The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business offered a discipline-based, flexible MBA program to full time, evening, weekend, and executive MBA students. At a time when other MBA programs were introducing significant changes to their curricula, Chicago felt its traditional approach worked well, and it was not contemplating significant change. This case describes Chicago's approach to MBA education and the challenges it faced.

In 2007, the leadership of the Indesit Company is focused on long-term corporate strategy. After 3 decades, the company has emerged as the number 2 home appliance producer in Europe. Should they invest further to be number 1, or should they focus on the global market, and if so, which part of the world? A subordinate issue is how to manage their multiple brands. Should they consolidate? This case has extensive data on global markets.

In 1994, John Moores purchased the San Diego Padres baseball team. The team shared Qualcomm Stadium with the San Diego Chargers football team, which was the senior tenant and received a far higher share of stadium revenue than the Padres. As a result, the Padres' ability to support the payroll needed to field a competitive team was severely limited. The solution was to build a new ballpark for the Padres in a blighted area of downtown San Diego. Redevelopment of the blighted area was integrated into the ballpark construction project, with the Padres owner having the responsibility of being the master developer, and for guaranteeing increased tax revenues from the redevelopment. Typically, sports team owners had sought public funding of their new stadiums, promoting this with the expectation that the new stadium would catalyze other development-an expectation that was often not met. The San Diego Padres ballpark, PETCO Park, was the first integrated sports facility/redevelopment project ever attempted. In the end, the City of San Diego paid $301 million of the $474 million cost for the ballpark. By 2007 (three years after the ballpark opened), redevelopment projects worth approximately $4.25 billion had been completed, were underway, or were planned. Of these, $4 billion was privately funded. The previously blighted area was well on its way to a dramatic redevelopment. While the project turned out to be a huge success for the Padres, the City of San Diego, and the taxpayers of the City, there were, however, many obstacles that had to be overcome, including a 16 month halt in construction. The case describes the project, the role of the Padres, the City of San Diego, and other players.

This case on the globalization of East Asian pop music is useful for teaching concepts of regional business strategy and also of cultural arbitrage. Music companies in the case must examine why certain markets are clearly more profitable than others. They must also decide whether to expand internationally with a regional focus on East Asia or, alternatively, a focus on the U.S. and other Western markets.

Interlaken Village in Shenzhen, China, is an exact replica of the Swiss village of Interlaken, which is part of OCT East, a US$450 million investment in the thriving Pearl River Delta. This is a management strategy case for students to think outside the box about business strategies. In standard competitive strategy literature, firms should avoid being imitated or imitating others in order to gain unique competitive advantages. This case, however, examines whether copying can be a sustainable source of competitive advantage.

In April 2007, Huella Online Travel Ltd, a Malaysian-based online travel portal targeting Asia, including Greater China, announced its results for the financial year 2006. Its market share for Hong Kong had been hovering just under 5% since the launch of its local site in 2000 and was performing worse in this than in other markets. A qualitative market research study conducted earlier had revealed that low awareness of the Huella brand and the general risk-averseness of Hong Kong consumers towards online travel purchases appeared to be the key reasons behind this. These findings were also echoed by market intelligence and industry reports, both of which suggested that online travel had not picked up in Hong Kong, despite the city's high internet usage penetration rate and the techno-savvy nature of its population, especially that of young people. Indeed, Hong Kong's adoption rate for online flight purchases was among the lowest in the world. In order to confirm previous findings and to test their representativeness, Huella decided to conduct a quantitative study. The company's goals were to devise a viable marketing strategy to ease Hong Kong consumers' concerns towards online travel purchases and ultimately to increase its market share in the city. This case illustrates the types of information needed by a company for its specific marketing objectives and examines how different types of market research can help it attain its goals.

This technical note discusses the methods and factors that investment bankers and venture capitalists take into account when placing a value on the shares of biotech companies.

