In 1993, three consultants at different stages in their careers must decide how to respond to what they considered to be unethical behavior from a partner at their firm. They each considered the potential consequences of reporting a senior colleague and the impact it could have on their careers.
The data-driven manufacturing system at this Chinese bespoke mens' suit manufacturer illustrates the use of information technology to support mass customization in a largely manual production environment. It contrasts sharply with some of the Industrie 4.0 automation-heavy approaches taken in some Western companies. Thus the case seeks to unpack the essence of a data-driven mass customization approach that is more suited to small and medium enterprises.
First Respond is a for-profit Chinese social enterprise focused on developing emergency services with the mission of making China a safer place. In China, there is a severe lack of first aid awareness and systems, and to fill this gap, First Respond delivers first aid training, products and services, and solutions to both businesses and individuals in the private and public sectors. They also provide in-race first aid service for marathons. Looking to the future, key challenges include how to most effectively communicate their social mission to stakeholders and how to best sell their products and services in China, a market with a number of institutional barriers to public safety. Case number 2103.0
Transport for London is in charge of an extensive network of Underground (metro) stations, some of which are more congested than others. This case looks at capacity planning, with the heavy-traffic Victoria Station as its primary focus. The case provides an overview of the main activities an Underground rider must carry out to either enter the station and eventually board the train, or else alight from the train and exit the station. The case provides that quantitative data - such as passenger volume, process capacity and throughput - necessary to assess the bottleneck and opportunities to enhance circulation. The case provides some preliminary analysis as to the causes of the station's congestion, with students expected to conduct their own, more in-depth assessment using the data provided. Case number 2109.0
As the retail industry in Chinese Mainland is facing a difficult economic climate, with the continuous decline of major retail indicators since 2016, strategic transformation in the mobile Internet era has become an urgent task and a common source of anxiety among many traditional firms. Retailers have turned to a new concept: the O2O (online-to-offline) "New Retail" model. This model leverages the advantages of the Internet-borderless coverage, real-time communication, massive quantities of data, and improved targeting-while utilizing offline capabilities, with the aim of seamlessly integrating online advantages (such as pricing) and offline advantages (such as service). This enables retailers to expand the service radius of transactions through the Internet, and widen the selection of products and services for customers. The Chairman of Ting Hsin International Group, Wei Yingxing, is beginning to consider whether the company's convenience store retail chain FamilyMart, a consistently excellent performer offline, should also explore the O2O "New Retail" model. The challenge will be how to leverage the nine million members of the Maxxipoint Card scheme that FamilyMart has created for its offline customers, and bring these customers online. Wei has asked FamilyMart's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lin Jianhong, to present a plan to the board within a month. This means that Lin has only one month to weigh the various issues and figure out whether FamilyMart should take its retail business online, and, if so, to determine what strategy to follow and how to implement it.
This technical note explores the working mechanisms of bundling-the practice of selling two or more separate products or services as one package. The note also explains various types of bundles, including pure bundles, price bundles, and product bundles. The note uses graphical illustrations, analytical techniques, and spreadsheet simulations to discuss the working principles of each bundling type and the economic logic of bundling. Also discussed are the strategic marketing implications of bundling and the relative efficacies of various bundling strategies.
This case presents the phenomenal rise of Ant Financial Services, which started as Alipay, and has since grown to become the world's largest Fintech company. Seeing itself as a Techfin rather Fintech company, Ant Financial leverages cutting edge technology to provide accessible finance to the underserved SMEs and individuals. This case highlights the dynamic evolution of its business model and its ecosystem. The case also brings up the key challenges that Ant Financial has to deal with, i.e., the intensely competitive Fintech landscape, the viability of its ambitious strategy for inclusive finance, and the transferability of its success beyond China.
This case uses a role-play approach to teach the concept of business process reengineering (BPR) and process mapping. Students assume different functional management roles of a fictitious company, ABC Inc., a smartphone manufacturing company in the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry. Due to small profit margins, the company requires a high inventory turnover involving lots of paperwork, resulting from frequent orders of small quantities of components. This purchasing practice will ensure there is a lower risk that components becoming obsolete reducing the burden on the company's cash flow. However, many suppliers now threaten to increase prices (and even cease doing business with ABC) because they have not received their payments within 30 days after goods delivery. To address the looming crisis, the General Manager decides to call a management meeting to identify how they can together best resolve the issue quickly. This case takes the perspectives of the General Manager, who facilitates a group meeting with four other roles, namely, Manufacturing Manager, Purchasing Manager, Warehouse Manager, and Accounts Payable Manager.
