個案總覽

Pahalwan’s was a chain of four outlets that offered sweets, snack food and fast food in Jammu, India. It had a major presence in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and was delivering products to other parts of India, such as Delhi. However, local, national and international food retailers had entered the market, increasing the competition. Changing consumer preferences had also started affecting the company. Pahalwan’s did not believe in advertising its products and focused little energy on branding activities. Thus, there was a need to plan for an innovative and cost-effective communication strategy to boost its sales. Pahalwan’s also needed to think about new products and new markets to stay in business.

AWARD WINNING CASE: European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition 2014 — Corporate Social Responsibility category. <br><br>Leading up to the completion of a successful partnership between Hewlett-Packard Canada and World Wildlife Fund Canada, the two individuals who championed the program contemplate their separate and joint next steps: should their organizations renew or exit the partnership? Together, they had designed and delivered a world-first program, Living Planet @ Work, which had enrolled more than 500 companies, large and small, whose employees had already raised more than $1 million in charitable donations through workplace giving. The program was helping corporate Canada harness the collective desire and power of their employees for the good of business and the future of the planet. The two champions had a short window to go global and scale up the positive impact of the program.

Although three decades of booming, innovative growth in emerging markets has done little to advance women’s interests, the situation is about to change. Gender inequality is a significant barrier to prosperity, depriving economies of women’s talents, constraining consumption, and diminishing tax yields. This article suggests that emerging markets might lead the way on the diversity front because mitigating gender inequality offers faster, more sustainable benefits in the developing world. Evidence suggests that firms with female CEOs often outperform sector peers on important metrics. Diversity drives innovation and a company that matches internal diversity with the external diversity of its customers will satisfy more people more often. <br><br>Firms operating in emerging markets could perform better by incorporating gender-equality concerns. In particular, more businesses should take advantage of opportunities to innovate gender-specific mobile technologies that enable access to information, savings, security and healthcare. Former Pakistan Federal Minister of Health Dr. Sania Nishtar, an author of this paper, addressed healthcare and gender-equality issues through a mobile-enabled community that protects the poor from catastrophic expenditures on healthcare. Furthermore, Nokia uses diverse ethnographic techniques and employs gender-diverse anthropologists to study mobile users in emerging markets, where mobile phones are hugely impacting safety and security, farming and phone banking.

Multichannel retailing is growing explosively, moving proactive retailers to reinvent the role of traditional stores and fulfillment. Walmart, for example, is experimenting with smart phone checkout, while Macy’s offers in-store customers the ability to have items delivered from a different location when not available at the point of purchase. Getting fulfillment right is much more mission-critical in a multichannel setting compared to a traditional brick-and-mortar one. <br><br>Multichannel fulfillment leaders follow three core fulfillment-related practices: 1. Define customer strategy and fulfillment solution simultaneously (and iteratively). Establishing a clear vision of the customer promise is the first step to breakthrough fulfillment. Promised delivery speed, by category, dictates many distribution-network and store-role requirements. 2. Harness flexible, “no-regrets” fulfillment-solution activation. Built-in flexibility must allow for the evolution of target customers, products, speed, etc. A “no-regrets” fulfillment build-out ensures adaptability and helps stage the development of the system over time. Fulfillment leaders can help ensure solution agility by using external partners (e.g. third-party logistics providers). 3. Use metrics and incentives aligned with multichannel fulfillment. Multichannel financial incentives should be established, and the adoption of shared financial performance across channels is a must. A balance must be struck between growth and profit, and leading multichannel key performance indicators should be defined, as they track fulfillment-system success more proactively than financial metrics.

