個案總覽

Describes the situation Pierre Godfroid encountered when he took over as Sabena's CEO in 1991. At that time, Sabena was facing imminent bankruptcy. On the strength of a restructuring plan, developed by Godfroid and his staff, the Belgian government had agreed to bail out the airline in return for assurances that this would be the last time government assistance would be requested. Godfroid's task was to transform the company into a viable private enterprise. Provides the opportunity to evaluate the viability of Godfroid's strategy. Sets the stage for a sequence of supplemental cases dealing with the implementation of the strategy.

Supplements Sabena Belgian World Airlines.

Supplements Sabena Belgian World Airlines.

Supplements Sabena Belgian World Airlines.

Supplements Sabena Belgian World Airlines.

Concerns the troubles that Euro Disney experienced from the start. Euro Disney claimed that the major cause of its poor financial performance was the European recession and the strong French franc. The timing of the park's opening could not have been more inopportune. If the recession had been the only cause of Euro Disney's problems, the financial restructuring would only need to carry the park forward to better economic times. Only when Europeans began spending freely again would investors learn the answers to some uncomfortable questions: Was the whole idea of Euro Disney misconceived? Were there other fundamental cultural problems that could inhibit the park's success? Would Euro Disney fail to recover even though other European companies did? And, if so, why was the Disney theme park concept successful in Japan and not in France?

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.

There is a very personal and dramatic confrontation between the chairman and the CEO of the board of directors. This circumstance will offer the students the opportunity to analyze corporate governance and the authority and accountability issues that arise when role descriptions are unclear. The case also examines the escalation of conflict and resolution alternatives.

Describes a set of challenges facing Otis Elevator's joint venture in China as it seeks to expand to other regions of the country. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Describes what happened and presents the perspectives of the three executives who played key roles in the process. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Describes Salomon Brothers' recovery from the August 1991 Treasury auction scandal. Details the impact of the firm's disclosure of bidding improprieties and describes how the new management team, led by Warren Buffett and Deryck Maughan, guided the company through the ensuing crisis. The impact of the crisis is followed through the end of 1992.

Provides a brief update to the (A) case.

Royal Trustco presents a chronology of some of the key decision points in the history of the firm (the parent firm of Royal Trust) from 1980 to 1992. To clarify the concept of corporate governance, a number of interesting discussion questions are presented: How did Royal Trustco get to the point where the directors had to sell the company to save it? Why did this happen? Was it appropriate for Royal Trustco directors to keep paying dividends given the problems the company faced? Were there any signs that the company's actions might lead to problems in the future? Could the problems have been prevented? Why might the board not have believed the CEO's assessment of the situation? What are a director's legal obligations in the operation of a firm? What can a director be held responsible for? If you had been a director of the company, would you have resigned at any point in time? Why or why not? The case is intended to serve as the starting point for a discussion of corporate governance in Canada.

Time Life has historically been a continuity book publisher, selling 20-volume book series via direct mail. Now, however, music and video/TV divisions have been added, and the CEO is trying to craft a strategy that will align the divisions so they can produce multimedia products. There is also an immediate decision facing the CEO about the advertising for a new book and TV series, and questions for the division managers about how to shape and improve their businesses' creative processes.

Deryck Maughan, a vice chairman and co-head of investment banking at Salomon Brothers, learns that his superiors have been less than candid about their knowledge of bidding improprieties by the firm's government trading desk. He must decide what, if anything, he should do.

Supplements the (A) case.

Provides a management retrospective.

During the last decade, U.S. manufacturers have narrowed if not eliminated the competitive gap between themselves and such foreign rivals as the Japanese and the Germans. But how can they take the lead and retain it? What will it take to stay ahead? To answer those daunting questions, an ad hoc group of 27 academics and industry executives formed the Manufacturing Vision Group in 1988. They studies development projects at Chaparral Steel, Digital Equipment, Eastman Kodak, Ford Motor, and Hewlett-Packard. Development projects are microcosms of an organization. And when designed and managed well, they generate powerful, distinctive capabilities as well as winning products or processes. The most successful projects combine seven key elements, which, when applied comprehensively, optimize development, foster learning, and initiate change throughout an organization. Those elements are: core capabilities, guiding visions, organization and leadership, ownership and commitment, "pushing the envelope," prototypes, and integration.

To be a leader in global manufacturing in the 1990s, a company must excel in two seemingly contradictory ways. First, it must constantly build and refresh its individual areas of expertise so that it has the critical capabilities needed to stay ahead. And second, it must get its ever-changing mix of disciplines to work together in an ever-changing competitive environment. Most manufacturers, especially those companies that have reorganized themselves by cross-functional processes, have already discovered how difficult it is to integrate various disciplines and still maintain functional excellence. But development projects offer a solution. Development projects are the critical juncture where functional groups meet and are therefore the true test of an organization's integrative abilities. More important, they can be used as a tool for strengthening the relationship among functions, while still giving those functions the room they need to advance their own expertise. The Kodak FunSaver project illustrates how a company can encourage functions to work together effectively, enhance functional expertise, and create a winning product to boot.

Leadership is the key to developing great products--products that surprise and delight customers. To achieve that goal, all the technical elements of a product must work well together as a system. The manufacturing process must produce everything that the design requires and the product must be delivered to customers in an outstanding fashion. And if the development of a great product is not an isolated case--if one great product is followed by another and another--the result is a great enterprise. Leadership is the key to achieving that kind of consistency. Eastman Kodak's FunSaver camera and Hewlett-Packard's DeskJet printer are examples of development efforts that created great products. Each became the basis for a whole family of products that has created a significant business for its company. The Manufacturing Vision Group studies successful projects that had powerful guiding visions for business strategy, project, and product. Moreover, these three visions were mutually reinforcing, energizing the people on the teams, focusing attention and effort on the right things, and getting them done in the right way.