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Scientific knowledge surrounding diabetes mellitus has grown over the last century to include its cause, treatment, and prevention strategies. However, the type and level of care that patients receive is suboptional. This case examines the forces in industry, knowledge, education, public policy, and reimbursement that drive the management of this disease and the potential for innovation in the management of other chronic diseases.

Solectron Corp. grew rapidly from a small contract manufacturer in the early 1980s to the dominant company in the electronics manufacturing services industry by the late 1990s. In doing so, it evolved from providing peak capacity for its clients to providing services that clients could not provide on their own (low-cost materials and access to expensive capital equipment). Its next phase was to provide its clients with new ways of operating--such as outsourcing all operations except research, product conceptualization, marketing, and sales--allowing clients to outsource those activities that were not part of their core competencies. Describes this evolution and the rapid growth of the company. In 2001, the company's clients suffered severe business downturns, which in turn caused the first contraction in Solectron's history. Describes the company's initial response and raises questions about how the company should proceed.

BigEast is considering adopting a relationship-centric view in its credit card approval process. This would shift the bank's current practice of analyzing applications based on the merits of a single product to one where the customer's existing relationship is considered in the approval process.

Provides a retailing context in which employee retention strategies are explored through analyzing detailed store-level data.

In 1997, Mike Volkema faced the difficulty of attempting to revitalize a once dynamic organization. Volkema wondered how he could incorporate advances made within subsidiaries, such as Miller SQA's business model innovation, into the company as a whole while also reinvigorating the product focus that had made Herman Miller great. This case details Herman Miller's development of business model designs for each of its target market segments and the evolution of its famed cubicle office system to a new design for the twenty-first century. Herman Miller's traditional focus on product design has been supplemented by a new focus on targeted business models. Students can analyze the changes, including market expansion, reintegration of the fragmented value chain, and sharing capabilities throughout the organization that Volkema introduced to redirect the firm toward greater growth. The details of customer-oriented business model design are examined. Concludes with a series of issues for organizational processes and structures to enable a firm to manage innovation on multiple fronts. Includes color exhibits.

Gary Van Spronsen, president of Miller SQA, has been asked to leave the thriving subsidiary he helped to reinvent to join Herman Miller's corporate initiative on innovation. Miller SQA has pioneered processes new to the Herman Miller organization, such as computer-assisted sales and value chain integration. This case details the innovations that have led to a completely new business model for a previously underserved market and highlights the integration of target customer, product design, manufacturing, and supply chain management. Includes color exhibits.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

Chiang-Sho Ltd. is a joint venture producing agricultural machinery in China. The CEO must decide how to respond to pressure from the Chinese partner--also the joint venture's largest customer--to increase production and lower prices. The CEO must choose either a growth or harvest strategy.

Describes how Siemens, the German electrical engineering giant, has developed and manages global R&D in its large Information and Communications Networks (ICN) division. In 1994, Siemens opened its Bangalore (India) center, which has now grown into one of its largest regional development centers outside Germany. With Bangalore asking for increased resource independence and managerial autonomy, senior management has to decide how the activities in India fit into its global development strategy. This tension is played out in a large software project led by Bangalore developers in which an increase in project autonomy also results in serious technical problems for Siemens in the quality-driven telecommunications equipment industry.

Supplements the (A) case.

Spreadsheet supplement for 602-061.

A Sydney-based biotechnology company is attempting to enter the fast-growing proteomics area. This case highlights choices in business design and changes in these over time. Also addresses issues in geographic location.

Describes a start-up company seeking to exploit population genetic data from long-lived, healthy people. The company must address legal, financial, ethical, and personal issues among its team to launch the company.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) and (B) cases.

Brigitte Gagne, Le Petit Chef's director of microwave R&D, is deciding on the product development agenda for next year. She has to decide which of the available projects to fund, and evaluate the overall portfolio of projects currently under development. The recent poor performance of the firm prompts Gagne to think about reassessing the way projects are generated, evaluated, and selected at Le Petit Chef. However, Gagne has a pressing deadline to meet--the executive team is due to review the next year's agenda at a meeting in Paris tomorrow.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 602080.

Chronicles the successes and failures of the Virgin Group. By examining these examples, students discover attributes of Virgin's overall service concept, which, at its core, competes on quality rather than on price. Students are challenged to consider how Virgin might extend its operations into the U.S. market.

For nearly three months, John Carter, a vascular surgeon by training, had been studying a variety of clinical processes at Deaconess-Glover Hospital in Needham, Mass. Carter was looking for an opportunity to test the applicability of Toyota Production System "Rules-in-Use" in the health care context. After several weeks of increasing focus, he had found a particular process--medication administration--to test his ideas. He had just suggested to John Dalton and Julie Bonenfant, the hospital's president and vice president, that they create a learning unit or model line within one of the nursing wards to begin conducting experiments. Dalton and Bonenfant received his modest proposal negatively. They complained that his proposal seemed remarkably unambitious, yet, paradoxically, they complained that creating a dedicated learning unit within the larger nursing ward would be infeasible. Carter struggled to explain how they could react simultaneously with such seemingly contradictory sentiments.