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Alphabetically : U
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 (OP 12/2007 per HBS) Unilever as a “Multi-Local Multinational” 1945-1979
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| 25 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Jones, Geoffrey G.; Decker, Stephanie
Publication Date: 08/31/2007 Revision Date: 12/19/2007
Product Type: Case (Library)
HBS Number: 9-808-025
Geographic Setting: Africa; India; United Kingdom; United States Industry Setting: Consumer products Number of Employees: 350,000 Gross Revenues: $17,470,000,000 Revenues (1977)
Event Year Start: 1945 Event Year End: 1979
Subjects: Business history; Compliance; Consumer goods; Corporate reorganization; Foreign subsidiaries; Globalization; International management; Laws & regulations; Strategic management
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Product Description: Explores the opportunities and threats to Unilever’s global business in 1978 based on the commercial and political challenges faced by three of its subsidiaries, Lever Brothers in the United States, Hindustan Lever in India, and United Africa Company in West Africa. Management faced several problems: criticism of multinational companies, anti-trust legislation, expropriations, and rising competition from international and local rivals. Focuses on developing a new global strategy for a company that placed a premium on a consensual management style and local autonomy.
Source: Harvard
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| 25 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Jones, Geoffrey G.; Decker, Stephanie
Publication Date: 08/31/2007 Revision Date: 12/19/2007
Product Type: Case (Library)
HBS Number: 9-808-025
Geographic Setting: Africa; India; United Kingdom; United States Industry Setting: Consumer products Number of Employees: 350,000 Gross Revenues: $17,470,000,000 Revenues (1977)
Event Year Start: 1945 Event Year End: 1979
Subjects: Business history; Compliance; Consumer goods; Corporate reorganization; Foreign subsidiaries; Globalization; International management; Laws & regulations; Strategic management
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Product Description: Explores the opportunities and threats to Unilever’s global business in 1978 based on the commercial and political challenges faced by three of its subsidiaries, Lever Brothers in the United States, Hindustan Lever in India, and United Africa Company in West Africa. Management faced several problems: criticism of multinational companies, anti-trust legislation, expropriations, and rising competition from international and local rivals. Focuses on developing a new global strategy for a company that placed a premium on a consensual management style and local autonomy.
Source: Harvard
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| 20 pp.
| 37. UPS/FedEx Package Wars
Author(s): Assenza, Pauline; Eisner, Alan B.
Description: Global competition, just-in-time inventory control, mass customization manufacturing, increasing technology and information needs, expanded trade opportunities, and increased customer expectations had all exerted pressure on the small package industry, causing organizations such as UPS, FedEx and DHL to make significant adjustments to their business and corporate strategies, so much so that it was difficult to categorize the industry. Other players such as TNT, CNF and Exel were emerging all over the world from previously separate niches to compete in the arena of transportation services, which included not only the expedited delivery of mail-type documents and small parcels, but air and ground medium and large package freight, less-than-full truckload (LTL) consolidation, freight forwarding and customs brokerage services, logistics and supply chain management, warehousing and distribution and even contracted repair services. Small niche-focused companies like Ensenda were emerging to handle specialized customer needs such as last mile delivery solutions. In order to compete, major players had to consider many factors before making strategic decisions. Firms that had been successful seemed to have considered the opportunities available outside their traditional strategic groups. In an increasingly accelerated consolidation and acquisition environment, innovation along the industry value chain appeared to be critical. Where would the industry end up, and who would survive and prosper? In 2005, UPS CEO Mike Eskew pondered these issues as he underscored the need to transform to compete in an increasingly heated global economy. This case has a wealth of information for industry external environmental analysis and therefore makes for a great in-class discussion or written assignment case.
Publication Date: 2005 Revision Date: N/A
Event Year Start: 2001 Event Year End
Source: Dess-Lumpkin-Eisner
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| 20 pp.
| 37. UPS/FedEx Package Wars
Author(s): Assenza, Pauline; Eisner, Alan B.
Description: Global competition, just-in-time inventory control, mass customization manufacturing, increasing technology and information needs, expanded trade opportunities, and increased customer expectations had all exerted pressure on the small package industry, causing organizations such as UPS, FedEx and DHL to make significant adjustments to their business and corporate strategies, so much so that it was difficult to categorize the industry. Other players such as TNT, CNF and Exel were emerging all over the world from previously separate niches to compete in the arena of transportation services, which included not only the expedited delivery of mail-type documents and small parcels, but air and ground medium and large package freight, less-than-full truckload (LTL) consolidation, freight forwarding and customs brokerage services, logistics and supply chain management, warehousing and distribution and even contracted repair services. Small niche-focused companies like Ensenda were emerging to handle specialized customer needs such as last mile delivery solutions. In order to compete, major players had to consider many factors before making strategic decisions. Firms that had been successful seemed to have considered the opportunities available outside their traditional strategic groups. In an increasingly accelerated consolidation and acquisition environment, innovation along the industry value chain appeared to be critical. Where would the industry end up, and who would survive and prosper? In 2005, UPS CEO Mike Eskew pondered these issues as he underscored the need to transform to compete in an increasingly heated global economy. This case has a wealth of information for industry external environmental analysis and therefore makes for a great in-class discussion or written assignment case.
Publication Date: 2005 Revision Date: N/A
Event Year Start: 2001 Event Year End
Source: Dess-Lumpkin-Eisner
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| 24 pp.
| Case B: 1978-1988
Nancy Donahue, Pankaj Ghemawat Examines the airline industry’s primary competitors (Texas Air, United, American, Delta, Northwest, TWA, USAir, and Pan Am) and traces their strategic moves in the areas of planes, people, routes, and marketing. Provides a follow-up to U.S. Airline Industry—1978-88 (A).
Source: Harvard Business School. Copyright 1989, Revised June 28, 1990.
Courses: Business and Society; Business Policy/Strategy
Source: Pinnacle
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| The U.S. Airline Industry — 1978-88 (A)
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| 19 pp.
| Case
Ghemawat, Pankaj; Donohue, Nancy
Describes the evolution of the airline industry in the first decade after deregulation (1978-88). Looks at the primary areas of operation in which managers can effect change (planes, people, routes, marketing). The basic teaching objective is to cover industry structure with emphasis on competitive advantage, commitment, and sustainability. May be used with U.S. Airline Industry—1978-88 (B).
HBS Number: 9-390-025 Type: Case (Library)
Publication Date: 8/31/1989 Revision Date: 12/18/1997
Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: airline industry
Event Year Start: 1978 Event Year End: 1988
Subjects: Airlines; Competitive decision making; Corporate strategy; Decision analysis; Deregulation; Government & business
Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (5-390-169), 15p, by Pankaj Ghemawat
Source: Harvard
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| The U.S. Airline Industry — 1978-88 (B)
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| 22 pp.
| Case
Ghemawat, Pankaj; Donohue, Nancy
Examines the airline industry’s primary competitors (Texas Air, United, American, Delta, Northwest, TWA, USAir, and Pan Am) and traces their strategic moves in the areas of planes, people, routes, and marketing. Teaching/learning emphasis is on finding out who wins, who loses, and why. Provides a follow-up to U.S. Airline Industry—1978-88 (A).
HBS Number: 9-390-026 Type: Case (Library)
Publication Date: 8/31/1989 Revision Date: 12/11/1997
Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: airline industry
Event Year Start: 1978 Event Year End: 1988
Subjects: Airlines; Competitive decision making; Corporate strategy; Decision analysis; Deregulation; Government & business
Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (5-390-169), 15p, by Pankaj Ghemawat
Source: Harvard
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| The U.S. Airline Industry in 1995
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| 22 pp.
| Case
Author(s): McGahan, Anita; Kou, Julia
Publication Date: 03/15/1995 Revision Date: 10/17/1995
Product Type: Case (Library)
Product Description: Describes the economic logic leading to the deregulation of the American airline industry in 1978, and subsequent competitive developments. The roles of computerized reservation systems, airport hubs, route strategies, and fleet management are raised as unanticipated tactical responses. The decision focus of the case emphasizes the prospect of regulation. Teaching Purpose: Taught early in an advanced course in strategy, this case is designed to illustrate the connections between industry evolution and the opportunities available to firms as they seek to develop competitive advantage. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
HBS Number: 9-795-113
Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: airlines
Event Year Start: 1995 Event Year End: 1995
Subjects: Airlines; Capacity analysis; Competition; Game theory; Industry analysis; Strategy formulation
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (5-799-023), 29p, by Anita McGahan
Source: Harvard
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| The U.S. in 2001: Macroeconomic Policy and the New Economy
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| 20 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Pill, Huw
Publication Date: 05/01/2001 Revision Date: 02/25/2002
Product Type: Case (Pub Mat)
Product Description: Presents four views of U.S. macroeconomic developments in the late 1990s—those of an HBS professor, the Federal Reserve, the Clinton administration, and President George Bush. Develops the implications of the new economy--technological and organizational change--for business and discusses the important issues for the conduct of macroeconomic policy that these phenomena raise. Teaching Purpose: Highlights the uncertainties facing macroeconomic policies in a changing business environment, the difficulty in formulating policies in these circumstances, and the possibility of policy errors, with implications for business decisions.
HBS Number: 9-701-113
Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: government
Event Year Start: 2001 Event Year End: 2001
Subjects: Fiscal policy; Macroeconomics; Monetary policy; New economy; Productivity
Academic Discipline: Business & government
Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (5-702-066), 16p, by Huw Pill
Source: Harvard
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| The Unexpected Benefits of Sarbanes-Oxley
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| 16 pp.
| Article
Author(s): Wagner, Stephen; Dittmar, Lee
Publication Date: 04/01/2006
Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article
HBS Number: R0604J
Industry Setting: Beverage industry; Consumer products; Employment agencies; Information services; Investment banking; Online information services; Petroleum industry
Subjects: Auditing; CFO; Codes of ethics; Complexity; Corporate culture; Corporate governance; Corporate responsibility; Financial reporting; Internal controls; Legal aspects of business; Mergers & Acquisitions; Processes; Sarbanes-Oxley Act; Standardization; Value creation
Academic Discipline: General management
Product Description: In the wake of a series of gross corporate abuses around the turn of the century, Congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley, which was intended to make corporate governance more rigorous, financial practices more transparent, and management criminally liable for lapses. The first year of implementation was costly and onerous, far more so than companies had been led to expect. In the view of a few open-minded firms, however, the second year of compliance turned out to be not only less costly and less onerous (as doing something for the second time usually turns out to be), but a source of valuable insights into operations, which management has translated into improved efficiencies and cost savings. The areas of improvement go well beyond technical statutory compliance. They include a strengthened control environment; more reliable documentation; increased audit committee involvement; better, less burdensome compliance with other statutory regimes; more standardized processes for IT and other functions; reduced complexity of organizational processes; better internal controls within partner companies; and more effective use of both automated and manual controls. The result is not only shareholder protection, the official purpose of the act, but also enhanced shareholder value.
Source: Harvard
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| The USA Today Decision: Making Headlines Across the Nation (A)
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| 20 pp.
| Case
Ghemawat, Pankaj; Garell, Scott B.
This two-part case series describes how the option of launching USA Today was defined and evaluated by the Gannett Corp. This case supports a broad discussion of whether the concept of a national, general interest daily fits with the changing external environment and Gannett’s internal resources and capabilities; it also allows specific analysis of the economics of the proposed venture.
