個案總覽

The case describes the challenges around sustainability within the Energy industry using Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) as an example. Two key challenges for Shell are explored: How to meet the demand for energy sustainably and profitably, and how to gain a licence to operate from society. Further, the case presents some negative views of Shell in the media; describes what is happening in adjacent industries, the investor community and with policy makers that will impact the energy transition; and concluded with what Shell, other oil and gas companies and policy makers are doing in relation to the sustainability and the energy transition. Lerning objective: The case can be utilized to accomplish several learning objectives: 1) How sustainability topics affect business strategy, and vice versa; 2) How to manage through a major industry transition (using PESTEL to assess "new" vs "old" industry); 3) How the media and external communications policies impact strategic decision making; 4) Overall awareness of sustainability.

Cervus Equipment Corporation, the major Canadian dealer group for John Deere and Peterbilt Motors Company equipment, had grown from CA$56 million in 2004 to close to $1 billion in 2014. It had achieved these results through an aggressive acquisition and growth-oriented strategy, by purchasing heavy-equipment dealerships representing John Deere, Bobcat, and other high-end original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The company's move into the long-haul trucking industry, beginning with the acquisition of 16 Peterbilt truck dealerships in 2013, was timely, as the agricultural and construction sectors entered what many believed would be a prolonged downturn in its base in western Canada. However, these acquisitions and this move into the trucking industry presented significant challenges related to integration, leadership and management skills at the dealer level, OEM partner control, and the presence of established competitors that served the major vocational and fleet markets. The bottom line: Cervus Equipment required its transport division to drive profitable growth in 2016 and beyond.

In 2015, AXE, one of Unilever's largest and most well-known personal care brands, was experiencing challenges in growing sales across its full product portfolio. Historically, AXE's unique activations and campaigns had been successful in generating high brand awareness and, ultimately, driving sales in Canada. However, sales growth had slowed over the past three years, and the AXE team wondered whether the brand's current messaging still resonated with consumers. The previous year, Unilever's global consumer insights team had conducted significant research to better understand the AXE consumer. The company now needed to prepare and present a client brief to AXE's advertising agency in preparation for a major 2016 campaign.

In 2014, three former Code for America fellows embarked on a one-year skunk works journey to use technology to improve the enrollment process for California's SNAP (food stamp) program, CalFresh, to increase the number of residents receiving benefits in San Francisco. The case describes a user-centered approach to identifying bottlenecks within the CalFresh enrollment process and the low cost, fast solution proposed-and built-by the group. The case asks students to consider the opportunities, challenges and risks created by information technology in the public sector and whether taking a user-centered approach to policy implementation can improve social service delivery.

Sahaj e-Village Limited, an initiative of SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd, hoped to answer the need of the Indian government's National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) to set up 100,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) across rural India in 2006. This figure was subsequently revised to 250,000 CSCs in 2009. Sahaj aimed to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural India and set up one of the largest brick and mortar --and human --networks in rural India. With close to 27,000 IT-backed centers in villages with a population of less than 10,000 and 50 critical services in the domains of microinsurance, education, utility and government-to-citizen (G2C) services to over 300,000,000 rural people, Sahaj e-Village was literally taking urban services to the remotest nooks of rural India. Sahaj CSCs would provide rural consumers with direct access to modern, state-of-the-art technological facilities and computer education, thus dovetailing with its long-term plans of providing Internet connectivity across rural India. Case A, set in July 2010, presents the tough challenge that the top management at Sahaj e-Village Ltd had on its hands. It was serving a virtually untouched rural market through a greenfield project with a jittery workforce in place and was justifiably concerned about the viability and sustainability of the business.

