個案總覽

To protect patient confidentiality, Abiomed, makers of the AbioCor artificial heart, adopt a 30-day "quiet period" surrounding implantations, which is construed by mainstream media as a "news blackout." In late 2002, James Quinn, the fifth transplant recipient, dies after 289 days. A month later, in a New York Times article describing Quinn's pain and suffering, Quinn's widow claims that her husband had not been adequately informed of the likely ordeal. This case raises issues about transparency and communication with stakeholders. The A-case may lead some students to focus on the public sensationalism surrounding the Quinn story, but a closer examination of the case reveals that the more urgent issue for AbioMed is getting the stalled clinical trial back on track and bouying a slumping stock price. The B-case provides a detailed epilogue, including reactions to the Quinns' informed consent lawsuit and AbioMed's handling of the on-going clinical trial and investor relations.

"The Ford Fiesta Movement was a social media campaign run by Ford in the U.S. during 2009 to generate buzz for the upcoming launch of the 2011 Fiesta sub-compact car. This case examines the campaign's performance and asks what marketers should do thereafter to convert interested consumers into buyers. "

The case focuses on the risks and rewards of early-stage investing in a successful emerging market consumer start-up (i.e. non-tech), from seed funding in 2004 to raising expansion capital in 2019. We observe the founder of Sula Vineyards, a winemaker from the Nasik Valley in India, as he makes decisions about external fundraising. Case (A) takes the seed investor perspective. It follows Deepak Shahdadpuri, who stays invested in Sula for 13 years, gradually reducing his equity stake along the way. Cases (B) and (C) follow the company as it raises successively larger rounds of funding to fuel its growth and international expansion. As the Sula brand and CEO Rajeev Samant become increasingly well-known, the company attracts the attention of diverse investors ranging from European family offices, Asian institutional investors, venture capital and growth equity, and sovereign wealth funds. Given its emerging market setting, the case can be used to explore investment risks from political and regulatory uncertainty, and currency risk for US$-based institutional investors.

With the recent announcement from the Chinese government that the country's healthcare system was going to undergo reform, Jiamei Dental Chairman Liu Jia wondered what that meant for his 15 year-old dental clinic business. Founded in 1993, Jiamei Dental Medical Management Group ("Jiamei") rode the wave of China's rapid economic development and had become China's largest private dental chain with 84 clinics in Beijing and seven other major cities. But China was changing fast, and Liu acknowledged that Jiamei's ongoing expansion depended on many factors beyond its control, notwithstanding government reform, Jiamei was also faced with pressures from its private equity general partners. The year 2009 was shaping up to be a pivotal one for Jiamei. It had planned to open dozens more clinics during the year. At the same time, Liu was facing stiff competition from regional and international private dental clinic competitors, high-end private hospitals, and now possibly the government. These factors offered new complexities into the expansion plans of this entrepreneurial firm.

In January 2010, Google threatened in a public statement to stop censoring its search results on its google.cn website, as required by Chinese authorities. Should Google exit China? Or attempt a compromise with the Chinese government?

DR Corporation is a manufacturer of major appliances. The Traffic Manager is facing a decision of selecting a carrier for the inbound movement of motors. The primary case decisions are 1) what factors are critical to the decision, 2) how to calculate the tradeoffs among transportation costs, inventory costs, and order costs, and 3) how the company's managers should coordinate to make the decision. Acts as a very effective introduction to total supply chain cost calculations, and problems of internal coordination for supply chain decision making. Coupled with ChemBright, DR Corporation is a particularly effective way to introduce Supply Chain Management.

Cricket Real Estate Advisors needs to decide if they should invest in a proposed joint venture development with Buddy Holly & Associates. Holly is a successful northern Virginia office developer who plans to develop two buildings containing 232,750 rentable square feet. Students need to evaluate the deal's structure and financial arrangements, recommend changes and decide whether to proceed with the deal.

By mid-2009 Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had ended decades of virtual civil war and strengthened the business climate, but he faced tough economic challenges. Though he had instituted prominent market reforms and brought inflation down sharply, Colombia seemed stuck in a middle ground, industrially behind Brazil or Chile but ahead of poorer Latin American countries. Traditional exports--coal, coffee, oil--still comprised more than half the total, while manufactured exports comprised only a fifth. Public investment in transport and other infrastructure--a perpetual obstacle to growth in mountainous Colombia--remained too low. A major ambition of Uribe or his possible like-minded successor was to secure U.S. Congressional approval of a free trade agreement signed in 2006. But would it really help Colombia diversify its economy? Colombia already had access to the U.S. market but still had a relatively closed economy compared with neighbors such as Mexico or Chile.

In response to the economic and financial crisis of 2008-2009, the Federal Reserve greatly expanded the scale and scope of its activities. Though lauded by many experts for its actions, the Fed and its chairman, Ben Bernanke, faced harsh criticism from some public commentators and members of Congress. This document summarizes that criticism and Chairman Bernanke's responses to it, highlighting the tension between congressional oversight of the Fed and the Fed's independence from political influence.

Jan Gronski, managing director of the Cisco China Research and Development Center (CRDC), and Ivo Raznjevic, engineering director, set out to establish a new R&D facility in Shanghai, China. This case focuses on the building of a culture through human-resource practices while describing such steps as securing an appropriate building, assembling a workforce, seeking appropriate projects, developing managers, building teams, evaluating performance, protecting intellectual property, and managing growth. The case presents specific challenges that arise regarding talent management: How does a manager overcome dramatic cultural differences within a diverse workgroup? Should a local female employee be promoted from a test engineer to a development manager? How should Raznjevic help his newest manager through his first encounter with Cisco's ranking system? What action, if any, should Raznjevic take regarding a senior engineer who sent out a controversial e-mail? This material highlights organizational culture and offers an opportunity for students to learn to recognize and manage difference. The case could be taught near the end of a term to serve as a review of organizational behavior at a graduate level or in an executive education program focusing on issues of team-building, growing managers from within, and related talent-management issues in a global context.

