個案總覽

The case examines the downward spiral of Nokia, the mobile technology giant that once conquered the world, seen from the perspective of 'insiders' - based on interviews with Nokia executives at top and middle management level. They describe the emotional undercurrents of the innovation process that caused temporal myopia - an excessive focus on short-term innovation at the expense of longer-term more beneficial activities. Nokia's once-stellar performance was undermined by misaligned collective fear: top managers were afraid of competition from rival products, while middle managers were afraid of their bosses and even their peers. It was their reluctance to share negative information with top managers - who thus remained overly optimistic about the organisation's capabilities - that generated inaccurate feedback and poorly adapted organizational responses that led to the company's downfall. The case covers the period from the early 2000s to 2010, with a focus on 2007 (the introduction of the iPhone) to 2010, when the CEO left.

In 2016, the oldest member of the family business The Ong Group was concerned about the ailing firm that he and his siblings were running. The business had been started in 1957 in Hong Kong by their father. After the death of the father and one of the siblings, the remaining family members needed a plan for the future of the business. Should all of the remaining siblings and their children be allowed to become directors in the family firm? How could they create a workable governance structure that would help the family make the right decisions? How would they put the business back on track?

It was the summer of 2015 when the son of a family-owned real estate business in Vancouver was struck by love and decided to follow his heart to India. However, leaving his family's business was easier said than done. The family had no formal documents that provided members with an exit strategy or remuneration. There were no wills or financial plans, and whatever money was available to finance a move abroad was tied up in the family business, which was operating at a loss. At stake was the pending sale of a commercial property that could inject nearly $3 million into the family's coffers. Before leaving, which short- and long-term issues needed to be addressed to ensure the business and the family estate were prepared for the future? How should the family move forward when faced with the realization that the children might not be interested in taking over the business?

In 2016, the oldest member of the family business The Ong Group was concerned about the ailing firm that he and his siblings were running. The business had been started in 1957 in Hong Kong by their father. After the death of the father and one of the siblings, the remaining family members needed a plan for the future of the business. Should all of the remaining siblings and their children be allowed to become directors in the family firm? How could they create a workable governance structure that would help the family make the right decisions? How would they put the business back on track?

It was the summer of 2015 when the son of a family-owned real estate business in Vancouver was struck by love and decided to follow his heart to India. However, leaving his family’s business was easier said than done. The family had no formal documents that provided members with an exit strategy or remuneration. There were no wills or financial plans, and whatever money was available to finance a move abroad was tied up in the family business, which was operating at a loss. At stake was the pending sale of a commercial property that could inject nearly $3 million into the family’s coffers. Before leaving, which short- and long-term issues needed to be addressed to ensure the business and the family estate were prepared for the future? How should the family move forward when faced with the realization that the children might not be interested in taking over the business?

Want an easy way to become a better leader in the age of uncertainty? Read philosophy. It helps remind us about what we should instinctively already know: to never be afraid to ask questions. As Bertrand Russell said: “To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can still do for those who study it.” Brexit should drive business leaders to review existing strategies and pay extra attention to agility when planning business models. This, of course, requires facing the unknown. And the most powerful weapon for senior managers today is being comfortable in facing uncertainty. After all, unless you’re willing to put decision making on indefinite hold, you must learn to calmly get over the challenges of the unknown and make a call. But just being able to boldly move forward isn’t enough because no organization benefits from blind leaps forward. The key is finding the prudent middle ground between being reckless and timid when facing the unknown. And one of the best ways to learn how to do that well is through understanding philosophy, which complements business smarts and other skills taught in business programs. Philosophy is the study of knowledge through critical thinking and questioning — and that’s where the return on time invested for executives sits, because philosophy sharpens their questioning technique and answer-interpretation skills.

Daiso Industries Co., Ltd. was the largest 100-yen (or one dollar) shop operator in Japan, with nearly 2,900 stores in Japan and 1,400 stores in 26 other countries. The privately owned company featured nearly 50,000 products, ranging from office supplies to cosmetics and seasonal holiday decorations-most items (98 percent) were priced at 100 yen, with some exceptions. Some 99 percent of Daiso's products were privately branded, but only a small fraction were internally manufactured. As of January 2016, Daiso operated 2,900 stores in Japan and 1,400 stores in 26 other countries. To transform from a truck-based pop-up operation into an extensive global chain of stores that generated $3.5 billion in sales for the fiscal year ending March 2016, Daiso made three major strategic decisions. The case study takes students through these decisions, and includes an in-depth look at the point-of-sale (POS) technology that helped Daiso create a highly efficient delivery and restocking system, as well as streamline the treasure hunt or discovery retail model-a store where people shopped for the sheer fun of discovering surprise items.

