個案總覽

A local, non-profit, no-kill animal shelter is committed to rescuing homeless cats and helping them find permanent homes. This shelter offers a wide variety of services, including adoption, foster programs, low-cost spay and neuter services, and low-income assistance programs for local pet owners. With a personnel shortage at the shelter and increasing numbers of homeless cats in the area, the executive director must look for ways to effectively allocate the organization’s limited resources. She wonders whether some form of social media marketing might be the answer.

In April 2012, the founder and owner of Lesley Stowe Fine Foods was in the final stages of selecting an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from a shortlist of proposed solutions. Founded in 1990 as a provider of premium catering services, cooking classes and specialty grocery products, the company had experienced such rapid growth after introducing a line of specialty crackers, called Raincoast Crisps, in the early 2000s that it decided to discontinue its food service operations in order to focus on production of the crisps. Their popularity across Canada meant that production volume necessitated a move from a small facility in midtown Vancouver to a large-scale manufacturing space located outside of the city. The new plant dramatically increased the company’s production capacity, but its legacy systems had not kept pace, especially its information system. The company was now positioned to enter the U.S. market with anticipated exponential growth. These conditions made the selection and implementation of the new ERP system critical to its continued success.

In 2009, after six years of operation and two negative audits, the president of the Canada Border Services Agency is thinking about initiating a reorganization to improve the way the agency is operated. Formed in 2003 from three government departments, the agency has been responsible for a range of activities represented by 90 acts and regulations that cover, for example, border security, immigration, food and plant inspection, intelligence and tax collection. Since its founding, the agency has grown substantially in the number of employees, who are spread out across the country in eight regions; some of them are in unions that are expert in the use of the news media to protect their members’ interests. The lack of up-to-date communication equipment and the complexity of the organizational structure have resulted in an increased response time to matters that need immediate attention both within Canada and with international partners. No attempt has been made to streamline processes; every major initiative thus far has been focused on ensuring that nothing from the current workload gets dropped, processes remain intact and stronger controls are put in place. The president’s challenge is to determine how to initiate anticipatory change. He has a limited term and needs to prepare a detailed action plan if he wants the changes to take effect before he leaves.

In February 2004, a physician working in the intensive care unit of a Toronto hospital wondered how to implement a strategy whereby an entire health care team could work towards better and consistent patient care based on best evidence. Doctors’ orders varied from one physician to another, and oftentimes the health care team had little insight into what worked best, what the best evidence was and how they could be sure their patients were receiving the best care possible. He wondered if it would be possible to adopt the airline industry’s “order sets” — step-by-step, evidence-based checklists that could be used by clinicians to order treatments for patients. He recognized that there were problems in implementing such a program, especially the lack of a standardized information technology strategy across the provincial health care system and physicians’ fear of losing their autonomy in making care decisions. Physicians already had access to clinical practice guidelines, which were designed to assist them to make informed, evidence-based decisions by removing the burden of tailored research and intervention design, but many found these to be too long, sometimes outdated and not integrated with the clinical process. How could these guidelines be integrated with physician orders to create a standardized process to ensure that every patient had access to the best care possible?

A-CAT Corp., a company that produces domestic electrical appliances in a poor region of India, largely caters to the price-sensitive rural market. During the past several months, there has been an alarming dip in sales of its major product, a voltage regulator that is used for varied purposes but most commonly as a protective device for refrigerators and television sets, to protect the latter from the vagaries of load fluctuations and/or frequent power failures, which are a very common phenomenon in the region. At the same time, the production department has been complaining about shortages of spares and components. Placing orders beyond a certain limit for the vital transformers used in most of its products has also stretched the system — whereas the company previously had access to four suppliers of transformers, now there is only one. The vice president has asked the chief operations manager to look into the problem. The operations manager traces the production planning process and its reliance on accurate forecasts. The manager’s job is to collect the data, analyze the data patterns, use forecasting methods, carry out back-testing and submit recommendations to management to solve the problem.

This note is an introduction to using Analysis ToolPak, a Microsoft Excel add-in program. The note describes most of the tools available in Analysis ToolPak, illustrates the steps through screenshots and provides examples of the program’s utility in Excel and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). The note also shows how to automate use of these tools with VBA. The tools explained in the note are ANOVA, correlation, descriptive statistics, exponential smoothing, F-test two-sample for variances, Fourier analysis, random numbers, histogram, moving average, random number generation, rank and percentile, regression, sampling, t-test and z-test.

CP 7-Eleven is a prominent retail chain in Thailand. The analysis of the financial statements for the year 2011 revealed that while the earnings per share increased, the return on equity (ROE) declined. The company had negative working capital. It exerted strong bargaining power over its suppliers and customers and had efficient inventory management. It had been accumulating cash and other liquid assets over the last few years and it expanded in a well-planned manner, with almost 500 new stores every year. However, the company was viewed as having a lot of “fat” on its balance sheet. It was necessary to trim the fat and enhance ROE. The company needed to focus on strategies for future growth.

Excel spreadsheet for product 9B13B021.

The Chief of the Australian Army faces a significant public scandal. In recent weeks, allegations have emerged that members of the country’s defence forces, including officers, shared explicit emails and photos that denigrated women. The scandal occurs as the Australian Defence Force is actively encouraging more women to join the ranks of the military. The Chief of the Australian Army needs to devise a strategy to communicate to the victims of the scandal, members of the army and the general public that the Australian Army is a national institution with strong values and moral standards and will not tolerate chauvinism of any kind.

