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Hospitals frequently deal with congestion and blockage that affects patient flow and increased costs. In 2018, at University Hospital, part of South West Health Centre, patient flow in the medical surgical intensive care unit seemed to be highly susceptible to congestion, and this was creating ripple effects throughout the hospital and leading to increased costs. The complexity of patient flow presented an opportunity to build a discrete-event simulation model to provide insights regarding the patient flow, costs, and opportunities for improvement. But how could the hospital's management use a simulation model of patient flow to determine alternatives to optimize both patient flow and costs?

Student spreadsheet to case W19220

Queues (or waiting lines) are common in modern life. We wait in lines at the campus cafeteria, to board an airplane, in the emergency room, and when we call a company for customer service. We even wait for applications to be initiated and processed by our smartphone processors, and our online orders wait to be fulfilled at companies' warehouses before being shipped to us. How long we wait in line depends on several factors and parameters. It may depend on the number of servers working and the amount of time it takes to serve each individual customer (the system's capacity) or on how many customers arrive at any given time (the system's demand or flow rate). Most importantly, queues form due to random variations in arrival patterns and service times.

Bob Iger, chief executive officer of entertainment conglomerate Disney, thrilled investors with details about Disney's upcoming foray into video streaming in April 2019. Disney's move was only the latest in a series of actions taken by new and established entertainment companies in a fight for dominance in the video-streaming-subscription space. Netflix, led by chief executive officer Reed Hastings, had established an early foothold in that market after entering in early 2007, amassing 140 million subscribers worldwide by early 2019 and spending $10 billion on content annually. Now, Disney was joining the fray with its signature service, Disney+, after first collaborating with other broadcasters in establishing Hulu, later buying up a majority stake in that service, and launching sports-content subscription service ESPN+. The battle for what many industry observers regarded as the future of the television business was truly on. Had Iger and his team of executives found the right formula to unseat Netflix as the leader in video streaming? Was there room for both players in the marketplace? Or would Hastings and his team at Netflix need to respond in some way to the looming threat posed by Disney?

This field research case presents an account of leading digital transformation in a traditional organization. The case briefly traces more one hundred years of history of Klöckner & Co, an independent global steel and metal distributor, and presents challenges faced by the steel distribution branch. It then describes the thinking process of Gisbert Rühl, the company's CEO concerned about taking the company into the future in the face of global changes faced by the industry. The case presents Rühl's view of digital opportunities for the organization and his attempts to prepare the company for the digital age. The case pays particular attention to personal transformation of the leader in the in the process of transforming his company. It is intended for use in the MBA programs and executive education.

Founded in 1989, Orpea Group (Orpea) was a French nursing care company that had successfully expanded into 10 European countries with a network of about 700 facilities. In early 2016, Orpea opened its first establishment in Asia in the Chinese city of Nanjing. Seeing an increased demand for elderly care in China, the Nanjing government encouraged the company. However, Orpea was facing several challenges, including cultural and legal differences between China and Europe, as well as competition with local companies. Orpea needed to determine how best to test the company’s Nanjing facility in the Chinese market and whether or not to pursue further expansion in China.

In 2017, Chinese clothing manufacturer Qingdao Kutesmart Co. Ltd. (Kutesmart) had been transformed into a customer-to-manufacturer platform company, where customers could order individualized products directly from the makers over the Internet. Since 2000, Kutesmart had been upgrading its information system as its business strategy evolved, and the company had become a widely known, successful case study of mass-customization-based manufacturing in China. However, as the company leaped forward into the age of digitization and globalization, its founder faced a number of questions: How could Kutesmart extract more value from its data resources and technology? The company was assessing and pursuing a platform strategy; could this strategy help Kutesmart take its business to the next level? What were the opportunities and challenges?

In January 2019, a second-year master of business administration student has come up with an idea for a new venture: sourcing products from her social contacts, using Instagram to direct traffic to her company website, and utilizing the postal service to deliver goods. Does a viable business opportunity really exist, or are there too many unknowns?

It was March 2019, and Fermin Diez, Deputy CEO of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS), ran the Sun Ray scheme that had been launched in 2014 to mitigate manpower issues due to pay disparity and lack of career progression in the social service sector. Singapore's heretofore prosperity did not result in an even distribution of wealth, and with the changing demographics, Social Service Agencies (SSAs) required assistance in identifying and improving various programmes to support vulnerable groups. The government had recently announced plans to provide more support with the goal of building a more caring and compassionate society. NCSS had administered several leadership programmes to develop human capital and support organisations in the sector to strengthen the local social service ecosystem. However, the previous leadership programmes introduced experienced limited success due to low participation rates and the heavy workloads of staff in the social service sector. The newer Sun Ray scheme would instead centrally hire potential social service leaders under the NCSS payroll and second them out to SSAs. In return, the SSAs were required to pay a subsidised secondment fee to NCSS. This way, individual SSAs would benefit from good leaders at subsidised salaries while the impact of each Sun Rayz would not be limited to any particular SSA. Diez knew that the scheme had been successful, but sought to make improvements.

