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The chief executive officer (CEO) of TriDev Realty Partners, was considering an offer of $22.5 million that she had received for TriDev's Uptown Plaza shopping centre. Although she was looking to divest the property within a year, and the offer appeared attractive based on current income levels, she knew that a number of lease renewals were pending, which could increase the value of the property. Should the CEO sell now or wait until the lease renewals were in place?

Unlike traditional market segmentations that are based on a correlation of product sales or service with the attributes of the purchaser (such as age, gender, income level, and education level), jobs-based segmentation seeks to understand the causal roots of purchase-when a buyer needs to "hire" a product or service to get a "job" done. This note details the thought process and the methodology behind a jobs-based segmentation and provides numerous examples. It highlights three levels in the architecture of a job: 1) What is the fundamental job or problem the customer is facing? This includes political, functional, emotional, and social dimensions; 2) What are the experiences in purchase and use that, if all provided, would sum up to nailing the job perfectly? (The "hiring criteria"); and 3) What do we need to integrate, and how must we knit those things together, so that we can provide these experiences?

The case focuses on the housewares subgroup within the overall retail sector. During the period considered by the case (1970s to 2006), housewares in North America saw the emergence of two "big-box" retailers - Linens 'n Things (LNT) and Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY). LNT and BBBY were founded within four years of each other and their corporate headquarters were just 16 miles apart. Despite this remarkable similarity in starting conditions, their performance outcomes diverged sharply. On the surface, both companies were pursuing a similar business-level strategy of cost leadership, but key strategic decisions led them down quite different evolutionary paths. Both companies focused on providing consumers with high-quality houseware goods in a no-frills, value-priced environment, but LNT's decision to build centralized warehouses - seemingly consistent with a cost leadership strategy - ended up bringing it into direct competition with Target and Walmart. In contrast, BBBY allowed for greater decentralization in decision making, thereby allowing more store-level decision making and greater customization to local consumers' tastes. As a result, BBBY was able to better differentiate itself from Walmart and Target. The case allows instructors to introduce basic strategy concepts, such as industry and environmental analysis, business-level strategies, core competencies and administrative heritage. At the time of the case (February 2006), BBBY's market capitalization was approximately $10.7 billion, while LNT had just been acquired for $1.3 billion by a private equity firm. The case begins right after the acquisition and takes the perspective of the new CEO of LNT, who is tasked with devising a turnaround plan.

In 2007, the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) was facing a saturated market for women's tennis and identified Asia as a growth area. Subsequently, it committed to opening a regional office in Beijing but was unsure how to approach staffing the local office. The dilemma revolved around the intricacies of determining the appropriate mix of local employees and expatriates. The goal of the staffing plan was to achieve a quick, efficient and lasting presence to successfully bring women's tennis to a developing market. The chief operating officer realized that it was no small task to analyze all the different factors to determine the best mix of employees.

In July 2009, General Motors Company (GM),the world's second largest automotive enterprise, has come out of a bankruptcy orchestrated by the U.S. federal government. Leaner and focused after a 40-day exercise, GM is still a long way from a full-fledged financial recovery. The company is under a mandate to concentrate first on its U.S. market. Its European subsidiary, which manufactures the Opel cars, has been struggling for nearly a decade. The business seems fundamentally sound. Opel requires capital infusion and managerial skills for which GM has been talking to potential investors, such as Fiat of Italy, BAIC of China, Magna of Canada and RHJI of Belgium. The board of GM has to decide whether GM should liquidate Opel, retain it within its fold or go for partial divestiture. In the event of a sale of stake, the board has to decide whom, from among those short-listed by the chief executive officer and his team, it should bring aboard. The case provides an opportunity for students to use available data and their judgment to choose a bidder who can drive shareholder value. It helps them deal with issues such as timing and biases in a typical retain/liquidate/divest decision and also whether a company should have, on the lines of a more common M&A strategy, an ongoing divestiture strategy.

Joel Klein took over the NYC Department of Education in 2002 and radically transformed the strategy and organization remarkably with improvements in performance. Day 1 of the two case series focuses on the steps taken by Klein over his eight year tenure. Supplementary video (both for homework and in class) provides Klein's thoughts about major developments.

Market-based solutions to alleviate poverty have become increasingly popular in recent years. Unfortunately, there are very few examples of profitable businesses that market socially useful goods in low-income markets and operate at a large scale. This article examines three case studies of multinational firms that tried to market unquestionably useful products-clean water, eyeglasses, and nutritious yogurt-to the poor but did not succeed commercially. The article also discusses two positive examples of profitable BOP ventures: mobile phones and detergents. Developing strategies for marketing socially useful goods to the poor, far from triggering a revolution in business thinking, requires firms to get back to the basic principles and rules of economics and business.

Uncertainty is at the center of many of the most important strategic decisions made by private businesses and public agencies. Many of these decisions are driven by judgmental rather than data-rich uncertainties-the rate of climate change, the impact of globalization, the prospects for regional conflicts, the extent of environmental legislation, or the advancement of technology. To help improve the way these important judgment-driven decisions are made, an emerging tool-prediction markets-can improve this practice and thereby improve the quality of strategic decision making. While it is important not to be carried away by the latest fad, prediction markets will play a major role in improving the quality of strategic decisions in the future.

