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Madison Memorial Hospital is deciding between a variety of quality improvement strategies. Highlights quality improvement collaboratives--organized programs popularized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in which teams from multiple institutions work together to improve care in a specified topic area (e.g., infection rates)--as a potential strategy. Allows debate around the criteria for selection of quality improvement strategies. Also motivates the discussion of the effectiveness of collaboratives and more broadly, the effectiveness of intra-organizational versus inter-organizational approaches to improvement.

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Reading Rehab Hospital has experimented with a popular concept in health care--patient-focused care--intended to increase quality and reduce costs by organizing care delivery around particular diagnoses or "service lines," rather than around the functions or disciplines of the care providers. It is equivalent to a product rather than a process focus. Unfortunately, it is not clear whether the benefits of this new healthcare model are sufficient to compensate for the drawbacks.

In 2006 Wal-Mart, the second largest firm in the world by sales, was looking to improve its already efficient supply chain. The company's supply chain was closely integrated with its retail and information systems strategies and has been developed incrementally over the past 40 years. However, rivals are copying every aspect, from the way Wal-Mart cross-docks product in warehouses, to Wal-Mart's use of a sophisticated database to capture, store and disseminate store-level information to suppliers. Wal-Mart's new executive vice-president, logistics was overseeing a handful of initiatives designed to improve the firm's supply chain. However, it was not certain that these initiatives were going to have a significant impact on Wal-Mart costs, and he needed to consider what the company should do to stay ahead of the competition.

Supply chain management (SCM) is a competitive differentiator for many types of businesses, and CEOs who neglect it may be putting their firms in jeopardy. So say Slone, the executive vice president of supply chain at OfficeMax, and two of his colleagues at the University of Tennessee. The authors identify key areas where CEOs can influence their supply chains and show them how to assess the influence they currently exert. Good SCM starts with finding the right people to lead a company's supply chain operation, from the most senior on down the ranks. CEOs need to participate in hiring a top-notch supply team that will use customer-focused metrics and best-practice benchmarking to bring about cross-functional alignment and achieve efficiencies, which the CEOs should personally review. Articulating the strategies to reach those goals--including effective use of supply chain technologies--and rewarding the employees, suppliers, and customers who make positive contributions are part and parcel of SCM success. Sales and operations planning (S&OP) is an essential component of SCM. A well-devised S&OP process can eliminate cross-functional disconnects and thereby reduce product complexity and obsolete inventory--two serious threats to the supply chain. This approach should also extend to business planning, promotional programs, and customer-contract negotiations, with their inherent supply chain ramifications. Even the best supply chain planning can be undermined, however, if its scope is only short-term. For example, sales strategies that don't align monthly and quarterly goals with long-term SCM objectives can lead to end-of-period surges, with potentially costly consequences for your company and its suppliers, partners, and customers. Attention to the supply chain requires attention to the long haul.

In a premortem, team members assume that the project they are planning has just failed--as so many do--and then generate plausible reasons for its demise. Those with reservations may speak freely at the outset, so that the project can be improved rather than autopsied.

In December 2006, Sinchong Property Investment Pte Ltd (SPIPL), a Singapore-based property investment firm, signed a letter of intent to take over a partially completed hotel project from the Wuxi City Authority for consideration of a sum of RMB45 million. The original property development called for a 22-storey three-star hotel building with 220 rooms and a four-storey staff building. The concrete structure had already been built, but due to financial difficulties, the Chinese owner had to relinquish the project. Within 60 days prior to the signing of the final agreement to take over the project, SPIPL was keen to ensure that the project was feasible and that the new hotel, its first such project in China, would succeed. During this period, Liang Chee-Sian, the Chief Executive Officer of SPIPL must assess the business challenges of developing and operating the new Hotel Wuxi International.

The corporate manager of vehicle planning at Nissan Canada Inc. had been asked by the director of vehicle ordering for Nissan North America (NNA), to review the proposed vehicle ordering process as part of the new Integrated Customer Order Network (ICON). The ICON project would change Nissan's North American vehicle ordering process from a 'make-to-stock' into a 'make-to-order' environment which called for a significant process transformation for Nissan's operations in North America and Japan. The corporate manager of vehicle planning was hoping that the new process would be exactly what the dealers were seeking in an effort to closer align production with customer demand. However, he needed to evaluate the new process from the perspective of all stakeholders to ensure that Nissan's business objectives could be met.

This technical note outlines the effect of Section 197 of the Internal Revenue Code on goodwill and other intangibles purchased in an acquisition. It compares the treatment of goodwill and other purchased intangibles for tax and financial accounting purposes. The note also briefly discusses the allocation of the purchase price in different taxable asset deal structures, the residual method, contingent payments and recapture taxes. These tax laws affect current and future cash flows to the acquirer and target shareholders and as a result can affect the price and optimal structure of a deal.

