個案總覽

Mary Griffin, Vice President of Consumer Products, must provide feedback to one of her direct reports, Simon York. York is a strong performer, but he has displayed some poor interpersonal skills in the manner in which he interacts with his team and the production staff. Griffin needs to provide feedback to help prevent York from derailing in his career at Derby Foods.

Michael Lester, a consultant with Lachlan, was frustrated by his client's unwillingness to provide key data for an important presentation. Lester must decide how best to confront Nadine Robert, his client, knowing that his personal success and the reputation of his consulting firm hinge on his ability to build and sustain a strong relationship. How firm should he be with the client? What type of feedback would help this situation?

Ramesh Patel, a high potential employee, was excited to be named to the company's New Horizons Board, a select team responsible for producing recommendations for new products or line extensions for Aragon Entertainment. Patel's co-worker and friend, Jeremy Gibson was also named to the Board, and the two were assigned to work together on a sub-taskforce. Patel was frustrated by Gibson's lack of effort and support on the taskforce and decides he must confront Gibson about his behavior.

The international joint venture that successfully bid for $6 billion in contracts to build LNG trains on Nigeria's Bonny Island became entangled in a widening bribery and corruption probe triggered by an unrelated accusation against an employee of one of the JV partners. The (A) case discusses the JV's ""business as usual"" approach to doing business in the context of Nigeria's political culture and the involvement Albert ""Jack"" Stanley, the JV's alleged manager, in structuring and implementing an elaborate bribery scheme. The ""B"" case relates Stanley's actions after he became the subject of multiple investigations and was terminated by Halliburton, parent of the U.S. JV partner, for taking kickbacks. The ""C"" case details the resolution of bribery and corruption allegations against Stanley, several of his associates and the JV partners.

Route 11 Chips, a regional potato chip company, is struggling with whether to reduce the number of flavors it markets. Additional flavors add operational cost, but management believes that some of the flavors are important to Route 11's brand image and that trimming the line might damage the brand. Route 11 has also taken a price increase recently and management is interested in finding out if there is additional room to raise prices. To analyze these issues in the case, students have access to five years of data on sales by flavor and package size as well as actual price and margin information (in a supplemental Excel spreadsheet).

Daudnagar Organization for Rural Development (DORD) was determining how to expand its successful eye care hospital into gynecology services. The case lays out the financial and organizational risks and asks the student to evaluate the possibility of expansion given the economic and governmental constraints of one of the poorest parts of India.

As of 2012, the Physician Payments Sunshine Act of 2009 requires medical device manufacturers to track any payments or gifts they make to physicians that are worth more than $10 and then starting in 2013 to report those that exceed a total of $100 per year to any given doctor. While a majority of doctors, academic medical centers, and pharmaceutical and device companies generally support the principle of greater transparency when it comes to physician-industry collaborations, many have raised concerns that over regulating potential conflicts of interest could be detrimental to the development and commercialization of new treatments. Particularly in the medical device industry, physicians play a host of essential roles that span commercialization and, more importantly, product development. Any requirements that negatively affect the willingness or ability of physicians to partner with industry have the potential to hinder medical device innovation because, by its very nature, it is incremental and doctor-dependent This note provides a taxonomy of the different roles physicians play in device innovation and identifies which ones are most susceptible to conflicts of interest that may not be well managed by today's institutions. It also makes recommendations on how to better manage conflicts without jeopardizing the ability of physicians and companies to collaborate for the betterment of patient care.

One Acre Fund, a young, international, nonprofit social enterprise--governed by friends of the founder--had grown rapidly since its inception. It now faces increasing demands for resources and key connections to major potential donors, expertise in going to scale, and managing expansion. The case presents this issue, which is commonly faced by new nonprofits, and how the organization, led by the board chair, seeks to resolve it through redesign of the board and major changes in board membership.

Infosys BPO, a 350-million USD BPO firm, is preparing a bid for a new customer engagement. In the process, it has to consider various issues such as resource planning, productivity improvement, pricing model, quality management, and human resource management. The case provides scope for carving a strategic growth path for the firm.

