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Ben Balbale, a partner at hedge fund Matrix Capital, must decide whether to exit their investment in Rovi Corporation, a company with a diverse portfolio of patents used primarily for digital interactive guides. Rovi's shares are up over 50% from the time Balbale initiated a position in the middle of 2009.

Ben Balbale, a partner at hedge fund Matrix Capital, must decide whether to exit their investment in Rovi Corporation, a company with a diverse portfolio of patents used primarily for digital interactive guides. Rovi's shares are up over 50% from the time Balbale initiated a position in the middle of 2009.

Steve Tucker, the Deputy CEO of Gallagher Group Limited (GGL), the world's largest electric fence company, was about to present a new branding strategy to the company's senior managers and Bill Gallagher, Jr., CEO. After spending more than 18 months with brand consultants, Tucker devised an umbrella brand strategy that would instill a uniform brand across all three business units: Animal Management Systems, Security Management Systems, and Fuel Pumps, which marketed themselves under the respective brand names of Gallagher, Cardax, Powerfence, and PEC. However, Tucker knew that the unit heads believed the differences in their clienteles, product categories, and distributor relationships made it impractical to adopt one single brand. GGL's overseas distributors had also raised concerns about a uniform brand. In many cases, GGL only owned minority interests in these distributors and retained limited control over their activities.

The manager at Keystone's computer memory testing operation in China faces a crisis -testing costs are "out-of-control" and internal customers are threatening to take their business elsewhere. An obsolete cost system is the real culprit and the management team proposes a quick fix. Will the fix be effective?

In the late 1990s, faced with a number of burning management issues, a growing inmate population, and a problem of officer recruitment, the director of the Singapore Prison Service implemented a thorough transformation process, developing a new paradigm for modern prison management which impacted the whole of Singaporean society. Case A describes the brave decisions and innovative ideas championed by the directorate, inviting students to slip into the role of senior management and discuss the pros and cons of a key management decision without knowing the outcome (Case B).

In the late 1990s, faced with a number of burning management issues, a growing inmate population, and a problem of officer recruitment, the director of the Singapore Prison Service implemented a thorough transformation process, developing a new paradigm for modern prison management which impacted the whole of Singaporean society. Case A describes the brave decisions and innovative ideas championed by the directorate, inviting students to slip into the role of senior management and discuss the pros and cons of a key management decision without knowing the outcome (Case B).

"On May 27th, 2006, a devastating earthquake hit the Indonesian island of Java. The Indonesian Red Cross, Palang Merah Indonesia (PMI), set up a relief operation in the province of Yogyakarta. The NGO already had extensive experience in disaster relief, having battled a volcanic eruption two months earlier as well as two tsunamis during the preceding year. This operation, however, was slightly different. The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), of which PMI was a member, had just decentralized its supply chain for disaster relief by setting up three regional logistics units (RLU) in strategic locations across the globe. PMI's relief operation in Yogyakarta was the first of the IFRC's national societies to benefit from the support provided by the new RLU in Kuala Lumpur. The case looks back over ten years, tracing the substantial changes that supply chain decentralisation incurred at the organizational level, and the challenges thrown up by the process of establishing the RLUs. It is the final part of a series of three case studies on the reorganization of the IFRC supply chain "

In January 2008, Société Générale, revealed that trader Jerome Kerviel had exposed the bank to 50 billion euros in apparently unhedged and unauthorized trades, resulting in 4.9 billion euros of losses when his positions were unwound. This case provides an opportunity to explore the motivations underlying Kerviel's conduct and the failure of the bank's internal controls, as well as other organizational and sociological factors in this incident and the broader 2008 financial crisis.

Kevin Laracey, founder of Paydiant, needed to figure out how to launch a payment processing company with a new technology based on smart phones. Consumers had increasingly turned to electronic payment methods such as credit cards and debit cards to make purchases. Retailers, however, felt that major credit and debit card issuers had too much market power which was leading to higher costs for retailers to accept such payment forms. Consumers were increasingly adopting smart phones and using those phones to manage their lives. Market watchers believed that consumers would soon demand to use their smart phones to make purchases. Retailers liked this because it increased competition in the payments industry. Paydiant had developed a software-based product that required no new hardware for retailers and enabled consumers to use their smart phones to make purchases. The company needed to decide how to bring this new product to market. The case also describes the existing payment processing market structure, identifies some of its major players, and introduces some other new entrants into the payment industry.

