個案總覽

On the basis of its innovative medical device for treating sleep apnea, CEO Peter Farrell has made Australian-born ResMed a successful global company. But the company is struggling to implement a strategy to expand the device from its focused core market to a much broader market for sufferers of stroke and congestive heart failure-an approach that involves an entirely different business model to sell modified products through new channels. This challenge is exacerbated by an organization in which the key R&D and manufacturing resources are located in Australia while the major markets are in the United States and Europe. At the conclusion of the case, Farrell must decide what action to take on several fronts. Strategically, he must decide whether to continue pursuing this five-year-old market expansion initiative; organizationally, he must decide whether the locus of initiative should be moved from Australia to Germany, the most promising market for the stroke and CHF application; and managerially, he must decide how to deal with the management team that has struggled with this new initiative for so long.

Supplements the case. Designed as an in-class handout.

With a focus on Matt MacLellan and his careful development as a project manager under his boss and mentor, Jim Kaplan, the case describes the evolution of Microsoft's human-resource philosophies and policies and illustrates how they work in practice to provide the company with a major source of competitive advantage. It looks at employee development, motivation, and retention efforts in one of Microsoft's product groups. Dissatisfied with his project management role, MacLellan decides to become a developer despite the fact that he has never written code professionally. Kaplan is faced with the decision of whether to support his protege's radical career shift, and if so, how to do it not only to MacLellan's satisfaction but also in the organization's best interest.

Describes the evolution of Microsoft's human-resource philosophies, policies, and practices and how they used as a core of the company's competitive advantage. In particular, the focus is on how Microsoft tried to retain its ability to recruit, develop, motivate, and retain first-class talent as it grew from a start-up to a global behemoth. Triggered by high-profile, senior-level departures in 1999, the company must decide if it is time to change its "hard core" culture came to be.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 300-001.