個案總覽

Recent events in the economic and natural environments have tested buyer-supplier relationships like never before. Based on dyadic buyer-supplier case data from a variety of industries that were deeply affected by the 2008-2009 recession, this article explores how long-term relationships responded to an economic downturn. Prior to the downturn, these mutually dependent relationships all appeared to be very similar to each other and were characterized by significant value-added and social capital stores. However, due to varying degrees of bounded rationality, the relationships were affected differently and responded differently to the downturn. Based on the characteristics of the relationship, we develop a framework of three types of close supplier alliances. This framework can be used to assess such relationships and likely responses to adversity to reduce unpleasant surprises for the alliance partners. This article also provides a set of lessons learned for managers.

Leadership development and executive education have taken on increased prominence in recent years. The natural tendency is to approach the subject of leadership as a hierarchically-based process that is focused on higher-level individual leaders influencing lower-level followers. This tendency is consistent with myths surrounding charismatic and heroic visionary leaders who are often portrayed as single-handedly inspiring and directing their organizations to new heights. Unfortunately, these simplistic portrayals of leadership are promulgated by the media and desired by the consuming public. However, this kind of framing of leadership is dangerous: it lays the seeds of centralization of power, which can have innumerable detrimental outcomes. Accordingly, we explore two potent antidotes to this simplistic hierarchical formulation of leadership that have become an increasing focus of leadership research: self-leadership and shared leadership.

The widespread adoption of technology and electronic media has dramatically altered the set of products consumers compare before making a purchase decision. Online platforms have succeeded at drawing linkages among products by highlighting those that are preferred, evaluated, or purchased together. However, despite the increase in both product and customer inter-connectedness across markets, managers continue to make decisions based largely on the dynamics of competition within narrow product categories. In this article, we raise the call for a migration from a category-focused mindset to an ecosystem-focused strategic mindset that acknowledges and accounts for the network of related or unrelated entities that a specific product resides within. We illustrate the importance of this shift using examples of preference, choice, and customer networks from popular online platforms. We then discuss the impact of the shift in strategic mindset toward ecosystems on competitive structure analysis, market research, brand footprint analysis, intraband ecosystems, promotion planning, new product development, customer valuation, strategic alliances, and market segmentation.

South Korea was first introduced to luxury brands in the 1990s. Since then, a great interest in luxury products, or myungpoom, and foreign products, called waejae, has developed. Despite the strong preference for fashion products from the United States and Europe, Sang A, a brand founded by a woman born and raised in Korea, is recognized as a myungpoom in Korea. This new luxury brand is also known for its designer handbags in the United States and is quite successful in both countries. In a comparative study of Sang A and the internationally well-known luxury brand Jimmy Choo using literary research, Internet research, field research, and interviews with Sang A bag consumers, I identified several key elements of success for the two brands: niche market targeting, storytelling, a 'hungry attitude,' high prices but accessible discounts, thorough management of distribution channels, and image-making through star power. This article implicates that Korean consumers have complex desires that go beyond simply wanting foreign goods.

There is substantial interconnection between the reduction of product counterfeiting and quality management. This article seeks to demonstrate how integrating anti-counterfeiting initiatives into quality management strategies can reduce risk in the supply chain. We explore issues pertaining to product counterfeiting, the practical application and constraints of anti-counterfeiting initiatives within the supply chain, and the intersection of anti-counterfeiting initiatives with quality management programs. Gaps in current management strategies to address these issues are identified, and a potential remedy to address these deficiencies is proposed. Practical suggestions regarding the application of quality principles to offset counterfeiting should reduce risk in the supply chain.

This case study examines the initiation, financing, development, and failed merger of an ambitious online grocery retail venture: HomeGrocer.com. It highlights the risks and challenges associated with developing a revolutionary venture. Even though the HomeGrocer.com team did many things right developmentally, some key errors and unfortunate timing resulted in them expanding too quickly and running low on cash. It also forced them to make a tough strategic decision about whether to scale back operations and renege on their IPO commitments or merge with a well-funded competitor, Webvan. The case discusses lessons that can be learned from business failure.

