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This is a supplement to W13361

This case follows IBM's use of iterative software development to manage projects. The head of IBM's Rational Product Development is asked by the head of IBM's WebSphere Product Development to deliver an additional feature in the Rational product that would enable WebSphere to accomplish some new tasks. The feature requested is a critical requirement that has been requested very late in the product development cycle. Can the Rational Product Development team meet the WebSphere request? Should it undertake the changes to accommodate the new requirements? If so, can the team deliver the functionality without delaying the product release? This case also provides an opportunity to evaluate an iterative approach to project management.

This note is used in Darden's Postmerger Integration elective. The authors present a guide to help managers prepare for integration challenges and allocate integration resources more efficiently. Although simple at first glance, addressing 20 yes-or-no questions can lead to fruitful in-depth conversations that provide a sound foundation for successful PMI planning and execution. By answering these questions in open dialogue, PMI managers and senior executives will expose the potential weaknesses in an upcoming merger and highlight the arenas in which detailed planning is not only warranted but fundamental.

Describes Olam's development of a sustainable cotton supply chain in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa. Key dilemma for its managers: feasibility of introducing tractor technology for improving yield.

In recent years design has emerged as a critical factor in the success of many new products. This case exercise provides a hands-on way to experience the design process and offers a structured approach for incorporating key considerations that can aid in effective design. Students are asked to generate ideas for the design of a new reusable travel coffee mug. Relevant information on the consumer coffee market and on existing coffee mugs is provided. To assist students in this task, they are presented with an approach employed by the design firm RKS and which has been called Psycho-Aesthetics (PA) by its pioneer Ravi Sawhney. The PA process involves in-depth market research and visualization, a lens to assess existing competitive offerings, the creation of potential customer personas, and imagining a "hero's journey." When combined, these analyses allow designers to conceive elements that will result in a new product or service that delivers a unique customer connection for a specific target market. The exercise gives students an example of a company that successfully used PA principles to design and launch a new reusable water bottle in the late-2000s. It then asks them to follow the PA process to design a reusable travel coffee mug. The exercise includes exhibits to help students visualize the market, and an appendix with a detailed explanation of the PA process.

Jon Flint came up with the idea of a science-based beauty company while talking with his hairdresser about the problems with typical hair and skin care products. Together with a small team that included Professor Robert Langer of MIT, he committed to assemble a team of scientists from outside the beauty industry to challenge the conventional wisdom. Their company, Living Proof, wanted to offer women "proof in a bottle" rather than "hope in a bottle." As the firm came to market with its first products, it focused on explaining its science to consumers. It found it increasingly necessary to direct more of its resources towards marketing, including a major investment in Jennifer Aniston as its celebrity spokesperson. Were they becoming less of a biotech company and more like a traditional beauty company? How did they reconcile the desire for continued high spending on R&D with the need to ramp up marketing?

Gomak Inc. is a small business in the distribution industry. The company, owned by Mr Gauthier, imports 28 products in the food industry that it distributes throughout North America. In order to improve its current cash utilization, it is considering changing its inventory policy. Its most important product is a Guérande salt ordered directly from the producer three times a year. Mr Gauthier is considering changing the ordering pattern to improve both the company's performance and cash flow.

On April 24, 2013 the Rana Plaza factory building collapsed in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Over 1,100 people were killed in the worst industrial accident since the Union Carbide plant gas leak in Bhopal, India. Most of the victims worked for garment factories, whose primary clients were European, US and Canadian firms. Export contracts to such firms had helped Bangladesh become the world's second largest clothing exporter. Rana Plaza was not the first tragedy to occur in Bangladesh's garment industry, and without intervention, more might follow. International brand owners, domestic and foreign governments, labor unions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), stepped up to discuss their responsibilities for improving conditions for Bangladeshi garment workers.

In the aftermath of the Rana Plaza building collapse, a group of international retailers and labor unions partnered to create a proposal for more stringent inspections and enforcement of safety standards in Bangladesh garment factories. The proposal was met by opposition from several U.S. firms, which claimed the proposal carried too a high a risk of litigation for them to sign. Neither proposal relied on legislation, but options for government involvement are also discussed in the case.