HBS Number: 9-792-030 Type: Case (Library)
Publication Date: 9/20/1991 Revision Date: 12/11/1991
Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: newspaper publishing
Company Size: Fortune 500 Gross Revenues: $1.2 billion revenues
Event Year Start: 1980 Event Year End: 1981
Subjects: Newspapers; Product development; Product introduction; Securities analysis; Strategy formulation
Supplementary Materials: Supplement (Library), (9-792-031), 2p, by Pankaj Ghemawat, Scott B. Garell; Case Video, (9-792-516), 13 min, by Pankaj Ghemawat
Source: Harvard
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| U.S. Automotive Retailing: 1995-2002 (A)
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| 10 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Al-Najjar, Nabil; Pardasani, Neil
Publication Date: 01/01/2006
Product Type: Case (Field)
HBS Number: KEL200
Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: Automotive industry
Subjects: Consolidations; Economics; Economies of scale; Strategy
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Product Description: Demand in some markets displays a strong taste for variety. This means that the markets consist of small niches, each with a strong preference for a distinct version of the basic product. Examples include markets with strong local character (local video stores, dry cleaning, etc.), products appealing to specialized tastes (microbrewed beer, specialty restaurants, etc.), and markets for entertainment content. Car retailing falls into this category because demand is fundamentally local in nature. A key strategy in such an industry is consolidation. Studies attempts at consolidating automobile retailing, emphasizing their pitfalls, and showing that they were based on overly optimistic assessments of the potential economies of scale and creation of customer value. Must be used with: (KEL201) U.S. Automotive Retailing: 1995-2002 (B); (KEL202) U.S. Automotive Retailing: 1995-2002 (C).
Source: Harvard
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| U.S. Automotive Retailing: 1995-2002 (B)
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| 3 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Al-Najjar, Nabil; Pardasani, Neil
Publication Date: 01/01/2006
Product Type: Case (Field)
HBS Number: KEL201
Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: Automotive industry
Subjects: Consolidations; Economics; Economies of scale; Strategy
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Product Description: Demand in some markets displays a strong taste for variety. This means that the markets consist of small niches, each with a strong preference for a distinct version of the basic product. Examples include markets with strong local character (local video stores, dry cleaning, etc.), products appealing to specialized tastes (microbrewed beer, specialty restaurants, etc.), and markets for entertainment content. Car retailing falls into this category because demand is fundamentally local in nature. A key strategy in such an industry is consolidation. Studies attempts at consolidating automobile retailing, emphasizing their pitfalls, and showing that they were based on overly optimistic assessments of the potential economies of scale and creation of customer value. Must be used with: (KEL200) U.S. Automotive Retailing: 1995-2002 (A); (KEL202) U.S. Automotive Retailing: 1995-2002 (C).
Source: Harvard
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| U.S. Automotive Retailing: 1995-2002 (C)
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| 5 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Al-Najjar, Nabil; Pardasani, Neil
Publication Date: 01/01/2006
Product Type: Case (Field)
HBS Number: KEL202
Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: Automotive industry
Subjects: Consolidations; Economics; Economies of scale; Strategy
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Product Description: Demand in some markets displays a strong taste for variety. This means that the markets consist of small niches, each with a strong preference for a distinct version of the basic product. Examples include markets with strong local character (local video stores, dry cleaning, etc.), products appealing to specialized tastes (microbrewed beer, specialty restaurants, etc.), and markets for entertainment content. Car retailing falls into this category because demand is fundamentally local in nature. A key strategy in such an industry is consolidation. Studies attempts at consolidating automobile retailing, emphasizing their pitfalls, and showing that they were based on overly optimistic assessments of the potential economies of scale and creation of customer value. Must be used with: (KEL200) U.S. Automotive Retailing: 1995-2002 (A); (KEL201) U.S. Automotive Retailing: 1995-2002 (B).
Source: Harvard
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| U.S. Bank of Washington
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| 23 pp.
| Case
Mason, Scott P.; Lawrence, Elizabeth R.
A vice president of the U.S. Bank of Washington, a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, is asked to review a $6.5 million loan request from the Redhook Ale Brewery, a Seattle-based microbrewery. The case provides an understanding of the U.S. commercial banking industry and the role of a loan officer, and asks the student to assess a proposed loan. Provides an opportunity for financial statement and cash flow analysis.
HBS Number: 9-292-057 Type: Case (Library)
Publication Date: 12/13/1991 Revision Date: 11/22/1993
Geographic Setting: Seattle, WA Industry Setting: banking
Event Year Start: 1990 Event Year End: 1990
Subjects: Cash flow; Commercial banking; Financing; Loan evaluation
Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (5-298-021), 13p, by W. Carl Kester
Source: Harvard
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| U.S. Biotech Industry Note
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| 20 pp.
| Note
Author(s): Douglas N. Ross, Towson University, David L. Entin, Entremed, Inc., and Douglas M. Sanford, Jr., Towson University
Description: Introduces the management challenges involved in the biotech industry, one of the fastest-growing, most research-intensive industries in the U.S. The case describes the strategies that various firms use, the history and nature of biotech technology, the cost and challenge of obtaining government approval for new drugs, the role of capital markets in financing, intellectual property, and ethical issues.
Publication Date: 2006
Geographic Setting: U.S.
Industry Setting: Biotech
Event Year Start: 2000
Event Year End: 2004
Courses: Business policy
Subjects: Corporate strategy in turbulent environments, Intellectual property strategy
Source: Pinnacle
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| U.S. Current Account Deficit in 2005
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| 29 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Alfaro, Laura; Di Tella, Rafael; Vogel, Ingrid
Publication Date: 07/06/2005 Revision Date: 11/27/2007
Product Type: Case (Library)
HBS Number: 9-706-002
Geographic Setting: United States
Event Year Start: 2005 Event Year End: 2005
Subjects: Balance of payments; International business; Macroeconomics; World economy
Academic Discipline: Business & government
Supplementary Materials: Supplement (Spreadsheet), (9-706-701), 0p, by Laura Alfaro, Rafael Di Tella, Ingrid Vogel; Teaching Note, (5-706-008), 30p, by Laura Alfaro, Rafael Di Tella, Ingrid Vogel
Product Description: Investors and policymakers throughout the world were confronted with the risk of painful economic consequences arising from the large and growing U.S. current account deficit. In 2005, the U.S. current account deficit was almost $800 billion, equivalent to 6.3% of GDP, and showed no signs of abating. The implications of the widening deficit were debated with intensity. At one extreme, it was argued that large deficits would eventually resolve themselves smoothly, even if they persisted for many more years. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was among those expecting a “benign resolution to the U.S. current account imbalance.” Other analysts, such as economists at the World Bank, believed the large deficits raised the risk of a sharp and disorderly fall of the dollar and that necessary macroeconomic adjustment that could be painful, for the United States as well as for the rest of the world. Despite the ongoing deficits, the gap between foreign holdings of U.S. assets and U.S. holdings of foreign assets was actually slightly improving. After widening to unprecedented levels — from 5% of GDP in 1997 to 23% of GDP in 2001 — net liabilities fell to 20% of GDP in 2005. The improvement was explained by dollar devaluation and the appreciation of U.S.-owned
Source: Harvard
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| 29 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Alfaro, Laura; Di Tella, Rafael; Vogel, Ingrid
Publication Date: 07/06/2005 Revision Date: 11/27/2007
Product Type: Case (Library)
HBS Number: 9-706-002
Geographic Setting: United States
Event Year Start: 2005 Event Year End: 2005
Subjects: Balance of payments; International business; Macroeconomics; World economy
Academic Discipline: Business & government
Supplementary Materials: Supplement (Spreadsheet), (9-706-701), 0p, by Laura Alfaro, Rafael Di Tella, Ingrid Vogel; Teaching Note, (5-706-008), 30p, by Laura Alfaro, Rafael Di Tella, Ingrid Vogel
Product Description: Investors and policymakers throughout the world were confronted with the risk of painful economic consequences arising from the large and growing U.S. current account deficit. In 2005, the U.S. current account deficit was almost $800 billion, equivalent to 6.3% of GDP, and showed no signs of abating. The implications of the widening deficit were debated with intensity. At one extreme, it was argued that large deficits would eventually resolve themselves smoothly, even if they persisted for many more years. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was among those expecting a “benign resolution to the U.S. current account imbalance.” Other analysts, such as economists at the World Bank, believed the large deficits raised the risk of a sharp and disorderly fall of the dollar and that necessary macroeconomic adjustment that could be painful, for the United States as well as for the rest of the world. Despite the ongoing deficits, the gap between foreign holdings of U.S. assets and U.S. holdings of foreign assets was actually slightly improving. After widening to unprecedented levels — from 5% of GDP in 1997 to 23% of GDP in 2001 — net liabilities fell to 20% of GDP in 2005. The improvement was explained by dollar devaluation and the appreciation of U.S.-owned
Source: Harvard
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| 29 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Alfaro, Laura; Di Tella, Rafael; Vogel, Ingrid
Publication Date: 07/06/2005 Revision Date: 11/27/2007
Product Type: Case (Library)
HBS Number: 9-706-002
Geographic Setting: United States
Event Year Start: 2005 Event Year End: 2005
Subjects: Balance of payments; International business; Macroeconomics; World economy
Academic Discipline: Business & government
Supplementary Materials: Supplement (Spreadsheet), (9-706-701), 0p, by Laura Alfaro, Rafael Di Tella, Ingrid Vogel; Teaching Note, (5-706-008), 30p, by Laura Alfaro, Rafael Di Tella, Ingrid Vogel
Product Description: Investors and policymakers throughout the world were confronted with the risk of painful economic consequences arising from the large and growing U.S. current account deficit. In 2005, the U.S. current account deficit was almost $800 billion, equivalent to 6.3% of GDP, and showed no signs of abating. The implications of the widening deficit were debated with intensity. At one extreme, it was argued that large deficits would eventually resolve themselves smoothly, even if they persisted for many more years. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was among those expecting a “benign resolution to the U.S. current account imbalance.” Other analysts, such as economists at the World Bank, believed the large deficits raised the risk of a sharp and disorderly fall of the dollar and that necessary macroeconomic adjustment that could be painful, for the United States as well as for the rest of the world. Despite the ongoing deficits, the gap between foreign holdings of U.S. assets and U.S. holdings of foreign assets was actually slightly improving. After widening to unprecedented levels — from 5% of GDP in 1997 to 23% of GDP in 2001 — net liabilities fell to 20% of GDP in 2005. The improvement was explained by dollar devaluation and the appreciation of U.S.-owned
Source: Harvard
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| U.S. Gas Transportation, Inc.
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| 15 pp.
| Case
Davis, John; Hart, Myra; Peyus, Sharon I.
Presents a career dilemma for a husband/wife owner-manager team. Nanci and Len Mackenzie have received an offer for their highly successful entrepreneurial business, U.S. Gas Transportation, Inc. Helps students identify factors that should be considered in a decision about whether to sell one’s company. Nanci and Len are concerned about what the sale might do to their company‘s culture, the careers of their loyal employees, and their own lifestyle. Teaching Purpose: To help students analyze the sale of owner-managed companies and to determine the proper timing of such a sale.
HBS Number: 9-800-049 Type: Case (Field)
Publication Date: 3/2/2000 Revision Date: 5/15/2000
Geographic Setting: Texas Industry Setting: oil & gas Number of Employees: 20 Gross Revenues: $500 million revenues
Event Year Start: 1999 Event Year End: 1999
Subjects: Family owned businesses; Mergers & acquisitions; Natural gas; Petroleum industry
Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (5-801-049), 5p, by John Davis, Sharon I. Peyus
Source: Harvard
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| U.S. Healthcare Reform: International Perspectives
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| 32 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Daemmrich, Arthur A.; Pineiro, Elia
Publication Date: 02/26/2010 Revision Date: 04/19/2010
Product Type: Case (Library)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 710040
Geographic Setting: United States; Germany; United Kingdom
Event Year Start: 2009 Event Year End: 2010
Subjects: Globalization; Health care policy
Academic Discipline: Business & government
Product Description: The national economic implications of rising healthcare costs were poorly understood, even as the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom instituted reforms in early 2010. Presenting opportunities for cross-national policy learning, this case describes the political economy of healthcare reform. In late March 2010, a major healthcare reform act was signed into law in the United States, expanding coverage and regulating insurers. However, it was not clear that expanding coverage would resolve a longstanding dilemma of rising costs for insurance and care. As the Department of Health and Human Services implemented the new law, it drew on lessons from Germany, which had implemented changes to regulated but competitive insurance and provider markets, and the United Kingdom, which had introduced market-style initiatives while keeping insurance and delivery under the National Health Service.
Source: Harvard
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| U.S. Retail Coffee Market (A)
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| 25 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Yip, George S.; Williams, Jeffrey R.
