The basics of project management are described and applied to a simple tutorial problem. Microsoft Project, as one software tool, is used in the context of the tutorial project. The steps for project management, as well as the calculation of the critical path, using Critical Path Method, are presented.

A product development manager must plan the launch of a new toy for the upcoming Christmas season. This exercise provides a basic introduction to applying project planning techniques and associated calculations, and can be used in conjunction with computer project planning software. Activity times and their precedence relationships are explicitly given, and the students can plan and replan the project to meet the schedule deadline. (A Microsoft Project files, products 7A97D002A, 7A97D002B and 7A97D002C are available for use with this case.)

The U.S. defense industry has seen more than 50% of its market disappear, and the companies that make up the industry have faced the need for the equivalent of self-administered surgery with no insurance, no anesthetic, and no assurance of long-term health. In 1995, Martin Marietta and Lockheed combined to form Lockheed Martin. That company has emerged in a most coveted role: survivor. In fact, it has seen its stock price nearly double in less than two years. In this article, CEO Norman Augustine relates the company's experience and offers some difficult--and painful--prescriptions. Companies in technology-driven industries must reinvent themselves continually. The bad news is that change requires hard decisions. The good news is that success awaits organizations willing to make those decisions.

Throughout the 1990s, financial investors, corporate strategists, and political leaders in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan have been intensifying their focus on emerging markets. And, indeed, emerging markets are the new frontier. But like all frontiers, warns Jeffrey E. Garten, dean of the Yale School of Management, such markets present a mix of opportunity and risk. The question now is whether businesses and governments in the industrialized world are sober enough about the problems that lie ahead. There is considerable evidence to show that the tides of capitalism that rose so powerfully after the collapse of the former Soviet Union are now poised to recede. What can business and government do to improve the economic environment abroad?

Indianapolis, Indiana, has been a leader in the trend toward efficiency in government. Since 1992, when Stephen Goldsmith became mayor, the city has opened up more than 70 services to competitive bidding. It has reduced its operating budget, lowered taxes twice, and cut its non-public-safety workforce. It has also increased the public-safety budget, invested millions to rebuild the city's infrastructure, and increased budget reserves. According to Goldsmith, the business community has been slow to grasp the significance of government's move toward increased efficiency. There are many opportunities for businesses to help municipal governments lower costs and increase revenues. He offers seven guidelines to help pioneering companies succeed in what could be their next big market.

In many industries, superior technology integration--the approach used to choose and refine the technologies employed in a new product, process, or service--is the key to achieving superior R&D productivity and speed, and superior products. In this article, which is based on an ongoing study of R&D in various segments of the global computer industry, Marco Iansiti and Jonathan West contend that technology integration has become much more important--and challenging--for obvious reasons. A radical change in the approach of U.S. companies to technology integration helps explain the resurgence of the U.S. electronics industry in the 1990s. But one size does not fit all. Indeed, the authors have found that an approach that works well in one country may not be the best for another. To be effective, an approach must suit the local culture and conditions.

Behind every major resource-allocation decision a company makes lies some calculation of what that move is worth. So it is not surprising that valuation is the financial analytical skill general managers want to learn more than any other. What do generalists need in an updated valuation tool kit? In the 1970s, discounted-cash-flow analysis (DCF) emerged as best practice for valuing corporate assets. And one version of DCF--using the weighted-average cost of capital (WACC)--became the standard. Over the years, WACC has been used by most companies as a one-size-fits-all valuation tool. Today the WACC standard is insufficient. Improvements in computers and new theoretical insights have given rise to tools that outperform WACC in the three basic types of valuation problems managers face. Timothy Luehrman presents an overview of the three tools, explaining how they work and when to use them.

For the past 25 years, managers have been taught that the best practice for valuing assets--that is, an existing business, factory, product line, or market position--is to use a discounted-cash-flow (DCF) methodology. That is still true. But the particular version of DCF that has been accepted as the standard--using the weighted-average cost of capital (WACC)--is now obsolete. Today's better alternative, adjusted present value (APV), is especially versatile and reliable. It will likely replace WACC as the DCF methodology of choice among generalists. Like WACC, APV is used to value operations, or assets-in-place. Timothy Luehrman explains APV and walks readers through a case example designed to teach them how to use it.

