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Excel spreadsheet for instructors for product 8B11E034.

Excel spreadsheet for students.

Excel spreadsheet for students.

Bannari Amman Group (BAG) was one of the largest industrial conglomerates in South India, with manufacturing, trading, distribution, and financing corporations. Starting as a set of businesses in a family-owned entity, the group now had three publicly listed companies and over 15 family-owned businesses. <br><br>The chairman of BAG — the eldest in the family, according to tradition — held a meeting with the unit heads of BAG on January 6, 2011, to discuss their yearly performance and future plans. At the annual meeting, each unit head had to make a presentation on their unit’s performance and provide a detailed business plan. <br><br>The chairman wondered if the business heads were capable of handling their units by themselves. Until now, he and his brothers had always been ready to offer guidance. He wondered, “What is the appropriate method of guidance for the new generation of entrepreneurs?” How would the unit heads act to optimize performance of their units? He observed that while the group’s units were independent entities, the businesses complemented each other somewhat. Due to this, the group’s businesses enjoyed an inherent advantage. As he looked at the challenges that the units would face under new leadership in upcoming years, he was aware of the need to develop a common vision across all units. The chairman looked for processes to keep the group synergies in place and identify the businesses that could be strengthened.

Tracy Chan, managing director of the Student Learning and Writing Services (SLWS) at St. Charles University in Calgary, Alberta, was faced with a difficult situation. Her newest employee, Michael Hinske, had just e-mailed her a list of faculty members he had contacted to educate on the SLWS writing program offered to graduate students. Chan quickly noticed that the faculty names were of individuals who had already been contacted. There was no indication that Hinske had made any attempt to discuss the program with other faculties on campus. Since joining the team six months earlier, Hinske’s mandate for the academic year had been to create a series of writing workshops and liaise with different faculties on campus. Chan needed a plan of action before confronting Hinske about his inability to fulfill his job requirements, including his failure to create new contacts between the graduate writing program and faculties on campus.

New legislation in Ontario, Canada, might require all appliance manufacturers and brand owners to take responsibility for end-of-life collection and recycling of products. The senior manager of government relations for Whirlpool Corporation was updating his colleagues on Ontario’s proposed extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation. Whirlpool was the Canadian market share leader in household appliances such as washing machines, dryers, and cooking ranges. With EPR, Whirlpool and other firms would now have to manage — or pay to manage — a more complex model involving reverse logistics. Each appliance manufacturer had at least three options from which to choose: it could argue the legislation was unnecessary, it could join an industry-funded organization (IFO) to meet EPR’s requirement, or it could set up its own IFO.

Daudnagar Organization for Rural Development (DORD) was determining how to expand its successful eye-care hospital into reproductive and child health services. The case lays out the financial and organizational risks and asks the student to evaluate the possibility of expansion given the economic and governmental constraints in one of the poorest parts of India.

Spreadsheet for teaching note 8B11A026.

By mid-2007, Wawa, headquartered outside Philadelphia, had grown into a chain of 564 convenience stores (200 of which sold gasoline) within a 250-mile radius. A privately owned firm, Wawa employed over 16,000 people and had $4.67 billion of sales in 2006, an increase of 19.6 per cent over the prior year. It was widely admired as a highly effective and humane organization with a loyal and expanding body of customers. <br><br><br><br>This case addresses Wawa’s supply chain management (SCM) in the context of strategic direction, organizational design, and future growth opportunities. Over an eight-year period, Wawa had transformed its supply chain from a disjointed array of parts into a coherent, high-functioning system. Issues before the company now included (1) the relation between SCM and competitiveness; (2) the nature of the typical store and store manager; and (3) possible expansion beyond Wawa’s current area of operations. Another question concerned Wawa’s stores. Historically, these had featured a friendly ambience where “everybody knows your name,” but the company was moving towards larger, more standardized units with fewer offerings, with the goal of minimizing customer throughput time. What would this shift mean for the role of the store manager, and for the overall customer experience? Finally, to what extent was Wawa “landlocked” in its concentrated, middle-Atlantic market? Could — and should — the company attempt to export its distinctive value proposition, culture, and methods to other geographic areas?

Oded Carmi was a social entrepreneur striving for a “green Bali.” He started Sari Organik as a model farm intended to grow according to market demands and to benefit the local community while serving as an educational centre for small-scale farmers in the region. Thirteen years later, the idea was not as well embraced as he had hoped. The case discusses some of the challenges the entrepreneur was facing as the founder and owner of Sari Organik farm and the restaurant Warung Bodag Maliah (“overflowing basket”). His main challenge was to replicate and sustain his organic rice-farming model across Bali and eventually other parts of Indonesia. His initial thoughts involved some options: (a) to utilize the established village system and its leadership to re-introduce traditional rice-farming culture in Ubud, Bali, and eventually Indonesia; (b) to introduce a new model such as micro-franchising through which he would recruit a number of local farmers and provide them with the resources to grow rice organically; (c) to go into a joint venture with the few existing organic rice farmers in the region; and (d) to expand his business as a sole proprietor. The case may be a good starting point for a discussion on the impact of modernization on a traditional society and the role of business in society. Carmi, a native of Israel, tried to revive traditional farming techniques that were more sustainable and healthy. He realized he had to come up with a strategy soon.

