Spreadsheet supplement for case 216123. In December 2015, Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) has just made its third bid to acquire Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC), one of the largest railroads in the United States. Having rejected the prior offers, NSC's CEO James Squires and the NSC board must now value the current offer including the projected merger synergies as well as a recently-added contingent value right (CVR) designed to "sweeten" the offer, and decide how to respond.
<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Best Teaching Case Studies Award at the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI)</strong></p><br>In 2014, as one of the most well-known Taiwanese cuisine brands, Din Tai Fung operated more than 100 restaurants around the world. Attracted by its signature xialongbao (soup dumpling), long queues of customers at Din Tai Fung’s storefront were a common sight. Requests for partnerships for global expansion were constantly arriving. Customer feedback from overseas, however, suggested a notable gap in service quality between the overseas and Taiwanese branches. The demand for support by overseas branches had also surged significantly due to the fast pace of growth in recent years. The company’s chief executive officer had deferred his plan to open the 10th branch in Taiwan. Nevertheless, plans to open new branches in overseas markets were enthusiastically evaluated by existing partners. Two new potential partnership offers from Dubai and the Philippines were being aggressively pursued. What was the best way to cope with the increasing number of requests for support from overseas branches and to ensure high quality? Should Din Tai Fung approve the two overseas offers for partnership that seemed promising? What was the best overseas expansion strategy?
Urban Plus Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd. was a real estate brokerage company started in 2009 in Gurgaon, India, by a young MBA professional. In February 2010, he was considering the various issues he was faced with in day-to-day business activities. The company provided both resale and new bookings services, with a focus on the residential sector. The resale business was needed for immediate and substantial cash inflows to sustain the company’s growth. The new bookings business was also crucial to capture more market share and achieve aggressive growth. However, confronted with multiple hurdles, the company had slow business growth in its initial year. It appeared that handling both types of businesses was becoming a challenge. A recent incident involving one employee’s unethical behaviour in a resale transaction had forced the company to carefully consider its strategic plan. What strategy would the company need to compete in its sector and achieve its long term goals?
In 2013, after almost three years of making organizational changes, the chief executive officer of Federated Co-Operatives Limited (FCL) wondered if he was pushing his unique company through a transformation too quickly or if he was not pushing hard enough to modernize the company. FCL was a co-operative, a remnant of a farmers’ purchasing association that had grown to become one of the 50 largest companies in Canada. However, the company’s financial success and democratic governance structure had lulled FCL into a situation characterized by outdated processes and systems. Information technology, branding, leadership, and talent management processes needed to be transformed, and a culture change was necessary to move forward. But some employees were resisting, possibly as a result of burnout due to the magnitude of change or the co-operative governance structure that complicated the process of change. The chief executive officer needed to address his employees at a questions and answers session about the progress of the transformation. What should he tell them?
<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - John Molson MBA Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>When Etsy proceeded with an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2015, it was the second U.S. company to go public as a certified B Corporation. Etsy’s status as a B Corporation meant that social responsibility was ingrained in its mission. However, as an online marketplace for artisanal goods, Etsy faced a number of challenges. Principal among them was the launch of the new online store Handmade at Amazon, a direct attack on Etsy. Etsy had a core base of merchants and buyers, but Amazon had significantly more as well as a greater level of financial security than Etsy. Etsy’s fast growth had also put pressure on its merchants’ ability to offer larger quantities of handmade goods. Many merchants were pressing the company to allow sales from large-scale manufacturing, a path the company had eschewed since its start. Could Etsy find a way to successfully confront these challenges while maintaining its B Corporation ethos?
As of April 2012, TerraCycle had witnessed exponential growth over the past few years due to its unique value proposition of creating a line of consumer products out of trash. With continued global expansion, the firm’s biggest challenge was how to move forward while staying true to its mission to eliminate as much waste as possible from landfills, make fun products that consumers liked, and turn a profit. Operationally, TerraCycle was losing money on every domestically manufactured product and was regularly late on delivering its shipments to a major retail customer. All signs indicated that the company should move some of its manufacturing to an offshore location; however, TerraCycle had built its reputation on its strict adherence to the principles of sustainability, and such a move could cause a significant public-relations problem. There was little time to act, as orders from Walmart and Target were piling up. Should the CEO move some of TerraCycle’s production to China?