Publication Date: 02/10/1982 Revision Date: 08/01/1985
Product Type: Case (Field)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 582087
Geographic Setting: United States Gross Revenue: $5 billion revenues
Event Year Start: 1978 Event Year End: 1981
Subjects: Forecasting; Product portfolio management; Market segmentation; Demographics; Market structure; Competition
Academic Discipline: Marketing
Supplementary Materials: Supplement, (583001), 1p, by George S. Yip, Jeffrey R. Williams; Supplement, (583003), 8p, by George S. Yip
Product Description: Set in mid-1978, this case covers all aspects of the U.S. retail coffee market both cross-sectionally and historically. The market is recovering from dramatic price rises and volume drops. The overall issue is the forecast of future market evolution and the implications for the marketing strategy of each major producer. Students have to make explicit 5- and 10-year sales and market share forecasts and draw up BCG-type portfolio matrices. Case is part of a two-day series, beginning with an aggregate view of the entire market and its evolution and narrowing to a view of market strategy for a single brand.
Source: Harvard
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| 25 pp.
| Case
Yip, George S.; Williams, Jeffrey R.
Set in mid-1978, this case covers all aspects of the U.S. retail coffee market both cross-sectionally and historically. The market is recovering from dramatic price rises and volume drops. The overall issue is the forecast of future market evolution and the implications for the marketing strategy of each major producer. Students have to make explicit 5- and 10-year sales and market share forecasts and draw up BCG-type portfolio matrices. Case is part of a two-day series, beginning with an aggregate view of the entire market and its evolution and narrowing to a view of market strategy for a single brand. May be used with: (9-582-088) U.S. Retail Coffee Market (B); (9-582-089) Brim (A); (9-582-090) Brim (B).
HBS Number: 9-582-087 Type: Case (Field)
Publication Date: 02/10/1982 Revision Date: 08/01/1985
Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: coffee Gross Revenues: $5 billion revenues
Event Year Start: 1978 Event Year End: 1981
Subjects: Beverages; Competition; Demographics; Forecasting; Market segmentation; Market structure; Product portfolio management
Supplementary Materials: Supplement (Note), (9-583-003), 8p, by George S. Yip; Supplement (Field), (9-583-001), 1p, by George S. Yip, Jeffrey R. Williams; Teaching Note, (5-585-108), 41p, by Robert J. Dolan
Source: Harvard
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| 8 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Yip, George S.; Williams, Jeffrey R.
Publication Date: 02/10/1982 Revision Date: 06/28/1985
Product Type: Case (Field)
Product Description: Describes the corporate portfolio of General Foods, Procter & Gamble, and Nestle, thereby placing in context their coffee activities in the United States. The objective of this case is to allow students to evaluate each competitor’s commitment to the U.S. retail coffee market and the strategic implications of those commitments. May be used with: (9-582-087) U.S. Retail Coffee Market (A); (9-582-089) Brim (A); (9-582-090) Brim (B).
HBS Number: 9-582-088
Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: coffee Gross Revenues: $5 billion revenues
Event Year Start: 1978 Event Year End: 1981
Subjects: Beverages; Competition; Demographics; Forecasting; Market segmentation; Market structure; Product portfolio management
Academic Discipline: Marketing
Supplementary Materials: Supplement (Note), (9-583-004), 1p, by George S. Yip; Teaching Note, (5-585-108), 41p, by Robert J. Dolan
Source: Harvard
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| U.S. Subprime Mortgage Crisis: Policy Reactions
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| 20 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Alfaro, Laura ; Kim, Renee
Publication Date: 03/28/2008 Revision Date: 07/24/2009
Product Type: Case (Library)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 708036
Geographic Setting: United States
Event Year Start: 2000 Event Year End: 2008
Subjects: Crisis management; Mortgages; Inflation; Government policy; Monetary policy; Policy making; Business & government; Financial markets
Academic Discipline: Finance
Supplementary Materials: Case, (709045), 20p, by Laura Alfaro, Renee Kim; Case Teaching Note, (710003), 15p, by Laura Alfaro, Renee Kim
Product Description: By March 2008, the U.S. Government and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board had taken various policy measures over the last few months to tackle the subprime mortgage crisis that threatened to drag the economy into a recession. The Bush administration approved a fiscal stimulus package exceeding $150 billion. Interest rates had been repeatedly cut at the fastest pace in decades, to 2.25% as of March 2008. The Fed, in an unprecedented move, helped JPMorgan Chase to take over Bear Stearns, which was on the brink of collapse. Yet as the global economy faced slower growth stemming from the U.S. mortgage crisis, policy makers were caught in an intense debate over what the ’right‘ solution would be, and the implication of these policies on global imbalances.
Source: Harvard
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| 21 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Alfaro, Laura; Kim, Renee
Publication Date: 03/28/2008
Product Type: Case (Library)
HBS Number: 9-708-036
Geographic Setting: United States
Event Year Start: 2000 Event Year End: 2008
Subjects: Crisis communication; Crisis management; Pandemics; Mortgages; Inflation; Energy policy; Government policy; Public policy; Monetary policy; Policy making; Business & government; Government & business
Academic Discipline: Finance
Product Description: By March 2008, the U.S. Government and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board had taken various policy measures over the last few months to tackle the subprime mortgage crisis that threatened to drag the economy into a recession. The Bush administration approved a fiscal stimulus package exceeding $150 billion. Interest rates had been repeatedly cut at the fastest pace in decades, to 2.25% as of March 2008. The Fed, in an unprecedented move, helped JPMorgan Chase to take over Bear Stearns, which was on the brink of collapse. Yet as the global economy faced slower growth stemming from the U.S. mortgage crisis, policy makers were caught in an intense debate over what the “right” solution would be, and the implication of these policies on global imbalances. Learning Objective: Analyze the role of the central bank and its policies during times of crises, with an emphasis on monetary policy.
Source: Harvard
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| 20 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Alfaro, Laura ; Kim, Renee
Publication Date: 03/28/2008 Revision Date: 07/24/2009
Product Type: Case (Library)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 708036
Geographic Setting: United States
Event Year Start: 2000 Event Year End: 2008
Subjects: Crisis management; Mortgages; Inflation; Government policy; Monetary policy; Policy making; Business & government; Financial markets
Academic Discipline: Finance
Supplementary Materials: Case, (709045), 20p, by Laura Alfaro, Renee Kim; Case Teaching Note, (710003), 15p, by Laura Alfaro, Renee Kim
Product Description: By March 2008, the U.S. Government and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board had taken various policy measures over the last few months to tackle the subprime mortgage crisis that threatened to drag the economy into a recession. The Bush administration approved a fiscal stimulus package exceeding $150 billion. Interest rates had been repeatedly cut at the fastest pace in decades, to 2.25% as of March 2008. The Fed, in an unprecedented move, helped JPMorgan Chase to take over Bear Stearns, which was on the brink of collapse. Yet as the global economy faced slower growth stemming from the U.S. mortgage crisis, policy makers were caught in an intense debate over what the ’right‘ solution would be, and the implication of these policies on global imbalances.
Source: Harvard
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| 20 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Alfaro, Laura ; Kim, Renee
Publication Date: 03/28/2008 Revision Date: 07/24/2009
Product Type: Case (Library)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 708036
Geographic Setting: United States
Event Year Start: 2000 Event Year End: 2008
Subjects: Crisis management; Mortgages; Inflation; Government policy; Monetary policy; Policy making; Business & government; Financial markets
Academic Discipline: Finance
Supplementary Materials: Case, (709045), 20p, by Laura Alfaro, Renee Kim; Case Teaching Note, (710003), 15p, by Laura Alfaro, Renee Kim
Product Description: By March 2008, the U.S. Government and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board had taken various policy measures over the last few months to tackle the subprime mortgage crisis that threatened to drag the economy into a recession. The Bush administration approved a fiscal stimulus package exceeding $150 billion. Interest rates had been repeatedly cut at the fastest pace in decades, to 2.25% as of March 2008. The Fed, in an unprecedented move, helped JPMorgan Chase to take over Bear Stearns, which was on the brink of collapse. Yet as the global economy faced slower growth stemming from the U.S. mortgage crisis, policy makers were caught in an intense debate over what the ’right‘ solution would be, and the implication of these policies on global imbalances.
Source: Harvard
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| 20 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Alfaro, Laura ; Kim, Renee
Publication Date: 03/28/2008 Revision Date: 07/24/2009
Product Type: Case (Library)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 708036
Geographic Setting: United States
Event Year Start: 2000 Event Year End: 2008
Subjects: Crisis management; Mortgages; Inflation; Government policy; Monetary policy; Policy making; Business & government; Financial markets
Academic Discipline: Finance
Supplementary Materials: Case, (709045), 20p, by Laura Alfaro, Renee Kim; Case Teaching Note, (710003), 15p, by Laura Alfaro, Renee Kim
Product Description: By March 2008, the U.S. Government and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board had taken various policy measures over the last few months to tackle the subprime mortgage crisis that threatened to drag the economy into a recession. The Bush administration approved a fiscal stimulus package exceeding $150 billion. Interest rates had been repeatedly cut at the fastest pace in decades, to 2.25% as of March 2008. The Fed, in an unprecedented move, helped JPMorgan Chase to take over Bear Stearns, which was on the brink of collapse. Yet as the global economy faced slower growth stemming from the U.S. mortgage crisis, policy makers were caught in an intense debate over what the ’right‘ solution would be, and the implication of these policies on global imbalances.
Source: Harvard
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| U.S. Subprime Mortgage Crisis: Policy Reactions (B)
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| 20 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Alfaro, Laura; Kim, Renee
Publication Date: 04/07/2009 Revision Date: 06/03/2010
Product Type: Case (Library)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 709045
Event Year Start: 2008 Event Year End: 2009
Subjects: Crisis management; Fiscal policy; Economic policy; Inflation; Government policy; Monetary policy; Policy making; Business & government
Academic Discipline: Business & government
Supplementary Materials: Case Teaching Note, (710003), 15p, by Laura Alfaro, Renee Kim
Product Description: In March 2009, the U.S. economy was in a severe recession not seen since the Great Depression after the subprime mortgage crisis had spiraled out of control. The situation had dramatically changed in one year since the Federal Reserve Board had helped to bailout investment bank Bear Stearns. Deflation, not inflation, had become a top concern. Interest rates were near zero percent. Five million jobs had been lost. The new Barack Obama administration had pushed forward with a $787 billion stimulus package, coupled with various programs to address the frozen credit markets and depressed investors’ confidence. Yet the burning question in every policymakers‘ mind was — how effective would the various plans work to revive the U.S. economy?
Source: Harvard
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| U.S. Treasury Auctions (D)
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| 1 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Hild, Matthias
Darden ID: UVA-QA-0672
Published: 10/19/2005
Copyright Year: 2004
Subject Area: Quantitative Analysis
Keywords: securities auction
Abstract: The U.S. Treasury had been using multiple-price sealed-bid auctions to sell its bills since their introduction in 1929. In that auction format, buyers submitted confidential bids on the new securities and winning bidders paid the price of their own bid, resulting typically in different prices for different bidders. That traditional procedure came under sharp attack by several prominent economists when illegal manipulations by a trader at Salomon Brothers came to light in 1991. As a pilot program, the Treasury announced on September 3, 1992, that it would conduct a single-price sealed-bid auctions of its two-year and five-year notes for a limited period of time. In the single-price sealed-bid auction, participants again submitted confidential bids but, in contrast to the multiple-price auction, a single clearing price was determined that equalized supply and demand. When the 1992 pilot program was extended until 1998, the majority of Treasury sales were conducted in the traditional multiple-price format and a decision on the usability of single-price auctions had yet to be made.
Source: Darden
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| UAL Corp.
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| 24 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Gilson, Stuart C.; Cott, Jeremy
Publication Date: 03/24/1995 Revision Date: 04/19/1995
Product Type: Case (Field)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 295130
Geographic Setting: Illinois Number of Employees: 83,000 Gross Revenue: $15 billion revenues
Event Year Start: 1993 Event Year End: 1994
Subjects: Labor negotiations; Restructuring; Recapitalization; Valuation; Employee stock ownership plans; Corporate strategy
Academic Discipline: Finance
Supplementary Materials: Case Teaching Note, (298126), 21p, by Stuart C. Gilson
Product Description: In the largest attempted employee-buyout in history, a large U.S. commercial airline seeks substantial wage concessions from its employees in return for 53% stake in the airline’s commmon stock and guaranteed seats on the board of directors. Management must convince employees, shareholders, Wall Street analysts, and the media that the buyout makes sense from value, operating, and strategic perspectives.