When does a group have responsibility for the well-being of an individual? And what are the differences between the ethics of the individual and the ethics of the corporation? Those are the questions Bowen McCoy wanted readers to explore in this HBR Classic, first published in September-October 1983. In 1982, McCoy spent several months hiking through Nepal. Midway through the difficult trek, he encountered an Indian holy man, or sadhu. Wearing little clothing and shivering in the bitter cold, he was barely alive. McCoy and the other travelers immediately wrapped him in warm clothing and gave him food and drink. A few members of the group broke off to help move the sadhu down toward a village two days' journey away, but they soon left him in order to continue their way up the slope. What happened to the sadhu? In his retrospective commentary, McCoy notes that he never learned the answer to that question. On the Himalayan slope, a collection of individuals was unprepared for a sudden dilemma. McCoy asks, how do organizations respond appropriately to ethical crises?

Diana Sullivan, CEO of Lenox Insurance, thought she had done her job when, after three years of hard work, she had delivered Lifexpress on time and on budget. A sophisticated computer-aided system, it enabled Lenox's 10,000-plus agents to do everything from establish a prospect's financial profile, to select the most appropriate products from the company's myriad policies, to generate all the paperwork needed to close a sale. But now Sullivan's boss, CFO Clay Fontana, seemed to be holding her accountable not only for the creation and implementation of the system but for realizing its business goals as well. And Lenox's CEO, James Bennett, appeared to concur. In this hypothetical case study, Sullivan and the other top executives at Lenox must decide who should be responsible for realizing the business goals of information technology projects. Should Sullivan have gone about the project in another way? Should Fontana and Bennett be playing more active roles? In 97308 and 97308Z, commentators James K. Sims, Thornton May, Richard Nolan, Robert A. Distefano, and John King offer advice on this fictional case study.

Diana Sullivan, CEO of Lenox Insurance, thought she had done her job when, after three years of hard work, she had delivered Lifexpress on time and on budget. A sophisticated computer-aided system, it enabled Lenox's 10,000-plus agents to do everything from establish a prospect's financial profile, to select the most appropriate products from the company's myriad policies, to generate all the paperwork needed to close a sale. But now Sullivan's boss, CFO Clay Fontana, seemed to be holding her accountable not only for the creation and implementation of the system but for realizing its business goals as well. And Lenox's CEO, James Bennett, appeared to concur. In this hypothetical case study, Sullivan and the other top executives at Lenox must decide who should be responsible for realizing the business goals of information technology projects. Should Sullivan have gone about the project in another way? Should Fontana and Bennett be playing more active roles? In 97308 and 97308Z, commentators James K. Sims, Thornton May, Richard Nolan, Robert A. Distefano, and John King offer advice on this fictional case study.

Diana Sullivan, CEO of Lenox Insurance, thought she had done her job when, after three years of hard work, she had delivered Lifexpress on time and on budget. A sophisticated computer-aided system, it enabled Lenox's 10,000-plus agents to do everything from establish a prospect's financial profile, to select the most appropriate products from the company's myriad policies, to generate all the paperwork needed to close a sale. But now Sullivan's boss, CFO Clay Fontana, seemed to be holding her accountable not only for the creation and implementation of the system but for realizing its business goals as well. And Lenox's CEO, James Bennett, appeared to concur. In this hypothetical case study, Sullivan and the other top executives at Lenox must decide who should be responsible for realizing the business goals of information technology projects. Should Sullivan have gone about the project in another way? Should Fontana and Bennett be playing more active roles? In 97308 and 97308Z, commentators James K. Sims, Thornton May, Richard Nolan, Robert A. Distefano, and John King offer advice on this fictional case study.

