個案總覽

After negotiations with a key supplier for lower prices and quicker turnaround go nowhere, two employees of Acme Medical Imaging realize there's no more low-hanging fruit to pick to keep their project on time and on budget -- no more concessions from external parties, no more superficial, short-term fixes. They have to convince their chief executive officer and the project team to take a hard look at internal processes. From the perspective of Operations, this case examines the challenges that can arise - and some steps that can be taken - when the greatest obstacles to a project are the people and procedures responsible for its success.

In June 1997, the Bank of Thailand must decide whether to continue or to abandon the peg of the baht to the U.S dollar. Recent economic performance in Thailand has caused speculation that the central bank will abandon the currency peg, but the bank's stated policy for many years has been that it will maintain the peg. Background about the Thai economy is presented in the core case, product 9B01M025. Other cases enable students to play roles of importer, exporter, investor, lender, currency speculator, the International Monetary Fund, Japan's Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Thailand. The teaching purpose is to provide students with an understanding of the forces influencing a decision about the appropriate policy relating to exchange rates.

This case is about how Coopers Brewery, a very small family-owned fourth generation family business, fought off a determined takeover bid by an international brewer. Although the takeover bid formally began in 2005, it had its origins in 1983, so the case illustrates how and why organizations get involved with each other and how that can play out in unexpected ways later on. Although the case detail is about the takeover bid, it is designed primarily for use as a business strategy analysis case for use in the early part of a strategic management course. It also contains sufficient competitor analysis to conduct a rudimentary industry analysis. It could separately be used for mergers and acquisitions analysis but this is seen as the background material.

During the last decade, Wyeth transformed itself from a holding company to a global company using information technology (IT) as an important enabler. The first half of the case details the importance of global integration and how globalization was initiated at Wyeth. The original role of IT is introduced along with the challenges and barriers of starting a globalization strategy. This is followed by a discussion of how the role of IT started changing at Wyeth. An ambitious IT globalization plan is outlined. The second half of the case details the implementation of the IT globalization plan. The implementation started slowly, faced many challenges, and took longer than expected. The original plan was modified several times to address funding and management challenges. The case ends by discussing how Wyeth was able to complete the IT globalization plan. The case is anchored in the United States but considers global issues. The case includes issues and concepts that make it suitable for teaching management information systems, international business and strategy.

This is a follow-up to the Starbucks case, product 9A98M006, describing the aftermath of strategic decisions taken in 1999. The case describes the crisis of confidence of investors in the strategic choices made by Starbucks. It poses the issues facing Starbucks in attempting to regain focus.

The director of Consultancy Development Organization (CDO), a not-for-profit organization that helps develop the consultancy profession in India, needs to respond to CDO's poor morale and specifically to the recent incident with the deputy director of projects. The director's encounter with the deputy director was the latest in a series of frustrating experiences that he has faced since joining CDO the previous year. The director needs to decide whether to resign from CDO or to continue trying to improve the situation.

Voestalpine AG, a public company located in Linz, Austria, was examining opportunities for growth. The company considers that to meet the needs of its customers, notably automobile, rail and construction, it has to grow. Further, the steel industry in Europe is in a process of consolidation. The company has a very strong balance sheet but due to its ownership structure (35 per cent is owned by the Austrian government), its market value is considerably lower than its competitors, also providing a rationale for growth. The company is profitable and focuses on value added products. In the (A) case the decision to buy two steel plants in Poland is examined and looks at the strategic issues and concerns relating to this expansion. The supplement, Voestalpine AG (B), product number 9B07M033, provides opportunity for the student to assess methods of strategic execution.

This supplement to Voestalpine AG (A), product 9b07M032, examines the decision to expand vertically instead of horizontally, but looking at a stamping plant and plastics firm (to get closer to its automotive customers) and a design firm. More importantly, the case examines the tools and methodologies employed by the company to assess fit in terms of costs and competencies and customers and competition.

The case describes the unique business model of Rehabilitation Alliance Hong Kong (RAHK) beginning with its strategic alliance with Dairy Farm to run 7-Eleven convenience stores, with an aim to create job opportunities for its disabled members. The two managers then try out other forms of business, but they are not commercially effective. The case explores the challenges of managing a cooperative relationship with a social conscience and achieving social enterprise sustainability through innovation.

ECCO A/S (ECCO) had been very successful in the footwear industry by focusing on production technology and assuring quality by maintaining full control of the entire value chain from cow to shoe. As ECCO grew and faced increased international competition, various value chain activities, primarily production and tanning, were offshored to low-cost countries. The fully integrated value chain tied up significant capital and management attention in tanneries and production facilities, which could have been used to strengthen the branding and marketing of ECCO's shoes. Moreover, an increasingly complex and dispersed global value chain configuration posed organizational and managerial challenges regarding coordination, communication and logistics. This case examines the financial, organizational and managerial challenges of maintaining a highly integrated global value chain and asks students to determine the appropriateness of this set-up in the context of an increasingly market-oriented industry. It is suitable for use in both undergraduate and graduate courses in international corporate strategy, international management, international marketing, supply-chain management, cross-border strategic management and international business studies in general.

The hotel industry has experienced tremendous growth since the 1980s and has emerged as a global industry. During the expansion period, multinational, multi-brand corporations, such as Hilton Hotels Corporation, were in the process of finding new markets and setting priorities. In emerging markets, such as Russia, most of the national hotel industry had been formed under the pressure of foreign hotel chains. In addition to competing with foreign firms in their own markets, local Russian companies were also planning to enter international markets. In this environment, where competition was strengthening within the global hotel industry and new players were emerging, a number of questions and challenges existed: 1) How could firms effectively leverage their competencies and increase their competitiveness? 2) Would the multinational hotel corporations continue to expand their brand portfolios? 3) How could hotel chains maintain their integrity during the expansion on a global scale? 4) What strategies might apply to convince Western hotel companies to compete in emerging markets? 5) Which direction would further develop the hotel industries in emerging economies?

