個案總覽

Describes the steps the vice-president of human resources takes in revamping an HR function that was noncooperative and, at times, competitive and introducing the company to the notion of HR as a strategic business partner. Explores changes made to the company's compensation, performance management, and succession planning processes.

Supplement to 410-103.

After completing her MBA in 2007, Toby Johnson, a former army pilot with the 18th Airborne Corps Rapid Deployment Force, joined PepsiCo's Leadership Development Program (LDP). For her first assignment with PepsiCo, Johnson accepted a position as a manufacturing-manager at a Frito-Lay plant in Williamsport, PA. The Williamsport plant had 200 employees and 54 million pounds of production per year. The case describes how Johnson took charge of the plant, and her action plan for implementing a new set of changes. During Johnson's tenure at Williamsport, the plant was nominated as a potential site for a company-wide transformative initiative. This initiative would entail major changes in the current team structure and incentive program within Frito-Lay. Johnson needed to think carefully about this change implementation.

This case focuses on the growth dilemmas facing Manish Sabharwal, Co-founder, TeamLease Services Pvt. Ltd. TeamLease is a Human Resource Outsourcing and Temp Staffing company located in India, which has grown rapidly over 2002 to 2009. Set in the context of the highly regulated Indian labour market, the case raises the questions of how entrepreneurial leadership and strategy formulation can leverage the opportunities represented by the gaps between what the law says and what the market needs. It provides an opportunity to examine the concepts of power and influence and how they can be created and wielded to catalyze change and build a new industry that is technically illegal.

Key State Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plan (a disguised case of an actual BCBS Plan) is the merged product of three state plans. Initially burdened with a reputation of poor customer service, Key State's executives decided to invest heavily in service improvement, eventually achieving superior levels. Key State's high-quality customer service emerged as a true competitive advantage for its customers, who were primarily businesses and health benefits consultants who influenced corporate purchasers of health insurance. The Key State brand came to be synonymous with personal service, security, choice, and dependability. But the health care insurance market was changing under Key State's feet. Spiraling costs meant that high-quality service became less of a competitive advantage as employers were lured by low-cost, low-service providers. Many employers cut or dropped health care benefits entirely, swelling the ranks of the under- and uninsured, who in turn were extremely price-sensitive when shopping for health insurance on their own. Finally, the health care insurance market was being revolutionized by financial institutions willing to hold health benefit accounts and pay providers directly, thereby eliminating the need for Key State as a mediator. Key State executives were aware of these changes but were challenged by the mindset, culture, and organizational design custom-fit to their business accounts. The case asks the reader to consider whether Key State has the right number of target markets, whether it should have one brand or several for its different target markets, what it should do for the uninsured, and how it should improve its brand experience in light of the industry's changing landscape. All of these decisions will have significant implications for the organizational design of Key State.

Knowledge management has been a high priority for Cognizant Technology Solutions since its inception since its global delivery model requires the global sharing of knowledge. Its first major tool was called the Knowledge Management Appliance but as Web 2.0 tools came into wider use, this evolved into what the company called "Cognizant 2.0" (C2) which was designed to ensure that the KM Appliance capabilities for storing documents and participative tools such as blogs and wikis were directed towards supporting business goals. This required the development of a set of structured work process guidelines and tasks for each major type of work performed internally and for clients. Increasing awareness amongst its clients about C2 has led the company into considering whether it should turn this into a client-facing service offering itself. As its clients become more interested in knowledge management within their own companies, the interest in a C2-based offering could grow.

This case describes how a Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google, Bill Coughran, leads a high-performing engineering organization. The case focuses specifically on Coughran's encouraging two teams of engineers to develop competing solutions for application storage systems. It also shows how Coughran assembled an informal brain trust of managers and technical leaders that assist him in leading his 2,000-person organization. This case will be relevant for those interested in what it takes to lead for sustained innovation, particularly of knowledge workers like engineers. It also sheds light on how to develop leaders in engineering organizations.

This case is a thick description of how a Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google, Bill Coughran, leads a high-performing engineering organization. The case focuses specifically on Coughran's use of encouraging two teams of engineers to develop competing solutions for application storage systems. It also shows how Coughran assembled an informal brain trust of managers and technical leaders that assist him in leading his 2,000-person organization. This case will be relevant for those interested in what it takes to lead for sustained innovation, particularly of knowledge workers like engineers. It also sheds light on how to develop leaders in engineering organizations.

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group) is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis says true leaders are not born but made, and usually self-made. He studies examples from recent US history; goes on to distinguish leadership from management; and explores the critical process of self-invention (including self-reinvention).

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group), is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis explores the importance of learning to leaders, and distinguishes among three types of learning: shock, maintenance, and innovative. He goes on to demonstrate the value of (1) looking back at your childhood and adolescence and using your experiences to make things happen in the present; (2) consciously seeking the kinds of experiences that will improve and enlarge you; (3) taking risks as a matter of course, with the knowledge that failure is as vital as it is inevitable; (4) seeing the future as an opportunity to do things that need to be done, rather than as a trial or a test.