In 2014, the co-founders of Professionals for Resource Identification and Management (PRIMA), an architecture and planning consultancy firm in India, faced several issues. The company prepared feasibility and project reports, and provided project management services during a project's construction stage for government organizations, the public sector, and the private sector. PRIMA's consultancy services addressed the restoration of old buildings of historical importance (such as monasteries, temples, and museums), tourism development, urban planning projects, capacity building, and project management services. However, in the latter half of 2008, the global recession made it difficult for new companies to survive, and growth had further stagnated since 2012, with only one new project procured in 2013 and none in 2014. PRIMA's cofounders were constrained by critical issues in three intricately linked categories: human resources, financial management, and project management challenges. To stabilize PRIMA's cash flow, the co-founders needed to increase the firm's project portfolio, which required hiring more people for business development, personnel management, and project work. How could the co-founders build PRIMA's capabilities to compete with bigger companies in this fragmented but consolidating industry?

Student Spreadsheet for case W16589.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited was a large public sector company operating in the downstream segment of the highly regulated oil and natural gas industry in India. It made large investments in the segment-specific assets in refining and distributing petroleum products. In fiscal year 2014/15, the annual turnover of Indian Oil Corporation Limited was ₹4,507 billion (US$73.7 billion), and its net profit was ₹52 billion. The strategic positioning of the company was heavily influenced by its social agenda and supported by the Indian government. After the liberalization of the Indian economy, the company was faced with serious competition from the private sector, and had limited access to the upstream segment. In 2015, Indian Oil Corporation Limited attempted to vertically integrate in order to become an integrated energy company. The senior management team evaluated the challenges and strategic choices available to Indian Oil Corporation Limited in terms of integration and exploration, brownfield investment in the petrochemicals sector, and modernization of refineries. The key question before the team was how to distribute Indian Oil Corporation Limited's resources among these three strategic choices.

In 2015, Aro Granite Industries Limited, a successful granite company in India, competed against rivals in Brazil and China to win a coveted, large order from the United States. The order was particularly meaningful because the United States was the most valuable market for Indian granite exporters. Aro Granite Industries had a good reputation and was both financially sound and technically advanced; however, like all granite companies in India, it faced a lack of raw granite despite India having one of the world’s largest reservoirs of good-quality granite. The Indian granite industry was also challenged by poor infrastructure for moving the granite, an inconsistent power supply, and an inadequate supply of skilled labour. The company’s promoter and managing director needed to ensure the company could overcome these challenges and deliver the order. How should he resolve the challenges and improve the overall import and export conditions for the Indian granite sector?

Indian Oil Corporation Limited was a large public sector company operating in the downstream segment of the highly regulated oil and natural gas industry in India. It made large investments in the segment-specific assets in refining and distributing petroleum products. In fiscal year 2014/15, the annual turnover of Indian Oil Corporation Limited was ?4,507 billion (US$73.7 billion), and its net profit was ?52 billion. The strategic positioning of the company was heavily influenced by its social agenda and supported by the Indian government. After the liberalization of the Indian economy, the company was faced with serious competition from the private sector, and had limited access to the upstream segment. In 2015, Indian Oil Corporation Limited attempted to vertically integrate in order to become an integrated energy company. The senior management team evaluated the challenges and strategic choices available to Indian Oil Corporation Limited in terms of integration and exploration, brownfield investment in the petrochemicals sector, and modernization of refineries. The key question before the team was how to distribute Indian Oil Corporation Limited's resources among these three strategic choices.

OYO Rooms had been growing exponentially since its inception in 2013. By January 2016, it had registered 1 million check-ins and was set to become India’s largest budget hotel chain. The venture's unique business model helped it to offer effective solutions for the difficulties that were faced by customers seeking budget hotel accommodation in India. OYO Rooms' potential for rapid growth made it a candidate for even greater expansion in the global arena. However, OYO Rooms needed to prove its ability to sustain growth in the Indian budget accommodations market. The company’s success and the opening of a huge untapped market had led to a flurry of competition. Would the entrepreneurial founder be able to sustain his company's early momentum in the wake of increased competition? What would be the best strategy to achieve growth and monetize the company’s operations? Should OYO Rooms diversify into allied services or apply a more focused strategy? The founder needed to answer these questions to retain the company’s dominant position in the market.

In February 2016, the owner of Moonka Automobile was struggling with the strategic decision he needed to make to increase revenue and improve profitability. Moonka Automobile had been in business as a full-service, two-wheeler dealership for eight years in India, had a strong customer base, a good reputation, and a positive relationship with the manufacturer, Honda. But, competition was increasing and business growth was slowing. The owner identified various alternatives for growth, but given the changes taking place in the two-wheeler market, the owner’s limited resources, and his excellent relationship with Honda, he needed to make some difficult decisions.

