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Supplement case for KS1025.

As the 1998-99 school year began in the state of Kerala, India, state education officials were setting out to bring radical change to government schools. A new approach-designed to be child-friendly and to de-emphasize rote learning and textbook-based teacher lectures in favor of "guided learning and playful interaction"-would, in the words of Education Secretary K. Jayakumar, be no less than "an affirmation of the rights of the child." But as the extension of the so-called District Primary Education Program (DPEP) began to reach all school districts in Kerala, the approach was embroiled in controversy. The leader of the political opposition called for it to be halted. Newly-organized protest groups, charged that reform threatened to dilute education standards and create two tiers of Kerala students. It would fall to Mr. Jayakumar and other state officials to convince the public that the DPEP plan was best for the nearly three million school children of Kerala. Their task required officials to defend the concept of the program, even as they continued to oversee the details of its implementation. The approach they chose would leave some convinced that DPEP had been successfully institutionalized in Kerala, while some of the reform's strongest proponents believed that DPEP had been profoundly compromised. HKS Case Number 1573.0

This case describes the development and subsequent failure of Iridium. Iridium was a satellite-based communications system initially developed by Motorola and then spun off as a separate company. Using its constellation of 66 low earth-orbit satellites, the Iridium system was intended to provide reliable communications from virtually any point on the globe. On November 1, 1998, Iridium began commercial telephone service and satellite-paging service began two weeks later. However, a variety of problems plagued the company, and by May 1999, Iridium had only 10,000 subscribers. In August 1999, Iridium defaulted on its debt and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In March 2000, with only 50,000 subscribers, Iridium terminated its services. Motorola's estimated financial exposure to the bankruptcy of Iridium was $2.2 billion.

A new marketing advisor at Panmai, a women's weaving co-operative located in Kaset Wisai, Thailand, is trying to formulate a strategic plan for Panmai's future. Specifically, he needs to decide which product/markets and which methods of distribution are appropriate for Panmai, whether Panmai should pursue more foreign sales and how to solve many operational problems existing at the company. Since he will only be at Panmai for two years, any changes he makes must be sustainable without his presence.

The newly appointed manager of personal banking of a national bank branch faces various challenges, including managing difficult individuals, introducing changes to a staff with varying levels of receptiveness, and deciding if a small town branch should ultimately be closed. He must consider the potential impact of the branch closing on the community, the company's reputation, the employees, and his own career. He must also analyze his alternatives and develop his recommendations for an upcoming meeting.

The newly appointed manager of personal banking of a national bank branch faces various challenges, including managing difficult individuals, introducing changes to a staff with varying levels of receptiveness, and deciding if a small town branch should ultimately be closed. He must consider the potential impact of the branch closing on the community, the company's reputation, the employees, and his own career. He must also analyze his alternatives and develop his recommendations for an upcoming meeting.

Change or perish is a corporate truism, but so is its unhappy corollary: many companies change and perish. The process of change can tear an organization apart. Drawing on his research over ten years, the author suggests that companies alternate major change initiatives with carefully paced periods of smaller, organic change, using processes he calls tinkering and kludging (kludging is tinkering on a large scale). The result is dynamic stability, which allows change without fatal pain. Citing examples from General Electric to Barnesandnoble.com, the author describes dynamic stability as a process of continual but relatively small reconfigurations of existing practices and business models rather than the creation of new ones. As they tinker and kludge, successful companies would be wise to follow these four guidelines: reward shameless borrowing; appoint a chief memory officer who can help the company avoid making the same old mistakes; tinker and kludge internally before searching for solutions externally; and hire generalists, because generalists tend to be more adept at tinkering and kludging. As a paradigm of successful pacing, the author cites the efforts of Lou Gerstner at IBM, American Express Travel Related Services, and RJR Nabisco.