Research in Motion (RIM) is a high technology firm that is experiencing explosive sales growth. David Yach, chief technology officer for software at RIM, has received notice of an impending meeting with the co-chief executive officer regarding his research and development (R&D) expenditures. Although RIM, makers of the very popular BlackBerry, spent almost $360 million in R&D in 2007, this number was low compared to its largest competitors, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of sales (e.g. Nokia spent $8.2 billion on R&D). This is problematic as it foreshadows the question of whether or not RIM is well positioned to continue to meet expectations, deliver award-winning products and services and maintain its lead in the smartphone market. Furthermore, in the very dynamic mobile telecommunications industry, investment analysts often look to a firm's commitment to R&D as a signal that product sales growth will be sustainable. Just to maintain the status quo, Yach will have to hire 1,400 software engineers in 2008 and is considering a number of alternative paths to managing the expansion. The options include: (1) doing what they are doing now, only more of it, (2) building on their existing and satellite R&D locations, (3) growing through acquisition or (4) going global.

In April 2008, Bruce MacNaughton, president of Prince Edward Island Preserve Co. Ltd. (P.E.I. Preserves), was focused on turnaround. The company he had founded in 1985 had gone into receivership in May 2007. Although this had resulted in losses for various mortgage holders and unsecured creditors, MacNaughton had been able to buy back his New Glasgow shop/cafe, the adjacent garden property and inventory, and restart the business. He now needed a viable product-market strategy.

The case looks at the takeover of the Roaring Dragon Hotel (RDH), a state owned enterprise in south-west China, by global hotelier Hotel International (HI) and discusses the cultural collision and organizational adoptions resulting from the intersections of two significantly different business cultures. Specifically in this case, the focus is on the challenge involved with downsizing, redundancy, communication, cultural sensitivity, strategic planning and in developing strategy. In south-west China in 2002, the RDH business environment was just emerging from the shadow of the planned economy and had retained its guanxi-based organizational culture. At RDH, relationship development and the exchange of favors were still important and occurring on a daily basis and there was little system or efficiency in the hotel's domestic management style and processes. In comparison, Hotel International had a wealth of international experience in providing accommodation, marketing and professional management in servicing the needs of a global market steeped in corporate governance. At the commencement of the management contract there was a deep division separating the organizational cultures of RDH and HI.

The case deals with a scam that has been run out of Nigeria since 1990. In it, foreign companies are approached for their assistance in facilitating an international transfer of funds in order to receive a very large but unearned commission. In the case, a Hong Kong-based manager who is travelling to Nigeria is unaware that he is walking into a situation where his company is about to be cheated. The objective of the case is to raise the issue of ethics in the conduct of international business. A follow-up case (9B08M039) is available.

En route to Nigeria the decision maker learns that he is walking into a scam and must decide whether to show up for the scheduled meetings or to return home immediately. The case illustrates ways of being drawn into unethical situations, and the severe implications for both the individual and organization if they do participate. This (B) case can be distributed part way through the class (with undergraduates) or at the same time as the (A) case(9B08M038) with more experienced students.

The owner of a small scuba diving operation in the Bahamas is reassessing his strategic direction in the light of declining revenues. Among the changes being considered are shark diving, family diving, exit, and shifting operations to another Caribbean location. These options are not easily combined, nor are they subtle. The case is intended to provide a work-out on the relationship between strategy, organization and performance, and how changes in strategy will dramatically affect the organization. The case also highlights the importance of understanding demographic changes as part of an environmental analysis. (A nine-minute video can be purchased with this case, video 7B08M041.)

Muhtar Kent had just been promoted to the CEO position in Coca-Cola. He was reflecting upon the past leadership of the company, in particular the success that Coca-Cola enjoyed during Robert Goizueta's leadership. The CEOs that had followed Goizueta were not able to have as positive an impact on the stock value. When his promotion was announced, Kent mentioned that he did not have immediate plans to change any management roles but that some fine-tuning might be necessary.

The case centers around the strategic planning retreat of MacTara Limited (MacTara), the largest wood products company in Nova Scotia. While there are some very good opportunities for the company in some sectors, like wood pellets for fuel (high demand for inexpensively priced renewable energy sources), the Canadian lumber industry as a whole is not attractive at this time (distortionary effects of the Canadian-U.S. softwood lumber dispute, low price of lumber, sales denominated in the free-falling U.S. dollar, inflexible cost structure, etc). The fact that MacTara is a somewhat vertically integrated company - from construction lumber, to chips for paper mills, to fuel pellets made out of wood waste - makes planning very difficult because the health of each sector impacts on the prospects for the others. Company executives need to find a way to make all the various pieces of the business fit together into a profitable whole while they still have money and time. The Canadian lumber industry is in crisis and the eastern Canadian industry is ripe for consolidation.

At the time of the Mekong Corporation (Mekong) and the Vietnam Motor Vehicle Industry (A) case, product 9A96H002, some analysts felt that the Vietnamese automotive market was about to expand substantially. By 2007, the industry's capacity had increased enormously to nearly 150,000. However, the domestic sales had only expanded to approximately 40,000, and exports were negligible. This (B) case examines the government's interventionist policies that stimulated the expansion of production capacity while restraining vehicle sales. A key element was the continuation of very high import tariffs and other taxes that maintained a protected market for domestic manufacturers. In this context, Mekong continued to operate successfully. This case encourages students to consider the appropriate role of government in stimulating economic development, as well as appropriate corporate strategy in a protected market.