Zurich Insurance was undergoing organizational change after implementing five new people practices focused on: manager development, diversity and inclusion, job model and data analytics, recruitment, and talent pipeline. The case "Zurich Insurance: Fostering Key People Management Practices" (417-035) provides background of the company and an outline of each people practice, as well as a description of how the company's culture was changing and how its allocation of resources was being examined as it tried to improve its position in the marketplace. This case takes a closer look at the implementation of the manager development initiative "Zurich Oxygen."
Zurich Insurance was undergoing organizational change after implementing five new people practices focused on: manager development, diversity and inclusion, job model and data analytics, recruitment, and talent pipeline. The case "Zurich Insurance: Fostering Key People Management Practices" (417-035) provides background of the company and an outline of each people practice, as well as a description of how the company's culture was changing and how its allocation of resources was being examined as it tried to improve its position in the marketplace. This case takes a closer look at the company's efforts around diversity and inclusion.
Zurich Insurance was undergoing organizational change after implementing five new people practices focused on: manager development, diversity and inclusion, job model and data analytics, recruitment, and talent pipeline. The case "Zurich Insurance: Fostering Key People Management Practices" (417-035) provides background of the company and an outline of each people practice, as well as a description of how the company's culture was changing and how its allocation of resources was being examined as it tried to improve its position in the marketplace. This case takes a closer look at the implementation of a global job model and how it has enabled the use of data analytics in the human resources function.
Zurich Insurance was undergoing organizational change after implementing five new people practices focused on: manager development, diversity and inclusion, job model and data analytics, recruitment, and talent pipeline. The case "Zurich Insurance: Fostering Key People Management Practices" (417-035) provides background of the company and an outline of each people practice, as well as a description of how the company's culture was changing and how its allocation of resources was being examined as it tried to improve its position in the marketplace. This case takes a closer look at the adoption of new recruitment practices.
Zurich Insurance was undergoing organizational change after implementing five new people practices focused on: manager development, diversity and inclusion, job model and data analytics, recruitment, and talent pipeline. The case "Zurich Insurance: Fostering Key People Management Practices" (417-035) provides background of the company and an outline of each people practice, as well as a description of how the company's culture was changing and how its allocation of resources was being examined as it tried to improve its position in the marketplace. This case takes a closer look at succession planning at the top of the organization, including a focus on leadership competencies and development.
The chief marketing manager of Crown Distilleries (Crown) in Raipur, the capital city of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, faced cumbersome brand-building activities and maintenance of its brand equity. Competitors began taking market share from Crown's well-established brand. Crown added new brands to its portfolio in response to its competitors' activities. Would it be fruitful for the company to opt for an umbrella brand in a particular segment or continue to add new names to its product portfolio? How would the company develop an action plan to beat competitors, choose a brand name for its new product, and build strong brand equity?
In 2016, the oldest member of the family business The Ong Group was concerned about the ailing firm that he and his siblings were running. The business had been started in 1957 in Hong Kong by their father. After the death of the father and one of the siblings, the remaining family members needed a plan for the future of the business. Should all of the remaining siblings and their children be allowed to become directors in the family firm? How could they create a workable governance structure that would help the family make the right decisions? How would they put the business back on track?
It was the summer of 2015 when the son of a family-owned real estate business in Vancouver was struck by love and decided to follow his heart to India. However, leaving his family's business was easier said than done. The family had no formal documents that provided members with an exit strategy or remuneration. There were no wills or financial plans, and whatever money was available to finance a move abroad was tied up in the family business, which was operating at a loss. At stake was the pending sale of a commercial property that could inject nearly $3 million into the family's coffers. Before leaving, which short- and long-term issues needed to be addressed to ensure the business and the family estate were prepared for the future? How should the family move forward when faced with the realization that the children might not be interested in taking over the business?
In 2016, the oldest member of the family business The Ong Group was concerned about the ailing firm that he and his siblings were running. The business had been started in 1957 in Hong Kong by their father. After the death of the father and one of the siblings, the remaining family members needed a plan for the future of the business. Should all of the remaining siblings and their children be allowed to become directors in the family firm? How could they create a workable governance structure that would help the family make the right decisions? How would they put the business back on track?
It was the summer of 2015 when the son of a family-owned real estate business in Vancouver was struck by love and decided to follow his heart to India. However, leaving his family’s business was easier said than done. The family had no formal documents that provided members with an exit strategy or remuneration. There were no wills or financial plans, and whatever money was available to finance a move abroad was tied up in the family business, which was operating at a loss. At stake was the pending sale of a commercial property that could inject nearly $3 million into the family’s coffers. Before leaving, which short- and long-term issues needed to be addressed to ensure the business and the family estate were prepared for the future? How should the family move forward when faced with the realization that the children might not be interested in taking over the business?
The chief marketing manager of Crown Distilleries (Crown) in Raipur, the capital city of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, faced cumbersome brand-building activities and maintenance of its brand equity. Competitors began taking market share from Crown’s well-established brand. Crown added new brands to its portfolio in response to its competitors’ activities. Would it be fruitful for the company to opt for an umbrella brand in a particular segment or continue to add new names to its product portfolio? How would the company develop an action plan to beat competitors, choose a brand name for its new product, and build strong brand equity?
