Alexandra Ranson, MBA and Elizabeth Powell, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia, USA, on Euronext NV: The Fight for LIFFE.

Deciding on the case

Darden prefers an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to management issues. Through this case, we saw the opportunity for students to discover that the effectiveness of a corporate strategy depends on the way it is articulated and communicated. The case also raises issues related to bargaining, negotiating and mergers and acquisitions. As a multi-country case set in Europe, it adds to students' understanding of cross-border consolidation in an industry, and the accompanying cultural and organisational challenges.

Testing

'Test driving' a case is an essential step in the case writing process. The financial exchanges industry is technically complicated and fragmented. We faced the familiar case writing trade-off of how much complexity to include without sacrificing focus and the underlying issues we wanted students to think about. We probably overestimated how much some students would know about stock exchanges, so, after the case had been used for the first time with first-year MBA students, we added an appendix explaining technical terms for the benefit of people without a financial background. As not many MBA students are familiar with corporate communication as professional and strategic functions, we also added a section that established the main character's track record and credibility.

As a pre-class exercise, we asked students to write a memo summarizing their recommendations to Euronext CEO for a communications strategy to ensure success in the forthcoming auction of LIFFE. Some students, particularly those with investment banking backgrounds, got distracted by trying to place a financial valuation on LIFFE, at the expense of analyzing Euronext's strategic positioning with the various stakeholders involved in the decision. To focus students' attentionon such non-price-related factors, we added a bank's valuation range for LIFFE. Some students were a little hung up about the memo as a form of communication, so we changed the pre-class assignment to be in whatever written form they felt was appropriate.

Teaching objectives

Since MBAs excel at analysis but sometimes find synthesis more difficult, the real learning objective of writing a communication was to carefully articulate a focused and cohesive value proposition for the deal. Overall, we aimed to show students that a company's strategy is only as good as its articulation to stakeholders: investors, customers, employees, governments and competitors. Corporate and communication strategy needs to be precisely formulated to position an organisation for things it will want to do in the future, not just the things it wants to do today.

Any advice?

When writing, keep an open mind about the learning objectives. As you go along, your initial objectives may change, and that's OK. Finally, this case could very easily be taught not only as a corporate communication case, but as a negotiations, mergers and acquisitions, or strategy case.


Case details

Click on the case titles to view further details and, where available, an inspection copy.

Euronext NV: The Fight for LIFFE (A)
Ref no UVA-BC-0196
Also available:
Euronext NV: The Fight for LIFFE (B)
Ref no UVA-BC-0197
Euronext NV: The Fight for LIFFE (C)
Ref no UVA-BC-0198


About the authors

Alexandra Ranson is an alumna of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia, USA (MBA 2004). Her case on Euronext won first place in the 2005 Arthur W Page Society Case Study Competition in the business schools category.

Elizabeth Powell, Ranson's faculty advisor, is Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia, USA.
e powelle@darden.virginia.edu