個案總覽

In 2003, lululemon athletica has sales of $30 million, and operations in Canada and the United States. Chip Wilson, the founder of lululemon athletica wants to expand his operations, opening up stores in either Asia or Europe. As his rapidly growing firm does not have resources to expand in both regions, he wonders how he should decide between the two options. This case is the fifth in a series of seven lululemon athletica cases that focus on decision-making using real-options analysis. Other cases in the series are: 9B906M036, 9B06M037, 9B06M038, 9B06M039, 9B06M041 and 9B06M042.

Should lululemon athletica shut down its Internet sales presence, leaving only an informational site? Chip Wilson, founder of lululemon athletica, has noticed that Internet sales have grown more slowly than stores sales. Faced with whether to invest $250,000 to create a appropriate online presence that would match his store presence, Wilson wonders what to do. This is the sixth in a series of seven lululemon athletica cases that focus on decision-making using real-options analysis. Other cases in the series are: 9B06M036, 9B06M037, 9B06M038, 9B06M039, 9B06M040 and 9B06M042.

In 2005, Chip Wilson, the founder of lululemon athletica is thinking about selling a 48 per cent stake in his firm. With $90 million in sales in 2005, lululemon athletica has a bright future ahead. In addition to U.S. expansion plans, the firm is expanding international operations. This case is the seventh in a series of seven lululemon athletica cases that focus on decision-making using real-options analysis. Other case in the series are: 9B06M036, 9B06M037, 9B06M038, 9B06M039, 9B06M040 and 9B06M041.

KTM was a leading sport motorcycle company based in Austria with sales internationally. In 2005, the company was considering expanding into all terrain vehicles (ATVs), a market which was experiencing mid to high double-digit sales growth with healthy operating margins. There were several options open to KTM to expand into the ATV market, including internal development, acquisition of another firm with capabilities in the area of allying with an ATV manufacturer. The chief executive officer had to consider the fit of the ATV business with KTM's core business as well as the implications of the various options for ATV market entry on maintaining control of KTM, achieving KTM's growth objectives, and effectively exploiting the ATV opportunity in an international context. This case allow students to determine how best to pursue a related market to maximize revenue and cost synergies, learning, and control of the firm. This case can be used with KTM: Ready to Race, product 9B05M036.

The chairman and chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems Inc., is struggling to take the company he co-founded into a profitable direction. There is strong evidence that a new strategy is necessary. Segments of Sun's business are growing but open source solutions and commoditization of products are driving revenues toward zero. Decisions involve market focus, pricing and investment in new technologies. The case illustrates the role of management preferences and the limits to an executive's span of attention/control. Both the chairman's and Sun's success is contingent upon an accurate assessment of the industry and the relative position of partners as well as the ability to generate creative solutions.

Countries, organizations, and individuals around the globe spend aggressively to solve social problems, but these efforts often fail to deliver. Misdirected investment is the primary reason for that failure. Most of the money earmarked for social initiatives goes to organizations that are structured to support specific groups of recipients, often with sophisticated solutions. Such organizations rarely reach the broader populations that could be served by simpler alternatives. There is, however, an effective way to get to those underserved populations. The authors call it "catalytic innovation." Based on Clayton Christensen's disruptive-innovation model, catalytic innovations challenge organizational incumbents by offering simpler, good-enough solutions aimed at underserved groups. Unlike disruptive innovations, though, catalytic innovations are focused on creating social change. Catalytic innovators are defined by five distinct qualities. First, they create social change through scaling and replication. Second, they meet a need that is either overserved (that is, the existing solution is more complex than necessary for many people) or not served at all. Third, the products and services they offer are simpler and cheaper than alternatives, but recipients view them as good enough. Fourth, they bring in resources in ways that initially seem unattractive to incumbents. And fifth, they are often ignored, put down, or even discouraged by existing organizations, which don't see the catalytic innovators' solutions as viable. As the authors show through examples in health care, education, and economic development, both nonprofit and for-profit groups are finding ways to create catalytic innovation that drives social change.

