Learning from LeapFrog Essay

1. What was the Leapfrog business model at the time that the company launched its first products and services? How did the business model change over time? 2. Who are LeapFrog’s key stakeholders? How does LeapFrog deliver value to each of these stakeholder groups? 3. At the time of the case, Leapfrog had become the #3 consumer toy company in the U.S. behind #1 and #2, Mattell and Hasbro respectively. What factors contributed to Leapfrog’s success? Do you expect the success to continue in the future? 4. What challenges and opportunities does the company face in early 2003? Would you buy stock in Leapfrog? Why or why not? As an independent member of the company’s board of directors, what would you expect of management in the short-term and long-term? How would you fulfill your fiduciary duties to the company’s shareholders? Canyon Ranch 1. What is the value of customer information to Canyon Ranch? 2. As CIO, how would you make the case for customer relationship management (CRM) and business intelligence (BI) systems at Canyon Ranch? 3. What impact would you anticipate these systems to have on the Canyon Ranch strategy and capabilities? 4. What advice do you have for Canyon Ranch executives? Business Intelligence Software at SYSCO 1. What will be the biggest obstacles faced by the business intelligence implementation as it expands throughout SYSCO? 2. Why did SYSCO decide to initially address only two questions with its new BI software, rather than using it as a more general analysis tool in the operating companies? Why did Business Objects recommend this approach? What are its strengths and weaknesses? 3. Will effective use of BI software ever be a competitive differentiator for SYSCO? Wouldn’t it be straightforward for another food service company to also purchase and implement similar software? 4. How much software should Day purchase at this time? Boeing’s e-Enabled Advantage 1. What challenges and opportunities did Boeing face in the late 1990s? 2. What is the e-Enabled Advantage? How did it link to the company’s strategy? 3. What advantages would such an approach give Boeing? 4. What challenges did Boeing face in executing such a radical new strategy? CareGroup 1. Describe the health care context in which the case occurs. 2. List several strengths of the IT environment at CareGroup. 3. On the other hand, list several weaknesses that led to the collapse. 4. Evaluate carefully the 10 lessons that John Halamka learned from the experience. What are the pros and cons of each of these lessons? Are there other learnings that come from this situation? The IPremier Company: Denial of Service Attack 1. How well did the IPremier Company perform during the seventy-five minute attack? If you were Bob Turley, what might have you done differently during the attack? 2. The IPremier Company CEO, Jack Samuelson, had already expressed to Bob Turley his concern that the company might eventually suffer from a â€Å"deficit in operating procedures.† Were the company’s operating procedures deficient in responding to this attack? What additional procedures might have been in place to better handle the attack? 3. Now that the attack has ended, what can the IPremier Company do to prepare for another such attack? 4. Describe the ethical implications of not being sure if credit card numbers had been stolen. What options do you have in the struggle to be an ethical vendor, yet to stay in business? What actions would you take? 5. In the aftermath of the attack, what would you be worried about? What actions would you recommend? Strategic Outsourcing at Bharti Airtel Limited 1. What must Bharti do well to succeed in the Indian mobile phone market? What are Bharti’s core competencies? 2. Do you think Bharti should enter the outsourcing agreements outlined by Gupta? What do you see as advantages and disadvantages of such agreements? How do the different outsourcing agreements work towards building these core competencies? 3. If you were Bharti, what major concerns would you have about entering an outsourcing agreement with IBM? With Ericsson, Nokia, or Siemens? 4. How would you structure the agreements to address your concerns and capture any advantages you have identified? What governance mechanisms would you design for the agreements? 5. Assume the role of IBM or Nokia. What major concerns would you have about entering an agreement with Bharti? How would you structure the agreement and the governance mechanisms? VW of America: Managing IT Priorities 1. What is your assessment of the new process for managing priorities at Volkswagen of America? Are the criticisms justified? Is it an improvement over the old process? 2. Who controls the budgets from which IT projects are funded at Volkswagen of America? Who should control these budgets? Should the IT department have its own budget? 3. How should Matulovic respond to his fellow executives who are calling to ask him for special treatment outside the new priority management system? 4. What should Matulovic do about the unfunded Supply Flow project? The ITC eChoupal Initiative 1. What was ITC’s motivation for creating the eChoupal? 2. What were the old and new physical flows and information flows in the channel? 3. What principles did it employ as it built the newly-fashioned supply chain? 4. What barriers did ITC face in embarking on this project? 5. How should ITC develop this platform for the future?