The world fell into a state of shock when news headlines reported that the respectable head of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, Mr. Bernard Madoff had confessed to operating a Ponzi scheme. The weight of the ethical issues that the news portended require deep analysis to identify the moral lapses that may have contributed to what some describe as the largest Ponzi scheme in human history. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors from their own money or is paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned. Estimates of the amount of money lost range from twelve to twenty billion dollars. The entire debacle arose from Madoff’s failure to adhere to simple ethical rules regarding honest business. He was not honest. This case study examines the role, motive, and consequences of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme because of an ethical Continue reading
Management Case Studies
Management case studies are real-life examples of issues and problems found in particular workplaces or business organisations. Case study assignments give the opportunity to relate theoretical concepts to practical situations. Most case studies are written in such a way that the reader takes the place of the manager whose responsibility is to make decisions to help solve the problem. In almost all case studies, a decision must be made, although that decision might be to leave the situation as it is and do nothing.
Case Study on Entrepreneurship: Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York. He is arguably one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in the world. He is the current chairperson and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the social networking site Facebook. Zuckerberg has made a mark for himself on the global business arena as a strategic entrepreneur. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook in 2004 with his five college friends at Harvard University. Although Mark did not finish his college education, he has managed to establish himself as one of the most influential people in the world. Statistics show that Facebook has reached more than one billion users. Through Facebook, Zuckerberg has made life better because keeping in touch with friends and family is much easier now. Zuckerberg is a world changer who identified a gap in society and provided people with an opportunity to have a better experience of life. In 2007, Continue reading
Case Study: How Boeing 787 Dominated the Aviation Market?
Boeing has been a primary manufacturer of the aerospace industry for more than 40 years. It was set up the first time in Seattle Washington in 1916 by William E. Boeing, and merged with Douglas Aircraft Company (owned by McDonnell Douglas) in 1997 and moved its corporate headquarters from Seattle to Chicago, Illinois in 2001. The merger made the combined company a leadership in commercial aviation. Currently, Boeing has employees more than 170,000 people over 70 countries. Boeing operates in five segments: Commercial Airplanes, Boeing Military Aircraft, Network & Space Systems, Global Services & Support, and Boeing Capital Corporation. Not only producing airplanes, Boeing also works on producing components for spaceship and other significant products related to aircraft industry. Prior to the launching of 787 Dreamliner, Boeing had specialized with 767 and 747-400 models of air-crafts for its clientele. The decline in the market for Boeing 767 and 747-400 that Continue reading
Case Study: Carlos Slim’s Leadership Style and Personality Analysis
Carlo Slim was born in Mexico in 1940 by an immigrant parents from Lebanon. Since the tender age, Slim started receiving business lessons from his father on how to increase personal financial resources. His father started his business training with little capital, and taught him to increase the money from his own initiatives. The business training was developed in Slim’s spirit because of his aptitude for numbers. At the age of 12, Slim started buying shares and opened his first saving accounts at Banco Nacional de México. However, the efforts of his father ended because his father died when Slim was only 13 years old. To improve his educational skills, Carlo Slim proceeded his education by attending National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) School of Engineering. While studying in the university, he was taught Algebra and Linear Programming, and at the age of 25 he had already laid foundation for Group Carso Continue reading
Case Study: Starbucks Survival From the Financial Crisis of 2008
The beginning of the economic crisis of 2008 significantly affected all businesses throughout the country, and this event influenced the companies involved in international operations in the first place. For example, Starbucks faced challenges stemming from the emerging hardships expressed by financial losses and wrong strategic choices, deteriorating its overall position in the market. However, the managers’ external circumstances were not the most critical considerations since the existing problems in Starbucks’ activity were added to the new issues. The failure to adhere to the company’s original vision related to providing not simply a product but valuable experiences led to difficulties in overcoming the crisis. From this perspective, the analysis of all conditions as of 2008 is required to demonstrate Starbucks’ capability to survive in the future. The Company During the Economic Crisis of 2008 During the economic crisis of 2008, Starbucks’ managers were reported to struggle with maintaining operations while Continue reading
Case Study: Why did EBay’s Acquisition of Skype become a Flop?
Acquisitions and mergers are organizational expansion frameworks that allow companies to gain control of more resources and grow their reach to diverse markets. An acquisition involves obtaining another organization’s shares or resources, and a merger refers to establishing an alliance with aligned goals while sustaining independence. Therefore, though creating a partnership and buying out other companies are effective growth strategies, they have different implications, target specific outcomes, require varying managerial approaches, and do not often succeed. For example, eBay’s acquisition of Skype in 2005 was one of the biggest business flops of the 21st century because they did not investigate the feasibility of their expansion strategy. Although eBay made a sound decision to purchase a fast-growing internet company, its initiatives did not yield fruits because it could not use Skype to enhance its business or facilitate efficiency. In the late 1995, Pierre Omidyar established “Auction Web”, as an online auction Continue reading