個案總覽

This supplement to Finemaster Projects Ltd. (A) describes the assistant site supervisor’s meeting with his boss after two years.

In the midst of massive growth in the oil sands, Suncor’s chief executive officer (CEO) is growing concerned about the local government’s inability to cope with unprecedented growth of oils sands development in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Crime, prostitution, drug use, social inequality, and ecological deterioration have begun to cripple Fort McMurray and the surrounding area largely because the local government has been unable to support the massive growth with appropriate public services and environmental protection. As part of a major oil and gas company in the region, the CEO is aware of the harsh lessons learned by Shell in Nigeria in 1995, where the company’s reluctance to get involved in political activities led to a massive boycott and tarnished reputation. The CEO is concerned that inaction may make Suncor complicit in the social and ecological issues in the region.

The founder of the Lakkard Leather Company was proud of his business, and attributed much of its success to his own leadership style, which did not allow for anyone else’s participation in important decisions. When he was badly injured in a car accident, his son stepped in and kept the business going. Without any intention to take over, the son altered the leadership and operations of the company in the space of a few months, so that by the time the founder returned, the company had changed and his role was significantly reduced. The son, in the meantime, grew to like his interim position and believed he did a better job than his father. Both men became locked in a power struggle; yet the company faced several key decisions that had to be taken in terms of expansion, product offering, and sale opportunities.

The project manager of the Partnership for Lebanon (PFL) and Cisco Systems’s regional director of corporate affairs for the Middle East and Africa met in September 2009, three years after the PFL was first initiated. The meeting primarily revolved around the challenge of sustainability and what useful suggestions they could put forward to their partners to ensure that the projects initiated through the PFL were not dependent on the continuous investments of the partners.<br><br><br><br>The PFL, a major partnering initiative in a post-war context, was initiated in September 2006 after President George W. Bush called for the assistance of U.S. companies to help in the relief and reconstruction efforts in Lebanon after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. The five companies involved were Cisco Systems, Intel Corporation, Ghafari Inc., Occidental Petroleum, and Microsoft. They leveraged their core competence under five main work streams: emergency relief/response, job creation/private-sector revival, developing information and communication technology infrastructure, workforce training/education, and developing connected communities. Cisco took a leadership position within the PFL, establishing a management office in Beirut staffed by five senior full-time Cisco employees, and committed an investment of $10 million in the Lebanese private sector over a three-year period. The PFL’s corporate partners engaged closely with the Lebanese government as well as with various international and local NGOs to develop initiatives under the five work streams and yield a long-term sustainable impact.

An entrepreneur and her father have purchased exclusive Canadian distribution rights to Nutrifusion, a new health supplement that provides servings of fruits and vegetables when added to a variety of foods. They are contemplating launching Healthy Life Group, a company to market and distribute Nutrifusion in Canada. They want to evaluate the product’s financial feasibility for the company’s first year of operations, ending December 31, 2011. If the financials look favourable and the business plan seems feasible, the father and daughter will proceed with the new venture.

Yangarra Resources Limited, a Calgary-based junior oil and gas company, had several properties throughout Alberta comprising both solely controlled and joint ventures. The president and chief executive officer (CEO) was involved in the construction of a well on the Ferrier property — a joint venture between three companies, each holding roughly one-third of the stake. As part of the joint venture, Yangarra had signed an agreement that committed Yangarra to cover all expenses proportional to its working stake of 31.875 per cent. The well had been drilled at a higher cost than expected, with many charges not yet recorded or incurred. As a result of the cost overruns, Yangarra had been asked to provide more funding to the project. In deciding whether to commit additional resources to the Ferrier well, the CEO had to consider several factors including an existing gross overriding royalty revenue (GORR) agreement, uncertainty in estimating the recoverable quantity of oil, crown royalties, and a current legal dispute.

In December 2007, the management of Mercedes-Benz India (MBI), a fully owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, the 12th-largest automobile manufacturer in the world, has decided to relocate to a new facility near Pune in western India. In overseeing the installation of information technology (IT) infrastructure at the new premises, the company’s chief information officer (CIO) must deal with some managerial choices pertaining to IT architecture, IT tools, and IT skill sets of the company. Each choice involves several trade-offs. The CIO’s decision on each will have a major effect on the revenues, margins, and competitive positioning of MBI in the Indian automotive industry.

Excel spreadsheet for students.

The case narrates how A.P.V.N. Sarma, chairman and managing director of Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) since 1997, realized the need for change to rescue the company from impending bankruptcy. SCCL, a supplier of coal to the power and energy sectors, had been declared bankrupt by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction twice, in 1992 and 1996, and had accumulated losses of 12.19 billion rupees. As it provided direct and indirect employment to people residing in the region around SCCL, the health of the organization was critical not only to the massive workforce, but also to the state of Andhra Pradesh. The power generation units of the state relied significantly on the coal supplied by SCCL. <br><br>The case captures various initiatives undertaken by Sarma to bridge the trust deficit between management and blue-collar workers with low literacy and income levels. It discusses the novel communication strategies to connect with workers. The case describes how numerous strikes plaguing SCCL were curbed and order was restored to allow productivity to rise. Under Sarma’s leadership, SCCL achieved a net profit of 894 million rupees for the fourth consecutive year in 2001. Sarma had a fixed tenure of five years, ending in 2001. The task for the new leader was to build on the foundations laid by Sarma and take SCCL to new heights.

