Case studies

Business strategy and human resource management.

Undergraduate Business and Management.

This case spotlights Oilfield Services branch in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It focuses on various problems encountered whilst operating in Abu Dhabi. Oilfield Services was first established in Dubai in 1995, primarily to meet the growing demand of quality human resources in the oilfield, shipping, and fabrication sectors in the Middle East and Persian Gulf region. The case highlights the challenges of motivation and compensating staff and the importance of strategic decision making.

This case can be used to teach decision making, cost/benefit analysis, employee motivation, and compensation and elements relating to international business strategy.

A teaching note is available on request.

Discusses the structure of the Seven-Eleven Japan supply chain in terms of its facilities network, inventory management, distribution, and information.

To discuss how Seven-Eleven has made consistent supply chain choices to support its business strategy of providing convenience to customers. Points to how Seven-Eleven has used information and aggregation in transportation to improve supply chain responsiveness at a relatively low cost.

This case and its companion, “Myerson Industries” (UVA-QA-0299), constitute the materials for a negotiating exercise. The exercise is a distributive-bargaining situation surrounding the negotiation of the price for the construction of a building (some minor opportunities exist for creating mutual value).

In November 2005 Fidelity Homestead, a savings bank in Louisiana, began noticing suspicious charges from Mexico and southern California on its customers' credit cards. More than a year later, an audit revealed peculiarities in the credit card data in the computer systems of TJX Companies, the parent company of more than 2,600 discount fashion and home accessories retail stores in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

The U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Justice Department, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found that hackers had penetrated TJX's systems in mid-2005, accessing information that dated as far back as 2003. TJX had violated industry security standards by failing to update its in-store wireless networks and by storing credit card numbers and expiration dates without adequate encryption. When TJX announced the intrusion in January 2007, it admitted that hackers had compromised nearly 46 million debit and credit card numbers, the largest-ever data breach in the United States.

After analyzing and discussing the case, students should be able to:

• Understand imbedded operational risks

• Analyze how operational risk decisions are made in a firm

• Understand the challenges in the electronic payment transmission process, which relies on each participant in the process to operate best-in-class safety systems to ensure the safety of the entire process

• Recognize the sophistication of IT security threats

Understand imbedded operational risks

Analyze how operational risk decisions are made in a firm

Understand the challenges in the electronic payment transmission process, which relies on each participant in the process to operate best-in-class safety systems to ensure the safety of the entire process

Recognize the sophistication of IT security threats

Early in 2008, Tony Truesdale, President of the Vitamin Shoppe, was preparing for a meeting with the company's investment bankers. In particular, he was wrestling with supply chain issues that were becoming increasingly pronounced in light of the company's aggressive growth plan. Truesdale recognized that it was nearly impossible to effectively manage the company's large and fragmented supply base, resulting in higher than necessary costs and lower than desired performance. The company also relied too heavily on one supplier for a significant amount of the company's volume. Truesdale recognized that it was nearly impossible to effectively manage the company's large and fragmented supply base, resulting in higher than necessary costs and lower than desired performance. The company also relied too heavily on one supplier for a significant amount of the company's volume.

Further, in the company's single distribution center, 95 percent of the available storage capacity was utilized throughout most of 2007; well above what was considered optimal. The lack of space was driving excessive product handling and increasing operating expenses. The company's inbound and outbound transportation strategies also contributed to inefficiencies and unnecessary costs. Operating efficiencies could be achieved if all transportation needs were brought together under one strategic umbrella. Truesdale was certain that in order to reach the company's growth targets and maintain its competitive advantage, addressing these supply chain issues was critical. Students are asked to describe the specific issues affecting supply chain performance and recommend approaches to solving the problems

The case was created via an interview of the protagonist in 2018 at the US Military Academy by the authors.

The case describes the dilemma First Lieutenant Williams faces when his platoon sergeant unexpectedly leaves. Organizational norms and accepted practices suggest Lieutenant Williams should choose the most senior squad leader, Staff Sergeant Boyer. The departing Platoon Sergeant even recommended Staff Sergeant Boyer. However, based on recent observations, Lieutenant Williams felt Staff Sergeant Boyer may not be the best fit. Instead, the lieutenant considered choosing the newest squad leader, Staff Sergeant Harrison, who seemed to be highly proficient, but had yet to prove himself. Before the lieutenant could fully weight his options, Staff Sergeant Boyer confronted him about a decision.

This case is designed for use in undergraduate courses on leadership and management. The case was not only designed primarily for teaching a lesson on organizational justice, but can also be used to integrate lessons on communication, power and influence, and decision making. Each of these elements is present in the case. The instructor can choose to incorporate them into the lesson for a more wholly encompassing lesson or choose to focus on only the organizational justice aspects at play in the case.

This case involves the issues within an organization of growth, expansion, change, and a possible shift of focus from hobby to profit. The case also deals with important factors, which could potentially impact any company's operation. The owners are seeking to address two key issues. The first is a valuation issue prompted by one of the shareholders wishing to sell her interest in the railcar LLC. The second issue is one of expansion. A potential investment ($60,000-$135,000) would permit the company to lease the railcar to other operators who could run the railcar on Amtrak certified tracks nationwide but would remove the shareholders from the day to day operations of the train. The critical decision is whether the owners should invest more money in the business or maintain their current business model and operational structure.

Supplements the (A) case.

Brand strategy, marketing strategy, service marketing, hospitality management and international marketing strategy.

Post-graduate-level students; practitioners from the hospitality sector, brand management, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the arts and culture field may also benefit from the case.

Jumeirah Group is a luxury hospitality company that is implementing a global brand strategy after developing a strong-regional reputation. Jumeirah's strong cultural alignment to its Dubai heritage in the form of its hallmarks and communication tag line “Stay Different” is being translated into events, activities, sponsorship and more importantly in terms of service to create a symbolic and experiential brand strategy. For Alice Royton, the Director of Branding for Jumeirah Group, the dilemma was how to maintain the thrust forwards as a top luxury brand and keep brand synergy especially as Jumeirah was increasing its portfolio and the competitive arena heats up in the international market place.

Creation of stakeholder value, brand strategy looking at various brand levels, using arts and culture as part of CSR initiative; communication strategy, emotional touch points and moment of truth as part of interactive service strategy; CRM and loyalty.

Teaching notes.