Most large companies are not radical innovators. They are good at making close-in changes to existing products or technologies, but they cannot seem to commercialize breakthrough ideas. This is the case because of their "genetic" makeup: values embodied in their leadership practices, their cultures and structures, their reliance on internal R&D, and their inability to attract and motivate the kind of aggressive and agile entrepreneurs who are the source of most radical innovations. Large companies in traditional industries that want to increase their access to radical innovation have a variety of approaches available to them. These range from ones that draw on existing organizational resources but are unlikely to stimulate radical innovation to ideas that involve a rethinking of external relationships with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. As the focus of innovation moves from what is inside to what is outside the organization, the keys to success move from mechanisms of owning and controlling the radical innovation to mechanisms that promote learning about its commercial potential.

Enables a thorough analysis of Amazon.com and the company's value proposition, in terms of its business concept, digital business capabilities, and community and shareholder value. Examines the company's complex set of business models and web of business relationships, as well as Amazon's plan to monetize (generate revenues and earnings through) its assets.

Designed to accompany Amazon.com: Exploiting the Value of a Digital Business Infrastructure.

Compares the management of professionals at Egon Zehnder International, a leading executive search firm, and its competitors. Highlights recruitment, rewards, and retention as key dimensions of strategy in professional service firms.

Provincial Papers is a very troubled manufacturer of coated paper located in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The director and chairman of the board of Provincial Papers is being informally pressed to take on the CEO role. He is assessing the possibility of rescue in the face of depressed market prices, an over-supplied industry, departing personnel and money-losing operations. The (B) case, 9A99M017, presents the issues he faces when he decides to accept the job.

The new CEO of Provincial Papers, a coated paper manufacturer, was very concerned about the many issues facing the company - including union relations, credibility, reliability, lack of information, lack of communication, poor morale and financial difficulties. He must decide how best to focus his efforts in the short term. This case is a follow-up to Provincial Papers Inc. (A), case 9A99M016.

A Canadian entrepreneur has grown a start-up paper-shredding business to almost $5 million over a nine-year period and he now faces some real internal tension over the future pace and direction of growth. Although he would like rapid expansion, he refuses to sell shares or take on debt. Issues from labor to acquisitions are presented, as well as the difficulties in determining operating strategy while keeping up with day-to-day management.

In the Expo98 (A) case, Julio Cardoso, an INSEAD Alumnus, is being asked to design the ticketing strategy for Expo98. He needs to analyse the objectives for the Expo and to decide what pricing strategy will meet these objectives. He can analyse the results from the Vancouver, Brisbane and Seville Expos. But as each one is different, he needs to decide what is the optimal strategy for Portugal. The (B) case gives an overview of the pricing strategy that was chosen and the results of the strategy and the Expo.

Akamai Technologies is attracting investors, employees, partners, and customers like a supercharged magnet. The Cambridge, Massachusetts, company is transforming the way the Internet works, and everybody, it seems, wants to be "Akamaized." But will the attraction last? Will the company meet the challenges of explosive growth? Will it maintain its technological edge? Will it fulfill the giddy expectations of investors? Much of that depends on the performance of George Conrades, Akamai's chairman and CEO. In this interview, Conrades explains how Akamai pushes Web content and services closer to end users through the use of distributed servers and proprietary software. He shares the challenges and thrills of working at Internet speed--forging partnerships with site operators, ISPs, and application providers; setting and achieving short-term business goals while preserving the company's intellectually combative corporate culture; and maintaining a customer focus. Conrades discusses the company's "virtuous circle" business model--better technology attracts more content providers, which begets more ISP participation, which begets better technology--and reveals the strategies and processes Akamai uses to keep that circle spinning. He discusses his own role as an absorber of uncertainty: by taking on the inevitable risks of competing in the networked economy, he frees up the rest of company to act. Conrades, who's been in business long enough to see the industrial era give way to the Internet era, says the new economy is all about "speed and scale." But it's also about risk-taking, innovation, and teamwork. Bureaucratic CEOs need not apply.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 98E035.

Supplements the case.

Supplements the case.

Discusses the complete transformation and turnover in every division of Garanti Bank. Describes the multiple change projects managed and cross-cultural issues confronted during the 1990s and the organizational challenge of transforming Garanti Bank into one of Turkey's premier financial institutions.