TISM Solutions Inc. is a dot-com company that connects buyers and sellers of expert advice through the Web site Timeismoney.com. The founders of the company spent many hours turning their concept into a business plan and, with the support and funding of Vision Venture Capital (VVC), have drafted their vision statement, technology infrastructure and business model - focusing on the business-to-consumer model. However, investors wanted more stable and attainable goals when considering a dot-com startup to invest in. VVC has clearly outlined their expectations of the company and with less than 24 hours before the next meeting with VVC, the founders had to rethink their business plan that would encourage VVC to continue the funding for their dot-com startup.
In October 2008, the senior vice-president for product and business development at IA Clarington (IAC), a life and health insurance company, was preparing for a meeting with the president of IAC. The topic of discussion would be IAC's Target Click Fund, a mutual fund with an options-based guarantee structure targeted towards investors who were looking for growth along with capital preservation. The vice-president had been asked to render his opinion of whether he thought that the fund's scheduled rebalancing date should be accelerated in order to take advantage of a historic decline in global equity markets. The vice-president had to consider several pieces of information in making his recommendation, including that fact that his main competitors would be quick to take advantage of any misguided recommendation. He wondered if the markets had truly hit bottom, and how/if he could time the rebalancing to the lowest point. Also, the investment philosophy behind IAC and click funds encouraged investors to remain invested during turbulent times: what would changing the rebalancing date indicate to those investors?
Dexter Nelson recently accepted a summer analyst position at PPC Consulting (PPC) in Toronto, and was excited to take on the challenge in a high-performance organization. It had only been a few days since he had started his internship when the rest of Dexter Nelson's team left to conduct primary research at a client site. Left alone to work on his first real project, he began to feel overwhelmed. Having recognized the project as a new product launch, Nelson wanted to identify key elements to address in the financial model. He also wanted to identify a series of actions to make a significant contribution not only to the client, but his team. He began to approach his task by identifying his problem and decision to be made, using an importance-urgency matrix and developing and analyzing appropriate alternatives.
The vice-president of operations at Lighting Group Corporation (LGC) was looking over some financial statements at the end of the workday. For the first time he could remember, there were no sales recorded on the daily sales statement. It appeared that the efforts of employees were diverted into a project related to the scrap metal that was a by-product of the manufacturing process. To complicate matters, the son of the company's president and chief executive officer was the one directing the scrap metal project.
Robert's Center of Performing Arts (RCPA), founded and owned by Robert Gernburd, was a music school. In addition to individual instrument lessons and group lessons in music theory and music history, the RCPA sold second-hand pianos. It was difficult to find a supplier of used pianos but after a great deal of research, Gernburd found a supplier in Japan. Recently, an invoice containing supplier information had been temporarily misplaced. Since then, Gernburd had learned that his in-house piano tuner had been selling pianos without his knowledge. Gernburd was unsure how to proceed.
Prashant Lakhera, senior analyst at Credit Rating Agency Limited (CRA), has been working with Deepak Ghosh, project manager of the Construction Development Board, on a report that needs to be submitted within the next few days. Because Ghosh had been acting inappropriately in front of clients, Lakhera and Gagan Vedi, the other analyst working on the report, was concerned about how this might damage the image of CRA. Shortly before the report was due, Lakhera asked Ghosh for his contribution to the report. Ghosh indicated that he did not care and he walked away from the team. Now Lakhera had to decide what to do about the urgent deadline for the report.
Anupam Majumdar, relationship manager, and Aditya Mehta, regional head of Hindustan Neon General Insurance Limited, India, were meeting an important client. Mehta asked Majumdar to serve them tea. This really embarrassed and infuriated Majumdar. It was not the first time that Mehta, Majumdar's boss, had treated him like a peon. Majumdar was about to take a three-week leave of absence to attend his brother's wedding in New York so he was not sure if this was the right time, if ever, to do anything about the situation.
The president of a metal products manufacturer and distributor is informed that the company controller is having an affair with another employee who is married to the general manager of production. The president is in the process of selling the company and wonders what affect the affair, if true, will have. Three short supplementary cases are also available: 9B07C021, 9B07C022 and 9B07C023.
