efforts, it was critical that the CEO be able to provide credible proof of the campaign's efficacy. In addition, his ability to critically assess the strengths, weaknesses, and outcomes of the campaign would provide precious insight to shape future promotion campaigns, both online and offline.
In May 2015, Qualtrics was a rapidly growing U.S.-based software-as-a-service firm, founded in 2002. After 10 years of operating with little capital, Qualtrics raised some venture capital funding, which enabled it to initiate a rapid international expansion. The management team intended to aggressively pursue global opportunities, but first needed to make some key decisions regarding how to develop the company's Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) regional headquarters, and its European operations. Key concerns included the company's market selection and prioritization, and its best approach for developing a subsidiary and EMEA regional operations that could achieve significant scale in a short time frame.
Having reached major career milestones, Elizabeth Smith moved to Smalltown, not far from the middle-class community she grew up in, determined to give back in a meaningful way. She wanted to satisfy a real need, while developing herself in new ways and participating more deeply in community life. Like many smaller towns, Smalltown (an incorporated village) relied primarily on volunteer fire and rescue services for on-site emergency care. Aware of this need, Smith chose to volunteer as emergency medical services (EMS) provider. While it was a very rewarding endeavor, navigating the culture of a volunteer organization in the town had proved more challenging than Smith expected. This was complicated by Smith's role as a volunteer, rather than as a manager or traditional employee. 2017 was a turning point for Smith as she questioned certain governance, financial management, and service delivery practices. How could Smith most effectively address these issues?
Pravost Consulting Services considers a division manager's response to the stringent demands of his boss who lambasts him for the division's weak performance. Six months earlier Jakub Kowalski, CEO of Pravost, promoted Viktor Novak to head up the faltering Pravost Consulting Services (PCS). For the most recent two quarters, however, PCS proved to be unfertile ground for Novak who failed to reach Kowalski's (or his own) goals for the division. Kowalski who has a reputation for being a very demanding CEO, often reciting quotes by historical military leaders, drew a sharp line in the sand for Novak: either shape up or else. With heavy rates of attrition in PCS, Novak considers what to do and whether to focus on a long-term solution in which he believes or a short-term fix to placate his boss.
On April 19, 2015, Freddie Gray, a young African American male, died while in the custody of the Baltimore Police. In response to his death, which occurred less than a year after a similar incident in Ferguson, Missouri, protestors mobilized daily in Baltimore to vocalize their frustrations, including what they saw as law enforcement's long-standing mistreatment of the African American community. Then, on April 27, following Gray's funeral, riots and acts of vandalism broke out across the city. Overwhelmed by the unrest, the Baltimore police requested assistance from other police forces. Later that evening, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and activated the Maryland National Guard. At the local level, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued a nightly curfew beginning Tuesday evening. "Into Local Streets" focuses on the role of the National Guard in the response to the protests and violence following Gray's death, vividly depicting the actions and decision-making processes of the Guard's senior-most leaders. In particular, it highlights the experience of the state's Adjutant General, Linda Singh, who soon found herself navigating a complicated web of officials and agencies from both state and local government - and their different perspectives on how to bring an end to the crisis. Case number 2116.0
The city of Wenzhou in the Province of Zhejiang, long known in China for entrepreneurship, now hosts the country's largest privately owned mental health hospital group. This case traces the development of Wenzhou Kangning Hospital Co, Ltd. from founding to just before its initial public offering to illustrate the extraordinary entrepreneurship happening in China's healthcare space. It highlights the challenges of China's mental health sector and the means company founder Guan Weili employed to address some of them. How will the hospital grow in the future?
This case updates Wenzhou Kangning Hospital Co, Ltd.'s activities since its IPO in late 2015, focusing on its strategy and growth since the IPO and challenges for the future.
In December 2017, Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE, a Dutch coffee company) made an offer to acquire OldTown Berhad (OTB), a Malaysian coffee company. Three large shareholders, representing more than half of the outstanding shares, have agreed to tender their shares and analysts who follow OTB are recommending that investors accept the offer. The remaining shareholders must decide if the acquisition offer is reasonable and whether to tender their shares or not.
It is impossible to predict the future, but this is a task policymakers are effectively expected to do when deciding how to deploy scarce resources to the benefit of future constituents. This case therefore looks at one tool in particular-scenario planning-that actors in both the public and private sector employ to, while not predicting the future, prepare for it as much as possible. The case uses Ilan Steiner, head of the Currency Department at the Israeli central bank as the protagonist; one of the biggest questions he has had to address in the last few years has been what the future of cash will look like. Some people argue that the proliferation of new technologies-such as Venmo-will make paper currency obsolete. Others point out that paper currency demand is actually increasing in many countries, despite the availability of digital payment systems. The case is divided into three sections. The first introduces Ilan Steiner and provides some background on currency use around the world. The second section introduces scenario planning and then discusses how railway executives employed scenario planning to investigate possible futures for coal demand and their impact on the railway industry. The last section is a memo 'from' Ilan that requests students to prepare their own scenario plan for the future of cash in Israel. Case number 2100.0
In 2012, amid much fanfare, Peru's President Ollanta Humala launched an ambitious program on early childhood development called Cuna Más. The program, based on a successful home visiting intervention in Jamaica, was designed to improve the cognitive and emotional development of children below the age of three, living in poverty. The government's aim was to scale the program nationwide. Initially, despite the logistical challenges of reaching rural communities in a geographically diverse country-from communities residing high up in the Andes to those deep in the Amazon jungle-the program grew at a rapid rate, increasing coverage by 50 percent or more each year between 2012 and 2015. By early 2016, however, Cuna Más encountered a formidable set of challenges. Amid political pressure to increase coverage quickly, the program had to ensure that it continued to deliver a quality service-even as Cuna Más staff navigated the delicate task of convincing communities to adopt a program that, at its heart, relied on the willingness of families to let strangers into their homes. Cuna Más staff was nonetheless hopeful. In many instances, it was the first social program to reach remote, vulnerable populations across Peru. But some civil society groups that had initially hailed President Humala for focusing on early childhood now argued that the program was hobbled by operational challenges that threatened the long-term sustainability of the program. As the April 2016 elections loomed on the horizon a crucial question about Humala's flagship program lingered. Could Cuna Más deliver with quality at scale? Case number 2115.0
The online grocery market in the UK is one of the largest in the world. It has many players, but two of the most dynamic are Tesco and Ocado. These two companies have taken markedly different approaches to executing and fulfilling online grocery orders from customers. Tesco has an extensive network of stores and primarily uses these stores as picking locations to prepare and ship customer orders. Ocado has no retail stores, and uses highly automated distribution centers to prepare and ship customer orders. This case describes the UK online grocery market and the two companies; it invites students to consider the differences in the approaches, in which ways they offer advantages to the company and to customers, and ultimately which one is better suited to the UK online grocery market. Learning objective: The objective of this case to develop an appreciation and understanding of the different benefits, costs and constraints of supply chain distribution models. By contrasting two companies that have very different supply chain approaches to competing in the same market, the case leads students to make connections between a company's supply chain strategy and its customer value proposition.