The case "Mother Earth - Great Design, Great Values" can be used in a Competition and Strategy course to illustrate a firm employing a focused differentiation strategy and to explore the growth and execution strategies employed by the firm. The case also has a specific focus on the bottom of the pyramid and can be used to study sustainability issues in electives pertaining to Corporate Strategy and the Environment and Social Enterprises. Besides this, the case can also be used in entrepreneurship and marketing courses. The case describes the journey of Mother Earth (ME) since its inception as a company that believes in social sustainability and aims at discussing the strategic challenges at the end of 2010. The focus at the beginning was to utilize market mechanisms to create demand for Indian craft both in India and globally. The export markets turned out to be inconsistent in terms of demand and the financial downturn further aggravated matters; hence ME shifted its focus to expand domestically. The focus was now on giving artisanal products a new contemporary identity with better design and increased utility. ME had achieved significant growth over the last couple of years but was yet to turn profitable. With investment from Future Group, the company is poised for rapid expansion in the local market with significant efforts on building the brand ME and what it stands for.

Akhil Patel is passionate about his business idea: an innovative green technology fuel cell. He wants to dive in and commit to his startup, but his fiancée is much more risk averse, his parents don't approve of the startup, and Akhil has an enticing alternative offer from a prestigious consulting firm. Should Akhil follow his dream and become an entrepreneur? Or should he take the "safer" consulting job?

The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, focused on building the organizational capabilities of nonprofits that served the disadvantaged youth in the United States, has recently been named an intermediary in the federal government's new social innovation fund (SIF), which is intended to bring together public-private funds to help expand effective solutions across three issue areas: economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development. SIF intermediaries would be responsible for directing resources to innovative community-based nonprofit organizations that were seeing results. Edna McConnell Clark Foundation had long been a promoter of evidence-based accountability and grantmaking and saw the absence of an efficient capital market in the nonprofit sector as a major impediment to funding growth, increasing scale, and building the sustainability of successful nonprofit organizations. With its Growth Capital Aggregation Pilot (GCAP), Edna McConnell Clark Foundation had seen positive results in taking a "syndicate" approach to funding a select group of nonprofits. With it being named an SIF intermediary, Edna McConnell Clark was ready to build on its GCAP experience and continue to evolve a model that would provide, at increased efficiency, growth capital for successful organizations. The foundation hoped to build a capital aggregation approach that would serve as a model for philanthropy.

In October 2008, President George W. Bush signed into law a requirement that certain private health insurance plans provide coverage for mental illness equal to coverage provided for medical-surgical illness as part of an economic stimulus package, capping more than a decade of advocacy in both houses of Congress by a bipartisan coalition of Congressmen and Senators for mental health parity. Through multiple changes in Congressional leadership, the coalition - including Senators Pete Domenici (R - N.M.), Paul Wellstone (D - MN), and Edward Kennedy (D - MA) and Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D - R.I.) and Jim Ramstad (R - MN) - remained consistent and employed multiple procedural, political, and negotiation strategies to increase the visibility of mental health parity and advance their cause through piecemeal efforts. The sixteen-year path of mental health parity from first introduction in Congress to eventual enactment is an example of the impact of personal commitment, personalities and personal relationships, and the importance of the committee structure, political party leadership, and windows of political opportunity.

The Clorox Company needs to decide on the marketing strategy going forward for its three sustainable brands, Brita, Burt's Bees and Green Works. These brands had fared differently over the past 3 years and each presents multiple courses of action heading into 2011. Management also needs to assess the role the sustainable brands play in Clorox's overall Corporate Responsibility strategy and the implications they have for the other brands (such as Clorox Bleach, 409, and Hidden Valley). The company has set aggressive financial targets in light of its upcoming centennial in 2013. Students need to evaluate whether sustainability is an enduring trend that Clorox should embrace for future growth or whether focusing on its core brands, which currently represent 90% of sales, is a better approach.

AppDirect is a start-up that offers small businesses software-as-a-service solutions through a business app marketplace and portal. Daniel Saks, cofounder and co-CEO, is faced with the key question of deciding distribution strategy: should AppDirect find channel partners or create a self-branded platform? The case describes the evolving business app market by analyzing the strategies and business models of competitors for both the marketplace and portal products. The marketplace offers small businesses search, trial, and purchase of software-as-a-service apps for a wide range of business needs, from customer management to human resources, while the portal service gives businesses the ability to manage all their apps in one place, from user management to single sign-on. The case encourages discussion on the evolution and future direction of this nascent market.