Retail grocery sales represent a significant portion of the U.S. economy. The industry was highly competitive, with companies operating on low gross and net margins. As a result, grocery stores were generally under significant pressure to reduce their operating costs in order to maintain profitability. For the last several decades, the grocery industry grew roughly in line with gross domestic product and was considered a mature industry. In order for companies to succeed, they needed to find effective strategies to steal customers from competitors. Many sought to differentiate themselves through store format, store location, product mix, ancillary services, or quality of customer service. Strategies, however, could easily be imitated by competitors, putting grocery store chains under constant pressure to innovate and remain efficient. In general, growth also required the expansion into new store locations. Companies that failed to grow often went bankrupt or were acquired. This case explores executive compensation at four retail grocery stores: Safeway, Kroger, Costco, and Whole Foods. Consideration is given to each company's strategy and market position and corporate governance structure. Readers of the case are asked to evaluate in a critical manner the appropriateness of each company's compensation strategy and compensation levels, given company performance.

IBM's "Radical Collaboration" model has been an innovative approach to meeting the challenges of the huge R&D and capital investments that are needed to stay competitive in the global semiconductor industry. This model has required a rethinking of what is proprietary, and what is shared, and where do the boundaries of cooperation end and competition begin. IBM and its partners have managed to stay competitive at, for example, the 45 nm node, at a far lower cost than firms that "go it alone," and there is a large benefit from a larger funnel of ideas and diverse points of view. It also reshapes what firms can use to build competitive advantage, or it necessitates a rethinking at least.

In fall 2007, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) adopted a new curriculum that it heralded as a "revolutionary change in management education." The new approach aimed at increasing the level and quality of student academic engagement. This case describes the concept and described its implementation and early challenges.

This note provides an introduction to the law of sexual harassment. It has three parts. Part One describes the laws on harassment in the United States. Part Two explores controversial and emerging aspects of the American legal framework. Part Three gives a brief overview of sexual harassment laws and policies in several regions of the world, including Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

LFG reorganizes its business in order to improve customer intimacy. However, to implement the strategy, they need to effect significant changes in the skills of their salespeople. This case series straddles human resource management, corporate strategy, and sales management by exploring the link between a shift in the firm's overall strategy (customer intimacy), the structural implementation of this strategy in the form of the creation of a new distribution company and, finally, the transformation of the selling approach through skills assessment and development. The (A) case describes the firm's strategic position as the "manufacturer" of three primary product lines--annulities, insurance, and mutual funds--which they sell to banks, broker/dealers, and independent planners. Most of their customers have just one of these products 'on the shelf.' In 2000, they create Lincoln Financial Distributors (LFD) which will be responsible for the wholesaling of all of these products. The case ends by asking the students to (a) react to this idea and (b) formulate a plan for its implementation. Simply taking salespeople away from their product group and housing them side-by-side with other salespeople selling other products is unlikely to create true customer intimacy. Wes Thompson, LFD's President and Kim Miner, the Human Resources VP, undertake a sweeping effort in which they create a "competency model," denoting precisely what they want their salespeople to be good at, assessing the sales force on these dimensions, and then hiring or training in order to get where they want to be. The (B) case provides rich detail of the model, the assessment approach and the results of the assessments. As the (C) case lays out, the results are stunning in terms of their relationships as well as from a financial perspective. The (C) then ends by offering a strategy for "Act II'" significantly expanding the number of salespeople at LFD.

LFG reorganizes its business in order to improve customer intimacy. However, to implement the strategy, they need to effect significant changes in the skills of their salespeople. This case series straddles human resource management, corporate strategy, and sales management by exploring the link between a shift in the firm's overall strategy (customer intimacy), the structural implementation of this strategy in the form of the creation of a new distribution company and, finally, the transformation of the selling approach through skills assessment and development. The (A) case describes the firm's strategic position as the "manufacturer" of three primary product lines--annuities, insurance, and mutual funds--which they sell to banks, broker/dealers, and independent planners. Most of their customers have just one of these products 'on the shelf.' In 2000, they create Lincoln Financial Distributors (LFD) which will be responsible for the wholesaling of all of these products. The case ends by asking the students to (a) react to this idea and (b) formulate a plan for its implementation. Simply taking salespeople away from their product group and housing them side-by-side with other salespeople selling other products is unlikely to create true customer intimacy. Wes Thompson, LFD's President and Kim Miner, the Human Resources VP, undertake a sweeping effort in which they create a "competency model," denoting precisely what they want their salespeople to be good at, assessing the sales force on these dimensions, and then hiring or training in order to get where they want to be. The (B) case provides rich detail of the model, the assessment approach and the results of the assessments. As the (C) case lays out, the results are stunning in terms of their relationships as well as from a financial perspective. The (C) then ends by offering a strategy for "Act II'" significantly expanding the number of salespeople at LFD.

