個案總覽

In mid-January 2013, the owner of Lake Superior Lodge and its newly appointed manager were meeting to figure out a marketing plan to turn things around at the motel. The owner, who was born and raised in Duluth, Michigan, bought Lake Superior Lodge primarily because of its location. The property sat on the scenic North Shore of Lake Superior between Duluth and Two Harbors. Ten years later, however, the motel had yet to turn a profit. The manager was hired in late 2012 to operate the motel and to increase its profitability. If he could not make this happen, the owner would have no choice but to sell the property and move on.

In an initiative to develop its herbal soap offering and create a repositioning strategy for its soap products, one of the front-runners in the Indian skincare market explored the perception of the brand image, using survey data to compare its own image with those of two of its strongest competitors. The challenge for this brand was to reposition itself and build its equity after taking into consideration the perceptual results of the study and the existing positioning of soap brands.

With four outlets of Taco Bell opened in Bangalore, India by December 2013, the managing director of Yum! Restaurants India, the parent company, felt eager to expand. The company took pride in providing the best Mexican-inspired fast food at a low price in a friendly atmosphere. Its target market was young people with global aspirations and/or experiences who were aware of the brand and willing to try something new. India appeared to be a large and fitting market for this quick service restaurant: a population of more than a billion people, the majority of whom were under 35, growing income levels and increasing tastes for international cuisines. Yet, despite a record-breaking launch in 2010, its retail foot traffic was declining. The addition of vegetarian items to the menu had limited success in luring customers to repeat visits. Were the price changes on the new menu reasonable and consistent with the brand promise Taco Bell had made during its launch? What could be done to sustain the company’s survival in India?

本個案透過百腦匯在中國的經營歷史，讓學生瞭解企業如何在供應鏈中找到自己的定位，並進而透過服務機制的創新，為客戶提供更大的價值。

Sheng Siong was the third-largest supermarket chain in Singapore. Its chief executive officer co-founded it with his two brothers in 1985. Sheng Siong’s business model was well suited to cater to the price-sensitive and more traditional customer segment in Singapore, with a dominant presence in suburban areas called “heartlands.” It also had a unique corporate philosophy, which was influenced by the personal values of its founding family. However, the market became increasingly saturated, competitors were aggressive and costs were rising. The key question was whether Sheng Siong’s original competitive advantage was sustainable and how it could grow.

A small Danish design company seeks to collaborate with its largest supplier in Thailand in order to improve health, safety and environmental conditions, as well as labour standards, as a core element of complying with the UN Global Compact principles. The company takes its corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda seriously and has developed a new standard for CSR in its supplier factories that is implemented and audited by a non-governmental organization. New challenges emerge as attention shifts to the certification of production inputs such as wood. Although Western small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face pressures to audit their suppliers in developing countries, these SMEs often lack the financial and political resources to change behaviours in supplier factories. The firm’s quality manager must evaluate its sustainability approach. How much leverage can a small company expect to have with its suppliers? Furthermore, is the cost of auditing suppliers in a country such as Thailand too high?

By 2013, the Indian Metal Company, headquartered in Metconagar in eastern India, had been a leading metallurgical company in India for 100 years. While it had ambitious expansion plans, both at home and abroad, it was bedeviled by an increasing attrition of professionals and difficulty in attracting candidates from premier educational institutions. This shortage of talent could jeopardize the company’s investments. The chief executive officer convened an urgent meeting of senior executives to discuss the problem and explore possible solutions. The meeting ended in a confusing barrage of views and counterviews. A committee was appointed to synthesize the competing views and prepare a master plan for talent management. It began its work by reviewing past data related to attrition and holding discussions with small groups of young professionals. The time had now come to prepare its report and recommendations.

Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH), a leading cardiac hospital network with many firsts to its credit, has revolutionized heart care in India. It has a market share close to 15 per cent in the cardiac sector, has successfully completed 70,000 surgeries and has given insurance to over four million farmers through its microinsurance scheme. Its motto, “caring with compassion,” is its guiding philosophy and the telemedicine network set up at NH has been able to provide treatment for over 50,000 cardiac patients free of charge. The case highlights the evolution of NH and the vision of its founder, and outlines his ambitions and struggles in seeking to increase the number of cardiac surgeries performed each day. How can he retain the top surgeons and fulfill his mission to offer affordable heart care while the compensation of doctors is rapidly increasing?

Prince Pipes and Fittings (Prince) — a family managed enterprise in the Indian PVC pipe industry — had not only navigated the 2008 Global financial crisis, a period when more than 1000 Indian pipe companies had shut down within 90 days, it had in fact used the crisis as an opportunity to successfully transition from an small and medium enterprise (SME) to a large enterprise through acquisitions. In 2013, the company faced a bleak macroeconomic environment of declining GDP growth rates, tight monetary conditions, a pessimistic industrial outlook, a depreciating rupee and rising crude prices. It also faced growing domestic competition. Would Prince be able to reach its goals for 2013/14?

By the spring of 2014, the founder of EarthWear Face & Body is in desperate need of part-time employees to help run her successful skin care retail business, which she runs out of her home in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. After eight years of hard work, she has turned her part-time hobby making all-natural skin care products into a thriving business. She sells her products online, through retail stores, at craft and trade shows and at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market. But her successful business has become too much work for her to manage on her own. A failed attempt to bring on a part-time employee made it clear that she needs to develop a targeted recruitment strategy. How can she effectively communicate her corporate culture to attract the best candidates? See supplement 9B14C046.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of GENICON is at a crossroads. The private medical device manufacturing business he started over 15 years ago has several acquisition offers as the industry starts to consolidate ahead of changes to the U.S. healthcare system. He can sell it now and make millions for himself and his investors or he can grow the business for a couple more years and, assuming a constant multiple of acquisition price to revenue, make millions more since his business is in fact growing. However, the business needs capital to grow and the CEO does not want to take on more debt. Should he sell the whole company and start his next venture? Or sell it and continue to help the acquirer grow the business? Or sell a part of the company and lose some autonomy and control? The CEO knows he is in a fortunate position but he still has to make a decision and soon.

Shanghai NSE Electric Co. Ltd. (NSE), a medium-sized manufacturer of marine switch panels, had entered into a joint venture with Schneider Electric under which NSE was Schneider’s sole technology licensee in China. NSE felt fortunate because the world shipbuilding market was strong and orders were often full. With comprehensive and close cooperation, NSE was confident in Schneider. Nevertheless, Schneider announced that it would issue a second license to NSE’s outsourcing manufacturer, SaierNico Electric & Automation. This meant that a competitor that produced and sold products of the same brand would emerge in the Chinese market. What was worse, this competitor had been cultivated by NSE. The CEO of NSE believed that NSE had three options: (1) continue to cooperate with Schneider; (2) broaden its business and cooperate with other powerful companies; or (3) invest more in local innovation to develop its own brand.

In early January 2013, a product manager with one of the leading insurance companies in Delhi, India, sat in his home office and pondered the strategy he had followed for his personal investment portfolio over the last three years. He was worried that talk of tapering off the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing Program, undertaken in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, and the Indian general elections in May 2014 might affect the value of his investments. In order to achieve higher risk-adjusted returns, he was considering diversifying his all-equity portfolio by adding gold. Before he went ahead, he needed to test the data by using past returns, standard deviations and correlations and then use the Sharpe Ratio to compare the risk-adjusted returns of the diversified portfolio (comprising gold and equity) vis-à-vis an all-equity portfolio.

In early 2014, the senior vice-president of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan is considering two investment opportunities in the oil and gas industry brought forward by his team. He is trying to understand how to ensure that the principles underpinning responsible investing are incorporated in the decision about which to choose. Each investment looks very attractive, but a growing stream of controversies surrounding oil sands extraction, pipeline safety and environmental protection has raised concerns. He faces multiple questions: How can the impact of these environmental, social and governance issues be quantified precisely? Can they be translated into an informed investment decision that the organization’s stakeholders will accept? What approach to responsible investing is appropriate for a pension fund? What alternative methods of incorporating these issues into the investment decision process should be considered?

