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This case is a supplement to AUB Medical Center: In Search of a Vision (A) . See 9B14C042. It introduces the AUBMC 2020 vision with its six paths and AUBMC’s strategic plan to implement this vision. It also highlights the internal restructuring that AUBMC has gone through and its efforts to create an organizational culture conducive to a positive work environment. Finally, it presents the internal and external strategic communication plan to rebrand AUBMC and communicate with the public.

International Services Group (ISG) serves global and local clients with accounting solutions. ISG has grown substantially over the last few decades, thanks to a very pro-active management culture at the local subsidiary level. While this growth has been good, it has also introduced certain inefficiencies. ISG’s chief executive officer now wants to change the organization from a locally responsive structure to a globally integrated one by introducing a global accounting software program. The case describes how the implementation meeting, which was conducted in a video-conferencing format, failed. The case deals with boundary-spanning leadership issues across functional, cultural, hierarchical and geographic domains, and it highlights the managerial side of change.

A university student is working on a group project for a case-based business ethics course. Just over a week before the project deadline, one of her fellow group members reveals that he has found part (B) of the assigned case on the Internet. He has read this document, which specifies exactly what the company has done to address the challenge in the case they are working on. It is clear to the protagonist that her group cannot use this information, but she is unsure of how to handle the situation.

An entrepreneur in Atlantic Canada believes he has a five to six year window to capitalize on the growth of his newest venture, Maritime Bus, a passenger transportation and parcel delivery service, before his retirement. Having turned around a business that lost $12 million over the previous eight years in less than six months, he believes he has the opportunity to continue this success. However, he is unsure what strategies to follow to achieve growth: expand the parcel service, partner with other transportation operators to attract more riders, increase marketing efforts or move into Newfoundland and Labrador. He is also unsure about the value of the business and how he can smoothly and profitably transfer his ownership shares to his partner, one or more of his children or an external investor. Any decision needs to be made in consultation with his family.

The national head of sales for consumer business for one of India’s largest paint companies was anxious and concerned about the plummeting levels of employee engagement at his company. He was also aware of an increasing number of complaints about employee’s attitudes and their approach towards both work and the organization from people in senior management. As a seasoned business manager, he knew that he needed to understand and address the gaps between the employee’s expectations and the needs of the organization.

Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. innovatively used the field cast model of housewives as part-time employees to meet the increasing delivery demands of morning peak-load hours. The housewives provided Yamato with a cost-efficient source of human resources and the nimbleness to adjust its staff deployment to respond reliably and quickly to customers’ needs. A series of recruitment, training, and compensation and appraisal processes was designed for the field cast model.<br><br>The case outlines the challenges with the implementation of the field cast model and the decision facing Yamato’s managers of whether to expand it throughout the company’s Japanese operations. Yamato’s managers were largely satisfied with the progress of the field cast model; although field casts made up less than 2 per cent of the delivery manpower at Yamato, they played a crucial role in improving customer satisfaction levels and lowering parcel delivery costs. However, the implications of the expansion plan were multi-dimensional. At an operational level, the inconsistency in the field casts’ performance could be magnified as the number of field casts continued to increase over the coming months. As well, the sales drivers might struggle to cope with the additional responsibility to train and supervise field casts. More broadly, the sustainability of the field cast model was unknown because of Japan’s changing social structure. In addition, with the improvement of the global economy since 2010, the supply of part-time employees was threatened by competition from alternative employment opportunities.

The Ivey Business Journal interviews Robert Kennedy, the dean of the Ivey Business School. He characterizes globalization as disruptive in the short term but crucial for long-term growth and discusses how the globalization of services has accelerated. To transfer work overseas (e.g. through call centres), firms have to implement new IT systems and digitize processes, and these typically generate a much larger return than the savings realized on labour, due to more efficiency. People often believe that heading offshore is just for “low-end” operations like call centres. However, what makes an activity amenable to going offshore is related not to being low end, but to whether or not one has to be physically present. <br><br>Dean Kennedy lists three foundational elements that position a country well for the services shift: a large English-speaking population, a higher-education infrastructure, and a tech-savvy environment. As an economist, he possesses three main global concerns: 1. America’s huge savings shortage, driven by huge government deficits and low personal savings rates. 2. Europe’s social welfare system, which is unsustainable because of the rapidly aging E.U. population. 3. Tensions between China’s economy and its fairly centrally controlled political system.

