個案總覽

The influx of diversity in the workplace has brought a challenging set of managerial problems. Managers who handle these situations must be skillful in dealing with feedback, conflict, and talent assessment, but they must also be skilled in dealing with difference. This technical note explores leveraging difference and the path one can take to develop skills essential to leveraging difference.This note works well with "Leaders Who Make a Difference: Critical Skills for Leading a Diverse Workforce".

CCL Industries Inc. is one of the top packagers of consumer products in the world. Over its 50-year history the company had grown from a small room to a multinational firm employing 7,500 people with over $1.6 billon in sales. CCL faces an uncertain environment that had already led to a major strategic reorientation when its plan to sell its largest division was cancelled. A global economic slowdown and lower consumer confidence coupled with extensive international operations, significantly increased the risk to CCL's sales and already slim profits. In the past, the company prospered through product diversification gained through acquisition. The economic slowdown and increased uncertainty meant that this strategy may not be appropriate in the future. The chief executive officer recognizes the time, attention, advice, composition and operations of the board of directors would likely have to be altered to reflect this new reality.

A golden statue of a winged youth once perched on the roof of AT&T's old headquarters. But when AT&T lowered the 24-foot-high statue for regilding so that it could be placed in the company's new headquarters, the chairman was shocked to discover that the figure was anatomically correct. So he decreed that it also be gelded. The altered "Golden Boy" thus became a metaphor for AT&T's recent embattled history, and it serves as a cautionary symbol for all companies operating in today's brutal business environment, where perception can be as important as reality. While image consultants and executives work to gild a company's image, special interest groups and the media can geld a company with countless little cuts. The author, a former executive vice-president of public relations for AT&T, provides an insider's view of some of the company's most painful public relations scrapes. The author offers four lessons: Don't become hypnotized by your own buzz; understand the way the business media think; address the needs of all your stakeholders; and be sensitive to the possible emotional resonance of what appear to be straightforward facts.

Describes the process that the firm employs to allocate resources to new product development projects. Examines whether the firm can sustain its competitive advantage given its existing game design process.

Non Stop Yacht S.L. is a Web site that provides e-commerce service to the mega-yacht industry. Originally, the founder had planned to run Non Stop Yacht as an internet business. However, success with this business model is proving elusive and investors are growing restless as performance continues to fall short of the business plan. Substantial pressure to improve the company's performance had the founder considering a variety of alternative business models that would enable him to more effectively capture value from the concept of non stop parts procurement for high-end yachts. These options involve key decisions about the strategic positioning of the company and the relative advantages and disadvantages of pursuing strategic alliances with players at different points in the industry value chain.

By using standard components, Compaq's supercomputer line, known as the Alpha Server SC, attempted to avoid some of the risk associated with supercomputer development. However, more than five years after unveiling its first supercomputer, known as Turbozilla, Compaq's High Performance Technical Computing Group had yet to make a profit, despite rapidly growing demand. The bidding process for large government contracts typically resulted in discounts of up to 70 per cent, leaving little, if any, margin. More importantly, some Compaq managers had become anxious that HPTC systems had begun to consume significant company resources. Alpha servers that had previously been allocated to high margin commercial customers were increasingly being diverted to zero margin supercomputers. Highlighted is the stage by stage process of developing a new product development organization. In doing so, it demonstrates that an important capability and competitive advantage for effective knowledge transfer in global new product development is the ability to construct a network of relationships that are built over time, that lead to the creation of social capital, and that are strong and extensive enough to inhibit duplication by others. Supplement Compaq High Performance Computing (B), product 9B03M042 is available.

Daimler-Benz AG, a large automobile manufacturer in Europe and the Chrysler Corporation, one of the Big Three auto makers in North America have merged to create DaimlerChrysler. On the surface, everything seemed to be going as planned. In reality, all was not well. Organizational changes, conflicting information, and doubts about the future structure of the company resulted in the departure of numerous Chrysler employees, including many mid-level managers and engineers. While initially amalgamated into Daimler, the Chrysler Group ended up as one of three separate automotive divisions. In 2001, DaimlerChrysler recorded a $1.2 billion loss in operating profit (before one-time effects). Estimates for 2002 called for a break-even result, but the company was facing a $9 billion lawsuit filed by the fifth largest shareholder, who claimed that Daimler had deceived investors by touting the venture as a merger of equals.

