Case studies

Russ Clark is a successful NAPA Auto Parts franchisee in Yuma County, Arizona. He sees opportunity in the neighboring Mexican city of San Luis Rıo Colorado. But crossing the border with an after-market auto parts store will require building relationships with others, lots of learning to overcome the significant barriers, and some savvy decision-making in addition to the usual evaluation of business opportunities. Clark must consider a location decision, product mix, human resource issues, and how to promote the new business in an uncertain and unfamiliar context. Clearly, his current American business model will require a great degree of adaptation to make the venture a success. This case was developed from extensive field interviews and shadowing Mr. Clark for a day. In addition, Mr. Clark and his store manager, Rigoberto made classroom presentations describing their experiences surrounding the case situation.

Jan Jaśkiewicz was a successful small grocer in Białystok, Poland, a city of about 300,000. When Poland became a capitalistic nation again in the late 1980s, Jaśkiewicz was among the early entrepreneurs. In the late 1990s, multi-national grocery chains from across Europe began building new, large stores on the outskirts of most Polish cities, including Białystok. In early summer 2000, a few days before the case begins, local independent grocers had been called together by Lewiatan, a Polish wholesale grocer. Lewiatan could offer the smaller grocers the advantages of the chains: bulk buying, Lewiatan-branded goods, slotting fees, and cooperative advertising. The local grocers liked many of the benefits Lewiatan would bring, but were suspicious and wanted someone they knew to be the area representative before they would agree to join Lewiatan. They had called a second meeting to try and find someone to fill the role. Jaśkiewicz was a natural choice: he had been in both the retail and wholesale grocery business, had been in business longer than almost everyone else, and was well-respected. Jan was tempted. Not only did he want to grow his own business, he wanted other Poles to be successful business owners and felt that if he could help Lewiatan, Lewiatan could help others compete with the new, large, foreign-owned and professionally-managed stores.

In 2005, LPP SA was one of the fastest growing firms in Poland’s apparel industry, with popular brands such as RESERVED and CROPP. This case focuses on the apparel industry, LPP’s business and international strategies, and its internal capabilities. The case also offers a background on the communist rule in Poland and how it led to economic malaise that sparked the strikes by Solidarity under the leadership of Lech Walesa. These strikes eventually cascaded into the demand for reforms and the collapse of the communist regime. Thus, the case tracks Poland’s transition into an “emerging market” and the environment within which LPP developed. The case concludes by asking readers whether LPP needs to reorient its strategies and develop new capabilities to sustain its growth.

A Confrontation of Mindsets: French Retailers Operating in Poland traces the history of French retailers setting up operations in Poland in the mid 90s. The case, however, is set in 2006 when a top retailing executive recalls the important watershed period of 1996-97 when the expatriate managers in charge of setting up the first hypermarkets encountered great difficulties with their new Polish recruits. The managers were not succeeding in transferring the practices and routines that were an essential part of their business model on the home market in France: their Polish employees displayed work attitudes that were the contrary of the initiative and responsibility for enlarged jobs that characterized employees back home. This situation called into question the very viability of their business model in Poland. The case poses very clearly the question of what actions the expatriate managers should decide to take to ensure the store launchings in Poland and future growth. The issues raised concern global versus multi-domestic internationalization strategies, business models, paradigms, corporate culture, management of expats, knowledge transfer and the link between strategic implementation and organizational behavior.

Jeff Hotchkiss, President of the Assembly Test Division of Teradyne, Inc., the largest electronics testing company in the world, returned to the corporation where he had built his career after a three-year hiatus as CEO of a VOIP start-up. Teradyne's operation was struggling through the effects of a bad economy coupled with significant downturns in the electronics industry, and Hotchkiss encountered numerous problems specifically in the China operation, including customer dissatisfaction with service, price, and time required to implement changes. He assembled a strategic team to address these issues and to recommend and implement an accelerated turnaround in China. Students are challenged to design the turnaround plan.

In October 2004, Mr. Richard Sands, CEO of Constellation Brands, evaluated the potential purchase of The Robert Mondavi Corporation. Sands felt that Mondavi's wine beverage products would fit into the Constellation portfolio of alcohol beverage brands, and the opportunity to purchase Mondavi for a highly favorable price was quite possible due to recent management turmoil at that company. However, should it be purchased, strategic and operational changes would be necessary in order to fully achieve Mondavi's potential value. In making a decision, students need to consider the attractiveness of the wine industry, its changing structure, its share of the overall market for beverages, and rival firms' strategies. As rival bidders may emerge for Mondavi's brands, Constellation must offer a price that demonstrates its serious intent to acquire Mondavi.

In December 2007, Sergey Nikolaev, founder and CEO of the Untsiya company, a tea shop chain in St. Petersburg, Russia, was facing a major decision about the future of his company: should he diversify the business or focus solely on tea sales via exclusive shops? Founded in 2002, the Untsiya Company had enjoyed dramatic growth and great success in the St. Petersburg market. By 2007, having directed the successful roll-out of his tea shop chain, Nikolaev wanted to grow to the next level and was prepared to revise his corporate strategy, even to the extent of changing his existing, stable organizational structure. Students are challenged to select a growth strategy and related organizational changes to implement that strategy.

This critical incident offers students the opportunity to develop an understanding of the issues associated with intellectual property (IP) law and the ways to protect a business from its employees and potential unfair competition. Using a restaurant setting students can learn to apply IP concepts, discuss the issues of trademark, as well as develop a legal IP check list.

A family business founded by Chinese immigrants grew into a $133 million toy and costume maker by exploiting seasonal niche segments in the highly competitive, global toy industry. Sales of traditional toys stagnated when replaced by game consoles and electronic toys. Unable to compete in high tech toys, MegaToys moved instead toward seasonal products. In 2007, brothers Peter and Charlie Woo were about to pitch what they hoped would be $63 million in Easter basket sales to Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart took the full order, it would come to represent over half of MegaToys' revenue.

The company was faced with the dilemma of how to grow, and at what pace. Charlie Woo knew that MegaToys could continue to grow as long as it was able to satisfy Wal-Mart's demands. Peter Woo wondered if this was the smartest way to grow the business. “Growth is a good thing as long as you don't sell your shirt to get it,” he noted. Should MegaToys continue to increase its sales to Wal-Mart, or would dependence on Wal-Mart eventually threaten the firm's success? Were there other, untapped opportunities for MegaToys that were well aligned with its strengths, resources, and capabilities?

The Case takes place at the headquarters of Genesee & Wyoming, Inc. (GWI), one of the leading short line railroads in the United States. The Case revolves around three executives - Mortimer B. Fuller III, Chairman and CEO, Mark Hastings, CFO and Treasurer, and Alan Harris, Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Office - and the dilemma over whether to pursue international expansion.

GWI has generally pursued a strategy of diversification through acquisition. However, there are other approaches to diversification, including international expansion. With increasing deregulation and privatization of railroads around the world, GWI and its competitors must weigh the risks of internationalization with the rewards. GWI fears that a failure to move quickly might result in missed opportunities as competitors acquire railroads around the world.

An opportunity has recently arisen in Australia, where the government is selling Australian National Railway. GWI believes Australia might be a good initial foray into the international market given the similarities of the country and its railroad industry to the United States and its railroad industry. The Case asks the question, “Should GWI enter the bidding?”