An academic and medical practitioner leaves Harvard Medical School to join the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) as dean of the School of Medicine and vice president of medical affairs. Faced with unmotivated staff, a huge deficit, a plethora of procedural inefficiencies, and the chaotic political situation of the country, he is determined to turn things around and raise the institution to international standards and position it as the premier medical institution in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. He restructures the management team and sets a new vision of growth and expansion. However, he must face problems related to a lack of patient-centered service, tense relations between nurses and doctors, operational inefficiencies, and branding issues. Will AUBMC be able to pursue an ambitious growth strategy in the face of an adverse financial and political situation?<br><br>See B Case 9B14C043.

Cancer Care Ontario, the organization that oversees cancer treatment in Ontario, is challenged with establishing an innovative approach to reducing wait times for breast cancer and prostate cancer therapy across Ontario after wait times increased to more than two months. The special advisor on cancer issues to the Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care needs to report his recommendation to Cancer Care Ontario’s board of directors, who manage all regional cancer centres in the province. The major challenge is to balance the needs and values of all the various stakeholders, while developing short-, medium- and long-term solutions to the wait list dilemma.

Diversey, a leading global brand in the business-to-business cleaning industry, had entered the Indian market positioned as a total cleaning solution provider to institutional customers. It differentiated itself from the competition with its end-to-end solutions, superior products and service levels, research and development capabilities and value-based pricing. While it had some success in India, it felt that there was a huge untapped opportunity for growth. However, a developing country like India posed several challenges due to its social and cultural differences (e.g., local unorganized competition, customer price sensitivity, complex distribution channels, etc.) versus developed countries. The case provides an opportunity for students to apply a number of conceptual tools (i.e. Porter’s 5 forces analysis, 4C analysis, SWOT analysis, value- chain analysis and the stakeholder power/interest matrix) to analyze the current strategy and identify the best alternatives for Diversey to move forward with its growth objectives.

The general manager of market development for the Dalian International Airport in China was worried. Two years after he had successfully launched the Northeastern Hinterland and Bohai Rim Region Airport Aviation Market Strategic Alliance in 2009, it was facing serious external and internal challenges. Competitors had begun to impact on the alliance by intensively adding flights to regional airports with the support of subsidies from provincial and local governments. And as alliance members gained more air traffic, they began to compete for transport resources, which challenged the organization’s sustainable development. From the beginning, Dalian International Airport, as the core of the organization, had shared its routes and ticket fares with other alliance member airports, had removed landing fees for stopover flights and had organized a trade fair to encourage interactions between small regional airports and the airlines that had ignored them in the past, not recognizing how China’s booming economy was making even remote routes potentially profitable. The general manager had three possible options: utilizing outside help, increasing his airport’s market position and strengthening internal ties to resist external forces. All three options had their pros and cons. What should he do?

The case features a non-profit organization in crisis: a local cancer-support centre faces many constraints but has few options. The organization is committed to improving the lives of families affected by cancer by providing free services to its members and funding its small full-time staff through donations. However, its compassionate mission and its financial viability appear to be at odds, with every additional program sinking the small non-profit further into a long-term financial shortfall and additional financial constraints curtailing its growth. As Wellspring London’s main provider gets ready to cut the organization loose, students must overcome the either-or dilemma and develop an integrative-thinking solution. Also available is the supplement case Wellspring: The YMCA Proposal (B), 9B13M132.

In 2012, Asclepius Consulting is one of the many small software companies in India that have aspirations to become product companies as opposed to being services companies. Asclepius Consulting deals in hospital management information systems and has a product and service offering that is competitive and well received by customers. However, due to lack of capital, the company has been unable to invest in a sales force, and this has created a problem of reach. It is currently selling through a combination of resellers (external parties contracted to sell the software) and an inside sales force. Now, one of its three co-founders, whose expertise is in business process restructuring and business planning and strategy, is looking at revisiting the sales and marketing model in this complex marketplace.