This case describes the development and international expansion of Natura, a Brazilian cosmetics company. The company was founded in 1969, and developed products using environmentally sustainable practices, and that were distributed using a direct sales model. The company was highly successful in the Brazil, despite the challenging Brazilian economy. Natura had successfully entered the Mexican and French markets. In 2008, it considered entering the U.S. market. The case describes the company's growth, its principles of environmental and social responsibility, its culture and organization, and its international expansion to 2008. It describes the U.S. market, and the challenges and opportunities that Natura would face if it tried to expand into the U.S.

This case illustrates the challenges associated with matching staffing levels with variable workload in retail stores and highlights how decisions related to staffing and scheduling affect operational performance and the quality of labor at the stores. The case describes the tasks (both in-store logistics and customer service tasks) that are carried out by store employees at one Dillard's department store and presents nine weeks of traffic data at an hourly level collected by IBM. Additional data on labor hours and number of customer transactions allow students to examine the relationship between staffing levels and conversion rate. Given the large variation in customer traffic over time and the relationship between staffing levels and conversion rates, how should Dillard's manage staffing levels?

EU Design is an increasingly important trim supplier for various companies in the apparel and fashion industry in both New York and Hong Kong. Since its establishment in 1999, the company has grown gradually, attracting more customers and employing more staff. By 2009, however, further growth has been obstructed by an informal management style, an inappropriate organizational structure and a simple incentive system that is suitable only for a small company. The situation has been worsened by the global financial crisis. With falling margins, there is a need for expanding the customer base and for staff to become more sales-oriented. With limited funds, EU Design's owner needs to decide how to transform the company and which management control systems to implement first.

Innovation is the key to success in the history of Honda Motor Group (Honda). In July 2007, Guangzhou Honda's Research and Development Co. Ltd. (GHRD) was established. It was the first multinational auto company to develop a R&D facilities with the technological capabilities to produce a completely new car from the ground up. While Honda Motor in Japan would provide technological support, the core technologies would be owned solely by Guangzhou Honda. This arrangement differed from the traditional R&D management in Honda, which, despite the existence of R&D centers around the globe, used to retain its core technologies at its R&D center in Japan. This case shows the motives, new opportunities and challenges behind business model innovation.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria was the most populous country in Africa. According to a July 2009 estimate, it was also the world's 8th largest nation. With land area roughly twice the size of California, Nigeria was rich in natural resources, especially oil. However, the country seemed to have mineral wealth in equal measure to its economic, social, and political troubles. For decades, the country had grappled with tumultuous military rule, religious and ethnic unrest, as well as a highly unequal allocation of resources. Nevertheless, recent reforms and developments in key sectors had boosted economic growth and spurred a sense of optimism for the country's future. The question was whether or not Nigeria could sustain this momentum, overcome its key challenges, and create a business environment that would allow it to compete on an international level. This paper provides a brief history of Nigeria and explores its current position in the global economy.

This case consists primarily of excerpts from term sheets and prospectuses for six securities offerings made by US companies during 2009-2010, just after the financial crisis and recession of 2008-09. There are three issues of senior unsecured notes, one floating rate note, one equity offering, and one convertible note. The issuers are Microsoft, Coca Cola Enterprises, Norfolk Southern, IBM, Ford Motor, and Cephalon.

Greenbriar Growth Partners (GGP), a venture capital firm, has been an investor in Microsurgery Devices (MSD) for four-plus years, and has come into conflict with the company's founder. Should the Board's Nominating Committee re-nominate the VC investor, and should the board go along with the VC's push for a stock buy-back in the midst of the financial crisis, and so soon after the company's IPO?

The CEO of Ganeden Biotech, a small firm with several viable probiotic products but limited resources, must decide what markets to invest in and what intellectual property strategies will best serve its immediate and longer term business interests.

"A recession in the U.S. economy began at the end of 2007. Concerns deepened as an epic financial crisis shattered business and consumer confidence. By the fall of 2008, the United States was in the midst of the worst recession since the 1930s, and major financial institutions were on the verge of bankruptcy. The financial crisis and recession spread around the world. Many saw a risk that the global financial system might collapse, perhaps precipitating a repetition of the lengthy economic devastation of the 1930s depression. Governments reacted by creating huge stimulus packages that greatly increased national deficits and debts, and by loosening monetary policies with interest rates close to zero and huge expansions of the money supply. In their efforts to save the financial system, governments also offered bail-out packages to banks, including loans, guarantees and equity. By the fall of 2009, the crisis had stabilized, and the appearance of ""green shoots"" gave promise of recovery. By 2010, it was possible to put the financial crisis in perspective, and to raise questions about the causes and consequences. Of particular concern was whether new regulations might be needed to prevent a recurrence, and whether some of the tighter regulations should be international in scope. A related concern was whether such regulations should be applied to non-bank financial institutions as well as banks. Governments were also trying to determine how to exit the unique fiscal and monetary positions that now seemed to put their economies at risk of ongoing deficits and future inflation."

With stock markets in major decline, Rudy Wong, an investment adviser for a wealth management firm had to decide how best to reassure each of his clients in upcoming meetings: by communicating logical arguments based on his portfolio management expertise and analysis, or by managing emotions and attempting to re-establish his clients' faith in the markets. He also needed to re-examine the investment strategy he had developed for each client and recommend that they either "stay the course" with current strategies or make changes. The case allows for a rich discussion of the role of investment advisors, the importance of asset allocation, active versus passive management, investment goal setting, the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, and application of behavioral finance issues such as biases, reliance on heuristics, and framing.