With interest rates near all-time lows in late 2015, Stanley Cirano knew it was an opportune time to consider the financing on his portfolio of commercial real estate. Cirano Properties was the general partner on three separate private equity investments of retail shopping centers in suburban Chicago. The first, Brookline Road Shopping Center, had been acquired in 2006 and had been managed through the financial crisis and real estate downturn. The property was performing well and Cirano wondered whether it made sense to refinance or sell. The second property, Columbus Festival Plaza, had been acquired in a 2010 bankruptcy auction. Although the property had needed a good amount of capital improvements, Cirano was proud of the growth in net operating income he had been able to generate. The final property, Deerwood Acres, had been developed by Cirano himself after acquiring the property in 2013 from the previous owner, who had been operating a go-cart track and drive-in theater on the land. Cirano expected great things from the property, though his lease-up had been slower than anticipated. Although the three properties had different levels of performance and presented different management issues, they all shared the fact that they were all significantly financed, in part, with debt. As the properties were acquired at different times, Cirano had simply selected what seemed like reasonable financing at the time. With his concern that interest rates would soon be rising, Cirano thought it made sense to take a holistic view of his portfolio, consider what debt options were available to him, and make a sound strategic decision on the financing of all his assets at the same time.
After thirty-three years as a corporate lawyer, Marissa Wesely became a 2014 Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow at Harvard University to pursue her passion of advancing women's rights, particularly in the developing world. She took on a leadership role with the Win-Win Coalition, which worked with women's funds and local women's organizations, advocated for the value of cross-sector partnerships and coached key players to work together and find common ground despite different vocabularies and expectations. The case covers key lessons and questions for consideration during Wesely's early stage efforts to launch the Win-Win Coalition into global prominence under a cohesive identity and strategy.
This note argues that it is hard for private institutions to provide the public goods that the government provides. In other words, there will tend to be an under provision of public goods if private institutions provided them. The explanation this note provides hinges on the very nature of what public, as opposed to private, goods are.
Singapore Airlines had long been considered the gold standard for its innovative customer service. However, the company was faced with new sources of competition, from the rapid growth of Southeast Asian low-cost carriers on the one hand, to the expansion of premium Gulf carriers on the other. The company therefore decided to launch a low-cost airline of its own called Scoot, the fourth brand in its portfolio. Now CEO Goh Choon Phong must consider how to grow all four airlines without cannibalizing its own market share or diluting the sterling brand of the parent airline.
This case explores the role of Tom Kalil as Deputy Director for Technology & Innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. With the end of President Obama's Administration drawing near, Kalil and his team of "policy entrepreneurs" must work to build an ecosystem of individuals and organizations both inside and outside the Federal government, if they hope to see their science & technology initiatves continue into the next Administration. The case allows for discussion of: leading innovation ecosystems; building public-private and public-public collaborations; leading system innovation; talent management and development; and public sector innovation.
Plymouth Tube, a family business, was a manufacturer of precision tubing and extruded shapes for aerospace, desalination, medical, mining, energy, and water industries globally. Founded in 1924, as of 2012 it employed 770 people at thirteen plants in seven U.S. states and had sales of about $240 million. The family had twenty members across three generations, including spouses. The board was composed of eight members, three from the family and five who were independent. Stacy, age 30, was the only fifth-generation family member working for the company. Her father, Van, age 64 and a fourth-generation member, had been in the business for forty years and had succeeded his father as president, CEO, and chairman. In early 2013, management presented a very large expansion project that was riskier than previous recent investments to the board, and requested the board's approval. Independent board members asked Van to obtain feedback from the family about the proposal. Van asked Stacy to direct the process for informing the family, asking for their input, and communicating it back to the board. How should Stacy conduct the process? What should be done with the information once it has been gathered? Should family members be involved in this type of business decision? Based on the information given in the case, is this a good investment?
In this series of case studies, students learn to identify, assess, and control the risks of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in a real-world situation. PopVote was the electronic voting system used by the Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong. This case consists of cases A, B, and C. Case A gives the background on POP and PopVote. It describes the development history of PopVote, including past voting events, past cyber-attacks, and the evolution of its IT security infrastructure. Students are asked how to identify and assess potential security risks and how to prepare PopVote for an upcoming high-visibility voting event.
In this series of case studies, students learn to identify, assess, and control the risks of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in a real-world situation. PopVote was the electronic voting system used by the Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong. This case study consists of cases A, B, and C. Case B sets the scene for risk control in information security management. To improve cloud-based security, POP outsourced the system security to Amazon Web Services (AWS), CloudFlare, and UDomain. During the mock and preregistration period of the voting event, the scale of DDoS attacks forced AWS and UDomain to make an unusual move and withdraw their services. CloudFlare also warned that it might suspend its service if there was another wave of cyber-attacks. The POP team had to decide immediately what they should do to control the risks.
In this series of case studies, students learn to identify, assess, and control the risks of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in a real-world situation. PopVote was the electronic voting system used by the Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong. This case study consists of cases A, B, and C. Case C describes what actually happened to PopVote after AWS and UDomain, security system providers, withdrew their services.
