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In 1996, Gillette acquired Duracell batteries for $7.3 billion in stock. The purchase was met with optimism not only by Gillette's senior management and its highly visible director, Warren Buffet, but also Wall Street analysts. The case highlights the numerous challenges that Gillette has encountered since its acquisition of Duracell. Despite the initial enthusiasm, Duracell has proven to be a drain on Gillette's earning and has cost Michael Hawley, James Kilt's predecessor as CEO, his job after only 18 months in the position - in large part for his inability to turn around the financial hemorrhaging at the Duracell division. The key strategy questions revolve around what can be done to turn around the battery business to help it achieve the potential for Gillette that everyone had assumed it possessed. The supplement Gillette's Energy Drain (B): Energizer's Acquisition of Schick, product 9B05M027 highlights Energizer's October 2003 acquisition of Schick.

This is a supplement to Gillett's Energy Drain (A): The Acquisition of Duracell, product 9B05M026. Highlighted is Energizer's acquisition of Schick. Gillette was just dabbling in batteries but its source of profits always been in razors and blades. Now, that business is under direct threat by Energizer, with its acquisition of Schick. This supplement provides an excellent example of multipoint competition, and raises the question, should Gillette have anticipated that the acquisition of a battery company would ultimately put razor profits at risk?

This short technical note shows students how to use StatTools to complete a simple regression analysis.

The president of Loblaw Companies Limited must decide what to do in response to the rumoured introduction of Wal-Mart's SuperCenters (combining grocery and non-food items) in Canada. The potential launch of SuperCenters in Canada was seen by observers as a threat to Loblaw, the market leader in Canadian grocery. Wal-Mart is a vigorous competitor, and the Every Day Low Prices strategy of Wal-Mart's SuperCenters could wean away traffic from Loblaw's various banners.

Provides a detailed process to revitalize a mature company whose growth is abating. Includes a disciplined, analytical approach as well as helpful advice on the human and organizational aspects of the revitalization process.

An abstract is not available for this product.

An abstract is not available for this product.

Sun Life Financial is a large insurance conglomerate with $14.7 billion in annual revenues. The vice-president for China must formulate an approach for his company's entrance into China. Sun Life has achieved two important milestones: the right to apply for a license and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for Joint Venture with China Everbright, a local securities company. The financial vice-president must consider strategic options for entry and choose a city in which to focus his efforts in getting a license. In doing so, he needs to consider Sun Life's overall priorities, strategic direction, and how he will sell the concept to senior management in Canada.

Tsingtao Brewery Co, Ltd, the best-known Chinese beer producer in the world, had been surpassed in market share by Yanjing Beer in the mid-1990s due to its inefficient operations. From 1994 to 2002, Tsingtao Brewery acquired over 47 small and medium-sized companies and regained its dominant position in the beer industry. However, this resulted in many problems including increased levels of bureaucracy, lack of integration of corporate cultures of the acquired companies, lack of brand focus, low profitability and other problems resulting from the rapid expansion. In July 2001, the General Manager Peng Zuoyi suddenly died of a heart attack. Jin Zhiguo, his successor, believes he should change the company business strategy from 'growing large to become powerful' to 'growing powerful to become large', which focuses on post-acquisition integration.

In just 15 years, founder Huang Guangyu had turned Gome Home Appliance Co. Ltd. into the largest home appliance retail chain in China in terms of sales. However, the company faces several internal and external challenges. It is becoming increasingly difficult for Gome to attract qualified employees, to obtain capital for its continued growth and to ignore its competitors. To respond to these challenges and the changing environment of the industry, Gome's once retired leader, returned as the company's General Manager and has implemented a major reorganization.

Tsingtao Brewery Co. Ltd. had several problems due to its aggressive expansion from 1994 to 2002. This case reviews a number of initiatives which were implemented in order to address these problems. The initiatives include: downsizing, process re-engineering using ERP, redesigning of the incentive system, organizational restructuring, forming a strategic partnership with Anheuser Busch, integrating the culture and values of the company, and building a learning organization. This is a supplement to Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd. (A), product 9B05M063.

