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At its corporate headquarters, the pharmaceutical giant Lilly has broken free from the tyranny of the cube farm, redesigning its offices with flexible, customized spaces. The result: lower overhead and costs and higher creativity and productivity. Here's a closer look at what 21st century office space looks like.

The case describes the selection of an information technology (IT) product to support the operations of 1-888-Junk-Van, a small waste-collection business. Marcus Kingo, the business owner, has five alternatives from which to choose: a database upgrade, contracting out development of a new software application, using Google Docs, using an online tool framed as Platform as a Service (PaaS), or implementing a small-business enterprise resource-planning (ERP) system. Each option presents strengths and weaknesses, and students are left to make a decision. The case exemplifies the IT deployment challenges faced by small companies.

The case explores a deicing capacity expansion decision made by JetBlue at Boston Logan International Airport in the summer of 2010. The need for capacity expansion was driven by significant challenges faced during the previous winter combined with substantial scheduled growth for the upcoming winter.

In less than two years, the founders' innovative model for addressing last-mile challenges in an online grocery retailing operation was working. Although still consuming cash, the three-month-old pilot expansion to another city was experiencing three-digit monthly sales growth. To date, the company had followed a philosophy of low-cost experimentation, as it explored terrain that had been inhospitable to its predecessors. But now Relay needed to make some changes in its operations strategy.

Student spreadsheet for case UV6014.

New legislation may require all appliance manufacturers and brand owners to take responsibility for end-of-life (EOL) collection and recycling of products. The senior manager government relations for Whirlpool Corporation (Whirlpool) was updating his colleagues on Ontario's proposed extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation. Whirlpool was the Canadian market share leader in household appliances such as clothes washers, dryers and cooking ranges. With EPR. Whirlpool, among others, would now have to manage - or pay to manage - a more complex model involving reverse logistics. Each appliance manufacturer had at least three options from which to choose: it could argue the legislation was unnecessary, it could join an industry-funded organization (IFO) to meet EPR's requirement, or it could set up its own IFO.

New legislation in Ontario, Canada, might require all appliance manufacturers and brand owners to take responsibility for end-of-life collection and recycling of products. The senior manager of government relations for Whirlpool Corporation was updating his colleagues on Ontario’s proposed extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation. Whirlpool was the Canadian market share leader in household appliances such as washing machines, dryers, and cooking ranges. With EPR, Whirlpool and other firms would now have to manage — or pay to manage — a more complex model involving reverse logistics. Each appliance manufacturer had at least three options from which to choose: it could argue the legislation was unnecessary, it could join an industry-funded organization (IFO) to meet EPR’s requirement, or it could set up its own IFO.

Daudnagar Organization for Rural Development (DORD) was determining how to expand its successful eye-care hospital into reproductive and child health services. The case lays out the financial and organizational risks and asks the student to evaluate the possibility of expansion given the economic and governmental constraints in one of the poorest parts of India.

By mid-2007, Wawa, headquartered outside Philadelphia, had grown into a chain of 564 convenience stores (200 of which sold gasoline) within a 250-mile radius. A privately owned firm, Wawa employed over 16,000 people and had $4.67 billion of sales in 2006, an increase of 19.6 per cent over the prior year. It was widely admired as a highly effective and humane organization with a loyal and expanding body of customers. <br><br><br><br>This case addresses Wawa’s supply chain management (SCM) in the context of strategic direction, organizational design, and future growth opportunities. Over an eight-year period, Wawa had transformed its supply chain from a disjointed array of parts into a coherent, high-functioning system. Issues before the company now included (1) the relation between SCM and competitiveness; (2) the nature of the typical store and store manager; and (3) possible expansion beyond Wawa’s current area of operations. Another question concerned Wawa’s stores. Historically, these had featured a friendly ambience where “everybody knows your name,” but the company was moving towards larger, more standardized units with fewer offerings, with the goal of minimizing customer throughput time. What would this shift mean for the role of the store manager, and for the overall customer experience? Finally, to what extent was Wawa “landlocked” in its concentrated, middle-Atlantic market? Could — and should — the company attempt to export its distinctive value proposition, culture, and methods to other geographic areas?

Infosys BPO, a 350-million USD BPO firm, is preparing a bid for a new customer engagement. In the process, it has to consider various issues such as resource planning, productivity improvement, pricing model, quality management, and human resource management. The case provides scope for carving a strategic growth path for the firm.

This case deals with the innovation challenges of a medium-sized firm (under $1 billion) in an emerging economy (India), particularly the challenges of product development and commercialization. The management has to decide how to proceed with a promising novel formula for oral insulin — promising both in terms of financial returns as well as social impact. The company has spent several years of research and development in getting the drug through Phase I and Phase II trials, and is entering the most critical stage, Phase III. The case is set in 2009, a period that was punctuated with a lot of economic uncertainty. Students are asked to decide if Biocon should go ahead with Phase III and, if so, whether it should be done locally or globally and with a partner or alone. The case also deals with transitioning research and development strategies in emerging markets, wherein firms that have traditionally focused on “imitation” (or generic drugs) are moving to high-risk drug discovery.

The general manager of environmental and engineering services in London, Ontario, is preparing a recommendation regarding the implementation of green bins to collect organic waste from city households. When making this decision, he must consider the costs to the taxpayer to implement this program along with other qualitative issues. The case is written for an engineering economics unit in a general business course for engineering students as an introduction to public-sector decision making.

