After establishing a small but profitable skiwear business, an entrepreneur decides to sell a minority stake in the firm to outside investors. His goal is to acquire the capital needed to grow the business, even though this will entail a substantial transformation of the firm's management and financial structure. This case examines the resulting private equity transaction from both the company's point of view and that of outside investment.
The Washington Post is now headed up by its fourth family member in three generations. The Graham family has somehow transcended the problems and pitfalls that overtake so many family-owned and operated businesses.
Three brothers inherit a business in Egypt; the complications begin as each gets married, has a family, and becomes torn among different family interests. Now the third generation is appearing.
In 1993, the firm began to move from a traditional hierarchical structure to client-focused teams. The case describes the process and some consequences of this restructuring. Performance seems to be improving, but some employees preferred the structure certainty and client variety of the old days. How does management deal with these issues?
Describes the history and evolution of a school/public bus transit company that has grown rapidly and successfully by gradually pushing responsibility and trust as far down the organizational ladder as possible. A real test comes however, in two major labor relations issues.
A woman CEO believes that industry and organizational conditions require for a reengineering/restructuring job her company. However, she wants to gain maximum commitment and buy-in form the entire company. She does this by setting up employee task forces and teams, but this is only the beginning of new efforts that must be made.
Presents a study of two oil rigs and their team relationships within a context of dissension in lower management ranks and a president who is trying to expand the business in a changing economy.
Two partners, Anne Salpryn and Tom Hilliard, successfully develop a creative software company. While Anne becomes more managerially oriented, Tom wants to remain a software project creator. The partnership becomes jeopardized as Tom's personal life begins to fall apart and he is faced with sexual harassment charges at work. Anne seeks to buy him out. Examines the perils of partnership, man/woman business relationships, and the tensions posed by creativity and organization.
Two sisters begin a bakery/cafe and have difficulties organizing the work and defining their roles. The case is written from the mother's perspective as she tries to figure out how to keep the business from falling apart.
Provides a follow-up to the (A) and (B) (Condensed) case. Brings events up to date from 1985-1991. Bob Koski, Sun's CEO, has now taken on a new #2 heir apparent in Clyde Nixon. The company has a proliferation of new products and new directions. Has Sun's horizontal management been so successful within the company that serious problems will now arise in terms of interfaces with the environment?
Involves the design and creation of a company with no formally-defined hierarchy. Describes the steps the founder takes to avoid the organizational politics he perceives as crushing the human contributions they were designed to harness. Fifteen years later, the company has achieved widespread recognition in the industry for its innovative designs, its quality products, and its highly ethical standards for business dealings. Describes the organization, the plant, and current concerns.
Ostensibly a case about employee turnover in a small construction component company, Wood Structures, Inc. is actually a snapshot of the whole company. In particular it addresses issues of leadership, morale, and teamwork (or the lack thereof) in a company dependent on a highly seasonal and cyclical industry. Operating in "final fighting mode" owner/founder Bill Alcorn has difficulty setting a long-term course. He also feels ambivalent about delegating authority to a management group he fears may not have the same commitment to the company that he has. The case can serve as a good vehicle for diagnosis and action planning around several sets of tensions: plant to plant and shift to shift rivalries; management-labor, management-union versus rank and file; and management in a difficult industry.
Describes what happened after the apparent eruption and traumas within the task force described in the (A) case. The task force moved from being "the very worst committee" according to one member to becoming "the very best." Tries to explain how and why. Also describes some of the longer term outcomes.
1980 was a critical time for John Hancock with high inflation, high interest rates, increased competition, and the desertion of policy holders seeking new investment opportunities. A new lower level (of vice presidents) task force was set up by the executive committee (also struggling to build cooperative teamwork) to come up with new strategic visions and directions. The task force has group problems. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
A young woman manager in a Swiss family firm finds that her role as a managing director becomes bitterly unpleasant once her older brother decides to leave an engineering career and join the family business. That is what the father, who was head of the business had been hoping and waiting for. He begins to belittle and ridicule the daughter. The board of directors also favors a male successor. The daughter writes a letter of resignation just before taking a trip abroad. While she is overseas, both parents write letters asking her to reconsider.