個案總覽

The pivotal role played by Intel in the development of the semiconductor industry, from the company's founding in 1968 and focus on semiconductor memory products (SRAM and DRAM), through various innovations in microprocessor technology, and leading to the introduction of the 286, 386, and 486 microprocessors is described in this case. Intel's internal ecology of strategy-making-its strategic leadership culture and style of decision making-is described at several key moments in the company's history when strategic decisions related to the entry and exit of several business lines internally competing for resources profoundly influenced the company, and the marketplace. This case draws upon cases and research papers concerning strategy-making at Intel Corporation written between 1989 and 1994.

"Intel's Mobile Strategy in 2015 and Beyond" examines the company's 2014 - 2015 strategy to become a more important mobile player. In early 2015, the semiconductor giant had virtually no presence in the smartphone market, and had only recently gained a real presence in the tablet market. Getting into the mobile market was strategically vital for Intel as the notebook market had been shrinking due to cannibalization from tablets. Flattening demand for notebook processors also meant that production volume in Intel's multi-billion fabrication plants was flattening as well. Intel's mobile efforts had led to losses of $5 billion by the first quarter of 2015. Most phones and tablets ran on a competing architecture designed and licensed by ARM Holdings, and Intel competitors Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung and MediaTek made most of the processors for mobile devices. Intel's efforts to gain market share included compensating its manufacturing customers for the cost of using Intel's more expensive chips. Its goal was to supply chips for 40 million tablets by the end of 2014 (which it exceeded). Intel was also engaging in new partnerships and investment tactics in China to sell Intel-branded chips for the low end of the tablet market. In pursuing the mobile market, Intel had encountered technology challenges and delays, as well as an internal resistance to selling the lower-priced, lower-margin mobile processors, despite having data showing customers' increasing desire for mobile products. Intel had very little time to establish a relevant presence in the mobile market, and the question was whether implementing these new strategies would be enough.

The Executive Director (ED) of a not-for-profit that provided family-centered services to children with disabilities was concerned about the organization's sustainability. The organization was heavily dependent upon financial support from government, however, this funding was insufficient to cover all operating expenses and address the growing demand for services. The ED was interested in developing long-term strategic partnerships to build awareness and generate greater financial support for the organization while remaining true to the organization's mission. She needed to assess current partnerships and determine where to best direct her efforts regarding new partnerships. She also wanted plan that was realistic given the organization's limited people resources.

Board members of a youth camp affiliated with the United Church of Canada were contemplating how to improve the competitive positioning of the camp. The organization recently received a relatively large donation and the Board Chair viewed it as an opportunity to revisit the organization's direction and positioning relative to other camps in the area. The organization faced competition from a number of faith based and non-faith based camps, most of which offered more diverse programming or were positioned with a stronger Christian message. The Board needed to determine how to improve the organization's competitive position without jeopardizing its Christian roots and core mission. It also had to decide how the donated money could support this, whether through a new building or other means.

This case is set in November 2011. Wayne Williams, the CEO of Telect, Inc. has proposed that he and the company's CFO, Stan Hilbert, spend a month or more riding around the country on their Harley Davidson motorcycles visiting the company's customers in honor of the company's upcoming 30th anniversary in September 2012. Wayne wants to take the ride to personally thank the customers who have helped the company reach this milestone and to showcase the firm's product offerings. He would also like to find out from customers what more Telect could be doing to meet their needs. Stan is concerned that the ride could backfire and be misinterpreted by customers, eroding rather than enhancing customer relationships. He is also concerned that employees will not see the ride as the best use of the company's resources and CEO and CFO's time, and that the company may not want to take on the physical risks of having its executive team travel around the country by motorcycle. The students are put into the shoes of the CFO and must decide whether or not to support the ride. If they support the ride, they need to craft a strong argument for the ride to present to the company's board of directors. If they decide not to support the ride, they need to craft a strong argument that will have a chance of convincing the CEO to change his mind about the ride. The case was written primarily for use in MBA and Executive Education strategy and/or executive leadership courses, but it is also suitable for use in an undergraduate level strategy or leadership course. The case focuses on strategic leadership and the role of the executive team in both shaping corporate culture and in developing and maintaining strong relationships with the organization's stakeholders, and in particular, its customers.

