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This is a two part case study that explores Celtel Nigeria's innovative approach to serving the rural poor. Case A provides an overview of the mobile telecommunications market in Nigeria as of mid 2007, as well as detailed demographic and socioeconomic information. At the time of the case, Celtel Nigeria is the second largest mobile telecommunications company in the Nigerian market. The company has experienced considerable success in serving Nigeria's cities and larger towns, but has only recently shifted its attention to serving poorer consumers in rural areas - a massive but as of yet under tapped market. But this shift from urban to rural has not been easy, and although some 50% of Nigeria's population lives in rural regions the challenges of reaching them sometimes seem overwhelming. The absence of a reliable national electricity grid means that the company's rural telecommunications towers have to be run on diesel generators, resulting in high maintenance and diesel fuel costs. Theft and vandalism of expensive communications equipment and generators has emerged as a major concern, resulting in the need to employ full-time security guards on virtually every base station site outside of urban areas. At the end of case A, Celtel Nigeria's chief operating officer Lars Stork is pondering the challenges of bringing the benefits of mobile telecommunications to Nigeria's rural poor, setting the scene for analysis by students in suggesting potential route to market approaches for the company. Case B demonstrates how Celtel has been able to implement a highly innovative marketing strategy to serve low-income rural customers. At the heart of this marketing approach is what is called the Rural Acquisition Initiative (RAI), a micro-franchising model involving partnerships with local entrepreneurs.

This is a two part case study that explores Celtel Nigeria's innovative approach to serving the rural poor. Case A provides an overview of the mobile telecommunications market in Nigeria as of mid 2007, as well as detailed demographic and socioeconomic information. At the time of the case, Celtel Nigeria is the second largest mobile telecommunications company in the Nigerian market. The company has experienced considerable success in serving Nigeria's cities and larger towns, but has only recently shifted its attention to serving poorer consumers in rural areas - a massive but as of yet under tapped market. But this shift from urban to rural has not been easy, and although some 50% of Nigeria's population lives in rural regions the challenges of reaching them sometimes seem overwhelming. The absence of a reliable national electricity grid means that the company's rural telecommunications towers have to be run on diesel generators, resulting in high maintenance and diesel fuel costs. Theft and vandalism of expensive communications equipment and generators has emerged as a major concern, resulting in the need to employ full-time security guards on virtually every base station site outside of urban areas. At the end of case A, Celtel Nigeria's chief operating officer Lars Stork is pondering the challenges of bringing the benefits of mobile telecommunications to Nigeria's rural poor, setting the scene for analysis by students in suggesting potential route to market approaches for the company. Case B demonstrates how Celtel has been able to implement a highly innovative marketing strategy to serve low-income rural customers. At the heart of this marketing approach is what is called the Rural Acquisition Initiative (RAI), a micro-franchising model involving partnerships with local entrepreneurs.

The Stitch It Group (Stitch It) is a mall-based clothing alteration service. Having previously sold Stitch It to its current owners in 1990 (retaining the chief executive officer (CEO) position), the founder and CEO was presented with an opportunity in 2003 to repurchase the company. Having originally sold the business because he was too cash-strapped to grow it himself, Stitch It had since grown from three store locations to 84 stores under three brand names spread throughout Canada and the United States. In determining whether to buy back the firm he founded, the founder and CEO also needed to consider his daughter Jennifer's expressed interest in becoming an executive in the firm. How would he provide Jennifer with the proper technical training to become familiar with all aspects of the firm's business, and improve her business acumen and leadership skills? The founder and CEO had one week to inform the owners of his intent to purchase and he felt it was a good deal, considering the opportunity for growth. Even if the founder and CEO resolved to buy back his company, he wondered how to train Jennifer to take over the business one day.

Kimberly-Clark in the Andean region had hit a performance plateau. Five years prior, Sergio Nacach had taken over as general manager for the region and had embarked on a cultural transformation to build a winning culture centered on the people who worked for the organization. This case explores what he did and the context within which he did it. Similar to other cases on high commitment work arrangements, but set in a non-U.S. context, the case discusses organizational cultural change, the extent to which high performance work practices generalize across settings, and what made the Andean region a particularly receptive place for this management approach. The case also raises the issues of how to keep the enthusiasm going and the extent to which this transformation depended on a particular individual and his personal style.

