3. Tech Bottling
Company: An Integrated Case
Presenter: William C. St. John, Jr., Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute
Description: Undergraduate
management courses have traditionally been taught independently with little
attempt to integrate the topics presented in one course with other courses in
the curriculum. After several years of experiencing such fragmentation of
student knowledge, it was decided to introduce a multifaceted,
cross-disciplinary approach utilizing the introductory accounting course as a
starting point.
Each management sophomore is
required to take Accounting for Decision Making, Statistics, Managerial
Finance, and Operations Management. By creating a common, complex business
problem for the students in all four courses to work on throughout the year, a
variety of theories and concepts can be learned and applied to a realistic
business decision.
The common case, entitled Tech
Bottling Company, describes a successful small fruit drink company selling
in the upstate New York and New England region. Following a "corporate
briefing" students are given Exercise One, which involves a pending crisis
at Tech Bottling. The current bottling equipment is near the end of its useful
life and the public is asking for new flavors. What should the company
do?
Over the course of the two
semesters, the students are asked to analyze a consumer survey (Statistics);
perform a CVP analysis, develop a Contribution Margin Income Statement, and a
price-sensitivity analysis (Accounting); develop an optimal-product mix based
on linear programming (Operations Management); forecast a ten-year Income
Statement, perform a Capital Budgeting analysis, and formulate a financing plan
to purchase new bottling equipment (Finance). Students work in teams and make
several progress presentations during the course of the project, further
modeling real-life work relationships.
Participants will learn how to
replicate this type of case in their own classrooms.
