個案總覽

Thirteen years of research on more than 2,000 Japanese companies and their U.S. subsidiaries shows that the longer it takes to get from headquarters to that subsidiary, the less likely the subsidiary is to make a profit. Productivity, teamwork, trust, and staff retention can be eroded by long travel times.

CQUAY Technologies Corp was a privately-held Canadian software company with offices in Toronto, Calgary and Washington, D.C. CQUAY marketed a patented location intelligence engine called Common Ground. The company's technology was designed for an emerging, multi-billion dollar segment of the spatial information management market. A year earlier, the board had asked the chief executive officer to shape the company into an acquisition target over the next 18 to 24 months. A year later there were no imminent acquisition discussions, and recent customer traction and the sales pipeline seemed to merit raising growth capital instead of following the acquisition-focused plan. The CEO wanted to keep his stockholders and board happy by executing the plan they had given him, but did not want to jeopardize possible customer growth. If he refocused the plan, he feared it might change acquisition opportunities. Without further contracts, the existing cash would sustain the company for only another six to eight months. The CEO thought the most likely outcome was to sell the company, but he needed to make the company more attractive. He planned to present options and a recommendation to the board of directors later that month.

MapQuest is a leading provider of mapping services and destination information as well as a publisher of maps, atlases and other guides. On the Internet, they provide these products and services both to consumers directly and to other businesses enabling these businesses to provide location, mapping and destination information to their own customers. The company completed a successful initial public offering five years ago and were in a strong competitive position. However, the markets were allowing competitors to quickly get funding in both private and public deals. As well, there were perceptions that a general stock market bubble existed for technology companies. The chief executive officer had several options available, and wanted to consider those options and present a recommendation to the board. Possible options included splitting the firm's old and new-line business units, raising capital to fund an acquisition strategy, forging a set of alliances, focusing on organic growth, and pursuing the sale of the firm.