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TransInsurance Inc. is an individual insurance company, covering all of Canada. In the midst of an industry amalgamation, the RECS project came to be in fall 2002, following the merger of two group insurance companies - one from Quebec City and another from Montreal. The reality of operations, particularly at the level of customer service, was proving to be difficult, however. Senior management thus envisaged a bold project based on a fundamental transformation of the company's methods of operation. Specifically, the project was aimed at completely restructuring its customer service department as well as the marketing of its insurance products. The project was launched on April 1, 2003, but many obstacles were encountered along the way: the firing of the first two consulting firms to which the project had been outsourced, followed by the resumption of project leadership by TransInsurance to achieve, in the end, moderate success.

TransInsurance Inc. is an individual insurance company, covering all of Canada. In the midst of an industry amalgamation, the RECS project came to be in fall 2002, following the merger of two group insurance companies - one from Quebec City and another from Montreal. The reality of operations, particularly at the level of customer service, was proving to be difficult, however. Senior management thus envisaged a bold project based on a fundamental transformation of the company's methods of operation. Specifically, the project was aimed at completely restructuring its customer service department as well as the marketing of its insurance products. The project was launched on April 1, 2003, but many obstacles were encountered along the way: the firing of the first two consulting firms to which the project had been outsourced, followed by the resumption of project leadership by TransInsurance to achieve, in the end, moderate success.

Following its acquisition of a competitor, North American Financial finds itself in possession of two incompatible IS applications for the management of its mortgage portfolios. In addition, neither application is capable of handling the combined volume of transactions of the new firm. Faced with these constraints, NAF calls on the manager of its NAF-BP division to head the overhaul of its mortgage management systems. Realizing that he doesn't have the necessary in-house technical resources to carry out this project, the manager decides to outsource the development of a consolidated system to a third-party vendor that agrees to deliver a solution for a fixed price. Once underway, the project is plagued by a series of unexpected incidents that result in catastrophic cost and schedule overruns and lead the firm to review its approach to IT project management.

Following its acquisition of a competitor, North American Financial finds itself in possession of two incompatible IS applications for the management of its mortgage portfolios. In addition, neither application is capable of handling the combined volume of transactions of the new firm. Faced with these constraints, NAF calls on the manager of its NAF-BP division to head the overhaul of its mortgage management systems. Realizing that he doesn't have the necessary in-house technical resources to carry out this project, the manager decides to outsource the development of a consolidated system to a third-party vendor that agrees to deliver a solution for a fixed price. Once underway, the project is plagued by a series of unexpected incidents that result in catastrophic cost and schedule overruns and lead the firm to review its approach to IT project management.

One of the key problems in marketing decision making is how to measure the effectiveness of marketing actions, for example, the effect of temporary price promotions on sales. Many outcomes of marketing decisions are multiply determined and involve both short- and long-term effects that are hard to pin down. So marketing managers are often unable to specify the precise effects of what they are doing, and instead rely on intuitive estimates of the effects of their decision making or, worse, on commonsensical arguments to complement ill-conceived cost-plus pricing approaches. Scanner data-based records of customer purchase decisions provide a wealth of data that managers could use, but how can they get useful input for their decision making out of thousands and thousands of purchase transactions?

Student spreadsheet supplement for INS413.

The case presents the IPO of Neopost SA, manufacturer of document handling and postage meter equipment on the Paris Stock Exchange. This IPO constitutes the exit for the buyout specialist, BCPartners, who invested in the company during its spin-off from Alcatel, and subsequently took over the majority of the equity in a secondary buyout.

The case presents the IPO of Neopost SA, manufacturer of document handling and postage meter equipment on the Paris Stock Exchange. This IPO constitutes the exit for the buyout specialist, BCPartners, who invested in the company during its spin-off from Alcatel, and subsequently took over the majority of the equity in a secondary buyout.

In 2001 Veropoulos Spar, a 770 million Euro retailer in Greece and the Balkan region, intiated the implementation of a new Internet enabled collaborative ordering IT system with 3 suppliers: P&G, Unilever, and Elgeka. Two years later the project failed and had to stop. The CEO is now evaluating a new proposal for re-starting the initiative.

The Katelyn Neilson, MBA case follows the personal and professional development of a young "high-potential" within an intensive one-year, full-time MBA programme. Katelyn's background and resume, significant excerpts from her diary, and an evocative picture drawn to visualize her major dilemmas, provide vivid illustrations of the unfolding of a major life transition.