OYO Rooms had been growing exponentially since its inception in 2013. By January 2016, it had registered 1 million check-ins and was set to become India's largest budget hotel chain. The venture's unique business model helped it to offer effective solutions for the difficulties that were faced by customers seeking budget hotel accommodation in India. OYO Rooms' potential for rapid growth made it a candidate for even greater expansion in the global arena. However, OYO Rooms needed to prove its ability to sustain growth in the Indian budget accommodations market. The company's success and the opening of a huge untapped market had led to a flurry of competition. Would the entrepreneurial founder be able to sustain his company's early momentum in the wake of increased competition? What would be the best strategy to achieve growth and monetize the company's operations? Should OYO Rooms diversify into allied services or apply a more focused strategy? The founder needed to answer these questions to retain the company's dominant position in the market.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a federally funded research institution within NASA, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has played a large role in many space and planetary explorations, particularly to the planet Mars. As a project-based organization, JPL has many opportunities to learn between successive missions, but there are many cultural, structural and incentive-based challenges to the development and exchange of experience-based knowledge. The main case decision point focuses on one such challenge in particular: how to instill in junior engineers the practice-based experience of their seniors. Jennifer Trosper, project manager for the Mars 2020 mission, is trying to decide whether or not to seek funding for a hands-on training program building miniature, educational versions of a Mars surface vehicle. However, the cases address a number of other managerial decisions, such as determining the balance between innovation and replication of prior solutions, given that Trosper has been charged with re-using engineering designs from prior projects, but for an expanded mission. The cases also explore generic knowledge-transfer issues faced by JPL's Chief Knowledge Officer, David Oberhettinger, such as the role of documentation, uses of formal "lessons learned," and how best to use the scarce time of the most valuable JPL engineers.

Several private startups, including Planetary Resources, SpaceX, and Deep Space Industries, had initiated plans to mine minerals in space. The ventures looked promising: an asteroid one kilometre in diameter contained, potentially, $20 trillion worth of industrial and precious metals. Governments had become involved in space exploration as well, with interests that ranged from projecting military power in space to claiming resources. The current legal framework surrounding space exploration was vague, but the United Nations Treaties and Principles on Outer Space recognized extraterrestrial resources as the "common heritage of humankind." What should a privately funded venture company consider when developing a strategy for space exploration and mining? What would be the concerns of a senior government official or a representative from a global organization such as the United Nations? Are the concerns different for different countries?

Supplement to case W16564.

To compete in the digital age, most companies understand that they must see digital and analytics capabilities as a core competency and strategic priority. But with the supply of talent falling further behind demand, attracting elite talent has proven difficult, especially for organizations playing catch-up. Even companies with advanced digital and analytics capabilities are struggling to meet their needs. The challenge is only getting harder, as demand is expected to grow significantly. Based on input from nearly 450 senior executives, A.T. Kearney’s second annual LEAP study validated its view that companies face growing challenges in seeking to build their digital and analytics talent. The authors define four levels of the analytics organization: 1. Leaders: Companies that deploy analytics to generate foresight on future business trends and to play a role in decision-making innovation. 2. Explorers: Companies that use analytics to predict trends to optimize business performance. 3. Followers: Companies that deploy analytics to understand and manage the drivers of cost and revenue. 4. Laggards: Companies that use analytics in the limited role of viewing past performance. <br><br> Various strategies used by leading firms to hire and retain intelligent, driven people who can work seamlessly at today’s intersection of technology, analytics, and business include: building a unique digital and analytics brand; embracing rotational programs; using cross-disciplinary teams; and building industry–university partnerships. Understanding a firm’s unique needs is key to determining how to go about hiring and retaining the right people to address those needs. Nevertheless, success in today’s marketplace requires a new normal in which digital and analytics capabilities are core to operations. Figuring out how to attract and retain “trilinguals” is the key to offering a distinct competitive advantage.

Several private startups, including Planetary Resources, SpaceX, and Deep Space Industries, had initiated plans to mine minerals in space. The ventures looked promising: an asteroid one kilometre in diameter contained, potentially, $20 trillion worth of industrial and precious metals. Governments had become involved in space exploration as well, with interests that ranged from projecting military power in space to claiming resources. The current legal framework surrounding space exploration was vague, but the United Nations Treaties and Principles on Outer Space recognized extraterrestrial resources as the “common heritage of humankind.” What should a privately funded venture company consider when developing a strategy for space exploration and mining? What would be the concerns of a senior government official or a representative from a global organization such as the United Nations? Are the concerns different for different countries? Optional supplement, 9B16M054, is available.