Essay on Harvard Case Study - Sealed Air Corporation

2. SUMMARY The protective packaging market is becoming more competitive. Sealed Air company is encountering a growing number of competitors in its field. Similar or alternative systems are now proposed against those of Sealed Air. These new systems are often cheaper but as argued by Sealed Air less effective concerning the protection they offer and therefore less cost-effective.

Similarly, buyers in the Performance and High End segments feel that performance and size are also important but the product’s reliability is most important to them. We chose to operate in these growing markets because neither segment is price sensitive and they are more concerned with overall quality and innovation which is our company’s underlying focus. Our objectives will be achieved by relying heavily on our sales and promotions team as well as increasing our spending in research and development to ensure the best, most up-to-date products for our customers. Brand awareness and accessibility is vital to our company because we are now competing against four other competitors in the same industry and customers need to be able to quickly recognize our brand of sensors.

Intended Strategy The Andrews management team has opted to pursue the strategy of differentiator with a product life cycle focus. This strategy involves the creation of products with excellent design in terms of size and performance (on the perceptual map), and MTBF. Significant investment in awareness and accessibility, and development of proficiency in the research and development sector is also central to this business strategy. In order to compensate for these high initial investments, our product prices will be relatively high; however it is believed that our customers will be drawn to our product due to high awareness and due to the superior quality of our sensors. Our released products will need to be manipulated according to the changes in expectations of the marketplace by producing smaller and faster products, according to the expected ideal size and performance of the sensors in future years. In addition, our company must invest in other important activities such as; total quality management (TQM), marketing, and human resources (HR) in order to

Furthermore, HMC employed a compensation system that not only helped to attract and retain some of the most adept portfolio managers in the market, but also permitted to align the economic objectives of portfolio managers with those of the university. In other words, the structure and compensation system of HMC was designed specifically to achieve its objectives and to maintain the real long-term value of Harvard’s endowment

Intermountain Healthcare Case Study Gina L. Turley Northwestern University In the Harvard Business School case study of Intermountain Health Care (IHC), we learned about the efforts made by IHC to adopt a new strategy for managing health care delivery that is focused on improving care quality while simultaneously saving money. Beginning in 1986 as a series of experiments tying cost outcomes to traditional clinical trials, IHC’s approach to delivering care became known as “Clinical Integration” which “referred to both an organizational structure and a set of tools” (Bohmer, 2002). The organizational structure required a departure from the traditional administrative management model to one that “involved administrative and medical

The Product The QWell Air Purifier is an electronic product that has a multistage filtration system and an ultraviolet bulb for detecting bacteria and germs. The system effectively cleans the air in enclosed spaces like the rooms of the house of dust, pollen, or smoke at high or low speed, without impeding airflow of the forced-air heating and cooling systems in the home.

IgE – defend body from parasites and binds to allergens to initiate destruction. IgG – funtions in neutralizing, opsonation, compliment activation, antibody dependent cell-mediated cytocity, neonatal immunity, and feedback inhibition of B-cells and found in the blood.

I. FACTUAL SUMMARY • The introduction of the new product “ Nundies” by Advanced Materials Inc. is a transition from a foam fabricator manufacturing business to a proprietary medical and consumer products. • Nundies is a true departure from the ordinary product offered by Advanced Materials, Inc. Thinking outside the box is

1) if you were on the Dynacorp task force, what would be your first choice for an alternative design? what would be your second choice? 2) Which of the problems of the current design would your chosen design address? what problems (if any) would it not address? Are there any new problems to which it might lead? 3) What linking and alignment mechanisms would you propose to make the “grouping” of your first choice design more effective?

Sealed Air Corporation has been the market leader in the protective packaging market for many years. Unanticipated competitors have entered the market offering uncoated bubble packaging which has gained significant market share from Sealed Air’s AirCap® coated bubble packaging material. To regain market share and expand Sealed Air’s business, a swift strategy of introducing uncoated bubble products needs to be implemented. By leveraging their large distribution network and existing manufacturing infrastructure, Sealed Air can capture the price-sensitive customers before their competitors have time to expand.

We evaluated our company’s position in the industry, and found ourselves in an excellent starting position to further develop our products and match them to the industry’s needs. Our market share is adequate and we can advance further with our strategy improve and reposition our products in the coming years. We have underutilized capacity, which we intend to improve, while increasing automation to reduce costs. We have plans to improve our promotion to improve product awareness and with the appropriate product lines we will increase price to improve margins and better align our high-end product image. Our current financial position is optimistic, showing our leverage (Assets/Equity) at 2.0, when our goal is to maintain 1.5-2.0 overall. By utilizing the analysis tools we are learning what elements are driving demand, how to effectively tailor our products through R&D, how best to adjust our marketing and pricing, while lowering input costs, in order to improve margins and to ensure our stakeholders are all satisfied.

Analysis and Evaluation Beside suggestions stated by the senior executives and the president of Janmar Coatings, Inc., there are three ways to deploy Janmar products (Paints and sun-dries). First, since 60% ($80 million) of Janmar’s architectural coatings products were sold in DFW area, the company should distribute more of its products to that area in order to maximize sales. Regarding the non-DFW area, the majority (90%) of that area deals with “do-it-yourself” method to paint their houses or rooms, and usually the decision effected by the price of the product. Therefore, Janmar has two options for the non-DFW area, either to cut the prices of their products, or to develop a new lower quality category that has the same brand name but cheaper than the premium category. The competition in Architectural coating segment are increasing. Companies seeking growth and a higher sales base to support increasing costs are making acquisition. Major products of paint for the architectural coatings segment include Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, the Glidden unit of Imperial Chemicals, PPG Industries, Valspar Corporation, Grow group and Pratt & Lambert. These producers account upward for 60% of

Sealed Air Corporation’s Leveraged Recapitalization Final Paper Sealed Air Corporation: Leveraged Recapitulation 06/22/2015 Marilyn Grant: FHTMS 102577 Neomar Schenker: FHTMS Airtaiza Fraser: FHTMS MASTER’S PROGRAMME OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION University of Aruba Faculty of Hospitality, Tourism Management & International Business Studies Corporate Finance Prof. Donald Taylor TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 4 The competitive position and culture of the firm 5 Surviving changing market competition 7 Financial Ratio’s Analysis 8 Liquidity Measurement Ratios 9 Profitability Indicator Ratios 10 Debt Ratio Analysis 10 Value Created by Leveraged Recapitalization 14 Figure 7 20 Applying the Concepts of theories of Value 23 Reasons for Undertaking Leveraged Recapitalization 23 Evaluation & Monitors 24 Negative Net Worth 24 References & Appendix 27 Sealed Air Corporation’s Leveraged Recapitalization Introduction A special dividend was paid to the shareholders of the company when Sealed Air Corporation borrowed the total common stock for a value of 90% of its market value. This was a program which was basically initiated by the management of the company for improving the product quality and improving the efficiency of the manufacturing processes of the company. The leveraged recapitalization was used as a watershed event and this was done successfully and purposefully by the management of the company.

Introduction In this case study, we review Sabor’s current position with regards to its supply source of Macronil, the main component for its air filtration units. We evaluate this using the Karljic matrix and his 4-phase methodology (Kraljic, 1983) as our theoretical framework and analyze the options available to Sabor Inc. using the case information and data provided. We then conclude with our goal of offering viable recommendations to Sabor, given the constraints, to better Sabor’s purchasing position in this situation.