Appropriate for courses in operations management and process improvement. Hundreds of prospective students visit the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration throughout the academic year to interview for admission and gain a better understanding of the Darden educational experience. In anticipation of these visits, the Darden Admissions Office coordinates a typical schedule of events with the first-year (FY) and second-year (SY) student hosts, the faculty members who will be teaching the MBA case discussion classes that all prospective students will attend, Abbott Center personnel, and of course the prospective students.

The Darden School mailroom and the activities of its manager are analyzed using process mapping and waste identification tools. The note illustrates how one can observe and analyze a process for which opportunities to create process maps, evaluate waste and savings potential, and create stakeholder buy-in for improvements are identified. Lean tools discussed include process flowcharts, SIPOC, seven waste analyses, and stakeholder engagement. Students who undertake their own process mapping projects should complete a report similar to what was created for the Darden School mailroom.

In 2004, U.S.-based China Sourcing Group, which specialises in premium and gift products, established a sourcing office in Shanghai. The Shanghai office was responsible for sourcing vendors not only in China but also in southern Asia. It played a major role in quadrupling China Sourcing Group's revenues over the next four years. Despite its contribution to the group, the Shanghai office faced a major issue of frequent late deliveries, especially of new products that were developed from scratch. In 2009, as the Shanghai management team reviewed the performance of the sourcing office, it decided that something had to be done to improve the punctuality of that office's deliveries. What should the Shanghai office do to improve the situation?

This case identifies the approach taken by Partners HealthCare to better manage the commercialization of its intellectual property (IP). Existing processes did not leverage the shared resources, such as business development efforts and the research centres created as a consequence of the formation of Partners HealthCare in 1995. Partners was the largest hospital organization and second-largest non-university recipient of research funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH). As such, it generated a vast and varied body of IP constituting an asset of considerable value to Partners and those it served. The leadership of Partners viewed it as their mission to the organization and to the greater health care community to vigorously pursue commercializing innovation generated through research efforts. <br><br>The case considers the organizational structure and how this structure enabled a cohesive commercialization effort. It includes three vignettes that involve research projects that precede the creation of the Research, Ventures and Licensing (RVL) unit in 2005. RVL served as the centralized office for overseeing the processes of IP protection, licensing, translational research project funding, new venture creation, and industry partnerships to bring forward the inventions that emerged from the research of Partners affiliates and their primary investigators. The case demonstrates how a large health care organization can bring innovative products and services to market through appropriate organizational transformation.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. As the competitive landscape grows tougher, project leaders must sequence, time and articulate core messaging about their projects in much the same way a marketing manager would organize an external customer-facing branding effort to promote a company's products and services. And therein lies an opportunity; brand your projects in order to gain an edge in obtaining funds and the best staff. Just as product branding creates awareness and sustains value in the minds of an organization's external customers, shareholders, and constituents, a brand mindset can empower a project leader to develop strategically-timed messages to create visibility and engagement among key targets. Depending on the stage of the project, different project brand audiences may include senior business leaders, project sponsors, and team members with primary allegiances to vertical functions, as well as network partners external to the home organization. The savvy project leader will ensure that all parties up, down, across, and outside the organization understand, internalize, and embrace the promise of the project brand, agree on goals, and employ steadfast support for the initiative through its completion.

Managers once discouraged casual interaction among employees, viewing it as a distraction from "real work." Today we know that chance encounters on the job promote cooperation and innovation, and companies craft their floor plans and cultures with this in mind. So why do their careful, well-intentioned efforts often go awry? Common sense, it turns out, is a poor guide when it comes to designing for interaction. Work spaces inspire informal encounters only if they properly balance three factors that have both physical and social aspects: (1) Proximity: Spaces should naturally bring people together; (2) Privacy: People must be able to control access to their conversations and themselves; (3) Permission: The social purpose of the space needs to be evident, and the organizational culture should signal that nonwork interactions are not just sanctioned but encouraged. Creating the right conditions is challenging enough in the physical world; doing it in a virtual environment is even harder. But asking employees to set Skype, IM, and other applications to indicate their availability can replicate a sense of proximity online. Setting clear policies governing access to electronic communications helps convey reassurance that privacy is protected. And leaving video links and virtual offices open promotes the feeling that geographically disparate groups are welcome to engage with one another casually, just as they might in a real-world common space. There's no simple formula for balancing proximity, privacy, and permission in either the physical or virtual spheres. Managers who grasp the fundamentals and design spaces with balance in mind, however, will be better equipped to understand and predict the effects of different spaces on interactions, and to learn from their successes and inevitable mistakes.

Sam Silver, a law student, was near the end of a second visit to Mason & Klump LLP, a Bay Street law firm in Toronto, Canada. He was meeting Chuck Clayton, director of professional development. Silver was mentally exhausted from the interview process that had consumed much of his past three months, during which he had been seeking a position as a summer student at Bay Street firms. He had narrowed his selection to two leading national firms, Andrews, Mantle & Smithers LLP and Mason & Klump. On November 1 and 2, Silver had had interviews at six Bay Street firms, including his top two choices. Although he believed his first choice, Andrews, Mantle & Smithers, would offer him a position on November 3, when formal offers would be made, he was not certain that the firm would do so. As the meeting drew to a close, Clayton left the room for a minute, giving Silver a short time to decide if he should ask any more questions and to begin to reflect on the interview process.

The owner of South Side Restaurant, a mid-upper class restaurant located in Chicago, Illinois, must decide which of the three bottles of wine to add to the restaurant's wine list. Given the restaurant prides itself on its environmental and social positioning and that its consumers have come to expect performance in this area, the wine's carbon footprint represents an important decision criterion. South Side Restaurant is a for-profit restaurant and the owner must balance this environmental criterion with short- and long-term financial return.