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group), is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis asserts that: in order to lead you must win people's trust; the characteristic essential to winning trust is integrity; and the foundation of integrity is adherence to a strong and clearly defined ethical code. Bennis also says that leaders must be committed to proactively stimulating and orchestrating change.

The greatest future breakthroughs will come from leaders who encourage thinking that extends beyond the company.

Even with better regulation, the prognosis doesn't look good for financial markets. We have bankers to thank for that.

If your smartest employees are getting together to solve problems and develop new ideas on their own, the best thing to do is to stay out of their way, right? Well, think again. For years, loosely organized employee networks have been helping companies find creative solutions to challenges that bridge functional gaps. Composed of on-staff experts who got together to share information and insights, these "communities of practice" often generated improvements that saved firms dramatic amounts of money and time. Not wanting to crush these groups' collaborative nature, managers let them operate independently, off the grid. But as business became more global and technology multiplied the tools and information available to experts exponentially, community members found it harder to dedicate time to these voluntary groups. Communities started to fail. They didn't die, however; they evolved, becoming integrated into companies' formal structures. Today they're an actively managed part of the organization, with clear accountability and executive oversight. The most effective communities address issues that are critical to the organization and strive to meet specific, long-term goals. Companies assign them official management sponsors and full-time staff, train their leaders, and even make participation in them part of employees' performance criteria.

Until recently India was seen by Western businesses primarily as a source of cheap, low-skill labor. But over the past decade the country has attracted a flood of high-skill jobs from the West. Meanwhile, India's economy has grown at roughly 9% a year, and some of its largest companies have grown at twice that rate. What accounts for this? A host of economic, policy, and other environmental factors have played important roles, but the authors ascribe much of this success to the distinctively inward-focused managerial approach of Indian leaders. Through interviews at 98 of the largest India-based companies, they have identified four ways in which these leaders develop and motivate employees: Far more than their Western counterparts, they create a sense of social mission, engage employees in give-and-take, empower them to find solutions, and invest in their training and development. Western leaders should understand the managerial approaches that have fueled the rise of India's largest companies, and mindfully adapt them.

The CEO and cofounder of Seventh Generation, a maker of environmentally responsible household and personal care products, describes how he came to realize that although he'd been the right person to guide his company through its infancy and adolescence, he was not the right one to take it into full-fledged adulthood. Having made the decision to step down, he had to determine the best way to proceed: How quickly should he move? How public should he be? How would he get buy-in from the board and the company's associates? How would he ensure that Seventh Generation's fierce commitment to social and environmental sustainability endured? Most important, was he doing the right thing?

Just promoted from the accounting group at headquarters, Jonathan is now the controller for a regional sales unit of a consumer electronics company-and he realizes in short order that the next quarter's sales are being reported early to boost bonus compensation. The group manager's silence suggests that this sort of thing has probably happened before. This may seem like a mundane accounting matter, but the consequences-in terms of carrying costs, distorted forecasting, compromised ethical culture, and even legal ramifications-are very serious. And except in extraordinarily well-run corporations, managers face situations like this all the time. You know something's wrong. You know you need to make it stop. But you don't necessarily know when to speak up, how to speak up, and, most important, how to be effective. Drawing on the author's research over the past four years, this article walks you through the rationalizations commonly used to justify unethical behavior-everything from "this is just how things work in our industry" to "it's not your job to fix this; stick to your knitting." It also gives concrete advice about how to raise your voice effectively. For example, treat the conflict as a business matter. Nobody wants to hear a self-righteous little speech about honesty, so get your facts in order and present them effectively. You should also challenge the rationalizations. If this is "just how things work," ask whether the organization is comfortable going public with the practice. All managers should know how to respond constructively to ethical issues, and senior managers must be able to change the cultural norms that gave rise to bad judgment in the first place.

When a bomb explodes in a train station in Boston, the executive team of a financial services firm across the street is plunged into crisis mode. No one is prepared for the city's request to use the firm's lobby as a triage center and temporary morgue. The CEO's instinct is to say yes, but as his team debates the consequences--liability issues, the effect on traumatized employees--he realizes just how complicated a decision it is. Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1003L and R1003Z. James J. Dunne III, senior managing principal at Sandler O'Neill + Partners, says that acting ethically is what saved his firm after 9/11. Leonard J. Marcus, founding codirector of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, advises the CEO to do what will help employees bounce back the quickest.

An American sculptor who works with massive sheets of rolled steel shares insights about large-scale innovation and collaboration.

When a bomb explodes in a train station in Boston, the executive team of a financial services firm across the street is plunged into crisis mode. No one is prepared for the city's request to use the firm's lobby as a triage center and temporary morgue. The CEO's instinct is to say yes, but as his team debates the consequences--liability issues, the effect on traumatized employees--he realizes just how complicated a decision it is. Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1003L and R1003Z. James J. Dunne III, senior managing principal at Sandler O'Neill + Partners, says that acting ethically is what saved his firm after 9/11. Leonard J. Marcus, founding codirector of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, advises the CEO to do what will help employees bounce back the quickest.