Globalization has created new opportunities and new threats. As sourcing from around the world has made supply chains longer and more complex, the volatility inherent in production has significantly increased. The average risk management process begins by creating basic awareness, and the use of heat maps (two-dimensional representations of scenarios and consequences) is widespread. However, many dimensions can be at play and the consequences of oversimplification can be devastating. Hazardous events can strike several firms simultaneously, and two forms of dependencies can be distinguished: 1) structural within industries and 2) events that hit groups of firms independently or all at the same time. This article traces the development of a useful heuristic in which a network model was progressively refined to depict interconnected activity in an industrial system over time. The authors show that it is not sufficient to look at individual profiles of disruptions, because they may come in “multi-packs.” Furthermore, backup suppliers do not necessarily mitigate single-source risk. Although a model is never the “answer” to a manager’s problem, even those with limited access to data will find that sources like iSuppli are affordable and adequate for analysis. Finally, managers should not look at businesses separately, but rather develop an enterprise-wide view of the total risk exposure.

In a recent survey of millennials in which Deloitte asked about the primary purpose of business, the most frequent response was “to improve society.” For any business enterprise, taking on social troubles comes with risks, but potential payoffs are huge. This article looks at how the solution economy is eroding the border between public and private sectors and discusses how businesses can best find opportunities in social challenges. It examines projects such as Unilever’s Project Shakti in India, which addresses sanitation needs while lifting women and families out of poverty, and Coca-Cola’s installation of the Slingshot, a water purification unit, in many rural parts of the world.<br><br>The authors identify six key features of successful, multi-rational business strategies. <ol><li>When entering the solution economy, everyone should use a wide lens to assess the target markets and what they offer in terms of problem solving.</li><li>Disruptive technologies are key to success.</li><li>Keep the door open to new business models (e.g. franchising tailored specifically to underserved markets through partnerships with local entrepreneurs and community groups). </li><li>Reputation, public data and citizen ingenuity can offer non-financial but tangible ways of fueling innovation. </li><li>Think about creating platforms that exchange public value. </li><li>Multi-rational strategies require multi-lateral relationships.</li></ol>

PyCon, a developer conference for a computing language community, implemented a code of conduct in response to allegations of sexism and misogyny in the tech community. Later, when a female attendee at a PyCon conference overheard inappropriate sexual jokes, she posted a picture on Twitter of the audience members responsible. One of them was fired from his job and the individual responsible for the tweet — a developer evangelist for an email company — received harassment and death threats, and her company’s website was disabled. The issue divided the tech community and her company fired her soon after. <br><br>“Donglegate” illustrates the need for appropriate mechanisms for reporting wrongdoing, as well as the need for people to feel confident that reporting bad behaviour will get results. When acting as a whistleblower, one must consider the repercussions. In the age of smart phones, expectations about privacy should be re-conceptualized to protect reputations and data. The authors provide three steps to achieve this: 1) Leaders need to develop guidelines for internal stakeholders about how and when information is shared. 2) Because it is almost impossible to control all potential exposures, leaders should be proactive and ensure that they have less to hide. 3) It is essential to plan for the times when, despite all efforts, negative information gets released.

Although systematic preparation is a key factor in negotiation success, negotiators often become ensnared in their own planning. Negotiators sometimes do not reveal what they really want, fail to discern hidden agendas, or dwell on arguments of little importance. This article proposes viewing negotiation as a paradox called structured spontaneity. It explains how three fundamental levels of awareness exist in every negotiation. Positions are what the other side claims it wants, often in the form of a simple demand; Interests may underlie these stated positions; and Perceptions reflect how the negotiating partner sees the world. Building on this, the authors propose an “improvisational iceberg” with three more levels. Head is where the discovery of the other side’s position takes place; Heart is where we invite connections between interests and keep open minds; and Core constitutes business philosophy and corporate culture. Structured spontaneity in negotiations can be taught through improvisation training. In switch games, actors play out improvised scenarios and swap roles; in wordless negotiation, participants try to convey what they want non-verbally; in monologues, negotiators tap into the Core of the other side. Ultimately, improvisational training for negotiators is about the tension between strategic preparation and willingness to follow the other side in a new direction on short notice.

