個案總覽

As the case opens in 1999, several key leaders at BlackRock, Inc.- then a relatively small asset management firm -- are trying to convince CEO Larry Fink and others that the firm should begin to offer Aladdin -- its proprietary analytics and trading platform -- to other asset managers. While some members of the senior team saw "selling our systems" as an opportunity, others likened it to "selling weapons to the enemy" or "giving away the crown jewels." What should Fink do? The case provides an overview of the asset management industry, the beginnings of BlackRock, and details around the Aladdin platform.

This (D) case is a supplement to HBS case no. 717-404 "BlackRock (A): Selling the Systems?"

By many measures the largest health-club chain in the United States in the early 2000s, in 2014 Bally Total Fitness sold most of its remaining fitness clubs to 24 Hour Fitness and disappeared from the industry top 100 rankings. After Bally was bedeviled by accounting fraud which indicated that it had never made a profit, several groups of investors tried to rescue the company, but their efforts were to no avail. It was an ignominious end.

In 1998, Courtney Kingston persuaded her family to expand their ranch in Chile from dairy and cattle into wine. By March 2016, Kingston Family Vineyards had a strong international brand for its small-production wines and successfully sold the remaining top-tier grapes to other Chilean winemakers. But they faced key choices regarding focus and growth. As Courtney packed her bags for Chile to attend the annual meeting of the family business, she considered three diverging paths. One option was to increase production of their highly rated, handcrafted wines, which had established the vineyard's reputation for quality, pursuing sufficient scale to turn a profit on the winery. Alternatively, the Kingstons could refocus on the vineyard, as they had originally planned, playing to their strengths in farming expertise and leveraging their primary asset - the land. A third possibility was to Invest in Chile's burgeoning tourism market, and open a boutique hotel in Casablanca's wine country. Courtney wondered how best to preserve the family's land for the next generation while contributing to the greater Casablanca Valley community. This case explores these three strategic possibilities and their potential economic impact. Kingston Family Vineyards - Trade and Education video provides an overview of their history and approach to winemaking in Casablanca Valley, Chile. https://vimeo.com/201833299 (TRT: 04:38)

This B case is a supplement to HBS case no. 717-404 "BlackRock (A): Selling the Systems?"

This (C) case is a supplement to HBS case no. 717-404 "BlackRock (A): Selling the Systems?"

This module reading describes how to build a profit plan to reflect the strategy of a business in economic terms. After introducing the profit wheel, cash wheel, and ROE wheel, the module illustrates how to use a profit plan to assess the viability of different strategies and evaluate whether sufficient resources will be available to implement the chosen strategy. The module examines in detail how to develop accurate estimates for sales, profit, cash flow, asset turnover, investment in new assets, and return on equity. The discussion then turns to how to gather and analyze data and the effects of sensitivity analysis on predictions. The module concludes by illustrating the critical role of a profit plan in setting goals, communicating expectations to the investment community, and evaluating the performance of individual managers and businesses. While this module is designed to be used alone, it is part of the Strategy Execution series. Taken together, the series forms a complete course that teaches the latest techniques for using performance measurement and control systems to implement strategy. Modules 1 - 4 set out the foundations for strategy implementation. Modules 5 - 10 teach quantitative tools for performance measurement and control. Modules 11 - 15 illustrate the use of these techniques by managers to achieve profit goals and strategies. View the full Strategy Execution series at: hbsp.harvard.edu/strategy-execution.

Kurt Darrow, CEO of La-Z-Boy furniture, must decide whether to continue an overhaul of the company's strategy in the face of a collapse in demand during the great recession. Having pared back La-Z-Boy's portfolio of brands and manufacturing network, he intends to reposition the company as a branded retailer of furniture and home fashions. Just management is poised to implement a new strategy that involves a heavy investment in brand advertising, a complete overhaul of the retail organization and a fundamentally new manufacturing system, the industry experiences a catastrophic downturn. Should he continue to invest in a highly speculative strategy or rein in investment and preserve cash?