In November 2009, a year after the U.S. economy began sliding into a deep recession, Joan Uhl Browne, the CEO of Lott Industries, faced a looming crisis. As financial losses mounted, would she be able to save the company she had led for two and a half years? Lott was a non-profit organization in Toledo, Ohio, that employed over 1200 adults with developmental disabilities when Browne took over in April 2007. The case traces Browne's steps as she tried to replace the loss of over 85 percent of the organization's revenues, build a management team and create new, innovative products. As Browne and her management team pursued a business model of diversification and business growth, they viewed the Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities, which hired the Lott staff and controlled Lott's financial resources, as an obstacle to implementing changes. The critical decision was which strategy was most likely to be successful in assuring the survival of Lott Industries: to keep doing what Lott had traditionally done, finding contracts geared to their current employee-consumers' skill levels as well as innovating, or to focus on securing long-term, higher margin contracts that require the flexibility to hire employees who do not have developmental disabilities, but who can do the jobs. The all-out effort to save Lott Industries through 2009 included restructuring the organization, searching for any and all kinds of contracts, and developing in-house innovations, including green cleaning products and gourmet dog treats. Browne pushed ahead, but she found that the crucial support from her most important stakeholder, the Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities, was weakening. As the frustrations of managing the changes necessary for survival in an increasingly poor economy accumulated, the case begins and ends with the CEO contemplating the next steps she needs to take, and the likelihood they will be successful.

Watson Children's Shelter (Watson) was a private, independent, charitable non-profit organization located in Missoula, MT, that provided emergency shelter to children. Watson was a licensed emergency care provider, offering a safe, nurturing environment for children who were victims of physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse, neglect, abandonment, or family crisis. Many of the children arriving at the shelter were severely emotionally disturbed or learning disabled. Other children arrived as victims of secondary abuse, coming from situations in which they observed domestic violence, substance or sexual abuse. Watson was founded in 1977 and had been under the leadership of Fran Albrecht since 1997. Albrecht had an excellent reputation as a leader and manager of this non-profit. It was June 2011 when Albrecht was deciding which of three alternatives to recommend to her Board of Directors, as Watson faced a tough operational situation. Watson and its Board had gone through a time-consuming due diligence process that led them to the decision to expand and build an additional facility. Within a year after the second facility was finished, placements of children had decreased dramatically; where Watson had been turning away approximately two children per week, it now had excess capacity in each facility and even had closed one facility part of the time. Albrecht's research into the decreased placements led her to a policy change by the main referring agency-it was now taking a "family preservation" approach rather than referring directly to an emergency provider such as Watson.It was a case of Albrecht and her Board having done lots of due diligence and then being blindsided by a decision made by an external constituent. She was concerned about the public perception and the impact on her organization and the Board members, as well as other stakeholders, including the children. She knew Watson had to adapt and act quickly, but she was not certain which alternative to take

The use of 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, has moved well beyond prototyping, rapid tooling, trinkets, and toys. Companies such as GE, Lockheed Martin, and BMW are switching to it for industrial production at scale. More companies will follow as the range of printable materials continues to expand. Already available are basic plastics, photosensitive resins, ceramics, cement, glass, numerous metals, thermoplastic composites (some infused with carbon nanotubes and fibers), and even stem cells. In this article the author makes the case that additive manufacturing will gain ground quickly given advantages including greater flexibility, fewer assembly steps and other cost savings, and enhanced product design possibilities. Managers, he writes, should now be engaging with strategic questions on three levels: (1) Sellers of tangible products should ask how their offerings could be improved, whether by themselves or by competitors. (2) Industrial enterprises should revisit their operations to determine what network of supply chain assets and what mix of old and new processes will be optimal. (3) Leaders must consider the strategic implications as whole commercial ecosystems begin to form around the new realities of 3-D printing. Many of the biggest players already in the business of additive manufacturing are vying to develop the platforms on which other companies will build and connect. Platform owners will be powerful because production itself is likely to become commoditized over time. Those facilitating connections in the digital ecosystem will sit in the middle of a tremendous volume of industrial transactions, collecting and selling valuable information.

Modern business problems are ill-defined, ill-structured and require collective action in order to solve them. As a result, the authors argue, modern business problem solvers need to embrace Model-Based Problem Solving. They describe a new discipline that is nurtured by decades of scientific thinking and practice, with four components: model building, model testing, model calibration and model fusion. Key to the approach is recognizing-and addressing-the issues that arise whenever people work together. They provide advice for harnessing disagreement and turning it into productive and generative tension.

Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs have exceled at demonstrating a highly valuable skill: spotting unmet market needs and figuring out how to serve them profitably. In short, they excel at anticipation. The authors describe three techniques for 'tuning in' to customer signals in order to better anticipate how tastes and needs are changing. They also describe the perils of 'tunnel vision' and provide three techniques for avoiding it.

Across industries, businesses are globalizing at a remarkable rate. However, the authors argue that there is a severe shortage of executives and managers who are capable of seizing all of the available opportunities. Based on their research at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, they define 'the Global Mindset' and its three components: Global Intellectual Capital, Global Psychological Capital and Global Social Capital. They then describe how to choose between finding people with this mindset or growing a global mindset, and the steps involved in each.

