個案總覽

Reading Rehab Hospital has experimented with a popular new concept in health care--patient-focused care--intended to increase quality and reduce costs by organizing care delivery around particular diagnoses or "service lines," rather than around the functions or disciplines of the care providers. It is equivalent to product rather than process focus. Rehabilitation involves multiple disciplines which must share information about their evaluations of the patient, about planned treatments, and about patient progress. The decisions and actions of one care provider depend on those of another. This case illustrates the effects of a problem fundamental to service operations--variable demand and the limitations of organizing production by service lines under conditions of uncertain demand, due to the loss of pooling. Finally, its methods, for achieving the coordination benefits of service lines under conditions where the level or stability of demand is insufficient to justify the use of service lines.

The case provides the facts and figures for the complete financial evaluation of the construction and operation of an automobile manufacturing plant for the new GM Macaw in Brazil. Although the Macaw is to truly be produced by GM in Brazil, the financial and economic values used in the case are fictionalized. The challenge for GM is to evaluate the pro forma financial analysis as to whether the project is a viable investment for GM from both the subsidiary and the parent's viewpoint.

Spreadsheet supplement for TB0201.

Alert: This case has been revised since its original publication; all amounts have been converted to euros and the dates have been updated to 2020. If you've taught with this case in the past, please note that changes may affect teaching plans and classroom use. Using an income statement, balance sheet, and projected demand and cost schedules, students are required to build a profit plan for a closely-held coffee manufacturer in Italy. Students must estimate cash flow and ROE and use this analysis to evaluate the attractiveness of a new strategy.

This case provides a realistic, current, and detailed view of software procurement in an international business environment where the competition in enterprise-wide software solutions is growing. Focuses on the selection of packaged software to serve multiple sites within the context of a multinational company. Describes the creation of an RFP and the selection of a software vendor. Two software proposals are presented.

A firm such as Schering-Plough that earns superior, long-run financial returns within its industry is said to enjoy a competitive advantage over its rivals. This note examines the logic of how firms create competitive advantage. It emphasizes two themes: First, to create an advantage, a firm must configure itself to do something unique and valuable. The firm must ensure that, were it to disappear, someone in its network of suppliers, customers, and complementors would miss it and no one could replace it perfectly. The first section uses the concept of "added value" to make this point more precisely. Second, competitive advantage usually comes from the full range of a firm's activities--from production to finance, from marketing to logistics--acting in harmony. The essence of creating advantage is finding an integrated set of choices that distinguishes a firm from its rivals. The second section shows how managers can analyze the full range of activities to understand the sources of added value.

After meeting with a mediator, Montagu and Davis decided their goals were not in accordance, and Davis left General Scanning. Montagu and Brosens wrote three-year objectives for the company and proceeded to search for a new professional manager. Chuck Winston took on the role of CEO/president with the goals of growth, profitability, consistency, and solid management. Winston decentralized the company by forming four separate divisions: Recorder Products, Laser Systems, Optical Scanning, and Laser Graphics. By the end of 1994, General Scanning was worth over $76 million, was showing a profit with a strong balance sheet, and had over 1,000 customers. Having turned around the company and grown it threefold, Winston and the founders need to decide what to do next: merge, acquire, do an IPO, or spinoff the successful Laser Systems division. There remained the haunting issue that most of the stock was held by the two founders. The case discussion challenges students to deal with the core problem of managing this technology company--that is, formally changing the roles of the founders by changing the ownership and board of directors.

Connecticut Spring and Stamping Corp. (CSSC), a 50-year-old spring manufacturing and metal stamping firm, is experiencing slow sales growth and feeling the impact of global competition. The company has over 800 customers but little understanding of those customers' needs. They must improve manufacturing efficiency and respond to customer demands for higher quality, lower cost, and shorter delivery lead times. The company has a rich history of trying many management fads and now is exploring different methods of achieving higher quality. Andy Youmans, executive vice president responsible for this quality initiative, is contacted by the Toyota Supplier Support Center (TSSC), a world leader in manufacturing methodology, who offers to educate the CSSC plant in the Toyota Production System (TPS). Although short-term improvements are made, quality and delivery times worsen. It seems employees do not understand the reasons behind the new production methods, and Youmans is concerned about how to transfer what he has learned. The TSSC consultants suggest that Youmans go to Japan to visit companies that are practicing TPS principles.

