個案總覽

This case explores the transformation of Umbra Health Partners (Umbra), a privately owned Canadian healthcare organization, as it undergoes an extensive restructuring, through the perspective of the branch manager, who is a recent graduate of a master of business administration program in health services administration. The first part of the case examines the branch manager's role and the last part of the case examines his new role in the corporate office. When he is first hired at Umbra, he assesses the organizational problems inherent in the branch office and in the organization as a whole. As branch manager, he attempts to find solutions to those problems and improve the reliability of his branch. Later, he is promoted to a position in the corporate office, where he addresses the organizational problems at the corporate level (some of which mirror those at the branch office), such as a lack of interdependence and a vague sense of the direction in which the organization is headed. Taken together, the case offers a host of material to discuss the complexities of organizational change.

The director of information technology (IT) at Ritcher, a major Hungarian pharmaceutical company with operations throughout Eastern Europe, is planning for the IT department for the near future. The three main considerations for the coming year are: Is the current IT structure appropriate to meet the growing demands of the organization? To what extent should IT affiliates be centrally controlled? How can IT best serve the rest of the company?

New metrics have been introduced to a software technical support call center operation. These metrics have revealed a wide range of performance between employees both for time taken to answer customers' questions and the customer's perceived quality of service. The call center manager is wondering how to make use of these metrics. He is inclined to go public with them, whereas the head of human resources believes that this could be damaging to employee morale and will also make it more difficult for the company to recruit in a market experiencing labor shortages.

A carpenter is considering options for improving the manufacturing process of his custom wood-flooring concept. He started the business as a part-time venture and wanted to increase production efficiency to accommodate the growing interest for his pine flooring design. The carpenter was unsure whether he should invest in new equipment or hire part-time labour, but he knew that either way, he would have to change the current process to ensure that capacity would meet the upcoming year's forecasted demand.

The administrator of the Westmount Retirement Residence is concerned about the current cost accounting system. The administrator is not clear on how much each service offered was truly costing, and therefore charged each resident the same price per month regardless of their needs. In the past, the majority of patients demanded similar services, and therefore this pricing and costing system was appropriate. However, with demographic changes to the population, some residents required intense medical care, while others were healthy and fit and required less care. A new pricing model had to be developed that reflected both the size of suite inhabited and the level of medical care and service required by each individual patient.

The manager of occupational health and safety services at the London Health Science Centre (LHSC) is a member of a team developing a plan to prepare LHSC to manage various issues in the event of an influenza pandemic, particularly in its hospitals. Such an event would place severe strain on LHSC's employees and on the organization's ability to provide health care to the public. The manager has to resolve several ethical concerns while ensuring compliance with the Ontario Health and Safety Act. She also has to recommend how best to communicate the plan to the LHSC staff.

The director and chair of the governance committee at MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (MDA) considered how to advise the company's chief executive officer (CEO). As a company in the space industry, MDA relied on its exports to the United States. Joint ventures were helpful in securing contracts from the U.S. government but they were not always advantageous in other ways because these ventures required partnerships with competitors. At this time, MDA had no long term strategy to address this issue. The supplements MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (B) and (C) look at subsequent events that were unforeseen at this particular time.

The director and chair of the governance committee at MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (MDA) had been informed that U.S.-based Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) had proposed a takeover of MDA's main business line - its security and intelligence business. The director was faced with several financial and ethical dilemmas which he needed to resolve before meeting with the board. The supplement MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) looks at the decisions that were made and the results of these decisions.

MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) is the third part of a three-part case. The director and chair of the governance committee at MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (MDA) reflects upon the past two-and-a-half months. He and other members of the board of directors faced difficult decisions but were pleased to see that their decisions had almost unanimous support from stockholders. As he read the business section of the newspaper, he wondered whether the decisions had been considered carefully with all the stakeholders in mind.

A consultant with CARE Enterprise Partners (CEP) is tasked to provide consulting for three social enterprises in different stages of development, each benefiting from CEP funding and support. CONASE - an oatmeal manufacturer selling to the government's vaso de leche free breakfast program - asked for advice on strategic analysis and creative approaches to customer relations. Seviagro - a market linkage social enterprise aggregating produce from smallholder artichoke farmers for resale to a large processing and export company - requested support with cost analysis and accounting. Corporacion Solar - initially established as a buyer and reseller of spinach produced by Andean farmers but currently transitioning from a market linkage model to a hybrid model - was looking for assistance in reshaping its growth strategy to target major buyers in Lima with a more diversified product offering. The three for-profit social enterprises profiled in this case sample a new breed of locally-reliant, market-driven models, which could further Peru's rural development in mountainous regions like the Ancash province. Their success could be tremendously influential in charting a new approach to development in the Andes. Success here could also endorse CEP's pioneering approach to development around the world. But despite careful start-up planning and very promising triple-bottom line projections, each enterprise confronted unexpected challenges in customer relations, cost management, sourcing and distribution. As these social ventures were getting off the ground, their founders' ability to simultaneously meet their social goals and remain economically viable was in jeopardy. The case asks students to put themselves in the consultant role and reposition these social ventures for sustainable growth.

