個案總覽

In 2003, Zara's CIO must decide whether to upgrade the retailer's IT infrastructure and capabilities. At the time of the case, the company relies on an out-of-date operating system for its store terminals and has no full-time network in place across stores. Despite these limitations, however, Zara's parent company, Inditex, has built an extraordinarily well-performing value chain that is by far the most responsive in the industry. The case describes this value chain, concentrating on its operations and IT infrastructure.

A summer assignment is turning into a nightmare for an intern at a large consulting firm. He has just receive his third reprimand from his boss, and is concerned how this relationship is distracting him from the project he needs to complete and how it could hurt his chances of obtaining full-time employment. He must decide how he can salvage the relationship with his boss and whether this organization is the best fit for him.

Audible Inc. is one of the largest providers of audio content, such as books, magazines, and newspapers. The company has a large "library" of hours of content; strong alliances with partners, including Microsoft, Amazon, and Random House; and a growing customer base. But the company has lost money since it began. The chief executive officer and chief financial officer must decide how to raise funds to keep the company going while maintaining its partner and customer relationships.

Vancity Credit Union is one of the largest credit unions in Canada with $9 billion in assets and 300,000 members. The company's success was based on three key elements: member experience, employee experience, and community leadership. With the pressure of increased competition from financial institutions and changing market characteristics, the chief executive officer must review the corporate strategy and resources to determine how the company can stay competitive and further increase its members and services.

NonStop Yacht S.L. is a Web site that provides e-commerce service to the mega-yacht industry. Originally, the founder had planned to run NonStop Yacht as an Internet business. However, success with this business model is proving elusive and investors are growing restless as performance continues to fall short of the business plan. Substantial pressure to improve the company's performance had the founder considering a variety of alternative business models that would enable him to capture value more effectively from the concept of nonstop parts procurement for high-end yachts. These options involve key decisions about the strategic positioning of the company and the relative advantages and disadvantages of pursuing strategic alliances with players at different points in the industry value chain.

Millennial Net created self-organizing, ultra-low-power, wireless sensor networks, a space that was getting a lot of attention in 2004. The company was founded in 2000 and in early 2004 was looking for a second round of funding. The area had attracted a number of new ventures by impressive investors. What makes Millennial Net worth another round of backing?

By 2004, Singapore International Airlines (SIA) enjoyed a run of exemplary profitability and service performance. It had built its strategy around the principles of a differentiated positioning using its brand image, geographic location, and outstanding service as the cornerstones of its strategy. The case offers enough data to launch into a rich discussion of the industry factors that drive profitability, and complements it with an in-depth look at the model of strategy that SIA had built in order to compete in the airline business. In recent years, there have been many environmental shocks, such as SARS, that have challenged the continued viability of the model. The company entered into an equity alliance with Virgin that has destroyed significant value. It found itself challenged by the entry of many low-cost airlines in its home market. The case closes with a decision that SIA needed to make about how it would address the onset of low-cost competitors, and whether it would make sense to move away from its differentiated premium approach.

The case explores the fundamental features of the business model that Wal-Mart has been adopting, both in the U.S. and abroad. It places particular emphasis on the company's supplier management approaches, supplier strategies in doing business with Wal-Mart, and the company's track record in international operations. It offers insights into the ways in which Wal-Mart's suppliers can design their own strategies to ensure continued viability amidst significant pricing pressure from the retail giant. It closes with important questions about the continued success of the company in the face of allegations of labor violations, increasing competition in foreign markets, and the likelihood of a supplier push-back against Wal-Mart's continued pressure to bring down their prices.

Sarah Harris, a young, recent MBA student, sets out to raise a search fund and acquire a company in the hospitality business. Serves as a backdrop to role play various selling situations for a would-be entrepreneur. Five vignettes illustrate different situations where understanding the sales process and strategies would benefit the situation: negotiating the acquisition of a small reservations management company, soliciting a potential search fund investor, hiring a key employee, having the contract renewal of a key account put into question, and selling a new client.

After 25 years of building a network of interdependent, national organizations delivering relief and development that are responsive to local needs, World Vision's International office is planning to implement a major global HIV/AIDS initiative that challenges the strategic direction, organizational capabilities, and even underlying values of its carefully constructed world partnership. Not only does the new AIDS initiative require much more central direction than is customary in this global partnership of World Vision organizations, each with its own independent board of directors, but it also is acknowledged to have little support among World Vision's donor base and even its internal organization. Involves a trigger decision about whether and how to proceed.