Urban Plus Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd. was a real estate brokerage company started in 2009 in Gurgaon, India, by a young MBA professional. In February 2010, he was considering the various issues he was faced with in day-to-day business activities. The company provided both resale and new bookings services, with a focus on the residential sector. The resale business was needed for immediate and substantial cash inflows to sustain the company's growth. The new bookings business was also crucial to capture more market share and achieve aggressive growth. However, confronted with multiple hurdles, the company had slow business growth in its initial year. It appeared that handling both types of businesses was becoming a challenge. A recent incident involving one employee's unethical behaviour in a resale transaction had forced the company to carefully consider its strategic plan. What strategy would the company need to compete in its sector and achieve its long term goals?
When Etsy proceeded with an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2015, it was the second U.S. company to go public as a certified B Corporation. Etsy's status as a B Corporation meant that social responsibility was ingrained in its mission. However, as an online marketplace for artisanal goods, Etsy faced a number of challenges. Principal among them was the launch of the new online store "Handmade" at Amazon, a direct attack on Etsy. Etsy had a core base of merchants and buyers, but Amazon had significantly more as well as a higher level of financial security than Etsy. Etsy's fast growth had also put pressure on its merchants' ability to offer larger quantities of handmade goods. Many merchants were pressing the company to allow sales from large-scale manufacturing, a path the company had eschewed since its start. Could Etsy find a way to successfully confront these challenges while maintaining its B Corporation ethos?
In 2013, after almost three years of making organizational changes, the chief executive officer of Federated Co-Operatives Limited (FCL) wondered if he was pushing his unique company through a transformation too quickly or if he was not pushing hard enough to modernize the company. FCL was a co-operative, a remnant of a farmers' purchasing association that had grown to become one of the 50 largest companies in Canada. However, the company's financial success and democratic governance structure had lulled FCL into a situation characterized by outdated processes and systems. Information technology, branding, leadership, and talent management processes needed to be transformed, and a culture change was necessary to move forward. But some employees were resisting, possibly as a result of burnout due to the magnitude of change or the co-operative governance structure that complicated the process of change. The chief executive officer needed to address his employees at a questions and answers session about the progress of the transformation. What should he tell them?
In February 2016, Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive officer, challenged a U.S. Federal Court order for Apple to assist the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a case involving suspected international terrorism. The government wanted Apple to provide the FBI with access to encrypted data on an Apple product, the iPhone. Cook's refusal to acquiesce to the government's demands drew strong public debate, pitting the proponents of national security against those in favour of customers' digital privacy and security. The case invoked an ethical dilemma faced by management in issues involving right-versus-right decisions. Which right should Cook choose? What are the ethical dilemmas involved in making this decision? How should Cook resolve the dilemma?
In February 2016, Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer, challenged a U.S. Federal Court order for Apple to assist the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a case involving suspected international terrorism. The government wanted Apple to provide the FBI with access to encrypted data on an Apple product, the iPhone. Cook's refusal to acquiesce to the government's demands drew strong public debate, pitting the proponents of national security against those in favour of customers’ digital privacy and security. The case invoked an ethical dilemma faced by management in issues involving right-versus-right decisions. Which right should Cook choose? What are the ethical dilemmas involved in making this decision? How should Cook resolve the dilemma?
In December 2015, Alan Horn, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, celebrates the world premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens - only the latest in a string of big bets that he has overseen. Disney pursues a 'tentpole strategy' that revolves around at least eight big-budget movies each year -- most from its acquired labels Pixar, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm. In fact, Disney produces nearly twice as many tentpole movies as any other major Hollywood film studio, but fewer movies overall than all but one of its rivals. Box-office failures can be extremely costly, since Disney (unlike its rivals) chooses not to enlist the help of financing partners. Is Disney Studios pursuing the right number of tentpoles as well as the right mix of new versus existing properties, under the right financing structure? And will the tentpole strategy pay off-in the short and long run?
