個案總覽

This case is divided into A, B, and C cases. See OB85 Dealing with a Toxic Boss for an expanded version of the full case. A Case: Ned was an upper middle manager in a major construction company. Six months prior, he was hired away from a competitor to develop the company's market in the fast-growing southeast region. He was assigned to Atlanta to grow that business. As it turned out, the major challenge was not with the market, but with his boss, Bill, Southeast Regional Director. The A case describes Ned's experience working with Bill and Ned's analysis about how to handle the situation. B Case: After a meeting with Bill that did not yield any improvements, Ned decided to approach John, the company president, about the negative impact that Bill's behavior was having on building the Southeast Region. The B case covers Ned's discussion with the company president, Bill's subsequent behavior, and new issues that arose in the regional office. C Case: Ned struggled with whether to continue raising issues about Bill and the impact of Bill's actions on both business growth and employees or simply resign. Case C covers Ned's decision, his plans for rolling out that decision, and the implications of his actions on others.

This case is divided into A, B, and C cases. See OB85 Dealing with a Toxic Boss for an expanded version of the full case. A Case: Ned was an upper middle manager in a major construction company. Six months prior, he was hired away from a competitor to develop the company's market in the fast-growing southeast region. He was assigned to Atlanta to grow that business. As it turned out, the major challenge was not with the market, but with his boss, Bill, Southeast Regional Director. The A case describes Ned's experience working with Bill and Ned's analysis about how to handle the situation. B Case: After a meeting with Bill that did not yield any improvements, Ned decided to approach John, the company president, about the negative impact that Bill's behavior was having on building the Southeast Region. The B case covers Ned's discussion with the company president, Bill's subsequent behavior, and new issues that arose in the regional office. C Case: Ned struggled with whether to continue raising issues about Bill and the impact of Bill's actions on both business growth and employees or simply resign. Case C covers Ned's decision, his plans for rolling out that decision, and the implications of his actions on others.

This case is divided into A, B, and C cases. See OB85 Dealing with a Toxic Boss for an expanded version of the full case. A Case: Ned was an upper middle manager in a major construction company. Six months prior, he was hired away from a competitor to develop the company's market in the fast-growing southeast region. He was assigned to Atlanta to grow that business. As it turned out, the major challenge was not with the market, but with his boss, Bill, Southeast Regional Director. The A case describes Ned's experience working with Bill and Ned's analysis about how to handle the situation. B Case: After a meeting with Bill that did not yield any improvements, Ned decided to approach John, the company president, about the negative impact that Bill's behavior was having on building the Southeast Region. The B case covers Ned's discussion with the company president, Bill's subsequent behavior, and new issues that arose in the regional office. C Case: Ned struggled with whether to continue raising issues about Bill and the impact of Bill's actions on both business growth and employees or simply resign. Case C covers Ned's decision, his plans for rolling out that decision, and the implications of his actions on others.

Led by CEO S.D. Darmono, Jababeka was a publicly listed real estate firm in Indonesia specializing in industrial estates. Due to infrastructure and logistics bottlenecks in Indonesia, the company had moved into various infrastructure projects, including a power plant and a port. Even though the company had identified substantial business opportunities in the form of a captive market of industrial estate tenants, both projects suffered from delays due to regulatory complexity. Darmono skillfully aligned the interests of private and public-sector partners, but was still unable to get quick returns on his considerable investments, necessitating an allocation of more funds. The case illustrates the opportunities and risks of emerging market infrastructure projects. Students are asked to evaluate the viability of Jababeka's new infrastructure strategy and formulate an action plan.

A senior manager at the Toronto office of accounting firm Davis, Ellis & Thurn (DE&T) reflected on last year's Upper Canada Bank (UCB) audit and wondered how he should plan for the upcoming 2012 audit. The senior manager was responsible for overseeing the audit of UCB's retail segment (UCBR). Specifically, he was concerned about the test-of-controls portion of the UCBR audit, since the team had faced some challenges the previous summer. For years, UCB had been a client of DE&T, but it was only in 2011 that the firm had bid on and was granted the test-of-controls portion, which had formerly been completed on behalf of DE&T by UCB's internal auditors. Now, reflecting on the previous year's engagement, the senior manager wondered what changes he would make with respect to budgeting, staffing, and training, and to the client relationship in order to ensure that the client was satisfied and the UCBR audit remained profitable.

Two years after the death of Sony's visionary founder, Akio Morita, chief executive officer Noboyuki Idei faced a major crisis. Sony had just posted its worst performance in years and had to figure out if its current strategy needed to change. In pursuit of Morita's vision to bring entertainment to the masses through innovation and applied technology, Sony had grown from a small Japanese company to a US$50-billion-per-year global corporation. As it entered the new millennium without its founder, Idei realized that the success Sony had enjoyed in the 1990s was being challenged in the global marketplace. With increasing global competition and in the midst of a recession, the company's net income was far below expectations. The situation would probably worsen if Sony failed to make immediate strategic changes, including changes to its international strategy. Idei had experienced firsthand the success Sony enjoyed in the 1990s as it expanded its product lines and international presence. By April 2001, after reviewing the previous year's financial performance, Idei knew Sony was fighting an uphill battle. All that Morita had worked towards, particularly in the 1990s, was suddenly being threatened. Idei faced a critical decision going forward. Sony was a company that still strove to embody its founders' vision, but could he dare go against his predecessor's approach and pursue a new international strategy?

