The Little Red Roaster, a retail coffee shop that offered a menu of coffees, teas, gourmet beverages, light meals and snacks, had a strong reputation for good food and coffee during the eight years it had been in operation. The owner had recently been approached to expand both its wholesale and its catering operations, but she was unsure whether she and the company were ready for expansion. Potential wholesale and catering customers would not wait for Little Red Roaster much longer, and the owner must make a decision soon about the company's strategic direction.

De Beers Consolidated Mines has successfully managed the global diamond industry for many decades, propping up prices at all stages of the value chain, reducing price volatility and increasing consumer demand. By the end of the 20th century, however, a series of forces threatened De Beer's role and profitability. New diamond mining firms were selling their production on the open market rather than through De Beers' Central Selling Organization. The new competitors were attempting to grade, polish and cut diamonds outside of the De Beers value chain. Some retailers were purchasing shares in new mines in order to create their own value chain. New technology offered the possibility of creating synthetic diamonds that would be indistinguishable from diamonds created by natural forces. Governments were threatening antitrust actions. Meanwhile, an illicit trade in "conflict diamonds" was supporting revolutionary groups and disrupting the market. De Beers now had to decide whether to maintain its traditional functions or to embark on a new strategy. In particular, De Beers contemplated a shift into the retail jewelry business in a joint venture with France's Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton luxury goods corporation that would sell De Beers-branded diamond jewelry.

Overseas outsourcing of jobs is far more complicated than is generally understood. Pressures to outsource range from serving overseas markets better to increasing the competitiveness of American business. Both domestic and international outsourcing responds to management's desire to focus the firm's in-house activities on its core competence. A negative side to outsourcing results from companies doing so simply because "everybody is doing it." They may be surprised by accompanying factors such as unexpected costs and complications, as well. Governmental policymakers must realize that foreign companies outsource more business services to the United States than American firms send overseas.

Recently, accountants were instructed by President Bush to get their acts together. Indeed, the Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and other recent corporate financial reporting failures have prompted a loss of faith in accountants and accounting. To a large extent, this loss of faith involves corporate balance sheets and it is warranted. Corporate managers and shareholders have a vested interest in addressing balance sheet shortcomings. Highlights the pervasive shortcomings of contemporary corporate balance sheets, identifies the underlying foundational tensions creating those shortcomings, offers proposals to address those tensions, and discusses the potential implications of the proposals.

How do experienced managers build and maintain life balance when confronted with day-to-day demands that complicate their lives and drive them further and further into the realm of life imbalance? Drawing from comprehensive interviews with members of managerial couples, this article provides a keen view of the personal and elusive nature of managerial balance. Digging deeper, it uncovers and describes the signals or cues of imbalance and explores the fundamental steps taken to regain lost balance.

Managers must reconsider their preconceptions about conglomerates, or multi-industry firms as they are now often called, because today's examples have much to teach us about successful corporate strategy. We examined the strategies of the largest conglomerates that have, for a sustained period, practiced the form. Four archetypes are available to managers for adding value to a broad portfolio of businesses. In top-performing firms, the bewildering diversity of end products can blind the casual observer to the intense focus of headquarters and the tight cohesion among the head office, the businesses, and the environment.

Alan B. Graf, Jr., is executive vice-president and chief financial officer at FedEx Corp. FedEx Corp. is comprised of multiple operating companies, with the core companies being FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and FedEx Kinko's. Collectively, FedEx provides transportation, e-commerce, and business services globally. The Memphis, Tennessee-based corporation moves more than 5.5 million packages daily, serving more than 215 countries and territories. The corporation is comprised of more than 250,000 employees and contractors worldwide and maintains approximately 663 aircraft and over 71,000 ground vehicles. Graf joined FedEx Express, the predecessor to FedEx Corp., in 1980 as a senior financial analyst and has held a variety of management positions in the Finance division during his tenure with FedEx. His current responsibilities involve oversight of corporate global financial functions, including financial planning, treasury, tax, accounting and controls, internal audit, and corporate development. Graf is responsible for the financial activities of the corporation's core operating companies and also serves on FedEx Corp.'s Executive Committee, which is charged with the planning and implementation of FedEx Corp.'s strategic business activities. A native of Indiana, Graf graduated from the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, with both a bachelor's and Master of Business Administration degree. He remains active with the Kelley School of Business, where he serves on the Dean's Advisory Council and was honored with membership in the Academy of Alumni Fellows in 2004. Graf holds three board memberships that include NIKE, Inc., Kimball International, Inc., and Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. He also serves on the Advisory Board for the University of Memphis Tiger Cubs.

A partnership of two real estate agents want to increase their recognition in an increasingly crowded and competitive marketplace. Both partners had strong individual reputations, but they believed a campaign focused on their identity as a team would give them a competitive edge in the real estate business. A comprehensive marketing communications plan needed to be developed and implemented quickly as the market was poised for a period of growth in the coming months.

This is a supplement to PETA's Kentucky Fried Cruelty, Inc. Campaign, product 9B03C045. PETA escalated its tactics to pressure Kentucky Fried Chicken to implement stronger animal welfare guidelines. KFC was once again embarrassed worldwide when an investigation for PETA captured video of chickens being kicked and stomped on by workers at a processing plant that the company used. The footage provided new ammunition for PETA to increase the pressure on KFC to make significant changes, including protesting of KFC executives at their homes and encouraging celebrities to organize a boycott of KFC. Both PETA and KFC testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee presenting their sides of the story. One had to wonder whether the campaign unleashed by PETA had gained enough momentum to pressure the decision-makers at Kentucky Fried Chicken into making meaningful changes in its animal welfare practices, and if so, how the conflicts between KFC and PETA could ever by resolved, given both the increasing escalation and philosophical differences between the two organizations.