Subtle misdemeanors that are not illegal but rather blur the line between right and wrong can cause serious damage to corporations as they are both widespread and widely accepted. This author argues that over the long run it is the pursuit of both societal and economic value that yields long term and stable profits. The article highlights the economic value versus the societal value argument. While institutional structures in most capitalist countries reinforce the economic argument, economic arguments erroneously assume the existence of perfectly competitive markets. However, because the perfect market is an abstraction, negative externalities impact those who have had no role in, nor consented to the economic transaction. On the other hand, focusing exclusively on societal value yields extremely high short term costs and is likely to lead to closure when profits are persistently negative. The author argues that the either-or approach in the debate between economics and ethics has polarized the discussion and distracted attention from the space where economics and ethics converge and where potential solutions exist. Business should, like some have in the past, focus on building sustainable value. To do so, businesses should focus on the long term and invest in social processes, thus building greater resilience to changes in the market place while addressing social issues throughout the organization. The article also chronicles the advantages of active and up-front stakeholder engagement, community participation and involvement, and strategic decision making by using examples of social processes in companies such as Tembec Inc, Home Depot Canada and TransCanada Pipelines.

It's been slow in coming, especially compared to actions in the United States, but shareholder activism in Canada is gathering momentum, albeit somewhat slowly.

Earnings, for example, may surprise the street but boards that implement an Early Warning Summit will see it coming and be able to prepare for it and other surprises.

As CEO of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), S. "Ram" Ramadorai had grown the company into an emerging IT services powerhouse, with marquee clients such as General Electric, offices in 32 countries, and revenues of nearly $2 billion dollars. Now, he was about to steer TCS through an initial public offering--the largest ever by a private Indian company. Despite his excitement, Ramadorai knew that in some ways the timing of the IPO was not ideal. TCS had profited tremendously from corporate America's willingness to outsource IT and business process functions to overseas providers. But outsourcing had recently come under attack, with some politicians and labor leaders denouncing it as a threat to American jobs and America's economic dominance. In addition, TCS was facing rising labor costs in India and competition from emerging IT industries in East Asia, South America, and elsewhere. How would Ramadorai address these issues to ease investors' concerns on the eve of the IPO?

An entrepreneur was contemplating leaving his job at Goldman Sachs to start Global Source Healthcare, a healthcare outsourcing company focused on international nurse recruitment. He had researched the healthcare staffing market extensively, written a business plan and raised some funding. While this appeared to be an excellent opportunity, there were some very real risks that had to be considered. His greatest concern was the limited amount of funding at his disposal. Since international recruitment required a considerable amount of working capital, the lack of funding brought the long-term feasibility of the business into question. Students will learn about screening the business venture in terms of the entrepreneur, the resources and the opportunity; determining the strategic direction of the company and balancing the long-term vision with short-term cash flow needs; assessing different business models to determine which is the best fit for the company; and the importance of executing the business plan and selected strategy.

Leaders who have been stymied when trying to think outside the box will find a clearer path after reading this article.

Managers who think of pricing as a tool of strategy will see the results flow directly to their bottom lines.

An interesting dialectic is currently being played out in China: The state is continuing its age-old tradition of preserving order while a much newer force, free-market capitalism, and a previously unheard of phenomenon, a middle class, are slowly creating a new order. It is within such an economic environment that very large bets are being placed on the future of China, both by those already inside and by those rushing to go in. This article examines the crucial role of the state in China's great economic push forward and in its emergence as an economic colossus. It questions the relative safety of placing such bets by examining obstacles faced when investing in China. These include the political dilemma of sharing power with a rising bourgeoisie of prosperous business owners, the managerial challenge of coordinating large, complex organizations at world standards of efficiency, and the fact that global competition has intensified to a level which is virtually impossible for any new entrant to match. Other, more specific features are also considered, such as the fragmentation of the China market, productive inefficiency, allocative inefficiency, the weakness of information, the lack of intellectual property protection, the irrational passion for building capacity, the tendency to diversify rather than focus, and the sheer size of the state. The article also highlights potential opportunities for MNEs investing in China. For instance, declining SOEs may be used as launching pads for entry into the market. Furthermore, there are significant cost advantages to be realized from manufacturing in China, particularly in industries that Chinese companies cannot handle efficiently.

Not having the resources does not preclude the ability to be resourceful, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. Here's how resource-challenged MNEs can play and win. Having access to the Web is essential for SMEs as owning a fax machine and a telephone. And though SMEs usually have limited material and human resources at their disposal, these authors state that successful e-business solutions are still within the reach of these companies. By thinking strategically about e-business, managers can select technological solutions that support the company's business strategies and create value for the company and its customers.