The China national image film “People Chapter” — officially a sub-series of the “Experience China” campaign — was launched by the Chinese government to coincide with President Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States in mid-January 2011. The one-minute promotional video was played on six giant electronic screens about 300 times per day, and had appeared approximately 8,400 times when the broadcast ended on February 14, 2011. The video showed a series of Chinese people, ranging from ordinary citizens to celebrities. It was a publicity effort aimed at promoting a truer image of China abroad, and signalling that China was opening to embrace the world. However, reactions from both Chinese and overseas audiences had been fairly mixed since the initial release of the promotional film. Experts from China and abroad were skeptical of the effectiveness of the campaign in promoting the national image of modern China to the world. This case presents the opportunity to examine the basic elements in the marketing communication process, analyze how decisions in marketing design affect outcomes, and understand the differences between nation and product promotion.

Sumeru Software Solutions was a software development consultancy firm headquartered in Bangalore, India, with offices in Washington, D.C., Dubai, and London. It began operations in July 2001 as a single project with two employees, and grew over 10 years into an organization with approximately 200 employees. The founding objective of Sumeru Software Solutions was to support Art of Living’s social development initiatives through profits earned from delivering high-quality services. Art of Living (AOL) was founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji as a not-for-profit, educational, humanitarian non-governmental organization engaged in stress-management programs, including yoga and meditation. Sumeru had developed a unique culture that combined corporate culture with the Art of Living principles of Seva, Satsang, Sadhana, and positivity even in the face of adversity. In line with the AOL principles, the four pillars of Sumeru culture were ethics, caring, sharing and trust. It purported to follow a peaceful yet aggressive way of doing business called “Serene Dynamism.” Harish Ramachandran, CEO of Sumeru Software Solutions, had created an enterprise that was different from other IT organizations. He was wondering how he would sustain the culture of the organization and make Sumeru a high-performing company over the next 10 years as it expanded its business and hired new employees.

The general manager of Horseshoe Resort is finalizing the proposal for a new adventure park with his management team. Horseshoe is a recently purchased all-season resort, and new ownership wants to increase Horseshoe’s attractions to entice visitors to the resort in the summer months. The general manager wants to determine how best to use the land and investment money to cater to Horseshoe’s target market and add to its portfolio of activities.

Vlaad and Company, a recruiting firm specializing in the Canadian capital markets, has embarked upon an initiative to recruit more women to capital markets jobs. The case describes the early stages of this initiative and provides six examples of capital markets job candidates — four women and two men. The director of the women in capital markets initiative must decide which of these six candidates, if any, to present to client firms. She must also think about the design of the women in capital markets initiative.

The chief credit officer (CCO) at Seoul National Bank has recently faced numerous defaults on its corporate loans. To address this problem, the CCO must re-evaluate how the bank responds to defaults and determine a default strategy. The CCO must evaluate the payouts and risk profiles of 1) collecting on collateral, 2) partially settling, and 3) waiting and seeing. Further, the CCO must determine a systematic way to approve loans from companies. Analyzing both qualitative and quantities factors, the CCO must determine which companies to approve for loans given a certain size of its loan portfolio. Also, the CCO must determine whether or not to increase or shrink the size of the bank’s loan portfolio based on the expected outcomes and/or simulated results.

An equity analyst at Nova Funds, an investment firm, is in the process of analyzing an investment in SIGA Technologies (SIGA), and potentially its competitor, PharmAthene Inc. (PIP). SIGA is currently the only company in the world that has developed a treatment for smallpox, with its ST-246. In late 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the intention to award SIGA a contract valued at up to $2.8 billion, which significantly exceeds SIGA’s current market value, making the company potentially an excellent investment. However, SIGA is prevented from realizing the profit on this contract due to two uncertainties. First, PIP, a partner throughout the development of the ST-246, has sued SIGA over the rights of the ST-246, with the payout of the lawsuit unknown. Second, since the HHS announcement is for the intention to award the contract, the actual contract for SIGA may take on various possibilities. Given these uncertainties, the equity analyst needs to find ways to invest in the situations that produce the most attractive outcome. She may potentially invest by buying or shorting the stocks of the companies involved or through the use of options. Moreover, she may do this over multiple timeframes, if that is justified.

Grocery Checkout Inc., an online grocery delivery service, had experienced dramatic growth since its founding in 2005, but investors were pressuring the chief executive officer (CEO) for even faster growth. An improved distribution network and order fulfillment system meant that GCO could handle a greater volume of customers. The CEO considered a number of growth options, including a sell option, and needed to decide which would best fit GCO and how his role might change within the company.

After a two-year absence from the financial industry, Tom Henne evaluated his options and determined that he could exploit his knowledge of the inner workings of the pension fund business and start a new firm, Equinox Asset Management. Despite claims that many pension funds provided returns that did no more than mirror the average index, Henne believed his fund could beat the market or achieve alpha. He proposed that this success could be had by differentiating the Equinox fund in several ways from the typically large and well-branded funds of banks and insurance companies. Thinking he still had significant time to consider the details, Henne was surprised to receive a phone call from a local company wanting him to do a presentation on Equinox at its offices. Henne had only one week to decide the size of his fund, finalize his fee structure, identify his positioning and marketing strategy, and evaluate an appropriate client base. But most of all, he wondered whether the idea for his fund was even plausible.

The case examines the issues faced by a hotel management and development company as it tries to increase the return to its shareholders. The firm’s major shareholders have commented that they believe the firm is currently under-valued, so management is considering several means of unlocking extra value. Due to difficult economic conditions resulting from the global economic crisis, there are many opportunities as well as many risks to the alternatives the company is considering. The case provides the opportunity to use several different valuation methods to determine if the company is, in fact, undervalued. It also leads to a discussion of several alternatives for unlocking value, including starting an active acquisition strategy or re-organizing the corporate structure with either an updated capital structure or conversion to a real estate income trust.

PowerPoint presentation for product 8B11D003.

Excel spreadsheet for instructors.