Tunisia has been the only country to emerge from the Arab Spring with a successful transition to democracy. This case focuses on a critical period in this transition process, when the country appointed an interim government. The case zooms in on the leadership and governance challenges of this "caretaker" administration during its one-year mandate in 2014-2015. In order to convey the highly turbulent environment this government faced, the story centers on one of the cabinet ministers and his struggle to deal with students' protests, labor strikes and threats to national security. It also outlines the challenge of making ethical decisions and pursuing much-needed reforms in this context. The protagonist of the case - the Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Information & Communication Technologies, Mr Tawfik Jelassi - is unusual in that he was a business school professor and dean with no political experience, who was plunged into a new environment and expected to "sink or swim." He had to learn to map out the constellation of stakeholders who were important to his decision-making and to understand the dynamics of political conflicts. He was a member of a diverse team: non-partisan "technocrats" coming from different sectors and countries. An esprit-de-corps and high-level coordination enabled the government team to achieve the objectives set by the country's National Dialogue Quartet at the outset of their mandate. In 2015, Tunisia was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for having built a pluralistic democracy. The Norwegian Nobel Committee stated that: "The ultimate validation of the Quartet's historical effort came in the autumn of 2014, when the parliamentary and presidential elections were carried out. Both the technocratic government and the interim president resigned and were replaced by lawfully elected successors."

In April 2015, Shell offered to pay 0.4454 of its B shares and 383 pence in cash for each BG share in a deal valued at $70 billion. The offer entailed a sizable 50%-plus premium for the BG Group by assuming a $90/bbl forward oil price. Shell had to seek approval from at least 50% of its shareholders, and BG Group would require the backing of 75% of its shareholders for the deal to go through. On January 8, 2016, Standard Life, a major shareholder in both Royal Dutch Shell plc and BG Group, announced that it would vote No to a merger between Shell and BG at a Shell shareholder meeting to be held on January 27, stating that "the proposed terms of the acquisition of BG are value-destructive for Shell shareholders." However, the same investor would vote Yes at a BG shareholder meeting on January 28. A volatile oil market further complicated the M&A decision. With oil prices in the low $30s/bbl, the market was worried that Shell's view of the future was overoptimistic. Shell top executives needed to make a business case to win shareholder support, which might turn into a case of overpromising and underdelivering to investors. Learning objective: The case offers an opportunity to study the pros and cons of a deal on both sides, as well as to evaluate the strategic benefits and the price tag. Students gain an understanding of three valuation techniques - discounted cash flows (DCF), net asset value (NAV) and market multiples - and of the sensitivity of the deal value to changes in forward oil prices. The incomplete and uncertain nature of firm valuation is revealed and the reality that financial analysis often depends on many assumptions.

Setting a strategic direction for a business school, initiating a culture change, and overcoming a massive financial deficit were challenges faced by the incoming dean of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Alison Davis-Blake. Of the four strategic pillars adopted-analytical rigor, action learning, boundarylessness, and a focus on the positive-the positive pillar was both the most controversial and the most differentiating. After experiencing dramatic success over a five-year period, Davis-Blake stepped down and a new dean was appointed, Scott DeRue. He had to determine whether to keep the positive pillar or abandon it.

In 2016, LA Fitness was the largest chain of non-franchised fitness clubs in North America, operating 676 clubs, serving 4.9 million members, and generating revenues of over $1.9 billion. Founded by Chinyol Yi, Louis Welch, and Paul Norris in 1984, the privately held company revealed little about its future plans or its operations, leading one journalist to write of "the quiet ascension of LA Fitness." However, it continued to expand aggressively, focusing on a full-service model, often including swimming pools and racquetball courts at moderate prices. Rumors of an IPO had circulated for over a decade, triggered by the fact that several private-equity houses had invested in the business and might be looking for an exit. In 2014, the company had arranged up to $1.6 billion in debt to fund expansion and buy out some investors. Whether this would be sufficient to appease its owners and support future growth was not clear. Nor was it clear how much more expansion LA Fitness could expect with its full-service model in the highly competitive fitness-club industry.

