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Toyota, the world's leading automotive company and a global benchmark for quality and continuous improvement stumbled seriously. They faced a recall crisis unlike any they had seen before. Mr. Akio Toyoda, Toyota's president and grandson of the founder, was called to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about the company's response to the recall. Through the lens of the accelerator crisis, the case documents trade-offs Toyota made while pursuing a marketing strategy based on quality and customer experience, while simultaneously pursing an operational generic cost leadership strategy. Historic information tracks the evolution of the company's early focus on lean manufacturing, quality, and the customer to the contemporary focus on aggressive cost control and rapid globalization; it also traces the factors that shaped the context in which the product failures occurred; and documents the failure of Toyota to respond appropriately and with sufficient speed. The case discusses Toyota's evolution from a small entrepreneurial family firm to global industry giant status; their role in driving industry-wide lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, and quality, known as the Toyota Way; their responses to a series of highly visible product failures; and the resultant erosion of Toyota's reputation. The case concludes with Akio Toyoda exhausted from his testimony, considering which combination of strategic, structural, or cultural challenges led to the current recall crisis. Had the company lost sight of its long-term philosophy, a key principle behind the Toyota Way? Had Toyota sacrificed quality and their historic customer focus at the expense of extreme cost reductions? Were nonfamily managers truly to blame for "hijacking" Toyota? What role did Toyota's supply chain and keiretsu structure play in the recalls? Or was Toyota simply subject to the latest media witch hunt in the wake of the global economic crisis?

In 2005, Stanford Hospital and Clinics (SHC) was internationally recognized as a leading medical institution in terms of its clinical capabilities and specialty expertise. However, the organization was lagging many of its competitors in terms of its operations and information technology (IT). While other major health care providers of a similar caliber had begun to transition to integrated electronic medical records (EMR) systems, SHC was using a patchwork of disjointed and outdated software programs to manage inpatient and outpatient care, as well as its back office functions. Dr. Kevin Tabb, who was the chief quality and medical information officer at the time, along with other executives within the organization, recognized the importance of adopting an EMR system. Yet the implementation of such a system would require a sizable investment over multiple years and would necessitate a major organizational disruption. In parallel with building a business case to justify the cost of the new system (see OIT-101A), Tabb and his colleagues had to think carefully about the implementation strategy that would lead to the successful adoption of the EMR system. This case explains EMR systems, describes SHC's vendor selection process, introduces Epic System Corporation's EMR offering, and explores the key issues that SHC considered in developing its implementation strategy, including the appropriate rollout approach and timing, how to manage system configuration and customization, and how to most effectively staff the project.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) had been in existence for 35 years and up until recently had grown organically by taking on new projects as and when they arose. While this had had the advantage of the EWT maintaining its relevance, the EWT had lost focus as a result. A new strategy was developed in 2008 before the impact of the financial credit crisis and the resulting economic downturn. The downturn had affected the amount of funds the EWT received and as such, it was struggling to continue with all its initiatives and projects. Fortunately, the pressure on companies to invest in social responsibility initiatives continued to grow. The CEO of the EWT was contemplating whether or not to change the EWT's fundraising strategy by making it more liberal in its policy of accepting corporate donations in light of the economic downturn caused by the international credit crisis. At the end of the case discussion, students should have a better understanding of the importance of performing a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, the process of completing a stakeholder analysis, the value of understanding the dynamics of various stakeholders and the application of tools to make business decisions that have an ethical element to them.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of Air Canada was reviewing the company's risk management program with the intent to suggest changes to the policy. Risk management was a topic all corporate boards were dedicating time to since the financial collapse of 2008, and boards had come to realize that hard questions needed to be asked about the source of risk, how it was disclosed, how it was to be accounted for and how it was managed. The CEO knew that he needed to consider the impact of his view of the economy, interest rates, exchange rates and the commodity markets on how aggressive Air Canada should be with its appropriate hedges. He decided to start by identifying the most relevant sources of external risk that could materially affect Air Canada's short and long-term financial performance. He then wanted to understand how these risks were managed today and how they compared to West Jet, their main competitor. Finally, he wanted to determine what changes should be made to either eliminate the source of risk or better manage any significant risks that remained.

New firm created to provide understanding of the role of food in health and nutrition.

This note contains a verbatim transcript between an MBA student and a practicing manager and can be used to identify the speaker's values, attitude, beliefs, and expectations (VABEs). Seeing, examining, understanding, and evaluating one's own VABEs is a precursor to becoming an effective leader of others.

