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The general manager of a chauffeured limousine transport company is concerned about underperformance at the company's customer service call center. The eight-person call center handles almost all customer interaction including discussing company services with prospective customers, scheduling pickups, providing pricing, confirming appointments, and handling billing inquiries. Customers have complained about extended wait times to speak with someone and about abandoned calls. On the other hand, customer satisfaction with the firm's fleet vehicles and drivers is extremely high. The general manager worries that call center service quality will limit the company's ability to expand operations into new markets. The company's founder has asked the general manager to look into the problems and propose solutions. Students must analyze the capacity utilization and demand for the call center while also considering the costs of problems including abandoned calls.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Product #4374.

Godrej, a Fast Moving Commercial Goods (FMCG) company in India, historically known for its refrigerators in the Indian market, contemplated launching a new product for rural markets. Chotukool was an unconventional cooling solution targeted at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) segment in India. More than 80 percent of the population in India does not own refrigerators and 50 percent of the population earns less than US$2 per day. The study tracks Godrej's journey of disruptive innovations from the conception of the idea to the marketing challenges faced by the company. It also focuses at length on how the organization plans to execute two parallel business models, one aimed at the consumers of traditional refrigerators while the other one simultaneously targets current non-consumers. The case focuses on the management challenge of innovating across the value chain in order to succeed at social innovations.

After reading some confusing management texts for an Executive MBA course he is taking, a manager falls asleep. He dreams that he is standing before a beautiful classical-style building, within which a man sits on some stones, chatting with three younger men. The manager is drawn to the seated figure and, to his delight, realizes that it is Socrates. He approaches him with a longstanding preoccupation and a discussion ensues regarding what 'leadership' really is.

Scenario development is a time- and resource-intensive process, one that not all companies are positioned to undertake at any given point in time. As such, this article will propose an Abbreviated Scenario Thinking process that uses published scenarios from government and industry sources to allow companies to make strategic decisions based on the results. Scenarios are narratives that describe the possible futures in which one must compete 5, 10, or 20 years from now. They allow people to test possible actions by playing them out in three or four different ways. Scenarios are based on plausible consequences of events, environmental forces, and players as they occur in time, and create patterns of the future that can have substantively different effects on strategic decisions. Thus, scenarios are important to executives and managers in the 21st century as they develop competitive strategies. By employing Abbreviated Scenario Thinking, executives utilize published global scenarios to analyze the driving forces that affect their organizations, asking "What If?" as an entry point to scenario planning. This can produce benefits even before any formal scenarios are written.

Major problems associated with product proliferation include higher production, inventory, and record-keeping costs; increased expenses associated with trade promotions and slotting fees; added consumer confusion and stress; and increased susceptibility to stockouts. This article describes how a firm can limit product proliferation without incurring reduced sales or lowering consumer loyalty. An effective product proliferation reduction program needs to be based on several principles: resisting the temptation of asking consumers if a greater assortment is required; classifying goods into consumer-behavior-based tiers; using interfunctional product pruning teams; practicing mass customization, where appropriate; placing absolute limits on product choice; and implementing effective strategies for product pruning.

Pricing is a key element of the marketing strategy. It does not require significant investments or resources, and is perhaps the most accessible lever to manage profitability. Even minor fluctuations in pricing can have a significant impact on both revenues and profitability. As such, lack of careful planning in pricing is a wasted opportunity. With this as a backdrop, we make a case for precision in pricing to enhance profitability. Since consumers vary in their preferences, motivations, and propensity to spend, they assign varying degrees of emphasis regarding price upon their purchase decisions. We argue that pricing is a creative exercise in math and behavioral economics, and companies should stay focused on profits. We also provide a series of guidelines for creating effective base prices, and then modifying them to enhance profitability. Finally, monitoring prices at the transaction level will reduce leakage in profits and further add to the bottom line.

A large business generally knows its customers through quantitative analyses and summary reports, which are staples of market research and corporate reporting. Too often, the voices of individual customers are muffled by a torrent of numbers, and the stories they would tell are garbled. Few managers and even fewer executives hear customers speak, in their own words and ways, about the company's products and services. Yet, as we discuss, these stories may suggest enhanced customer service, better products, and organizational innovation; indeed, a number of companies have shown that the value of attentiveness to customer stories can be great. Herein, we describe a controlled, exploratory approach a company might take to develop its own engagement with customer storytelling-one that encompasses not only its interactions with customers along the front line, but also conversations ongoing in social media. Our proposal demands sustained commitment from senior management. We counsel senior executives to lead by example, to listen to customer stories, to learn from them, and to share them with others in the executive suite. By truly caring about storytelling, business leaders can better serve their customers and their companies.

In 2010, 97% of the world's supply of rare earth elements (REE) came from mines in China. Global demand tripled from 40,000 tonnes to 120,000 tonnes between 2000 and 2010 while China steadily cut its annual exports. Fears of a crisis in Western countries increased as alternative supplies of these materials were sought. REE were used in a number of products, including in the military industry. Reports indicated that the US defence industry was "totally dependent" on imports of REE and advised defence contractors to try to limit their dependence on these materials as well as to actively seek substitutes. The United States faced the challenge of rebuilding domestic REE supplies to achieve self-sufficiency and protect the environment.

