During my pre MBA @ Stanford in 2005 and now full time MBA @ Babson I have read and analyzed 100's of case studies. Of course every one has many points of great insight. However, I/we will never remember them all. Therefore, this is meant to functions as a blog/journal recording of insight from each one. I will try to keep up and go back in time, when I can.
Babson:
Western Chemical (3/2009): Financial measurement and their appropriate use for managing and achieving strategic results
- Cash flow: Justify investment
- Budget to actual: Managing within guidelines
- EVA: Shareholder value
- ROI/ROA: Productivity and efficiency
- Profit: Spending efficiency
Virgin Mobile (11/2008): Companies can choose 2 generic strategies: Price or Differentiation. Virgin chose differentiation positioning to the youth market, 14-29. This required a variation on structure in a highly competitive space. However, what we learned is that there are paths to profitability. A marketer can identify segment needs and align service to those needs (the alignment is critical). Within the service offering the pricing reveals itself as the relationship between needs, target selection and positioning.
Cisco (11/2008): There is almost always conflict in distributions channels as they change over time. Skilled managers realize this and spend a great deal of time massaging channel inter connectivity and alignment with strategy.
BMW Z3 (11/2008): A marketing plan should include: Target market selection, needs assessment, competitive assessment, expected incremental rev as result of plan and unit sales/market=share. Cross promotional opportunities always exists. If aligned properly they can be more effective and cheaper.
Cognizant (10/2008): KM case done though Babson Wiki. This was an interesting lesson in Knowledge Management and learning. First had we have seen the power of shared resources in a wiki environment. Ideas have been presented and people are inspired. Most organization I know work very hard to get those two things, here it was achieved with a free web 2.0 tool! For related information read this summary of Fritz Brumder's presentation notes on Applications and technology for project management. (Video screencast coming some day to Fritzbrumder.com)
A few links from this case:
What might web 3.0 be?
Reference this book when thinking about what a web 3.0 company might look like
Knowledge Management Case study
RBC (9/2008): Profitability and CRM. Top 5 takeaways: Need the business strategy first to drive CRM features; Customer intimacy; These are not IT projects, they are business projects, Marketing, finance, ops, ect; Avoid the big bang, start small; If you miss use it, it is a lead weight.
Manzana (9/2008): At a point in time, a marketing decision was made to set up underwriting teams that would service specific agents, the goal being to decrease the agent defect rate. However, operations were ultimately hurt for two reasons, 1. underwriting became the bottle neck as they had to maintain agent relationships and produce, and 2. because variability was high across different teams. Ultimately, this variability killed operations.
Concordia (9/2008): Operations lesson, batch vs line production: As you move from batch to line you gain efficiency and loose flexibility.
Foremostco (9/2008): Is this a culture fit? is a question that should be asked at the start of any business project. IT or not. Foremostco tried to act too much like a custom development company. They did not focus on their core strength, the way they "make money". It cost them.
Tijuana Bronze (9/2008): Tracing costs through cost accounting is an art! First, define activity pools in the production process. Second, determine the cost driver(s) (assumptions have to be made and you rarely can capture everything.) Third, define costs and calculate cost per driver. Fourth, define drivers consumed for each cost pool in product life cycle. Fifth, determine costs/pool, then add cost pools to get total cost per unit.
Netflix (9/2008): Technology is king. It takes a keen eye to see disruptive technology opportunities, if you can identify them, you will most likely have time to operate under the radar for a while before the competition takes you seriously. The hope is that you are big enough by the time they notice.
Ducati Motorcycle(8/2008): Often times, there is opportunity right under your nose. Capturing a little bit can happen really fast if you notice it is there. However, growth is not sustainable forever, if you need to find ways to grow, stick to what you know as long as you can.