Sahaj e-Village Limited, an initiative of SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd, hoped to answer the need of the Indian government's National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) to set up 100,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) across rural India in 2006. This figure was subsequently revised to 250,000 CSCs in 2009. Sahaj aimed to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural India and set up one of the largest brick and mortar --and human --networks in rural India. With close to 27,000 IT-backed centers in villages with a population of less than 10,000 and 50 critical services in the domains of microinsurance, education, utility and government-to-citizen (G2C) services to over 300,000,000 rural people, Sahaj e-Village was literally taking urban services to the remotest nooks of rural India. Sahaj CSCs would provide rural consumers with direct access to modern, state-of-the-art technological facilities and computer education, thus dovetailing with its long-term plans of providing Internet connectivity across rural India. Case B moves ahead from the challenge described in Case A and outlines Sahaj's transformation process. Starting August 2010, Sahaj guided its troops through an ideological transformation that would take the organization from being primarily a government service provider to an enterprising business entity capable of fending for itself. In order to achieve this goal, Sahaj took the important first step of understanding the intricacies and dynamics of the relationships among the various stakeholders involved in the project. This, in a sense, proved to be a breakthrough in the organization's transformation process.

Supplement to cases ISB070 and ISB071.

Founded in 1972, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was the governing body of three professional men's tennis circuits: the ATP World Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour, and the ATP Champions Tour. In addition to the ATP World Tour tournaments, there were four highly coveted and extremely competitive Grand Slam tournaments, one of which was Wimbledon. In 2014, two professional tennis players sought to determine their respective odds of placing first at Wimbledon, by using an understanding of probability, stochastic modelling, and Markov chain application. Both players were ranked outside the top 100 and faced a momentous task.

In April 2016, Canopy Growth Corporation, one of Canada's top producers of medical cannabis, was planning a strategy for its future. The government of Canada had just announced its plans to introduce a bill to legalize recreational cannabis use in 2017, followed by a rollout of the policy in early 2018. The company's chief executive officer needed to plan a strategy that addressed three main issues: product messaging for recreational cannabis, establishing a retail footprint in recreational cannabis, and building an international business.

In the spring of 2016, Cyklop Packaging Systems India Private Limited (Cyklop) was facing the critical situation of high employee turnover. One out of every two employees was leaving the company each month. Although most employees were leaving voluntarily, some were being asked to leave because of below-par performance. The problem was not grave for major competitors as they were able to retain most of their employees. Cyklop's managing director, was concerned about the impact the turnover would have on relationships with key clients. He was also worried about increasing managerial and other costs. He asked the head of human resources to analyze the problem and provide an action plan for containing turnover in the service domain.

On December 20, 2008, Ontario's premier, Dalton McGuinty, and Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, announced their decision to provide $3 billion in interim loans to General Motors of Canada Limited. Due to the 2008 economic downturn and declining auto sales, the company had drawn from its cash reserves in an effort to maintain operations and, as a result, was facing insolvency. The automaker accounted for approximately 19,000 direct jobs in Ontario, and its collapse would mean a great economic loss for Canada. The provincial and federal governments needed to work together to support the company and, in doing so, also support Canada's economy during this financial downturn. Ontario's assistant deputy minister of Finance needed to determine the best way to proceed with the proposed financial plan, while also working with multiple governments and appeasing public opinion.

In 2016, blockchain, the technological innovation behind the cryptocurrency bitcoin, was gaining traction as companies began to integrate blockchain-based technology into their existing business models. While blockchain technology was still in its infancy, it could potentially transform the US$40 trillion global supply-chain industry. Ultimately, the emergence of blockchain would challenge market positioning in established businesses. Some advantages would become obsolete with the introduction of blockchain into the supply-chain network. How would vertically integrated companies compete with multiple participants that specialized in a particular task linked by blockchain? Would the key to future businesses be providing value-added services rather than seeking information asymmetry in the market? What kinds of firms could leverage this technology to better position their brands and value creation?

In 2014, Hubtown Limited (Hubtown), an Indian real estate development company, was attempting to implement a process to differentiate between its employees in order to enhance performance, identify employees who could be groomed for future growth, and distribute rewards. Hubtown was consolidating to concentrate on a few large, complex projects in residential and commercial spaces in urban centres. Like other companies in the industry, it competed for talent and faced challenges when attempting to retain, reward, and promote valuable employees. Earlier efforts to implement a results-based performance management system had failed, so the organization decided to design and adopt a behaviour-based approach and to implement it from the bottom up to bypass resistance from senior management. Case A describes the challenges the human resources head faced in creating an institutionalized performance culture and designing the implementation plan for this system. Case B describes the implementation process and presents the initiatives taken by the human resources team to implement the process, train the stakeholders, and address challenges along the way.