Bonnier News was Sweden's leading media group and a paragon in the nation's cultural, economic, and political circles. It was one of six divisions of Bonnier AB, a company founded by Gerhard Bonnier in 1804 that remained wholly owned by the Bonnier family, with 8,000 employees and operations in 15 countries. Bonnier News, which published three major papers in Stockholm, Dagens Nyheter, Dagens Industri, and Expressen and the southern Swedish daily Sydsvenskan, faced a major transition in the spring of 2016 as CEO Gunilla Herlitz prepared to retire. Herlitz's tenure had coincided with momentous upheavals in the newspaper industry, the rise of the digital era, and a period of unending change at Bonnier AB. Indeed, when Herlitz assumed her position, Bonnier was "a company in a financial crisis" struggling to adapt to the constantly changing media and advertising environment. In 2009, its flagship paper Dagens Nyheter lost more than 100 million Swedish kronor (SEK), or 10,780,985 euros (€). However, by 2010, just one year after Herlitz became its editor and CEO, the paper was already showing a healthy profit of 143 million SEK (€15,400,217). By 2014, five years into Herlitz's tenure, DN was again winning awards. Herlitz went on to apply many of the same tactics to the Bonnier News business area and its properties. This case explores the transformation of Bonnier News under Herlitz and considers the overall strategy of its newspapers and the strategic development of its business model going forward.
Statutes governing the physical use of land-its development, redevelopment, and conversion of use-shape the parameters within which land markets operate. Using New York City as an example, this note illustrates the importance of understanding zoning laws and processes before engaging in any real estate transaction.
The case, set in May 2016, discusses sales strategy and managing sales and service at Oversight Systems, an Atlanta, Georgia-based software firm that developed analytics for organizations to monitor their data for errors, fraud, and operational inefficiencies. Included is an overview of Oversight's founding and the evolution of its offering from customized software analytics to pre-packaged software-as-a-service (SaaS) bundles, called Insights on Demand (IOD). Oversight adapted its sales and service approach to better suit IOD by standardizing its prices, packaging, and product delivery, as well as its approach to sales, including the sales team's composition, compensation, and incentive structure. Over time, Oversight had engaged in a variety of channel partnerships, and some were more successful than others. The case examines the decision of whether to engage in a channel partnership with a major credit card company.
Souche had just celebrated its first anniversary in 2014 as a business in China’s used car market. After more than a year of strenuous effort, Souche had achieved considerable objectives. The company’s website had been providing information on used cars for six months, and its physical store had opened in Beijing around the same time. The store’s monthly sales had increased dramatically from 30 cars in the first month to over 231 cars in December 2013, ranking second among used car dealers nationwide. The management team had every reason to feel proud. The company’s founder had been optimizing the operational model for greater efficiency in the previous six months, but it suddenly dawned on him that there was a bottleneck in the latest business model. Was the company on the wrong path? After rejecting yet another business model, what would Souche do next?
EMMICO has just acquired Franz Kuerten and is trying to integrate its Vienna plant operations. The problem is the company is storing too much inventory at the plant and its off-site warehouse - up to five times the amount it needs for regular production. To hit the inventory sweet spot, student interns from the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan are tasked with using two models to calculate economic order quantity. They will have to report their findings in a week.
ASEAN CSR Network, a non-government organization based in Singapore, pondered on how it could increase local business interests in sustainable business practices. How should the NGO go about persuading companies to adopt sustainable business practices?
AGL Energy, a long-time traditional energy supply company in Australia, was facing competition as alternative sources of energy, such as solar power and batteries, were taking root both in the marketplace and with energy-conscious homeowners. The trend of homeowners who opted to supply their own energy needs and go off the grid was described as a "death spiral" for utility companies. In response, AGL Energy appointed a new chief executive officer in 2015 to address concerns related to falling demand, customer retention, and unpredictable energy prices. With climate change issues pushing so-called green energy sources into the forefront, what were the strategic options that would ensure AGL Energy's continued presence as a leader in the energy industry?
Saint Elizabeth, a leading Canadian health-care enterprise, had been managing innovation through what it called the Innovation Tripod. This had three components—Ideas (which involved generating innovative ideas from among employees), Solutions (involving outside ventures in innovation), and Impact (consisting of ways in which results were measured). The chief executive officer (CEO) was facing a dilemma with each element of the tripod. How could staff engagement be improved? What was a better way of managing external partners? How could the prevailing metrics of innovation be fine-tuned? What was the way forward for the CEO?
First appearing in China, physical platform crowdfunding is based on the basic formula used online by fundraising sites like Kickstarter, which is a symbiotic system between innovators, platforms, and investors. However, the new model combines these elements in a novel way in conjunction with the Internet and a physical business establishment, such as a café. In October 2013, 100 former students of Peking University formed the 1898 Café, the first crowdfunding café of its kind. It was established to serve the university’s entrepreneur alumni community and to stimulate the university’s entrepreneurial spirit. One of the most revolutionary features of the physical platform model is the concept of investors being members of the establishment, with each investor being a shareholder. The physical platform model emphasizes the equality of shareholders and takes advantage of the human desire to self-organize and self-manage. In this model, a physical establishment is the platform through which investors (shareholders) are sought and selected. That is, the platform, with a pre-specified focus, finds the investors—not the other way around. The second major difference is that the model is not simply about accumulating funds. The blending of investors, operators, and consumers in the business may have numerous applications beyond crowdfunding. Merging three traditionally separate business factions and pooling resources among them makes it possible to efficiently generate business results and do big things with little money. This model could prove revolutionary for existing businesses and industries looking for a different way to operate. A company that adopts it could drastically reduce its start-up risks and better ensure survival beyond the initial self-funded period.