Source: Harvard
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| 24 pp.
| Case
Gilson, Stuart C.; Cott, Jeremy
A large U.S. commercial airline seeks substantial wage concessions from its employees in return for 53% stake in the airline’s commmon stock and guaranteed seats on the board of directors in the largest attempted employee-buyout in history. Management of the company must convince employees, shareholders, Wall Street analysts, and the media that the buyout makes sense from value, operating, and strategic perspectives. Teaching Purpose: Allows students to assess the pros and cons of employee ownership as an alternative to painful corporate downsizing, as well as discuss the changing role of labor in corporate governance. Also highlights how a company undergoing a complicated or novel restructuring must sometimes pro-actively "market" the restructuring to investors and financial analysts.
HBS Number: 9-295-130 Type: Case (Field)
Publication Date: 3/24/1995 Revision Date: 4/19/1995
Geographic Setting: Chicago, IL Industry Setting: airline
Company Size: large Number of Employees: :83,000 Gross Revenues: $15 billion revenues
Event Year Start: 1993 Event Year End: 1994
Subjects: Airlines; Corporate strategy; ESOP; Labor negotiations; Recapitalization; Restructuring; Valuation
Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (5-298-126), 21p, by Stuart C. Gilson
Source: Harvard
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| UAL, 2004: Pulling Out of Bankruptcy
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| 24 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Bergstresser, Daniel B.; Froot, Kenneth A.; Smart, Darren R.
Publication Date: 02/22/2005 Revision Date: 06/20/2006
Product Type: Case (Library)
Product Description: UAL is a large air transportation company with roots that go back to the 1920s. As a legacy carrier, going back to before the 1978 deregulation of air transportation markets, United Airlines is burdened with cost structures that make it difficult to compete with newer competitors. In addition, UAL has the burden of $7.6 billion in unfunded pension obligations and $2 billion in unfunded retiree health obligations. In June 2004, UAL is still operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which began December 2002. It has needed extensions of the exclusivity period from the bankruptcy court. UAL’s plan of reorganization is predicated on receiving $1.8 billion in loan guarantees from the Air Transport Stabilization Board (ATSB). But its request for loan guarantees from the ATSB was recently rejected. The company must decide what to do next and how to emerge from bankruptcy.
HBS Number: 9-205-090
Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: Airline industry Number of Employees: 63,000 Gross Revenues: $14 billion revenues
Event Year Start: 2002 Event Year End: 2004
Subjects: Airlines; Bankruptcy; Compensation; Costs; Loans; Reorganization
Academic Discipline: Finance
Supplementary Materials: Supplement (Spreadsheet), (9-205-709), 0p, by Daniel B. Bergstresser, Kenneth A. Froot, Darren R. Smart
Source: Harvard
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| UBS and Auction Rate Securities (A)
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| 22 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Bergstresser, Daniel B.; Cole, Shawn; Shenai, Siddharth
Publication Date: 03/05/2009 Revision Date: 04/29/2010
Product Type: Case (Library)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 209119
Subjects: Finance; Securities; Liquidity; Financial crisis
Academic Discipline: Finance
Supplementary Materials: Case Teaching Note, (209122), 19p, by Shawn Cole, Daniel B. Bergstresser, Siddharth Shenai
Product Description: UBS, a global financial services company, must decide whether to continue to support the market for Auction Rate Securities in the face of a growing financial crisis. These instruments, underwritten by UBS, were marketed to clients as highly liquid and safe alternatives to cash. UBS’ decision becomes urgent when Citigroup, another leading underwriter of ARS, decides to let their auctions fail, leaving clients with illiquid assets of uncertain value. The case explores theoretical and practical aspects of liquidity risk, and challenges students to evaluate the benefits of honoring implicit commitments to customers against the costs of acquiring billions of dollars in illiquid assets. The (B) and (C) cases consider the implications of UBS decision.
Source: Harvard
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| 22 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Bergstresser, Daniel B.; Cole, Shawn; Shenai, Siddharth
Publication Date: 03/05/2009 Revision Date: 04/29/2010
Product Type: Case (Library)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 209119
Subjects: Finance; Securities; Liquidity; Financial crisis
Academic Discipline: Finance
Supplementary Materials: Case Teaching Note, (209122), 19p, by Shawn Cole, Daniel B. Bergstresser, Siddharth Shenai
Product Description: UBS, a global financial services company, must decide whether to continue to support the market for Auction Rate Securities in the face of a growing financial crisis. These instruments, underwritten by UBS, were marketed to clients as highly liquid and safe alternatives to cash. UBS’ decision becomes urgent when Citigroup, another leading underwriter of ARS, decides to let their auctions fail, leaving clients with illiquid assets of uncertain value. The case explores theoretical and practical aspects of liquidity risk, and challenges students to evaluate the benefits of honoring implicit commitments to customers against the costs of acquiring billions of dollars in illiquid assets. The (B) and (C) cases consider the implications of UBS decision.
Source: Harvard
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| UBS and Auction Rate Securities (B)
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| 4 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Cole, Shawn; Bergstresser, Daniel B.; Shenai, Siddharth
Publication Date: 03/05/2009 Revision Date: 03/26/2009
Product Type: Supplement (Library)
HBS Number: 9-209-131
Subjects: Finance;
Academic Discipline: Finance
Supplementary Materials: Supplement (Library), (9-209-135), 2p, by Shawn Cole, Daniel B. Bergstresser, Siddharth Shenai; Teaching Note, (5-209-122), 19p, by Shawn Cole, Daniel B. Bergstresser, Siddharth Shenai
Product Description: Supplement to (209-119). Must be used with: (209119) UBS and Auction Rate Securities (A).
Source: Harvard
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| 4 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Bergstresser, Daniel B.; Cole, Shawn; Shenai, Siddharth
Publication Date: 03/05/2009 Revision Date: 04/29/2010
Product Type: Supplement (Library)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 209131
Subjects: Finance
Academic Discipline: Finance
Supplementary Materials: Case Teaching Note, (209122), 19p, by Shawn Cole, Daniel B. Bergstresser, Siddharth Shenai; Supplement, (209135), 2p, by Daniel B. Bergstresser, Shawn Cole, Siddharth Shenai
Product Description: Supplement to 209119
Source: Harvard
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| Ubs Global Asset Management: Capturing Alpha Through Global Equity Investing
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| 25 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Bruner, Robert F.; Ruff, Craig
Darden ID: UVA-F-1414
Published: 8/12/2003
Copyright Year: 2003
Subject Area: Finance
Keywords: investment management; portfolio management; globalization
Abstract: In October 2002, the senior investment officers of UBS AG’s Global Asset Management (GAM) division, the largest asset management firm in the world, must decide whether to issue a new quantitative investment product, one that will stand in sharp contrast to GAM‘s historically fundamentalist and value-style approach. The problem raises sharp questions about the strategic evolution of the industry, its products, and in particular, its leading firms. To some in the firm, it seemed that the new “quant” product was a natural extension of the strategic transformation of GAM since 1995. But others in the senior team wondered whether the market would be ready for this product. The tasks for the student are to map the industry changes, evaluate the transformation of UBS, and assess the fit of the new quant product with the firm's strategic approach. This case was prepared to meet the following teaching objectives: 1) Assess the pace, direction, and implications of globalization of the asset management industry. Key to this assessment is the emerging research on the relative importance of countries versus sectors in explaining investment returns globally; 2) Explore a “country/sector” organization structure for global research; Identify its defining characteristics. Compare it with other possible structures. Determine its advantages and disadvantages as an organizing system. Identify key success drivers. And 3) Evaluate a quantitative investment product relative to other product offerings.
This case was prepared to meet the following teaching objectives:
1) Assess the pace, direction, and implications of globalization of the asset management industry. Key to this assessment
Source: Darden
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| 25 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Bruner, Robert F.; Ruff, Craig
Darden ID: UVA-F-1414
Published: 8/12/2003
Copyright Year: 2003
Subject Area: Finance
Keywords: investment management; portfolio management; globalization
Abstract: In October 2002, the senior investment officers of UBS AG’s Global Asset Management (GAM) division, the largest asset management firm in the world, must decide whether to issue a new quantitative investment product, one that will stand in sharp contrast to GAM‘s historically fundamentalist and value-style approach. The problem raises sharp questions about the strategic evolution of the industry, its products, and in particular, its leading firms. To some in the firm, it seemed that the new “quant” product was a natural extension of the strategic transformation of GAM since 1995. But others in the senior team wondered whether the market would be ready for this product. The tasks for the student are to map the industry changes, evaluate the transformation of UBS, and assess the fit of the new quant product with the firm's strategic approach. This case was prepared to meet the following teaching objectives: 1) Assess the pace, direction, and implications of globalization of the asset management industry. Key to this assessment is the emerging research on the relative importance of countries versus sectors in explaining investment returns globally; 2) Explore a “country/sector” organization structure for global research; Identify its defining characteristics. Compare it with other possible structures. Determine its advantages and disadvantages as an organizing system. Identify key success drivers. And 3) Evaluate a quantitative investment product relative to other product offerings.
This case was prepared to meet the following teaching objectives:
1) Assess the pace, direction, and implications of globalization of the asset management industry. Key to this assessment
Source: Darden
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| UBS: THE WAY TO THE TOP IN GLOBAL BANKING (1998-2005): PHASE I: BUILDING A FINANCIAL POWERHOUSE (1998-2000)
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| 29 pp.
| Case
Mueller-Stewens, G — University of St. Gallen
Shivacheva, R — University of St. Gallen
Distributor: ecch (www.ecch.com) Reference: 306-228-1 Language: English
Category: Strategy and General Management Data source: Field research
Product Year: 2006
Geo location: Switzerland, global Industry: Banking Size: Multinational revenues greater than US$30 billion Timing: 1998-2005
Topics: Banking; Strategy (corporate strategy); Investment banking; Consolidation; Growth; Strategic initiatives; UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland); Switzerland; Financial institutions; Integration; Organisation structure; Private banking; Asset management; Mergers
Abstract: This is the first of a four-case series (306-228-1 to 306-231-1). Just three months after the shareholders of Credit Suisse Group approved the merger with Winterthur to form the largest financial services institution in Switzerland in September 1997, UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland) and SBC (Swiss Banking Corporation) announced their ambitions to create the world’s largest financial institution specialising in private banking and asset management with a market capitalisation of 85 billion Swiss francs (US$60 billion) and client assets under management of 1,320 billion Swiss francs (US$912.8 billion), named UBS. In the face of the ongoing consolidation of European commercial banking, the tightening of competition and the rationalisation trends in the banking industry, such strategic merger and acquisition initiatives seemed to be a logical step. However, in addition to the pure integration efforts and merger costs of 7 billion Swiss francs, the newly formed UBS had to deal with several unexpected challenges. Due to external shocks, such as the crisis in Asia and the crash of the long-term capital management hedge fund, as well as to internal erosions through a substantial loss of customers, and senior executives,
Source: ecch
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| UBS: THE WAY TO THE TOP IN GLOBAL BANKING (1998-2005): PHASE II: EXCELLING AT THE ’SEAMANSHIP TEST‘ (2001-2002)
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| 18 pp.
