Discusses a manager's responsibilities in reporting and ending sexual harassment. Jerry Tarkwell discovers that one of his employees is being sexually harassed by a colleague. When he tells the harassed employee that he has reported the incident to the company equal employment opportunity officer, she asks him not to pursue the matter because she is afraid her career might be ruined by an investigation. Tarkwell is torn between his duty to keep the workplace safe from sexual harassment by following company policy, and the victim's wish for privacy. Five experts on sexual harassment offer their views.
Although the number of women managers has grown, they are still usually found in junior positions. Many companies hire women only to ensure mere adequacy and avoid litigation. In addition, most companies ignore child care and other family concerns. At the same time women have demonstrated their competence in the best business schools, their ambitions and energies are stifled by businesses. Top managers must support their female employees by: 1) acknowledging the biological fact of maternity; 2) allowing flexibility; 3) providing training that develops women's leadership potential; and 4) eliminating the barriers that exist for women in the workplace.
Germany's small and midsize companies, known as the Mittelstand, are a hidden source of wisdom on global competition. Companies like Krones, Korber/Hauni, Weinig, Webasto, and TetraWerke dominate their markets with world market shares ranging from 70-90%. When combined, they account for the bulk of Germany's trade surplus. The success of the Mittelstand lies in a set of five common practices. These companies all: 1) combine a narrow product-market focus with broad geographic scope; 2) perform best in the areas customers care most about; 3) balance closeness to customers with deep technical knowledge; 4) rely on themselves, especially for R&D; and 5) foster close ties between managers and workers.
In today's dynamic business environment, strategy too must become dynamic. The essence of strategy is not the structure of a company's products but the dynamics of its behavior. To succeed, a company must weave its key business processes into hard-to-imitate strategic capabilities that distinguish it from its competitors. A capability is a set of business processes understood strategically. While such capabilities are collective and cross-functional, they must be built and managed by the CEO. Uses examples from Wal-Mart.
The long-term competitiveness of most manufacturers depends on their product development capabilities. Yet most companies' development process is unruly and unfocused, with a collection of projects that do not match business objectives and consume far more development resources than are available. An "aggregate project plan" can help managers to focus on a set of projects, rather than individual ones. A central element of the plan is the project map, which categorizes projects into five types: breakthrough, platform, derivative, R&D, and partnerships. With the plan, managers can improve resource allocation, project sequencing, and critical development capabilities.
Describes the importance of industry structure and competitive positioning to the profitability of U.S. corporations between 1981 and 1994. Cites recent research indicating that persistent industry differences and persistent competitor differences account for 19% and 32%, respectively, of variation in profit. Additional evidence is developed to show the relationship between industry-average performance and competitor differences.
Describes the forty-year evolution of the U.K. frozen food industry, and traces the emergence, dominance, and the decline of Birds Eye. Its success is as a vertically integrated producer, distributor, and marketer of frozen foods that pioneers the industry in the U.K. Its decline as other firms enter all stages of the value chain is seen as a result of its earlier success that yields it an unsustainable strategic position. Examines vertical integration as a strategy, the analytic rationale to be vertically integrated, and the disadvantages of vertical integration.
Describes the evolution of international trade and global competition in computers. Focuses on the role of country factors, government policies, and firm strategies in shifting competitive advantage among regions of the world. Pays special attention to international alliances in this context. Allows integrated analysis of country, government, and firm advantage in high technology competition.
Describes a conflict that has arisen between an account manager and a creative director at Tassani Communications, a Chicago-based advertising agency which is making the transition from entrepreneurial to professional management. The client, the marketing director of a muffler repair chain, has called the account manager to complain about the creative director's behavior. The account manager must figure out what to do. The object is to provide students with an opportunity to grapple with the challenges of managing relationships with peers and superiors. Students can discuss managing 1) cross-departmental relationships, 2) interpersonal conflicts, and 3) creativity.
Beech-Nut's CEO must decide what to do. Asks students to consider how much evidence of impurity should be enough to trigger management's acknowledgment of a problem. What are the cognitive and attitudinal factors and pressures that lead people to persist in beliefs long after they appear untenable to more objective observers?
Explores BMW's decision about how to manufacture prototype vehicles. Historically, BMW's prototypes were handcrafted by highly skilled artisans in the company's shop. A proposal has been made to alter the process so that prototypes are made in a way that can better uncover potential problems that may arise during final production. While the new approach is expected to make production start-up of new models smoother and reduce quality problems, there is some concern within the company that it will lead to less flexibility to change (and improve) designs during the development cycle. Explores different ways of competing on quality in a luxury product segment and how the product development process affects each of these. A second objective is to examine the notion of a prototyping strategy and the role prototyping plays in linking development strategy and manufacturing strategy.
The case series examines the role of financial reporting and corporate finance policies as vehicles for communication between managers and outside investors. This case describes management's concern that the company's stock is undervalued because analysts viewed the company's accounting as aggressive. Students are asked to advise CUC's management on ways to improve investor confidence.
Top officials at Pfizer are assessing their strategy for improving protection of Pfizer's patents around the world. The outcome of the Uruguay Round of the GATT negotiations is uncertain, and it is not clear whether an acceptable intellectual property protection agreement will emerge. The case describes how Pfizer helped transform intellectual property from a lawyer's specialty to an international trade issue of concern around the world through close cooperation with the U.S. government, leadership in forming a tripartite coalition among U.S., Japanese, and European industry, and mobilization of the Pfizer organization. Shows how far a company may go to protect its intellectual property in a world where the concept of intellectual property is not universally recognized or accepted. May also be used to discuss the effectiveness and legitimacy of Pfizer's strategy, the conflicts between industrialized country and developing country perspectives on international trade and national sovereignty, and the question of appropriate norms of intellectual property protection.
Japanese financial institutions' willingness to sell put options on the Nikkei Stock Average provides investment banks with the raw material from which to create a security that would allow U.S. investors to bet on falls in the Japanese Stock Market. The investment bank that seeks to create this new product must decide how to design, produce (hedge), and price the options (Nikkei Put Warrants). Highlights the global nature of new product development in the securities market and provides opportunities for students to make and critique the key decisions involved in creating this new product. Students must consider the costs of production, the preferences of consumers, competitive dynamics, and the pricing of substitutes for the new product.
Intel Corp., the world's dominant designer and manufacturer of microprocessors (the "brains" of the personal computer), has accumulated a large amount of cash (net of debt). Furthermore, it expects to continue to accumulate cash at an unprecedented rate. Has the company grown up to the extent that it can begin disbursing cash to its shareholders? What kind of disbursement policy should it choose? Intel will continue to face competition from imitators of its processors in the future, yet it is not clear whether its cash holdings can or will be a competitive weapon in this competitive battle. The case focuses on financial policy issues and on how they then interact with a very unusual and dynamic form of product-market competition and innovation. Can be used as a one- or two-day exploration of the following issues: complementarity externalities and costs of finance, appropriability of returns on investments, the role of finance in high-tech and rapidly innovating sectors, the strategic uses of cash, analysis of capital structure and cash disbursement policies, the use of financial policy as a competitive weapon, and timing in the sale and purchase of equity-linked instruments.
Provides a fundamental technical review of valuation techniques used to assess cross-border investments. Discusses the discounting of free cash flows with a weighted average cost of capital, the use of adjusted present value, and the importance of considering real options. Special concerns such as foreign-exchange risk, country risks, and so forth are also discussed.