Case studies

Roseda is a family-operated business that had its beginnings in a farm that Ed and his wife purchased before his retirement in 1994. The company’s current business strategy emphasizes producing high-quality natural Black Angus beef without using hormones, chemical additives or antibiotics in cattle feeding and by dry aging the carcasses for enhanced flavor. This case focuses on the alternative growth strategies that Ed Burchell confronts for Roseda in early 2015.

The founder of Roseda Beef and the lead author became acquainted many years ago. In 2014, the two owners of Roseda agreed to have a case written about the firm. The case is based on formal interviews, on site observations at Roseda Farms, and an extensive review of the documentation that exists on this privately held company. In addition, the company made some internal documents available including the income statements and balance sheets for this private company.

This course has been taught four times at the MBA level so far: twice in a strategic management course, and twice in a financial strategy course.

Roseda Beef was developed to provide students in a capstone strategy or finance course the opportunity to undertake a situational analysis including the firm’s summary financials and the rudimentary financial analysis of the expansion opportunities that are included in the case. The case is based on capital budgeting principles in finance and fundamentals of strategy development.

Describes the career transfer and development system at UPS, showing incentives and policies that move managers across countries and functions, and how this movement develops high quality general managers.

To demonstrate the way in which a cross-functional, cross-cultural career transfer program can break down silo and national barriers and achieve cost effective integration.

The managing director of a steel plant faces the decision of how much of each raw material to order for the plant for the following month. Due to lower and upper bounds on the amounts of each raw material in a batch and varying amounts of electricity and time consumed for different raw materials, one can't simply use the cheapest raw material. A linear program and the solver optimization function of Excel will provide the optimal amounts that meet the constraints. Interestingly, the best mixture for a batch is not the best mixture for a monthly plan. Shadow prices indicate the value of relaxing constraints. The typical monthly model from a student will be nonlinear, although it can be written as a linear model. This case provides the basis for an introductory class on linear programming and linear versus nonlinear models.

Doug Cook, an MBA graduate, was wrestling with one of the most important career decisions of his life: Which one of three seemingly promising businesses should he acquire? Each acquisition was a viable opportunity, and each had potential to be a successful business. Cook, however, had heard numerous disconcerting stories about other entrepreneurs going through this process. He realized that until this time the biggest purchase he had made in his life was a $250,000 condominium in downtown Chicago. Acquiring one of these companies would require a financial and personal commitment greater than anything he had ever attempted. He felt a window of opportunity was closing. If he did not act now, he might find himself in the corporate world forever. Cook began by writing up a personal criteria list for his acquisition, then researching online and media sources for businesses for sale. Frustrated with that process, he hired a business broker. With the broker's help, Cook found three promising candidates from which to choose: Luxury Tassels, Inc.; Feldco Windows and Doors, Inc.; and Coyote Consulting Company. The (A) case includes income statements, pro forma forecasts, balance sheets, and organization charts for each company, in addition to Cook's financial analyses and valuation of each company. The (B) case features the letter of intent that Cook gave the owner of the company he selected. Ultimately he did purchase the company, and in the (C) case, Cook examines pathways to growing his newly acquired company.

How to be entrepreneurial through acquiring a business The importance of establishing their own decision criteria regarding the type of company they would like to acquire How to research businesses for sale The issues in working with a business broker How to analyze financial statement in the context of buying the company How to make decisions and use financial analysis to support their decisions

The Joyoung brand was launched in 1994 when a group of recent college graduates invented the world's first automatic hot soymilk-maker home appliance. After some ups and downs, the Joyoung manufacturer founded the Shandong Joyoung Electric Appliances Co., Ltd. in 2002. It was further reorganized to the current Joyoung Company Limited in September 2007. Joyoung's sales grew rapidly from RMB 6 million in 1994 to 120 million in 1999, and this trend has continued into the new century. By the first quarter in 2006, the signature product of Joyoung—the soymilk makers—alone have already surpassed the sales by Philips Home Appliances in the Chinese market. Contrary to its current success, however, Joyoung Soymilk Maker's launch did not go smoothly. When the first model of the automatic soymilk maker was introducted in 1994, people had no idea what this new creature was supposed to do. The first 2,000 units of Joyoung products remaintroducedined stacked in storage for months. Joyoung then decided to conduct some marketing research. Joyoung's repositioning strategies and new product developments based on their marketing research have been evidently successful, and they have defined a new product category in China and in the world.

Quality Wireless has received customer complaints about long hold times at its call center. To address these complaints, it put into place certain process changes at its call center. After one month, the company will now decide whether improvement has taken place.

To develop an understanding of process capability and how an improvement can be statistically validated. To understand the “check” phase of the plan-do-check-act cycle of Deming, using basic statistical principles.

Quality Wireless has received customer complaints about long hold times at its call center. To address these complaints, it put into place certain process changes at its call center. After one month, the company will now decide whether improvement has taken place.

To develop an understanding of process capability and how an improvement can be statistically validated. To understand the “check” phase of the plan-do-check-act cycle of Deming, using basic statistical principles.

Supplements the (A) case.

Since 1981, the U.S. federal government has operated a price support program to help sugar beet and sugar cane producers and processors. This complex program works through a combination of loans, import quotas, and duties. As a result, sugar prices in the United States are significantly higher than world prices. For example, in December 2001, U.S. consumers paid 22.9 cents per pound, while the world price was just 9 cents per pound. The General Accounting Office estimates that the total cost to consumers is $1.9 billion a year. Uses a simple demand-and-supply framework with real-world data to assess the economic and political consequences of the U.S. sugar program.

To illustrate welfare concepts such as consumer surplus, producer surplus, and dead-weight loss in a concrete, real-world market context.

In 2005, a wine snob in the critically acclaimed movie Sideways denounced merlot. Subsequently, sales of merlot, including sales for Terlato's Rutherford Hill merlot, declined significantly. Students are asked to evaluate three strategies---rebranding, cutting price, and launching television advertising---that Terlato is considering to reverse this decline. The case should be used with “Student Supplement: Terlato Wines International: Background Note on the U.S. Wine Market and Terlato Wines International,” Case #KEL359.

Students explore the challenge of managing a brand when external factors cause a decline in category demand. They also explore the role of pricing and advertising in managing a small, luxury brand.