個案總覽

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. The way health care is billed in the U.S. system is part of the reason costs are so high. WellPoint, one of the largest providers of health care benefits and insurance in the U.S., is using analytics to change its provider payment system. The goal: promote a health care system based on value, not the volume of services. This Data & Analytics Case Study takes an in-depth look at how WellPoint went from idea to implementation, working with physicians and IT staff to build its Enhanced Personal Health Care program.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Chinese companies are opening up a new front in global competition based on reengineering R&D and innovation processes to make new product development dramatically faster and less costly. This new emphasis is unlikely to generate stunning technological breakthroughs, but it allows Chinese competitors to reduce the time it takes to bring innovative products and services to market. It also represents a different way of deploying Chinese cost and volume advantages in global competition. Chinese companies, including manufacturers such as Lenovo Group Ltd. and Guangzhou Pearl River Piano Group Co. Ltd. and Internet players such as Tencent Inc., are pioneering new ways of industrializing innovation. They are pushing the boundaries of simultaneous engineering, leveraging rapid "launch-test-improve" cycles and combining vertical hierarchy with horizontal flexibility. For example, when Lenovo acquired IBM's personal computer business in 2005, its new product development cycle was 12 to 18 months. Since then, Lenovo has managed to cut that cycle in half. Accelerated innovation and many of the processes and techniques it draws upon are not unique to Chinese companies, authors Peter J. Williamson and Eden Yin concede. What's noteworthy is how Chinese companies have learned to accelerate innovation across a wide range of industries, using rapid scale-up, low cost and "good enough" quality. Even if the results don't lead to breakthroughs, the innovations can powerfully disrupt incumbents' profit models. The authors describe three ways that non-Chinese companies can respond. The first way is to reengineer the company's own innovation processes based on the principles pioneered in China. The second way is to task their R&D units in China to focus on time-sensitive projects and by hiring local staff. The third approach is to develop alliances with Chinese players in order to tap into accelerated innovation know-how.