Prayas is a unique healthcare initiative, launched in India by Sanofi-Aventis, a French multinational pharmaceutical company, with the objectives of updating the medical knowledge of doctors in semi-urban and rural areas, bridging the gap between diagnosis and treatment, and making available quality medicines at affordable prices. This case discusses the evolution of the Prayas model from its inception to its current state, and the company's business strategies around it. Cognizant of the success of Prayas, many competitors of Sanofi-Aventis are actively developing and implementing similar models. The company's top management team has to respond to the competitive threat.

As the head of the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in China, En Li was shepherding a $1 billion R&D investment in China. So far he had been able to attract a large number of Chinese-born but US-trained scientists to play a critical role in establishing the site. How sustainable was this strategy, and what were the key things he had to do right to establish a globally integrated R&D unit in China?

No abstract available.

Termination of WorldSpace India operations in 2009 was a part of restructuring efforts of the Maryland, U.S.-based parent company that had filed for bankruptcy in October 2008. As of June 30, 2008, WorldSpace Inc. (later 1 WorldSpace) had listed debt of US$ 2.1 billion and assets of US$ 307.4 million and had sought bankruptcy protection to help raise fresh funding to repay its debts. The parent's two regional satellites, AfriStar and AsiaStar, and related ground assets had been acquired by U.S.-based Liberty Media, which also owned 40 per cent of satellite radio service provider Sirius XM Radio . The termination of WorldSpace raised a series of questions regarding early mover disadvantages, business ideas and pricing strategy. Analysts further extended the arguments to draw parallels with the likes of Iridium to question strategic decisions relating to the service-hardware mix, service provision and pricing, power of complementors, power of substitutes and overall, the consumers' willingness to pay for incremental choice.

Susan Johnson, founder and CEO of Medfield Pharmaceuticals, is faced with conflicting recommendations for extending the patent life of the company's flagship product, Fleximat, scheduled to go off patent in two years. With only three other products in Medfield's lineup of medications, one of which has only just received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, strategic management of the company's product pipeline is of paramount importance. But a recent $750 million offer to purchase the company has entirely shifted her focus. With this offer, Johnson has the opportunity to exit the business on a high note. Before making her recommendation, Johnson has to determine the value of the company, with a careful review of its existing and potential future products. But this is more than simply a financial decision, since Johnson-and Medfield employees in general-believe that the company is engaged in critically important work. This case is meant for undergraduate, MBA, executive education, and MBA exec audiences. It is taught as a core course, "Financial Management and Policies," at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

Spreadsheet supplement to case UV5632.

Sym-Bio, an entrepreneurial Chinese diagnostic company with a product line in infectious disease testing, has agreed to be acquired by PerkinElmer, an international corporation with businesses in neonatal testing, life science services, and environmental health. Sym-Bio wants to accelerate its growth and competitive position in China through this strategic move, and PerkinElmer seeks to broaden its access to the Chinese marketplace, leverage the cost advantages of operating in China, and tap into the talent pool of young Chinese scientists. Strategic and operational integration of Sym-Bio into PerkinElmer is explored through the lens of the founder and CEO of Sym-Bio and that of the acquiring company.

The solar photovoltaics (PV) industry would not exist without government policies. Governments around the world have implemented policies to support consumption of solar energy and production of solar PV products. These policies have varied across countries and across time, thus contributing to regulatory uncertainty. This article addresses two related questions. First, how does regulatory uncertainty in the solar PV industry shape firms' market and non-market strategies? Second, how might firms' responses to this public-policy environment affect technological development and the locus of manufacturing? Government policies on solar PV, and firms' strategies to overcome regulatory uncertainty, may have unintended consequences. Firms' decisions on location and technology development may result in loss of employment and national competitiveness for developed countries; and firms' market strategies may increase regulatory uncertainty if they do not involve non-market stakeholders.

This article analyzes the closing gap between regulation and enforcement of environmental protection in China and explores its implications for doing business there. It identifies three major dimensions that characterize change in regulatory systems: priorities and incentives, bureaucratic alignment, and transparency and monitoring. Using these dimensions, it describes the mechanisms that characterized China's prior period where enforcement of environmental protection was decoupled from regulation. Regulation and enforcement are becoming re-aligned. This is due to a change in national development strategy, reorganization of the bureaucracy, and increasing monitoring from both the government and general public. To address these changes, firms need to embrace environmental innovation and integrate local and global standards. They should also be more transparent and compete on reputation.

More and more firms are engaging in greenwashing, misleading consumers about their environmental performance or the environmental benefits of a product or service. The skyrocketing incidence of greenwashing can have profound negative effects on consumer and investor confidence in green products. Mitigating greenwashing is particularly challenging in a context of limited and uncertain regulation. This article examines the external (both institutional and market), organizational, and individual drivers of greenwashing and offers recommendations for managers, policy makers, and NGOs to decrease its prevalence.

Regulatory uncertainty has been inherent in climate change policy due to the absence of a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Many companies have called for more certainty and a stable policy framework. However, besides having clear disadvantages, regulatory uncertainty may also benefit some companies if they recognize the opportunities of flux and move early. This article explores business opportunities that have emerged for different types of companies, including utilities, banks, project development & carbon offset companies, brokers, exchanges, consultants, auditors, and legal services providers with respect to clean development projects and the related carbon market.