The corporate manager of vehicle planning at Nissan Canada Inc. had been asked by the director of vehicle ordering for Nissan North America (NNA), to review the proposed vehicle ordering process as part of the new Integrated Customer Order Network (ICON). The ICON project would change Nissan's North American vehicle ordering process from a 'make-to-stock' into a 'make-to-order' environment which called for a significant process transformation for Nissan's operations in North America and Japan. The corporate manager of vehicle planning was hoping that the new process would be exactly what the dealers were seeking in an effort to closer align production with customer demand. However, he needed to evaluate the new process from the perspective of all stakeholders to ensure that Nissan's business objectives could be met.

Shopster.com is a Calgary-based e-business company whose business is to assist other individuals or companies in setting up their own retail transactional websites. Shopster differs significantly from ordinary website developers in that retailers are able to select from a huge inventory of salable products, through Shopster's network of goods providers. Shopster also provides software tools, and expertise, to allow anyone wishing to create an online retail store to do so quickly and easily. Shopster's business has done well to date, but there are plenty of operational challenges ahead. As well, the principals would like to "raise the bar" substantially, to something they refer to as "Shopster 2.0," the specifics of which are still at a formative stage. The Shopster case provides an interesting example of a small but rapidly growing Canadian company with an innovative business model and big dreams for the future.

The head of the key account team at Ai Li Industrial Company Ltd. (Ai Li) was discussing the possibility of bidding for a new account with a major North American department store. The account would involve the manufacture of compact cosmetics kits for the upcoming holiday season. Although the potential benefits from the considerably large order would be significant, it would require one third of Ai Li's nearly full manufacturing capacity.

Describes an operational crisis for JetBlue Airways during an ice storm in the eastern United States in February 2007 and chronicles the airline's immediate response. Provides detail concerning the history of the airline from its founding in 1999 through the February 2007 crisis, which forced the airline to cancel more than 1,000 flights over the course of six days. In addition, discusses the initial response to the crisis by CEO David Neeleman and his management team. Students are provided with the opportunity to evaluate this response in terms of its impact on customer relations, growth prospects, and ongoing operations for JetBlue.

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After significant changes in management, strategic direction and product focus, XenSource, a virtualization software start-up that relies on open source code, faces key decisions regarding the pricing and packaging of its products, a challenge which is compounded by two additional factors: the tension with all of the trappings of open source and the objective to catch / overtake the established incumbent, VMware.

A summer employee at NoVeggie Inc. (NoVeggie) of Toronto, Ontario, was analyzing the viability of changing delivery companies. NoVeggie's largest client, Select Grocers (Select), had recently decided to introduce NoVeggie's products to a new group of Select's grocery stores in Ontario. Although this move would increase sales, it was also expected to increase delivery costs. Now the summer employee is trying to determine the actual delivery costs in order to assess whether the increase in sales would be beneficial, or whether changes in the delivery system were necessary.

The founder and president of I-Love-Stickers.com (ILS), a web-based sticker subscription service, was wondering how she could best continue to market the firm to increase subscriptions for all the sticker packs. Her final MBA exams, countless deadlines, the birth of her baby, and the June summer rush period for the business were all approaching rapidly. In addition to these concerns, she also planned to open a sushi restaurant in London later in the spring. She wanted to solidify her plan of action for ILS for the remainder of the year without delay.

Investigates the challenges that Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer confronted in seeking to create organizational change at the largest integrated health care system in North America, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Kizer was appointed as the Under Secretary of Health, to oversee the VHA, in 1994. Upon Kizer's arrival, it was immediately apparent that the management style that pervaded the VHA was ineffective and out of date. At the same time, the VHA faced inefficient health care delivery systems coupled with a steadily increasing number of patients. Kizer started to make plans to change the VHA into a modern, responsive, efficient, and effective health care organization. However, success in executing on his plans would require challenging a bureaucratic system with a long history. Documents progress, including organizational efficiencies gained that include consolidation of health care facilities, and illuminates leadership actions that facilitate this progress. Clearly, many challenges still lie ahead. Near the end of the case, Dr. Kizer awaits news from Congress on his reappointment for another four-year term.

The student is starting his or her own business, baking make-to-order cookies. Basic times of each operation are laid out and the student is asked to determine the consequences for the operating system. Serves as an exercise and review of concepts such as capacity, bottlenecks, and throughput times. Students should be able to make several useful suggestions for improving the system.

Companies are expecting to spend more on R&D this year, but they're putting it in the wrong place--too much on new project development and not enough on the basic research that will produce tomorrow's revenues.