Corporate "lean" programs, often modeled after the Toyota Production System, can be powerful instruments for improving the performance of manufacturing plants. They help to emphasize parts of the production process that add the most value and eliminate those that don't. However, misplaced expectations can make implementation difficult and reduce the benefits. The authors argue that if managers better understood the expected rates of improvement, then implementations would go more smoothly. The authors studied the implementation of the Volvo Group's production system. Volvo Group, a leading maker of trucks and other heavy vehicles. The company introduced the Volvo Production System in 2007, and since then has been implementing it in its factories around the world. The authors visited 44 of Volvo's 67 plants and interviewed 200 managers. They found that there were four distinct stages of change in the rate of performance improvement and that there was a strong relationship between a plant's maturity in a production system implementation and its performance; progress roughly followed the shape of an S-curve: a plant's rate of improvement changes in the shape of a bell curve as the plant becomes more mature in implementing the production system. Performance improves slowly at first, and then at an increasing rate before the improvement rate gradually decreases. To measure the performance of the plants, the authors focused on nonfinancial metrics related to the quality, cost, delivery and safety of the plant's output. They then used statistical methods to find patterns. Volvo's assessment process provides a structure to help local managers compare their plants. It also provides a mechanism for transferring expertise and best practices. The assessments have a strong symbolic impact: They communicate the company's commitment to the production system. Implementing a production system is a long journey, but the authors conclude that it's a worthwhile endeavor.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. In May 2013, software giant SAP announced plans to hire hundreds of people diagnosed with autism, with a target of having people with autism represent 1% of its work force by 2020. Companies don't typically seek out people with developmental disorders. But SAP took a different view. The company had discovered that some people with autism were well-suited to performing some vital information technology tasks. SAP's move embodies an emerging management principle - the authors Robert D. Austin and Thorkil Sonne call it "the dandelion principle" - and suggests an alternative way of thinking about human resources management. It turns some of the basic tenets about how to recruit and manage people inside out. The authors use the dandelion as metaphor because, they note, dandelions are actually nutritious - but are seen as weeds. In the industrial economy, companies sought to win by operating more efficiently than rivals, the authors note. But today, that's no longer enough. Faced with lower-cost competition from developing countries, companies also need to innovate, to offer products that are better than what's available from competitors. That involves finding new and better ideas and using new processes. Managing innovation, the authors say, is less about averages and more about understanding outliers and how they can add value. In an innovation-oriented economy, technology companies can benefit from accommodating employees with different perspectives. Traditional HR practices begin with fixed strategies and hiring and developing people to fit defined roles. The dandelion principle calls for hiring people with potentially differentiating skills and talents, assessing the skills carefully, organizing the work context around the people to maximize their ability to create value, and then developing the inherent talents to enlarge the potential for future, unanticipated forms of value creation.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Despite China's long and established demand for high-technology products, many leading global companies have become increasingly wary about operating in the Chinese market. They see unfair competitive practices, discriminatory regulation and intellectual property theft as part and parcel of the Chinese experience. Authors Edward S. Steinfeld and Troels Beltoft acknowledge that some of these concerns are valid. However, they focus on a different side of China, one that requires foreign companies to remain actively engaged. Their research describes unique forms of China-based technology innovation, mastery of which is becoming increasingly indispensible for any company aiming to succeed in the global market. The authors concede that China today may not yet be the place to go for path-breaking R&D or radical new invention. But it's becoming the place to go if you want to learn how to make new ideas commercially viable. The authors provide detailed examples involving wind turbine manufacturing and semiconductor design. They group China-based knowledge into four categories: capabilities for rapid tempo operations and speed to market, accommodation of unique customer preferences, world-leading capabilities for cost reduction and capabilities for new forms of networked production. In China, the authors note, many people worry that their society's focus on manufacturing has come at the expense of innovation. Conversely, many in the West believe that the migration of manufacturing to offshore locations has impeded their innovative capacity. But the authors say that both views miss the mark, noting that even the most groundbreaking ideas are devoid of commercial value unless they can be delivered as products in a manner, at a price point and within a period of time that suits the preferences of customers.

Intellectual property protection is the No. 1 challenge for multinational corporations operating in China. According to the U.S. government, China accounted for nearly 80% of all IP thefts from U.S.- headquartered organizations in 2013, causing an estimated $300 billion in lost business. For European manufacturers, the loss of IP in China reduced potential profits by 20%. The effects from IP leakage are visible in counterfeited items including toys, luxury goods and automotive and aircraft parts. But IP violations go beyond products to include pirated operational processes and entire business and service models. For many multinational corporations, IP leakage becomes a barrier to integrating Chinese sites and partners into global activities. IP leakage frequently occurs through staff transfers or shared practices from foreign multinationals to local joint ventures or supply chain partners. For multinationals, this type of IP leakage is often a calculated risk worth taking. However, unintended IP leakage can affect a company's reputation and profitability, and can create powerful local or even global competitors. In studying more than 50 multinational corporations, authors Andreas Schotter and Mary Teagarden identified nine IP protection practices for use in China. Four of the practices are defensive and externally focused; the others are proactive and internal. Together, they create what the authors call the "IP protection web," which allows corporations to (1) expand faster within China and in other emerging markets; (2) improve performance; and (3) enhance local and global innovativeness. Most of the companies the authors studied learned to protect their IP through trial and error. The changing composition of IP risk creates a need for ongoing reconfiguration. Indeed, as Chinese companies become more skillful at absorbing leaked IP, international companies must develop more sophisticated responses and develop new ways to engender loyalty.