TeaBox was a small, food-selling retail shop located in secondary schools in Hong Kong. It was considered a bold enterprise as it was run by a non-governmental organization using social workers to test social enterprise as a way of servicing the community. After one year in business, an evaluation of the enterprise identified poor management as the cause of financial losses and complaints in employee surveys. The superintendent of TeaBox was determined to save the venture and began by investigating the financial statements and employee surveys in depth to find a way to make TeaBox a viable enterprise and differentiate it from other, similar providers. Based on this analysis, he wanted to develop a concrete plan to become successful.

This is a supplemental case to TeaBox - Running Tuck Shops in Hong Kong Schools (A), product 9B08M032. TeaBox management had identified employee dissatisfaction as a major reason for its poor first-year evaluation. Manpower reallocation was seen as a key success factor, and properly executed it could prove to the stakeholders that it was capable of running a successful social venture. The superintendent of TeaBox formed a committee to decide upon a new manager and to provide ideas for future expansion.

When a firm chooses to enter or continue business in a foreign market, it becomes exposed to associated political risks which should be assessed and managed. Help is available for becoming aware of the level of macro political risk; that is, the political risk across industries or all businesses in entire countries or geographic regions. Yet, surprisingly little guidance exists by which to identify and assess firm-specific political risks, termed micro political risk. Herein, we offer some new perspectives on the nature of micro political risk within a host country, illustrating how it stems from economic, societal, and governmental forces. We have compiled a number of firm-specific variables which can affect the firm's micro political risk profile, and advance an innovative methodology by which executives can address these variables and develop an assessment of their firm's micro political risk. Examples of micro political risk situations are provided, along with discussion of implementing the proposed methodology.      

A series of visits to a Fortune 500 wholesale distribution company of technology products revealed a changing perspective regarding building and implementing reverse logistics programs. Five major initiatives define the reverse logistics program design process at this company: (1) Gain senior management support and turn reverse logistics into a company-wide initiative; (2) Involve your customers in the reverse logistics design process; (3) Give distinct recognition to the employees involved in handling returns within the firm; (4) Implement carefully developed written rules and procedures that reflect both internal and external concerns; and (5) Assign strict responsibility for the execution of the reverse logistics program. The study follows these five major considerations in more detail. The interviews and observations at this particular firm provide guidelines for managerial decisions relating to reverse logistics.     

A situational theory of leadership attempts to match a particular leadership style or type to specific external circumstances. The general idea is that one type of leadership will be effective in one situation, but a different type of leadership will be effective in another situation. Historically, situational theories of leadership have been too abstract to apply to specific situations. Nevertheless, the concept of situational leadership retains considerable intuitive appeal. In this article we draw on our previous research about situational leadership during resuscitation in a trauma center, in order to derive a general strategy of how a leader can best develop his or her own personal theory of leadership which best works for their unique circumstances. The core of the strategic approach involves: (1) defining goals for a specific situation, (2) defining potential leadership types, (3) identifying situational conditions, (4) matching a leadership style to the particular situation, and (5) determining how the match between leadership style and situation will be made. The medical trauma center we profile provided an interesting example of how leaders considered elements of the situation to guide their own leadership.

Kevin Reilly, at forty-six years old, had one of his first television executive experiences in the drama department at NBC, had―like many others―experienced his fair share of drama. What he described as the "three toughest years of my career" were at NBC when he served as entertainment president from 2003 to 2007. Reilly had re-joined NBC, after having originally worked his way up the executive ladder there from 1988 to 1994. He joined the second time around, just as NBC- which had a record ratings and profit run in the mid-90's to 2001-had begun a downward spiral brought about by a long development drought. In a little over a month, Reilly became the President of Entertainment at the top-rated Fox network. Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori, Reilly's former boss at the FX Network (a Fox-owned cable network), approached Reilly about the prospect of gaining a chance to "do over" his experience at NBC. Reilly had worked with Liguori at FX (from 2000 to 2003), where Liguori had been chairman and Reilly entertainment president. This time around, Liguori hired Reilly to oversee all programming responsibilities for FOX Broadcasting Company. Reilly started at Fox in July 2007 but nearly four months later, he faced a writers' strike, which hobbled the entertainment industry for most of the year, ending just as the nascent signs of the severe economic downturn had already begun to taken shape. Despite such challenges, Reilly pushed forward, doing what he had done throughout his career, which was to challenge the system, question convention, and find and develop hit shows that appealed to general audiences and critics alike.

