個案總覽

In April 2017, a college student in California was graduating with a degree in business administration with a concentration in entrepreneurship. She had been a florist for the past six years and wished to pursue her dream of starting her own flower business. Her vision was to open a flower shop where all the arrangements were uniquely designed for each customer and no two arrangements were the same. Her current employers were trying to sell their shop (Belle Fleur) and offered to sell it to her at a discount price. She had to decide whether to buy the business or start her own shop from scratch.

In 2017, hedge fund Mantle Ridge acquired less than 5 per cent of the stock of CSX Corporation (CSX) and made demands for board representation as well as the installation of a new chief executive officer (CEO) of CSX. This new CEO had abruptly resigned from Canadian Pacific (CP) and joined forces with Mantle Ridge at the time the fund announced its activist position in CSX. On February 14, 2017, CSX management announced a special meeting and shareholders’ vote to respond to Mantle Ridge’s demands, which included a compensation package for this new CEO, estimated at $300 million. In light of the improvements at CP, could the same model be implemented successfully at CSX? If so, was the proposed compensation package for an incoming CEO justified? The chief investment officer of a large U.S. pension fund, has been asked to vote at the upcoming meeting and faces two main questions: Should she vote in favour of approving the package? Alternatively, should she sell CSX stock now?

In June 2017, a journalist was preparing a major news story about Lumni Inc. (Lumni), a company that he wanted to profile in the next issue of his Mexico City–based magazine. Lumni's mission was essentially a social one: to improve the conditions, access, and quality of higher education for young students, especially in Latin America. However, although its mission was originally non-profit, Lumni was not considered a non-governmental organization since it worked with a financially sustainable model and did not depend on donations or government funding. As the journalist investigated this business model, he learned that some experts referred to it as a hybrid business model. Although he had been gathering research on Lumni for some months, he still was unsure whether his report should promote hybrid business models as viable alternatives to traditional business models.

A hybrid business model incorporates the social responsibility interests of a non-profit organization with the economic objectives of a for-profit company. This note explains the fundamental organizational activities that drive a hybrid business model and provides examples of successful hybrid business models currently in operation. This note can be used as a companion document to Lumni Inc.: Improving Society in a Sustainable Way, product no. 9B18M011.

On June 25, 2014, the director of marketing and development at Allied Founders Pvt. Ltd., a company that operated out of Belgaum in India, was analyzing various problems associated with his company’s management approach. The director was considering a change from the company’s system of breakdown maintenance to a new information system of preventive maintenance. While executing its first international export order, the company faced several challenges related to production delays, mainly due to poor equipment maintenance. To plan for his company’s future in the international market, the director proposed adopting preventive maintenance as a solution, but he was unsure whether to use traditional means (i.e., manual record keeping) or implement a new information system. He was concerned about the issues that could arise from the change, including resistance from employees worried about job loss, providing the necessary training, and exposing the company to other risks.

In 2016, the newly appointed president and chief executive officer of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), an alcoholic beverages retailer and a Crown corporation of the province of Ontario in Canada, was weighing his options in developing and executing a strategy for organizational transformation. The trigger for transformation was external. The provincial government, which fully owned the LCBO, had decided to allow grocery stores to sell alcoholic beverages. What strategy should the chief executive officer use to ensure the LCBO would be relevant to its existing and future customers and therefore remain a competitive player in the market?

Since its founding in 1990, Shenzhou International Group Holdings Limited evolved from a small clothing manufacturer to a world-leading apparel supplier, serving well-known sports and leisure brands such as Uniqlo, Nike, Adidas, and Puma. Over the previous 10 years, the group experienced explosive growth. Yet, in an age of increasing consumer expectations, could it rely on existing models to achieve greater success? Comments made by the US president about reviving his country’s manufacturing industry encouraged many firms to invest in building factories in the United States. Despite being a traditional labour-intensive manufacturer, the company wondered if it should consider setting up a factory in the United States as part of its future strategic plans. If so, would the challenges outweigh the opportunities?