As businesses have entered new geographies, developed new products, opened new channels and added more granular customer segments, they have made their offerings more complex with the intention of adding value. But, as a seemingly inevitable consequence, companies also have made it more difficult for customers to interact with them and more unwieldy for their employees to get things done. For organizations, there has thus been a trade-off between good and bad complexity. In the digital economy, however, companies can finesse this trade-off and increase value-adding complexity in their offerings while keeping processes simple for customers and employees. Consider Amazon.com Inc.'s 10 million products, which create value without confusing customers, thanks to simple customer-facing processes that use digital tools such as search, recommendations, customer reviews and seller ratings to help site users choose among the many available products. Another example is Royal Phillips, which uses and reuses digitized platforms -and is able to offer locally differentiated products in 60 categories in more than 100 countries. The authors explain how companies can achieve their "complexity sweet spot"in the digital age -that is, the maximum value from varied and integrated product offerings with the simplest processes. The authors'research suggests that companies operating in this complexity sweet spot outperform their industry competitors on profitability. There are several routes to the sweet spot. One of the biggest decisions is who will lead and manage a company's complexity, as no one executive (save the CEO) really oversees all product and service development and operations. Whoever is leading a company's search for the complexity sweet spot needs to lead a cultural change to embed complexity management into the company's DNA. The good news, according to the authors, is that there are almost always quick wins, and the rewards are, well, sweet.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. For most companies, pricing has always been a sensitive, private affair. This article is directed at managers who seek to profit from product differentiation and take maximum advantage of their ability to stand out. Instead of leaving good money on the table and struggling to convert product differentiation into revenue, the authors argue, companies should consider enlisting the pricing help of their customers. Outsourcing pricing isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. Managers can select pricing models ranging from complete oversight to complete delegation. Citing examples from companies including Google, Uber, Orbitz, Volkswagen, Coca-Cola and Humble Bundle, the article integrates classic views on pricing with the latest research and practice to develop a simple framework to help managers decide how much pricing control they should retain and how much they should relinquish to customers. For most businesses, the default approach is having a single fixed price and selling to anyone willing to pay that amount. However, authors Marco Bertini and Oded Koenigsberg argue that this is economically inefficient: Those prepared to pay more in effect receive a discount; those willing to pay less (but an amount that's still profitable) are turned away. For companies interested in interactive approaches to pricing, the authors discuss three collaborative models: auctions, name-your-own-price auctions and negotiations. In the authors'view, asking customers to weigh in on price can have benefits that go beyond promoting greater efficiency. It can promote customer engagement, provide opportunities for customization, allow managers to signal information about their company or product and open up opportunities for increasing market share.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Since China began its economic reforms in 1978, it has transformed itself from an economically impoverished and politically unstable country to the second-largest economy in the world. But China faces monumental challenges, both economic and political, in the years ahead, notes author Yasheng Huang. One thing we know about economic growth is that it typically slows down after a period of robust performance. It is much more difficult for a country to grow at a sustainably fast pace when the per capita GDP is high than when per capita GDP is low. Despite more than three decades of reforms, Huang argues, China is still substantially statist in its basic orientation. The result is that for each percentage point of GDP growth, China requires more and more energy and investments, with worrisome implications for its environment and the health status of its population. There is increasing evidence that China is seeing diminishing returns with its existing growth model. Research shows that fast growth at an extremely low income level is relatively easy. However, Huang notes, being able to grow from what is known as "middle-income status" (between $6,000 and $8,000 dollars per capita, a level that China has just about reached) is much harder. Can China avoid the middle-income trap and grow at a sustained rate for another decade or more? Huang believes it can, but only if it undertakes significant reforms, especially political reforms. At GDP of $700, Huang argues, China didn't need to innovate-it could simply copy and transplant the technology and production methods of other countries. But it now needs to transition to a stronger, market-based economic system, a political system that is more open and democratic, and a legal system that is rule-based and offers strong IP protection. In other words, Huang says, China needs political reforms as well as economic reforms to enter the next stage of its growth model.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Based on a global executive survey with 2,000+ respondents and interviews with more than thirty executives, MIT Sloan Management Review and SAS Institute Inc. report that analytics has become a common path to business value. Organizations are now being challenged to step up their use of analytics, whether they are just getting started or are seasoned practitioners. The implications for industry competition are coming into focus-companies that incorporate analytics into their culture are finding success in the new digital era.

