Strength Pharma was an Indian health care company that focused on developing, manufacturing, and marketing products that catered to the sports nutrition market in India. The senior director of marketing was responsible in March 2016 for managing the upcoming launch of the company's newest whey protein supplement, Muscle-RDX. This new product would be the first protein supplement for high-endurance athletes ever to be approved by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India, and its chances for success in the Indian market looked quite promising. With the upcoming new-product launch just a few months away, the marketing director needed to develop a product-positioning strategy and a marketing communication plan for Muscle-RDX. To find the best plan, he had several questions to answer: Who would be the ideal target customer? How should the key stakeholders be reached? What was an appropriate message for each of the fitness coaches and athletes? What role would the mobile application play in the marketing communication roll out?
Atlassian: Sales examines the company's unique, no-touch sales model for enterprise products that help teams track projects, collaborate, and build products. The case explores how the company developed and sold its first product, JIRA, and how early lessons helped shape the company's no-touch sales model for all subsequent products. It then discusses the organizational effects of a low-price, volume-based model, and how the advocacy team and channel partners serve as keys to success for the approach.
Strength Pharma was an Indian health care company that focused on developing, manufacturing, and marketing products that catered to the sports nutrition market in India. The senior director of marketing was responsible in March 2016 for managing the upcoming launch of the company’s newest whey protein supplement, Muscle-RDX. This new product would be the first protein supplement for high-endurance athletes ever to be approved by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India, and its chances for success in the Indian market looked quite promising. <br><br>With the upcoming new-product launch just a few months away, the marketing director needed to develop a product-positioning strategy and a marketing communication plan for Muscle-RDX. To find the best plan, he had several questions to answer: Who would be the ideal target customer? How should the key stakeholders be reached? What was an appropriate message for each of the fitness coaches and athletes? What role would the mobile application play in the marketing communication roll out?
CompuSoluciones, based in Guadalajara, Mexico, was a value-added distributor of information technology hardware, software, and services that grew from its origins as a reseller for Hewlett-Packard to become the second-largest distributor in Mexico. The company was best described as a collection of team-based businesses. It had 18 independent business units-each of which managed its own supply chain and produced its own profit-and-loss statements-and over 415 employees spread out over three offices. It was also governed by multiple consultative and representative boards. The company relied on the advice, insights, and experiences of these key advisory groups to improve the quality of its decision making and inform strategic decisions. At the same time, it had a policy to achieve consensus on major strategic decisions. In January 2017, the chairman of CompuSoluciones was reviewing his company's corporate governance policies and practices. Given the independent nature of the individual business units, he wondered whether a consensus-based model of management was still the best way to lead the firm forward and whether the current corporate governance structure was optimal for managing this particular business.
One of the most profitable products for Tanner Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Tanner), a major U.S. pharmaceutical company, was a vaccine with the brand name Zorstat. Tanner was facing increased public scrutiny over the price of Zorstat. The company was being accused of "being greedy and raising prices in ways that victimized vulnerable people." In two days Jack Stevens, the lead independent board member for Tanner, would attend the annual meeting of independent directors. The Zorstat pricing controversy was on the agenda. Stevens would have to take and defend a position on Tanner's drug pricing strategy. Inevitably, there would be a heated discussion on Zorstat and whether management was effectively driving shareholder value with drug pricing decisions.
The case examines the role of IT in CEMEX, a giant Mexican building materials manufacturer in an industry categorized by low margins and high costs. In the early 1990s, CEMEX made significant investments in its IT systems, resulting in a data-based management operation that put it at the forefront of the industry. As the company grew through acquisitions, it integrated IT through "The CEMEX Way," a set of standardized processes, organizations, and systems implemented on a common IT platform. In 2007, when CEMEX acquired Rinker, a major Australian concrete company, aligning Rinker with CEMEX IT systems was critical to quickly streamline operations and realize efficiencies. The CIO of CEMEX had developed a new integration process called Processes & IT (P&IT) that he was considering using for the Rinker integration. However, P&IT required additional resources, including significant upfront fixed costs and investment in new personnel teams at a time when the company was already struggling with the integration of another acquisition. CEMEX could either align Rinker to The CEMEX Way or use the opportunity to invest significantly more in evolving to the new P&IT approach that focused on business process management.
TalentCorp Malaysia runs the "Returning Expert Programme" (REP), a government program designed to encourage Malaysian professionals abroad to return home through use of various incentives. The REP is intended to combat the "brain drain," caused by highly educated professionals moving away to take advantage of better career opportunities by offering returnees benefits such as tax breaks and permanent residency for family members. In 2011, TalentCorp took over administration of the REP, and through adjustments to incentives and application requirements was able to dramatically increase the number of REP applicants and approvals. Now they are considering another set of changes and must demonstrate that their changes will increase "bang for the taxpayer buck," raising the number of applicants while maintaining the same level of quality.
HBA Job Offer Negotiation is a role play between a job applicant who is graduating from an undergraduate business school and a recruiter from a global consulting firm. It is intended to illustrate the importance of preparation and planning; integrative negotiation in the context of job offers, and specific behaviours that contribute to effective negotiation. To be used with 9B16C043.