In January 2013, nightlife impresarios Jason Strauss and Noah Tepperberg are celebrating the re-opening of their famed New York City-based nightclub Marquee. While most clubs are over within their first one and a half years, Strauss and Tepperberg managed to keep Marquee one of NYC's hottest clubs for almost nine years. Meanwhile, they significantly expanded their portfolio of clubs in New York City, Las Vegas, and abroad. Now, after a costly renovation of Marquee New York City, would their investment pay off? Was it a wise idea to model the revamped club after its namesake in Las Vegas that had become North America's highest-grossing club by focusing on electronic dance music and featuring a high-profile DJ every night? Could Strauss and Tepperberg make the seemingly risky economics-which involved placing large bets on superstar DJs-work in a very different market?

This case concerns the proposed buyout of Acibadem, a leading hospital chain in Turkey. Abraaj, a MENA region private equity firm, proposes to make its first investment in Turkey. The case highlights the role of Turkish health care reform in driving the value. The case provides an opportunity to estimate the potential return on investment as well as evaluate the structuring of the transaction.

This case provides an update on the ultimate outcome of the transaction presented in The Abraaj Group and the Acibadem Healthcare Investment (A).

Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) uses an innovative new approach to procuring outside legal counsel: it replaces relationship-based selection and law firms' traditional time-based billing with data-driven decision making and an online reverse auction. In the case, GSK is hit with a potentially devastating suit and must hire a firm in time to respond. The recently hired managing attorney, Sophia Keating, grapples with GSK's approach. The GSK veterans assure her that the approach drives down costs and improves the quality of work by systematically increasing the rigor in the procurement process. Still skeptical, Sophia runs the process of systematically analyzing and comparing the competing firms' bids. This case also describes the process by which these tools were created and adopted. Beyond the implications for law firms and other service providers, lessons from this case are applicable for teaching about institutional change, procurement processes relevant to many fields, and how to increase rigor in typically informal business processes.

This case takes students through the evolution of LEGO's business model from a traditional product-centric "make and sell" model to a more customer-centric "anticipate and lead" model in which products are co-created with customers, and customers are leveraged as a key factor in the company's innovation strategy. It begins with LEGO's struggles in the late 1990s to early 2000s, as competitors and imitators posed threats to LEGO as did the increasing alternative modes of electronic and Internet-based play. LEGO posted losses for a handful of years, and the company's culture waned. The case then takes students from the early 2000s into 2013, a period through which LEGO underwent significant transformation, which began with a new CEO, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp. The case highlights the company's evolution through three lenses - its organizational evolution, community evolution, and technological evolution.

In 2007 Enterprise was celebrating its 50 years in business and its ranking as the largest car rental company in the world--one that had always concentrated on "home city" rather than airport rentals. But when Vanguard (which owned National and Alamo) and the Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group approached agreement on a merger that February, Enterprise decided to step in. By acquiring National and Alamo, the company could radically boost its airport presence. It would, however, face big operational and cultural differences. Vanguard accepted the Enterprise offer, and Taylor's company began what he describes as a "deliberate integration." Being a family-owned organization, Enterprise could resist short-term financial pressure; Taylor announced that as part of the integration process, Vanguard would operate as an autonomous subsidiary for at least a year. During that time Enterprise learned a lot about airport operations--and taught a lot about achieving high customer satisfaction. It also came to see that each of the three brands was positioned to serve a well-defined segment, so it worked to reinforce the distinct character of each while looking for operational ways to leverage joint ownership. The decision to adapt Enterprise's highly decentralized organizational structure meant that its general managers would have to be equipped to oversee big, factorylike operations at airports, and Vanguard managers would need a better understanding of the home-city market. The deliberate approach was a great success: The deal paid for itself in less than three years; total revenue now surpasses $13 billion; and combined market share climbed from about 28% to more than 33%.

Managing resource constraints, controlling health care costs, training the 21st-century workforce, implementing smart-grid technologies--challenges of this scope can't be addressed unless government, business, and NGOs work together. But how? Such problems need solutions designed and implemented by what the Kennedy School professor Joseph Nye has called "tri-sector athletes"--people who can bridge the vastly different cultures of the three sectors. Bill Gates is one, and so are Sheryl Sandberg, Bob Hormats, and Hank Paulson. But these leaders are a rare breed, the authors found, at once pragmatic and idealistic. Motivated by a strong sense of mission, they forge uniquely effective career paths by applying their widening range of cross-sector skills, sensitivity to context, open-mindedness, and powerful networks to some of the world's most intractable problems. To encourage more people to follow in their footsteps, the authors suggest how academia, government agencies, and private enterprise can do more to overcome systemic barriers, which include the obstacles presented to those in the private sector by the arduous and seemingly capricious government confirmation process; the level of transparency and public scrutiny that public service entails; the tremendous and growing disparity of pay between the private sector and both government and public service; and the sheer difficulty of hearing about cross-sector career opportunities. Aspiring leaders need both an intellectual foundation and practical pathways that will give them tri-sector experience throughout their careers without slowing their forward momentum.

