個案總覽

Learning Resources is a family-owned educational toy company that, by late 2011, was facing a myriad of challenges, including increased competition, entry into new markets, new distribution methods, rising costs of production in China, and changing customer behavior. The company lacked a clear strategy and suffered from organizational misalignment. Rick Woldenberg, the former CEO of Learning Resources, is called back to the helm after a four-year absence to address these issues, increase performance and set a direction for the company, all while remaining true to the values of his family's business.

To remain competitive, Sallie Krawcheck and Lisa Shalett, Sanford C. Bernstein's director of research and associate director of research, respectively were examining the need to expand the research department's size both domestically and internationally. Were they too late? Could they maintain their strong culture and hiring process--which top management viewed as a main source of competitive advantage--and also increase their research and sales efforts exponentially? How could they move quickly when traditionally it took them years to find "the right person" for any given role. A rewritten version of an earlier case.