個案總覽

As businesses expand worldwide, corporations are increasingly being forced to grapple with definitions of "acceptable" foreign conduct. What differentiates a "bribe" from a "commission"? Should managers abroad refer to local custom or their own national laws in determining how to respond to ambiguous or conflicting situations? The case contains 10 short scenarios and asks students to evaluate how they would respond to each.

Maureen Frye, assistant product manager at Quaker Steel and Alloy Corp., is asked to implement an action plan for changing the call pattern of the salesforce. Currently the salesforce is spending too much time on small accounts. Earlier Frye attempted to change their call patterns without success. Now with the express call mandate of top management she has to present a plan that will work.

Rick Melnick oversees the Student Educational Loan Fund (SELF), which provides loans to Harvard Business School students. SELF is changing the terms of student loans from variable-rate with semiannual payments to fixed-rate loans with equal monthly payments. Melnick must decide how to finance SELF in light of the new loan mix. SELF can use a wide range of interest-rate derivative products to modify the terms of its existing financing.

Presents several conceptions of corporate purpose and responsibility as articulated by a variety of groups and individuals during the period 1970-95. Included are materials from the Business Roundtable, the American Law Institute, the Royal Society of Arts and Manufacturers (U.K.), the U.S. Catholic Bishops, and excerpts from the writings of economist Milton Friedman and lawyer Christopher Stone. A brief introduction provides historical background on the corporate responsibility debate.

Yale University's investment office was responsible for managing its endowment, which totaled nearly $4 billion in June 1995. Yale had developed a rather different approach to endowment management, including substantial investments in "less efficient" equity markets such as private equity, real estate, and "absolute return" investments. The investment office was now considering devoting even more of their assets to these markets.

Documents the American retailer's process of entry into the Japanese toy market. Discusses the history of Toys "R" Us in the United States as well as the history of the Japanese toy market, distribution, wholesaling, and retailing systems. Eager to enter the world's second largest toy market, Toys "R" Us executives begin in the late 1980s to formulate strategies for opening large discount toy stores in Japan. The American company faces a series of setbacks due to Japanese store-size regulation, application procedures, and a long-standing multilayered distribution system. Continued effort and the acceptance of a Japanese partner enable the company to prepare for the opening of a Toys "R" Us outlet in 1991. Faced with a lack of direct distribution deals and high land and labor costs, executives of Toys "R" Us Japan worry about the ultimate success of their new venture.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 796-077.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Among the many tools a manager can use for strategic planning, scenario planning stands out for its ability to capture a range of possibilities in rich detail. By identifying basic trends and uncertainties, a manager can construct a series of scenarios what help to compensate for the usual errors in decision making--overconfidence and tunnel vision. Through case studies of Interpublic, an international advertising agency, and Anglo-American Corp. in South Africa, the author describes how to build scenarios in a step-by-step process and how to use the resulting stories to plan a company's future.

The management of the Benetton Group includes senior executives advocating two different strategies: 1) expanding manufacturing to develop economies in order to grow Benetton's sales in those markets, and/or, 2)find ways to provide additional support to retailers, some of whom are operating in developed markets against sophisticated competitors and are increasingly embattled. Includes color exhibits.

Describes the history and unique operating principles of the most successful corporate law firm in the country. Closes with a lengthy quotation by Martin Lipton, who is one of the firm's founding partners and who is described in an American Lawyer article as the "Elvis Presley of the M&A field." Lipton reflects on certain activities that the firm carries out aimed at building its reputation. Whether or not these activities constitute marketing is left an open question.

Pratt & Whitney is a leader in the development and manufacturing of gas turbine engines for commercial and military aircraft. Economic conditions for the airline and defense industries are forcing the airplane engine builders to restructure. Ed Northern, a new general manager of one of Pratt & Whitney's largest plants, is determined to transform the North Haven plant into a world-class manufacturing organization.

As part of the restructuring effort underway at the Pratt & Whitney North Haven plant, Ed Northern and a group of Japanese consultants are transforming the manufacturing process from a batch process to a single-piece flow, and are organizing the machines and workers in product cells. Vane Cell 6 is the first cell to be created at North Haven. Business Unit Manager Garrett Mikits is faced with a challenge as the creation of Vane Cell 6 nears completion. A new order, which represents a large volume increase, challenges Mikita and his workers to find a way to increase production.

As part of the Pratt & Whitney North Haven restructuring effort, Ed Northern and his business unit managers are encouraging workers to make decisions and take an active role in improving the manufacturing process at North Haven. Business Unit Manager Tom Hutton has empowered a group of hourly workers to purchase grit blast equipment for two cells. The capital purchase decision runs into some problems when the two cells, the vapor coat and pack coat cells, fail to reach an agreement about which equipment to purchase.

Because of conflicts between the vapor coat and pack coat cells over the decision to purchase new grit blast equipment, Business Unit Manager Tom Hutton has decided to form a second capital purchase team that will represent the pack coat cell. Meanwhile, the first capital purchase team has decided to purchase MacCormick equipment, traditionally considered less reliable than other equipment. Hutton is having misgivings about his decision to empower workers to purchase equipment, and wonders whether he should approve the purchase.

Monsanto has one product, Roundup, accounting for 30% of company net income and is going off patent. How should the company position itself and its products in the future?

A cross-functional team at Massachusetts General Hospital tries to reengineer the service delivery process (the "care path") for heart bypass surgery (CABG) in order to shorten hospital stays (and lower costs) while maintaining/enhancing the quality of care provided.

This case and its companion (UVA-F-1102) provide comprehensive coverage of a firm's decision to undertake an initial public offering (IPO). The company is a nonregulated financial firm in a rapidly growing area of consumer finance (high credit-risk automobile loans). The A case follows the firm from its first meeting with investment bankers to the determination of a preliminary IPO price range. In the B case, the firm's "road show" encounters a "cold-issue" market, and Eagle is unable to sell its shares at a price near the preliminary file range. Management is confronted with the tough choice of whether to proceed with the IPO or cancel it. The cases provide a rich opportunity to compare management's internal valuation of the firm (derived from market multiples and discounted cash-flow analysis) with the market's assessment of value. Excel spreadsheet files are available for use with this case (UVA-S-F-1095) and its teaching note.

Spreadsheet for case UV2374.

Managers at MCA/Universal Merchandising are reviewing worldwide merchandising and licensing arrangements for the movie Jurassic Park.

Discusses progress made by mid-1995 on the three challenges identified by the change leadership at the end of 1993. First, it describes the decision-making process that resulted in a general consensus to reorganize the huge London office, and it highlights certain psychological, logistical, and strategic challenges of implementing this change. Second, it addresses action plans taken to increase the satisfaction of the firm's nonpartner senior managers. Third, it explores continued efforts of the change leadership to communicate and clarify its vision.