| Case
Mueller-Stewens, G — University of St. Gallen
Shivacheva, R — University of St. Gallen
Distributor: ecch (www.ecch.com) Reference: 306-229-1 Language: English
Category: Strategy and General Management Data source: Field research
Product Year: 2006
Geo location: Switzerland, global Industry: Banking Size: Multinational revenues greater than US$30 billion Timing: 1998-2005
Topics: Banking; Strategy (corporate strategy); Investment banking; Consolidation; Growth; Strategic initiatives; UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland); Switzerland; Financial institutions; Integration; Organisation structure; Private banking; Asset management; Mergers
Abstract: This is the second of a four-case series (306-228-1 to 306-231-1). Just three months after the shareholders of Credit Suisse Group approved the merger with Winterthur to form the largest financial services institution in Switzerland in September 1997, UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland) and SBC (Swiss Banking Corporation) announced their ambitions to create the world’s largest financial institution specialising in private banking and asset management with a market capitalisation of 85 billion Swiss francs (US$60 billion) and client assets under management of 1,320 billion Swiss francs (US$912.8 billion), named UBS. In the face of the ongoing consolidation of European commercial banking, the tightening of competition and the rationalisation trends in the banking industry, such strategic merger and acquisition initiatives seemed to be a logical step. However, in addition to the pure integration efforts and merger costs of 7 billion Swiss francs, the newly formed UBS had to deal with several unexpected challenges. Due to external shocks, such as the crisis in Asia and the crash of the long-term capital management hedge fund, as well as to internal erosions through a substantial loss of customers, and senior executives
Source: ecch
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| UBS: THE WAY TO THE TOP IN GLOBAL BANKING (1998-2005): PHASE III: ALIGNMENT TO THE ’ONE FIRM‘ STRATEGY (2003-2004)
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| 28 pp.
| Case
Mueller-Stewens, G — University of St. Gallen
Shivacheva, R — University of St. Gallen
Distributor: ecch (www.ecch.com) Reference: 306-230-1 Language: English
Category: Strategy and General Management Data source: Field research
Product Year: 2006
Geo location: Switzerland, global Industry: Banking Size: Multinational revenues greater than US$30 billion Timing: 1998-2005
Topics: Banking; Strategy (corporate strategy); Investment banking; Consolidation; Growth; Strategic initiatives; UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland); Switzerland; Financial institutions; Integration; Organisation structure; Private banking; Asset management; Mergers
Abstract: This is the third of a four-case series (306-228-1 to 306-231-1). Just three months after the shareholders of Credit Suisse Group approved the merger with Winterthur to form the largest financial services institution in Switzerland in September 1997, UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland) and SBC (Swiss Banking Corporation) announced their ambitions to create the world’s largest financial institution specialising in private banking and asset management with a market capitalisation of 85 billion Swiss francs (US$60 billion) and client assets under management of 1,320 billion Swiss francs (US$912.8 billion), named UBS. In the face of the ongoing consolidation of European commercial banking, the tightening of competition and the rationalisation trends in the banking industry, such strategic merger and acquisition initiatives seemed to be a logical step. However, in addition to the pure integration efforts and merger costs of 7 billion Swiss francs, the newly formed UBS had to deal with several unexpected challenges. Due to external shocks, such as the crisis in Asia and the crash of the long-term capital management hedge fund, as well as to internal erosions through a substantial loss of customers, and senior executives,
Source: ecch
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| UBS: Towards the Integrated Firm
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| 36 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Lal, Rajiv; Nohria, Nitin; Knoop, Carin-Isabel
Publication Date: 03/30/2006 Revision Date: 02/14/2007
Product Type: Case (Field)
HBS Number: 9-506-026
Geographic Setting: Switzerland Industry Setting: Financial services; Music industry Number of Employees: 87,000 Gross Revenues: $50 billion revenues
Event Year Start: 2005 Event Year End: 2005
Subjects: Collaboration; Competition; Leadership development; Organizational structure; Strategy alignment; Trust
Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Product Description: In late June 2005, UBS Group CEO Peter Wuffli — anointed “Master of Zurich” by the financial press — was returning to Zurich from the firm’s latest three-day Senior Leadership Conference (SLC). Tapping 600 top managers, this SLC featured an outdoor event at a former military site in the Swiss mountains. Under the banner of “Understanding, Commitment, and Trust,” teams of 100 executives engaged in a simulation of six worlds — metaphors for the various regions and parts of UBS business. Initial skepticism about the exercise was replaced with enthusiasm for the “mind-boggling” camaraderie that it created. Held above Montreux, Switzerland, home of the International Jazz Festival, the program opened with a taped interview of jazz great Wynton Marsalis asking the audience to equate the dynamics of jazz with the collaboration required to maintain a complex professional services firm. Marsalis contrasted Duke Ellington, who composed for the specific talents of his band members, with John Coltrane, a master of improvisation. “Coltrane played the themes,” Wuffli mused. “That‘s what we do. We've got the vision. We've got all of our different musicians and we're playing to these themes in an integrated way. It does make beautiful music.”
Source: Harvard
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| UCB: Managing Information for Globalization and Innovation (A)
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| 47 pp.
| Case
Author(s): McFarlan, F. Warren; DeLacey, Brian J.
Publication Date: 02/12/2003 Revision Date: 08/08/2005
Product Type: Case (Field)
Product Description: This case presents a complex total MIS strategy case for a $3 billion European pharmaceutical/chemicals company based in Brussels. It covers corporate strategy alignment of IT portfolio, IT operations issues, and global coordination of IT.
HBS Number: 9-303-091
Geographic Setting: Brussels Industry Setting: Telecommunications industry Number of Employees: 10,000 Gross Revenues: $2 billion revenues
Subjects: Globalization; Information systems; Information technology; Operations management
Academic Discipline: Management of information systems
Supplementary Materials: Supplement (Field), (9-303-107), 4p, by F. Warren McFarlan, Brian J. DeLacey; Teaching Note, (5-306-007), 10p, by F. Warren McFarlan
Source: Harvard
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| Ujjivan: A Microfinance Institution at a Crossroads (A)
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| 21 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Narayanan, V.G.; Freed, Pamela
Publication Date: 03/10/2008
Product Type: Case (Field)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 108057
Geographic Setting: India
Event Year Start: 2007 Subjects: Control systems; Growth strategy; Microfinance
Academic Discipline: Accounting & control
Supplementary Materials: Supplement, (108083), 1p, by V.G. Narayanan, Pamela Freed; Case Teaching Note, (110069), 5p, by V.G. Narayanan, Lisa Brem
Product Description: To maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color. Samit Ghosh, the CEO and founder of Ujjivan, a major microfinance provider in Bangalore, wants to grow his business rapidly and become financially sustainable, but he’s struggling with staff fraud, high costs, and how to stay true to Ujjivan‘s mission of poverty alleviation, while simultaneously reaching out to higher-income customers. The case explores how Ujjivan can grow, looking at such issues as new technology, diversifying product offerings, and how to hire the best staff.
Source: Harvard
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| 21 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Narayanan, V.G.; Freed, Pamela
Publication Date: 03/10/2008
Product Type: Case (Field)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 108057
Geographic Setting: India
Event Year Start: 2007 Subjects: Control systems; Growth strategy; Microfinance
Academic Discipline: Accounting & control
Supplementary Materials: Supplement, (108083), 1p, by V.G. Narayanan, Pamela Freed; Case Teaching Note, (110069), 5p, by V.G. Narayanan, Lisa Brem
Product Description: To maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color. Samit Ghosh, the CEO and founder of Ujjivan, a major microfinance provider in Bangalore, wants to grow his business rapidly and become financially sustainable, but he’s struggling with staff fraud, high costs, and how to stay true to Ujjivan‘s mission of poverty alleviation, while simultaneously reaching out to higher-income customers. The case explores how Ujjivan can grow, looking at such issues as new technology, diversifying product offerings, and how to hire the best staff.
Source: Harvard
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| Ultimate Creativity Machine: How BMW Turns Art into Profit
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| 12 pp.
| Article
Author(s): Bangle, Chris
Publication Date: 01/01/2001
Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article
Product Description: Many companies face the challenge of balancing art with commerce. The conflict between corporate pragmatism and artistic passion and quality is persistent: designers chafe under corporate requirements, budgets, and deadlines, and nondesigners struggle to understand the business value of artistic choices. At German carmaker BMW, the fanaticism about design excellence is matched only by the company’s driving desire to remain profitable. Global design director Chris Bangle presides over the intersection of art and commerce at BMW, managing the often-strained relationships among the designers, engineers, and business managers. Bangle goes to great lengths to protect his designers from the unproductive commentary of others in the company, literally posting "Stop: No Entry" signs on the design studio doors. He also protects the design process, making sure that time-to-market pressures do not harm the designs by shifting the focus to engineering too soon. As a mediator, Bangle appeals to the core values of the company and a deeply held sense about BMW-ness—a pride of product shared by everyone in the company that expresses itself in the classic quality of the cars. Every employee, designer and nondesigner alike, understands that if a car doesn‘t meet this standard of excellence, it's simply not a BMW--and customers won't buy it.
HBS Number: R0101B
Subjects: Art; Automobiles; Communication in organizations; Creativity; Germany; Management of professionals; Management teams; Manufacturing; Product design
Academic Discipline: General management
Source: Harvard
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| Ultra: The Quest for Leadership (A)
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| 29 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Crane, Dwight B.; Reisen de Pinho, Ricardo
Publication Date: 05/07/2004 Revision Date: 04/25/2006
Product Type: Case (Field)
Product Description: Ultra is one of a small group of competing Brazilian petrochemical companies, each of which buys raw material and is a minority owner of Copene, a “cracking” company that provides ethylene and other materials. Because of an industry restructuring, an auction of shares is being held that would provide a controlling position in Copene if Ultra was successful with its bid. Students must decide what Ultra should bid for this controlling position. The case provides cash flows and cost of capital information for estimating the present value of the company. Estimating the amount to bid is complicated by several factors. First, one of the competing owners is a likely bidder in the auction. Thus, if Copene did not win, it would end up with an illiquid minority position in a key supplier that was owned by a competitor. In addition, the valuation must take into account the uncertain Brazilian economic environment. Finally, the CEO and other senior decision makers have an ownership stake in Ultra, so they have a significant incentive not to overpay and destroy shareholder value.
HBS Number: 9-204-146
Geographic Setting: Brazil Industry Setting: Petroleum industry Gross Revenues: $1.1 billion revenues
Event Year Start: 2000 Event Year End: 2000
Subjects: Bids; Capital investments; Uncertainty; Valuation
Academic Discipline: Finance
Supplementary Materials: Supplement (Field), (9-204-147), 2p, by Dwight B. Crane, Ricardo Reisen de Pinho; Supplement (Field), (9-204-148), 2p, by Dwight B. Crane, Ricardo Reisen de Pinho
Source: Harvard
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| Ultratech Corp. (A)
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| 27 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Barth, Mary E.; Toubassy, Ramez; Baumbusch
Publication Date: 04/01/1999 Revision Date: 11/01/2001
Product Type: Case (Library)
Publisher: Stanford University
Product Description: In August 1998, Kerry King, president and CEO of Ultratech Corp., looked with great interest at the changes that were occurring in the technology industry. Ultratech Corp. had an opportunity to enter into a strategic merger transaction that would make the combined company the undisputed leader in its market segment. The transaction, a multi-billion dollar deal, made a lot of sense to Kerry, his board of directors, and Ultratech’s outside financial advisors, with one caveat. As a result of a technical accounting issue, pooling accounting was not available for the merger. Under purchase accounting, Kerry was advised that significant amounts of goodwill would be created and amortized over future fiscal years, effectively "destroying" the combined company‘s reported earnings. The challenge confronting Kerry was whether to consummate the merger and risk the earnings "damage" or to let an otherwise perfect opportunity pass. Kerry's decision could profoundly impact the future of his company and the fiber optic telecommunications industry as a whole. May be used with: (A172B) Ultratech Corp. (B).
HBS Number: A172A
Geographic Setting: San Jose, CAIndustry Setting: telecommunications, switching & transmission equipmentNumber of Employees: 976Gross Revenues: $433 million revenues
Event Year Start: 1998Event Year End: 1998
Subjects: Accounting standards; Acquisitions; Earnings; Financial reporting; Internet; Mergers; Research & development; Technology; Telecommunications industry
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Source: Harvard
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| UMBRO INTERNATIONAL
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| 12 pp.
| Case
Nolan, T — The University of Bolton
Distributor: ecch (www.ecch.com) Reference: 594-010-1 Language: English
Category: Marketing Data source: Field research
Product Year: 1994
Geo location: Global, but UK, European focus Industry: Textiles (sportswear) Size: 300+ employees Timing: 1993-1994
Topics: Sport sponsorship; Brand development; Product development and diffusion; Global operations
Abstract: This case study describes the evolution of the ’UMBRO‘ brand into a leading competitive force in the Sportswear, and most especially the soccer, market. It develops simultaneously, the growth in UMBRO's product mix and the inherent drawbacks, from a marketing viewpoint, of such a strategy. Product diffusion is highlighted and underpinned by team sponsorship and related promotional activities. Finally, the organisation's global structure is outlined with special reference to marketing, planning and co-ordination.
