Proctor & Gamble employs 130,000 workers in 80 countries, offering a variety of consumer products under an array of brand names. In 2005, this $55 billion company acquired Gillette, a Cincinnati, Ohio based company which provides razors, Oral-B dental health products, Braun shavers, Duracell batteries, and various small appliances. Gillette’s distribution center for products sold…
In 2000, Commerce One was to take the e-commerce market handily. Competitor Ariba was the only perceived rival, as IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle weren’t yet major players. The world had survived Y2K and the dot coms were taking over, the perfect playground for Commerce One to grow and prosper. So, what happened? What can we learn…
Business software solutions giant SAP thought they had a competitor. Baan, a Dutch company offering business software, entered the North American market in 1994 when it landed the coveted client Boeing. The next few years, Baan grew at an unprecedented rate of 100 percent, a growth rate almost anyone would realize is unsustainable. It didn’t…
In 1993, Martha Cooper and Lisa Ellram co-wrote and published the Characteristics of Supply Chain Management and the Implications for Purchasing and Logistics Strategy. After more than twenty years of debate, trials, and errors, many supply chain professionals believed the practices described in the paper simply weren’t able to be put into effective practice.
Nowhere is the failure of the dot comes more clearly illustrated than with the bankruptcy of Webvan. This company had everything it should take to be a success: a long list of large-pocketed investors, a bankroll of cash, and some of the most brilliant management minds money could buy. But without the right research and…
VC Train is a consortium made up of 120 third sector organizations (TSOs). It is based in South Yorkshire, which happened to be in great lack of quality programs able to attract, educate, and retain disadvantaged and underprivileged youth and adults. Their goal was to secure contracts with the Learning Skills Council (LSC) to deliver…
Avenues Trust subcontracts work for a mid-size social care provider in and around London and South East. The care provider works on an extremely tight budget, employing 800 staff members to care for 900 people. They operate about 50 homes for those with learning disabilities and mental health issues. The program has historically been underfunded,…
In the late 1980s, things looked good for the newly formed corporation Unisys. The company was boosting its workforce, increasing its product offerings, and acquiring other companies, such as Timeplex. It seemed Unisys would soon be challenging the computer giant IBM for top spot among U.S. computer manufacturers.
PetroSA, South Africa’s national oil company, has fallen under investigation by its parent company, Central Security Fund and South Africa’s department of energy for a series of ongoing inappropriate procurement procedures. Though a full investigation is underway and few details have been released to date about the indiscretions, here’s what’s clear from the information known.