個案總覽

The global consumer goods company Unilever was on pace to hit a number of aggressive targets by 2020 as part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Project, including a goal to halve the waste associated with the disposal of its products. Unilever's Chief Supply Chain Officer Pier Luigi Sigismondi and his team were working towards this goal and had chosen to first focus on three key areas-sugar, tomatoes, and tea-and had analyzed where in the 'farm to fork' value chain product was wasted. This analysis showed that very little was wasted within areas of the value chain directly controlled by Unilever, and most occurred either upstream with its suppliers or downstream with consumers. How could Unilever encourage these actors to change established practices and entrenched behaviors within a short timeframe to help Unilever meet its sustainability targets and also to improve the operations of its partners in the value chain? By encouraging consumers to better manage their food purchases, did Unilever risk harming its own sales or those of its retail customers? Could Unilever encourage industry-wide changes to have a real impact on global environmental sustainability?

The Behavioural Insights Team case introduces students to the concept of choice architecture and the value of experimental methods (sometimes called A/B testing) within organizational contexts. The exercise provides an opportunity for students to apply these principles to solve a managerial problem - increasing tax compliance rates among delinquent taxpayers. Students are asked to rewrite the letter that the UK tax department (HMRC) sends to delinquent taxpayers; this exercise is based on a successful behavioral field experiment run by the UK government.

This case examines an exciting new approach to health care that will help care providers identify when hospice services are the appropriate type of care for patients. The company, Medalogix, already has a product on the market that uses a proprietery algorithm to consider dozens of factors and determine when a patient qualifies for a hospice care eligability review. The product has started to gain traction, and the case explores how Medalogix can scale and disseminate its innovative product.

The founder and president of Sport-Fresh was in the middle of a four-state road trip to meet his firm's U.S. distributors and sales representatives. He had just returned from an international trade show in Germany, and was eager to update his agents about the incredible response the company product Sport-Fresh, a disinfecting equipment spray, had received. But he was worried about the time commitment required to follow up on all the leads he had received, and juggle his normal workload at the same time. The president looked at the challenges and opportunities in front of him. He had built a growing brand and he felt as if he was at a crossroads. Sport-Fresh was the only disinfectant spray on the market; all of its other direct competitors were odor masking and perfume sprays. There was potential for growth, if he could find a way.

A North America-based representative of a major European airline has just received a letter from an unhappy customer detailing a very large number of service problems. A quick check had revealed that this premium-paying customer's complaints were all valid. A meeting is planned with the customer. Before this, the airline representative must decide (A) what to say in response, and (B) what, if any, compensation should be offered. Internally, there was a need (C) to resolve what their organization should learn from this experience, both from a subsidiary and parent company perspective, and the implications on their participation in the Crown Alliance. This case raises many important questions regarding service recovery, communications, and non-equity alliances.

An equity research analyst is preparing to attend a road show presentation by WH Group Limited, the world's largest pork company headquartered in Hong Kong, concerning its upcoming initial public offering. She is reviewing the preliminary prospectus as well as other publicly available background information on the company and its two core subsidiaries, Shuanghui International Holdings Inc. and Smithfield Foods Inc., whose recent acquisition was the largest by a Chinese company of a U.S. firm. She wants to assess the prospects for the company as a whole and arrive at her own independent valuation to support a buy or no buy recommendation for her fund. Her analysis includes assessments of economic conditions and the pork industry in the United States and China and the perceived strengths and weaknesses of WH Group, including the issue of large bonuses to corporate executives and the benefits or risks of the recent acquisition.

In early 2010, Martin Grable, President of the Community Blood Center of the Carolinas (CBCC), was ready to move the first community blood center in North Carolina to a new level. In a strategic planning retreat, he asked the Board of Directors to evaluate seven strategic options and provide its expertise to assist in determining the future direction of the center: Increase provision of specialized blood services by 1. Pooling donors for sickle cell patients, 2. Offering cord blood storage, 3. Developing a therapeutic apheresis/transfusion service or 4. Become a Center that provides a reference lab for other blood centers in the region; 5. Improve blood inventory management software utilization for the region's current hospitals so that CBCC became their sole provider of blood; 6. Expand geographically serving more hospitals and patients; or 7. Re-double efforts to increase donations through additional collection sites, improved marketing, more attention to current donors, and so on. Although all of the alternatives were needed by the community, CBCC did not have unlimited resources. Further, health care reform loomed on the horizon. Clearly, to serve the community, CBCC needed to not only survive, but also thrive in the near term. Which of the alternatives would allow achievement of that goal for the newest FDA-licensed community blood center?