Eight executives at Hoechst and Rhone-Poulenc must make four crucial decisions on the eve of merging their companies to become Aventis--what would become the world's third largest pharmaceutical firm. In addition to formulating a vision and strategy, the two firms must plot their intensified efforts in the U.S. market, pick a leader, and choose between two approaches to research and development. The merger represents the ongoing efforts of the two predecessor companies to remake themselves into life science companies. They face a range of pressures, from falling prices and intensifying demands on R&D for blockbuster pharmaceuticals to union opposition to the merger, skepticism from research analysts, and regulatory scrutiny. Amid these pressures, they must combine national and corporate cultures, merge into a single entity, and deliver the promised synergies. Concludes with a surprising development, when one of Hoechst's major shareholders objects to the merger.

Dave Walker, vice-president of business service opportunities and chairman of the governance team at Procter & Gamble, must decide what to do with P&G's 5,700 employee Global Business Services (GBS) group. GBS brought together internal services such as finance, accounting, employee services, customer logistics, purchasing, and information technology into a single, global organization supporting all P&G business units. Recently, P&G CEO A.G. Lafley questioned whether continued investment in GBS represented the best use of P&G's resources. Walker and the other members of the governance team must decide whether to spin off GBS, outsource GBS services to an outside company, outsource the GBS divisions separately to best-of-breed companies, or keep the group in-house. In making the decision, Walker and the members of the team must consider the impact on the organization of altering the existing relationships between the members of GBS and the other employees at P&G. Teaching Purpose: To consider the issues inherent in any decision to outsource services and the impact of such a change on the company.

Investigates the role of the private sector in improving the operating performance of a water utility. Compares the productivity of Water Supply Department and Macau's Water Supply Co. in supplying water to Hong Kong and Macau, respectively. Water service in Hong Kong is vertically separated into potable water supply, sewage treatment, and drainage, each carried out by different government departments. Identifies reasons for inefficiencies in Hong Kong's publicly owned water utility. Describes successful privatization experience for vertically integrated water utilities in the United Kingdom and other contractual models of water services provision in France and the United States. The findings provide a factual base for discussions on government policy and business strategy.

Musictoday is a unique company that provides on-line retailing services for such clients as the Dave Matthews Band and the Rolling Stones. But the lack of a formal inventory-management process has Musictoday concerned about stock-outs and lost sales in the future. This case introduces students to the Periodic Review System, and provides an opportunity to link the optimal review period with the EOQ concept.

The Big Apple has been just the place for a direct home-delivery business like FreshDirect. Now the company wants to use the additional capacity in its meat-processing facility to expand into national competition. The description of the beef supply chain in this case helps students analyze the best way for FreshDirect to take on a "big boy" such as Omaha Steaks and to serve restaurants.

In a maturing market, HPs attention moved from Return on Sales to Return on Net Assets. Mismatches between demand and supply, aggrevated by a long supply chain, were a burden on profit. HP realized that conventional logistics costs (warehousing, inventories, transport) were only the tip of the iceberg. Hidden underneath were large costs due to price protection, material devaluation, returns and obsoletes (Inventory Driven Costs). Uncovering all true demand/supply mismatch costs allowed HP to redress the situation and restore competitiveness.

The large food service company SYSCO has decided to purchase business intelligence (BI) software, a technology intended to provide superior monitoring and analysis capabilities. Twila Day, assistant vice president of technology and applications, is in charge of the BI project and must determine exactly how much software to buy. She must also plan the BI implementation throughout the company. After conferring with Business Objects, the BI application's vendor, SYSCO has decided initially to configure the software and train employees to address only a limited set of questions.

In 2003, TechnoServe, a U.S.-based, international, nonprofit organization, was deciding how to structure the capital investments required for Tanzanian business groups to acquire coffee bean central pulperies. This case explores the challenges of capital budgeting and financing for small firms in an emerging market.

The newly appointed director of the project dedicated to reducing product development time for AT&T's Transmission Systems Business Unit (TSBU) is trying to decide how best to sustain the momentum of its Achieving Process Excellence (APEX) teams. During the past three years, APEX teams helped reduce TSBU's product interval 50%--an accomplishment that contributed to TSBU's receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Now motivation and expectations for continued improvement are high. The case describes the launching of APEX, its evolution, and the current challenges facing the product development organization. Details support a discussion of the elements required to launch and sustain an improvement program, including metrics, goal setting, management's role, and methodological approaches for problem solving.

Anne Ewers, general director of Utah Opera, is awaiting the decision of the members of the board of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera about whether to merge Utah's top two arts organizations. If the vote favors the merger, Ewers will be asked to assume the helm of the newly created organization and take responsibility for integrating the two organizations. Challenges students to consider the merits of the merger and to develop an action plan for how Ewers would integrate the two organizations, including how to design the new firm, how to manage various constituents--many of whom are upset by the announcement--and how to create a new corporate culture. Students also need to specify what Ewers would do in the first few days if the vote were to favor merging the two organizations. Teaching Purpose: To explore the human capital issues related to mergers and acquisitions.