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A senior vintner at Landhills Winery (Landhills) has been put in charge of developing an optimal blending plan for the upcoming season. This assignment is the result of a recent Landhills board meeting where the chief executive officer presented her ideas regarding the use of analytics for enhancing profits while at the same time not affecting quality. Specifically, the use of resource optimization could significantly improve Landhills's profitability. Industry reports have indicated that a growing number of major wineries are using analytics to assist in the wine-blending process. The board meeting concluded with the CEO tasking the senior vintner with developing an analysis and reporting back his findings to the board at next month's meeting.

Entravision, a leading Spanish-language broadcasting company in the United States that targets Hispanic Americans, has just set up a digital analytics division called Luminar, which uses Big Data to focus a company's marketing to a particular set of consumers. The idea of launching Luminar has been mooted by an outsider who is a friend and protegé of the company's founding chairman. As the incumbent president of the new division, he is grappling with some major issues. How should he secure the buy-in of line and staff managers at Entravision? How should he find a structural fit between Entravision and Luminar? How should he leverage business opportunities beyond digital analytics? What kind of entry barriers can he build so that Luminar retains its first mover advantage?

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) was one of the largest conservation organizations in the world; its mission was to "to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends." Over time, TNC had expanded its mission to include advocating for sustainable water-management practices, and its numerous water specialists had advised corporations, water ministries, legislatures, and many other organizations. TNC was constantly exploring new ways of advocating sustainable water use and weighing its options to engage new opportunities. Brian Richter, a veteran scientist for TNC who had led its water market strategy for the past few years, was convinced that water markets could be attractive for the market-friendly TNC. But he wondered how TNC could integrate water markets into its water strategy while staying true to its legacy and mission. This case includes an interview with TNC's Brian Richter about some of the tools TNC had at its disposal to realize its conservationist objectives.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Product #914529.

Pacific Coffee operated several stores in Central Hong Kong, the heart of the city's financial district. One of these stores ("Store X") was situated on the ground floor and near the main lobby of a Grade A commercial building and a five-minute walk away from Lan Kwai Fong, a popular area for drinking, dining, and clubbing frequented by the city's professionals. Store X's opening hours were from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Profitability was constantly challenged by increased competition as well as pressures from cost inflation, including rent, labor, and raw material price increases. Jonathan Somerville, the group COO, had been contemplating a number of different strategies to optimize profitability at the store. Two other related cases in this series include: 1. Pacific Coffee Balanced Scorecard: Operationalizing Strategies 2. Pacific Coffee: Long Run Investment Decisions

Since China Resource Enterprise Ltd. (CRE) acquired a majority stake in Pacific Coffee in 2010, the coffee chain had experienced tremendous expansion particularly in mainland China. Yet, Hong Kong remained the core of the business, and Pacific Coffee could not afford to lose its leadership position in its home base. The competitive environment became more intense and Hong Kong coffee consumers became more sophisticated. Jonathan Somerville, the CEO, realized that while he needed to stay involved, and on top of the business in Hong Kong, he no longer had the capacity to be involved on a day-to-day basis. However, he needed to motivate his Hong Kong team and give them direction when implementing strategies. He decided the Balanced Business Scorecard would be an effective tool to link and align the company's strategy to its operations. Two other related cases in this series include: 1. Pacific Coffee: Making the Numbers Count. 2. Pacific Coffee: Long Run Investment Decisions.

Pacific Coffee had experienced a major expansion of its network in Hong Kong since CRE took control in 2010. By March 2018, most but not all districts in Hong Kong had Pacific Coffee stores. Yet, with turnover in leases and new potential markets, there continued to be opportunities to expand into new store locations. In March 2018, Pacific Coffee's business development and leasing team found two locations up for rent. One was a ground-floor space at a new building on the campus of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), while the other option was a street-level store in Central district. For Pacific Coffee's management, the investment process did not entail just only financial return. Other intangible factors, such as brand building, were essential for the chain's long-term growth strategy. Two other related cases in this series include: 1. Pacific Coffee: Making the Numbers Count. 2. Pacific Coffee Balanced Scorecard: Operationalizing Strategies.