Whoosh, is that all there is? On the eve of becoming a partner at a well-known consulting firm ("the stuff MBA dreams are made of"), a senior executive starts to question what he is doing with his life. Walt Shill had graduated eight years earlier from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and had worked his way up at McKinsey Consulting to become the first American partner in the Japanese office. Shill and his family move back to the United States, where he starts to question his goals. For the first time, it seems that Shill has no target to aim for. Having reached his goals, Shill sets out on an adventure to seek his own meaning of life. He gets into good-enough shape to take a cross-country bicycle ride, which he completes. This undisguised case tells Shill's story and what he learned along the way. It ends with Shill's promise to himself to be less judgmental and to start walking through life with eyes wide open. A CD-ROM containing clips of an interview with Shill accompanies the case.

The B case reveals Bubatunde's decision to let Li settle on a solution to the problem. She decided that Hsu should continue to report to her and not be transferred. Hsu received the news poorly, refusing to comment, and within a short period of time the entire team felt the weight of Hsu's poor attitude. Hsu continued to approach Babatunde about his displeasure, and Babatunde kept telling him to talk to Li-which he refused to do. Li fired Hsu and then asked to be removed as manager and reinstated as a senior support engineer. To continue with his organizational changes, Babtunde hired Li's replacement from outside the company.

Daimler-Benz AG, a large automobile manufacturer in Europe, and the Chrysler Corporation, one of the Big Three auto makers in North America, merged to create DaimlerChrysler. On the surface, everything seemed to be going as planned. In reality, all was not well. Organizational changes, conflicting information, and doubts about the future structure of the company resulted in the departure of numerous Chrysler employees, including many mid-level managers and engineers. While initially amalgamated into Daimler, the Chrysler Group ended up as one of three separate automotive divisions. In 2001, DaimlerChrysler recorded a $1.2 billion loss in operating profit (before one-time effects). Estimates for 2002 called for a break-even result, but the company was facing a $9 billion lawsuit filed by the 5th largest shareholder, who claimed that Daimler had deceived investors by touting the venture as a merger of equals.

Theory often gets a bum rap among managers because it's associated with the word "theoretical," which connotes "impractical." But it shouldn't. Because experience is solely about the past, solid theories are the only way managers can plan future actions with any degree of confidence. The key word here is "solid." Gravity is a solid theory. As such, it lets us predict that if we step off a cliff we will fall, without actually having to do so. But business literature is replete with theories that don't seem to work in practice or actually contradict each other. How can a manager tell a good business theory from a bad one? The first step is to understand how good theories are built. They develop in stages: gathering data, organizing it into categories, highlighting significant differences, then making generalizations explaining what causes what, under which circumstances. For instance, professor Ananth Raman and his colleagues collected data showing that bar code-scanning systems generated notoriously inaccurate inventory records. These observations led them to classify the types of errors the scanning systems produced and the types of shops in which those errors most often occurred. Recently, some of Raman's doctoral students worked as clerks to see exactly what kinds of behavior cause the errors. From this foundation, a solid theory predicting under which circumstances bar code systems work and don't work is beginning to emerge. Once we forgo one-size-fits-all explanations and insist that a theory describes the circumstances under which it does and doesn't work, we can bring predictable success to the world of management.

Paragon Information Systems is a small business unit owned by NewTel Enterprises Limited that manufacturers hardware for information technology and systems integration. The newly appointed chief executive officer is faced with a crisis. Days after his appointment, two vice-presidents resign and start a new company. The new company recruits the entire sales team, members of the technical unit and support staff from Paragon Information Systems, a loss of almost one third of Paragon's staff within two months. The new chief executive officer must meet short-term stakeholder needs, assess, formulate and implement long-term strategies, deal with the competitive threat of the new company, and consider the leadership style and control systems required to make the necessary level of change.

Modine Manufacturing operates primarily in a single product category consisting of the manufacture and sale of heat transfer equipment. A major customer announced the cancellation of an agreement with Modine to develop a key engine component, which was needed by automotive companies in order to make their engines comply with new emissions guidelines set to take effect in several years. However, the expectation that the government would relax emissions guidelines was believed to have led to the cancellation of the project. Would other customers do the same? Considerable resources were spent on this project, causing projects that would be handled by the new product development area to be developed outside of this unit. The vice-president of technical services must analyse the company's new product strategy to determine its effectiveness in developing new products and what model the company should use for product development.