In 1985 the architect Michael Graves designed his first consumer product--a now famous teakettle--for Alessi, the northern Italian home-furnishings manufacturer. Although Graves later designed a knockoff for Target that goes for one-fifth the price, Alessi has sold more than 1.5 million of the original version, which grew out of a process that Roberto Verganti calls "design-driven innovation." Alessi, the lighting manufacturers Flos and Artemide, the furniture maker Kartell, and a handful of other firms based in the Lombardy region ignore the design industry's two norms: "tech push," whereby an improvement in performance and functionality dictates a modification in design, and "market pull," whereby the design accommodates consumers' demand for new features. Instead, they favor an R&D operation in which a community of architects, suppliers, critics, publishers, artists, designers, and others immerse themselves in a discourse about the role, identity, and meaning of a product well before they address its form. The products that result often represent a dramatic break from their predecessors--giving them longer commercial lives and creating high consumer expectations for the brand's future offerings. A familiar example of how a change in a product's meaning can lead to a change in its design and identity is the iMac, whose friendly colors and ovoid form declared it to be, in contrast to the typical desktop computer, an appliance for the home. The author's eight years of research into seven European design communities revealed the Lombardy cluster's special strengths: the number and quality of the links between components of the design system, such as schools, studios, and manufacturers. In addition, Lombardy is strong on imagination and motivation--qualities within reach of any group of businesses. Verganti uses the Finger Lakes region of New York State to demonstrate that the potential for a design discourse exists almost everywhere.

Centers on the Inditex Group (Industria del Diseno Textil), a Spanish corporation that ranks among the world fashion industry leaders along with companies such as GAP, Nike, Benetton, and H&M. Inditex owns several brands, including Zara, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, and Kiddy's Class. To respond to repeated attacks by NGOs, the company had initially pursued a reactive corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy. However, it was now actively working on the implementation of a CSR plan that spanned its whole production and sales processes, focusing on working conditions at the company's manufacture outsourcing shops. Its strategy addressed profound structural changes undergone by the industry and the company itself. While in 1980 all production operations were based in Spain, by 2003 Inditex had expanded to include production centers as well as certified suppliers in the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia. On the other hand, the initially family-owned company had gone public at a world level. At the time, several NGOs had begun to look into and report on the overall textile sector in the midst of a campaign against labor exploitation, child labor, and corporate social irresponsibility at large. This situation posed new challenges for the company, especially regarding labor, and workers' social and economic conditions. In order to face these challenges, a Corporate Social Responsibility Department and a Social Council were created to ensure that corporate actions reflected the company's social responsibility and commitment and to communicate sustainability values and respect for human rights across the board.

Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Limited (Orchid) is an Indian pharmaceutical company, which commenced its operations in 1994. Over a span of 10 years, the turnover of this company has increased from US$11 million to US$153 million. The company's profit after tax registered a five fold increase from US$1.3 million to US$6.8 million in the corresponding period. Early success was a combination of pricing flexibility, lower production cost and business opportunities in unregulated markets. Orchid decided to explore opportunities for the manufacture of generic drugs in the regulated markets and formulations in the domestic market. Diversification to basic research was also considered. Cooperation and joint ventures were the primary route to expand and explore new molecule discovery. By 2005, Orchid was no longer a single-product company, its business had widened to multiple products in bulk, formulations and generics, in both regulated and unregulated markets. Orchid was making its presence felt in its novel drug delivery systems and new drug development processes. In 2005, Orchid faced several challenges related to financial leverage and risks, leadership, managerial challenges associated with joint ventures, balancing the new business model, setting global trends in being a pioneer in the industry, addressing shareholders' concerns and evolving an appropriate organization culture and process.

In 2004 CCL Industries Inc. was a leading producer of value-added outsourcing custom products and packages for numerous large consumer packaged goods companies. CCL's chief executive officer and vice-chair faced an important strategic decision. The CEO was contemplating selling the custom manufacturing division of CCL that was the basis for its founding, and still contributed approximately 34 per cent of overall earnings. Although the firm had acquired and divested many business units throughout its history, this divestment was perhaps the most significant in terms of its historical importance. The divestment of this division represented a major change to the essence and strategy of the firm. CCL was fortunate to have a very active, supportive yet independent board of directors. The CEO had to ensure that if he recommended divesting the custom manufacturing division, he would need to be very well prepared for some intense questioning from the board regarding the soundness of his proposal. The board took their role as stewards of the corporation very seriously.