In late 2006, the Rouge Valley Health System's board of directors began to grasp the gravity of the leadership challenge set before them: rescue the amalgamated Scarborough Centenary Hospital and the Ajax and Pickering General Hospital, which was financially a "basket case," or face an imposed government takeover. A recently completed independent peer review conducted from June through November 2007 came down hard on the former senior leadership team for poor performance and lack of accountability. To reverse the hospital's grave prognosis, the board needed to perform triage: work with their new chief executive officer to stop the financial bleed, restore faith among the hospital's senior management and work towards a new organizational culture.

Israel had experienced great change since its founding in 1948 to become arguably the most prosperous nation in the Middle East. With the exception of the United States and more recently China, Israel had more companies listed on the NASDAQ than any other. It spent a larger percentage of its budget on research and development than any other country in the world. Multinational companies like Intel, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Motorola, Mitsubishi, Hewlett Packard, Deutsche Telekom and eBay had set up significant operations there. Within 50 years of its establishment, Israel had experienced unprecedented economic growth. But despite its many successes, the country remained in a constant state of conflict. The Arab-Israeli conflict lingered, and Israel and its geographic neighbors had strained relationships. Could Israel market itself to tourists and businesses despite its constant state of conflict? How should it do so? Was it better to focus on a national narrative or pursue city or industry marketing and branding?

The case puts students in the shoes of Todd Davis, founder and CEO of a boutique brownfield redevelopment firm, Hemisphere Development, in 2010. Davis is wrestling with decisions and processes surrounding the potential acquisition and redevelopment of the former Delphi Automotive plant in Columbus, Ohio. When making the investment decision, Davis (and students) must consider various factors: What is Hemisphere's implicit investment strategy, and what are the firm's core competencies? How should the firm finance this transaction to achieve an acceptable return?

In 1985, Don St. Pierre Sr. became President of Beijing Jeep, the troubled joint venture between American Motor Corporation and the Chinese government to build Jeep Cherokees in China. Just over a decade later in 1996, leveraging contacts from his time in the automotive industry, he founded ASC Fine Wines with his son, Don Jr. Despite many challenges, from building a distribution network from the ground up to Chinese Customs throwing Don Jr. in prison, the St. Pierres prevailed, and ASC was standing tall as China's number-one fine wine importer by volume and value in 2013. ASC had developed a reputation for quality of product and service, beating out the competition of private wine importers and state-owned enterprises. What lessons had this father-son team learned in their 20 years of doing business in China? Would ASC make the transition from being a family-run business to a part of Suntory Holdings and still thrive? Could ASC under its leadership continue to adapt to the changing market for fine wine in China?

As China's largest homebuilder, China Vanke Co. Ltd. (Vanke) was facing an industry downturn sparked by strong government intervention. Faced with falling prices, Vanke's president must decide whether to keep the company's pricing and product positioning intact, and how aggressively to pursue its greener building strategy. Follow-up cases present additional decisions, including how, and how aggressively, to improve safety and quality (A-2), and whether to expand into other asset classes, such as commercial real estate.

In this note, we examine the extent to which venture capital is adequately positioned for the rapid commercialization of clean energy technologies in the United States. The need for a revolution in clean energy is driven not just by environmental consequences of energy use, but also by the need for energy security, to address growing concerns about a crisis in the balance of payments, and as a potentially important source of domestic jobs. Our premise in this note is that a key aspect of such widespread change is that these issues cannot be "solved" by a single technology. Rather, technological changes will have to be pervasive and will require a whole range of different products and processes to come to market. Some of the technological progress will come from incremental innovations that do not depend on venture capital.