Andy Youmans, executive vice president of CSSC, joins a group of U.S. executives on a tour of Japanese factories that practice the TPS. Three of the factories produce products similar to CSSC's, and even though they use similar equipment, they are significantly more productive. Once he returns to the United States, Youmans needs a plan to dramatically change his company, knowing that the three Japanese firms have significantly better performance (more than four times the revenues per employee). How can he replicate the Japanese companies' capabilities?

Viacom has built a powerful position in the global entertainment industry through skillful and bold acquisitions. Now its expansion is challenged by the moves of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Different businesses within Viacom have contradictory positions on how to deal with major opportunities and how Viacom top management should manage the decision-making process.

Sealed Air Corp.'s CEO and COO are considering what approach they should take to building a seamless corporate culture worldwide. Anticipating continuing growth and expansion, especially outside the United States, they are concerned with preserving and promoting the culture that has been one of the company's key assets. However, their experiences in integrating acquired companies, especially outside the United States, have heightened their awareness of differences among the regional cultures of the world and the challenges they face in maintaining a unified corporate culture.

Sealed Air Corp.'s CEO and COO are considering what approach they should take to building a seamless corporate culture worldwide. Anticipating continuing growth and expansion, especially outside the United States, they are concerned with preserving and promoting the culture that has been one of the company's key assets. However, their experiences in integrating acquired companies, especially outside the United States, have heightened their awareness of differences among the regional cultures of the world and the challenges they face in maintaining a unified corporate culture.

In 1997, Jay Sanders sold his 10-month-old medical device start-up company for more than $33 million. Looking to the future, he wondered if this was a success he could transform into a medical device brokerage business. As he reviewed his career history and the development of his start-up, Sanders was betting that he could replicate his success.

CERNET, the China Education and Research Network, is a not-for-profit, central government body formed to oversee the development and implementation of a university-based nationwide Internet backbone. By 1997, fulfilling this mandate was well underway. CERNET was connected to 280 of China's 3,035 universities and colleges. Much work nonetheless remained. The case deals with managing the growth of the network from the perspective of the director of the Technical Board and Network Centre. Issues he had to contend with include hardware and bandwidth upgrades and installations, access, security, connectivity, costs, and tariffs. With over half the country's population not yet having made their first telephone call, these tasks proved daunting.

Jeffrey Smith and David Johnson have apparently irreconcilable differences over their firm's strategy, which have led Jeffrey to conclude that he must fire David. Focuses on whether Jeffrey has used his influence in such a way as to avoid conflict. If he has no other option, how should Jeffrey go about firing David? A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Attempts to leverage a brand's value by brand extensions run the risk of undermining the value of the brand. This article offers an approach to assessing a brand's leverage power before deciding to extend the brand. Evidence suggests managers need to assess both consumer familiarity with, and consumer regard for, the brand. Analysis indicates that brands balanced in terms of consumer familiarity and consumer regard have higher potential for leveraging than do brands high in one of those characteristics but low in the other. A fivefold typology of brands--Coveted Icons, Tarnished Treasures, Developers, Troopers, and Diamonds--is offered for describing the degree of brand balance.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 398-095.

Lincoln Electric, a 100-year-old manufacturer of welding equipment and consumables based in Cleveland, Ohio, motivates its U.S. employees through a culture of cooperation between management and labor and an unusual compensation system based on piecework and a large bonus based on individual contribution to the company's performance. Despite opening a few international sales and production ventures in Canada, Australia, and France, Lincoln remained focused on manufacturing in the United States until 1988. At that time, the company's new CEO expanded manufacturing through acquisitions and greenfields in 11 new countries, attempting to transfer its unique management philosophy to each. However, Lincoln was unable to replicate its highly productive system abroad. Operational problems led to a major restructuring in the early 1990s, supervised by Anthony Massaro, a newcomer to the company. In 1996, Massaro was named CEO and set about expanding the company's manufacturing base through a new strategy. The case concludes in Asia, where Lincoln's regional president is trying to decide whether and how to establish a manufacturing presence in Indonesia, and in particular whether to try to transfer Lincoln's unique incentive-driven management system.

As of early 1998, virtually all U.S. states had adopted legislation permitting the organization of limited liability companies. This note describes this new type of entity and the reason why it has become so popular.

An Internet start-up company is developing an online marketplace for specialty chemicals and reagents. David Perry has been named a runner-up in the 1st annual HBS Business Plan contest and now faces seed-stage financing questions--how much money to raise, at what valuation, in how many stages, and from whom.