個案總覽

The ready-to-eat cereal industry had been flat for five years, and Kellogg's share had been shrinking. Now it had acquired Worthington and a new management team was in place. A new vice president must figure out how to integrate the new company. The case is appropriate for use in a series on postmerger integration, as the students must craft an integration plan de novo. It can be followed by the "Note on Acceleration Transition" and "Albany-Geschmay Merger" to illustrate the application of PWC's integration methodology.

Top level managers know that conflict over issues is natural and even necessary. Management teams that challenge one another's thinking develop a more complete understanding of their choices, create a richer range of options, and make better decisions. But the challenge--familiar to anyone who has ever been part of a management team--is to keep constructive conflict over issues from degenerating into interpersonal conflict. From their research on the interplay of conflict, politics, and speed in the decision-making process of management teams, the authors have distilled a set of tactics characteristic of high-performing teams. These tactics work because they keep conflict focused on issues; foster collaborative, rather than competitive, relations among team members; and create a sense of fairness in the decision-making process.

This case is about a small "outdoor-adventure" business at a crossroads. The business was originally founded by a man and a woman to serve the counseling and team-building needs of local schools and hospitals. Its discovery by corporate clients presents a "big-business" opportunity. The protagonists, however, are not sure they want to leave the realm of part-time "fun" and enter the realm of potentially lucrative full-time business.

This two-part exercise is used to introduce the strategy process. In Part I, a slightly injured gold prospector must decide which route to take to file a claim. The route through the valley is safer but may take too long. The other (over mountains) is riskier, and a storm is brewing. Part II has the prospector sprain an ankle, so he or she must rely on an uneducated, drinking trapper friend either to help get out (which may take too long) or to file the claim on the prospector's behalf (alone). This exercise requires students to assess the external environment and their own capabilities to select a strategy. Then they must lead and motivate another, less committed person to help implement it.

This technical note describes, compares, and contrasts the strategic-planning techniques developed by the Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, and Arthur D. Little consulting firms in the mid-1970s. The approaches were developed to classify the businesses within a diversified firm in order to decide which businesses to fund for growth. The assumptions and philosophies underlying each approach are contrasted, as are the consultants' relationships with client firms.