個案總覽

In 2008, executives at Microsoft must decide how to compete against Google in the market for Internet search and advertising. The case describes how Microsoft has responded to a set of competitive threats in the past; how Google has gained a dominant position in Internet search and advertising; and what Microsoft has done so far in its as-yet-unsuccessful effort to catch up with Google. The case then challenges students to construct a strategy that will allow Microsoft to achieve its objectives in the evolving market for search and advertising.

The case focuses on the challenges of Roche maintaining a supply network for a global influenza pandemic response initiative based on its antiviral drug Tamiflu. The Roche group is a 40 billion CHF company consisting of a pharmaceutical division and a diagnostic division. The company's antiviral drug Tamiflu dominates the market for prevention and treatment of seasonal influenza (flu). Tamiflu, however, could also play an important role in responding to the first wave of a pandemic caused by a particularly harmful strain of the influenza virus A. Tamiflu was designed to be effective against any strain of Type A or B influenza. Thus, there was the potential to establish a preparedness plan based on creating a stockpile of the drug in conjunction with an appropriate plan for distribution to the affected population. The use of Tamiflu in such a crisis would allow the world to respond immediately, rather than having to wait for development of a vaccine which had limitations in its effectiveness and the drug had been endorsed by the WHO as a first line of defense. The case focuses on the challenges of Roche maintaining a supply network for a global pandemic response initiative. Managing supply is particularly challenging for three reasons. First, demand for stockpile quantities is spiky and uncertain, and governments placing orders expect lead times to be short. Second, lead times for increasing capacity are long, as are lead times for drug production and encapsulation. Last, media coverage and press releases made by governments and other stakeholders increase the stakes, as negative media coverage may damage Roche's reputation with consumers, leading to lower sales levels for its products.

In July of 2007 the management of East Central Ohio Freight (ECOF) met to decide whether to increase the company's efforts in the volume less than truckload (VLTL) freight market. While the company's limited experience in the VLTL business had been positive to date, expansion would require considerable capital expenditure and expansion of the work force to meet the anticipated demand. Times were difficult in the trucking business and there were no guarantees that the company would be able to generate new business sufficient to support the necessary commitment of resources.

Professor Jeffrey Moran needed to decide how to respond to the aftermath from the previous day's heated discussion of affirmative action in his Social Responsibility and Business Ethics class. He felt the emotions that erupted provided a "teachable moment" and that the class ended well. However, one African-American student later complained via e-mail that she felt disrespected in the discussion and did not feel that the topic was adequately portrayed. Dissatisfied with waiting for his response to her e-mail, the student called the department chair to complain. The department chair expects Moran to handle the situation.

Describes the early stage development of PowerWater Beverages, a company poised to capitalize on the growing U.S. consumer demand for bottled water and, more specifically, for "pure water". The investors successfully negotiated the exclusive rights and interest in a trade secret and industrial design to produce and distribute a pure distilled oxygenated water, secured commitments from independent representatives who comprised the company's national sales force, and signed contracts with co-packers, suppliers, and distributors. As the CEO, Kent Mawhinney, prepares for a board meeting, he must determine whether his CPA's estimated capital requirements are correct, calculate what the pre and post money valuation for the company, analyze the impact of proposed alternatives, reassess the strength of the opportunity to see if it still makes sense to pursue it, and determine whether other opportunities for PowerWater's distilled, oxygenated water product exist beyond the general market that the core product will target. This case is intended for undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial finance, and finance courses. We realize that this presents a wide range of potential applications for the case but believe that the rich data provided in the case provides adequate information for the case to add value to the aforementioned courses. Professors using this case should have already or should intend to provide students with lectures and assigned readings on how to analyze the feasibility of entrepreneurial ventures. This should include the appropriate tools and models for conducting analyses from an entrepreneurial as well as financial valuation perspective. The author has used the work of Jeffry Timmons and Michael Porter as the basis for discussing this case.