LFG reorganizes its business in order to improve customer intimacy. However, to implement the strategy, they need to effect significant changes in the skills of their salespeople. This case series straddles human resource management, corporate strategy, and sales management by exploring the link between a shift in the firm's overall strategy (customer intimacy), the structural implementation of this strategy in the form of the creation of a new distribution company and, finally, the transformation of the selling approach through skills assessment and development. The (A) case describes the firm's strategic position as the "manufacturer" of three primary product lines--annuities, insurance, and mutual funds--which they sell to banks, broker/dealers, and independent planners. Most of their customers have just one of these products 'on the shelf.' In 2000, they create Lincoln Financial Distributors (LFD) which will be responsible for the wholesaling of all of these products. The case ends by asking the students to (a) react to this idea and (b) formulate a plan for its implementation. Simply taking salespeople away from their product group and housing them side-by-side with other salespeople selling other products is unlikely to create true customer intimacy. Wes Thompson, LFD's President and Kim Miner, the Human Resources VP, undertake a sweeping effort in which they create a "competency model," denoting precisely what they want their salespeople to be good at, assessing the sales force on these dimensions, and then hiring or training in order to get where they want to be. The (B) case provides rich detail of the model, the assessment approach and the results of the assessments. As the (C) case lays out, the results are stunning in terms of their relationships as well as from a financial perspective. The (C) then ends by offering a strategy for "Act II'" significantly expanding the number of salespeople at LFD.

Three-quarters of Specialisterne's expert software testing staff are diagnosed with some form of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Usually a handicap, ASD conveys talents especially suited to software testing and other highly repetitive tasks that require very high accuracy. This case describes a growing company struggling with unique challenges as it implements a "social enterprise" business model; it describes the difficulties faced by social entrepreneurs implementing for-profit business models in domains usually populated by non-profits. The case is also useful as an introduction to the business of software testing.

The movement from jobs in the United States to developing countries, in a process known as offshoring, has become quite a controversial topic. Managers not only need to decide which activities, if any, to move offshore, but where to move them. This case describes the nature of offshoring and its effect on developing countries.

The case focuses on Lance Johnstone, a former NFL player, who has dabbled in real estate development during his playing career, and now, as a retired player, is trying to pursue the development of a 10-unit rental apartment building in a depressed area of Philadelphia, his hometown. The case presents the process Johnstone and his partner went through to purchase the vacant land, develop a construction budget and financing plan, and asks students to evaluate the prospective financials for this development and assess the viability of the development plan and its prospective returns. The case then ends with a change in the fundamental assumption - the bank has withdrawn and a new bank will loan less than the original plan, and the construction budget has come in considerably higher. Students must evaluate the plan and prospective returns in light of this new information.

In the spring of 2008, INSEAD offered a one-year MBA, PhD, executive MBA, and non-degree management education programs to nearly 900 MBA students, 64 PhD candidates, and over 8,500 executive education students. With two campuses, one in Europe and one in Asia, INSEAD had been a pioneer in setting up a secondary campus as a way to push the internationalization of its faculty and curriculum. The case explores INSEAD's approach to business education in a global context, and how it functions with a dual campus setting.

In the fall of 2006, the Yale School of Management launched a new core curriculum in its MBA program. The new curriculum eliminated traditional discipline-based courses such as finance and marketing and replaced them with courses that sought to integrate teaching and learning across functions and from the perspective of the constituents with whom leaders typically interacted, such as customers, competitors, and investors. This case examines the implementation of the new curriculum and how it transformed business education at the Yale School of Management.