Shamit Bagchi, owner of the online art company Dhonuk, recognized that art was a niche market in India. He wanted to utilize psychographics in order to better understand art buyers and properly position his company, so he undertook a survey of art consumers’ behaviour. He believed that through selecting the appropriate demographic segments, analyzing his competition, and using the behavioural insights of the survey, he could create the proper platform for his art company.

This supplement to Change at Pfizer: Jeff Kindler (A) deals with Pfizer’s 2009 acquisition of Wyeth — the first mega-acquisition since the world economic crisis.

This case is a supplement to Change at Pfizer: Jeff Kindler (A).

Over the past four years the chief administrative officer (CAO) had worked hard to bring change to the city of Havenstock, Canada. Prior to his arrival at Havenstock in 2004, City Hall was awash in media scandal, secrecy, and suspicion. Moreover, the work environment at City Hall was plagued with closed-channel communication and a lack of trust between employees and management. Staff morale was low and the relationship with the press was tense. The CAO had had a clear vision of what he wanted to bring to the city. At the centre of his vision was an embracing of collective accountability. He had worked hard to instill a sense of purpose, priorities, and direction. Slowly, the CAO had begun to rebuild the corporate culture into a supportive workplace. <br><br><br><br>Despite his best intentions, the improvements made over the past few years were threatened, following a Council Oversight Committee meeting. During the meeting, city employee absenteeism numbers had been questioned. Unsatisfied with the explanation of what management was doing to address the problem, a city councillor leaked the absenteeism numbers to the media. After working so hard to improve both internal and external perceptions of City Hall, the CAO now found himself and his team on the headlines of the local newspapers. In order to save his reputation, the CAO needed to prepare a presentation to go before city council and address the employee absenteeism issue head on. He knew that what he said and how he said it would be a defining moment in his career.

In February 2009, Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), reflected on his vision for big pharma as a catalyst for change which focussed on two key issues: 1) promoting innovation for the products that treat or prevent neglected tropical diseases and 2) improving access to medicines in the world’s poorest countries. He had announced the creation of the Pharmaceutical Patent Pool and wondered if it was the right strategy to deliver results on these two key issues.

This case is a supplement to GSK’s Andrew Witty (A).

Joseph Vigneault and his entrepreneurial partners wanted to raise $500,000 to pursue a new venture through the purchase of a currently existing company in the $4,000,000-5,000,000 price range. A boutique investment bank introduced them to the features of the Capital Pool Company (CPC) program. Vigneault needed to decide if a CPC was an option that he and his partners should consider. He needed to consider the effect on their ownership stake in the company and calculate the return on their investment.

3M Canada has been a corporate sponsor of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF) since 2005. In support of the CBCF, 3M Canada has produced and sold pink products (i.e. products that bear the pink ribbon, such as Post-it notes, flag pens, Nexcare bandages and Scotch-Brite sponges), with a contribution of each sale benefiting the CBCF. This case examines this corporate sponsorship relationship, and specifically how 3M Canada’s brand manager for Post-it brand office products can further engage the relationship with the CBCF. The brand manager’s marketing campaign for 2009 was successful; however, she now needs to determine the best approach for her 2010 campaign.

The owner of Inspiratica Web Services was about to graduate from university and devote all his time to his web design and hosting company. Since Inspiratica’s founding in 2006, annual sales had gone from a few thousand dollars to nearly $100,000. Furthermore, it had hired six staff and expanded its product offering to a complete web services package. However, the owner was scrutinizing the company’s product portfolio and wondering which products and target markets had the most potential for success. Most customers had been acquired through word of mouth, but new ways were needed to expand the company’s client base. Finally, he wondered if Inspiratica’s strategy of premium pricing for high quality was the best option for the future.

This case examines AT&T’s wireless business with a focus on its text messaging services. The industry features a high proportion of fixed costs in relation to acquiring spectrum and building a network. Variable costs are relatively low, especially in the case of SMS text messages. Pricing and margins in text messaging have attracted regulatory scrutiny in the Unites States, Canada, and elsewhere. The case requires the use of key concepts in cost behaviour, cost volume profit analysis, and product costing to understand the nature of the business and the profit margins involved. Many service or high-tech businesses exhibit similar cost behaviours, and so the case gives students insight into the management of such enterprises.