This case is a supplement to 614-072, which examines the early history of the color television receiver market, and the global consequences of an historic 1958 consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice that opened RCA's patents to licensing by domestic competitors royalty-free. This externality had a dramatic impact on the long-term health of the U.S. consumer electronics industry.

The case deals with a dramatic series of suicides at France Télécom between 2008 and 2009. Over a period of 18 months preceding the date of the opening lines of the case, 23 France Télécom employees took their lives. Many of the deceased had left notes blaming work-related stress or management decisions as the reasons for their extreme actions. The French government found it necessary to intervene and demand France Télécom's management to indicate to the workforce and society that they were taking the situation seriously. The case briefly describes the history of France Télécom, the change initiatives following the deregulation of the European telecommunications industry, and the development of the attention of the French nation and international public toward the company in the aftermath of the suicides and suicide attempts. The case closes citing the response of the government, the company, the unions, psychologists, and stock analysts after a crisis meeting between French Labor Minister Xavier Darcos and France Télécom's PDG (Chairman of the Board and CEO) Didier Lombard in September 2009.

The case graphically presents various working capital ratios (days inventory outstanding, days sales outstanding, days payables outstanding, cash conversion cycle, and operating cycle) over the 2009 through 2012 period by industry and for specific well-known companies. Students are given the opportunity to craft an intuitive story around the ratios they are given in the case. The case works well as a supplement for classes on working capital management. It is designed to help students relate the often difficult-to-grasp concepts around working capital and working capital ratios to industries and companies that they are familiar with, using companies whose business models and business practices are particularly good illustrations of the relevant concepts.

In January 2010, the new DBS chief executive officer, Piyush Gupta, was tasked to realise the bank's vision to be the 'Asian bank of choice for the new Asia'. The global financial crisis of 2008 had created an opportunity for DBS to fill the void left by the Western banks that were suffering from its aftermath. Gupta, a former Citibank executive, had to reconcile the harmonious yet passive local culture at DBS with the more competitive yet proactive culture he was accustomed to - without causing an outcry from the other stakeholders.

In 2009-2010 Procter & Gamble's Old Spice brand had to respond to two important challenges. First, after a successful rebranding of the Glacial Falls scent into Swagger (see Kellogg Case #5-411-752), Old Spice's core brand team had to determine its next step in advertising. The options being considered included continuing to advertise Swagger, switching to advertising a different scent, advertising the umbrella brand, or placing an emphasis on body wash instead of on deodorant. This decision also involved proposing both the messaging and the media buy for the option selected. Second, in conjunction with this issue, the brand team had to decide whether the messaging of its advertising should respond to competitor Unilever's new advertising for Dove for Men, which would be kicked off in an upcoming Super Bowl spot. Students will step into the shoes of Mauricio O'Connell-one of the assistant brand managers of Old Spice-as he and his team brainstorm how to position the brand for another big success.

An analyst for a money management firm is studying Apple Inc. as one of the firm's key investments. In 2013, Apple had a market capitalization of nearly US$500 billion and sales of US$171 billion. According to the research firm, Gartner Group, it had the world's best supply chain, ranking ahead of companies such as Walmart, Amazon and Inditex (Zara). As part of the analysis, a full review of Apple's supply chain is required to look for insight into the future performance of the company in order to decide whether or not the analyst's firm should continue to hold Apple shares.

VUCA is an acronym that has recently found its way into the business lexicon. The components it refers to--volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity--are words that have been variously used to describe an environment which defies confident diagnosis and befuddles executives. In a 'VUCA world,' both pundits and executives have said, core activities essential to driving organizational performance--like strategic planning--are viewed as mere exercises in futility. VUCA conditions render useless any efforts to understand the future and to plan responses. When leaders are left with little to do other than wring their hands, organizational performance quickly falls at risk. In this installment of Organizational Performance, we demonstrate that by overlooking important differences in the conditions that volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity describe, we have disempowered leaders. We show how leaders can appreciate the differences among each of these challenging situations in order to properly allocate scarce resources to preserve and enhance organizational performance.