This article highlights the four key interrelated areas in which brand addiction can be planned: product, rewards, price and communications. Historically, marketers have focused on more traditional, obvious benefits of products. However, reward systems such as loyalty programs are useful in increasing differentiation and encouraging consumer habituation. Intrinsic consumer rewards (e.g. personal satisfaction) stand in contrast to extrinsic rewards (e.g. point systems), but when consumers repeatedly modify their behaviours in order to, for example, achieve more points, they may convert extrinsic rewards into intrinsic ones. Firms have long used discounting and loss leaders to attract business and, in going a step further, a “free price” for a product may help to foster product addicts. Here, consumers can pay in other ways, such as through attention, referrals or feedback. Furthermore, firms are increasingly using communications strategies to support the repetition of modified purchasing behaviours. Ultimately, the key is to conceive of the four elements of planning brand addiction in new ways, starting with a meaning for the product that goes beyond the main product benefit the customer derives, and then using the communications strategy to support the repetition of modified purchasing behaviours and to bring forth a new consumer consciousness.

This article explores how service-company attempts to win market share by offering numerous customer options can be counterproductive and can create consumer anxiety. The authors research the product offerings at major North American banks and find a large range between one bank offering four credit cards and another offering 29. They define “productization” as when service organizations add value by providing products that complement their service offerings. Unfortunately, productization is often left unchecked, resulting in product bias in a firm’s innovation strategy and the proliferation of products. Excessive complexity produced by productization hinders employees’ ability to manage service encounters, and productization as a differentiator is unlikely a defensible position. <br><br>When considering productization in a service environment, firms should remember that product satisfaction should be subordinate to good service and that a product’s capability and reputation should complement the service delivery and customer perception of the service. To better serve customers, firms should a) review the vision and direction of the organization, b) reduce complexity by understanding what type of customer is served, c) eliminate products that do not support the vision, complement the service or appeal to the identified customer, d) apply freed resources to train front-line employees and e) guard against the introduction of inappropriate new products and services.

Say-on-pay votes give shareholders a valuable opportunity to express their views on executive compensation. The goal of say-on-pay is to increase the accountability, transparency and performance linkage of executive pay and improve communication between shareholders and boards of directors. Among major Western nations, Canada is an outlier in not having adopted mandatory say-on-pay. About 60 per cent of Canada’s 100 largest companies have adopted say-on-pay, and the authors find that, on average, adopters are significantly larger than non-adopters in market capitalization and assets. They also find that the majority of non-adopters are family firms and that non-adoption prevails most in certain industries such as real estate. Stock-based compensation represents the greater proportion of pay for mandatory say-on-pay adopters, while cash compensation represents the greater proportion for non-adopters. The authors argue that stock-based compensation better aligns the interests of management and shareholders, and that the presence or absence of a say-on-pay vote is generally consistent with a firm’s overall governance strength. All but the most egregious pay packages are typically approved in say-on-pay voting, with negative votes providing a benchmark for what practices are deemed unacceptable. By not mandating say-on-pay votes, Canada is falling behind in corporate governance practices.

Shankaboot, the world’s first Arabic-language web series, was created in Lebanon as a social development project carrying forward the following message: “to defy traditions and explore taboos. The overarching vision was to use the web to create a forum for raising awareness, sharing alternative viewpoints and generating constructive discussions about the social issues that were often experienced by Arab youth, but which no one dared to speak up about. The project was a resounding success and received a 2011 International Digital Emmy Award. In July 2011, the producer of the web drama was approached by potential funders to scale up the Shankaboot project to the rest of the Arab world. She had to decide where Shankaboot could expand to, given censorship laws and Internet connectivity levels in the region.

Having been called upon by global leaders to use its technology to address the global crises of climate change and poverty, Cisco opts to pursue sustainability for corporate social responsibility and as a driver of differentiation and competitive advantage. The case discussion explores how the company answered this call to action and how the resulting strategies have proven effective in protecting its competitive advantage in an increasingly hostile business environment. The case traces the company’s historical rise to power through the Internet bubble of 2000 and up to the present day, as the firm adjusts to competition in the 21st century. With the introduction of its new and ground-breaking technology, Cisco seeks to drive sustainability and future profits. The question becomes: will it work? <br><br>The CEO ponders how he could use his company’s core business of information technology (IT) to drive global environmental and economic sustainability. Can he fulfill his dual responsibility of doing the right thing for his shareholders while, at the same time, doing the right thing for the world at large?

