個案總覽

Great Western Hospital (GWH) is a community hospital in Wiltshire, South West England and one of England's largest maternity providers, responsible for delivering over 9,000 babies per year. The case discusses the efforts of Dr. Harini Narayan, consultant obstetrician and gynecologist, to reorganize antenatal care delivery at GWH. Rather than treating high-risk pregnancies as a homogeneous group, Dr. Narayan pioneered the development of eleven condition-based, high-risk clinics led by dedicated multidisciplinary teams of physicians, midwives and nurses. The case profiles the Multiple Pregnancy Clinic in particular and its impact on perinatal indicators and outcomes.

In 2006, surgeon Ara Darzi identified several key areas, including acute stroke care, for improving health care across London. In response to his seminal call to action, stroke care was reorganized around eight hyper-acute stroke units covering London's five sectors, replacing the more than thirty units that previously delivered acute stroke care. This case profiles the roll-out of the new care delivery model in North Central London, where acute stroke care had previously been fragmented among five acute hospital trusts with varying care resources, capacity, and protocols. In the new model, stroke care would be delivered across facilities in an integrated fashion, with a single hyper-acute facility designated for care of the most acute and severe cases.

In 1996, Ted Happold, the founder of the engineering services firm Buro Happold passed away and Padraic Kelly became the firm's new Managing Director (MD). One of his first initiatives was "Aim for Growth" which was intended to help the firm grow beyond its current size where it was constrained by a structure of having each of the firm's founding partners responsible for a group of 25-30 engineers. This initiative was very successful but the firm then found itself with a lack of leadership skills at all levels of the organization to manage a company of a much larger size, growing by a factor of 10 over 10 years. The lack of leadership skills was recognized by clients who gave the firm feedback on this. In response, Buro Happold developed its first formal internal training programs under the name of "Archimedes Academy." The first two programs were: (1) the Job Leader Program, targeted for senior engineers and designed to help them be more effective in working with clients, and (2) the Project Leader Program, targeted for project leaders and designed to help them develop the "softer" management skills to complement their technical ones. A distinctive aspect of Archimedes Academy is that these first programs were developed and delivered by the cohorts who first attended them. Rather than partner with a university to develop an accredited program, the firm decided it would be better off developing the program itself, with the help of an outside consultant who had done something similar at his previous employer, in order to make sure the programs were specific enough to Buro Happold's needs and relevant to the firm's culture. The first two programs were a big success and the firm expanded the training offerings under the Archimedes Banner.

"This case addresses how to account for an environmental catastrophe from its initial stages to its conclusion, using the 20-year history of the Exxon Valdez oil spill as an illustration of the accounting disclosures required over time. The spill resulted in severe social, environmental, and economic damages to the Prince William Sound region and led to more than 20 years of litigation regarding the appropriate amount of damages to be paid by Exxon. The case has two parts. Part I addresses the question of whether a company has a responsibility to accrue and disclose a provision in its financial statements before a disaster occurs. Part II addresses accounting disclosures required in the aftermath of such a disaster. A student in intermediate accounting performs the role of an intern working at an international public accounting firm with clients who may be faced with incidents similar to Exxon's, such as the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, in 2010. These incidents, whether they occur in the United States or elsewhere, may have significant financial, social, and environmental impacts; create uncertainty over payment amounts; and span years before final settlement. Students must research and write a memo that discusses how to account for such losses using the 20-year history of the Exxon Valdez event as a possible scenario. The research should include authoritative pronouncements in effect at the current date using U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and international financial reporting standards (IFRS). "

This case concerns Microsoft's attempt to completely restructure its major global finance processes and operations through what the authors call a Vested Outsourcing agreement. In February 2007, Microsoft signed an outsourcing agreement with Accenture, with an original contract term of 7 years at a value of US$185 million. This was extended 2 years later, to 2018, with expanded scope, and a total contract value of $330 million. Called the OneFinance initiative, the effort outsourced nearly all back office finance transactions spread across 95 countries to service provider Accenture under a new kind of outsourcing model. Under the agreement the parties operate under incentives to improve performance and deliver increased value year-over-year, while sharing in the risks and rewards of doing so. The case focuses on the rationale for this distinctive approach to outsourcing and transformational change, and provides details of the definitions of work, measurements, pricing models and governance structures adopted. The fine-grained account of the OneFinance outsourcing arrangements provides an opportunity to identify the distinctive principles and practices adopted by the parties. Readers can compare and contrast the case with other outsourcing deals and assess the challenges in choosing the supplier and the approach. The case also invites an assessment of the risks being incurred, the inherent implementation and operational challenges and how they might be met. The case also raises questions about what levels of success might be achieved, and what conditions would need to be present for success. Finally, the case raises the issue of whether, and if so how, this distinctive 'vested' approach could be adopted elsewhere.