Source: ecch
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| Umpqua Bank: Managing the Culture and Implementing the Brand
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| 31 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Freeze, Karen J.
Publication Date: 02/10/2005
Product Type: Case (Field)
Publisher: Design Management Institute
Product Description: Umpqua Bank is an Oregon-based business that is attempting to revolutionize the banking industry with a creatively nontraditional culture and a radically retail mindset (“stores” not ‘’branches’‘), supported by an highly innovative environmental design. Umpqua has grown rapidly and faces critical issues, including: (1) How can an organization strengthen and maintain its culture while undergoing rapid growth by merger and acquisition? Specifically, how can this service organization, a quirky bank with a distinctive culture, incorporate and retrain hundreds of new employees from traditional banks? And (2) What role does the design of the total environment (``experience design'') play in nurturing and maintaining an organization's culture and its brand expression, and how much should it invest in this form of brand expression? Presents two examples and asks how this bank should deal with the issue of cost vs. value of design in each of them.
HBS Number: DMI015
Geographic Setting: Oregon Industry Setting: Banking industry Gross Revenues: $4.6 billion revenues
Event Year Start: 2004 Event Year End: 2004
Subjects: Brand management; Corporate branding; Corporate culture; Cost benefit analysis; Creativity; Design management; Environments; Innovation; Service management
Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (DMI016), 8p, by Karen J. Freeze
Source: Harvard
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| Unbundling the Corporation (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)
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| 20 pp.
| Article
Author(s): Hagel, John, III; Singer, Marc
Publication Date: 08/01/2000
Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article
HBS Number: 4533
Subjects: Industry structure; Internet; Market structure; Organization; Organizational structure; Strategic planning; Strategy formulation
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of the HBR article 99205, originally published in March/April 1999. HBR OnPoint articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights. No matter how monolithic they may seem, most companies are really engaged in three kinds of businesses. One business attracts customers. Another develops products. The third oversees operations. Although organizationally intertwined, these businesses have conflicting characteristics. It takes a big investment to find and develop a relationship with a customer, so profitability hinges on achieving economies of scope. But speed, not scope, drives the economics of product innovation. And the high fixed costs of capital-intensive infrastructure businesses require economies of scale. Scope, speed, and scale can’t be optimized simultaneously, so trade-offs have to be made when the three businesses are bundled into one corporation. Historically, they have been bundled because the interaction costs — the friction — incurred by separating them were too high. But we are on the verge of a worldwide reduction in interaction costs, the authors contend, as electronic networks drive down the costs of communicating and of exchanging data. Activities that companies have always believed were central to their businesses will suddenly be offered by new, specialized competitors that won‘t have to make trade-offs. Ultimately, the authors predict, traditional busin
Source: Harvard
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| Uncovering Hidden Value in a Midsize Manufacturing Company
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| 16 pp.
| Article
Author(s): Ashton, James E.; Cook, Frank X., Jr.; Schmitz, Paul
Publication Date: 06/01/2003
Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article
HBS Number: R0306H
Subjects: Manufacturing; Strategy formulation; Strategy implementation
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Product Description: If you run a midsize manufacturing business, you may be familiar with that anxious sense of being left behind. At every turn, someone is pushing you to jump onto the latest strategic bandwagon before it’s too late. But no matter how great the hot, new strategy might be, it can‘t replace an approach that helps you get the most out of your existing businesses. Such an approach offers a tremendous potential payback — annual revenue and earnings growth as high as 15% to 20%. And it poses few of the risks associated with pursuing chancy acquisitions, untested ventures, or radical strategies. For this article, the authors largely draw on their experience at Fiberite, which made advanced composite materials for military and commercial airplanes, among other things. Fiberite was a healthy business, but its incumbent management — with its ambitious plans for introducing new products and tapping new markets — ignored the unrealized value remaining in what they already had. Like so many companies, Fiberite didn't really understand what had made it successful in the first place. The authors offer a method for setting strategic priorities — a strategic pathway — that focuses on a company's existing businesses. The pathway has four stages. First, protect your existing business. Next, penetrate further into existing market segments with existing products or upgrades. Then, extend the business by developing new products for existing segments or by entering new segments with existing products. Finally, diversify into new markets with new products. This sequence of priorities is not new, but formalizing it
Source: Harvard
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| 20 pp.
| Article
Author(s): Ashton, James E.; Cook, Frank X., Jr.; Schmitz, Paul
Publication Date: 06/01/2003
Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article
HBS Number: 404X
Subjects: Manufacturing; Strategy formulation; Strategy implementation
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0306H, originally published in June 2003. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article plus a summary of key ideas and company examples to help you quickly absorb and apply the concepts. If you run a midsize manufacturing business, you may be familiar with that anxious sense of being left behind. At every turn, someone is pushing you to jump onto the latest strategic bandwagon before it’s too late. But no matter how great the hot, new strategy might be, it can‘t replace an approach that helps you get the most out of your existing businesses. Such an approach offers a tremendous potential payback — annual revenue and earnings growth as high as 15% to 20%. And it poses few of the risks associated with pursuing chancy acquisitions, untested ventures, or radical strategies. For this article, the authors largely draw on their experience at Fiberite, which made advanced composite materials for military and commercial airplanes, among other things. Fiberite was a healthy business, but its incumbent management — with its ambitious plans for introducing new products and tapping new markets — ignored the unrealized value remaining in what they already had. Like so many companies, Fiberite didn't really understand what had made it successful in the first place. The authors offer a method for setting strategic priorities — a strategic pathway — that focuses on a company's existing businesses. The pathway has four stages. First, protect your existing business. Next, penetrate further into existing market segments with existing products or upgrades. Then, extend
Source: Harvard
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| Uncovering Your Hidden Occupancy Costs
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| 16 pp.
| Article
Apgar, Mahlon, IV
Senior managers at large companies may think that occupancy costs are too insignificant to worry about, too technical to analyze, and too fixed to control. But occupancy costs can hurt a company’s earnings, share value, and overall performance. To manage occupancy costs, managers must be able to identify their components, measure their impact, understand what drives them, and develop options to change them. Four basic tools help diagnose problems: a cost history, a loss analysis, a component analysis, and a lease aging profile. Executives also must understand cost drivers like leasing, location, and layout.
HBS Number: 93301 Type: Harvard Business Review Article
Publication Date: 5/1/1993
Subjects: Cost analysis; Facilities planning; Real estate
Source: Harvard
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| UNDER SEIGE: THE LADIES’ CENTER ABORTION CLINIC IN PENSACOLA, FLORIDA
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| 7 pp.
| Case
Saunders, M — University of West Florida
Distributor: ecch (www.ecch.com) Reference: 494-018-1 Language: English
Category: Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour Data source: Published sources
Product Year: 1994
Geo location: Pensacola, Florida, USA Industry: Healthcare Size: Small Timing: 1980-1994
Topics: Crisis management; Public relations, public affairs; Dissident groups; Communication in social change
Abstract: This case examines, from several perspectives, an organization under fire from dissident groups. The Ladies’ Center, an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida, was the target of numerous attacks by anti-abortion activists for a decade. The study looks at significant events and the social and community context surrounding this activity. Teaching objective is to increase awareness of effects of dissident activities on a small, privately-owned business.
Source: ecch
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| Understanding "People" People
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| 16 pp.
| Article
Author(s): Butler, Timothy; Waldroop, James
Publication Date: 06/01/2004
Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article
HBS Number: R0406E
Subjects: Career advancement; Human resources management; Interpersonal behavior; Interpersonal relations; Performance effectiveness; Recruitment; Teams
Academic Discipline: Human resources management
Product Description: Nearly all areas of business — not just sales and human resources — call for interpersonal savvy. Relational know-how comprises a greater variety of aptitudes than many executives think. Some people can “talk a dog off a meat truck,” as the saying goes. Others are great at resolving interpersonal conflicts. Some have a knack for translating high-level concepts for the masses. And others thrive when they’re managing a team. Because people do their best work when it most closely matches their interests, the authors contend, managers can increase productivity by taking into account employees‘ relational interests and skills when making personnel choices and project assignments. After analyzing the psychological tests of more than 7,000 business professionals, the authors identified four dimensions of relational work: influence, interpersonal facilitation, relational creativity, and team leadership. This article explains each one and offers practical advice to managers — how to build a well-balanced team, for instance, and how to gauge the relational skills of potential employees during interviews. Understanding these four dimensions will help you get optimal performance from your employees, appropriately reward their work, and assist them in setting career goals. It will also help you make better choices when it comes to your own career development. To get started, try the authors' free online assessment tool, which measures both your orientation toward relational work in general and your interest level in each of its fo
Source: Harvard
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| Understanding "People" People (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)
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| 20 pp.
| Article
Author(s): Butler, Timothy; Waldroop, James
Publication Date: 06/01/2004
Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article
HBS Number: 7022
Subjects: Career advancement; Human resources management; Interpersonal behavior; Interpersonal relations; Performance effectiveness; Recruitment; Teams
Academic Discipline: Human resources management
Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0406E, originally published in June 2004. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article plus a summary of key ideas and company examples to help you quickly absorb and apply the concepts. Nearly all areas of business — not just sales and human resources — call for interpersonal savvy. Relational know-how comprises a greater variety of aptitudes than many executives think. Some people can “talk a dog off a meat truck,” as the saying goes. Others are great at resolving interpersonal conflicts. Some have a knack for translating high-level concepts for the masses. And others thrive when they’re managing a team. Because people do their best work when it most closely matches their interests, the authors contend, managers can increase productivity by taking into account employees‘ relational interests and skills when making personnel choices and project assignments. After analyzing the psychological tests of more than 7,000 business professionals, the authors identified four dimensions of relational work: influence, interpersonal facilitation, relational creativity, and team leadership. This article explains each one and offers practical advice to managers — how to build a well-balanced team, for instance, and how to gauge the relational skills of potential employees during interviews. Understanding these four dimensions will help you get optimal performance from your employees, appropriately reward their work, and assist them in setting career goals. It will also help you make better c
Source: Harvard
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| Understanding Brands
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| 8 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Keinan, Anat; Avery, Jill
Publication Date: 11/26/2008
Product Type: Module Note
HBS Number: 509041
Subjects: Brand management; Branding; Corporate branding
Academic Discipline: Marketing
Product Description: For many firms, the brands associated with their products and/or services are their most valuable assets, and, hence, much management attention is given to designing, communicating, nurturing, and protecting them. This note is designed to provide an understanding of brand management strategies firms use to build, sustain, and leverage their brands. Learning Objective: To provide background reading for cases on Branding.
Source: Harvard
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| Understanding Customer Experience
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| 16 pp.
| Article
Author(s): Meyer, Christopher; Schwager, Andre
Publication Date: 02/01/2007
Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article
HBS Number: R0702G
Subjects: Customer experiences; Customer relationship management; Customers
Academic Discipline: Service management
Product Description: Anyone who has signed up for cell phone service, attempted to claim a rebate, or navigated a call center has probably suffered from a company’s apparent indifference to what should be its first concern: the customer experiences that culminate in either satisfaction or disappointment and defection. Customer experience is the subjective response customers have to direct or indirect contact with a company. It encompasses every aspect of an offering: customer care, advertising, packaging, features, ease of use, reliability. Customer experience is shaped by customers‘ expectations, which largely reflect previous experiences. Few CEOs would argue against the significance of customer experience or against measuring and analyzing it. But many don't appreciate how those activities differ from CRM or just how illuminating the data can be. For instance, the majority of the companies in a recent survey believed they have been providing “superior” experiences to customers, but most customers disagreed. The authors describe a customer experience management (CEM) process that involves three kinds of monitoring: past patterns (evaluating completed transactions), present patterns (tracking current relationships), and potential patterns (conducting inquiries in the hope of unveiling future opportunities). Data are collected at or about touch points through such methods as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and online forums. Companies need to involve every function in the effort, not just a single customer-facing group. The authors go on to illustrate how a cross-functional CEM system is created. With such a system, com
Source: Harvard
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| Understanding Leadership (HBR Classic)
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| 12 pp.
| Article
Author(s): Prentice, W.C.H.