This case deals with how Sonata Software, an Indian software company, sought growth in Western Europe through TUI Infotec, a joint venture (JV) with TUI AG, a leader in travel and tourism in Germany. It provides a vehicle for reflecting on a firm's choice of a JV as a means for entering a new overseas market while building new competencies and buttressing competitive advantage. The case opens in Bangalore in May 2010, with B. Ramaswamy, President and Managing Director of Sonata Software, preparing for a meeting with his management team to review the performance of TUI Infotec. The case traces the history of Sonata from its spinoff from its parent company to the JV design and implementation. This case challenges students to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of this international JV, and to consider the decision of whether to continue the JV or to dissolve it when the revenue commitments made by TUI AG were set to expire in 2011.

FC Barcelona ranks as one of the world's most prestigious soccer clubs. Its legal status as a not-for-profit sporting club along with its collective ownership model and democratic structures set it apart from most other world-class teams. Since its founding in 1899, the club has had a rich history of sporting success tempered by recurring periods of financial instability. Its founder, Joan Gamper, made national identity a core element of his strategy for the club, turning it into a veritable symbol of Catalan nationalism. Despite the best efforts of the Francoist regime to "Spanify" the club, to this day it remains a powerful source of pride and national identity for the vast majority of Catalonians. After over a century of sporting exploits mixed with disappointments and internal conflict, the implementation of an aggressive strategy of modernization in the early 2000s has proved highly effective, as evidenced by the club's remarkable achievements on the field and its new-found financial stability. This case examines the evolution of this organization against the backdrop of the Spanish and Catalan socio-political context.

This case presents a realistic situation in which a firm in financial distress attempts an out-of-court financial restructuring by means of a debt exchange. Pinewood Mobile Homes is a large manufacturer of prefabricated homes, producing one-story, ranch-style houses; two-story, single-section and Cape Cod modular homes; and townhomes, apartments and duplexes. The company has lost the ability to compete effectively in the market place because it borrowed and acquired aggressively prior to the housing market crash. In order to avoid filling for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Pinewood Mobile Homes must receive consent form senior lenders, junior creditors, and shareholders for a comprehensive restructuring plan. This case is written for use in elective MBA courses in corporate restructuring or advanced corporate finance. It can also be used in upper-level undergraduate finance courses that cover financial restructuring and corporate valuation.

Starbucks entered India in late 2012. This case explores Starbucks' globalization strategy, its success in China, and its vision for India. The case asks whether Starbuck can replicate its success in China in India.

This case examines the progress made by Starbucks in its first two years of operation in India.

Leaders of the many Fortune 500 firms headquartered in Minneapolis-St. Paul have a long history of engaging collectively, and with educational, political and social leaders, to deal with important community issues. Focusing on the participation of leading CEOs in the 2008-2011 Minnesota Education and Learning Foundation's efforts to promote early childhood education for low-income children, this case series explores the nature of their engagement and source of their sustained commitment.

Café Coffee Day (CCD) is the largest coffee retailer in India. In 2012, Starbucks entered the India market. This case explores CCD's competitive advantages, its analysis of Starbuck's entry strategy, and how it might respond to Starbucks' entry.

As the co-founder of a software platform called Ushahidi, Ory Orykolloh watches the unfolding catastrophic earthquake crisis in Haiti and must decide how her company's crisis-mapping software might assist international authorities as they move into Haiti to provide help and relief. Ushahidi was developed as an open-sourced mash-up platform combining Google Maps with publicly reported (text-based) incidents of election violence during the Kenya 2007 elections, and thus, the system effectively managed to bypass government censorship. Expansion into other uses during both political crises and a variety of national/international events provided opportunities for growth. Now, with Haiti, Ushahidi's management team must consider how its software could be used to provide assistance during a catastrophe like an earthquake.

The merger of Momentum and Metropolitan into MMI Holdings Limited, one of South Africa's largest insurers, played out against the setting of South Africa's volatile currency and post-apartheid environment, with sensitive employees and a Competition Tribunal that prohibited the retrenchment of around 2,000 employees. The two companies with very different cultures were merged, with only one of the CEOs attaining the Group CEO position. The leaders' clear vision and focus on change management enabled a successful merger process. How can the Group CEO derive synergies and grow capital from the integration's next phase to prevent MMI from becoming another merger that fails to provide returns for shareholders?

An Indian multinational, Bharat Forge Ltd. (BFL) achieved world-leader status in forgings by a series of acquisitions in Europe and the United States. The need to participate in growth markets and to be close to global auto majors led BFL to a joint venture with the China-based FAW Corporation. However, while moving towards growth and a strategy for international scope expansion, shifts in the environment took BFL on a path towards a more de-risked portfolio. Following the divestment of its holding in the United States, BFL needed to reexamine the continuance of its stake in the joint venture.