Publication records

Around 6:00 p.m. on May 31, 2007, Urs Müller and Christoph Burger from ESMT European School of Management and Technology were getting prepared for the presentation. In about an hour they would present their proposal for an executive education program to the CEO of Energie aus Deutschland Systems (EAD Systems) and two of his senior HR managers. Sitting in the lobby of a hotel in western Germany next to the main entrance of the EAD Systems headquarters, Urs recalled the pitching process by scrolling through his notes. ESMT’s pitch to EAD Systems describes the efforts of ESMT European School of Management and Technology to acquire EAD Systems as a client for an executive education program. The case study comprises two parts, A and B, which allow comprehensively reviewing sales management in a professional services firm.

1. Understanding tender processes from the seller’s perspective: The case illustrates the typical process responding to a tender by putting together and proposal and presenting it to a B2B client, in this case a tender for executive education support of a company by a business school. As this particular process is largely in line with the tender process of other professional services such as consultancy, legal advice or auditing etc., the case can also be used to help students understand how professional service firms acquire business. To a lesser extend the case can be used to draw parallels and learnings for other B2B service offers, e.g. maintenance, complex solutions etc. 2. Understanding success factors for selling in tender processes: Beyond a mere description of the proposal process, the case helps students understand how to successfully structure a proposal process and which pitfalls are on the way. Hereby, students may improve their personal selling and sales management skills. 3. Managing the sales force: The case also allows to discuss the role of sales managers in leading sales people, especially with respect to the question of how they can get the best out of their people and what they can do to support them in their proposal and client management efforts. 4. Client management and retention: And finally – and possibly most importantly – the case sheds some light on the interconnection of winning clients on one side and managing and retaining clients on the other side.

Around 6:00 p.m. on May 31, 2007, Urs Müller and Christoph Burger from ESMT European School of Management and Technology were getting prepared for the presentation. In about an hour they would present their proposal for an executive education program to the CEO of Energie aus Deutschland Systems (EAD Systems) and two of his senior HR managers. Sitting in the lobby of a hotel in western Germany next to the main entrance of the EAD Systems headquarters, Urs recalled the pitching process by scrolling through his notes. ESMT’s pitch to EAD Systems describes the efforts of ESMT European School of Management and Technology to acquire EAD Systems as a client for an executive education program. The case study comprises two parts, A and B, which allow comprehensively reviewing sales management in a professional services firm.

1. Understanding tender processes from the seller’s perspective: The case illustrates the typical process responding to a tender by putting together and proposal and presenting it to a B2B client, in this case a tender for executive education support of a company by a business school. As this particular process is largely in line with the tender process of other professional services such as consultancy, legal advice or auditing etc., the case can also be used to help students understand how professional service firms acquire business. To a lesser extend the case can be used to draw parallels and learnings for other B2B service offers, e.g. maintenance, complex solutions etc. 2. Understanding success factors for selling in tender processes: Beyond a mere description of the proposal process, the case helps students understand how to successfully structure a proposal process and which pitfalls are on the way. Hereby, students may improve their personal selling and sales management skills. 3. Managing the sales force: The case also allows to discuss the role of sales managers in leading sales people, especially with respect to the question of how they can get the best out of their people and what they can do to support them in their proposal and client management efforts. 4. Client management and retention: And finally – and possibly most importantly – the case sheds some light on the interconnection of winning clients on one side and managing and retaining clients on the other side.

Ulrich Homburg must have had an unpleasant déjà-vu on January 28, 2010, when hearing of headlines in Germany’s leading tabloid, Bild, about “Schaffnerin Herzlos,” the “heartless train conductor.” The board member of Germany’s national railway company, Deutsche Bahn AG (DB), and head of its passenger transportation division, was confronted with media reports about a minor who had been thrown off the train the night before by a DB train conductor. The incident happened on what turned out to be the coldest night of the winter, in one of the most deserted provincial train stations in the German state of Brandenburg. The girl was traveling without a valid train ticket. This incident was not the first of its kind. In the fall of 2008, Bahn employees had also forced several children and youths off of trains. The train company had subsequently given service personnel very clear instructions: Under no circumstances should minors be asked to leave the train. Now Homburg had to ask himself if further action was necessary.