In a world of true meritocracy, every individual-regardless of gender-would be fairly rewarded for their contribution. The problem, according to the author, is that such meritocracy does not exist in most organizations. She argues that the procedures and 'frames of reference' in most firms devalue women's contributions and reinforce the privileges of dominant groups. If we want to make meritocracy a reality, she says, men and women alike must confront their biases towards women. She provides eight strategies for getting closer to a true meritocracy, including 'training anyone in an evaluative position to understand implicit bias' and 'examining systems and procedures for unintended bias'.

The idea that 'less is often more' is thousands of years old, but the author describes how powerful it is in a modern business setting. He provides three key principles that can be applied in any organization: what isn't there often trumps what is; the simplest rules create the most effective experience; and limiting information engages the imagination. In the end, he shows that by focusing on what to ignore, what to leave out and what not to do, workplace decisions become exponentially simpler.

In order to master Big Data, businesses must put aside much of what they know about 'working with data' and adopt new mindsets, technologies and capabilities. The authors, all from the Boston Consulting Group, describe the key capabilities required in three areas: data usage, the data engine itself and the data ecosystem. By following their guidelines, they argue, companies can realize the full potential of Big Data faster than they might think-and more importantly, faster than their competitors.

Governments around the world are under unprecedented pressure to identify more cost-effective ways to deliver their services and produce better societal outcomes. As a result, they have begun to embrace approaches to innovation favoured by the private sector, including Design Thinking. With its customer-centric approach, Design Thinking encourages what the authors call 'citizen-centred design'. They provide a tool kit for policy makers and implementers alike that aims to tackle everything from tactical issues (i.e. getting a repeat prescription) to wider problems, such as supporting people in managing their health.

Most people define 'genius' as a person with a towering IQ; but the author argues that a genius is "anyone who turns insight into innovation, and in the process, changes our view of the world." He provides 10 time-tested principles to ignite an endless cycle of creative growth, including 'Feel before you think', 'See what's not there' and 'wish for what you want'. In the end, he shows that true innovation is an act of protest: a rebellion against rules that, in some cases, have hardened into laws. The job of the innovator, he says, is to defy those laws in the quest for creative solutions.

In this wide-ranging interview, one of the world's leading business psychologists describes the value of becoming a 'first-class Noticer'. Doing so, he argues, enables one to avoid the perils of 'inattentional blindness', 'motivated blindness' and 'bounded awareness'-all of which are pervasive in modern organizations, he says. He also defines 'leadership-driven noticing', why it is such a vital skill, and the ways in which it is absent on many corporate boards and in the auditing industry.

An investor in the electric car company Tesla recently issued a friendly challenge to HBS professor Clayton Christensen, the father of the theory of disruptive innovation: Does Tesla represent a new model of disruption, in which products start at the high end and move down? Christensen's research associates investigated by posing five questions used to evaluate disruptive innovations, concluding that Tesla is actually a classic sustaining innovation--a product that offers incrementally better performance at a higher price. But the research did point to something that could disrupt the auto industry. "Neighborhood electric vehicles"--low-speed vehicles that resemble souped-up golf carts--are adding some features of automobiles and could, the team believes, eventually steal significant market share. This reprint contains three additional Idea Watch articles. "Why Job Postings Don't Equal Jobs" visually depicts hires and postings for select industries, showing that in some (typically tech and other white-color industries) there are many more postings than actual jobs, while in others (typically low-skill, blue-collar roles) the pattern is reversed--meaning that this economic indicator is a poor proxy. "How Power-Hungry Bosses Keep Their Power" describes insecure managers who tend to isolate subordinates for fear of being challenged and suggests how companies can curb this tendency. "Financial Rewards Can Spur Innovation" highlights research showing that the right incentives can boost creative, conceptual work.

The case on IndiaMART enumerates important decisions that are made in platform business models with regards to the pricing of the different sides of the platform. Discussions on the case would encompass the role of pricing in creating and leveraging network effects analyze the ''penguin problem'' and how firms could overcome manage and resolve the same. The case is set in 2013-2015 and describes the evolution of IndiaMART, the challenges they faced while addressing four major concerns at the turning point at which the organization was: namely, the speed of customer acquisition, arresting customer churn, responding to the opportunity of the increasing penetration of mobile phones for a platform such as IndiaMART and the decision to venture into new markets such as the B2B business.

The Columbus Partnership, a civic alliance bringing together the heads of roughly 50 leading organizations in central Ohio, has made strides in developing the region's economy. But a stinging defeat at the ballot box has set back the Partnership's efforts to improve local public education. As the case opens in May 2014, the Partnership's leaders must decide whether to continue to try to improve public education and, if so, how.