With the failure of foreign aid and similar development projects, many analysts are saying that poor countries should just free up their economies and let markets do the work. The Heritage Foundation's 1997 Index of Economic Freedom expands on this line of reasoning in a survey of government intervention and economic development. In his review, Harvard Business School Professor Bruce Scott contends that although some of the Index's claims make sense, the editors have mistaken the chain of causation in many cases. Governments in South Korea and Taiwan, for example, liberalized only after their heavy-handed actions brought their economies a degree of prosperity. Some freedoms, such as an internal market without barriers, promote economic development, but free trade for a developing country can actually get in the way. It is not clear that the magic of the marketplace can take care of everything. Citizens still need government for some things--and a broader framework of analysis than the Index for tackling economic choices.

Almost everyone who leads, works for, or interacts with a manufacturing company can benefit from seeing a factory firsthand, David Upton and Stephen Macadam advise. For example, plant visits allow senior executives to understand a site's performance potential, to assess a competitor, or to rally the frontline workforce. Shop floor operators can assess another plant's operations and apply what they've learned in their own factories. But even people who know that plant tours are valuable can find putting them to effective use difficult. First, unclear objectives often turn touring into tourism. Second, many people lack an organizing framework with which to structure observations and accelerate learning. Upton and Macadam show visitors how to set clear objectives and apply an organizing framework in order to make sense of what they see and hear on a plant tour. In this way, visitors will develop a deep understanding of the plant's manufacturing capabilities--and how best to exploit them.

Conventional wisdom holds that market share drives profitability. Certainly, in some industries, such as chemicals, paper, and steel, market share and profitability are inextricably linked. But when the authors studied the profitability of premium brands--brands that sell for 25% to 30% more than private-label brands--in 40 categories of consumer goods, they found that market share alone does not drive profitability. Instead, a brand's profitability is driven by both market share and the nature of the category, or product market, in which the brand competes. Developing the most profitable strategy for a premium brand, then, means reexamining market share targets in light of the brand's category. That is, managers must think about their brand strategy along two dimensions at the same time. First, is the category dominated by premium brands or by value brands? Second, is the brand's relative market share low or high?

Discusses the dimensions of the institutional environment surrounding business, including the role of stakeholders and the need for new collaborations in emerging markets; the key assumptions of the institutional perspective on businesses and markets, especially in contrast to assumptions of neoclassical economics; and managerial implications--analytics, skills, and success factors.

Demonstrates how organizations can move toward creation of processes and information technology infrastructures for effective knowledge management in order to enhance performance and productivity. More specifically, describes the knowledge management strategy of KPMG Peat Marwick LLP in terms of its components: people, processes, and technologies. Traces the history of knowledge management at the firm and the facilitating role of the Internet and intranet technologies in executing the firm's knowledge management strategy.

The general manager of Elliot Lake Retirement Living (ELRL), was trying to decide whether to adopt the recommendations in a student report to broaden the organization's service activities by expanding into assisted living. Although success would allow the organization to grow, failure might threaten the survival of the very town. ELRL was unique; it had been established as a not-for-profit enterprise to try to save the isolated northern Ontario town of Elliot Lake, whose almost exclusive raison d'etre was about to disappear with the impending closure of the area's last uranium mine. Its purpose was to establish the town as a retirement centre. Students have to analyze how the proposal will affect the company's ability to deliver the new service concept. The general manager was considering several options in addition to assisted living. A reasonable course of action must include a consideration of ELRL's status as a not-for-profit entity with a number of significant stakeholders.

Describes the cost control system used at an automobile engine plant for labor and overhead costs. The finance staff prepares daily, weekly, and monthly variance reports against budgets. Department supervisors, finance staff, and the plant manager discuss the use and interpretation of these reports. Also describes the company's budgeting procedures, which include a performance improvement factor to motivate annual productivity gains and cost reductions. Allows the class to discuss whether the extensive and detailed variance analysis systems promote valuable managerial objectives such as cost control, learning, and improvement. A big issue is whether an emphasis on meeting short-run budgets inhibits longer-term improvements in quality and productivity.

A newly reopened automobile engine plant has been organized along total quality and teamwork principles. Employees now solve problems and ensure quality, rather than watch parts being produced. New operating and financial systems have been installed to promote continuous improvement, waste elimination, and cost reduction activities.