Planet Intra sold information management systems used to share information and data through a Web-based interface, giving the employees of an organization and its respective suppliers and customers access to the services. The chief executive had to determine what changes, if any, would be required to Planet Intra's overall strategy so that the venture capitalists funding the firm could achieve their desired return on investment. He must complete a valuation of the firm and formulate a detailed strategy by which the company can increase its sales and profits, becoming even more attractive to a potential purchaser.

Many health care innovations appear successful; but fail. This is the first case in the Innovating Health Care course that investigates how to create successful health care innovations. It is part of the first module in the course. This module focuses on how to evaluate whether an innovation is likely to be successful. It introduces an analytic framework that asks the students to classify the type of innovation and its alignment with the Six Factors in the environment that determine success or failure. The specific case focuses on an innovative weight loss program that carries no known risks and appears to be clinically worthwhile; yet, success has proved elusive. The case describes the other treatments for morbid obesity-ranging from drugs and surgery to digital apps-and asks what the program's innovator, Dr. Fallon, can learn from their success or failure in ameliorating morbid obesity. While the market for weight loss regimens was large, consumer-facing firms such as Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers and the digital app Noom had checkered success. Other business models, such as centers for bariatric surgery, diet drugs, and counseling by physicians and nutritionists were also not universally successful. What could Dr. Fallon learn that would help him to widely disseminate his innovation? A small clinical trial provided the accountability that Dr. Fallon's plan caused weight loss and improved heart disease and even reversed diabetes; some insurers were paying for it; and Dr. Fallon's books were best sellers. This case has an accompanying teaching note with PowerPoint slides that instructors can use for virtual teaching.

Delineates how a for-profit health services business was created. Focuses on sources of financing, the impact of Medicare reimbursement, and Stark laws against fraud and abuse.

This course describes the public and private sources of financing of the U.S. health-care sector,and identifies the characteristics of insurance policies, their costs, the structure of the insurance industry, and the role of consultants and brokers. The insurance characteristics include financial, premiums, risk, self-funding, individual U.S. group plans, the underwriting cycle, etc.

In October 2002, the senior investment officers of UBS AG's Global Asset Management (GAM) division, the largest asset management firm in the world, must decide whether to issue a new quantitative investment product, one that will stand in sharp contrast to GAM's historically fundamentalist and value-style approach. The problem raises sharp questions about the strategic evolution of the industry, its products, and in particular, its leading firms. To some in the firm, it seemed that the new "quant" product was a natural extension of the strategic transformation of GAM since 1995. But others in the senior team wondered whether the market would be ready for this product. The tasks for the student are to map the industry changes, evaluate the transformation of UBS, and assess the fit of the new quant product with the firm's strategic approach. This case was prepared to meet the following teaching objectives: 1) Assess the pace, direction, and implications of globalization of the asset management industry. Key to this assessment is the emerging research on the relative importance of countries versus sectors in explaining investment returns globally; 2) Explore a "country/sector" organization structure for global research; Identify its defining characteristics. Compare it with other possible structures. Determine its advantages and disadvantages as an organizing system. Identify key success drivers. And 3) Evaluate a quantitative investment product relative to other product offerings.

In December of 2002, the Metro Council of Portland, Oregon had to decide whether or not to expand the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) for the metropolitan area. The UGB had been created as a tool to help promote a more compact, livable, and efficient metropolitan area. But Portland's housing prices had been increasing rapidly, and home builders and others were arguing that the UGB was at fault for too tightly restricting the supply of developable land. This case, intended for a course in urban planning or economics, is designed to support a discussion of how the various forces of supply and demand, including zoning restrictions, affect the price of housing. It can also stimulate an examination of the rationale for various types of zoning or growth controls. Part A (1703.0) describes the basic debate, while Part B (1704.0) is an optional note that provides additional background on how housing prices are measured. HKS Case Number 1703.0

In December of 2002, the Metro Council of Portland, Oregon had to decide whether or not to expand the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) for the metropolitan area. The UGB had been created as a tool to help promote a more compact, livable, and efficient metropolitan area. But Portland's housing prices had been increasing rapidly, and home builders and others were arguing that the UGB was at fault for too tightly restricting the supply of developable land. This case, intended for a course in urban planning or economics, is designed to support a discussion of how the various forces of supply and demand, including zoning restrictions, affect the price of housing. It can also stimulate an examination of the rationale for various types of zoning or growth controls. Part A (1703.0) describes the basic debate, while Part B (1704.0) is an optional note that provides additional background on how housing prices are measured. HKS Case Number 1704.0