Set in 2015, the case describes the evolution of the Indian software services industry from being a supplier of software professionals for onsite projects in the 1990s to becoming an innovation partner of enterprises embracing digital transformation in recent years. The $132 billion industry has become the preferred destination for Information Technology and Business Process Management outsourcing needs of global clients as also the largest private sector employer in India. In the mid-2000s, the widely acclaimed Global Delivery Model pioneered by the Indian software services firms not only enabled them to grow exponentially but also forced a change in strategy of global software services firms such as IBM and Accenture. To match the operating costs of Indian software services firms, the global firms were forced to adopt an offshore-centric operating model and set up large centers in India. The period ensuing the global financial crisis in 2008 saw two significant developments: a reordering of industry leadership among firms, and digital technologies gaining traction. This emergence and integration of digital technologies has implications for delivery cycles, pricing models, customer expectations, and the competitive scenario, among others. The case draws attention to a discussion of these issues. The case comprises three broad sections. The first section discusses the industry's evolution after India's economic liberalization in 1991 and the Y2K opportunity that provided a fillip to the industry's growth. The second section describes the global delivery model of Indian software services firms, its impact on global software majors, and evolution of the competitive landscape amid the global financial crisis in 2008. The third section describes the actions of various firms with the advent of digital technologies, and briefly discusses the opportunities and challenges for incumbent firms.

As a result of fast-developing mobile technology, companies must deal with increasing business complexity in a high-velocity environment. The Uber vs. Didi case illustrates a wide range of strategic issues that a company may face when creating a new business model, generating unprecedented value for customers, challenging traditional business and regulatory frameworks, and expanding into an emerging market to compete with local rivals. The case is about Uber's competition with Didi, its local rival in China. The first part describes the traditional taxi industry, using the illustration of the US taxi medallion system. It explains Uber's platform-based business model, value innovation, challenge to government regulation, and surge pricing model, as well as associated ethical issues. The second part describes the emergence of Didi in China and how it challenged Uber when it entered China's ride-hailing market. Unlike its rapid expansion in the US and other countries, Uber had a bumpy ride in China. In June 2015, Didi was reported to have 80.2% of the market, outperforming Uber's meagre 11.5%. With China's internet giants joining the battle as strategic investors-Baidu (backing Uber), Alibaba and Tencent (both backing Didi), and from Silicon Valley-Apple (backing Didi), the race between Uber and Didi has far-reaching implications.

During her career, Cheryl Bachelder had been a senior executive at two other food franchising companies, Domino's and KFC, and she'd learned to love the model. But when she took office at Popeyes, in 2007, which was struggling from a lack of strategy and too much short-term thinking, she found that the company's relationship with its franchisees was severely strained. As she and her team worked to turn Popeyes around, they would have to both regain the owners' trust and fire up their enthusiasm for the future. They would also have to create an arsenal of brand-building ideas and a national advertising campaign to build consumer awareness. In talks about how they should lead and which stakeholders should be their primary focus, the team members settled on a model called "servant leadership," in which the people of an enterprise come before self-interest. And they agreed that Popeyes franchisees should be their most important customers: "No one," Bachelder writes, "has more skin in the game." The company conducted its first in a series of franchisee satisfaction surveys and began measuring what matters most to owners, namely restaurant-level profitability. It launched a number of winning new products and acquired sophisticated software to help franchisees choose the best locations for new restaurants. The result has been eight years of steady growth.

A business model that can link a new technology to an emerging market need is the key to industry transformation. When Apple coupled the iPod with iTunes, it revolutionized the audio devices market. But most attempts to introduce a new model fail. The authors did an in-depth analysis of 40 companies that had launched new business models in a variety of industries, and here they present the key takeaways from their research. They looked for recurring features in the models and found six: personalization, a closed-loop process, asset sharing, usage-based pricing, a collaborative ecosystem, and an agile and adaptive organization. No model displayed all of them, but having a higher number of features usually correlated with a greater chance of success at transformation. (The taxi service Uber can claim five of the six.) Companies that are thinking about changing their business model or entering an industry with a new model can rate themselves on the six features to assess the likelihood that they'll be transformative.

