個案總覽

The members of the second generation of the Nguyen family have begun to enter the business. Each has entered at different times and for diverse reasons. "Is this for me?" centers on John Nguyen who has entered the family business but isn't sure he has made the right choice. He has worked outside of the family business for a number of years and has also considered other career fields such as the priesthood. However, at this juncture, he is working in the family business, has received an attractive job offer from a prestigious technology company, and is deciding whether he should remain. The audience for "Is this for me?" are students in family business or human resource management courses, either at the undergraduate or graduate levels. This case could also be used effectively in seminars conducted by university centers or institutes focused on offering continuing education for family businesses.

Oliver "Ollie" Percovich, a world traveler and skateboard enthusiast, took three skateboards with him to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he hoped to find a research job with a development organization. The job did not materialize, but as he skated through the streets of Kabul he soon found that the children who surrounded him did not just want to watch him skate, they wanted to try skateboarding. As more and more children began to learn, particularly girls who previously were not even allowed to play any sports, Ollie realized he might have found a loophole for changes to existing Afghan cultural norms about girls and sports. The children who engaged in skateboarding crossed traditional Afghan social and economic boundaries and thus opened the door to develop education and leadership opportunities that he believed could transform a society. By 2015, Ollie had founded Skateistan in Kabul and added three more skate schools in Mazar-e-Sharif Afghanistan, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Johannesburg, South Africa. The mission of Skateistan was to "use skateboarding as a tool for empowering youth, to create new opportunities and the potential for change." Ollie wanted to further deliver on the company's vision to "grow a sustainable organization that is recognized locally and globally for changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of youth through skateboarding and quality programmes-creating leaders that change the world." This case outlines events that led to Ollie's development of the Skateistan concept, its launch in Afghanistan, and the organization's organic growth into other regions of the world. The case describes the organization's programmatic approach to creating systemic social change and provides information for students to identify and analyze the organization's business model. A short video available with the case includes Ollie, Skateistan's founder, talking about how this phenomenon developed and dramatic scenes of children skateboarding in war-torn Kabul.

This case raises contemporary issues pertaining to strategy and leadership. It helps to demonstrate that (a) sound economic rationale is a necessary but not sufficient condition to make a business strategy effective, and (b) successful implementation of a strategy is contingent on it being driven by a responsible and ethical leader. The case helps students to understand limitations of the pay-for-performance system, and appreciate negative impact of unethical business decisions. Established in 1852, Wells Fargo had earned a storied reputation for integrity and principled performance. The cornerstone of the Bank's business strategy was "cross-sell", a strategy that augmented Wells Fargo's performance and that of its stock. To implement the strategy, Wells Fargo's management instituted an incentive system that awarded significant bonuses to employees for opening customer accounts, and reprimanded employees who did not meet "quotas" of the number and types of accounts. The obsession of top management with "cross-sell" obscured the vision of the Bank to give unconditional primacy to serving customers' interests. The Bank was fined $185 million for opening over two million unauthorized checking and credit card accounts between 2011 and 2015. The Board had failed to monitor the actions of its senior management. In the aftermath of the debacle, Stumpf resigned from the CEO and Chairman of the Board positions at Wells Fargo. His successor, Tim Sloan, had the unenviable task to restore reputation of the Bank by making changes to its strategy, structure and systems. Using a holistic analysis of the episode from the perspective of corporate strategy, responsible leadership, corporate governance, business ethics and organizational culture, the case provides a platform to discuss challenges that Tim Sloan faced to set the stagecoach of Wells Fargo to start thundering again.

The co-founder of Tier1 Coaching and Development, Inc., a small training and development firm, had to hire an entirely new staff after 10 years in business. Drew Nault was one of the first three on that new team, and he was hired into a newly created position that merged two different sets of operational responsibilities. Over time, Nault realized he was frequently asked to justify what he was working on and how it added value. This case provides an opportunity to critically examine an employee's struggles with job expectations and performance objectives in a newly created position within a small firm. What steps can be taken to address the job and career concerns? What exit strategy might be needed? Students also examine the employee's perceived psychological contract with his employer. The Instructor's Manual details a number of potential structural, managerial and interpersonal sources for the problems encountered. This case is best suited for graduate students or advanced undergraduate students.

United Way Suncoast (UWS), a regional chapter of the United Way, was a non-profit based in West Central Florida that had annual revenues of $22 million and served four counties. Recent performance at UWS had been excellent, but Jamie Renee, the Chief Development Officer (CDO), responsible for strategic long term relationships with corporate donors, was concerned for the future. Multiple sources of information indicated that Millennials' charitable giving differed from other generations. She particularly noted that as a group, Millennials tended to put a lower priority on local charities and the highest priority on supporting international human rights. The entire mission of UW was to collect resources and allocate them to local charities that supported local causes. If Millennials continued to shun local charities while supporting overseas causes, what would become of UW? This dilemma led Renee to think about UW's approach for targeting Millennials. She needed to devise a three-pronged strategy for appealing to Millennials: volunteering, giving and employment.