We have successfully used this case with various different audiences ranging from MBA students to executive education. Given its rather untechnical and general perspective it can be used in a broad range of class contexts. However, the level of reflection and discussion will obviously vary according to the participant group and/or the position within a program. The case can be used to discuss topics such as: Responsible leadership and business ethics, corporate social responsibility, change management, and strategy and service management

The case describes an innovative public service conceived and operated by a private company. The case examines how a public-private partnership, and its underlying political stakes, affect the way the service is designed and operated.

Case A, the subject of this particular teaching note, traces Gazi’s personal and business journey, and contains ample material to evaluate Gazi as a person, as an entrepreneur, and as a leader. Ostensibly, the case issue is the degree to which Gazi should now scale up from the approx. €10 millionof current revenues, but this issue is best set aside until the B case discussion. In fact, the B case includes substantial bottom-up information from each of Gazi’s key managers allowing this scale-up question to be tackled from both top-down and bottom-up perspectives. The A case raises much more the question what does it take to be a successful and exemplary entrepreneur, and how, when, and from where such capacities are acquired. The case lends itself not only to a detailed discussion of Gazi’s entrepreneurial capacities and their origins, but also prompts participants to ask themselves to which degree they themselves exhibit such capacities, and whether they can and should embark on an entrepreneurial career.

The question that the A case ostensibly poses, namely to what degree Gazi and his team should now scale up the overall business, and in which areas, is best left to the B case discussion for reasons outlined in the abstract. The A case discussion should therefore be mainly backward-looking focusing on Gazi as an individual, as an entrepreneur and as a leader. The A case discussion should also include a critical analysis of the strategy that Gazi has employed so far to grow the business—essentially diversification by pursuing new market opportunities.

The Gazi B case focuses on two issues: First, it provides a bottom-up perspective on each of Gazi’s main lines of business, namely, the Avis/Budget car rental and other vehicle and leasing businesses; in-bound tourism; outbound tourism and ticketing; conference and event business; and cruise ship landings. Detailed plans are presented for each of these business lines and can be contrasted with plans and figures presented in the A case which provided a top-down perspective. The two perspectives remain far apart! Gazi’s top-down vision is to have overall company revenues of €100 million within five years; bottom-up estimates range from €50 million overall downwards. The case invites a debate of how to reconcile these two disparate perspectives. It allows students to understand that the real issue behind these disparate growth goals is to decide first and foremost on the overall corporate business definition and scope, and whether the previous pattern of continuous diversification is sustainable in the long run. Also worth debating is whether Gazi’s focus on “top” line revenue growth, and on employee projections, should not be tempered by a parallel concern for the bottom line, for example profitability. The second in the B case is to decide on a possible brand name to replace Albanian Experience for the incoming tourism and conference business. This existing brand’s credibility and utility has been overtaken by a substantial de-facto expansion of tourism destinations to include virtually all of the Balkan area, Greece to the South and parts of Italy to the North, as well as destinations in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Although the corporate scope and focus issue and the branding issue appear to be separate, they are of course related. A new brand name must be found which if possible reflects the overall business scope as well as the new tourist sources, destinations, and USPs.

The question that the A case ostensibly poses, namely to what degree Gazi and his team should now scale up the overall business, and in which areas, is best left to the B case discussion for reasons outlined in the abstract. The A case discussion should therefore be mainly backward-looking focusing on Gazi as an individual, as an entrepreneur and as a leader. The A case discussion should also include a critical analysis of the strategy that Gazi has employed so far to grow the business—essentially diversification by pursuing new market opportunities.