Regulatory bodies in the United States and the United Kingdom recently issued revised guidelines concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in marketing efforts. Of specific interest within these guidelines is the disclosure of a material connection when brand communications are sent within social media platforms such as Twitter. The findings of quantitative and qualitative survey data analysis indicate that consumers may be misled by current disclosure conventions. Managerial implications, policy recommendations, and suggestions for future research are presented in light of these findings.

In this Executive Digest, we make the case that aggregate individual expertise as a resource and intrinsic capability of the firm are hidden in plain sight, or worse, are assumed to exist where they do not. With high levels of complexity, business diversity, and number of geographical locations, the issue becomes even more acute. We propose strategic resource mapping (SRM) as a methodology designed to provide top managers with a rapid, comprehensive, and penetrating assessment of a firm's 'meta-capability': an actionable overview of the capabilities that exist within the firm. Based on multiple successful implementations, we describe the key features of SRM and provide several illustrations.

How do you get your organization to start using social technologies to become more innovative and productive? Where and with whom should you begin? We interviewed over 70 managers across 30 companies and found that the most successful firms employ one of three jumpstart strategies, depending on the organization's mission, work processes, culture, and industry. Some start at the bottom of the organization, finding and enabling 'young experimenters' to use social technologies to enhance their individual productivity. Others start in the middle, finding and helping 'corporate entrepreneurs' in middle management to use social technologies to improve collaboration on teams and projects. Others begin at the top, finding 'enlightened executives' who are open to new technology and the potential of social tools to strengthen their organizational culture. We combine our research with concepts from change management, technology adoption, and social networks to suggest ways managers can best introduce social collaboration tools into their organizations.

In this highly competitive century, social media offers both opportunities and challenges. The concept of social media is top of mind for many entrepreneurs today. Fans are assuming an increasingly active role in co-creating marketing content with companies and their respective brands. Based on the Xiaomi success story in China, we provide a framework for building the power of the fan base and propose a new fan-centric social media business model. We examine the best practice case study of an emerging company's successful efforts to leverage social media in order to reach an important audience of young consumers. Thereafter, we conclude with several lessons related to the integration of social media into a new firm's operation strategy. We strongly recommend that businesses, and especially startups, make good use of powerful social media to develop a business model with fan demand as the core. This is what we call the 'fan-centric' social media business model.

Growth is the biggest challenge for a luxury brand in that volume dilutes the brand cachet. In addition, it violates the credo of rarity on which the luxury sector is originally based. This article reveals how the current leading luxury brands use 'artification,' a process of transformation of nonart into art, to circumvent the volume problem. Artification takes time and substantial investment. It cannot be undertaken by the brands alone: It requires the active collaboration of art authorities and renowned artists. The goal is to change the status of the brand, of its founder and products, and in so doing, to reinforce the idea of a better-than-ordinary brand whose price and symbolic power are undisputed. It is also strategic for the globalization of luxury: Art is universal.

Given today's rapidly shifting global competitive conditions--including customer location, natural disasters, currency valuation, labor and transportation costs and availability--many U.S. companies are revisiting decisions about their preferred manufacturing location(s). The purpose of this research is to understand some of the trends that affect whether U.S.-based companies bring their production back to the United States or relocate it to different geographical locations (reshore). The focus is on the key factors that affect companies' manufacturing location decisions, the importance of these factors, and how the importance has changed over time. Because of the complexity involved in the manufacturing location decision, key risk factors inherent in the manufacturing decision are also assessed. Survey responses from 319 companies that currently manage offshore manufacturing plants are analyzed. Among other insights, this study found that 40% of these companies perceived a trend toward reshoring to the U.S. in their industries. The companies involved in this study also place an increasing importance on where their customers want them to locate, as well as how the location could help expand into new customer markets. These and further results and implications for U.S. manufacturing companies are presented herein.