The owner of a small robotics company needs to make some decisions regarding his company's employee compensation plan. One of the owner's valued employees has approached him with a request for a pay increase; the owner has to decide whether to grant the raise. The owner is also considering instituting an 'employee trust' (i.e., an organization-level reward plan that would provide a payout to employees in the event that the company is sold). The owner also needs to consider his employee compensation plan as a whole and decide whether his current compensation system is helping him to achieve the company's goals.

The Augusta Training Shop (ATS) was a non-profit organization that provided jobs for individuals with disabilities. In 2012 the workers started producing craft snowflakes made from reed which were sold online, in the shop, and at trade shows. The Executive Director, Audrey Murell, was attending a trade show in Atlanta in the spring of 2014 and was asked if she could give a 50% discount to a wholesaler. Despite having produced and sold snowflakes for a couple of years, Audrey realized she did not know how much it cost her to make them. What should Audrey reply?

US Army Officer Captain Richard Swift was the newly-appointed commander of a 100-person Basic Combat Training unit, whose mission was to train brand new enlistees in the Army. Swift sensed malaise within his team of drill sergeants, who led the majority of the training. Swift was concerned that these instructors, with an average service of 13 years in the Army and multiple combat deployments, were no longer motivated to do their best and had lost sight of the importance of their work. He wanted to change this. He wanted to increase the sergeants' professionalism and motivation, as these drill sergeants not only taught the basic combat classes, but also were the first faces that recruits saw when beginning their Army careers. Unwilling to accept mediocrity or mission failure in turning recruits into soldiers, Swift arranged for a training consultant team to visit his unit at Fort Benning, Georgia in March 2016. He wanted the consultants to emphasize the importance of training, to underscore how drill sergeants could design and execute better learning modules, and to professionalize drill sergeants' work by having them consider metrics or measurements to evaluate their job performance as trainers. In April 2016, after the workshop's conclusion, Swift received the consultants' raw data as compiled from the pre- and post-survey instruments completed by his drill sergeants. Swift had to combine his own expertise as an Army officer with the workshop data to effectively lead change and improve the operation of his unit.

On April 12, 2013, Corey Rennell, the founder and CEO of CORE Foods (CF), was faced with the decision of whether or not to withdraw $100,000 worth of CORE Meals from distributors and retailers who had purchased product from the last production run. The company's product, CORE Meals, was a meal replacement nutritional bar made from high quality, organic, mainly plant-based ingredients that were minimally processed. Since the products did not use preservatives, CORE Meals lasted only a week without refrigeration, one month when chilled and six months frozen. The company had recently switched to a new type of oats, one of the main ingredients in CORE Meals. However, within weeks, the company received complaints from customers about a spicy cayenne-like after-taste, something that was not evident during the initial product testing. While the after-taste was not a health issue warranting a mandatory product recall, Rennell and his team felt it would be a "disservice to consumers if they sold something that had a different aftertaste from what they were used to." A decision as to whether or not to withdraw may come at a high cost to the brand and/or the bottom line. What were the alternatives? And what action(s) should Rennell and his team take going forward that was both in keeping the company's ethos as well as maintaining its financial viability?

This case is about a for-profit social enterprise in Rwanda named the Rwanda Trading Company (RTC) which purchases coffee beans from coffee growers in the country, roasts the beans and exports them to other coumtries. The company was begun in 2009 by Todd Brogdon who also managed the organization. The primary goals of the company were twofold: (1) Have a positive impact on the poorest of the poor in the country; and (2) To be profitable. RTC has been able to achieve these goals since its founding by working with the Rwandan coffee growers on a multi-year agriculturalo training program. All had gone well until the spring of 2016, when a German company named SRO which owned such coffee companies as Peet's Coffee & Tea and Green Mountain (which was owned by Keurig) decided to change the terms of its contract with RTC. A provision in the contract RTC signed with SRO was that their company would carry 180-day receivables. Brogdon immediately realized that this would lead to a serious cash flow problem that would threaten all of the good work they had been able to perform with the Rwandan coffee growers.

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. There is both a full length (12 pages) and abridged (5 pages) version of this case.

Against the background of a fragmented cable industry Chris Kyle at Shentel is evaluating a renewal offer to carry AMC Networks' programming. The offer includes a significant price increase as well as conditions that require Shentel to carry additional AMC channels. AMC's position is fortified by its ownership of the #1 TV show in the US, The Walking Dead. Shentel is concerned about price escalation and the additional capacity demands on its network, and must make a recommendation on whether or not to accept AMC's offer.

This case presents the real-world history of a field program to promote the financing of viable small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in one of the poorest and most troubled countries of the world. A key goal and expectation of the donor-funded project was the promotion of social enterprises - sustainable local businesses that create employment and promote economic development. A second, and just as significant expectation, is that the services provided by this program on a subsidized basis should also become sustainable, as a service that can be costed-out to the financial institutions and clients. The idea of 2 Bridges refers to the two sides of the effort: one that operates through lending by commercial banks, and one that operates through creation of an angel venture fund to invest in equity of the SMEs. The program in Honduras is described in detail, along with issues and questions for further analysis, discussion, debate, and potential implementation in other countries and contexts.