The management team of Marvel Enterprises, known for its universe of superhero characters that includes Spider-Man, the Hulk, and X-Men, must reevaluate its marketing strategy. In June 2004, only six years after the company emerged from bankruptcy, Marvel has amassed a market value of more than $2 billion. Originally known as a comic book publisher, the company now also has highly profitable toy, motion picture, and consumer products licensing operations. However, doubts about Marvel's business model and its growth potential continue to exist. Had Marvel's winning streak been just a fluke? Was Marvel's success dependent on a limited set of blockbuster characters, most notably Spider-Man, and should Marvel continue to capitalize on those characters? Or was it time to seek growth in a larger set of lesser known characters? In exploring growth opportunities, was it wise for Marvel to venture outside its current business model and move into more capital-intensive activities? What marketing strategy would allow Marvel to sustain its success in the coming years?

By 2010, TripAdvisor was the largest travel site in the world operating in 24 countries and 16 languages, with listings for 455,000 hotels, 92,000 attractions and 564,000 restaurants in over 71,000 destinations worldwide. It had over 40 million reviews from 35 million unique monthly visitors who were contributing 21 new reviews every minute. Known for its hotel reviews, TA expanded into flights, vacation rentals and international markets like China. Each of these expansion paths provided unique opportunities as well as new challenges. In August 2010, Stephen Kaufer, CEO, was debating how to prioritize his growth plans for the company.

Dr. Elizabeth Harris, chair of the Department of Anesthesiology (DA) at North Atlantic Hospital (NAH), faces several significant challenges. Staff satisfaction surveys confirmed her assessment that department faculty morale was low; the tenure and promotion system was perceived as opaque and biased toward researchers over clinicians; and overall, faculty felt the organization had little interest in their professional development and well-being. NAH had mandated career conferences across all departments one year prior, and Harris felt this initiative could serve as an important building block for a comprehensive staff performance and development program for the DA. In designing the DA career conference initiative, Harris and her team polled DA faculty representing all promotion tracks and lengths of service. They also captured best practices from across other NAH divisions and other peer institutions.

Students are asked to link concealed balance sheets with firm descriptions. The case helps students understand how balance sheets reflect industry and firm characteristics.

The cofounders of foursquare are deciding how to respond to competitive threats and scale up the organization. Foursquare was a location-based online service that allowed users to "check in" to a location using an application on a smartphone. Foursquare kept track of a user's check-ins, shared them with users' friends, and unlocked "Specials" that gave users discounts at nearby locations. Within a year and a half of its founding the company had 45 employees and over 5 million users and was valued in excess of $100 million. However, many competitors, including Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp, developed competitive services requiring foursquare to respond.      

AIC Systems, located in Taichung, Taiwan, is a manufacturer of printed circuit boards, primarily for motherboards and video cards for personal computers. The firm is considered an original design manufacturer (ODM) and takes an active role in innovating and designing each new generation of components. By doing in-house design and development, the company has been able to foster exclusive, long-term relationships with its customers. The firm decides to diversify its portfolio to include consumer electronics with a particular focus on mobile technology. The goal is to move from manufacturing components for other computer companies to developing the firm's own line of branded consumer electronics. The new "netbook" market provides an opportunity for AIC Systems to design and manufacture a branded product in the mobile electronics industry. The production manager has created an assembly line for producing the new netbooks, and after three months of production he must consider ways to improve efficiency and reduce production costs. Students must perform a quantitative analysis of the existing assembly-line system and make recommendations to reach optimal efficiency.

Spreadsheet Supplement for 4245.

Jeff Brown wondered whether now was the right time to call his boss, and friend, Bernard Tubiana. Brown was a rising star at Deloitte Consulting and three weeks into an important project for Aflac. He was about to receive an offer from Aflac's major competitor, Colonial Life, to become its Chief Marketing Officer.

Case Supplement for 311075.

Supplements the (B) case.

In their book Grow By Focusing on What Matters (© 2010 Business Expert Press), Professors Urbany and Davis start from the premise that growth and competitive advantage are about effective positioning. Through nine chapters they explain how to build positioning using a "3-circle model" that facilitates speed of understanding and action by focusing attention on the most critical strategy concepts in a demanding and uncertain competitive environment. Chapter 1 introduces the authors' approach by systematically laying out an elementary 3-circle model that illustrates gaps between the values customers seek, the values they receive from existing products, and the values a firm's new product must deliver. The book's outline: Chapter 1 The Challenges of Growth Chapter 2 Introduction to 3-Circle Analysis Chapter 3 Defining the Context Chapter 4 The Meaning of Value Chapter 5 Sorting Value Chapter 6 Growth Strategy Chapter 7 Implementation: An Inside View of the Organization Chapter 8 The Dynamics of Customer Value and Competitive Advantage Chapter 9 Summary: Growth Strategy in 10 Steps