Introduction This reaction paper is based on the “Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (A)” Harvard Business School case (HBS Case #9-495-031) which examines the challenge Beers faces in her new role as CEO of Ogilvy & Mather and increasing the acceptance of the new vision for the organization - and particularly the ‘Brand Stewardship’ business initiative - by employees below senior management level within the organization. The case details the steps Beers takes as she guides her organization
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1. Summary of Massey-Ferguson’s 1971-176 Goals‚ Strategy and Risk/Return profile Goals/Strategy: • Focus on small tractors‚ combine harvesters and industrial machinery • Exploit markets outside North America and Western Europe • Dealing directly with governments and public institutions • Central production of diesel engines in UK Risk/Return profile: • Empire Building; engaging in potential negative NPV investments • Expanding potentially unprofitable divisions (ambitious program of expanding
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1. What is Saturn’s strategy? * Improvement in the Labor-Management Partnership. Changing the established relationship between GM and its unions * Clear definition and articulation of company’s mission and values. Challenge to the established norms of customer service. Making sure that every employee is aware of his goals and the ultimate purpose * Improvements in design and manufacturing process. Most GM cars were criticized for obsolete designs and engines. Saturn wanted to change that perception
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Introduction: Aspen is a software company which was established in 1982. The company mainly provides simulation solutions to process manufacturing companies. The main industry which the company focuses on is chemical processing. The entire idea began with the project of Advanced System for Process Engineering in MIT in 1976. This project was than acquired by Lawrence Evans whom founded Aspen. In a very short amount of time Aspen became a major player in the simulation part of the software industry
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about new-product branding‚ but as best as we could tell‚ nobody had looked closely at the issue of how to brand a successive generation‚" Gourville says. To that end‚ Gourville and Ofek teamed up with London Business School professor Marco Bertini (HBS DBA ’06) to suss out the best practices for branding next-generation products. "For managers‚ this is not a trivial decision‚" Ofek says. "Consumers don ’t necessarily read specs to learn about new features‚
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Case: Dell Computers (A): Field Service for Corporate Clients [HBS 9-603-067] 1. What are the key challenges DELL should be concerned with as it enters the large scale server market? Support service in server market is more critical than in personal computer market‚ especially when the server is a large scale one‚ since a problem in server even for a short time could cause serious problem in the customer’s business. Having realized the importance‚ competitors such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM
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Case: Mountain Man Brewing Company 1. What has made the Mountain Man Brewing Company successful? What is distinctive about MMBC’s product‚ customers and brand equity? Reasons why MMBC has been successful: * MMBC used their history and status as an independent family owned brewery to enhance the feeling of authenticity of their brand‚ which resonates with its core drinkers – blue collar‚ middle to low income men over the age of 45. * MMBC has very high brand awareness – in a recent
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If Venerus implements the suggested methodology‚ what would be the range of discount rates that AES would use around the world? * 12% discount rate was used for all projects * Venerus felt that this model worked fairly well * In 1990s this model of capital budgeting was exported to projects overseas * model became increasingly strained with the expansions in Brazil and Argentina * because hedging key exposures such as regulatory or currency risk was not feasible
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Introduction Benton Textiles have developed a new process‚ which can apply a special finish to certain types of textiles. The subsequent analysis will discuss two of the key questions that every company faces when it introduces a new product: Which market should the company target? And how should the new product be priced? The alternatives for Benton is either to enter the higher priced market‚ to the lower priced market‚ or to combine the two and first enter the higher priced market and then move
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1. Unfreezing a fragmented Ogilvy & Mather out of the Ice Age. Charlotte Beers tries to turn around Ogilvy by implementing a strategy based on differentiation. However‚ Ogilvy’s organisation and culture are obstacles to this process. She has therefore to unfreeze the situation first to allow change to be implemented through a communal culture and a collaborative organisation. Evidence of a crisis are numerous: Major accounts have been lost (Amex); Revenues and earnings are in decline; Agencies
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