The CEO of a bicycle manufacturing company is considering outsourcing the production of one of the company's lines to a low-cost manufacturer. Students must analyze the relevant costs and strategic implications.

A middle manager has an attractive new product proposal that is expected to make a lot of money. However, senior management is rejecting it. Students must analyze the proposal and determine whether it is as good as presented and, if so, how to present it.

A multi-product company has a dysfunctional management control system. The system had gone into effect 18 months ago, and this year had become fully operational. The CEO was questioning its utility,

The CEO of an electric utility company is considering requesting a rate increase. At issue is the cost of the various services that the company provides and how overhead is to be allocated fairly to them.

The CEO of a health spa is trying to determine the cost of each of the Spa's services to as to improve pricing.

The CEO of a supplier of parts to automobile and truck companies has three concerns about the companuy's present cost accounting system: (1) its adequacy for purposes of cost control, (2) its accuracy in arriving at the true cost of products, and (3) its usefulness in providing data to judge the supervisor's performance.

The CEO of a retail distributor is trying to decide whether to keep or discontinue a product line. Students must undertake a tricky differential cost analysis

The CEO of a multi-media company is trying to determine the cost of each of the company's products to as to improve pricing

The CEO of a manufacturing company is assessing the value of variable costing as opposed to full-absorption costing. The teaching note contains a simple exercise to assist students to understand the differences.

The CEO of a retail distributor is trying to decide whether to keep or discontinue a product line. Students must undertake a tricky differential cost analysis

At Kid Spectrum, a provider of in-home services for autistic children, two high-value employees are at war. Ronnie, director of clinical operations, is a class-A clinician who is well respected by his peers and subordinates; Ellen is a highly efficient administrative director who understands the importance of the bottom line. Their work styles couldn't be more different even though each is thoroughly dedicated to the company. Kid Spectrum's owner, Matthew Sparks, must figure out how to make his newly acquired business more profitable while retaining these two key employees whose interaction is starting to become toxic. H. Irving Grousbeck, of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, presents a fictionalized case to explore this common workplace dilemma. Expert commentary comes from Jim Southern, of Pacific Lake Partners, and Peter Kelly, of Stanford Graduate School of Business and formerly of Pacific Pulmonary Services.

At Kid Spectrum, a provider of in-home services for autistic children, two high-value employees are at war. Ronnie, director of clinical operations, is a class-A clinician who is well respected by his peers and subordinates; Ellen is a highly efficient administrative director who understands the importance of the bottom line. Their work styles couldn't be more different even though each is thoroughly dedicated to the company. Kid Spectrum's owner, Matthew Sparks, must figure out how to make his newly acquired business more profitable while retaining these two key employees whose interaction is starting to become toxic. H. Irving Grousbeck, of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, presents a fictionalized case to explore this common workplace dilemma. Expert commentary comes from Jim Southern, of Pacific Lake Partners, and Peter Kelly, of Stanford Graduate School of Business and formerly of Pacific Pulmonary Services.

At Kid Spectrum, a provider of in-home services for autistic children, two high-value employees are at war. Ronnie, director of clinical operations, is a class-A clinician who is well respected by his peers and subordinates; Ellen is a highly efficient administrative director who understands the importance of the bottom line. Their work styles couldn't be more different even though each is thoroughly dedicated to the company. Kid Spectrum's owner, Matthew Sparks, must figure out how to make his newly acquired business more profitable while retaining these two key employees whose interaction is starting to become toxic. H. Irving Grousbeck, of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, presents a fictionalized case to explore this common workplace dilemma. Expert commentary comes from Jim Southern, of Pacific Lake Partners, and Peter Kelly, of Stanford Graduate School of Business and formerly of Pacific Pulmonary Services.

In January 2010, John Fahey, president, CEO, and chairman of the board of trustees' executive committee of the Washington, D.C.-based National Geographic Society (NGS), must decide how best to organize the 121-year old mission-driven organization for a world of accelerating digital convergence and decreasing magazine sales. Historically a proponent of evolutionary change, he is considering a radical move: creating a senior management position responsible for e-commerce to coordinate web-based offerings and outreach across the Society's various departments, transition NGS from its many disparate and independent direct mail efforts to a more integrated and strategic e-commerce strategy, and leverage the NGS relationship with its members-currently defined as magazine subscribers, since a subscription comes with Society membership. Putting the final touches on the position and its reporting arrangements has led to significant debate within the organization, and Fahey is torn about how to proceed.

Roger Cahill has spent less than a year as head of the Mobile Division of BoldFlash, a flash memory component maker. On the corporate level, BoldFlash has adapted to an evolving and difficult marketplace, but the Mobile Division is struggling. The four groups within the unit refuse to work together, and the unit recently failed to capitalize on an important new product opportunity. To address the problems, Cahill has made a number of organizational and personnel changes since taking the helm. Facing low morale and eroding margins, Cahill is under pressure to meet his next challenge-reforming the product development process in an effort to save the Division.