As of mid-2008, Regio's sole shareholder, chairman and president is leading his team through a strategy refreshing process. Regio, an Estonian company established in 1989 as a map-maker, is now involved in four principal business activities: location-based services for mobile phones, geographical information systems (GIS) software development, the creation of geospatial data and the production of maps. The company's current revenues are about 5 million euro dollars and the president is wondering what he can do to propel the company to new heights of 40 million euro dollar to 50 million euro dollars in revenues by 2015.

This case provides students with a deeper understanding of commodity futures markets in general and natural gas markets in particular. It also provides an introduction to hedge funds and insight into the largest hedge fund collapse in history. Third, it introduces such concepts as liquidity risk, value-at-risk, spread trades and the use of derivatives. As of the case date, Amaranth had not publicly disclosed the positions that led to $6 billion in losses during the month of September 2006. The case was written using public information and provides key pieces of data to allow students to reverse engineer possible positions Amaranth may have held.

Students must assess the opportunity of purchasing a business as well as evaluate the likelihood that the potential investor, as a sole proprietor, will receive the required financing. This analysis should include the 4 Cs: character, business conditions, capacity to repay and collateral analysis. This analysis will also entail the qualitative examination of the business to be purchased, the new potential owner's personal characteristics, the dental industry and the location of the proposed business. Following the analysis, students should analyze the opportunity quantitatively by including the preparation and analysis of a statement of cash flows, ratio analysis, projected financial statements and, finally, an analysis of the available sources of collateral to be pledged for the loan.

The chief financial officer of Pixonix Inc. is trying to decide if she should hedge, given the current strength of the Canadian dollar. Her company licenses proprietary software through a U.S. company that will cost $7.5 million in three months time. The case provides the students with the opportunity to understand the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on her firm's cash flows and some of the instruments available to manage risk, including puts and calls and forward contracts.

The financial system is the heart of free market economies. The 2007-2008 financial crisis raised concerns that the global financial and economic system might experience a truly substantial collapse. New financial instruments had proliferated to the degree that it had become impossible to calculate the market value of many of them, and so it had become impossible to know the market value of institutions that held them or that guaranteed them. The initial disaster occurred with the U.S. subprime residential mortgage market, but it quickly spread globally to institutions that held new financial instruments related to these mortgages. Firms that had guaranteed these financial instruments found that their net worth was disappearing, leading to concerns about the institutions that had relied on their guarantees. Meanwhile, new kinds of hedge funds introduced the risk of greater volatility, and they exposed investors to sudden shocks. Many banks were caught in this web and suddenly had to obtain additional equity capital in order to meet regulatory requirements and maintain the confidence of depositors. As a result of these developments, liquidity disappeared from the financial system. It seemed that recession in the United States was inevitable. Previous expectations that other economies had become decoupled for the United States were being replaced by fears that economies throughout the world would follow the United States into recession. Central banks reacted dramatically with attempts to reduce interest rates and to increase financial liquidity, and the U.S. government cut personal taxes through a tax refund program. It was not clear whether monetary and fiscal policies could prevent a long and deep recession. Debate arose concerning the advisability of a wide variety of new regulations that might be able to prevent future recurrence of such a financial crisis.

The president of a small mining company is faced with an opportunity to purchase a mining refinery to complement its existing mining operations. It has the potential to bring the company into a situation of positive cashflow, but the small size of the company and high risk of the mining industry has left the president with few alternatives to raise the capital. The case focuses on the issuing of a Euro-denominated bond to finance this purchase and provide funds for future acquisitions. The case discusses the alternatives available in such a situation as well as the risks associated with changes in the price of metals and the value of the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar and the Euro on the ability to make regular payments on the Euro-denominated bond and other financing alternatives.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of the London Public Library (LPL) had developed and had begun to implement a strategic plan to improve the LPL. The strategic plan was based on a balanced scorecard. The four perspectives measured by the balanced scorecard were: the community perspective, the internal processes perspective, the organizational readiness perspective and the financial perspective. With two years before the deadline to achieve the plan, the CEO had to decide on what she would focus next.

Northwest Mutual Funds is a boutique mutual funds company that differentiates itself on a high level of customer service. The case describes how the company is considering marketing its funds directly to retail investors. Thus far, the company has marketed its fund only to the financial planners that make up the channel. The case illustrates channel issues, and helps students discuss how products must be differentiated from competitors' products in the channel.

This case explores the expansion of an imported product - garlic and herb cubes. This case can be used to explore the merits of alternative channels of distribution or it may be used more broadly to explore the development of a more effective marketing program. Students are asked to 1) assess how the competition affects Toppits' marketing plan; 2) select a customer group to target and determine how this group affects the marketing plan; 3) determine and evaluate distribution options; 4) develop a promotional strategy and budget and 5) make a decision.

The chief of paediatric orthopaedic surgery was very concerned by the long times that the young patients (and their parents) were experiencing in the orthopaedic clinic. Long wait times tended to aggravate the already pent-up distress and concern that the patients were facing. The chief glanced at recently collected data on service times and wondered how the process could be improved, while continuing balancing budgetary pressures to reduce costs. Moreover, any changes couldn't be done in isolation, as her clinic shared resources with other departments. A monthly executive meeting was fast approaching and expectations were starting to run high that her efforts might be able to spur improvements in other departments too.