This note describes the process a student might go through in writing a report, describes the main sections in a report and, in a supplement, reviews some points of usages, style, grammar, etc. It should be used after the Note on Case Analysis, product 9A81L002.

Schering Plough is a large pharmaceutical company with over 22,000 employees worldwide, and over $6.8 billion in sales worldwide. The company is considering two options to replace its flagship drug, Claritin (an antihistamine), as Claritin's patent is soon to expire. One drug is targeted toward nasal congestion, the other towards asthma; however, each drug is at a different stage in the development process, one has greater market potential but was still in its early development stage, the other drug could be launched within the year but would appeal to a much smaller market. The company must decide which drug to pursue or whether to focus on both drugs or neither. The case allows students to do a traditional NPV analysis and decision analysis and the use of simulation.

Mearl Canada Limited does not want to implement Mearl Oil Company's environmental impact targets because, in Mearl Canada's opinion, the targets create an extra layer of regulation for considerable cost and negligible benefit. Mearl's position is that all Mearl worldwide operations must adopt these performance standards, as this will allow the company to make operational their stated environmental policy. Each party has an opportunity to make their case at the International Environmental Group meeting, and it will decide if Mearl Canada may deviate from the environmental impact target and continue with their own homegrown environmental management system and standards. This case is from the point of view of the manager, Mearl Support, environmental. The supplement Mearl Oil Company: Environmental Impact Targets (B), product 9B05M019, is from the senior environmental manager, Mearl Canada Limited view and the supplement Mearl Oil Company: Environmental Impact Targets (C), product 9B05M020, is from the International Environmental Group's perspective.

The Canadian division of Mearl Oil Company does not want to implement the company's environmental impact targets and would like to continue using its homegrown environmental management system and standards. The division is allowed to present its arguments to the International Environmental Group. This is a supplement to Mearl Oil Company: Environmental Impact Targets (A), product 9B05M018. The supplement Mearl Oil Company: Environmental Impact Targets (C), product 9B05M020 discusses the International Environmental Group's perspective.

Mearl Canada Limited and Mearl Oil Company are presenting their cases to the International Environmental Group, who will make a decision on whether or not the Mearl Canada must comply with the company's environmental impact targets. This is a supplement to Mearl Oil Company: Environmental Impact Targets (A) and (B), products 9B05M018 and 9B05M019.

The Little Red Roaster, a retail coffee shop that offered a menu of coffees, teas, gourmet beverages, light meals and snacks, had a strong reputation for good food and coffee during the eight years it had been in operation. The owner had recently been approached to expand both its wholesale and its catering operations, but she was unsure whether she and the company were ready for expansion. Potential wholesale and catering customers would not wait for Little Red Roaster much longer, and the owner must make a decision soon about the company's strategic direction.

In the early 2000s, De Beers Consolidated Mines has successfully managed the global diamond industry for many decades, propping up prices at all stages of the value chain, reducing price volatility and increasing consumer demand. By the end of the 20th century, however, a series of forces threatened De Beer's role and profitability. New diamond mining firms were selling their production on the open market rather than through De Beers' Central Selling Organization. The new competitors were attempting to grade, polish and cut diamonds outside of the De Beers value chain. Some retailers were purchasing shares in new mines in order to create their own value chain. New technology offered the possibility of creating synthetic diamonds that would be indistinguishable from diamonds created by natural forces. Governments were threatening antitrust actions. Meanwhile, an illicit trade in conflict diamonds was supporting revolutionary groups and disrupting the market. De Beers now had to decide whether to maintain its traditional functions or to embark on a new strategy. In particular, De Beers contemplated a shift into the retail jewelry business in a joint venture with France's Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton luxury goods corporation that would sell De Beers-branded diamond jewelry.

This note examines Hong Kong's deregulated telecommunications industry from both industry and public policy points of view in March 2005. In recent years, the industry had been viewed as a model of deregulation and free enterprise, offering high quality service to consumers at a low price. However, the industry conditions were exceedingly challenging for the operators. Cutthroat competition had resulted in low margins and a high degree of fragmentation. The operators faced new challenges in the form of disruptive technology, new market opportunities in mainland China and the possibility of new competition at home. This note allows students to examine the determinants of industry structure, the goals and mechanisms of industry regulation, and market and non-market strategies that firms may use to respond to market conditions.

World Portal was a successful Internet portal. They had just received a letter from a Wall Street analyst expressing skepticism about their financial statement transparency. How would they respond to the analyst?

This case asks students to identify and evaluate the merits of two factors that have led a buy-side analyst to conclude that an acquiring company is a high-risk investment: (1) the company's allocation of acquisition proceeds and (2) the quality of the target's intellectual-property (IP) portfolio. The acquirer's allocation of the acquisition cost of the target is quite different from that of one of the company's previous deals. Careful interpretation of each line item for both acquisitions yields insights into the value management seeks with the acquisition. An IP-quality report supplied by an independent IP consulting firm likewise raises a number of issues students should identify. The primary objectives of the case are to (1) introduce IP-quality concepts as they relate to a firm's patent portfolio, (2) understand the accounting basis for firms' purchase-price allocations in IP-intensive acquisitions, and (3) compare and contrast the risk implications of acquisitions of in-process portfolios of drug candidates with established products.

Jeremy Moon, CEO of Icebreaker, merino wool, outdoor apparel manufacturer, believed the company could be a big hit in the United States, despite the presence of entrenched rivals. But Icebreaker clearly needed a new distribution approach. One option was to position Icebreaker as a brand selling fashionable sportswear. A second option was to mirror the strategy that had been effective in New Zealand--distributing through outdoor and snow sports retailers. A final option was to delay U.S. retail distribution and sell exclusively over the Internet, using direct-to-customer advertising.