Ostensibly there are two issues to be resolved: How to organize for the future; and the future roles and responsibilities of Gazi himself as the organization embarks on its next step of substantial growth. The larger issue behind these apparent issues is how to find the right balance in the future between the two extremes of a top-down strongly led, fast, entrepreneurial organization (as at present), and the growing need to institutionalize and decentralize the organization with both strategy and leadership pushed to levels below Gazi—all the while retaining an entrepreneurial culture and speed. Such new balances go beyond organizational structure and involve processes, systems, culture, people, and leadership. All are open for discussion in the C case.

The question that the A case ostensibly poses, namely to what degree Gazi and his team should now scale up the overall business, and in which areas, is best left to the B case discussion for reasons outlined in the abstract. The A case discussion should therefore be mainly backward-looking focusing on Gazi as an individual, as an entrepreneur and as a leader. The A case discussion should also include a critical analysis of the strategy that Gazi has employed so far to grow the business—essentially diversification by pursuing new market opportunities.

“The kitchen purchase” is a simulation of bargaining over the price of a fitted kitchen. The case study consists of a briefing for the sellers (the Hase family) and a briefing for the buyers (the Stulle family). On the basis of these briefings the course participants negotiate individually or in teams of two. The case study has been kept simple so that the negotiations can be conducted with very little preparation time needed. At the same time the case study presents a few “stumbling blocks” and permits a profound discussion on the distributive and integrative conduct of negotiations, handling bargaining power, and the ethics of bargaining. The case study is therefore especially well-suited for course participants with intermediate to advanced negotiating experience.

The case study aims at developing course participants' negotiation skills. Specifically, participants learn how to systematically prepare negotiations, how to determine and exploit bargaining power, how to tap into integrative potentials in distributive negotiations, and, optionally, how to negotiate in teams.

“The kitchen purchase” is a simulation of bargaining over the price of a fitted kitchen. The case study consists of a briefing for the sellers (the Hase family) and a briefing for the buyers (the Stulle family). On the basis of these briefings the course participants negotiate individually or in teams of two. The case study has been kept simple so that the negotiations can be conducted with very little preparation time needed. At the same time the case study presents a few “stumbling blocks” and permits a profound discussion on the distributive and integrative conduct of negotiations, handling bargaining power, and the ethics of bargaining. The case study is therefore especially well-suited for course participants with intermediate to advanced negotiating experience.

The case study aims at developing course participants' negotiation skills. Specifically, participants learn how to systematically prepare negotiations, how to determine and exploit bargaining power, how to tap into integrative potentials in distributive negotiations, and, optionally, how to negotiate in teams.

This is an abridged version of the case Axel Springer and the quest for the boundaries of corporate responsibility. The case deals with the quest for boundaries of corporates’ social and environmental responsibility. It poses the question where the responsibility of a company might start or end in a given context and once the company has been able to assess the extent to which it holds itself responsible, what action it ought to take in this regard. In the case of Axel Springer the question is focused on the aspect how much responsibility the company might have for its supply chain: how far and how deep down the supply chain does or should responsibility of a corporation reach? On what facts does this responsibility depend? The publishing house Axel Springer AG serves as good example as it wonders about the scope of their responsibility: After making the strategic decision to move aggressively into the field of digital news and media, the company wonders about their responsibility for digital devices, in particular with respect to conflict minerals that are extracted for the production and use of such electronic devices under highly problematic conditions.

The case draws attention to a rather ambiguous, quite complex, and intertwined sustainability issue. It requires students to think laterally about anticipated and potential risks, about scopes and the extent of responsibility. The case can be well-introduced at a later and more advanced stage of the term as it deals with the concerns of an only indirectly involved media and publishing house that can either neglect or take up the challenge of dealing with conflict minerals. Students preferably know concepts of risk management and corporate responsibility or are acquainted with cases focusing on formulating, implementing, or articulating corporate responsibility before dealing with the question of at what stage and with what tier of the supply chain could or should corporate responsibility end.