Supplement to case W16873.

This case considers the 2016 acquisition of U.S. gambling concern Hope Enterprises by a major hotel company, Carter International (Carter). It is a relatively straightforward exercise in valuing a potential acquisition target. The case presents an opportunity for students to use both discounted cash flow and market multiples in their analysis. In addition, at the instructor's discretion, students can consider the debt-equity mix in the acquiring firm and evaluate an opportunistic debt issue across different currencies. The case is commonly used as a review case or an exam case for a standard applied corporate finance course.

In cities and towns across America, leaders in local governments, businesses, nonprofits, educational institutions, faith-based organizations, labor unions, and other organizations are coming together in new ways to help their communities prosper. Why are such cross-sector collaborations arising now? What purpose do they serve? What key decisions must their leaders make? What principles might guide those decisions? This note suggests a way to think about such questions.

Mexico City, one of the largest urban centers in the world with 22 million inhabitants, has long wrestled with severe air pollution problems. In June 2014, Tanya Müller Garcia, Secretary of Environment (SEDEMA) of the government of Mexico City announced a controversial step to tighten the Hoy No Circula Program (HNC), also known as No-drive days. The goal of the program, first implemented in 1989, was to improve air quality by taking almost half a million vehicles a day out of circulation in the Mexico City metropolitan area (MCMA). The HNC program had undergone many modifications since it was first implemented; the June 2014 program modifications introduced additional restrictions that were particularly unpopular because they seemed to fall disproportionately on the lower socio-economic groups in the area. Protesters reacted strongly and blockaded main avenues and access routes into the city for several days, causing massive disruptions. Secretary Müller was facing increasing pressure to evaluate both the Hoy No Circula Program and SEDEMA's approach to controlling air pollution in general. Secretary Müller knew that the best approach was far from simple or obvious. The economics, politics, health, and transportation needs of the people of MCMA-combined with its geography and climate-made for a mix that was potentially as noxious as the air itself on certain winter days.

This case is designed to highlight the vital role of promotion, the fourth "P" of the marketing mix, in a brand reinvention exercise. Using the context of the brand reinvention journey of Officer's Choice Whisky (OCW), the case highlights the importance and need for syncing brand objectives and communication objectives so as to build brand relevance in a competitive environment, increase revenue and enhance customer loyalty. The case also highlights the importance of systematic market research in identifying brand weaknesses and providing direction for effective marketing communications.Ahmed Rahimtoola, Head of Marketing at Allied Blenders and Distillers (ABD), was leading the process of conducting an extensive brand reinvention exercise for Officer's Choice. Market research had established the need for brand reinvention, indicating that Officer's Choice had to overcome the challenges of low brand salience, lack of emotional connect with customers, and outdated brand communication. Accordingly, the best advertising agencies in India were invited to come up with creatives that would answer the following question: How should Officer's Choice reposition and repackage itself and reconnect with consumers? ABD had the tough task of choosing the creative that held the magic recipe that would strategically weave brand objectives and communication objectives to yield optimal benefits. In discussing the firm's creative options, the case brings to light the crucial aspects of a brand reinvention process, the role of communication objectives in brand reinvention, and the mechanics of a successful marriage of marketing communication and brand strategy objectives.

In this exercise the manager of Café 67 asks for help dealing with the large queues of students during the Darden school's second coffee (approximately 20 minutes) who all want lunch at the same time.

In September 2015, the marketing manager of the Advanced Surgical Solutions Division at Medtronic plc (Medtronic), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), weighs his options as to how best to respond to yet another instance of "grey marketing," that is, the unauthorized distribution of genuine branded products. The rampant parallel importation of one of Medtronics' best-selling products-LigaSure Vessel Sealing instruments-has resulted in a much smaller-than-usual order from one of Medtronics' most important customers, the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center. Medtronics' marketing manager must find a way to respond appropriately to the customer without risking the ire of his sole authorized distributor in KSA.