Search results for: 'environment'

Sofia Lopez is a Spanish professional who founded “Servicios Ambientales” - an environmental services agency – twice. First in 2012, after her previous employer went bankrupt because of bad management and she lost her job. Sofia convinced four former colleagues to start their own company and brought a former client as a financial partner on board. Using her positive can-do attitude and convincing communication, she defended the attempt of her financial partner to fire her. Instead, she ousted him with the help of her partners. This made it necessary to start her company a second time in 2015. Sofia held on to her clear vision to deliver quality work. She addressed late payments with partial invoicing to manage cash flow. In late 2019, Sofia was still heading “Servicios Ambientales” which now had 20 employees and offered its services across Spain and other EU countries.

What obstacles did she need to overcome and how did she do so? What skills and techniques did she develop to “bounce back” twice?

How to make an effective contribution to a closely-knit board run by a longtime and rigid chair, and how to do so as the only woman? This is the predicament this fictional case study presents Jane Pruitt, a 54-year-old CFO coming in from another company under shareholder pressure. She is striving to make a much-needed impact on a privately-held formerly family-run metalworking machinery and equipment manufacturer overseen by five male board members (and financially interconnected friends) all about 70 years of age.
Jane begins to suspect that the intellectual, generational and gender diversity she was hired to provide was brought on board only for public show.

The case raises important questions about the value of diversity in a team environment and will engage any student who has been an outsider on an insular, club-like team.

This case presents several challenges that are relevant for organizations today. First, it explores a newcomer’s perspective on being an outsider in an insider-dominated setting. Second, the case presents a number of common board/team practices that undercut effectiveness. Finally, it gives students the opportunity to think and talk about board diversity, its merits and challenges, and possible paths forward to success.

Within that setting, several instructional objectives can be met:

• Diversity: The experience of the outsider, and the deep frustrations of not fitting in.
• Board Process: Board effectiveness requires both the right board composition and the right board process.
• Leadership: The next leader is often already at the table but may not match the stereotype of the old one.

The case describes the story of Meliá Hotels International in Magaluf, Mallorca, as a touristic destination that had an extraordinarily fast development. It became a reference destination, due to its climate and privileged environment. It turned into a reference of quality and cost-effectiveness in Spain for decades, driven by hotel investment and tourism in the area.

However, in the 90s the perception of the area, as a quality tourist destination, decreased and began a period of inflection. These actions led to the fall of prices and margins of hotels.

Faced with the situation of serious deterioration of the Magaluf area and the declining results of Meliá hotels in the area, Mark Hoddinott knew that they had to make a strategic decision about the positioning of Meliá in that destination. After detailed analyzes, reflections and a wide network of consultations with collaborators, Hoddinott concluded that the best alternative for the company was investing in the area and promoting a strategic repositioning to restart Magaluf as a tourist destination.

The case centers on Southlake Financial, a stylized company based on financial services in Canada. The case opens with a call to action from the company CEO, pledging the business will move toward a greater organization-wide focus on purpose (“purpose” meaning embedding more social and environmental intentionality in all aspects of the business). Traditionally, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Human Resources were managed separately at the company; however, the CEO’s announcement raises the question of whether greater integration of these functions will be needed. Specifically, the case examines how employee engagement can contribute to CSR objectives, while also questioning whether CSR initiatives have a positive and demonstrable benefit on employee engagement.

This case study discusses Huawei's history and development in Spain. It analyses the telecom operator's origins and culture and the way it entered the Spanish market by focusing on bringing corporate communications in-line with the company's business strategy in order to create awareness, change the firm's image and construct a corporate reputation for its different interest groups. The case study also explains how Huawei's communications department developed as the business grew and illustrates how it overcame the west's prejudices about Asian companies.

This case seeks two purposes. First, illustrating the relevance of the economic environment for determining business profitability. Second, putting in practice students acquired macroeconomic analytical skills by using them to support a real life financial investment decision. The students are asked to endorse one of two options, US or Brazil, for the launching of a new investment fund by FTInvest, a financial investment company. The recommendation is made by students acting as members of the Economic Research Department of the company. Therefore, it should be based on the country identified by them as providing the most favorable economic environment for the profitability of the investment in the medium/long run. The decision takes place in the second half of 2011, at a time when the US economy showed a hesitant recovery after the Great Global Recession of 2008 and when the Brazilian economy was booming after a very short blip. It was also at a time when, due to ultra-loose US monetary policy, interest rates and yields were at historical lows in the US while they were relatively high in Brazil.

This case is about Distributed Power Inc., a power generation provider that is looking to expand its business in Central America and the Caribbean in order to take advantage of the untapped market there.

It starts by describing political, environmental, social and technological aspects of the energy industry, pointing out its many challenges. It then introduces combined heat and power (CHP) systems as a possible solution in order to create energy in a cheaper and more reliable way. It explains how CHP has already been implemented by Distributed Power in some countries in Latin America but there is still an opportunity in Central America and the Caribbean, especially due to the very high cost of electricity there.

The company must decide where to go by taking into account the industries which require significant amounts of energy and the regulatory framework, GDP, GDP per capita, ease of doing business, access to electricity, electricity infrastructure and electricity installed generation capacity in each country. At the end of the case, descriptions of ten different countries with key data are included that can be used to help analyze where Distributed Power Inc. should go.

Private enterprise often financed by foreign capital is the most direct and lasting route to economic development and poverty reduction for countries at the bottom of the pyramid. However those investments and economic development itself also have potentially large negative effects on society and the natural environment which may or may not outweight their benefits. If an outside investor is seeking to be socially responsible while setting in motion the dynamics of development that would alleviate poverty how should it juggle these issues? This case presents the situation of a socially conscious private investment firm which is deciding whether to invest in a rose farm in Ethiopia.

This case presents students with exercises to put into practice economic concepts such as market structures, elasticity, supply and demand curves. Students are asked to calculate cost and revenues values, and then use these values to construct market structure models. It is a useful case to use in introductory economics courses because of its practical nature.