On July 7, 2015, a power fault during the evening commute led to a system-wide disruption on SMRT, Singapore’s heavily used mass rapid transit lines. Train service on both lines was shut down for more than two hours, affecting more than 413,000 commuters. The public was outraged at the scale of the breakdown and how ineffectively it was handled. Detailed investigations revealed the breakdown to be a result of maintenance lapses, and SMRT was criticized for its failure to provide clear and timely information and instructions to passengers. Following the breakdown, the company embarked on a service recovery process encompassing various new initiatives. This case illustrates the tensions SMRT faced during and after the breakdown, and its journey to recover the public’s confidence in is transit services.

Ecotricity Group Ltd., founded in 1995, had grown to be a major renewable energy utility service provider in the United Kingdom. In 2016, the company wanted to expand its "electric highway"—a network of charging stations for electric vehicles along major U.K. motorways. The expansion plans involved two chargers: Type A chargers, installed in public locations along the motorway, and Type B chargers, installed in suitable home garages owned by Ecotricity customers. To meet the projected traffic flow of electric vehicles in the future, the company needed to optimally expand the number of both types of charging points in each highway zone.<br><br>This case uses integer programming to determine the optimal number of Type A and Type B chargers that Ecotricity should install to expand its electric highway. The solution is obtained by using Microsoft Excel Solver and interpreting the results. The case also provides a platform for discussing optimal investment strategies, and for considering another topic not emphasized extensively in the case—how an operational strategy affects image building.

Tesla Motors, Inc. (Tesla), the electric car company, unveiled its Model 3 in late July 2017 as its stock price continued to appreciate. The Model 3 was priced to sell to the mass market and to potentially compete with the mass-market leaders such as Toyota. The stock market had also responded favourably to Tesla’s decision in 2016 to acquire SolarCity, a manufacturer of solar cells, and its decision to build the Gigafactory, the world’s largest lithium battery plant. Could Tesla justify its sky-high stock price multiple by simply selling electric cars, or should Tesla become a battery company that could fundamentally change the energy storage industry—or for that matter, some other type of company?

In October 2017, the first ever commercial flight landed on St Helena, one of the world's remotest islands. There had been delays building,certifying, and opening the airport due to unforeseen wind conditions. Now that weekly commercial flights had finally begun, how should the island's Economic Development Board approach the next phase of the long-term strategy to boost St Helena's economy through tourism?

In early 2016, the country head for Seijing Motor Corporation (SMC) in India was worried about stagnant sales of the company’s Supreme pickup brand. The Supreme brand had gained only a single-digit market share over the past year, and SMC’s share of the growing large pickup market had steadily fallen, from 40 per cent in 2005 to 10 per cent in 2015. SMC’s Supreme brand was competing with the market leader in the pickup segment. The pickup needed to be repositioned immediately so that it appealed to customers; otherwise, its market share would erode even further. Should the company fight existing consumer perceptions or leverage them? Should the Supreme brand be repositioned, or should SMC offer new brands in other segments? Should it extend the Supreme brand name into those other segments, or should it introduce new brand names?

When the chief executive officer of The Coca-Cola Company made his maiden visit to India in August 2017, it was clear that he wanted the Indian branch of the company, Coca-Cola India Private Limited, to achieve many ambitious goals. These included reducing the sugar content in the company’s products, introducing more juice-based drinks and water, and making small entries into the dairy segment. For a company that had long stressed its carbonated and fruit-based drink segments, Coca-Cola India Private Limited was now indicating its strong intent to steer away from its core competency. The aim was to recast the company as a “total beverage company,” with possible ventures across all relevant beverage categories. Should the company take a chance and move away from its core competency? Should it tweak existing products, seek to extend its brands, or try to create entirely new offerings? How could Coca-Cola India Private Limited succeed in its shift towards “total beverage” solutions, and what challenges should it prepare for as part of this shift?

