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Case Study

Customers vs. investors (cartoon case)

By Margaret Cording and Carlos Bauler

7 pages

December 2011

Reference: IMD-3-2251

The setting of this case is an executive committee meeting where the Chief Marketing Officer is seeking approval for a $300 customer satisfaction initiative. Clean, Inc. has successfully increased customer satisfaction by 20% over the past several years, and the CMO believes that the proposed initiative will help to achieve a 99% customer satisfaction rate. The Chief Financial Officer questions whether Clean, Inc. will generate an adequate return on the initiative. He asks, “Will investors value this marginal increase in satisfaction?” Participants are asked to wrestle with the financial implications of one stakeholder’s reaction (shareholders in this case) to investments made to satisfy another stakeholder (customers). They also must contend with the internal political processes that arise when senior executives are primarily responsible for one stakeholder (CFO versus CMO).

Learning Objective

To deepen our understanding of the nuances of stakeholder interdependencies.

Keywords

Stakeholder Interdependencies, Consumer Goods, General Management, Strategy

Settings

United States of America
2011

Available Languages

English

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