This note examines an industry that is losing its competitive advantages due to globalization. Suitable for use in a section of an international strategy/business policy course which introduces the topic of industry analysis. It is intended to be used as an application of Michael Porter's Five Forces Model, where students are asked to determine the attractiveness of an industry and its ultimate profit potential. Because pewter design, product and sales occur in an international value chain, this case can also be used in an international management course.

The CEO of a Singapore-based computer company, with successful operations in Europe and Asia, was contemplating whether to pursue growth opportunities in the United States. The company had to decide between developing its own subsidiary, acquiring a small mail-order company based in Austin, Texas, or not entering the U.S. market at this time. If the acquisition option was pursued, there were challenges regarding fixing an appropriate value for the company, as well as integrating the American subsidiary into its own global network.

Mekong, a joint venture among Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese auto assemblers, is facing significant changes in the business environment in Vietnam. As the government of Vietnam has implemented its economic and administrative reform program, foreign and domestic companies in Vietnam have had to deal with changes in regulations and competitive forces. In addition, Vietnam's membership in ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) has further complicated the business decisions that foreign companies have to make in this newly-opened economy. Students will be challenged to devise a strategy for Mekong as a multi-national company operating in the Far East.

The managing director of a new Malaysian producer of stainless steel tubing received a letter from the company's attorney in Washington, DC, informing him that the U.S. Specialty Tube Group had written to the U.S. President concerning stainless steel tubing imported into the U.S. from Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia at dumped prices that was causing injury to the U.S. industry. For the next year, the managing director considered how he should respond to this threat, while at the same time increasing the company's exports to the U.S. so that it could meet its sales and profits goals. One year later, he was informed that a formal antidumping action had been taken against imports of stainless steel tubing from Malaysia (and other countries). He is considering what he should do now, both to preserve the company's U.S. market and maintain alternative markets in other countries.

The managing director and founder of Bangkok-based Siam Canadian Foods Co., Ltd., was considering the emerging business opportunities in neighboring Burma (also known as Myanmar). Although relatively undeveloped compared to the rest of Southeast Asia, Burma had been experiencing increasing levels of foreign investment activity in recent years. Siam, who had considered entering Burma in the past but declined, needed to determine if the time was now appropriate for the company to enter the market.

The Mountain Hardwear A, B, and C cases cover the founding and rise of the premium outdoor apparel and equipment manufacturer. The A case (set between late 1993 and 1999) addresses the company's founding, early brand development, and the particular characteristics of the outdoor apparel and equipment industry. The B case is set in 2003 and examines trends within that industry as well as the company's opportunity to be acquired by a larger, more diversified apparel company. The C case is set in 2006, and it examines Mountain Hardwear's athlete sponsorship program.

The Mountain Hardwear A, B, and C cases cover the founding and rise of the premium outdoor apparel and equipment manufacturer. The A case (set between late 1993 and 1999) addresses the company's founding, early brand development, and the particular characteristics of the outdoor apparel and equipment industry. The B case is set in 2003 and examines trends within that industry as well as the company's opportunity to be acquired by a larger, more diversified apparel company. The C case is set in 2006, and it examines Mountain Hardwear's athlete sponsorship program.

Supplements the (A) case.

This comprehensive technical note explains linear regression. It is intended for students with no prior knowlede of the topic. It is devided into nine sections, which may be assigned separately: 1. The simple linear model, 2. Fitting the model using least Squares, 3. Important properties of the least-squares regression line, 4. Summary regression statistics, 5. Assumptions behind the linear model, 6. Model-building Philosophy, 7. Forecasting using the linear model, 8. Using dummy variables to represent categorical variables, and 9. Useful data transformations. The sections correspond to stand-alone notes also available through Darden Business Publishing

Provides an overview of bankruptcy procedures in U.S. courts and a framework for evaluating the different sources of uncertainty and their implications for various stakeholders of the firm when attempting a reorganization with creditors or considering opening a court-supervised reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. Recent data on filings is presented as well as a summary of the hierarchy of claims and outline of bankruptcy events. While the stigma associated with bankruptcy for executives and boards of directors has diminished, companies can use the threat of a voluntary bankruptcy as a bargaining tool to negotiate with creditors.