This case study examines the business model of the Preservation of Affordable Housing, Inc., (POAH) and its applicability to nonprofit housing providers. POAH is one of the premier socially conscious low-income housing developers and owners in the United States. Its primary mission is to purchase large, multi-family properties and refinance them for long-term affordability. As of 2010, POAH has rescued and refinanced more than 4,900 units of affordable rental housing in eight states and the District of Columbia. Since its founding in 2001, POAH has been unique among preservation owners not only for its business model - which attends closely to the bottom line of every transaction - but also for its commitment to policy and regulatory reform affecting a range of housing affordability issues. This case invites the readers to explore many dimensions of organizational strategy for nonprofit housing companies. In the world of nonprofits POAH is unusual in many ways including its origins-as it was formed in order to complete an acquisition of a significant subsidized low-income housing portfolio its organizational structure, which combines for-profit and nonprofit companies its financial model which emphasizes returning profits to the company and increasing cash flow as opposed to developer fees and especially property management fees its ability to influence government officials to modify regulatory policies to suit the needs of nonprofit housing groups. Finally, the case explores the larger importance of POAH for the low-income housing field.

The Indian business landscape is marked by uncertainty, turbulence, hyper-competition and non-linear growth. The arena of the automobile sector epitomizes this changing scenario. Increasing competition from foreign born automobile organizations and homegrown organizations such as Tata Motors are posing a threat to the market leader - Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. A fierce battle for market share is ensuing among these automobile giants. In spite of this, Maruti Suzuki has succeeded in maintaining its leadership position. However, with more companies venturing into the bastion of Maruti Suzuki - the small car segment - the threat to their market share is looming larger than before. This case illustrates the journey of Maruti Suzuki since its inception and depicts the changes in its organizational strategy, HR strategy and work culture, in response to business challenges. Maruti Suzuki had to undergo multiple changes from being a public sector undertaking and a monopoly, to one capable of competing with world class automobile companies. This case describes the various challenges faced by the organization in this journey and how HR has partnered in bringing about the much needed transformations. The challenges range from having to create a performing workforce, changing the mindset of the employees, to coping with many cross cultural issues. The most difficult challenge is to engage in breakthrough innovation. HR needs to create an organizational culture that not only supports this endeavour but also helps retain the human resources.

At one time, the Pop Shoppe was a leading player in the Canadian soda pop market, however, changing market conditions and corporate mismanagement drove the company into bankruptcy in the early 1980s. In 2003, an entrepreneur purchased the rights to the brand, and was considering reintroducing it into the market. The entrepreneur had a hunch that many Canadians would be as fond of the Pop Shoppe as he was, and excited to see it back on the market, however, he had little experience in the beverage industry and consumer habits had changed in the many years since the brand had died. Looking at the market, the entrepreneur wondered if there was an attractive space for Pop Shoppe. His gut instincts told him that older consumers would embrace the reintroduction of the old brand, but it was difficult to know if they were a sustainable market segment. Would older consumers be able to turn their children onto the brand? With little experience and limited funds, he knew that if he proceeded with the idea, he could not afford to make many mistakes. If he chose to reintroduce the Pop Shoppe, he questioned how true he should stay to the original concept. Could a new Pop Shoppe compete in the current market? Despite the entrepreneur's love for the old brand, he wondered how he could raise enough consumer and retailer interest to make the brand succeed.

In 1982, Fadi Ghandour founded Aramex, a leading provider of logistics and transportation solutions with headquarters in Amman, Jordan. From its early inception, Ghandour strategically included principles and practices of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability in the company's culture in order to align business interests and competence with stakeholders' needs. The community and environment were regarded as key stakeholders driving Aramex to act as a responsible citizen. Since its inception, Aramex had been involved in sustainability activities grouped into six primary areas: education and youth empowerment; community development; entrepreneurship; sports; environment; and emergency relief. Committed to growth and opening new offices globally, Aramex faced the challenge of preserving CSR as an integral part of its expansion strategy. In late January 2011, Ghandour and Hattar began brainstorming ways to address the need to harmonize CSR and sustainability values and practices across operations and ensure that sustainability principles were firmly institutionalized across branches and subsidiaries.

This case profiles the evolution of Sodexo's diversity initiative. Diversity became a key priority for Sodexo, North America in 2001 after a class-action lawsuit was filed and certified in Washington, D.C. against Sodexo Marriot Services, Inc., the food services division that Sodexo had merged with in 1998. In 2002, Dr. Rohini Anand was hired by Michel Landel, CEO of Sodexo, North America. Soon thereafter, Anand was instated as chief diversity officer for Sodexo, North America. Anand and Landel worked with several executives to develop and implement systems that were conducive to a diversity strategy. The team started to build the human resource processes that would address many of the concerns in the lawsuit: training systems, selection systems, and a career posting center. By 2010, Sodexo, North America was continuing to gain traction on its diversity strategy, and a global diversity initiative for the group was underway. In addition, the company had developed diversity priorities focused on five different dimensions of difference from a global perspective: gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities, and age. However, more work still needed to be done to engage employees around the world in the company's diversity initiatives.