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Excel spreadsheet for students.

Most leaders are so overworked that they have few resources left with which to energize their teams. And yet, as Peter Drucker noted, the foremost job of a leader is to “take charge of your own energy and then help orchestrate the energy of those around you.” This article uses science to explain why trust is an effective means to improve performance. It then shows how trust can be measured and provides an action plan to build and increase workplace trust. Dr. Zak’s lab discovered in 2004 that the brain chemical oxytocin allows us to determine who to trust. The mathematical models he has built to understand how trust affects economic behaviours reveal that trust accelerates transactions such as investments in factories and equipment. It does this by reducing transaction costs associated with distrust. When there is increased trust between trading partners, there are fewer delays and more deals occur. Conveniently, the eight factors that create a culture of organizational trust — Ovation, eXpectation, Yield, Transfer, Openness, Caring, Invest and Natural — have an easy-to-remember acronym: OXYTOCIN. <br><br> To increase trust in their organizations, leaders should: 1. View employees as volunteers, who continue to show up only if they are engaged by the organization’s purpose. 2. Use joy at work as a measure of an effective culture. 3. Experiment by changing OXYTOCIN factors one at a time and measuring the effect on joy and productivity. 4. Invite co-workers to tangibly recognize each other weekly (see Ovation). 5. Communicate your organization’s transcendent purpose internally and externally via an engaging human-scale story that goes beyond increasing shareholder value.

In March 2015, the managing director of VariCut Electronics Component Company in Shanghai, China, was contemplating whether the company should shift its business focus from label printing to label printers. Because of fierce competition and a slowdown in the company's 12-year-old label manufacturing business, the company was finding its competitive advantage hard to sustain. In contrast, the company's emerging business of producing label printers had been doing well, with 30 per cent annual growth. Although the label manufacturing business had begun to struggle, it was still the main source of company revenue (80 per cent). It was uncertain whether the company's survival and growth could be sustained if it decided to give up the label manufacturing business in order to focus on label printers. Should the company give up the label manufacturing business to make way for the label printer business? Or should it consolidate the two businesses and transition to the label printer business gradually?

The president of Bankinter, a Spanish bank, decided that the time was right to expand. At the time, the Spanish economy was experiencing a severe downturn and the banking system was going through major reforms. He believed that growth could occur either organically or through acquisitions — as long as the target business complemented Bankinter’s present operations and preserved the company’s values and organizational culture. His goal was to choose one option, while determining the price that should be paid if an acquisition offer was made. In this case, the purchase would be funded entirely through the issue of additional shares. The offer price would have to be justified to existing shareholders, who would only agree if the acquisition created value for them. At the same time, the success of the merger depended on the offer being accepted, so the price had to be attractive to the target company’s shareholders.

In 2015, Burger King, one of America's oldest fast-food chains, continues to face fierce competition from McDonald's, Wendy's and the emerging fast-casual restaurant chains. As a result, Burger King needs to develop a marketing mix that will distance it from its competitors and narrow the gap with McDonald's, the industry leader. The marketing mix will also influence Burger King’s allocation of resources between domestic and international markets.

In 2009, the Tata Nano entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the lowest priced car in the world. It was predicted that with the Nano, the Indian car market would expand by 65 per cent. But despite the car’s initial popularity, the final demand for it was low. By 2012, the Nano plant was operating at only 25 per cent of its capacity, and by 2014, Nano production was limited to only three days per week. After introducing the Nano Twist and trying to reposition the Nano as more than a “cheap car,” Tata Motors was considering permanently ceasing production of the Nano and using the plant to manufacture other sedans. What had gone wrong with the Nano and what was in store for its future?

In the dynamic online travel industry, the founders of mygola.com (mygola) needed to decide on the company’s future growth trajectory. The online travel industry was booming, but online travel planning was at a relatively nascent stage. In the travel-planning space, mygola’s initial service offering had been well received but the need to scale up was pressing. The existing product leveraged technological efficiencies and human judgment to provide customized answers for users’ travel queries. The new product, on the other hand, could change mygola’s way of doing business going forward. Though it was untested, it had the potential to put mygola on a higher growth path. The choice of product would mean that mygola would have to make a host of other decisions regarding the business. The decisions that the co-founders had to make could very well turn out to be the most important in mygola’s growth story.

In July 2014, the expatriate CEO of McDonald’s Japan (MDJ) faced a crisis after a video was broadcast accusing one of the company’s China-based food suppliers of serious health and sanitation violations. Although MDJ was the biggest brand in Japan’s fast food industry, the company’s sales had been falling since 2008, and its profitability had deteriorated dramatically since 2012. The CEO, who had recently taken over at MDJ, urgently needed to turn around the company’s situation and deal with the crisis at hand. How could she reassure Japanese consumers and put the company back on the road to growth?<br><br>See supplement 9B15M084.