The director of operations for Millway Fabrics Canada walked into her office and one of the customer service agents was waiting for her in tears. The customer service agent (agent) needed a week off to take care of her son who was about to have surgery to have his tonsils removed. The agent had already taken all her vacation and sick time due to her son's illness. The agent was a strong performer and was well-liked by her co-workers. The director of operations had to make a decision.
Steve Jones, senior investment analyst at Stonehill Capital, among other responsibilities, had to ensure that his team prepared a pitch book which presented all the numbers and graphs necessary to acquire a client's business. Jones was already overworked so he enlisted his intern, Joe Livingston, to help with the task. As the deadline approached, Jones and Livingston worked 18-hour days preparing the pitch book and were very tired and sleep deprived. The morning after the day of the pitch, Jones received an email from the vice-president of Investment Banking telling him that the bank's deal team had been embarrassed by having to explain an error in the pitch book during their meeting to try to secure the deal. Jones is now being asked to explain what happened.
The supervisor at a popular bar and eatery is close to finishing off the shift and is reflecting on the events that took place in the past couple of hours. He had just finished escorting the service manager of the restaurant out after watching him snort a line of white powder. The supervisor knew he could not just ignore what had happened but was concerned about what to do next.
An expansion in the bottling plant of a brewery leads to a reassessment of the manual palletizing operation. It is possible to purchase expensive automatic equipment and a choice of makes is involved.
The administration director at an assembly plant for optical communication products in a US-Chinese joint venture in Shenzhen is wondering what he should do about a recent situation with one of his peers. The director was responsible for all non-production staff and his peer was responsible for production-related staff, both working on a pilot project for the company. Shortly after the project started, the director noticed his peer was becoming more aggressive and making comments about firing staff inside and outside his department. Tension was increasing between them and among other members of the project. He decided to discuss the issue with his peer but was unprepared for the response. He must decide if he should bring this to the attention of senior officers or continue with his approach in resolving the situation.
The purchasing manager was wondering how many bottles he should purchase in the coming year. Last year, the market had levelled off and sales predictions were difficult. On the one hand he wanted to be sure sufficient bottles were available to supply this year's sales levels, yet he also wanted to minimize year-end inventories as covered storage space for empty bottles was tight and a bottle change-over seemed possible in the next two years.
A partner at a law firm has been given a choice by one of the firm's assistants, either increase her salary or she would give her two-week resignation notice. The firm was extremely busy with clients and could not afford a reduction in staff, however, this employee's performance had not been up to standard and the partner must decide whether or not he should agree to this pay increase or if there are other options.
InsureTech is an online insurance business focusing on the small business owner market. An analyst with the company was asked to investigate and determine a solution for the problem of tracking and reporting sales results, currently a manual process. The analyst assigned to the project would work independently and was aware that the success of this project would significantly benefit the company but would also boost his own career. After six months of working on the project, the analyst presented the new system to the management committee. The system was well received but there were some reservations; he felt these issues would be resolved within a year. The launch date was set for the following month and he prepared the plan to ensure a smooth implementation. Weeks after the launch, the analyst discovered that the sales staff was still using the manual process and feedback on the new system was not favourable. He must determine why the sales staff are reluctant to use the system and what steps to take to deal with this resistance to change.
A summer assignment is turning into a nightmare for an intern at a large consulting firm. He has just receive his third reprimand from his boss, and is concerned how this relationship is distracting him from the project he needs to complete and how it could hurt his chances of obtaining full-time employment. He must decide how he can salvage the relationship with his boss and whether this organization is the best fit for him.
A supervisor at a telesales office has received very low ratings on an employee survey and the marketing manager is concerned that this team leader is not performing well. The marketing manager must decide what actions are needed to improve the leadership skills of this supervisor.
In less than six months, a telecommunications company has faced two incidents of alleged violations of the Canadian Human Rights Act. The general manager spent considerable time interviewing employees about the first incident. He then reported his findings, and the Canadian Human Rights Commission confirmed that no discrimination had occurred. Just a few months later, an employee approached her supervisor, alleging sexual harassment by a colleague. The company's general manager must not only deal with the second incident, he wonders whether he needs to draft a human resources policy to outline employee rights and responsibilities under the Canadian Human Rights Act.