Want an easy way to become a better leader in the age of uncertainty? Read philosophy. It helps remind us about what we should instinctively already know: to never be afraid to ask questions. As Bertrand Russell said: “To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can still do for those who study it.” Brexit should drive business leaders to review existing strategies and pay extra attention to agility when planning business models. This, of course, requires facing the unknown. And the most powerful weapon for senior managers today is being comfortable in facing uncertainty. After all, unless you’re willing to put decision making on indefinite hold, you must learn to calmly get over the challenges of the unknown and make a call. But just being able to boldly move forward isn’t enough because no organization benefits from blind leaps forward. The key is finding the prudent middle ground between being reckless and timid when facing the unknown. And one of the best ways to learn how to do that well is through understanding philosophy, which complements business smarts and other skills taught in business programs. Philosophy is the study of knowledge through critical thinking and questioning — and that’s where the return on time invested for executives sits, because philosophy sharpens their questioning technique and answer-interpretation skills.
In 2016, the executive vice-president of commercial services for Sibanye Gold, Westonaria (Sibanye), the largest gold producer in South Africa, faced a challenge. The company’s latest acquisition had been particularly difficult, with much resistance from the acquired management team. Although the executive vice-president tried to empathize with the management team who had done things a certain way for decades, he was frustrated with their lack of co-operation and lists of concerns. The management team needed to internalize and learn to live by Sibanye’s values, encapsulated in the acronym CARE—commitment, accountability, respect, and enabling. How could the executive vice-president help the management team to change their traditional mindset so they could effectively manage mining operations under the new company?
This case follows Qalaa Holdings, a successful Egypt-based private equity firm, and gives insight into the types of investments it pursued, its growth over time, and the limited partner base it had at hand. It also allows students to consider and debate whether the traditional private equity fund structure can be applied in Africa. In particular, the case focuses on one of Qalaa's largest and most difficult greenfield infrastructure projects: Egyptian Refining Company. It tracks the project from its structuring stage in 2007, through the adverse periods of the global financial crisis and Arab Spring, until 2012. At this time, Hisham El-Khazindar, co-founder and managing director, had to decide on the fate of the project. While passionate about contributing to Africa's development, he could not ignore the challenges: the sheer size and complexity of the project, the high financial stakes, and the region's on-going unstable political environment.
In 2016, the €75 billion French multinational energy conglomerate ENGIE was massively transforming its strategic and operational imperatives toward renewable energy. The 200-year old company owned Europe's biggest natural gas pipeline and was a major global producer and supplier of natural gas and other energy sources. ENGIE had announced the transformation in 2014-following a sharp drop in global fossil fuel prices-viewing it as the beginning of a new era in energy. ENGIE set goals to double renewable power capacity for Europe over the next decade, rapidly expand its renewable footprint in high growth regions such as India and China, slash its lines of businesses based on commodities, and reduce exploration of oil and gas. CEO Isabelle Kocher's vision followed her belief that "the name of the game was to take the lead in the new energy world." The case is set in mid-2015, when top management, convinced that ENGIE needed to build a strong global portfolio quickly, acquired nine-year old French energy company Solairedirect for €200 million. The acquisition made ENGIE the number one solar company in France and gave it an international presence and product pipeline. Solairedirect had a profitable business model-different from ENGIE's-that enabled it to rapidly build utility scale solar photovoltaic installations at competitive prices. ENGIE believed that buying the smaller company would bring an entrepreneurial spirit and new way of thinking to the company. However, ENGIE had just reorganized along mostly geographical business units, and Solairedirect did not fit into that organizational structure. Also, when ENGIE acquired Solairedirect, the solar company had just experienced an unsuccessful IPO attempt. The questions arose as to whether a company in that situation was a good acquisition target; whether ENGIE paid the right price for it; and how, and to what extent, Solairedirect could or should be integrated into the larger organization.
In 2014, after nearly 150 years as one of Portugal's most wealthy and powerful families, the EspÃrito Santo family completely lost control of its empire, which included Banco EspÃrito Santo, Portugal's largest bank by market capitalization and second-largest private-sector bank in terms of assets, along with stakes in numerous financial, non-financial, privately held, and publicly traded companies. During the European financial crisis of 2010 to 2014, many of the family's companies required capital investment. To avoid family equity dilution, the family's patriarch, Ricardo EspÃrito Santo Silva Salgado, engaged in a creative money-go-round structure whereby Banco EspÃrito Santo would legally raise short-term commercial paper with high interest rates and sell them to third parties that were partially owned by the EspÃrito Santo family. These third parties then would sell that paper back to the bank's retail clients as safe investments similar to Portuguese deposits. The plan failed, and the house of cards that was the EspÃrito Santo empire collapsed. Students will consider whether Salgado and the board of Banco EspÃrito Santo acted appropriately or if they failed their fiduciary duties to the non-family shareholders of the bank.
This is an introductory case with a simple narrative designed to teach students the basics of designing a simple financial spreadsheet. The follow-up B case may be used to teach the basic steps for creating pivot tables. The topic is based on a new student trying to budget for the academic year expenses.
Supplement to case KS1202. This is an introductory case with a simple narrative designed to teach students the basics of designing a simple financial spreadsheet. The follow-up B case may be used to teach the basic steps for creating pivot tables. The topic is based on a new student trying to budget for the academic year expenses.