This case provides a discussion of critical illness insurance from various perspectives. The case first looks at critical illness insurance from both a consumer's and life insurers' perspectives. The case then discusses critical illness insurance's position in a changing healthcare and health insurance environment before considering its relevance in the future.

By 2004, the Industrial Finance Corporation of India ("IFCI") is on the verge of collapse; its profitability has become negative. Non-performing assets ("NPAs") have reached their peak, and the company does not have enough money to do business. It begins selling off and renting out its premises to get money to sustain its operations, going door-to-door to save itself. Employee morale is at its lowest level. IFCI's operations become unsustainable and are no longer viable. Against this backdrop, the IFCI board of directors and the government of India are in a quandary as they try to decide on IFCI's future course. After evaluating all possible options, IFCI and the government decide to restructure IFCI. IFCI's turnaround, which catapults it on the path to growth includes multiple factors such as converting debt into equity, creating provisions for bad loans, restructuring liabilities, retiring high-cost debt, managing NPAs aggressively, voluntarily retiring staff, focusing on short-term projects, adopting a selective approach in identifying projects for assistance and monitoring projects more effectively. The most critical factor that enables the turnaround of the state financial institution is the able leadership that not only changes IFCI's public sector culture but also brings a new work culture and ethics to the organization. ICFI's turnaround from the financial crisis inspires a lasting motivation in the hearts of its employees.

Dopfner had directed Axel Springer to approach this task with a two-stage digital transformation strategy process. Beginning in 2006, the company focused on organic growth and late-stage digital acquisitions. This stage of the strategy process had centered around profitability and the infusion of digitization into the corporate culture. In 2013, the second stage of the strategy process was driven by Dopfner's formulation of the firm's corporate mission to become "The Leading Digital Publisher" and his defining the company's business as its branded content and not its distribution channels. With this new strategy, Axel Springer intended to espouse early-stage investments and entrepreneurship and grow revenue through three business models: paid content, marketing, and classified advertising. As of 2013, Dopfner's two-stage digital transformation strategy had been a stunning success. Axel Springer had more than 12,800 employees, total revenues of $3.9 billion, and EBITDA of $625 million. The company had exceeded the goals it had set for digital media contributions to revenue and EBITDA, achieved reach in 44 countries, and serviced 98 million unique digital visitors worldwide. Looking forward in April 2014, however, it was clear that the future still held many challenges. Dopfner knew that Axel Springer would need to continue to successfully balance digital and traditional media business strategies, further reestablish the firm's identity, and continue to pioneer the cultural transition within the organization.

This Reading explores the multi-faceted nature of channels of distribution. The Reading provides guidelines for how producers of goods and services should cultivate, execute, and manage their go-to-market strategies. They can achieve success by implementing the notion of channel stewardship, and by applying its three main disciplines: mapping the industry channels, building & updating the channel value chain, and aligning & influencing the channel value chain. Managers are guided on whether to pursue direct and/or indirect channels of distribution. The author presents a seven-step framework for building the channel value chain. In aligning & influencing the channel system, readers discover the importance of aligning the network of suppliers and intermediaries to address customer needs, and how participating members should be rewarded commensurate with their efforts. Hard and soft power as key influential levers are discussed, and readers are also introduced to a four-step alignment process for programming a high-performance channel system. This discipline also involves managing horizontal channel conflict. The Reading closes with an eCommerce supplement, which discusses how online channel capabilities have caused varying degrees of disruption among certain product categories.

