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Ross Walker's Path to Power
Jeffrey PfefferCase SGSB-OB79-ELeadership and People ManagementRoss Walker had come a long way. A child of modest upbringing in Marin County just north of San Francisco, Walker had earned both undergraduate and MBA degrees from Stanford. He had been chosen to serve a five-year term as the youngest alumni representative on the Stanford University Board of Trustees and had a great job at Wolff Urban Development in the industries he loved, hospitality and real estate. Most importantly, Walker was well-known ...Starting at €8.20
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Dow's Acquisition Program
Koen H. Heimeriks; Stephen GatesCase IVEY-9B10M058-EInformation Technologies, Leadership and People Management, StrategyThis case illustrates how Dow Chemical acquired and integrated Wolff Walsrode, a German specialty chemicals firm that was part of the Bayer Group. This acquisition, combined with Dow's existing cellulosics unit, helped it create a new specialty business with a forecasted $1.1 billion in annual sales and strengthen its footprint in Central and Eastern Europe. The main challenge in this case concerns the complexities of acquisition integration, whi...Starting at €8.20
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The Awethu Project: Values-Driven Decisions for Profit and Social Impact
Charlene C. LewCase IVEY-9B17C018-EEntrepreneurship, Leadership and People Management, StrategyThe Awethu Project (Awethu) was a South African-based social enterprise that operated as a venture capital and investment firm for small, medium, and micro-sized enterprises. The company was widely acknowledged for its social mission of creating jobs and benefiting society while maximizing profit. In March 2016, Awethu’s leaders signed an agreement with a prominent South African corporation, which could allow Awethu to operate within a higher seg...Starting at €8.20
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Adcock Ingram: Decisions and Motives That Steer Acquisitions
Charlene C. LewCase IVEY-9B10C008-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyThe case sketches the story of a charismatic and ambitious young business leader who, through value-adding commercial transactions, has helped set a South African pharmaceutical company, Adcock Ingram, on a trajectory of growth. In May 2009, he faces lack of closure and an ambiguous outcome to an offer to acquire a smaller pharmaceutical company. The case demonstrates the power of relationships, where the ambitions of different parties around the...Starting at €8.20
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Clarke: Transformation for Environmental Sustainability
Chris Laszlo; Katey McCabe; Eric Ahearn; Indrajeet GhatgeCase IVEY-9B12C012-EEntrepreneurship, Leadership and People Management, StrategyClarke, a mosquito abatement company seen as having a core business that is environmentally harmful by its very nature — selling pesticides — faces unique challenges in its transformation into a sustainable enterprise. Should it shift its focus entirely towards offering “green” pesticides and risk losing some of its customers, or should it keep offering its less expensive, more toxic products? This case shows how even when innovation leads to new...Starting at €8.20
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Marimekko
Alison Konrad; Jordan MitchellCase IVEY-9B06C014-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyKirsti Paakkanen has achieved a celebrity status in Finland for her enigmatic leadership of the Finnish design company Marimekko. Purchasing the company in a state of near bankruptcy in 1991, Paakkanen took several actions to restore profitability and realize growth. As of 2006, the company has sales of $64 million (of which 80 per cent are from Finland) and net profits of $8.4 million. Over the last few years, Paakkanen and her team have focused...Starting at €8.20
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Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership
Caren Scheepers; Ken MathuCase IVEY-9B16C026-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyIn 2016, the executive vice-president of commercial services for Sibanye Gold, Westonaria (Sibanye), the largest gold producer in South Africa, faced a challenge. The company’s latest acquisition had been particularly difficult, with much resistance from the acquired management team. Although the executive vice-president tried to empathize with the management team who had done things a certain way for decades, he was frustrated with their lack of...Starting at €8.20
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Buses for Democracy: Improving Public Transport in South Africa
Anthony Wilson-Prangley; Gretchen Wilson-PrangleyCase IVEY-9B14C028-EEntrepreneurship, Leadership and People Management, StrategyWith the 2010 FIFA World Cup fast approaching, Johannesburg, South Africa, needs a much-improved public transport system. A bus rapid transit (BRT) system is proposed and the key challenge involves getting buy-in from the minibus-taxi industry, which serves current commuters with 22,000 minibus-taxis, but which sometimes threatens violence to ensure there is little change in its way of operating. The leader of the main Johannesburg taxi associati...Starting at €8.20
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Aligning Culture and Strategy at A. P. Nichols
Jeffrey Gandz; Stewart Thornhill; Ken MarkCase IVEY-9B11C039-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyA.P. Nichols, a distributor of parts in the maintenance, overhaul, and repair industry, is facing the need to realign its strategy to cope with a competitive environment. A key component of this realignment involves changes to the culture and compensation of its sales force while simultaneously building sufficient sales capacity to take advantage of opportunities in key markets. The case focuses on the newly hired vice president (VP) of sales, wh...Starting at €8.20
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VertiSoft Inc.: Raising the Bar
Jeffrey GandzCase IVEY-9B08C003-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyNew metrics have been introduced to a software technical support call center operation. These metrics have revealed a wide range of performance between employees both for time taken to answer customers' questions and the customer's perceived quality of service. The call center manager is wondering how to make use of these metrics. He is inclined to go public with them, whereas the head of human resources believes that this could be damaging to em...Starting at €8.20