Even when CEOs make gender diversity a priority--by setting aspirational goals for the proportion of women in leadership roles, insisting on diverse slates of candidates for senior positions, and developing mentoring and training programs--they are often frustrated by a lack of results. That's because they haven't addressed the fundamental identity shift involved in coming to see oneself, and to be seen by others, as a leader. Research shows, the authors write, that the subtle, "second-generation" gender bias still present in organizations and in society disrupts the learning cycle at the heart of becoming a leader. Women must establish credibility in a culture that is deeply conflicted about whether, when, and how they should exercise authority. Practices that equate leadership with behaviors considered more common in men suggest that women are simply not cut out to be leaders. Furthermore, the human tendency to gravitate to people who are like oneself leads powerful men to sponsor and advocate for other men when leadership opportunities arise. The authors suggest three actions to support and advance gender diversity: educate women and men about second-generation gender bias; create safe "identity workspaces" to support transitions to bigger roles; and anchor women's development efforts in their sense of leadership purpose rather than in how they are perceived.

Reprint: R1309D Business leaders send a powerful message when they make a commitment to diversity that goes beyond rhetoric. But what motivates them to do so, and how do they actually create inclusive cultures? To find out, the authors interviewed 24 CEOs whose firms were known for embracing people of all backgrounds. These executives saw diversity as a strategic and moral imperative and made promoting it a personal mission. Many had experienced what it was like to be an outsider, which gave them a deeper understanding of the barriers that women, in particular, face at work. The CEOs resoundingly agreed that an inclusive environment was one in which employees contributed to success as their authentic selves, and the organization respected and leveraged their talents and provided a sense of connectedness. Eight best organizational practices for instilling such a culture emerged from their interviews: 1. Measure diversity and inclusion. 2. Hold managers accountable. 3. Support flexible arrangements. 4. Recruit and promote from diverse pools of candidates. 5. Provide leadership education. 6. Sponsor employee resource groups and mentoring programs. 7. Offer quality role models. 8. Make the chief diversity officer position count. It's also key for CEOs to dedicate time to work personally on diversity initiatives. That sets the tone for everyone and helps ensure that organizations attract and develop the best talent.

Research has established that women decide about consumer purchases differently than men do. But does that hold true in a B2B setting? Senior executives at Deloitte, recognizing that an increasing number of potential clients are women but that executives have honed their skills selling to men, decided to conduct some research on the matter. Interviews with experienced buyers of professional services in 18 large organizations--and observations of meetings with hundreds of prospective and existing clients--revealed significant differences between men and women as B2B buyers. For example, women see a meeting with a candidate service provider as a chance to explore options in collaboration with an expert resource, while men see that event as a near-final step in the process, when they are narrowing down and choosing among options. And whereas male buyers expect head honchos to be present at the meeting, female buyers are more interested in talking to the people they will actually be working with. On the basis of these and other findings, Deloitte established a rigorous training program to raise awareness of differences in decision-making styles and of the need to adapt sales approaches accordingly. The training, which Deloitte believes has given the firm an edge in the marketplace, has improved partners' and managers' interactions with all prospects and clients. It has also increased respect for diversity inside the firm.

A variety of recent research by business, psychology, and sociology scholars offers a window into women's collective experiences at work. Some of these studies confirm widely held assumptions: that women are paid less than men; that the numbers of women drop dramatically the higher you go in organizations; that women are more ethical. But some cast doubt on other popular notions: that caring for their families is a major reason that high-achieving women leave their careers; that female MBAs are less likely to get job offers than male MBAs are; that being disliked is a disadvantage in the workplace. And some studies bring to light forms of discrimination that are less obvious but pernicious: the way men receive more plum assignments, more key sales accounts, and other marks of favor, while women get more praise but not necessarily the big promotions. One of the most disturbing studies? One that reveals the extent to which both women and men are biased against working mothers.