The Winners!

This module uses a series of six cases surrounding three examples of social entrepreneurship in very different organizations: Fundación Paraguaya (FP), Kinder, Lyndenberg, and Domini (KLD), and Community Enterprise Solutions (CE Solutions). The cases consider both the organizations and the entrepreneurs who run them. Students can examine the organizational challenges of making it work, donor demands for accountability and measurement, and the personal views and philosophies of the founding entrepreneur.

Dr. M. S. Krishnan ("Krishnan") is Mary and Mike Hallman e-Business Fellow, Area Chairman and Professor of Business Information Technology at the University of Michigan Business School. Dr, Krishnan is also a Co-Director of the Center for Global Resource Leverage:India at the Michigan Business School. Dr. Krishnan received his Ph.D. in Information Systems from the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon University in 1996. He has co-authored the book "The New Age of Innovation: Driving Co-Created Value with Global Networks" with C.K. Prahalad. He was awarded the ICIS Best Dissertation Prize for his Doctoral Thesis on "Cost and Quality Considerations in Software Product Management".

Dr. Krishnan’s research interests include corporate IT strategy, business value of IT investments, and management of distributed business processes, software engineering economics, metrics and measures for quality, productivity and customer satisfaction for products in software and information technology industries. In January 2000, American Society for Quality (ASQ) selected him as one of the 21 voices of quality for the twenty first century. His research articles have appeared in several journals including Management Science, Information Systems Research Information Technology and People, Strategic Management Journal, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, IEEE Software, Decision Support Systems, Harvard Business Review, Information Week, Sloan Management Review, Optimize and Communications of the ACM. His article "The role of team factors in software cost and quality" was awarded the 1999 ANBAR Electronic Citation of Excellence. He serves on the editorial board of reputed academic journals including Management Science and Information Systems Research. Dr. Krishnan has consulted with Ford Motor Company, NCR, HIP, IBM, ICICI, NBC, Marketics, Techvoyant, TVS group and Ramco Systems.

The Strategies for Sustainable Development course is comprised of seven teaching modules that prepare the student to address the most critical issues at the intersection of business and sustainability. Together they address several facets of the competitive aspects of the corporate response to sustainability.

This course is a practical guide to starting a new business. From the initial business idea to the launch, students are introduced to the realities of entrepreneurship and the misconceptions surrounding it. The course includes useful models, frameworks, practical advice, and guidelines that provide students with a solid foundation to launch their own businesses while understanding...

The course Business Thought & Action™ is a robust introduction to business for undergraduate students. It is a holistic start to their business education experience and provides context for business as a whole, rather than each functional area, such as marketing, finance, and operations. Students learn about the broad range of problems and opportunities that businesses face and are...

The Base-of-the-Pyramid (BoP) refers to the billions of people who live on less than $3,000 per year in the informal economy of the developing world. This poverty creates an urgent societal need and presents a vast potential opportunity for business growth. Intelligent, informed management can address both aspects successfully. This module delivers effective teaching of management...

Click on the Preview PDF icon at right to view the free video. 2011 Ross MBA Caroline Dickerson shares her research experience from her internship at GoodBelly. Caroline was tasked with identifying the impact of their in-store demo program using regression analysis.

Kirk Myers, REI’s Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), twirled his pen around his thumb and forefinger. Staring out the window toward misty Mt. Rainier, Myers thought hard, recalling a conference call with his boss, CSR Director Kevin Hagen, and Retail Operations Manager Teresa Mueller several weeks before. At the end of the conversation, Myers was tasked with an assignment outside his usual realm of responsibility—find a way to optimize the rental program across REI retail locations to maximiz

A123 successfully went to market with new technologies that could revolutionize the energy storage and electric battery industries. It drew critical acclaim from the US President and Secretary of Energy, the automotive industry, environmental and scientific communities, and Wall Street. After opening the largest hybrid vehicle battery manufacturing facility in North America, CEO David Vieau needs to evaluate the road forward.

Ratan Tata, CEO of Tata Motors, wants to introduce the world's cheapest car, priced at $2,500, for the common Indian - the car is the Tata Nano and has been accordingly dubbed the "People's Car". But the introduction of the Nano has been ridden with difficulties. Coupled with poor sales and a recent crisis where several Nanos caught on fire, the Tata Nano has seen dismal sales. Thi...

This note explains the considerations involved in determining a firm’s vertical, horizontal, and geographic scope. It is organized into five sections: An introduction that presents important questions related to strategy formulation that managers face after mapping their firm's value chain; a second section that provides a brief introduction to Transactions Cost Economics, a framew...

Ford’s Social Sustainability Manager, David Berdish, faces the challenge of positioning Ford on the forefront of the global transportation industry while leveraging Ford’s leadership in the automotive industry. This case takes a holistic look at the global transportation industry with emphasis on emerging markets and their increasingly congested transportation systems. Students must decide how to balance market positioning and long-term vision with near-term strategy to better serve the next generation.