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The case presents a change initiative at a large health care facility that aims to maximize shareholder value by introducing lean health care. While change management performance can be measured in financial terms, what happens when a mishandled change initiative starts to endanger the lives of patients?

Following the revelation of a US$2 billion loss on trading at JP Morgan’s chief investment office (CIO) in London, the company’s board of directors is tasked with recommending changes to its risk management practices and corporate governance structure. The case provides background on JP Morgan's well-respected risk management infrastructure and discusses how the CEO focused on its historic strength in risk management to argue against the need for the United States to implement the strict regulations contained in the Dodd-Frank Act and the associated Volcker Amendment. The role of regulation is significant. As a result of trying to meet the tighter requirements of these U.S. standards as well as the new Basel III accord, the CIO took on significant derivative positions that were not well understood and, rather than decreasing the firm's risk exposure, actually increased it. Of further interest is the concurrent change in JP Morgan's method of calculating risk, which allowed for a significant reduction in risk measurement and thus an improvement in the firm's level of risk-weighted assets.

The head of research and development at MedicalTech, a new manufacturer of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coils and software, had just met with MedicalTech's founder and chief executive officer (CEO). They had been discussing the technology development requirements decided so far in their attempts to build MedicalTech's first technology offering for diagnosing cancer. The head of research and development needed to advise the CEO regarding the best technology development approach (services-oriented technology co-creation and product-oriented technology creation); selecting the appropriate hospital partner to co-create the first public prototype; and determining the value propositions of all end-users for the features and functions chosen. The head of research and development gave some thought to seeking the advice and partnership of more developed competitors in the industry, as she was confident that this start-up company could be a success, but wondered whether the company could succeed on its own.

PowerPoint presentation for 8B10M061.

Sanatkada is a retail outlet for traditional handicraft items, hand-woven garments and fabrics. In 2006, Sanatkada was established to bring to the people of Lucknow a wide choice of arts and crafts from all over India. The outlet has been appreciated for its exhibitions, social efforts and unique methods of conducting business. However, this has not all translated into revenue. While commercial activity is one goal of Sanatkada, its founder feels very strongly about issues related to women's empowerment and has also brought a not-for-profit component to the business. This hybrid model of doing business is difficult to balance. The goal of the case is to work out the possible alternatives that would enable Sanatkada's founder to retain the spirit of Sanatkada, while simultaneously empowering her staff and making the social initiatives self-sustainable.

In 2008 the Supreme Court of India revoked the 2G spectrum licences issued to many local and international companies because of major violations in the granting procedure by the Telecom Ministry. One of the worst affected companies was Norway’s Telenor communications company, which was involved with a local company in a joint venture, Uninor, which had all of its licences cancelled. The case provides students an opportunity to assess and understand the implications of the political as well as legal risks involved in entering uncertain markets, such as India’s, and to devise appropriate coping strategies to establish and successfully operate in such markets. The case drives home the significance of political and legal business environmental factors that have an impact on the successful conduct of business. Multinational companies tend to be vulnerable to political risks, and the case suggests to students how to handle such situations.

CAPRO Group is a small electrical engineering services firm operating out of New Delhi, India. In December 2011, with falling revenues due to macroeconomic conditions and increasing competition, the firm’s owner and founder appoints his son to look into restructuring the business. The electrical distribution control panel manufacturing and installation industry is highly fragmented, with only a few big firms and many small firms. Most firms specialize in one niche of the industry, whether it be manufacturing of equipment or panels, installation, or consultancy services. Different niches require different inputs in terms of labour, finances, and technical knowledge. Given the labour problems in India, combined with the country’s spiraling interest rates and slowing economic growth, the owner’s son must decide on a plan to bring his company out of its current slump.

Michelle Morris, a partner at Kelman & Beaton, Partners at Law (K&B), was upset after a conversation she had just had with her two partners, Jack Beaton and Josh Kelman. Over the past few months, Morris and Kelman had become frustrated with Beaton’s performance. Beaton appeared to have been dedicating increasing amounts of his time to a second business and less to the progress of the firm. Beaton had also taken a rigid stance against the firm’s strategic direction. To make matters even more complicated, Morris and Kelman both had personal relationships with Beaton — Kelman and Beaton had been close friends since childhood, and Morris was Beaton’s cousin. Morris wondered how she should handle this difficult situation.

This is a supplement to Kelman & Beaton, Partners at Law (A).

The board of directors of Symantec Corporation asked a consultant for an independent opinion on an important financing decision. Symantec had been working with several investment banks on a plan to raise debt to repurchase common shares. The consultant found it to be an interesting financing plan; whereas repurchasing shares immediately would increase Symantec's financial leverage, converting the notes in the future would reduce leverage at a potentially significant dilutive cost to the firm's equity. More interestingly, the company negotiated with the investment banks to buy a call spread on its own stock, covering the same number of shares as would be issued to noteholders upon conversion. After reviewing the proposal, the consultant tried to understand the motivation behind the structure of the transaction. Why would Symantec choose to issue convertible bonds, and why would it intend to buy the call spread?

