This online exercise describes the beginnings of the product-design process at a fictitious firm, PFG Bank (PFG). PFG has a variety of different products (12 versions of a credit card) and detailed information, summarized by a credit score, about several thousand potential customers. The question at hand is which product(s) should be offered through direct mail to which customers. PFG's answer (so
This is a Spanish translation of the October 26, 2011, version of UVA-OB-1025. This case is an updated version of the Knowlton Roberts case series (UVA-OB-0737 and 0738). The case is best used as a vehicle to understand another person's point of view and to see what happens when points of view are misunderstood or misinterpreted. The A case presents a series of situations and interactions that req
The Beer Game is a competitive supply chain simulation that improves on the learning outcomes of the classic Beer Game developed at MIT. Students still assume one of four supply chain positions, but in the second game, profile participants can have full visibility of the entire supply chain (information regarding inventory on hand, incoming shipments, and demand), and each member of the supply cha
This case is used in Darden's second-year "Financial Institutions and Capital Markets," elective. Using Invesco Ltd. (Invesco) as an example, the case examines the strategic challenges facing the asset management industry. Marty Flanagan, Invesco's CEO, must position Invesco to compete in an industry undergoing systemic change, including active and passive products and flows, lower levels of organ
This technical note, written for students, gives a first "how to do it" introduction to studying by the case method. The note argues that success follows from a combination of good attitude, good "infrastructure," and good execution. This could be distributed along with a course syllabus or advance materials and was written with the objective of helping students more quickly achieve levels of effe
In this case, James Jones and William West's company, JW Sports Supplies, has begun to offer a second product line?a customized gym bag. The owners consider the topic of overhead allocation in determining the cost of its basic gym bag and the new customized gym bag. The company currently uses a traditional overhead allocation system, with one cost pool being allocated based on units. Noticing that
This case is used in Darden's core Leading Organizations course and is appropriate for MBA, Executive MBA, GEMBA, and executive education programs. The manager of a baby product company's global customer support center observes friction among her staff about the only non-American on the team, whom the others accuse of increasing their call response rate time?thus effectively lowering their pay. Wh
This is a Spanish translation of the October 26, 2011, version of UVA-OB-1026. This second part of the two-part case updated from the Knowlton Roberts case series (UVA-OB-0737 and 0738) provides an epilogue to the manager's ultimate decision of whether or not to take a new job. His decision and how it is communicated to his boss and his boss's reaction are the meat of the B case.