Ecovative Designs (Ecovative), a start-up company in upstate New York, uses an innovative process to combine agricultural waste and mycelium (mushroom “roots”) to grow forms for use in a wide variety of applications, especially a protective packaging material. Not only does this new product replace the need for the environmentally harmful alternative, extruded polystyrene, but the production process is less energy intensive. It exemplifies the cradle-to-cradle design indicative of a sustainably embedded product and attractive to companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint. In just a few years, Ecovative has expanded from a lab to a large facility funded partly through research grants and partly from contracts with two large corporations. In 2013, the partners are considering whether to sign a contract with Sealed Air, one of the largest distributors of packaging materials in the world, but the deal would mean relinquishing control over the only profitable segment of their company. They are considering alternative growth strategies to find the one that fits best with their goal: to have the largest impact on the planet while remaining profitable.

A budding entrepreneur in India is planning to set up a fly ash brick manufacturing plant near a thermal power plant. Not only does making bricks out of the residue of coal power generation reduce the amount of fly ash waste dumped on the ground, but the government is actively supporting the fly ash brick industry as a way to meet the increasing demands for construction materials that are environmentally sustainable. On the basis of preliminary analysis, the entrepreneur decides to set up a plant that will have the capacity to manufacture four million bricks. Though actual production will depend on market demand, he and his potential partner estimate that 2.4 million bricks can be sold per year at an average Rs 7,000 per 1,000 bricks. He wants to ascertain the feasibility of the project using a cost-volume-profit analysis.

Deloitte Dads is a firm-sponsored diversity and inclusion initiative aimed at supporting working fathers within Deloitte (Canada) LLP, an independent member of the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited global network. With support from senior management, Deloitte Dads was founded in 2010 by a junior consultant in the management consulting division in the company’s Greater Toronto Area office and quickly gained both members and media attention. The group not only had to be distinctly separate from other parenting initiatives already in place but had to negotiate with the company’s performance management practices, which historically had not considered flexibility in appraising employees. In 2013, the founder was wondering not only if the group could be rolled out to other divisions within the company across the country and perhaps across the world but also how best to handle its success while managing his own career and the demands of being a father of two small children. He had mastered the quarterly events within his office, but how could he create a formal governance model? Already working 80 to 90 hours per week, with no end in sight, how was he going to make Deloitte Dads sustainable and successful?

Hindustan Unilever Ltd. can trace its current-day profitable business operations in its Doom Dooma factory in the conflict-ridden northeastern state of Assam (India) to its proactive corporate responsibility initiatives since the start of its operations. A spurt in sales in the personal care segment has led the company to consider capacity expansion. The company needs to decide whether to continue to invest in Assam despite three challenges: operational risks posed by the area’s continuing insurgency, the possibility of labour disruptions and the imminent discontinuance of fiscal incentives.

After independence in 1947, the government of India founded the Industrial Finance Corporation of India as the first development financial institution to provide medium- and long-term loans to public limited companies and cooperative societies engaged in productive activities. Then in 1991, the government’s New Economic Policy opened the door to liberalization, privatization and globalization of the Indian economy. The company was restructured and incorporated in 1993 but was unable to diversify its business model from project financing to other financial services. By 2004, it had almost collapsed; its profitability had become negative. Non-performing assets had reached their peak, and the company did not have money to do business. It began selling off and/or renting out its premises, going door-to-door to save its future, and employee morale hit rock bottom. The business had become unsustainable and unviable. With this as backdrop, the board of directors needs to decide on the company’s future. What is their best option: liquidation, restructuring, merger or strategic partnership?

Instructor spreadsheet for product 8B13N026.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation owned a 168-year-old British tabloid, News of the World, which obtained its juiciest stories by illegally hacking the phones of many people, including actors, celebrities and prime ministers. Murdoch shut down the paper following the disclosure of the scandal. A Parliamentary investigation showed the phone hacking practice was widespread and supported at the top of the organization. Was this scandal a failure of governance by the board, or was it only a failure of management?