Short Cases for Discussion

Imran Wazir

Case Study #1: Restaurant Chain

Restaurant

chain put a new restaurant in a small town but had little money to do the usual advertising blitz.

Case #2: Carpet Cleaning Company

Carpet

cleaning company has tons of clients but the clients only have their carpet cleaned on the average every three years.

Case #3: Newsletter Publisher

Newsletter

publisher wanted to increase profits by selling very high markup non-prescription health products.

Case #4: Lumber Mill

Lumber

mill had a scientific lumber kilm drying process that reduced energy consumption and increased the percent of higher quality lumber output. So their profits were at least 20% higher than other lumber mills. However, due to high shipping costs it was not profitable to ship lumber outside a 700-mile radius.

Case #5: Landscape Maintenance

Landscape company in a 100,000 person small city had been doubling sales each year until they got to the $6 million range. In order to grow more they decided to sell their business operating system and custom storage system on trucks to the other landscape companies who were in other areas of the country.

Case #6: Pharmacy

Pharmacy

in a small town is losing money on filling prescriptions paid for by insurance companies.

Case #7: Business Center

Business

center providing short-term offices with full administrative support services wanted to increase their occupancy and thus greatly increase those profits.

Case #8: Tax Preparation Company

Tax Preparation Company wanted to make more profit without having to do more work during tax season.

Case #9: Realtor

One

of the top-selling realtors in the world was totally booked so far as the number of hours he wanted to work, but he wants to make more money.

Case #10: Psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

effective in generating new patients.

was not

Case #11: Ceiling Fan Store

Ceiling

fan store had terrible sales because that summer was much cooler than normal.

Case #12: Car Wash Company

Car

wash company had a sales process that allows them sell 10% more hot waxes and other high profit services. But they could only attract clients from their local area.

Case #13: Software Company

Software

company was not growing. Sales were sporadic and unforecastable.

Case #14: Fed Ex

Overnight

delivery company wanted to increase sales even though they were charging up to 30 times more than the cost of postage.

Case #15: Icey Hot

Company had an analgesic balm product (Icey Hot) which had great repeat use and thus a great backend. The net lifetime value of a client was about $15.00 and the product which sold for $3.00 (and only cost about 25 cents to make, bottle and ship). But the company had no money for marketing.

Case #16: Tree Surgeon

Tree

Surgeon was operating reactively to oneshot business whenever people called.

Case #17: Consultant

Computer

consultant had challenges growing her clientele.

Case #18: Software Company

Software

company wanted to grow their business.

Case #19: Accounting Firm

Accounting

and Tax Company wanted to grow their business.

Case #20: Networking Company

Networking

Company wanted to grow but couldnt get larger firms to take them as a serious vendor.

Case #21: Landscape Maintenance

Landscape

maintenance company had leveled off in their growth

Case #22: Pizza Delivery

A

local pizza parlor wanted to become more profitable and expand.

Case #23: Business Center

Business

Center providing shortterm offices with full administrative support services had discovered a marketing system which allowed them to increase their occupancy from the normal 65% to 80% occupancy. (This more than doubled their profits). They wanted to expand.

Case #24: Investment Management Firm

Investment

management firm was increasingly unable to differentiate itself in the market.

Company A
Used

to have a monopoly in its market, supplying office equipment. Your companys share has fallen to 17 percent in the face of powerful competition, and is still falling. Your indirect/direct cost ratio is double that of your toughest competitor; you use nine times as many suppliers; your rejects are ten time higher; product lead-times are twice as long; you have seven times as many defects per 100 products. What do you do?

Company B
has

No. 1 positions in nearly all markets, mainly for industrial products, but your are determined to stay on top and you suspect that performance could be radically improved in the factory (where overheads are nearly three times direct labor costs) and in sales and services. What do you do?

Company C
is

an engineering maintenance operation. After a history of strikes, constant friction and fights over every pay deal, management has firmly asserted the right to manage: the shop floor is now under firm discipline. But the parents profits are falling fast, and you are under pressure to cut costs. What do you do?

Company D
a

very large service business, has lost its monopoly. You face new regulations and regulators, new shareholders and new technology (a massive change). Also, by your own admission, youre providing some of the worst service in the industry. What do you do?

Company E
runs

a service business in the consumer field that has been growing rapidly, thanks to an excellent concept, backed up by heavy advertising on TV. But the feedback from customers is unsatisfactory, which is a threat to future expansion. What do you do?

Company F
is

in high technology, but it has a difficult history of mergers, changing ownership, losses, product overlaps and poor competitive performance in a business dominated by a single rival. Customers have low opinion of your performance, and the market is changing radically from the tied-customer relationship you have always enjoyed. What do you do?

Company G
is

a service business which has turned itself around effectively from losses by cutting costs, raising prices and curbing some of its services. But the customers are all unhappy. You think that you are providing 85 % on one key dimension of performance. Your biggest customers say it is only 70 %. What do you do?

Company H
will

drop out of its high-tech business unless it can meet increasingly exacting demands from customers and partners. The company has only recently been created by merger. One of the pre-merger cultures is very used to meeting rigorous standards, the other less so. You have to achieve the same levels throughout and raise them. What do you do?

Company I
has

been given less than 18 months to set up a major new entrant in a big, sales-driven financial services market. In that time, you must hire and train 600 people, create an entire product line, install all the necessary systems and convert sales agents form their traditional methods to your own philosophy and practices. What do you do?

Company J
is

NO. 12 in a science-based components market where the top competition is vastly more powerful. The business is a recent cross-frontier merger, which has successfully improved its technical performance. But the business cycle turns down and catches you unprepared: you lose money and have to face major job cuts. What do you do?