Prada currently requires a significant amount of capital both to re-finance debt that is maturing in the next six to twelve months and to finance its intended growth into the Asian (especially Chinese) markets. Since financial markets are aware of Prada's pressing need to raise capital, it is important for the board of directors to develop a credible strategy for raising the necessary capital of at least €1 billion. Although the press has been suggesting that Prada will do an initial public offering, the company has tried this several times in the past with no success, mainly because of bad timing (9/11, the SARS outbreak, and the ongoing global financial crisis and European sovereign debt crisis). The board has approached Guido Santini of the investment bank Grupo Capo Milano to come up with a number of credible alternatives and a strategy for raising the needed capital.

Examining the effectiveness of the class visitation process at the Darden School had always been a high priority for the Office of Admissions due to its key role in connecting with qualified, enthusiastic applicants. Anecdotal feedback suggested that prospective students considered their visits productive and enjoyable and that they were energized by the Darden classroom experience; however, weaknesses in the visitation process had also been part of the feedback. Accordingly, continuous improvement of this vital component-the introduction of potential applicants to Darden-was an area of high interest to the Admissions Committee, and the associate director sought help identifying ways to improve it.

Lumina, a foundation focused on increasing both access to and success in higher education for U.S. students, is dealing with the recent resignation of its chief investment officer. The CFO reviews the structure the firm has in place to manage its $1.1 billion endowment. Although the CFO and other finance and administration professionals at Lumina are temporarily overseeing the endowment, Maas recognizes that many other foundations outsource this responsibility to investment advisory firms. As part of his review, he invites a number of firms-including CornerStone Partners, from Charlottesville, VA-to make presentations to the Lumina management team. While each firm claims the ability to outperform its benchmark, Maas wonders exactly how the outsourcing would add value, and how this outperformance could be quantified.

This note will aid in introducing students to the Private Equity Finance course.

This note will provide an overview of valuation methodologies in private equity.

This note describes the Congruence Model, a method by which an organization can assess whether its building blocks (critical tasks, formal organizational arrangements, people, and culture) are aligned (congruent) with its strategy. The model postulates that misalignments are at the root of performance gaps within the organization.

This note identifies the main issues involved in the effective management of the marketing communications process. It first defines the purpose of communication. Then it classifies the tools available to communicate with consumers. In the sequel, it elaborates on how consumers respond to communication attempts. Finally, it lays out a framework for marketers to manage the entire communication process.

The effective manager and leader understands and appreciates trust at both the personal and the organizational levels. Most managers focus more on being trusted than on trusting. The best way to be trusted is to be worthy of trust-to be trustworthy.

David Brennan, CEO of AstraZeneca UK Limited (AZN), was passionate about bringing new medicines to patients. But the industry was transforming to one that featured less patent protection, more competition from generic drugs, stiffer government regulations, and decreased productivity in R&D. The strategy? Build a pipeline with new prescription drugs that were unique enough to provide a differentiated benefit to patients, grow the business globally, streamline the organization and increase efficiency, and build a culture of courage, creativity, and collaboration. Would the firm be able to provide a sustainable and consistent pipeline of new products-at lower cost, likely with fewer people? How might the firm average two new products to market each year? What areas of R&D should the company invest in, and what would the R&D transformation look like?

Spreadsheet for case UV3549

In March 2012, Jack Dawkins is in the early stages of leading the development of an old navy yard in Croatia into a mixed-use waterfront community of residences, hotel rooms, shops and dining. Catering to those arriving by superyachts and other leisure boats, and set amongst dramatic coastline, the project would transform the region. Coordinating the many stakeholders in a new country, Jack has to decide the best way to navigate the development risks and whether the project really makes sense as proposed, in more ways than one.

Having just acquired Walker Insurance, Paul Thomson finds himself short of funds to support his original turnaround plan. He can request additional cash from his investor group, hunker down and grow at a slower rate or consider a proposal to buy his business. He has taken steps to re-virtualize the company and is challenged to build a salesforce to grow the business.

Increasingly, employees are innovating with their own consumer technologies (such as smartphones and tablets), rather than looking to their companies' IT departments to lead technical innovation. This can give rise to tension between employees and IT departments, and this tension is particularly pronounced in the US military, where long systems development times run headlong into young, technology-savvy soldiers arriving in camp with smartphones, sophisticated applications, and high expectations. In this case study, this phenomenon plays out in the person of a US Army Captain who, using resources obtained via the Internet and while on a tour of duty in Afghanistan, develops and sells an inexpensive iPhone application - Tactical NAV - that provides soldiers with a sophisticated navigation tool.

In March 2008, a group of investors considered purchasing 8,300 residential lots in 11 states from one of the largest U.S. homebuilders, at a price of 10 cents on the dollar. The deal would also involve purchasing a partially-built condominium complex, also at a substantial mark-down from the amount already invested. This case describes the residential real estate development business and the role of land in homebuilding. It describes the excesses leading to the housing crisis in 2008. The case is based on a real situation, but company names and some details have been changed.