Founded in 1997, Kalamandir was established in one of the poorest tribal areas in India to revive tribal dances and arts and generate livelihoods. It was now active in over 114 villages and its activities had helped increase the incomes of over 2,500 households. Despite strong achievements, much more would have to be done to make a substantial improvement in the lives of tribal villagers in Jharkhand, an impoverished region of India. The question was how to scale the activities and induce socio-economic development in a sustainable way. How could livelihood opportunities associated with arts, dance, culture and handicrafts be broadened while strengthening the region’s core agricultural income? How could the local leadership pool in villages be expanded and what mechanisms could be introduced to minimize conflicts or resolve them faster? How could Kalamandir attract dynamic professionals? Which government and private organizations did it have to develop stronger relationships with in order to access the financial resources it needed to grow?

The chief financial officer (CFO) of Inmet Mining Corporation is considering the pricing and structure of a $500 million bond offering in late 2012. The company required capital to fully fund construction at its biggest asset, the Cobre Panama copper mine, which had been estimated at $6.2 billion dollars. Now, it was preparing yet another bond offering that would ensure these capital cost requirements would be met. Complicating matters was the fact that a competitor, First Quantum Minerals, had made a $70 per share offer to purchase the company in November 2012. The CFO has to weigh options and structure the bond offering accordingly.

In May 2011, Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG), a leading real estate company in Vietnam, was going to issue US$90 million of 9.875 senior notes (a debt instrument) in Singapore, due 2016. The company estimated the net proceeds from this offering, after deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and other estimated expenses, to be approximately US$80.7 million. From the perspective of an analyst at a brokerage firm who was monitoring HAG, there were many questions of interest arising from the note issue. These included the cost of the debt and the reasons why HAG chose to raise the money in Singapore, and not in Vietnam. What was the cost at which HAG was borrowing through the Singapore note issue? Was HAG’s level of borrowing, after the note issue, exceeding the optimal level? What was the likelihood that HAG would be downgraded within a year from its B rating from Standard and Poor’s? How would the risk to HAG’s equity be affected as a result of the issue? Would HAG’s stock price decline? The brokerage firm analyst needed to decide whether her firm should offload its equity holding in the company.

Instructor spreadsheet for product 8B13N004.

The Gaelic Athletic Association and Irish Rugby Football Union are two sporting organizations that have innovated through their business models to grow their sports, create world-class sport facilities and improve their ability to win European competitions. Yet they reside in one of the smallest countries in Europe — Ireland. While the Gaelic Athletic Association is a volunteer organization whose amateur status (in which players and coaches are unpaid) imposes significant limitations on its revenue-generating abilities, the professional Irish Rugby Football Union has earned substantial income through the success of provincial and national Irish rugby teams. Both organizations compete for scarce financial, physical and human resources and are now faced with a rapidly changing environment following the deepest recession in the history of the Irish Republic and emigration of talent abroad. This case challenges students to analyze the business models of the Gaelic Athletic Association and Irish Rugby Football Union and explore how the models can be innovated to ensure survival of these cultural assets for the next generation.

The relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian government has been characterized by conflict and change. Although the Conservative government seemed to support Aboriginal objectives when it issued an historic apology in 2007 for the abuses suffered under the residential schools program and signed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People in 2008, it included changes to the Indian Act in its 2012 omnibus Bill C-45 that put economic development ahead of environmental protection and violated numerous First Nations treaties. In response, a group of First Nations activists initiated the Idle No More movement, which used social media to organize demonstrations around the country, including teach-ins, flash mob round dances and blockades of major transportation routes. Although supported by many non-Aboriginal environmental and human rights groups both in Canada and abroad, the movement appeared to lose steam after the prime minister met Aboriginal leaders to outline eight key items of consensus for action to address Aboriginal and treaty rights, health care, education and employment issues and Chief Theresa Spence suspended the hunger strike that had galvanized support. How could Idle No More organizers maintain the momentum and awareness they had worked so hard to achieve?

Yamato Transport, Japan’s leading parcel delivery company, experienced internationalization and geographical diversification issues. When it launched its operations in Singapore in 2010 with a view to further branching out into Southeast Asia, the company faced challenges owing to different cultural and social landscapes, difficulties penetrating a small and saturated market, and problems hiring manpower aligned with the company’s business model. The key success factors for Yamato Transport in Japan and their applicability in Singapore are analyzed. What will it take for Yamato Transport to succeed in Singapore when pitted against the mighty SingPost?

The public editor of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s leading national newspaper, faces a significant ethical situation. An advocate of media standards has released a blog post outlining allegations of plagiarism against a prominent newspaper columnist. Following the release of the blog post, numerous members of the public and the journalism community began commenting on the situation. The public editor is responsible for upholding journalistic ethics and for investigating and responding to public concerns. She needs to respond to the allegations of plagiarism and ensure the public that the national newspaper upholds strong ethical standards.

This case examines the mindset of a father who faces a complex situation when his adult son, who works with him in the family business in India, begins pressuring him to make a will. The father’s thought processes are revealed as he tries to understand the reasons behind his son’s motivation. The case explores the issue from the father’s point of view. It examines his hesitation to make a will and the points in favour of doing so.

A small publicly listed company is entertaining the idea of adding nursing home management to its medical value chain, which is currently focused on consultation. Management must rely on simulation in order to determine the feasibility of operating a nursing home according to admissions protocol and subsidies granted by a governmental agency.

A budding entrepreneur wants to start a mobile software company by developing a golf scoring and playing app called Golfgamez. He has assembled some raw data related to market size, as well as start-up and development costs, but is unsure how to proceed. He must evaluate the revenue and cost estimates for this business idea and prioritize the issues he faces. He must also consider the costs and benefits of available funding options, such as debt, equity or accelerator funding; crowdfunding; government grants; or sweat equity funding. Should he quit his successful career in banking to pursue his dream, should he try to do this part time and risk failure or should he give up altogether? Golfgamex (B): Funding a Digital Startup, 9B13E011, is the supplement to this case.