Dr. Jeff Foreman, Professor and Chair of the Marketing Department at Carroll State University, had just left a meeting with the Dean of the College and other department chairs about the upcoming salary increase program. Since pay increases had been small in recent years, Foreman was quite pleased that there would be four percent merit money this year, in addition to the previously announced two percent across-the-board (ATB) increase. The ATB raise would be effective in July, and the merit pay would be implemented the following January. At the meeting, the Dean of the College informed the chairs that the merit-pay policy was subject to change, in order to reward the highest performing faculty. He stated that at a recent meeting with the Provost, the idea of a more "aggressive" approach to rewarding top-performing faculty members was discussed. This approach, it was advanced, would help the University retain its most productive and most mobile faculty members - those who had the talents to really advance the programs of the school. Subsequent discussion at the chairs' meeting was animated, and they expressed a variety of opinions about the advisability of the proposed changes in the merit-pay policy. As the meeting ended, the Dean asked each of the chairs to study the proposal and make a recommendation about the pay plan with a justification, noting that the group would meet again to make a policy decision for the College. Back in his office, Professor Foreman reviewed the existing policy on salary increases, salary information on his faculty, and their performance ratings for the last three years. He thought about the philosophy underlying the aggressive approach to compensation and the implications of rewarding only the top performers. But he also wanted to look at the actual impact of the proposed change on the salaries of his faculty members. What would it do to salary differentials? How would it affect faculty motivation?

Sean and Rachel McFarland had decided to build an environmentally friendly "green" duplex as an investment for their retirement. Sean had been working with a builder on the design, and had recently received an updated cost estimate from the builder that was 35% higher than the original estimate. Sean is trying to figure out what type of return the project will produce compared to equivalent, non-green investments, how he might reduce the cost of the duplex to improve the return without sacrificing the 'greenness' of the project, and whether or not he should proceed with the project at all. Uncertainty about how much rent the green duplex can generate, ambiguity about which design elements are most important from the standpoint of building green, and the existence of multiple goals for the project all make the decision of what to do more difficult for Sean.

The Gucci Group had transformed itself into the world's third largest luxury retailer with multiple brands. The company had performed well even after the departure of star designer Tom Ford and former CEO Domenico De Sole. However, the challenging global economic times in 2009 raised the question whether it was time, again, to re-adjust Gucci's portfolio, especially as YSL continued to lose money.

Perry Capital owns shares in King and, to facilitate approval of the merger, buys shares in Mylan, whilst hedging out its economic exposure to Mylan's share price using derivatives. The price at which Mylan proposes to merge with King is generous to King shareholders, but the merger does not look likely to be approved by Mylan shareholders, who must vote upon it. If Perry can swing the voting in favor of the deal, it will gain handsomely on its King shares without facing any corresponding losses on its Mylan holdings since those are hedged. Carl Icahn, another shareholder in Mylan, opposed the deal and sued Perry for alleged vote buying.

The case presents a biographical portrait of Yoshiko Shinohara who founded Tempstaff in 1973, one of the largest temporary staffing agencies in Japan. In addition to chronicling Shinohara's entrepreneurial activities, the case provides contextual background about the role of women in business in Japan in the last few decades of the 20th century.

Bimbo, headquartered in Mexico with 2008 sales of $7 billion, was one of the largest bakery companies in the world. Even as it had grown spectacularly in the last several decades, the company had earned a stellar reputation for its Corporate Social Responsibility. As the company set its sights on international expansion, its third generation CFO, Daniel Servitje, wondered how to keep its growth and CSR objectives neatly aligned.

This case explores regulatory, product testing, and business strategy at Targanta Therapeutics, a biotech company preparing its first new drug application to the FDA. In October 2007, Mark Leuchtenberger, president and CEO of Targanta - which has just held a successful IPO - weighs options for the approximately ten month review period after the company submits to the Food and Drug Administration. The case reviews Targanta's origins and "de-risking" of oritavancin, an antibiotic therapy for drug-resistant infections that was first invented at Eli Lilly and then spun out to InterMune before Targanta acquired it in late 2005. To highlight the impact of regulatory policy on business strategy the case then describes a set of choices facing the firm, including staffing a marketing and sales group, carrying out additional clinical testing to expand the approved indications, applying for European market approval, or keeping funds in reserve in the event that the FDA requests further data.