Investment manager Eliza Baena confronts an apparent convertible bond arbitrage opportunity when she notices a narrowing spread between two Boston Properties (BXP) bonds, one a convertible bond and the other a straight bond, in the wake of the 2008 Lehman bankruptcy. Baena must decide if there is an opportunity, how to structure a trade to exploit it, and how much of her fund's capital to allocate. Case exposition includes descriptions of basic financing arrangements that support arbitrage strategies, such as rehypothecation and margin lending.

The B case briefly recounts the action that investment manager Eliza Baena takes in the matter of the Boston Properties (BXP) bonds described in the A case. She must decide what to do next.

This case is a comparative analysis of the strategy, accounting, performance, and valuation for two restaurant chains alternatively having a company-owned versus franchising strategy. It requires students to identify these two different strategies, and the related impact on the financial statements, assessment of current performance, and choice of comparable firms and prediction of future performance to perform the valuation.

Supplement to 111029

In November 2010, Charles Henry, chief marketing officer of a major consumer packaged goods company, was trying to convince his senior managers to enhance the digital presence of the company's brands by significantly increasing their online marketing budget. However, he faced strong resistance from many of his colleagues who questioned the tangible value of digital spending.

After investing $9 million of venture capital, Cake Financial had failed to reach critical mass. In early 2010 Cake's assets were sold and the company was dissolved. Founded in 2006, the San Francisco-based Internet company allowed users to monitor their investments and communicate with each other about their portfolio strategies. The case recounts key decisions made by founder and CEO Steve Carpenter, including several "pivots" -- shifts in business model, position, and strategy -- made by Cake's team in response to market feedback.

This case introduces Canada's IT-reliant healthcare system, using three real vignettes: an unconscious emergency room patient whose electronic health record (EHR) may have saved his life; a patient whose health problems and complex drug plan was effectively and holistically managed by pharmacists using a shared information system; and a bone marrow transplant patient who was able to remain in his remote community, and retain his quality of life, thanks to a Telehealth videoconferencing system. Discussion questions invite students to consider how IT plays a role in healthcare, the nature of "deep integration', and why it takes so much time and money to develop effective IT for complex systems such as healthcare.

This case opens with a fictitious yet common situation of a corporate executive who is uncertain how to respond to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. It provides some anecdotes and statistics relating to DDoS attacks, and then briefly tells the story of Michael Calce, nicknamed "Mafiaboy," who as a young teen effectively launched attacks that shut down companies such as Amazon, CNN, Dell, eBay and Yahoo! The basic DDoS process is explained, and then students are invited to evaluate whether Calce's punishment fit his crime, the relatively low level of computer expertise required to launch a damaging attack, potential risks to traditional (non IT-focused) firms, and whether doing business on-line is too risky.

This case focuses on Open Text, a Canadian software development firm that offers enterprise class, knowledge management tools. Three major customer implementations of Open Text software tools are described: Hyatt Hotels created an effective centralized meeting platform and improved customer service; Siemens AG dramatically improved its routine workflow processes; and EnCana sped up information access using a map-based interface to its document repository. Discussion questions invite students to consider the difficulties in managing unstructured information, the organizational benefits of effectively managing knowledge, and the potential risks of "missing out" on the information revolution.

Supplement case for UV5972.

Steve Williams, General Counsel of Unilever PIc, has two key decisions to make prior to commencing construction on the redevelopment of Unilever House - the company's London corporate headquarters. The purpose of the redevelopment is to reinvigorate the corporate culture by making the company's workspace more collaborative, transparent, and efficient. Steve has to decide how to finance the project and whether the current design proposed by his architects achieves the project's goals.

This case traces the origins and evolution of the European Central Bank, with attention to its 2010 decision concerning the purchase of Greek sovereign debt.

The management and marketing of global events has enabled growth at Hockey Canada, the National Sport Organization responsible for the sport of ice hockey in Canada. Indeed, through a planned approach to events, Hockey Canada has established an event program that includes guaranteed profit figures in the millions, high interest from host cities, good attendance, and impressive television ratings. The executive who has led the organization through this growth, COO Scott Smith, is the central figure in the case, which includes background information, financial numbers and strategy elements of the growth over the past decade. The case touches on a number of important topics in sport and event management including international growth, risks, event-hosting, sport development, television, social media, sponsorship, digital media, women's sport, and online viewing.

The case illustrates the challenges faced by a marketing manager when designing, implementing and evaluating trade promotion schemes in a highly competitive, fast moving, consumer goods multinational company in the emerging Asian market of India. The purpose of the case is to provide exposure to the complexities and dynamic context of Asian consumer goods marketing and learn how to design, implement and evaluate trade promotion schemes that are aligned with the branding, marketing communication and marketing strategy of the product/brand. The case illustrates marketing decisions and their implementation in the Indian market for snack foods, where factors such as products at small price points, constant product and brand innovation, and effective design of trade promotion and merchandising schemes are critical in gaining and retaining market share.