The launch of BlackBerry by Research in Motion (RIM) in 1999 laid the foundation for the development of smartphones. The next decade was a period of spectacular growth for RIM, making its two co-CEOs billionaires. At the end of 2007 the company had a market capitalization of more than $60 billion. Sales peaked at almost $20 billion in 2011. In 2016, sales were $2.2 billion and the company had lost money for four straight years. With the market capitalization having fallen to $4 billion by August 2016, the survival of BlackBerry (the company changed its name from RIM to BlackBerry) was uncertain.

CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE: CX) - Cemex - had made a name for itself in the global marketplace for two things - excellence in execution and rapid growth through acquisition. In an era in which globalization was a practice for multinational firms calling highly industrialized countries home, Cemex broke the mold. It was a multinational player calling a lower income country, Mexico, home. Led by Lorenzo Zambrano, the grandson of the founder, Cemex had followed a rapid growth trajectory through repeated acquisitions. Now, in 2006, it was once again on the prowl, stalking the Rinker Group of Australia. But Rinker was not for sale.

The discovery of Volkswagen's intentional deception on the NOx emissions of its diesel engine products in September 2015 resulted in nearly an instantaneous loss of 30% of the company's value. In the weeks and months that followed, VW found itself under attack from nearly every possible government regulator, consumer interest group, and environmental action interest worldwide. It faced $18 billion in potential financial penalties, and possibly of more import, irreparable damage to its global reputation. Out of the hundreds of news stories and investigative committees two questions were repeated: How did this happen and how could it be rectified?

This two-part analytical case illustrates the situation of Money Cash Flow Inc., a fast-growing Canadian insurance company, where the human resources management at its Montreal call centre has gradually become a major concern. In view of the many customer complaints and the growing number of employee departures, senior management wants to correct the situation and get the company back on an even keel. A stable and committed workforce is an important factor in the company's success. Management recognizes that human capital is the main source of its value added and a strategic advantage in its industry.

In the 1980s, Serge Belair founded Traductions Serge Belair. In the early days, he worked from home, translating documents for a number of Quebec companies in his basement office. Over a period of almost thirty years, Traductions Serge Belair, now operating under the name TRSB, grew from a small business to a company of 150 employees, with sales of close to $20 million and national ambitions. TRSB provides customized business solutions in translation and terminology management that are fully integrated with its clients' brand image and marketing efforts. Two-part case: TRSB (A): Strengthening a Service Brand in Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing With this case, students will decide how to strengthen the brand of this business-to-business (B2B) service company to ensure its survival. TRSB (B): 360° Marketing and Communications for a World-Class Translation Company TRSB's objective is to double its sales over the next five years. To achieve this goal, the company has earmarked $250,000 for its marketing efforts next year, a significant increase over the previous year. The members of the communication and marketing team are wondering how to promote this new brand image, making it better known and respected in Canadian business communities. TRSB's marketing personnel will be working to enhance the organization's presence across all media to increase the company's visibility and stimulate interest in its services, but they need some advice.

This case deals with PasseportSante.net (PS), a health-related website and virtual community. PS offers expert content and interactive web features enabling members to create and share content and contribute to the site's value proposition. PS was launched in 1998 during the dot.com era, so it preceded the social web era. PS had been Canada's largest consumer health-related website since 2001, but Charmian Harvey, its CEO, realized the site had to adapt if it was to remain successful in today's web 2.0 environment, where social media rules. She knew that social features would be central to the site's strategic development, so the case focuses on comparing PS's existing social features with those offered by competitors. Students learn about the analytical approach to making data-driven management decisions.

1. Vineet Saraiwala, Assistant Manager, Big Bazaar was planning to study the toothpaste category and some of the brands in the category. Having been exposed to the Consumer Behavior domain, Vineet wanted to use an exploratory to seek inputs on its usefulness to Big Bazaar. Although Big Bazaar was a major force in the new era of Indian retailing scenario, radical changes in the environment with online retailing, discount culture in online and offline brands, premium brands and economy brands in several categories, the kirana shops that have been a part of Indian retailing for decades and differentiation of brands across categories using several non-product associations such as celebrities and user imagery, a study involving consumer behavioral aspects can be immensely useful to Big Bazaar. This case provides a new perspective on how a modern retail (Big Bazaar) can consider the positioning strategies of brands from the viewpoint of consumer mindset associated with brand associations. Such an understanding associated with a category would enable Vineet to consider several options of using them: in retail promotions, in the introduction of a new store brand or to understand the importance of various factors in the study that can be used for enhancing the strategies of Big Bazaar with respect to its consumers in the toothpaste category. 2. The case attempts to approach retailing from several behavioral dimensions that include attitudes, self-brand connection, and celebrity-brand connection.