Publication Date: 01/01/2004
Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article
Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing
HBS Number: R0401K
Subjects: Organizational behavior; Management styles; Human behavior; Leadership; Personal strategy & style; Psychology; Motivation; Management skills
Academic Discipline: Organizational Behavior & leadership
Product Description: The would-be analyst of leadership usually studies popularity, power, showmanship, or wisdom in long-range planning. But none of these qualities is the essence of leadership. Leadership is the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants — a human and social achievement that stems from the leader’s understanding of his or her fellow workers and the relationship of their individual goals to the group‘s aim. To be successful, leaders must learn two basic lessons: People are complex, and people are different. Human beings respond not only to the traditional carrot and stick but also to many desires and emotions. For example, someone may find satisfaction in solving intellectual problems but may never be given the opportunity to explore how that satisfaction can be applied to business. In this article, first published in HBR's September-October 1961 issue, W.C.H. Prentice argues that by responding to individual patterns, the leader can create genuinely intrinsic interest in the work. Ideally, Prentice says, managerial dominions should be small enough that every supervisor can know those who report to him or her as human beings. Prentice calls for democratic leadership that, without creating anarchy, gives employees opportunities to learn and grow. This concept, along with his rejection of the notion that leadership is the exercise of power or the possession of extraordinary analytical skill, foreshadows the work of more recent authors such as Abraham Zaleznik and Daniel Go
Source: Harvard
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| Understanding the Postrecession Consumer
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| 12 pp.
| Article
Author(s): Flatters, Paul; Willmott, Michael
Publication Date: 07/01/2009
Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article
HBS Number: R0907P
Subjects: Consumer behavior; Forecasting; Recessions
Academic Discipline: Service management
Product Description: How will consumers behave as we emerge from this downturn? Though recessions differ in their causes, depth, and duration, it’s possible to anticipate the way consumers will act by understanding their behavior and motivation in previous recessions and analyzing current trends. Flatters and Willmott trace the paths of eight trends as they entered the recession and project their trajectories into the recovery. The authors‘ analysis paints a picture of chastened new consumers who will seek simplicity in products and services; take companies' boardroom ethics into account in purchase decisions; pursue “discretionary” thrift (virtuous but not essential cost cutting); flit capriciously from brand to brand; make green consumption more a matter of reducing waste than purchasing premium products; and steer away from frivolous, extreme leisure experiences in favor of wholesome, authentic ones. Like their great-grandparents, who grew up in the Great Depression, young consumers today, the authors say, will be permanently changed by coming of age during a profound economic downturn.
Source: Harvard
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| Understanding User Needs
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| 20 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Iansiti, Marco; Stein, Ellen
Publication Date: 01/30/1995
Product Type: Case (Gen Exp)
Product Description: Presents an introduction to methods for understanding user needs in product development. Describes a number of techniques including the use of focus groups, interviews, questionnaires, the Kano method, Lead User analysis, the Product Value matrix, OFD, etc. Provides a “how to” for product developers, and includes theory as well as examples from practice.
HBS Number: 9-695-051
Geographic Setting: Unspecified
Subjects: Market research; Product design; Product development
Academic Discipline: Operations management
Source: Harvard
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| UNEXT: Business Education and e-Learning
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| 33 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Rukstad, Michael G.; Levine, Tyrrell; Coll
Publication Date: 04/11/2001 Revision Date: 08/21/2001
Product Type: Case (Field)
Product Description: UNEXT has signed agreements with Columbia, Stanford, Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, and the London School of Economics to create online business courses. The company is backed by Michael Milken and Larry Ellison and has four Nobel laureates on its advisory board. This case describes UNEXT’s history, products, course development and delivery, marketing, costs, and revenues. Also devotes seven pages to the business education industry and to the e-learning competitive landscape. There is a one-page appendix summarizing Harvard Business School‘s role in e-learning. Teaching Purpose: To explore the effects of a potential disruptive technology (e-learning) on business education, and to examine how an inefficient industry (education) might be transformed by technology.
HBS Number: 9-701-014
Industry Setting: education/e-learningNumber of Employees: 400
Event Year Start: 1997Event Year End: 2001
Subjects: Business education; Disruptive technologies; Distance learning; Education; Internet; Technological change
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Source: Harvard
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| UNICEF
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| 27 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Quelch, John A.; Laidler, Nathalie
Publication Date: 02/11/2003
Product Type: Case (Field)
Product Description: In September 2002, Marjorie Newman-Williams, director of communication for UNICEF, is poised to present the results of a two-year rebranding process at the annual meeting of the national committee heads. This case describes the organization and highlights the challenges UNICEF faces in 2002. Details of the rebranding process, including market research, the development of brand essence and brand models, and organizational challenges of consensus building, are at the core of the case. Teaching Purpose: Students are exposed to the components of a rebranding strategy and challenged to identify key next steps in the implementation of the new brand.
HBS Number: 9-503-032
Geographic Setting: Global Industry Setting: nonprofit Number of Employees: 6,000 Gross Revenues: $1.2 billion revenues
Event Year Start: 2002 Event Year End: 2002
Subjects: Brand management; Brands; Marketing implementation; Marketing strategy; Nonprofit organizations
Academic Discipline: Marketing
Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (5-505-013), 7p, by John A. Quelch
Source: Harvard
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| UNICORP TENDER FOR UNION ENTERPRISES (A)
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| 27 pp.
| Case
White RW; Quinn B
The vice-president and chief financial officer of Unicorp Canada Corporation, had to decide on the price, form and conditions of an offer for shares of Union Enterprises Ltd. (UEL) based on Unicorp’s objectives for the investment, its financialresources, the underlying value of UEL, and his assessment of the probabilities of the possible outcomes of the takeover bid. He then needed to develop a strategy for the presentation of the bid to UEL and the public. (A related case is available,titled Unicorp Canada Corporation, case 9A99B035.)
Ivey Number: 9A90B034
Publication Date: 1/1/1990 Revision Date: 2/4/2002
Geographic Setting: Canada Industry Setting: Electric, Gas and Sanitary Services
Company Size: Large organization
Event Year Start: 1985
Subjects: Mergers & Acquisitions, Financing, Sensitivity Analysis, Corporate Strategy
Functional Area: Finance
Source: Ivey
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| Unified Energy System of Russia
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| 25 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Huang, Yasheng; O’Neil-Massaro, Kirsten J
Publication Date: 03/13/2002
Product Type: Case (Field)
Product Description: On April 4, 2000, at a board of directors‘ meeting, CEO Anatoly Chubais, Russia's legendary reformer, announced his plan to break up the Russian joint stock company Unified Energy System (UES). The plan envisioned breaking up the giant energy monopoly along two lines of business—electricity transmissions and generation and sales. His proposal met a fierce storm of opposition from foreign minority shareholders of UES as well as from Boris Fedorov, a fellow reformer in the early to mid-1990s. This case examines the dynamics of implementing structural reforms in a highly uncertain environment. Teaching Purpose: 1) Why did foreign minority shareholders oppose Chubais' proposal?, 2) Was Chubais a good manager for UES?, and 3) In what ways did foreign capital help promote or hinder economic reforms?
HBS Number: 9-702-068
Geographic Setting: RussiaIndustry Setting: energyNumber of Employees: 660,000Gross Revenues: $500 million revenues
Event Year Start: 2000Event Year End: 2000
Subjects: Energy; Russia; Shareholder relations
Academic Discipline: Business & government
Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (5-702-078), 17p, by Yasheng Huang
Source: Harvard
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| UNIHOST CORPORATION
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| 18 pp.
| Case
Dunbar C; McHale JJ
The CFO of UniHost Corporation is faced with a requirement to raise capital. UniHost is involved in the development, syndication, franchising and management of motels and hotels in Canada. Most of its properties were flagged under the “Quality” and“Comfort’‘ brands. UniHost required capital to repay a $52 million bridge loan facility and fund multiple growth opportunities. Financing alternatives included equity, convertible bonds and high yield debt. The CFO had to decide on both the formand structure of the financing. The case allows for discussion of a number of issues, including: the public financing process in Canada, financing strategy (i.e. choice of the form of financing in the context of a likely sequence of financings),optimal capital structure, and the impact of financing decisions on the overall strategy of a firm. With respect to the debt alternatives, data is provided which allows for analysis of the choice of debt maturity, bond covenants and bond ratingagencies.
Ivey Number: 9A99N008
Publication Date: 8/6/1999 Revision Date: 15/01/2002
Geographic Setting: Canada Industry Setting: Hotels, Rooming Houses, Camps
Company Size: Medium organization
Event Year Start: 1998
Subjects: Hotel Management, Financing, Bonds, Deal Structuring
Functional Area: Finance
Source: Ivey
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| Unilever (A)
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| 8 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Werhane, Patricia H.; Gorman, Michael E.; Mehalik, Matthew M.; Standish, Myles
Darden ID: UVA-E-0153
Published: 12/16/1998
Copyright Year: 1998
Subject Area: Ethics
Keywords: environment; sustainable business; corporate policy; globalization; strategic development
Teaching Note: UVA-E-0153TN
Abstract: The A case illustrates the formulation of a new environmental initiative and its introduction into the corporate policy of this large multinational corporation. Jan-Kees Vis, a staff worker in the middle echelons of the company, attempts to integrate sustainable development into existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability. Once the new policy is adopted, the case leaves the student to decide how the company should begin fulfilling its commitments. See also the B, C, and D cases (E-0154, E-0155, and E-0156) and “Unilever: Corporate Venturing and Environmental Sustainability (A)” (E-0152).
Source: Darden
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| 8 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Werhane, Patricia H.; Gorman, Michael E.; Mehalik, Matthew M.; Standish, Myles
Darden ID: UVA-E-0153
Published: 12/16/1998
Copyright Year: 1998
Subject Area: Ethics
Keywords: environment; sustainable business; corporate policy; globalization; strategic development
Teaching Note: UVA-E-0153TN
Abstract: The A case illustrates the formulation of a new environmental initiative and its introduction into the corporate policy of this large multinational corporation. Jan-Kees Vis, a staff worker in the middle echelons of the company, attempts to integrate sustainable development into existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability. Once the new policy is adopted, the case leaves the student to decide how the company should begin fulfilling its commitments. See also the B, C, and D cases (E-0154, E-0155, and E-0156) and “Unilever: Corporate Venturing and Environmental Sustainability (A)” (E-0152).
Source: Darden
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| UNILEVER (B)
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| 13 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Werhane, Patricia H.; Gorman, Michael E.; Mehalik, Matthew M.; Standish, Myles
Darden ID: UVA-E-0154
Published: 12/16/1998
Copyright Year: 1999
Subject Area: Ethics
Keywords: environment; sustainable business; corporate policy; globalization; strategic development
Teaching Note: UVA-E-0153TN
Abstract: Jan-Kees Vis, a staff worker in the middle echelons of the company, attempts to integrate sustainable development into existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability. Once the new policy is adopted, the case leaves the student to decide how the company should begin fulfilling its commitments. The B case continues the story of Vis’s attempts to integrate sustainable development into Unilever‘s existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability, and describes how the company begins to fulfill its commitments. See also the A, C, and D cases (UVA-E-0153, UVA-E-0155, and UVA-E-0156) and “Unilever: Corporate Venturing and Environmental Sustainability (A)” (UVA-E-0152).