The case considers the dilemma faced by the second generation managing director of Ujwal Bharati Pharmaceuticals, a mid-size business in India. Among other issues related to corporate and family governance, he has to decide whether to retain his non-family CEO or not.This case was written in the context of the major efforts made by mid-size Indian family businesses in recent years to professionalize their operations. While the director appreciates the need to professionalize and successfully recruit non-family professionals, he is not able to retain them. The director's major dilemma is not only to delegate but to simultaneously find a way of making use of his time. Indirect opposition to changes from the old guard causes problems and the board, consisting of professionals, is ineffective. The director's elder brother, without any male heir, is non-interfering and the director's only son is not ready for the position.The case is best suited for a session on professionalization of management of a growing company but is also appropriate for courses such as family businesses, organizational behaviour, strategy implementation and entrepreneurship.

This case addresses Bank of America Corporation's contemplated joint venture with China Construction Bank to enter the Chinese credit card market. The case builds on the questions of strategic alliances in foreign markets and the state of the banking and credit industries in China generally. The teaching purposes include 1) understanding the transferability of a business model to a foreign market and assessing the implications of the political, economic, social and technological environment on a firm's strategy in that market; 2) understanding the institutional context of business in a foreign country - specifically the regulatory aspects of the banking industry in China; 3) exploring the cultural implications for business decisions, and the need to understand the nuances of the business model while translating it to radically unfamiliar environments; and 4) understanding the role that local partners play in joint ventures and exploring some aspects of partnering strategies in overcoming institutional handicaps.

On September 15 and 16, 2008, the British artist Damien Hirst broke all rules of the art market. He bypassed conventional distribution channels - dealers and gallery owners - by directly partnering with Sotheby's auction house - and with their help successfully sold more than 200 pieces of his works. Sotheby's auctioned art works which were less than two years old, which was another break from tradition. Hirst earned more than £110 million from the auction - in the midst of a global economic crisis and on the same day that the Lehman Brothers Investment house collapsed.

This note reviews the professional responsibilities and obligations of lawyers In the United States, explains how those standards affect client relationships and, by summarizing rules for resolution of conflicts and withdrawal, sets the stage for a discussion of the concept of professional loyalty to both a company and larger societal interests.

This Note provides an overview of the structure and function of the Insurance industry, with a primary focus on the U.S. It was designed to support the HBS MBA course "Managing the Financial Firm."

This Note provides an overview of the structure and function of the Asset Management industry, with a primary focus on the U.S. It was designed to support the HBS MBA course "Managing the Financial Firm."

Zensar is a rapidly growing, mid-sized Indian IT services company with a collaborative management philosophy and innovative HR policies. One of its practices, Vision Communities, is an inclusive forum for innovation and strategy formulation. As the company grows, managers must decide how to scale the Vision Community process so that it retains its spirit of employee involvement and engagement while encompassing a larger, more geographically dispersed group of participants.

The founder of a new online news site, The Mark, has launched his venture at a time of unprecedented turmoil in the newspaper industry. While he believes that his advertising-based business model is the future face of the industry, he is yet to attract much of a readership. The founder must now decide what strategies are needed to establish his business in the competitive Canadian news landscape.

Being more market oriented-in other words, getting closer to customers while keeping a wary eye on competitors in order to respond quickly and effectively to changing market conditions-has long been viewed as a key way of improving competitive advantage. However, there is still a lack of understanding about how to optimize the implementation of market oriented business strategies, particularly in the service sector. This article addresses that gap by investigating how customer and competitor focused practices can be fine tuned to create differential advantages. An in-depth qualitative study of professional, financial, and business service firms in New Zealand suggests that how well market oriented practices are implemented is much more important than the range of practices that are adopted.

Six vignettes drawn from decided cases explore legal and business issues in hiring, firing, promoting, and demoting employees, with an emphasis on protected classes, pretext, and anti-discrimination laws in the setting of start-ups and privately held companies.

The regulations in the home care industry are changing. The industry is moving toward consolidation and favoring large companies. Closing the Gap, a small home care provider in Ontario, reaches a crossroad. The company has three strategic options to choose from: (1) sell the company, (2) buy another company, or (3) grow organically. Given these conditions, students will be asked to conduct an industry analysis and help the chief executive officer (CEO) of Closing the Gap make the appropriate decision. In the (B) case, students will be asked to evaluate an acquisition possibility and advise the CEO whether the acquisition will be a successful one or not.

This is a supplement to Closing the Gap - The Changing Home Care Environment (A) case, product #910M51. The regulations in the home care industry are changing. The industry is moving toward consolidation and favoring large companies. Closing the Gap reaches a crossroad. In this (B) case, students will be asked to evaluate an acquisition possibility and advise the chief executive officer whether the acquisition will be a successful one or not.