This brief case narrative tells the story of how a few people managed to wring consensus from over 40 of their neighbors on repaving a shared driveway. While there was general agreement that the driveway, which ran behind their buildings, was in poor shape, there was little impetus to do something about it, in large part because of the daunting task of organizing a large and disparate group of residents, who had hitherto shown little interest in working together on common goals. The case describes the barriers to mobilization in the Maple Lane neighborhood, and the tactics used to maneuver around them. HKS Case Number 1902.0

The new outsider-dominated board of directors of China's state-owned Baosteel Group must decide whether to modify the Group's structure. With the completion of a pending acquisition, the Group will control four publicly listed steel-producing subsidiaries, and board members are concerned about competition among the subsidiaries and about the subsidiaries' public shareholders. Selected by the Chinese government as the first company to take part in a pilot project on corporate governance in state-owned enterprises, Baosteel and its board are under intense scrutiny by Chinese and overseas investors in the listed subsidiaries as well as by China's political leadership and the media. The case provides background on Baosteel, China's SOE reform, the Chinese government's pilot project on corporate governance, and the functioning of Baosteel's newly constituted board of directors.

Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation has a horizontal firm structure in an industry that is predominantly organized vertically. While it has been successful in up markets, in the current down market its strategic rationale was being tested. As a capital intensive manufacturer of DRAMs that had to license its designs from abroad, was it able to compete with large vertically integrated firms who controlled the whole value chain? How did its approach compare to that of its partner Elpida? Can Powerchip and Elpida together make up a "virtual integrated device manufacturer?" The case examines some of the unique characteristics of the DRAM industry, in which manufacturers employ large scale to compete on cost in the production of standardized commodities.

TOTO, the leading manufacturer of toilets in Japan, is struggling to penetrate the US market with its premier bidet-toilets, which are present in 63% of homes in Japan. The case examines the behavioral, cultural, and institutional barriers that TOTO faces in gaining adoption of an innovation. It also explores the role of product categorization in driving consumer behavior - in contrast to the US, toilets in Japan are considered a high-tech consumer electronic device. Finally, the role of organizational identity and culture is examined. The creation of the bidet-toilet category in Japan was a defining accomplishment for TOTO, and this history has created a strong commitment to promoting it in the US. But given that TOTO has been highly successful selling regular high-end toilets in the US, is this commitment to the bidet-toilet appropriate?

This case is a follow-up to SPM-39A, which described three eras of the Anaheim Ducks NHL hockey team. In 2007, the team won the Stanley Cup (the NHL championship). This case describes the opportunities and challenges facing team management as a result of winning the Stanley Cup.

This case traces the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League through three distinct eras, beginning with the teams founding and initial success (1992-1997), through a period of ownership turmoil and financial loss (1998-2004), and then new ownership and rebuilding (2005-2008). It discusses issues both on and off the ice, including ownership business strategy (such as the Disney Company's strategy for using the team to promote tourism to Anaheim, site of Disneyland, and to promote its Mighty Ducks films). The case also discusses branding and other strategic issues addressed during each era by the team's various owners.

Writing to Reflect introduces the use of writing as an aid to creative and critical thinking in the context of leading change. The note explains how the process of reflective writing slows thinking and encourages improved skills in sense-making, analysis, decision-making, and meta-cognition. Included are ideas on how to get started and 13 writing prompts related to leading change.

A major sports league has decided to run its season opening game in Mexico City. When the teams arrive in the country four days before the event, two of Team A's star players are kidnapped. The (A) case provides relevant background information about the league, the team, the players, and the planned activities surrounding the season opening game. It also describes what is initially known about the crisis situation. In cases (B) through (F), additional information is revealed as the crisis unfolds. With each case, students are given important issues and questions to consider and discuss.

A major sports league has decided to run its season opening game in Mexico City. When the teams arrive in the country four days before the event, two of Team A's star players are kidnapped. The (A) case provides relevant background information about the league, the team, the players, and the planned activities surrounding the season opening game. It also describes what is initially known about the crisis situation. In cases (B) through (F), additional information is revealed as the crisis unfolds. With each case, students are given important issues and questions to consider and discuss.

A major sports league has decided to run its season opening game in Mexico City. When the teams arrive in the country four days before the event, two of Team A's star players are kidnapped. The (A) case provides relevant background information about the league, the team, the players, and the planned activities surrounding the season opening game. It also describes what is initially known about the crisis situation. In cases (B) through (F), additional information is revealed as the crisis unfolds. With each case, students are given important issues and questions to consider and discuss.