Olympus (A)

Jay W. Lorsch; Suraj  Srinivasan

Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | February 2014

Olympus (A)

Abstract

As 2012 approached the woes of the financial crisis seemed to be fading, companies were resuming business as usual and some of the scrutiny on corporate governance practices began to recede as well. That is until another major financial scandal emerged in Japan in the fall of 2011. It was slowly revealed that the 92-year-old camera and medical photo-imaging company, Olympus, had been hiding its losses for more than a decade—to the tune of $1.7 billion—long before the current economic pressures, slow job growth, and poor investor confidence plagued the global economy. The fraud renewed the focus on corporate governance policies world-wide, but especially in Japan, where the lack of board independence and a deep-rooted corporate culture entrenched in personal loyalties fostered an environment that made it difficult for scandals such as this to be unveiled, let alone for whistleblowers to come forward about them.

Keywords: Accounting; Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Electronics Industry; Japan;

Language: English

Format: Print

10 pages

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Citation:

Lorsch, Jay W., and Suraj Srinivasan. "Olympus (A)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 114-072, February 2014.

Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2020

Driving Transformation at the Majid Al Futtaim Group

Suraj Srinivasan and Esel Çekin

The case opens with Alain Bejjani, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Holding, anticipating on the Group’s next phase in the multi-year transformation journey and reflecting on the initiatives he implemented to create the Group’s growth-oriented culture. Founded in 1995, MAF Group was a regional conglomerate, operating shopping malls, and retail and leisure establishments across 12 businesses in 15 markets in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The case describes the series of structural changes that Bejjani undertook since he became the CEO in 2015, how he transitioned the Holding company from a passive investor to a strategic architect model, and assumed ownership of the brand, culture, and talent across the entire organization for all its operating companies: MAF Properties, MAF Retail, and MAF Ventures. The case discusses the steps that the Group undertook – creation of the Leadership Institute, a new performance management system, investments in digital technology and analytics capabilities, and the launch of the School of Great Moments to instill a focus on customer experience. By November 2019, Bejjani recognized that the organization had evolved considerably in the past five years. He wondered about the next steps in scaling and ability to execute strategy. How much more could he push the organization to continue to change?

Keywords: Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; United Arab Emirates; Middle East; Dubai;

Citation:

Srinivasan, Suraj, and Esel Çekin. "Driving Transformation at the Majid Al Futtaim Group." Harvard Business School Case 121-002, July 2020. View Details

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ISS is the world’s largest provider of corporate governance research, data, analytics, and voting services. The case uses the effort of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to impose an array of new regulations that would severely restrict the functioning of this company to help readers understand the role of proxy advisors and institutional investors in corporate governance. As ISS rose to prominence throughout the early 21st century, it became highly influential in enabling investors increase their ability to influence companies, managers, and board of directors. ISS had therefore become a lightning rod for controversy, and its detractors in corporate America had been seeking regulation to rein it in for years. The case walks readers through the history of this debate, the concerns of each stakeholder, and how they intersected with ISS’s approach to providing proxy advisory services. It describes in detail how ISS developed its shareholder voting policies, determined its vote recommendations for its clients, and executed their votes come proxy season. It also provides some detail about the outlook for ISS’s business in light of recent trends in capital markets and corporate governance.

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Olympus (A)

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