The RoboTech case describes the challenges facing the CEO of a small, Singapore-based industrial robotics company that decides to diversify away from its core industrial robot business by leveraging its expertise into the medical-devices industry. It launches an innovative product (a specialized surgical robot) in an unfamiliar market segment (spinal surgery) and decides to enter the unfamiliar, distant U.S. healthcare market, which is characterized by rapid technological change and intense competition with large, established competitors. RoboTech's initial struggles with maintaining product supply and customer support are also complicated by regulatory pressures and shifting reimbursement rates. The case illustrates the strategic and organizational pressures that result from facing numerous unanticipated pressures in a company that lacks the resources, capabilities, and management experience to deal with them. Although the case was developed for courses in international management/international business, it is also well suited to courses in strategy, technology management, and general management.
This case follows Jenica Fletcher as she rebuilds her company's guitar strings division from the ground up. Convinced that she could turn the division around if given complete independence from corporate headquarters, Fletcher relocated the group, rebranded it as Malenti Strings, repositioned the guitar strings as high-performance products, and transformed Malenti into a fast-growing, profitable business. The case traces Fletcher's key steps in rebuilding the organization, including the development of a team of committed, interdependent employees. Students learn about Fletcher's values and unique management philosophy, as well as her managerial practices and daily activities. The case also discusses the role and development of the partnerships that helped solidify and grow the business. Coming off its high-end success, Malenti must now decide whether to move into the mid-priced market with a new line of electric guitar strings called True.
Two young attorneys found and begin to build the Indego Africa Project, an NGO partnering with women's cooperatives in Rwanda. Indego connects the cooperatives to the international retail market for handmade artisan products, helps the cooperatives build their business capacity, and develops and delivers classroom training in life and business skills for the cooperative members. At the time of the case, Indego is partnering with three cooperatives. The NGO is staffed mostly with volunteers and the founders are stretched to the limit, between managing the growing organization and all of the necessary fundraising activities. The organization hopes to partner with more coops and increase its impact in Rwanda and beyond, but the path to sustained growth and impact is not clear.
As a global NGO working in 45 countries, ActionAid International aims to eradicate poverty by addressing its underlying causes such as injustice and inequality. This case follows a series of radical transformations implemented by the organization's CEO, Ramesh Singh--a power shift from its headquarters in London to an international secretariat in Johannesburg; a new federated governance structure that increases the influence of units in Africa and Asia; and, innovations in accountability and transparency to the poor communities with which it works. But as Singh gets ready to step down after seven years, he is confronted with challenges from newly empowered country units that he feels risk taking the organization in the wrong direction. How will the divisions between the Northern and Southern units play out? Will they tear the organization apart, just when it is becoming a global player?
PIavix, one of the world's best selling drugs in 2010, appears to have a limited future. Its patent was due to expire soon and recently new data had been discovered which indicated that a small subset of the population would be at risk for stroke, heart attack or even death if they took PIavix. As a result the FDA had added a black box warning-the agency's most severe--to Plavix's label in 2010. In addition, it had been discovered that the common combination of Plavix and Prilosec, an over-the-counter drug, could adversely affect patients. Finally, Plavix faced new competition from two new drugs with different mechanisms of action. This case reviews the recent history of Plavix in greater detail to encourage a discussion of the following questions: How might the current manufacturers of Plavix handle these emerging threats to their leading blockbuster? How might Plavix's potential competitors utilize Plavix's mixed history to their advantage? How should genotyping be integrated into the clinical care of patients in the light of emerging knowledge?
In October of 2010, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) was unable to extricate itself from a year long recall crisis that had subjected the firm to criticism from Congress and regulators, resulted in the resignation of one of the firm's most senior officers, and cost hundreds of millions of dollars from lost sales of J&J brands. This case examines the series of recalls, and the strategic and cultural changes at the company that may have led to the recalls. It allows for an exploration of the reality of the iconic J&J "Credo" - its long standing set of corporate values.
Healthcare has traditionally focused on medical outcomes and financial performance. The big question is always, "How much is it going to cost?" What would happen though if healthcare also considered the question of "How does the patient feel?" This case looks at the Cleveland Clinic's attempt to answer the latter question by attempting to institutionalize empathy as part of its delivery of care.
Karen Levy and her colleague, Margaret Ndanyi, have spent the last six months planning and preparing for a national Kenyan program to target school children most at risk for parasitic worm infection. One week after its launch, the program seemed to be going well but Ndanyi and Levy knew that it still needed to be administered in almost 40 districts at thousands of schools. They wondered: Would they meet their goal of deworming over three million school children before the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2009? Would they be able to do it for less than $0.50 per child?
Karen Levy and her colleague, Margaret Ndanyi, learn the results of their nation-wide effort to rid Kenyan school children of parasitic worm infection.