This case uses a role-play approach to teach the concept of business process reengineering (BPR) and process mapping. Students assume different functional management roles of a fictitious company, ABC Inc., a smartphone manufacturing company in the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry. Due to small profit margins, the company requires a high inventory turnover involving lots of paperwork, resulting from frequent orders of small quantities of components. This purchasing practice will ensure there is a lower risk that components becoming obsolete reducing the burden on the company's cash flow. However, many suppliers now threaten to increase prices (and even cease doing business with ABC) because they have not received their payments within 30 days after goods delivery. To address the looming crisis, the General Manager decides to call a management meeting to identify how they can together best resolve the issue quickly. This case takes the perspectives of the Manufacturing Manager, who demonstrates how a flow diagram could be constructed, to other role players of the case: General Manager, Purchasing Manager, Warehouse Manager, and Accounts Payable Manager, who joined the discussion meeting initiated by the General Manager.
This case uses a role-play approach to teach the concept of business process reengineering (BPR) and process mapping. Students assume different functional management roles of a fictitious company, ABC Inc., a smartphone manufacturing company in the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry. Due to small profit margins, the company requires a high inventory turnover involving lots of paperwork, resulting from frequent orders of small quantities of components. This purchasing practice will ensure there is a lower risk that components becoming obsolete reducing the burden on the company's cash flow. However, many suppliers now threaten to increase prices (and even cease doing business with ABC) because they have not received their payments within 30 days after goods delivery. To address the looming crisis, the General Manager decides to call a management meeting to identify how they can together best resolve the issue quickly. This case takes the perspectives of the Purchasing Manager, who joins the group discussion with four other roles: General Manager, Manufacturing Manager, Warehouse Manager, and Accounts Payable Manager.
This case uses a role-play approach to teach the concept of business process reengineering (BPR) and process mapping. Students assume different functional management roles of a fictitious company, ABC Inc., a smartphone manufacturing company in the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry. Due to small profit margins, the company requires a high inventory turnover involving lots of paperwork, resulting from frequent orders of small quantities of components. This purchasing practice will ensure there is a lower risk that components becoming obsolete reducing the burden on the company's cash flow. However, many suppliers now threaten to increase prices (and even cease doing business with ABC) because they have not received their payments within 30 days after goods delivery. To address the looming crisis, the General Manager decides to call a management meeting to identify how they can together best resolve the issue quickly. This case takes the perspectives of the Warehouse Manager, who joins the group discussion with four other roles: General Manager, Manufacturing Manager, Purchasing Manager, and Accounts Payable Manager.
This case uses a role-play approach to teach the concept of business process reengineering (BPR) and process mapping. Students assume different functional management roles of a fictitious company, ABC Inc., a smartphone manufacturing company in the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry. Due to small profit margins, the company requires a high inventory turnover involving lots of paperwork, resulting from frequent orders of small quantities of components. This purchasing practice will ensure there is a lower risk that components becoming obsolete reducing the burden on the company's cash flow. However, many suppliers now threaten to increase prices (and even cease doing business with ABC) because they have not received their payments within 30 days after goods delivery. To address the looming crisis, the General Manager decides to call a management meeting to identify how they can together best resolve the issue quickly. This case takes the perspectives of the Accounts Payable Manager, who joins the group discussion with four other roles: General Manager, Manufacturing Manager, Purchasing Manager, and Warehouse Manager.
Over 10% of all 2017 university graduates in Japan used GROW, an artificial intelligence platform and mobile app developed by Tokyo-based people analytics startup IGS, to recruit for a job. This case puts participants in the shoes of IGS founder and CEO Masahiro Fukuhara, a first-time entrepreneur, as he considers the varied ways the "big data" he is collecting is being used--and whether some uses promised more meaningful (or less potentially misleading) impact than others. After briefly introducing IGS, Fukuhara, and GROW, the case outlines exactly how GROW works, starting with a mobile app to assess competencies and personalities of candidates and ending with artificial intelligence (machine learning) to produce high-quality recommendations to companies about whom they should hire. The case then articulates precisely how three companies--airline ANA (All-Nippon Airways), global conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation, and advertising/media company Septeni--use GROW in very different ways to manage talent recruiting, screening, hiring, placement, and development. The case asks students to consider two questions: (1) Which of the three company's approach to using people analytics for talent acquisition and development is most appealing (or most concerning)?; and (2) Should Fukuhara turn on the most advanced part of the artificial intelligence engine, allowing GROW not just to provide recommendations to clients about whom they should hire, but also (based on performance and attribute data of previous hires) to overrule clients' specifications (or biases) about the competencies they should be targeting in their ideal hires?
