Ralph Boe and Marilyn Michelle Helms
This case presents turnaround alternatives for a UK-based company, Carpets International (CI), a manufacturer focused on woven carpets and suffering from the ageing equipment and…
Abstract
Synopsis
This case presents turnaround alternatives for a UK-based company, Carpets International (CI), a manufacturer focused on woven carpets and suffering from the ageing equipment and resulting product quality issues during the late 1990s. The case profiles CI’s position in the UK marketplace as well as highlights the growing international competition from Europe and Mexico. Comparisons between customer’s preferences for carpeting in the USA vs the UK are included. Additionally, the case introduces first-mover advantages in the application of innovational ideas applied to a mature industry in another country.
Research methodology
This case study was written by the CEO of the company as the lead author. The case is not disguised.
Relevant courses and levels
This case is appropriate for undergraduate strategic management/business policy classes.
Details
Keywords
In this chapter, Jeffrey Togman recounts how Home, an ethnographic film, which he directed, came to be made. While directing the film, Togman fluctuated between the various…
Abstract
In this chapter, Jeffrey Togman recounts how Home, an ethnographic film, which he directed, came to be made. While directing the film, Togman fluctuated between the various classical roles of the participant observer – complete observer, observer as participant, participant as observer, and complete participant. The camera and the microphone allow the researcher to record information in quantities and at speeds than are exponentially larger and faster than what can be accomplished by conventional note-taking, but the equipment is also more obtrusive and disruptive. The tyranny of the camera demands that the director puts it in a “real” place, and thus, it is the nature of ethnographic films to challenge generalizing, predictive theories of human behavior. Togman also presents the findings of his filmic project, stripped of its visual elements. The film's main character, Sheree Farmer, a single mother of six children, tries to get her family out of public housing in Newark, New Jersey. With the help of Mary Abernathy, a former fashion executive turned community activist, Sheree endeavors to purchase her own home. As Sheree struggles to clear her credit and qualify for a mortgage, it becomes clear that she faces more than material obstacles to becoming a homeowner.
It's great fun for journalists to write about state of the art technology, rather than about payrolls and invoicing, especially ‘gee whizz’ technology in artificial intelligence…
Abstract
It's great fun for journalists to write about state of the art technology, rather than about payrolls and invoicing, especially ‘gee whizz’ technology in artificial intelligence, neural networking, voice input, and so on. Unfortunately, there's not much correspondence between state of the art computing and what goes on in working installations.
The phenomenal rise of mail order — armchair shopping — has been well documented. More recently, discount trading has made a marked impact on the retail scene in this country. Now…
Abstract
The phenomenal rise of mail order — armchair shopping — has been well documented. More recently, discount trading has made a marked impact on the retail scene in this country. Now we are seeing the emergence of a new form of retailing which is a combination of both — the catalogue showroom, which enables customers to make their initial selection in a catalogue, then visit the ‘showroom’ and buy the merchandise at a considerable discount. One of the few retail innovations to emerge from the United States in recent years, this new form of trading has undergone certain adaptations in its passage across the Atlantic. First we examine the principles of the system, and then take a look at Richard Tompkins' Argos showrooms, recently launched in a highly professional blaze of publicity.
As pressure grows over pollution of the environment Nader's Raider William Osborn, has come from America to set up a strong consumer protection organization. Richard Brooks talks…
Abstract
As pressure grows over pollution of the environment Nader's Raider William Osborn, has come from America to set up a strong consumer protection organization. Richard Brooks talks to him and looks at industry's present concern or lack of it.
Vasudevan Ramanujam and N. Venkatraman
For some time now, the business press has been sounding the death knell of strategic planning. Introduced in the mid‐Fifties, formal and comprehensive approaches to strategic…
Abstract
For some time now, the business press has been sounding the death knell of strategic planning. Introduced in the mid‐Fifties, formal and comprehensive approaches to strategic planning have gone through a number of evolutionary changes. Beginning with simple, internally oriented annual budgets, they quickly developed into long‐term, externally focused strategic planning systems. Today's sophisticated strategic management systems now combine internal and external analysis into a holistic system. However, these transitions have never been adequately supported by a strong theoretical base distilled from practice.
Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
Pratik Kumar is an employee of Wipro Corporation, a global IT service provider in consulting, R&D, infrastructure management and business process outsourcing. He is the author of “Well begun, half done!” an article about the need to assimilate and retain new employees across a global organization. Wipro is an enormous organization, employing 95,000 people across 50 development centers, with its base in Bangalore, India. However, as Wipro developed and expanded, particularly through the US, it began to struggle to maintain its core sense of identity, and as a result has been losing new hires at an alarming rate.
Practical implications
Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.
Details
Keywords
Saeed Mirvahedi and Sussie Morrish
This paper aims to investigate the distinctive role of serendipity in opportunity exploration. The study specifically explores how serendipity happens and the pattern of its…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the distinctive role of serendipity in opportunity exploration. The study specifically explores how serendipity happens and the pattern of its occurrence. The paper attempts to break new ground in the study of serendipity within the entrepreneurship area. Serendipity is quite established in scientific literature and investigating this concept in the context of entrepreneurship contributes towards the discourse on why some firms are able to discover and realise opportunities that seem to present themselves sometimes out of nowhere.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses multiple case studies, cross-country approaches and the causal mapping method.
Findings
The findings suggest that serendipity is likely to take place at the early stages of firm formation. In addition to the three patterns of serendipity that are well-known in accidental scientific discoveries, the authors identify and introduce “entrepreneurial serendipity” as a distinctive pattern in entrepreneurship, whereby entrepreneurs look for any opportunity to start a business and explore an appropriate opportunity that comes along.
Research limitations/implications
This research has several limitations that offer new opportunities for future research. Further research can be undertaken to compare successful fast-growth firms with unsuccessful firms to determine how entrepreneurs were exposed to serendipity and to what extent they were able to exploit and realise opportunities. A comparative study would also enhance the authors’ interpretation of the role of serendipity in these two types of firms and demonstrate the different levels of serendipity they are potentially exposed to. The debate on serendipity could benefit from quantitative research and some tangible measures of serendipity can be developed.
Practical implications
The findings help entrepreneurs understand elements involved in opportunity exploration. The role of serendipity and its sources offer some suggestions on how entrepreneurs can potentially expose themselves to serendipity. The role of networks is crucial to doing business, and entrepreneurs should be aware of expanding their personal and business networks. Being engaged in friendly, professional and academic networks helps in finding new opportunities. Perseverance, being alert to changes in the environment and commitment to clients in terms of high-quality products and services are other elements that may open new windows of opportunity.
Originality/value
This paper provides empirical evidence that serendipity does play an important role in nearly every investigated business, regardless of their size and age. Serendipity potentially leads to new opportunities and entrepreneurs can explore them to achieve growth. By investigating grown firms in New Zealand and Iran, the authors identified a new pattern of serendipity in terms of opportunity discovery. This unique pattern, entrepreneurial serendipity, is characterised by finding an unspecified opportunity through an orderly or haphazard search, which could happen with either high or low levels of knowledge.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to share the author's opinions on notable electronic records achievements over the past two decades in the USA and current issues and views on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to share the author's opinions on notable electronic records achievements over the past two decades in the USA and current issues and views on the future.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an essay that is based on the author's 50 years in the field of information management, technology management, and records management as a researcher, manager, and consultant. It reviews different technologies used by the typically four generations of workers collaborating in the workplace at the same time, and what this portends for electronic recordkeeping.
Findings
Information managers, archivists, and records managers can gain insights into current and future issues managing electronic records by becoming good observers of changing technologies and their uses by generations soon to enter the workplace. Suggested options for addressing some of the more critical issues are offered, including approaches to technological designs for recordkeeping and a broader view of the potential for better integration of cultural information of all kinds in archives, libraries and museums, as a means of better serving researchers and society.
Originality/value
Evolving technologies and trends in their social usage have presented and will continue to present newer platforms for both personal and organizational work patterns, communications and record making. Modern information technologies and related analytical practices also offer opportunities for addressing some of the long‐standing issues encountered in planning and implementing electronic records systems in such an ever‐changing business world. Recent recordkeeping professionals can benefit from sharing experiences and stories in identifying and making use of such opportunities to move forward from a planning environment to an enterprise implementation environment.