An infrastructure conglomerate is facing serious challenges following its construction of a world-class airport. The group's leader possesses unique managerial skills, coherent leadership and clear vision, but the airport must contend with an unstable political and economic environment, both nationally and internationally, as well as a number of delays and bureaucratic hurdles. As a result of these external factors, revenues have been much lower than expected, in spite of the overall success of the group's groundbreaking airport project. The company's leader knows that it will take stringent steps and corrective action to confront these issues effectively.

Tata Motors, a leading automobile manufacturer in India, pro-actively responded to the changing competitive environment and redesigned its human capital strategy. As part of the new strategy, huge investments were made in revamping the learning and development function for Tata Motors employees. Multiple initiatives were launched to promote a learning culture, which also earned the company international recognition in the learning and development community. The challenge for Tata Motors is to evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives in terms of their relative advantages and their ability to develop a learning culture in the organization. Effectively capturing and measuring these parameters is crucial for justifying future investments in learning and development.

The first female chief executive officer (CEO) of Vancouver City Savings Credit Union (Vancity) believes in the importance of developing a positive workplace culture. She feels that successful employers take a progressive attitude toward promoting a healthy work-life balance. She also serves as a role model to her employees by working hard but communicating clearly about needing to be present for her family. When an independent consultant surveys the attitudes around work-life balance at Vancity, however, he has a number of recommendations for the CEO to consider, all of them aimed at improving the work-life balance for men in order to improve the work-life balance for everyone at the firm. Also see supplemental case 9B14C026.

Supplement to 9B14C025.

Many articles have been written about the comparisons between the workings of golf and the workings of business. Yet these generally make no attempt to correlate their conclusions with existing business research literature. This article provides four of the most common observations about what it takes to excel at golf as voiced by several of its finest players. It then relates these observations to the business world. 1. Use the proper equipment: Competence alone will not be converted into organizational performance. 2. Know thyself: Every golfer scores better when aware of his or her capabilities. 3. Point of contact: The most common and perhaps most serious mistake among amateur golfers is their tendency to take their eyes off the ball during their swing. During any implementation, one must focus attention and efforts on quality execution. Mergers are most likely to fail during the integration phase of execution. 4. Leave arrogance at home: Executives can improve their business game by recognizing the importance of remaining open to learning from others on and off the golf course.

In May 2012, Sanofi Canada was preparing to move hundreds of employees to a new corporate headquarters with an open-plan workspace. It initiated a 12-month change management campaign and ultimately met its three objectives of ensuring a smooth transition; transforming its corporate culture into one of greater collaboration, transparency and innovation; and minimizing turnover. In this article, the CEO offers four lessons for anyone hoping to replicate the firm’s success. 1. Communication is crucial: It is important to welcome ideas from all organizational levels. 2. Convert employees into change agents: Leaders cannot simply tell employees about change and expect them to get on with it. Sanofi Canada selected groups of employees to form sub-groups of Change Ambassadors. 3. Deploy cultural and behavioural training: Employees will not modify behaviours or learn new skills overnight. Sanofi Canada initiated an “Open Door” challenge and “Getting to Know You” sessions. 4. Surround yourself with the right people: A leader cannot do everything, and external expertise must be leveraged.

Examining texts by William Lewis Safire and Garth Stein, this article puts forward the value of persuasion and rhetoric for executives. A significant task of executives is persuading people to commit to a corporate plan. Shareholders must be convinced to buy stock. Lenders must commit to loans and debt. Customers need to commit to products. Employees and suppliers must give their best efforts. To get commitments from stakeholders, executives can use the power of their position, logic, charisma and incentives, not to mention fear and threats. But ultimately, when the goal is to persuade people, whatever an executive wants must be communicated. As this article shows, language and its delivery is at the core of persuasion and executives can leverage rhetoric to great advantage.