Carlos Ghosn's official title is CEO and chairman of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, but he's more colorfully known as "Le Cost Killer" and "Mr. Fix-It." He earned those nicknames by rescuing first Renault and then Nissan back in the 1990s. Now he's hoping for yet another turnaround--at struggling Mitsubishi, where Nissan recently acquired a controlling share. A Brazilian-born Lebanese-Frenchman, Ghosn deftly handles the challenges of managing companies on two continents. In this interview, he describes how he does it--meeting with his teams in Tokyo and Paris for a week each month and spending the rest of his time in operations, talking to suppliers and buyers, and looking for new opportunities. In the next five years, he says, "you'll see more electric cars, more autonomous drive, and more connectivity." He's excited about using technology "to make the car an indispensable personal space" and developing a fully self-driving vehicle by 2020. And he's not worried about competition in the electric-car market from companies like Apple or Google: "We have a long tradition of taking technology from the outside and putting it into our products." Ghosn believes the role of a CEO is to be "the guardian of the integrity and sustainability of the company." He sees his most important tasks as selecting the right people and directing strategy. "I want to make sure the Nissan-Renault Alliance continues to be solid," he says, "with good performance and good governance."

Tela, a Lima-based company that uses local, sustainable materials to make fashionable ponchos, has a formidable competitor--a large U.S. firm with a globally recognized brand that markets its ponchos as "of Peruvian design" (although they are made in Bangladesh). Alejandra Chirinos, Tela's founder, has gathered her team to decide how Tela can best position itself against the U.S. company. She believes in Tela's social mission of employing and teaching weaving skills to underprivileged women, but her competitor has a simpler story to tell: Like TOMS with shoes and Warby Parker with glasses, it has a "buy one, give one" model whereby purchases support donations to people in need. In this context, can Tela successfully market its social mission? Or should it emphasize the authenticity of its products or its lower prices? Mark Rampolla (founder and former CEO of Zico coconut water) and Tomas Pando (cofounder and president of the Argentine footwear company Paez) offer expert commentary on Chirinos's dilemma.

Tela, a Lima-based company that uses local, sustainable materials to make fashionable ponchos, has a formidable competitor--a large U.S. firm with a globally recognized brand that markets its ponchos as "of Peruvian design" (although they are made in Bangladesh). Alejandra Chirinos, Tela's founder, has gathered her team to decide how Tela can best position itself against the U.S. company. She believes in Tela's social mission of employing and teaching weaving skills to underprivileged women, but her competitor has a simpler story to tell: Like TOMS with shoes and Warby Parker with glasses, it has a "buy one, give one" model whereby purchases support donations to people in need. In this context, can Tela successfully market its social mission? Or should it emphasize the authenticity of its products or its lower prices? Mark Rampolla (founder and former CEO of Zico coconut water) and Tomas Pando (cofounder and president of the Argentine footwear company Paez) offer expert commentary on Chirinos's dilemma.

Tela, a Lima-based company that uses local, sustainable materials to make fashionable ponchos, has a formidable competitor--a large U.S. firm with a globally recognized brand that markets its ponchos as "of Peruvian design" (although they are made in Bangladesh). Alejandra Chirinos, Tela's founder, has gathered her team to decide how Tela can best position itself against the U.S. company. She believes in Tela's social mission of employing and teaching weaving skills to underprivileged women, but her competitor has a simpler story to tell: Like TOMS with shoes and Warby Parker with glasses, it has a "buy one, give one" model whereby purchases support donations to people in need. In this context, can Tela successfully market its social mission? Or should it emphasize the authenticity of its products or its lower prices? Mark Rampolla (founder and former CEO of Zico coconut water) and Tomas Pando (cofounder and president of the Argentine footwear company Paez) offer expert commentary on Chirinos's dilemma.