This case is set in October 2019. Masami Komatsu, CEO of Music Securities (MS), had received a request from Toyomi Electric Co. Ltd. Toyomi Electric had suffered damages to its factory and workforce in the 2011 earthquake that had struck Japan, and needed urgent financing to rebuild its production capacity. It sought help from MS to raise funds on its online crowdfunding platform, Securite. Securite was an investment crowdfunding platform with a focus on empathy-based financial inclusion. Among the several hundred funds it managed, Securite had previously set up disaster relief funds aimed at providing financial aid to businesses destroyed by natural disasters. As a victim of the 2011 earthquake, Toyomi Electric would qualify as a potential recipient of this financial aid. However, Toyomi Electric had a reputation for generating negative social impact by releasing pollutants into the air and water, harming the well-being of neighbouring populations and environment. Investment decisions in Securite were guided by three criteria: social returns, strength of the business model and expected investment returns. Before deciding to raise funds for Toyomi Electric, MS must evaluate the potential impact of its decision and the alignment with the MS' objectives.

The international demand for rhinoceros (rhino) horns was driving the species to near extinction. But an international ban on trading the horns made it lucrative to illegally kill rhinos for their horns, which were traded on the black market. One hotly debated idea to curb rhino poaching was to legalize the trade of farmed rhino horns, which could be sustainably obtained without killing the animal.<br><br>The founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of a non-governmental organization (NGO), Helping Rhinos, opposed legalizing the trade of rhino horns, as had other NGOs. He wondered, though, whether he and his organization should reconsider that position. Legalizing the sale of sustainable rhino horns could counter the black-market demand and protect the remaining, endangered rhinos. At the next board meeting, the founder and CEO needed to recommend whether the organization should continue to oppose legalization or change its approach and advocate for multi-nation legalization. But first he needed to consider the perspectives of the various stakeholders and which decision would be in the best interest of the rhinos. How should he and the NGO proceed?

Yuser Inc. (Yuser) was a new social networking start-up based in London, Ontario. Well-established social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube had begun to restrict social media influencers’ monetization of their user base, and this had opened an opportunity for a new social media network to make three-way interactions among users, social media influencers (SMIs), and corporate sponsors completely stable and transparent. Yuser granted SMIs freedom in terms of the content they posted, allowing companies to identify influencers who helped their marketing efforts and to financially reward them using Yuser’s cryptocurrency. Rather than facilitating two-way relationships, as most platforms did, Yuser would help build triangular relationships among companies, target markets, and SMIs. However, Yuser’s business concept was complex, making it difficult for the company’s chief operations officer to pitch Yuser’s value proposition to external investors. In June 2018, she needed to find a delicate balance that would allow her to inform investors of the venture’s potential without overwhelming them in a sea of confusing details.

In 2018, Volkswagen Group’s newly appointed chief executive officer renewed the company’s commitment to Strategy 2025, an ongoing plan intended to radically transform the German automaker. Volkswagen was being challenged by tectonic changes in the automotive industry, including the phasing out of the long-standing internal combustion engine, ongoing digitization, the entry of new competition from technology companies, the introduction of electric vehicles, and the launch of ride-sharing applications. Strategy 2025 was designed to reshuffle the company’s existing formal and informal structures and restructure the automaker into a nimble, agile, and innovative corporation ready to face the realities of mobility in the digital age. The new chief executive officer faced huge expectations concerning the effectiveness and sustainability of Strategy 2025. Was the automaker doing enough to transform into a competitive mobility company?

On September 30, 2017, the general manager (GM) of Uber Technologies Inc. (Uber) for sub-Saharan Africa, arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, and paid for his Uber service with cash. This functionality of the Uber app represented a new business model for Uber. The GM had to convince global management of the business case for offering cash payment options in Africa; he did so by conducting experiments and showing data that indicated rider numbers had tripled with adoption of the cash payment option. Uber’s driver-partners were concerned about safety when they transported passengers who paid by cash, both because credit card payments offered Uber rider identification and because the driver-partners were concerned about driving around with large amounts of cash. In spite of their concerns, the rationale for introducing a cash payment option was relevant, and it had to be considered carefully in the context of African locations with high crime rates. The GM considered various initiatives for utilizing data from their technology platform to safeguard their riders and drivers. They needed to address local needs in Africa while adhering to global Uber standards.

Presentation to accompany product 8B19M019.

In his recent book, The Enlightened Capitalists, James O'Toole explores the challenges faced by two centuries of business pioneers who tried to do well by doing good. While many of their firms were financially successful, few of their progressive business practices turned out to be enduring. In light of this mixed historical record, this article explores the future of enlightened business leadership. It critically evaluates six trends that will greatly determine the extent to which corporate executives will introduce virtuous practices in the coming decade, including a new generation of enlightened capitalists, several consortia of socially progressive business leaders, the growth of social entrepreneurship, the emergence of benefit corporations, and changes in investor attitudes.

The governance of multilateral alliances is an increasingly important strategic option as firms face discontinuities and disruptions. But not all multilateral alliances present the same governance and leadership challenges. The partners' co-specialized contributions to the alliance call for more creative overall alliance management and for more open-ended forms of collaboration. Governance options range from a very autocratic "hub-and-spoke" model to democratic and participative governance. This puts different demands on the approach and the leadership skills required from the alliance managers.

According to new study led by a professor from Erasmus University, body language sways potential investors more than technical explanations or figurative language do.