In 2017, United Airlines suffered a blow to its corporate reputation throughout the United States and international markets, including China, mainly due to an incident on United flight 3411, in which an airport enforcement officer forcibly dragged a passenger out of a plane. The inadequate public relations reaction following the incident and ineffective crisis management left the company reeling. The company became subject to scathing social media attacks, customer dissatisfaction, passenger anger, and a drop in its stock value. The airline, which had already been grappling with very low rankings in customer satisfaction indexes, realized the need to rebuild its brand and greatly improve its customer satisfaction ratings. To prevent such instances from occurring in the future, United needed to take steps to rebuild its tarnished brand image and consider some important questions: What service expectations did customers have of airlines such as United? How would these expectations develop over time? How important were customer satisfaction, client relationships, and passenger experience to United? How could an airline company conduct a root cause analysis for service failure? How could it analyze the different gaps in delivering good quality service?

Spreadsheet to accompany product 8B18E006.

On February 1, 2013, the managing director of software development firm SYIT, sat in his office and gathered his thoughts on his new organization. Based in Islamabad, Pakistan, SYIT was a new entrant in the offshore software development industry. Its managing director had expended months of effort to move the entire project team from his previous employer to his newly formed company, but the real challenge lay ahead. SYIT needed to reduce the cultural gap between its team and its primary client, one of Denmark’s largest publishing houses. The managing director’s ultimate goal was to create an organization that was flexible and innovative—like the European clients that he wanted to continue to attract. How could he implement a strong company culture to ensure that all employees projected one consistent and effective working style across SYIT’s different projects and clients?

In May 2015, Qualtrics was a rapidly growing U.S.-based software-as-a-service firm, founded in 2002. After 10 years of operating with little capital, Qualtrics raised some venture capital funding, which enabled it to initiate a rapid international expansion. The management team intended to aggressively pursue global opportunities, but first needed to make some key decisions regarding how to develop the company’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) regional headquarters, and its European operations. Key concerns included the company’s market selection and prioritization, and its best approach for developing a subsidiary and EMEA regional operations that could achieve significant scale in a short time frame.

Two executives at Express Trucking—the vice-president of legal affairs, and the vice-president of sales—were preparing for an executive team meeting. The two vice-presidents were disputing the terms of a customer contract to be signed the following day. According to the vice-president of legal affairs, the contract needed to be revised to include a standard clause regarding Express Trucking’s liability, whereas the vice-president of sales feared losing the contract if any changes were made. The company’s chief executive officer asked the two executives to resolve this dispute before the upcoming executive team meeting. How would the two executives resolve their differences?<br><br> The case involves the students in a role play to develop their competence to address typical conflicts between executive team members, by reproducing the complex environment in which executives operate. Students will be assigned the role of the vice-president of legal affairs (9B18M014); the vice-president of sales (9B18M015); or the observer (9B18M016).

Two executives at Express Trucking—the vice-president of legal affairs, and the vice-president of sales—were preparing for an executive team meeting. The two vice-presidents were disputing the terms of a customer contract to be signed the following day. According to the vice-president of legal affairs, the contract needed to be revised to include a standard clause regarding Express Trucking’s liability, whereas the vice-president of sales feared losing the contract if any changes were made. The company’s chief executive officer asked the two executives to resolve this dispute before the upcoming executive team meeting. How would the two executives resolve their differences?<br><br> The case involves the students in a role play to develop their competence to address typical conflicts between executive team members, by reproducing the complex environment in which executives operate. Students will be assigned the role of the vice-president of legal affairs (9B18M014); the vice-president of sales (9B18M015); or the observer (9B18M016).

Two executives at Express Trucking—the vice-president of legal affairs, and the vice-president of sales—were preparing for an executive team meeting. The two vice-presidents were disputing the terms of a customer contract to be signed the following day. According to the vice-president of legal affairs, the contract needed to be revised to include a standard clause regarding Express Trucking’s liability, whereas the vice-president of sales feared losing the contract if any changes were made. The company’s chief executive officer asked the two executives to resolve this dispute before the upcoming executive team meeting. How would the two executives resolve their differences?<br><br> The case involves the students in a role play to develop their competence to address typical conflicts between executive team members, by reproducing the complex environment in which executives operate. Students will be assigned the role of the vice-president of legal affairs (9B18M014); the vice-president of sales (9B18M015); or the observer (9B18M016).