MAS Holdings is a family-owned manufacturer of women's apparel, founded by three brothers who have built the firm into a US$570 million business. Clients include the biggest brands in lingerie and sportswear. The textile industry makes up 50% of Sri Lankan exports, especially from China. The case is about using corporate social responsibility as a strategic tool in global competition.

A retail bank is considering a strategy to improve branch performance. Central to the strategy is a recent study of profitability of three retail products: current accounts, credit cards, and mortgages. The strategy involves giving branch managers incentives to sell profitable products. A senior bank manager evaluates the product-profitability-based strategy in the light of recent statistics on major variations in profitability of customers (these statistics are included in the database provided with the case).

Spreadsheet supplement for INS453.

For a variety of reasons, economic performance varies both across economies around the world in any given year and over time for any given economy. The level of economic development, political and economic institutions, government policies, political stability, and other social and perhaps cultural factors may all contribute to these variations. These differences in economic performance and their underlying causes are often reflected in published economic statistics and can be highlighted through the use of rates and ratios. This case sets up an exercise for students to examine economic statistics by (1) analyzing some key rates and ratios and (2) matching the data to country profiles published in the CIA World Factbook. The countries included in this case are the United States, Germany, Japan, Brazil, Russia, India, and China.

Student spreadsheet for case UV1325.

Explores the creation and subsequent rise of Bumble and bumble, a trend-setting hair-care company. Analyzes the vision and achievements of the founding entrepreneur, Michael Gordon, and charts the evolution of the company within the $230 billion global beauty industry. Focuses on the development of the Bumble brand, its strategic importance in the market for premium hair-care products, and its cultural significance within the company. Also, takes up the acquisition of Bumble and bumble by the Estee Lauder Companies and the implications of this ownership structure for organizational priorities and performance.

Located in the highlands of Peru, the Tintaya copper mine has long been a source of intense conflict between local community members and mine operators. The mine, which was owned and managed first by the Peruvian state and later by BHP Billiton, stands on 2,300 hectares of land expropriated from local subsistence farmers. In 2000, to contest this loss of land, mining-related environmental degradation, and allegations of human rights abuses, a coalition of five indigenous communities forged an alliance with a group of domestic and international NGOs to build their case against the BHP Billiton and pursue it directly with the company's Australian headquarters. The outcome of these efforts was the inception of a unique corporate-community negotiation process known as the Tintaya Dialogue Table. In December 2004, after three years of negotiation, BHP Billiton and the five communities signed an agreement compensating families for lost land and livelihoods and establishing a local environmental monitoring team and community development fund. However, just as the company resolves one conflict, another group of local stakeholders emerges with new demands--ones that the company may not be able to meet. The conflict with this new group culminates in a violent takeover of the mine in May 2005, whereupon BHP Billiton staff are forced to shut down operations, abandon the mine site, and devise a new strategy for winning back local support.

Abbott Labs has reached an impasse with the Brazilian government in negotiations over the pricing of a new anti-AIDS drug, Kaletra. The Brazilian government threatens compulsory licensing unless Abbott drastically reduces the price of Kaletra.

In face of globalization, outsourcing, changing regulations, and rapid technological innovations, companies in the 2000s were increasingly challenged to devise and implement adaptable business models. This entailed putting in place enterprise applications that were open-source, simple to implement, and easy to integrate within and without the organizational bounds. Because traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems were generally complex, proprietary, and difficult to install, ERP systems providers had to reposition themselves strategically. SAP, the leading company in this space, faced this challenge by transforming itself from a closed-source software developer to an open-source software integrator. By opening up its proprietary software products as an open development and integration platform, SAP allowed its customers to modify their ERPs to suit their specific needs. This new strategy, however, would fundamentally affect the company's business architecture. In other words, SAP had to rethink how it would define its value proposition, identify and target its customers, deploy its resources, configure its business processes, manage its alliances, and develop and maintain its profit and growth engines. How could the company pull off this repositioning initiative? Would it be able to attract the global army of independent developers in supporting its new software platform strategy? How would the ongoing consolidation in the software industry affect the Company's new strategy? How would the main competitors such as Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, and a host of companies emerging in India react?

DaVita, one of the largest operators of kidney dialysis centers in the United States, underwent a remarkable turnaround between 2000 and 2005, a transformation based on building a strong values-driven culture, with an emphasis on fact-based decision making and the theme of "one for all, all for one" and an emphasis on company as community. Now the company's top management faces a number of challenges, including the integration of one of its largest competitors just acquired in a merger, ensuring management succession and not being too CEO-centric, and dealing with the operational issues confronting a company heavily dependent on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements that do not fully cover the cost of treatment while competing for employees in the health care industry.