Unlike its rival Airbus, Boeing used a practice called program accounting to record its commercial aircraft expenses since the 1980s. Program accounting allowed Boeing to expense estimated average costs instead of the actual production costs of an aircraft. This practice lowered the effect of the initially high costs of manufacturing new aircraft models on Boeing's profitability and reflected potential learning efficiencies that could drive down manufacturing costs over time. By 2016, Boeing had deferred about $27 billion in production costs related to its 787 program. If Boeing had been forced to expense these costs, it would have shown profits of $1.4 billion between 2012 and 2016 instead of $25.2 billion, raising questions about Boeing's true profitability.
In 2005, Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm specializing in growth equity, was one year into their ownership of Amscan, the market leader of designed, manufactured, and distributed decorated party goods and accessories. However, Amscan's primary customer, party retail store Party City, was making aggressive moves to backwards integrate and cut into Amscan's profit pool. Even if Party City failed at its attempt, it could cause significant damage to the business, and subsequently hurt Amscan's top line. The Berkshire team needed to figure out a path forward. Should they try to invest in or buy Party City to thwart efforts that would potentially erode both businesses? If they did, should Party City remain a standalone company or should it be merged with Amscan? Would Party City even come to the negotiating table? These questions, plus additional complications with investments from overlapping funds left the Berkshire team in a difficult situation.
The case raises issues around sales force deployment and management issues in the SaaS industry. Specifically, VTS sells a software product to the real estate industry, and has designed a Go_to_Market strategy for what the founders perceive to be the unique characteristics of that industry, and the way in which those factors contribute to the importance of referrals to VTS's sales. In the case, the founders are considering changing some aspects of their strategy including: sales force compensation, where a change from a team-based incentive comp system to a ore individualistic system is under consideration; sales force specialization where specialization by account size or stage of the selling / buying process is under consideration; and, sales management roles & responsibilities, where a change in the role of senior management from quota-carrying sales rep AND sales team leader to simply team leader, with no quota, is being considered.
In November 2014, questions were raised about American electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors Inc.'s (Tesla's) accounting practices, which did not follow the generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP). Tesla’s third quarter 2014 financial statements showed a loss of almost US$75 million when using U.S. GAAP standards, compared to a profit of over $5 million when using its own non-GAAP standards. The accounting discrepancy between the two systems was due mainly to the allotment of vehicle buybacks, stock-based compensation, and regulatory credit sales. Tesla’s share price had risen to $242 from its initial public offering of $17. Had the company’s non-GAAP adjustments influenced investors’ perception of Tesla’s performance and, therefore, the resulting stock price? Specifically, was it reasonable to state that Tesla had been profitable in the third quarter of 2014? Were Tesla’s non-GAAP adjustments appropriate? How could the adjustments between Tesla’s GAAP and non-GAAP numbers be explained? What would Tesla’s performance look like if the financial statements were adjusted for the resale value guarantee, regulatory credits, and stock-based compensation?
In November 2014, questions were raised about American electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors Inc.'s (Tesla's) accounting practices, which did not follow the generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP). Tesla's third quarter 2014 financial statements showed a loss of almost US$75 million when using U.S. GAAP standards, compared to a profit of over $5 million when using its own non-GAAP standards. The accounting discrepancy between the two systems was due mainly to the allotment of vehicle buybacks, stock-based compensation, and regulatory credit sales. Tesla's share price had risen to $242 from its initial public offering of $17. Had the company's non-GAAP adjustments influenced investors' perception of Tesla's performance and, therefore, the resulting stock price? Specifically, was it reasonable to state that Tesla had been profitable in the third quarter of 2014? Were Tesla's non-GAAP adjustments appropriate? How could the adjustments between Tesla's GAAP and non-GAAP numbers be explained? What would Tesla's performance look like if the financial statements were adjusted for the resale value guarantee, regulatory credits, and stock-based compensation?