Spreadsheet Three

Illustration by Elwood H. Smith

Check-Up for Managed Care
A 30-PERSON CALIFORNIA state commission headed by the Business School's Alain Enthoven sent its final report on managed health care reform to the governor and legislature on January 5. The 77 multi-part recommendations of the California Managed Health Care Improvement Task Force are expected not only to provide a basis for state legislation in 1998 but to influence reform at the national level as well. The task force began meetings and public hearings last April.
      One of the most anticipated recommendations of the report deals with appropriate oversight. Currently, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are regulated by the state's Department of Corporations, which was initially formed to oversee the securities industry. The task force recommends a new regulatory authority with expertise in issues of health care management.
      Other recommendations are aimed at improving the market for consumers and ensuring a minimum level of quality of care as well as making competition among health plans more fair. The task force considered but declined to support a recommendation to expand tort liability of HMOs. Federal law currently exempts HMOs serving self-insured employers from being sued.
      During the nine-month investigation, commission chair Enthoven was assisted by a hardy bunch of GSBers that included alums Sara Singer, MBA '93; Vicky Keston, MBA '96; Megan Jenks, MBA '97; and Aimee Jungman, MBA '97, and MBA students Susan Boyle, Brian Haas, and Tom Lee. All learned firsthand how contentious is the juncture of health care and politics. The final report was greeted with complaints from the health care industry that the commission had gone too far and from consumer advocates that it had not gone far enough--a sure sign they'd done something right. Readers can judge for themselves on the World Wide Web at www.chipp.cahwnet.gov/mctf/front.htm.

Delusions of Grandeur
ILLUSIONS ARE OFTEN as good as they pretend to be. Illusions about ourselves help us maintain a sense of confidence that powers us through difficult tasks. Illusions that we share with a group can help create esprit de corps and bind a team together.
      But harboring too many unrealistic opinions of ourselves can backfire. Margaret Neale and Rod Kramer of Stanford and Jeffrey Polzer of the University of Texas found in their research that when an individual thinks he's too good, it can turn competitiveness to combativeness, igniting personal conflict. At the group level, the greater the illusion--"my team is better/smarter/ stronger than your team"--the worse the actual performance. The fatal illusion is that we're so good we don't have to look very carefully at our decisions. That's only a few steps away from complacency and failure.

Building a Case
INDIA'S LARGEST COMPUTER software company is ready to begin competing for sales in Europe and the United States, but it faces a series of challenges. India is far from major markets; foreign competitors are starting to move into India's domestic software market; and the software industry is demanding greater end-user involvement in developing products.
      Case studies like the one described above are used by Business School faculty to illustrate important points and help students visualize the complexity of decisions facing working managers. In 1997 alone, Business School faculty members researched, wrote, or supervised the writing of more than 30 new cases. Work is currently under way on cases involving AT&T, Nike, Asea Brown Boveri, Toyota, General Motors, and British Petroleum.
      Developing cases can be expensive, both in the actual costs incurred in gathering information and in the hours required to write the case. To profile the Indian software firm Tata Consultancy Services, Brian Viard, MBA '92, and classmate Sanjeev Dheer spent two weeks in India conducting interviews at Tata and other Indian computer industry firms.
      "I really can't remember how long it took us to write the case, but I wouldn't be surprised if it went through 12 drafts," said Viard, who is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago. He credits the work he did on the Tata case, supervised by professor John Roberts, and an earlier case on EDS he wrote for professor Garth Saloner for heavily influencing his decision to pursue a PhD.
      Once they are released for use, most new Stanford Business School cases are marketed through the Harvard Business School publishing service, the nation's major distributor of academic cases. Information about Business School cases is available at www.gsb.stanford.edu/research/paper/cases/caselist.htm.

New Executive for Executive Education
GALE H. BITTER WAS NAMED director of Executive Education for the School in January. She will oversee 17 courses, which include the six-and-one-half-week Stanford Executive Program and a variety of shorter specialized programs. As director, Bitter is also responsible for developing both customized and new public programs, prompted by faculty and corporate interest.
      Most recently, Bitter served as manager of quality and support services in the public affairs department of Chevron, where she was responsible for strategic planning, training, performance evaluation, and quality management processes. She holds an AB from Stanford and an MBA from Rutgers University.

Cementing International Relations
"MORE THAN 50 representatives of international firms joined 250 MBA students at the GSB's first annual International Career Forum in January, sponsored jointly by the Career Management Center (CMC) and the Global Management Program (GMP).
      In recent years, 15 to 20 percent of graduating MBAs have taken jobs outside the United States and many more work for firms in the United States with major international components. The forum was designed to strengthen ongoing relationships with international firms. In addition to company presentations and on-campus interviews, the five-day event included faculty presentations highlighting the School's academic programs and activities, among them the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the GMP.
      For information about next year's career forum, contact the CMC at 650-723-2151 or the GMP at 650-723-4201.