This is Case A in a three case series. In December 2015, the managing director and chief executive officer of Sunitha Nath Boutiques in Bengaluru, discovered that her most trusted employee had abandoned and deceived her. She had recruited the employee as an intern and mentored him during his growth within the organization, eventually promoting him to the post of studio manager with complete power to run the business in her absence. But the employee had quit his job without giving any notice; stolen confidential information, designs, and documents relating to the business; and started his own competing design firm in Bengaluru. One of Sunitha Nath Boutiques’s important projects had been terminated by email a little while earlier, and the rumour was that her ex-employee was continuing to work on that project under his new design firm.<br><br>In this case, the managing director’s lawyer helped determine what had transpired, had taken steps to contain any further damage, and preserved relationships with clients and vendors. However, there were other matters to also consider. See 9B17M014 for Case B and 9B17M015 for Case C.
This is Case B in a three case series. In December 2015, the managing director and chief executive officer of Sunitha Nath Boutiques in Bengaluru, discovered that her most trusted employee had abandoned and deceived her. She had recruited the employee as an intern and mentored him during his growth within the organization, eventually promoting him to the post of studio manager with complete power to run the business in her absence. But the employee had quit his job without giving any notice; stolen confidential information, designs, and documents relating to the business; and started his own competing design firm in Bengaluru. One of Sunitha Nath Boutiques’s important projects had been terminated by email a little while earlier, and the rumour was that her ex-employee was continuing to work on that project under his new design firm.<br><br> In this case, the managing director and her lawyer reviewed the employment contract and determined what, if anything, might be done to prevent the ex-employee from using Sunitha Nath Boutique’s resources—knowledge, designs, clients, and employees—in a new competing business. See 9B17M013 for Case A and 9B17M015 for Case C.
This is Case C in a three-case series. In December 2015, the managing director and chief executive officer of Sunitha Nath Boutiques in Bengaluru, discovered that her most trusted employee had abandoned and deceived her. She had recruited the employee as an intern and mentored him during his growth within the organization, eventually promoting him to the post of studio manager with complete power to run the business in her absence. But the employee had quit his job without giving any notice; stolen confidential information, designs, and documents relating to the business; and started his own competing design firm in Bengaluru. One of Sunitha Nath Boutiques’s important projects had been terminated by email a little while earlier, and the rumour was that her ex-employee was continuing to work on that project under his new design firm.<br><br> In this case, the managing director and her lawyer reviewed the nature of confidential information and trade secrets. They also explored what intellectual property rights the managing director had and how she might prevent her ex-employee and others from misappropriating or stealing that information. See 9B17M013 for Case A and 9B17M014 for Case B.
HBA Job Offer Negotiation is a role play between a job applicant who is graduating from an undergraduate business school and a recruiter from a global consulting firm. It is intended to illustrate the importance of preparation and planning; integrative negotiation in the context of job offers, and specific behaviors that contribute to effective negotiation. To be used with W16897.
This is Case A in a three case series. In December 2015, the managing director and chief executive officer of Sunitha Nath Boutiques in Bengaluru, discovered that her most trusted employee had abandoned and deceived her. She had recruited the employee as an intern and mentored him during his growth within the organization, eventually promoting him to the post of studio manager with complete power to run the business in her absence. But the employee had quit his job without giving any notice; stolen confidential information, designs, and documents relating to the business; and started his own competing design firm in Bengaluru. One of Sunitha Nath Boutiques's important projects had been terminated by email a little while earlier, and the rumour was that her ex-employee was continuing to work on that project under his new design firm. In this case, the managing director's lawyer helped determine what had transpired, had taken steps to contain any further damage, and preserved relationships with clients and vendors. However, there were other matters to also consider. See Case B and Case C.
This is Case B in a three case series. In December 2015, the managing director and chief executive officer of Sunitha Nath Boutiques in Bengaluru, discovered that her most trusted employee had abandoned and deceived her. She had recruited the employee as an intern and mentored him during his growth within the organization, eventually promoting him to the post of studio manager with complete power to run the business in her absence. But the employee had quit his job without giving any notice; stolen confidential information, designs, and documents relating to the business; and started his own competing design firm in Bengaluru. One of Sunitha Nath Boutiques's important projects had been terminated by email a little while earlier, and the rumour was that her ex-employee was continuing to work on that project under his new design firm. In this case, the managing director and her lawyer reviewed the employment contract and determined what, if anything, might be done to prevent the ex-employee from using Sunitha Nath Boutique's resources-knowledge, designs, clients, and employees-in a new competing business. See Case A and Case C.
This is Case C in a three-case series. In December 2015, the managing director and chief executive officer of Sunitha Nath Boutiques in Bengaluru, discovered that her most trusted employee had abandoned and deceived her. She had recruited the employee as an intern and mentored him during his growth within the organization, eventually promoting him to the post of studio manager with complete power to run the business in her absence. But the employee had quit his job without giving any notice; stolen confidential information, designs, and documents relating to the business; and started his own competing design firm in Bengaluru. One of Sunitha Nath Boutiques's important projects had been terminated by email a little while earlier, and the rumour was that her ex-employee was continuing to work on that project under his new design firm. In this case, the managing director and her lawyer reviewed the nature of confidential information and trade secrets. They also explored what intellectual property rights the managing director had and how she might prevent her ex-employee and others from misappropriating or stealing that information. See Case A and Case B.