CityCenter is a $9 billion project for MGM MIRAGE. The project's star architects have a major disagreement about a critical design issue. Bill Smith, head of the MGM MIRAGE Design Group, must resolve this issue to the satisfaction of all the project's stakeholders. This case explores many issues in the construction of large scale buildings: how to envision such a project, how to manage the architects, how different designs adds value, and what criteria matter in resolving a dispute between designers. The case also explores the construction costs and revenue benefits of having two buildings built with significant leaning away from vertical.

American Airlines sought to reduce the fees it pays to global distribution services (GDSs) (such as SABRE) to reach travel agents. But GDSs held significant tactical advantages. For example, GDSs had signed long-term exclusive contracts with the corporate customers who were American's best customers. Furthermore, travel agents tended to favor whichever GDS offered the highest commissions - impeding price competition among GDSs. Against this backdrop, American considered how best to cut its GDS costs.

Consultants have been engaged to recommend the ideal operations strategy for Stickers by dVider, to support a dramatic increase in demand anticipated by the company as a result of its aggressive growth strategy. After reviewing dVider's current operations, including a rigorous examination of its key cost drivers, students are asked to consider if outsourcing could benefit the various growth opportunities under consideration, whether the potential cost savings would be enough to justify such a dramatic change in the production formula that had worked so well for dVider in the past, or was it outweighed by the potential risks of decreased production quality and longer lead times?

This simple case enables students to examine a supply chain coordination problem in the context of a two-level supply chain with a retailer and a supplier. The case examines a retailer's decision about its optimal order quantity from his supplier and the difference between this decentralized decision and the coordinated decision achieved when the retailer and the supplier are part of the same company. The case then asks students to find the optimal supply chain contracts that will coordinate the supply chain. This case can be used to teach the newsvendor model and supply chain coordination and contracts in courses focusing on supply chain management or in operations management courses that include a supply chain module.

In this first in a series of cases on organizational network analysis (ONA), Vic Gulas, the new head of IT at the engineering consulting firm MWH Consulting, is charged with turning a geographically organized department into one organized by function. He knows that the success of the reorganization will depend on effective collaboration, but he cannot get a sense of what collaborative relationships do and do not exist by looking at a formal organizational chart. Instead, Gulas uses ONA, a method for mapping relationships among people in a group. In the ONA results, Gulas sees a group still fragmented by geography and constrained by hierarchy and other gaps in connectivity. After studying the highly detailed assessment of working relationships within the IT department, Gulas must decide in the A case what steps he can take to align the department's network with its business objectives.

Describes the Mahindra & Mahindra Group's approach to innovation. The Group is among the top industrial houses in India and its managing director Anand Mahindra has put innovation at the core of its growth strategy. Emphasis is placed on managing the balance between structured processes and the creation of an environment in which radical innovations can succeed. The Farm Equipment Sector, one of the Group's largest and most successful sectors, is developing a revolutionary tractor outside its conventional development process with the help of a "Maverick" innovator. Not surprisingly, the project encounters numerous obstacles and setbacks. Focuses on: 1) the role of creative innovators in breakthrough innovations; 2) the need for process, structure and early feedback from markets; 3) the sources of radical product concepts; and 4) the marketing of innovations.

Describes Apple's approach to innovation, management, and design thinking. For several years, Apple has been ranked as the most innovative company in the world, but how it has achieved such success remains mysterious because of the company's obsession with secrecy. This note considers the ingredients of Apple's success and its quest to develop, in the words of CEO Steve Jobs, insanely great products. Focuses on: 1) design thinking; 2) product development strategy and execution; 3) CEO as chief innovator; and 4) bold business experimentation.