Enerplus Corporation was a company transitioning from being a buy-and-sell energy trust to one engaged in exploration and exploitation. The company required two new board members and Sue MacKenzie’s name was proposed to the CEO by the Enerplus vice president of corporate services. While MacKenzie was intrigued with the idea, she had never actively considered board service as a career step and she now had a new career direction at the Banff Centre. She undertook a thorough assessment of this board opportunity with attention to the career benefits, personal benefits, potential risks, impact on her personal life, and “match” with her new career. Following a series of meetings, MacKenzie was invited to serve on the board and she now had to make a decision: should she accept or decline the invitation?

This supplement to Reinventing the San Miguel Corporation (A) provides a brief update on the diversification strategy pursued by the company.

On February 2011, a large earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand, causing loss of life. The Crusaders, a major sports franchise headquartered in Christchurch, must plan for the season, given that its facility has been extensively damaged and the season has already commenced. The franchisee board, managers, coaches and players have to deal with this catastrophe and build morale in the community by deciding what to do. The case examines the processes of decision-making and the participative nature of decisions involving players as well as management. The case examines the key role that leadership and character play in contingency and scenario planning.

This case is a supplement to The Christchurch Earthquake and Crusaders Rugby (A).

Every year MBA programs across the country advertise for prospective students. They promote the academic excellence of their programs, the uniqueness of their offerings, the quality of their faculty and a variety of other factors. In a competitive market, the goal is to attract the brightest and the best. Many schools claim that graduates of their programs will see large salaries on graduation. This is clearly a very important part of many students’ decision criteria. In fact, the Financial Times rating of MBA programs uses graduates’ salaries as a large component of their rating system. A student has access to the salary data from a prominent MBA school in North America. She sits down to analyze the data and see what factors are associated with higher salaries.

The chief executive officer of a financial institution must decide whether or not to grant a $3 million loan to an investor in mutual funds. The financial institution makes loans of $2 for every $1 invested in mutual funds to qualified investors. The issue here is to determine whether the risks associated with this loan application justify the investment. The case involves assessing the various risks associated with the loan, including the credit risk attached to the borrower, the market risk of the planned investment program, and the currency risk of a loan in Canadian dollars and investments in foreign securities.

The president of SinYi Group was contemplating various ways of growing his highly successful Taiwanese real estate company in the mainland China market. SinYi had initially opened up company-operated branches and in 1999, in an effort to expand more quickly, he had obtained a Coldwell Banker master franchise under a joint SinYi/Coldwell brand. But SinYi’s growth in company-operated and franchised branches in China was still slow. He was considering whether he should establish a new company to run the franchise business exclusively using the Coldwell brand and reserve the SinYi brand for company-owned branches. This new approach would require a revision to the agreement with Coldwell Banker, which the president would need to evaluate.

The Siemens Kalwa factory in Mumbai, also referred to as Kalwa Works (KW), started in 1973 with the production of motors and later diversified to produce switchgears and switchboards. By 2009, 40 per cent of all Siemens India employees were working in Kalwa and contributing 45 per cent of the total Siemens India production. Kalwa had become the most important business centre for Siemens India.<br><br>In October 2006, Siemens AG decided to implement lean manufacturing in the Kalwa factory as part of a worldwide rollout of the Siemens Production System in all its medium-voltage facilities. The implementations were expected to bring drastic improvements in labour productivity, lower inventory levels, and higher throughput to improve the factories’ financial performance. The lean program promised that the factory’s current realized capacity of 4,000 panels per year could be increased by approximately 50 per cent to 6,000 panels per year in the medium term within two years, and to about 12,000 panels within the next four to five years.<br><br>While the benefits of successful implementation were attractive, the company faced several challenges, including restructuring the organization, getting staff on board to accept and facilitate the change, and handling resistance from internal and external stakeholders. This case provides an opportunity to analyze and discuss lean implementation issues for a global multinational firm in the Indian context.

Smart grid companies such as Viridity Energy are finding profitable opportunities to help their customers cut energy bills and simultaneously get credit for greater environmental responsibility. But will consuming fewer dirty watts from fuel sources such as coal and natural gas be a sufficient objective for customers in the future? What will rising societal expectations, tougher environment regulations, and new distributed clean energy technologies mean for the ability of smart grid companies to engage new customers and differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded field?

This case presents a means by which students can explore how government policy is influenced by the actions of stakeholders in an economy: firms, taxpayers, voters, unions, and other organizations. It highlights how policy-making can be a process endogenous to the interests and influence of the private sector, and not an exogenous one, even in domains that are the power reserve of public policy makers. <br><br>In 2010, the ruling party in Australia has devised a new tax, the Resource Super Profit Tax (RSPT). This tax has been devised to enable national and state governments to benefit from the boom in the mining industry by expropriating a greater portion of the industry’s earnings. The RSPT has been prepared without any input from major mining companies in Australia, and if implemented would represent a substantial increase in their tax payable. The case is presented from the perspective of the CEO of BHP Billiton, one of the largest mining companies in Australia. The situation considers what, if any, action can be taken to combat a tax that has already been devised by the government and is about to be implemented. Successful analysis of the case involves an evaluation of all stakeholders in the Australian economy that will be influenced by the imposition of the RSPT. After this is done, a strategy needs to be devised that will influence the government to withdraw a tax to which it has already demonstrated a firm commitment.