Source: Darden
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| 13 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Werhane, Patricia H.; Gorman, Michael E.; Mehalik, Matthew M.; Standish, Myles
Darden ID: UVA-E-0154
Published: 12/16/1998
Copyright Year: 1999
Subject Area: Ethics
Keywords: environment; sustainable business; corporate policy; globalization; strategic development
Teaching Note: UVA-E-0153TN
Abstract: Jan-Kees Vis, a staff worker in the middle echelons of the company, attempts to integrate sustainable development into existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability. Once the new policy is adopted, the case leaves the student to decide how the company should begin fulfilling its commitments. The B case continues the story of Vis’s attempts to integrate sustainable development into Unilever‘s existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability, and describes how the company begins to fulfill its commitments. See also the A, C, and D cases (UVA-E-0153, UVA-E-0155, and UVA-E-0156) and “Unilever: Corporate Venturing and Environmental Sustainability (A)” (UVA-E-0152).
Source: Darden
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| UNILEVER (C)
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| 8 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Werhane, Patricia H.; Gorman, Michael E.; Mehalik, Matthew M.; Standish, Myles
Darden ID: UVA-E-0155
Published: 12/16/1998
Copyright Year: 1998
Subject Area: Ethics
Keywords: environment; sustainable business; corporate policy; globalization; strategic development
Teaching Note: UVA-E-0153TN
Abstract: Jan-Kees Vis, a staff worker in the middle echelons of the company, attempts to integrate sustainable development into existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability. Once the new policy is adopted, the case leaves the student to decide how the company should begin fulfilling its commitments. The C case continues the story of Vis’s attempts to integrate sustainable development into Unilever‘s existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability, and reveals more of the company's efforts to fulfill its commitments. See also the A, B, and D cases (UVA-E-0153, UVA-E-0154, and UVA-E-0156) and “Unilever: Corporate Venturing and Environmental Sustainability (A)” (UVA-E-0152).
Source: Darden
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| 8 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Werhane, Patricia H.; Gorman, Michael E.; Mehalik, Matthew M.; Standish, Myles
Darden ID: UVA-E-0155
Published: 12/16/1998
Copyright Year: 1998
Subject Area: Ethics
Keywords: environment; sustainable business; corporate policy; globalization; strategic development
Teaching Note: UVA-E-0153TN
Abstract: Jan-Kees Vis, a staff worker in the middle echelons of the company, attempts to integrate sustainable development into existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability. Once the new policy is adopted, the case leaves the student to decide how the company should begin fulfilling its commitments. The C case continues the story of Vis’s attempts to integrate sustainable development into Unilever‘s existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability, and reveals more of the company's efforts to fulfill its commitments. See also the A, B, and D cases (UVA-E-0153, UVA-E-0154, and UVA-E-0156) and “Unilever: Corporate Venturing and Environmental Sustainability (A)” (UVA-E-0152).
Source: Darden
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| UNILEVER (D)
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| 13 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Werhane, Patricia H.; Gorman, Michael E.; Mehalik, Matthew M.; Standish, Myles
Darden ID: UVA-E-0156
Published: 12/16/1998
Copyright Year: 1998
Subject Area: Ethics
Keywords: environment; sustainable business; corporate policy; globalization; strategic development
Teaching Note: UVA-E-0153TN
Abstract: Jan-Kees Vis, a staff worker in the middle echelons of the company, attempts to integrate sustainable development into existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability. Once the new policy is adopted, the case leaves the student to decide how the company should begin fulfilling its commitments. The D case concludes the story of Vis’s attempts to integrate sustainable development into Unilever‘s existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability, and describes the company's efforts to fulfill its commitments. See also the A, B, and C cases (UVA-E-0153, UVA-E-0154, and UVA-E-0155) and “Unilever: Corporate Venturing and Environmental Sustainability (A)” (UVA-E-0152).
Source: Darden
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| 13 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Werhane, Patricia H.; Gorman, Michael E.; Mehalik, Matthew M.; Standish, Myles
Darden ID: UVA-E-0156
Published: 12/16/1998
Copyright Year: 1998
Subject Area: Ethics
Keywords: environment; sustainable business; corporate policy; globalization; strategic development
Teaching Note: UVA-E-0153TN
Abstract: Jan-Kees Vis, a staff worker in the middle echelons of the company, attempts to integrate sustainable development into existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability. Once the new policy is adopted, the case leaves the student to decide how the company should begin fulfilling its commitments. The D case concludes the story of Vis’s attempts to integrate sustainable development into Unilever‘s existing environmental policy in hopes of providing a plan of action for achieving sustainability, and describes the company's efforts to fulfill its commitments. See also the A, B, and C cases (UVA-E-0153, UVA-E-0154, and UVA-E-0155) and “Unilever: Corporate Venturing and Environmental Sustainability (A)” (UVA-E-0152).
Source: Darden
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| Unilever as a “Multi-local Multinational” 1945-1979
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| 26 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Jones, Geoffrey G.; Decker, Stephanie
Publication Date: 08/31/2007 Revision Date: 02/06/2010
Product Type: Case (Library)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 808025
Geographic Setting: United States; India; United Kingdom Number of Employees: 350,000 Gross Revenue: $17,470,000,000 Revenues (1977)
Event Year Start: 1945 Event Year End: 1979
Subjects: Corporate reorganization; Business history; Globalization; Laws & regulations; Compliance management; International management; Foreign subsidiaries; Strategy
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Product Description: Explores the opportunities and threats to Unilever’s global business in 1978 based on the commercial and political challenges faced by three of its subsidiaries, Lever Brothers in the United States, Hindustan Lever in India, and United Africa Company in West Africa. Management faced several problems: criticism of multinational companies, anti-trust legislation, expropriations, and rising competition from international and local rivals. Focuses on developing a new global strategy for a company that placed a premium on a consensual management style and local autonomy.
Source: Harvard
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| 26 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Jones, Geoffrey G.; Decker, Stephanie
Publication Date: 08/31/2007 Revision Date: 02/06/2010
Product Type: Case (Library)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 808025
Geographic Setting: United States; India; United Kingdom Number of Employees: 350,000 Gross Revenue: $17,470,000,000 Revenues (1977)
Event Year Start: 1945 Event Year End: 1979
Subjects: Corporate reorganization; Business history; Globalization; Laws & regulations; Compliance management; International management; Foreign subsidiaries; Strategy
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Product Description: Explores the opportunities and threats to Unilever’s global business in 1978 based on the commercial and political challenges faced by three of its subsidiaries, Lever Brothers in the United States, Hindustan Lever in India, and United Africa Company in West Africa. Management faced several problems: criticism of multinational companies, anti-trust legislation, expropriations, and rising competition from international and local rivals. Focuses on developing a new global strategy for a company that placed a premium on a consensual management style and local autonomy.
Source: Harvard
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| 26 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Jones, Geoffrey G.; Decker, Stephanie
Publication Date: 08/31/2007 Revision Date: 02/06/2010
Product Type: Case (Library)
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 808025
Geographic Setting: United States; India; United Kingdom Number of Employees: 350,000 Gross Revenue: $17,470,000,000 Revenues (1977)
Event Year Start: 1945 Event Year End: 1979
Subjects: Corporate reorganization; Business history; Globalization; Laws & regulations; Compliance management; International management; Foreign subsidiaries; Strategy
Academic Discipline: Competitive strategy
Product Description: Explores the opportunities and threats to Unilever’s global business in 1978 based on the commercial and political challenges faced by three of its subsidiaries, Lever Brothers in the United States, Hindustan Lever in India, and United Africa Company in West Africa. Management faced several problems: criticism of multinational companies, anti-trust legislation, expropriations, and rising competition from international and local rivals. Focuses on developing a new global strategy for a company that placed a premium on a consensual management style and local autonomy.
Source: Harvard
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| UNILEVER GROUP AND ARIBA: TOWARDS STRATEGIC SOURCING
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| 17 pp.
| Case
Anderson, J; Woolley, M
Publisher: London Business School
Distributor: ecch (www.ecch.com) Reference: 602-030-1 Language: English
Category: Production and Operations Management Data source: Published sources
Product Year: 2002
Geo location: US, Europe Industry: Fast moving consumer goods Size: 250,000 employees Timing: 1998-2002
Topics: e-procurement; Strategic sourcing; Purchasing; Sourcing; Ariba; Unilever; e-business
Abstract: This case study traces the experience of Unilever Group in developing a strategic sourcing approach, with a particular emphasis on the ongoing implementation of the strategy in Europe. The case provides lessons for any company considering the adoption of strategic sourcing as a way to drive out cost, and it addresses some of the emerging benefits and challenges of Internet-based purchasing systems. While the jury is still out with regard to areas such as people empowerment and process optimisation, Internet enabled strategic sourcing appears to be emerging as one of the success stories of the ’dotcom bubble‘. Indeed, companies who turn their backs on this approach due to broader scepticism towards e-business initiatives may see their long-term competitiveness eroded by companies, such as Unilever, who are driving ahead with technology-enabled strategies.
Source: ecch
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| Unilever in India: Hindustan Lever’s Project Shakti — Marketing FMCG to the Rural Consumer
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| 24 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Rangan, V. Kasturi; Rajan, Rohithari
Publication Date: 02/23/2005 Revision Date: 06/27/2007
Product Type: Case
Publisher: Harvard Business School
HBS Number: 505056
Geographic Setting: India
Event Year Start: 2005 Event Year End: 2005
Subjects: Innovation; Consumer marketing; Marketing strategy; Target markets
Academic Discipline: Marketing
Supplementary Materials: Case Teaching Note, (507022), 9p, by V. Kasturi Rangan
Product Description: To maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color. With liberalization of India’s economy and the opening up of markets to foreign multinationals such as Procter & Gamble, the Indian subsidiary of Unilever — Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) — was under pressure to grow revenues and profits. HLL had a long and stellar record of market leadership in India (with market shares of nearly 60%) in categories such as soap, detergent, and shampoos. Documents HLL‘s innovative approach to penetrate rural markets (with populations less than 1,000), where two-thirds of India's population lives, with a scheme named “Shakti” (meaning empowerment). The central question is: How should the company scale Shakti and make it profitable? Includes color exhibits.
Source: Harvard
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| 24 pp.
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Author(s): Rangan, V. Kasturi; Rajan, Rohithari
Publication Date: 02/23/2005 Revision Date: 06/27/2007
Product Type: Color Case
HBS Number: 9-505-056
Geographic Setting: India
Event Year Start: 2005 Event Year End: 2005
Subjects: Consumer marketing; Innovation; Marketing strategy; Target markets
Academic Discipline: Marketing
Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (5-507-022), 9p, by V. Kasturi Rangan
Product Description: With liberalization of India’s economy and the opening up of markets to foreign multinationals such as Procter & Gamble, the Indian subsidiary of Unilever — Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) — was under pressure to grow revenues and profits. HLL had a long and stellar record of market leadership in India (with market shares of nearly 60%) in categories such as soap, detergent, and shampoos. Documents HLL‘s innovative approach to penetrate rural markets (with populations less than 1,000), where two-thirds of India's population lives, with a scheme named “Shakti” (meaning empowerment). The central question is: How should the company scale Shakti and make it profitable?
Source: Harvard
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| Unilever’s Butter-Beater: Innovation for Global Diversity
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| 18 pp.
| Case
Author(s): Christensen, Clayton M.; Zobel, Jorg
Publication Date: 08/06/1997 Revision Date: 03/28/1998
Product Type: Case (Field)
Product Description: Unilever, one of the world’s largest food product manufacturers, has grown in Europe primarily by acquiring local food companies. Initially Unilever allowed each acquired company to manage its own product development in a way that was tailored to local tastes and competition. This case describes the struggles that European managers confronted in trying to establish stronger central direction over Pan-European product development, branding, and marketing. Teaching Purpose: Useful in courses on multinational management, managing innovation, or product development, where tension between differing local needs and the economics of centralized development and branding is an important issue.
HBS Number: 9-698-017
Geographic Setting: Europe Industry Setting: foods Number of Employees: 200,000 Gross Revenues: $50 billion revenues
Event Year Start: 1992 Event Year End: 1997
Subjects: Europe; Food; Food processing industry; Innovation; Multinational corporations; Product development
Academic Discipline: Operations management
Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (5-698-076), 8p, by Clayton M. Christensen
Source: Harvard
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