This case is a supplement to 9B15M083. In February 2015, the sales of McDonald’s Japan had continued to slide, despite the implementation of new pricing and the introduction of new food items. The company posted a loss for 2014, citing costs in dealing with the Shanghai Husi debacle and the impact it had on sales. However, numerous reports of foreign objects in McDonald’s food items had resulted in the loss of consumers’ trust. How should the expatriate CEO rebuild the company’s position in the Japanese market?

At dawn on May 29, 2015, Swiss authorities acting on behalf of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation entered a plush hotel in Zurich, Switzerland to arrest nine senior executives of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), soccer’s global governing body, as delegates from across the world convened to elect a president to lead them for the next four years. The incumbent president, who had been in office since 1998, at first refused to step down, but pressure from the media, sponsors and fans as the investigation escalated forced him to resign a few days later. The organization’s signature event, the World Cup, had grown into a quadrennial cash cow through the shrewd sale of broadcast and marketing rights. Now, charges of corruption were forcing its governance and practices into the limelight. How could the executive forge a path ahead and what steps were needed to repair the organization’s reputation and survival?

The patient affairs coordinator is concerned about the rising number of complaints regarding the level of services offered by the transportation teams in the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). The center's management team is determined to create an exemplary patient transportation service at AUBMC and consequently launches an investigation supported by a full-scale study to determine better ways of re-engineering these processes. The coordinator must consider the factors that contribute to patient and staff complaints as well as the types of data and tests required to provide evidence-based solutions for patient transportation in the hospital.

The managing partner of Proto3000, a 10-year-old 3D Printing services and supply firm, was both gratified by the recent explosion of popular media coverage of 3D Printing that was certain to bring his firm additional opportunities, and concerned as to how his company could maintain their broad leadership position as new competitors began to join the fray. As the managing partner began thinking about what to do next, he wondered whether he should stick with his biggest market segments or diversify into new markets that seemed to hold a lot of promise. In addition, he wondered which challenges associated with the disruptive technology that his industry revolved around he needed to consider as he plotted a course forward for Proto3000.

Supplement to 9B12A008.

Excel spreadsheet for instructors.

Several experts had drawn attention to a peculiar problem existing in public-sector banks in India. There seemed to be two distinct generations: experienced employees who would be superannuated in the next four to five years; and newer employees who had come on board in the last four to five years. Though these young employees were academically sound, they lacked competence acquired through experience and thus were hesitant in taking on responsibilities. The older generation was slowly withdrawing. Management at Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) knew that in order to improve motivation and encourage higher productivity, the company had to trigger change and transform the mindsets of its employees.<br><br>Harnessing the energies of young members of the marketing team, IOB ran a unique campaign involving all employees called Rang De Basanti. Initial results were encouraging. However, two problems continued to arise: the underperformance of one particular region and the problem of keeping up the momentum and sustaining the change.

In April 2013, Kassatly Chtaura, a family-owned producer of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages headquartered in Chtaura, Lebanon, faces a dilemma. It is doing very well in terms of revenues and market share and has succeeded in building a strong cash flow. However, the past year’s figures show little growth, and the family is concerned that sales of its syrups, juices, ready-to-drink beverages and wines have reached a plateau. Should the company expand its distribution network or build a new factory and move some operations to Saudi Arabia or Angola? These are promising markets, but they are in distant locations with different cultures. Or should it stay put and expand its operations by introducing a new product, beer? Adding to its successful portfolio will complement its business strengths in Lebanon, especially when bolstered by one of its highly successful advertising campaigns, and accomplish a family dream. Given the uncertain political situation in Lebanon, is it time to invest in international markets?

Aqua Logistics Limited, one of India’s leading logistics and supply chain management companies, suffered from poor financial management and was witnessing slowing demand in the industry. The company had significant financial debt to banks and financial institutions. Owing to such difficulties in managing its operations in a largely fragmented industry, the firm — with its strong network in multimodal transport and in the third-party logistics model of delivery — was a good target for companies seeking to consolidate their position in the industry. An acquiring firm, however, would want to answer several questions. What were the possible value drivers of Aqua Logistics Limited? From where would the synergistic gains be realized through an acquisition? How much should be offered for the acquisition?

Although the Toronto Blue Jays didn’t make it to the 2015 World Series, they clearly didn’t lack character — and this wasn’t a fluke. As departing General Manager Alex Anthopoulos explained, team management had made a concerted effort during the off-season to focus less on “talent and tools and production” and put more emphasis on player “character, make-up, quality of the human being, what kind of teammate they are.” This article uses research on 11 character dimensions that drive performance to examine how the team members came together to contribute to one of the team’s best performances in decades. The focus on character that Anthopoulos put in place did much more than make the Blue Jays popular with fans — it was what turned the team into an outstanding baseball club. And that’s something that the next GM should take note of, along with managers and directors responsible for hiring and promoting individuals in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. After all, as Ivey research shows, giving character the attention it deserves leads to “home runs” in performance outside the baseball stadium as well.

Instructor spreadsheet for product 8B15N020.

Student spreadsheet for product 9B15N020.