This case presents a role play between a buyer, seller and consultant. In January 2012, India Steel Ltd., a successful, family-owned, mid-sized steel manufacturing company headquartered in India but with agents in Europe, the United States and some parts of the Middle East, is about to enter into a negotiation to buy a steel plant owned by Swedish Steel AB, a large Swedish steel company with more than 7,000 employees working in nine production facilities all over the world. Encouraged by a family friend, India Steel’s CEO has hired an Indian consulting firm to go to Sweden and evaluate the offer.<br><br>This case involves the buyer and is used with Indian Steel Ltd.: Tri-Party Negotiation – The Seller (B) and Indian Steel Ltd.: Tri-Party Negotiation – The Consultant (C).

This case presents a role play between a buyer, seller and consultant. In January 2012, India Steel Ltd., a successful, family-owned, mid-sized steel manufacturing company headquartered in India but with agents in Europe, the United States and some parts of the Middle East, is about to enter into a negotiation to buy a steel plant owned by Swedish Steel AB, a large Swedish steel company with more than 7,000 employees working in nine production facilities all over the world. Encouraged by a family friend, India Steel’s CEO has hired an Indian consulting firm to go to Sweden and evaluate the offer.<br><br>This case involves the seller and is used with Indian Steel Ltd.: Tri-Party Negotiation – The Buyer (A) and Indian Steel Ltd.: Tri-Party Negotiation – The Consultant (C).

This case presents a role play between a buyer, seller and consultant. In January 2012, India Steel Ltd., a successful, family-owned, mid-sized steel manufacturing company headquartered in India but with agents in Europe, the United States and some parts of the Middle East, is about to enter into a negotiation to buy a steel plant owned by Swedish Steel AB, a large Swedish steel company with more than 7,000 employees working in nine production facilities all over the world. Encouraged by a family friend, India Steel’s CEO has hired an Indian consulting firm to go to Sweden and evaluate the offer.<br><br>This case involves the consultant and is used with Indian Steel Ltd.: Tri-Party Negotiation – The Buyer (A) and Indian Steel Ltd.: Tri-Party Negotiation – The Seller (B).

Social media behaviour and online consumer behaviour is different than much of what takes place offline. Though some legal concepts can be transferred, overall, managing human resources from a digital perspective is a new and complex field, and therefore requires additional skills and knowledge. Social media considerably blurs the line between the personal and the professional. It requires thoughtfulness and tact to navigate this new, murky aspect of human resources. The strongest and most effective social media human resource policy approaches will be those that focus above all on values, such as defining and adhering to a particular brand voice, rather than on details, such as exactly how to respond to a particular situation.

A newly appointed state program manager for a non-governmental organization (NGO) has been given the responsibility of managing several health centres in rural India. The state program manager quickly found that his new business environment was full of interpersonal difficulties and unprofessional conduct, which were threatening to derail the organization’s goals. Despite being a newcomer to a well-established and structured NGO, the manager knew that he would have to find a way to persuade his staff to work as a team and to focus on the tasks at hand: the question was, how?

In 2013, the chief executive officer of South Africa’s fourth largest bank, the Nedbank Group Limited, is considering the past and future of his organization. The company is in the process of transformation from a low point in 2003 of poor staff morale and falling share prices, with the threat of losing its licence because of poor capital liquidity, to the best bank in Africa, winning praise for its efforts in environmental sustainability and promoting the post-Apartheid government’s broad-based black economic empowerment policy. Through acquisitions and joint ventures, the company is expanding into neighbouring countries with the result that, after a period of retrenchment, the number of branches and staff has grown. Clearly, his and his predecessor’s clear vision, measurement and focus on culture have enabled the turnaround and subsequent organizational transformation. Yet, in the midst of the global financial crisis, the company is facing increasing competition not only from other banks throughout Africa but from telecommunications companies and retailers that operate financial services. The question now is: Can these transformation efforts be sustained?