Okey Enelamah is the CEO of the African Capital Alliance (ACA), a private equity firm based in Nigeria. ACA has spent more than a year arranging a $500 million consortium bid to acquire and recapitalize Union Bank, Nigeria's sixth largest bank. Several weeks before the deal is scheduled to close, the unexpected exit of several international investors has put the group's ability to fund the deal in question. With time running out, Enelamah and the ACA investment committee must decide whether the Union Bank acquisition is still a wise investment, or whether the firm's time, talents, and capital would be better invested in other parts of the fast-growing Nigerian economy.

In 2014, the restaurant Noma, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, was considered to be amongst the best restaurants in the world, and its co-founder, co-owner and chef, René Redzepi, among the most influential chefs. The restaurant was also leading the new Nordic food movement, a movement focused on rediscovering Nordic cuisine and ingredients, which had helped increase the popularity of Danish cuisine. Since 2013 Noma had a new investor, the American Marc Blazer, who joined to help Redzepi increase the restaurant's margins to make it a more sustainable business. But the question was-how? What options really were available?

The owner and founder of a small, independent car-detailing service considers several opportunities for his upcoming busy season. These opportunities include expanding the company's services, purchasing a truck and becoming a mobile auto detailer, franchising the business or selling the business to pursue other work for the summer. With his undergraduate studies beginning in September, the owner's top priority is to earn enough money to pay for tuition and to sustain himself during his first year at university.

In late 2013, the founder of Aztek Chocolate, a candy manufacturer, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is confronted with making an accounting system selection decision. He has two traditional options - outsourcing to an accounting or bookkeeping firm versus using an internally developed spreadsheet or commercial software package - as well as a third "hybrid" option - using an accounting cloud, or Software-as-a-Service, service provider. Sales are starting to flow in, and chocolates are shipping out, but he realizes he must now attend to setting up financial control and reporting systems before he loses control of the new firm's financial performance. Should he hire an accountant, manage the finances himself with a commercial accounting software package or use an accounting cloud service provider?

In late October 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent panel of primary care experts, was preparing to release their updated guidelines for the use of screening mammograms, which were given to women in an attempt to detect evidence of breast cancer at a treatable stage. The new guidelines, based on rigorous scientific research and tests, now recommended routine screening starting at age 50 rather than at age 40. The challenge the USPSTF faced was that this shift in the recommended starting age was likely to spark significant debate among medical professionals and in the press.

In late October 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent panel of primary care experts, was preparing to release their updated guidelines for the use of screening mammograms, which were given to women in an attempt to detect evidence of breast cancer at a treatable stage. The new guidelines, based on rigorous scientific research and tests, now recommended routine screening starting at age 50 rather than at age 40. The challenge the USPSTF faced was that this shift in the recommended starting age was likely to spark significant debate among medical professionals and in the press.

Since 1996, Indigo Books and Music had grown to become essentially a book retail monopoly in Canada. But the global recession had hit the company hard, and the chief executive officer (CEO) was focused on creating innovation at every level of the national operation. The hope was that Indigo would eventually be able to compete internationally with giants such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Nobles. How to stabilize the company's financials while at the same time creating and promoting creative product lines that customers would crave was the critical question that the CEO had to answer if her company was to thrive in the future.

This case is about how the World Bank, after determining that the creation and dissemination of knowledge to the international development community was one of their strategic roles and objectives, transitioned from being just a lending bank to both a lending and "knowledge bank." The challenges and issues addressed in this case are focused around both general change management issues (aligning the organization around a totally different set of goals and priorities) and specific knowledge management challenges (incentives to share knowledge; institutionalizing KM in the daily roles and activities of employees; defining metrics to measure success and impact). This is a follow-up, "part 2" to an earlier case published by the Harvard Kennedy School (case number 1936.0, "Knowledge Management at the World Bank"), which focused on the thirteen-year period that the Bank management internally promoted the idea that the Bank needed to become the leading creator, broker and sharer of knowledge about international development. As a result of this thirteen-year effort, by 2009 there was a fair amount of acceptance and support within the Bank for the new knowledge management objectives, and this case is more focused on how the Bank approached achieving their knowledge management-related goals and overcoming the associated internal transformational challenges. Case number 2012.0.