Roll Back Malaria, a global partnership dedicated to fighting malaria has not met its founders' expectations of effectively combatting malaria. In 2005, after several internal evaluations, RBM leadership has decided to engage the Boston Consulting Group to work on a Change Initiative that when completed will enable RBM to address the eradication of malaria both more effectively and through larger scale efforts. However, the Initiative has become derailed after BCG's first major presentation to the RBM board. Will this end the Change Initiative prematurely?
The Brigham and Women's Physician's Organization (BWPO) and its corporate parent disagree over who has jurisdiction over significant legacy funds. Are they controlled by the BWPO or do they belong to BWPO's corporate parent? The BWPO and its corporate parent must negotiate who has control of the funds which impacts how the funds may be used.
The case describes how the Brigham and Women's Physicians Organization and its corporate parent resolved the issue of how the disputed funds would be distributed and used.
As his major-league pitching career was starting to wind down in 2006, baseball all-star Curt Schilling decided to become an entrepreneur. Looking to focus his tenacity and his passion for online role-playing games on a new challenge, he founded an online gaming venture, which later became known as 38 Studios. During the venture's first two years, he built a team of 70 people, including an executive team of business and industry veterans, and learned key lessons about the challenges faced by industry-changing entrepreneurs. Wanting to self-fund the venture initially, and later finding it hard to raise outside money, he put a substantial percentage of his net worth on the line to build 38 Studios. Now he is facing a critical acquisition decision that could either double his problems or help solve them.
In May 2007, Amgen Inc. (Amgen) received disappointing news from the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) that its drug Vectibix, developed to fight metastatic colorectal cancer, had been rejected. This was especially surprising news given that a similar rival drug had received approval several years prior. Moreover, Vectibix had also received Food and Drug Administration approval in 2006. During additional trials, Amgen has learned that the Vectibix is only effective with the 60% of the population that has a specific gene marker. Given this development, what should Amgen's strategy around Vectibix be both in Europe and the United States?
Generation Health, a pioneer in the new field of genetics benefit management, and newly formed company faces many strategic issues. CEO Per Lofberg is in the midst of negotiating a partnership with a major pharmacy benefit management company. As part of these negotiations, Lofberg must decide whether the time is right for such a strategic partner when Generation Health has only been founded for a year. At the same time, Lofberg must recruit for the critical position of Chief Medical Officer while also making decisions about Generation Health's stance on various regulatory issues that will affect the industry long-term.
Describes the Spine Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, a multidisciplinary unit that offers patients suffering from spinal problems "one-stop" access to a range of providers including orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, neurologists, medical specialists in physical medicine and pain management, mental health providers, and occupational and physical therapists. The Center was created to address what its founder, James Weinstein, M.D., saw as the uncoordinated and inefficient delivery of spinal care in the United States. The Center emphasized using non-surgical treatments (e.g., physical therapy and exercise, behavioral modification, pain-relieving drugs) as either a complement to, or substitute for, surgical procedures, and patients were actively engaged in the process of determining what type of care to pursue. In addition, Weinstein and his staff collected data from the Center's clinical practice to conduct academic research on the outcomes and cost-effectiveness of various approaches to treatment. The case allows for a critical analysis of the Spine Center's unique approach to care delivery and provides an opportunity to examine the applicability of this model in other clinical areas.
In August 2006, Genevieve ("Jeh-neh-veev") Thiers, founder and CEO of Sittercity.com looked over at Dan Ratner, Sittercity's vice president and her boyfriend of five years. It had taken her six long years to build Sittercity into the nation's leading babysitting web service. Thiers had begun Sittercity in 2001 in Boston as a way to connect babysitters and parents online, at a time when no one else had thought to manage care-giving connections via the Web. She had started the company right out of college while working full-time, but by 2006, Sittercity had sitters available across the country, was larger than all of its competitors combined, and Thiers still owned two-thirds of the venture. The company now had plans to add pet, elder-care, house and tutoring services in 2007, and Thiers wondered what other challenges she and Ratner would face as she continued to grow her venture.
To help her finance her aggressive expansion plans, Genevieve Thiers plans to raise venture capital for the first time. She has spent the last six long years building Sittercity into the nation's leading babysitting web service, larger than all of its competitors combined. In the process, she brought her boyfriend and his sister into the business to help her, and ended up learning important lessons about mixing family and business. Now looking to raise venture capital, Thiers has just received an email from a general partner at a top VC firm, proposing another meeting and asking her to bring to the meeting an extensive list of proprietary information. This was a promising development, but Thiers was unsure whether she wanted to discuss Sittercity in such depth, especially when the venture capital firm had refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. How should she respond?
Ginger Graham, CEO of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, joined the company with the expectation of taking the company's signature drug, Symlin, to market. However, unforeseen regulatory challenges have put the approval process in jeopardy. At the same time the company has a second drug, Byetta, in its pipeline. Graham must decide how to manage the company's limited resources while also finalizing another deal that has huge future potential. Graham knows that Amylin's immediate success depends on its ability to commercialize its products but its long-term success depends on replenishing its pipeline. Can the company do it all successfully?