In 2012, Li-Ning Co. Ltd. (LNCL) was the third-largest sportswear company in China in terms of revenue, after international brands Nike and Adidas. Following its highly successful founding in 1990 by China’s Olympic champion and company namesake, Li Ning, the firm attempted to formalize its organizational structure and establish a professionally managed organization, while dealing with the rise of well-established international sportswear brands in China like Nike and Adidas. By 2013, however, the company’s performance had started to decline. LNCL found itself caught in a tough spot, with profit margins falling as the company was squeezed between international and local sportswear brands. Furthermore, its aggressive past expansion had resulted in heavy expenditures in market promotion, large unsold inventories, and low operational efficiency. What should the new leadership team do to turn around the company’s performance?
In late 2014, Diamond Developers was building Dubai’s first large sustainable city, which was a mixed-use community designed to set new standards in environmental sustainability in the Middle East and beyond. As the project neared completion, the company’s co-founders needed to decide how to measure the development’s sustainability performance. Existing sustainability rating schemes had faced heavy criticism and were not easily applicable in Dubai’s desert climate. The co-founders therefore needed to determine whether the company should adapt one of the existing measurement systems or design its own sustainability performance measures. Regardless of the measurement system the company chose, the co-founders needed to decide how to define, measure, and manage sustainability as part of a unique real estate development project.
Project Teams: A Structured Development Approach is a seven-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2016 and written by Vittal S. Anantatmula, professor at the College of Business at Western Carolina University. The author provides a model of successful teams, examining a key aspect of the model in each chapter. He explores how the development, process, and management of teams works. He compares traditional teams with virtual global teams. He considers the attributes of productive team members and suggests traits of high-performance teams. Each chapter begins with objectives and a preview of concepts covered. Each chapter contains discussion questions. In Chapter 1, Significance of Teams (18 pages), the author examines the key elements of teams. He considers the nature of groups, defines the characteristics of teams, and lists six types of teams: project, production, service, action/performing, management, and parallel. He differentiates between groups and teams, including a formal structure, timeframe, and common goal. He explores project teams, their elements, and their importance. He presents a model of efficacy and outlines approaches to successful teams, such as defining roles, creating cohesiveness, and providing regular updates.
Project Teams: A Structured Development Approach is a seven-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2016 and written by Vittal S. Anantatmula, professor at the College of Business at Western Carolina University. The author provides a model of successful teams, examining a key aspect of the model in each chapter. He explores how the development, process, and management of teams works. He compares traditional teams with virtual global teams. He considers the attributes of productive team members and suggests traits of high-performance teams. Each chapter begins with objectives and a preview of concepts covered. Each chapter contains discussion questions. Chapter 2, Development of Project Teams (25 pages), describes two approaches to team motivation: task-related, focusing on the project's purpose, and people-related, focusing on creating a cohesive team. The author discusses the characteristics of each approach and explores how a team's structure affects the team's success. He categorizes structure into functional, projectized, and matrix, and presents advantages and disadvantages for each. He considers team members and the impact of social, behavioral, and cultural issues, especially on communication. He reviews basic information on generational groups, like veterans and Generation X, and considers how these groups work together in teams.
Project Teams: A Structured Development Approach is a seven-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2016 and written by Vittal S. Anantatmula, professor at the College of Business at Western Carolina University. The author provides a model of successful teams, examining a key aspect of the model in each chapter. He explores how the development, process, and management of teams works. He compares traditional teams with virtual global teams. He considers the attributes of productive team members and suggests traits of high-performance teams. Each chapter begins with objectives and a preview of concepts covered. Each chapter contains discussion questions. In Chapter 3, Project Team Processes (25 pages), the author explores how teams operate. He presents two models of team development. He differentiates between management and leadership, and outlines how to develop each. He lists factors that support team performance and ways leaders can support the team. He describes these factors as a process of causals, means, and effects. He emphasizes how communication can reduce uncertainty and provides a model for supportive communications. He shares insight on communicating with senior executives. He also looks at how technology can support and enable communication.