Core Curriculum Readings in Marketing cover fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks in marketing. For classroom use in higher education, this Reading is accompanied by a Teaching Note, test bank, and exhibit slides. This reading provides an introduction to the framework for marketing strategy: how a business creates and retains a customer, as well as the growing importance of making customers active ambassadors for its brands. The reading begins with a description of the 5Cs analysis for developing a marketing strategy (customer, company, collaborators, competitors, and context). It then discusses two sets of decisions every organization needs to make: the Aspiration Decision (what the company hopes to achieve in the market) and the Action Plan Decision (or "marketing mix" of the 4Ps-product, promotion, placement, and price). Finally, it considers the different kinds of actions required for customer acquisition vs. customer retention.

This Reading on customer management sheds light on how companies should evaluate and manage their customers in order to grow profitably. Customer management allows marketing managers to inform investment decisions by drilling down into each customer's profitability or customer lifetime value (CLV). Historically, marketing managers have focused on providing value to customers, while largely ignoring the value they could get from customers. Realizing that customer lifetime value is a more important metric than simply increasing sales or market share, many companies are beginning to understand how the viability of their businesses is tightly linked to acquiring, retaining, and developing the right customers.

Core Curriculum Readings in Marketing cover fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks in marketing. For classroom use in higher education, this Reading is accompanied by a Teaching Note, test bank, and exhibit slides. "Consumer Behavior and the Buying Process" describes and analyzes 4 frameworks for understanding how consumers make decisions: cognitive versus emotional, high-involvement versus low-involvement, optimizing versus "satisficing," and compensatory versus noncompensatory decision making. This Core Curriculum Reading then presents the activities that occur during the 3 phases in the consumer buying process: pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase. It also analyzes consumer decision-making units, including roles played within such units, such as buyer, influencer, gatekeeper, and approver. The Reading includes an in-depth example of how a pharmaceutical company analyzed decision-making processes and decision-making units to develop marketing campaigns for a new product. It concludes with an exploration of 3 developments that profoundly affect consumers' decision-making process and units: social media, co-creation and customer involvement, and "conscience" marketing. Ultimately, this Reading prepares students to become marketers who can design effective advertising and marketing campaigns for products and services.

Without customers, businesses could not succeed. The term "Customer Centric" has therefore become synonymous with proactive business strategy worldwide. Primarily due to advances in technology, we are experiencing a fundamental shift in marketing - from a previous focus on companies to a spotlight on consumers - giving customers a much stronger voice in both the Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) sectors. Customer centricity fits three ways into an organization: as part of a knowledge management system (understanding the customer), as part of the development of strategic competence as a learning organization (building a customer-centric culture), and as a foundation for corporate strategy development and execution (serving the customer). This reading is organized into three main sections covering these topics and uses many examples from diverse industries to illustrate successes in each area. In addition, a Supplemental Reading examines the dynamic between customer centricity and innovation and also provides a contrarian view to the topic.

Core Curriculum Readings in Marketing cover fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks in marketing. For classroom use in higher education, this Reading is accompanied by a Teaching Note, test bank, and exhibit slides. This Reading explores how firms can create value for their customers. The goal of any business is to delight customers by understanding its customers' needs and to provide products and services to meet those needs. As a result, it is critical to understand what customers value and how firms can offer products and services by creating different types of value for their customers. The purpose of this Reading is to help students understand customers' perspectives on what they value and why. The Reading describes four types of customer value: economic, functional, experiential/psychological, and social. A Supplemental Reading looks specifically at how to manage customer expectations of services, as distinct from products.

This Core Curriculum Reading introduces the fundamentals of getting price right. First, it introduces value pricing, which requires a detailed understanding of the true economic value (TEV) that a firm's product creates for a specific customer. Value pricing also requires a decision to divide that value between the firm (providing the firm its incentive to sell) and the customer (providing the customer with an incentive to buy). After covering the key elements of the value-pricing approach, the Reading explains the concepts of price customization, consumer sensitivity to price, and the impact of price on the organization's profitability. Readers also learn how both quantitative research and managerial judgment are used to make optimal pricing decisions. For classroom use in higher education, this Reading is accompanied by a Teaching Note, test bank, and exhibit slides.