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Dove and Axe were two highly successful brands owned by Unilever, a portfolio company. Dove was a female-oriented beauty product brand that exhorted "real beauty" and not the unachievable standards that the media portrayed. In contrast, Axe was a brand that purportedly "gives men the edge in the mating game." Their risqué commercials always portrayed the supermodel-type beauty ideal that Dove was trying to change. Unilever had always been a company of brands where the consumer knew the brands but not the company, but recently there had been the idea to unify the company with an umbrella mission for all of its brands. This would turn Unilever into a company with brands, potentially increasing consumer awareness and encourage cross-purchases between the different brands. However, this raised questions about the conflicting messages between the brands' marketing campaigns, most notably between Unilever's two powerhouse brands, Dove and Axe. The case begins with COO Alan Jope anticipating an upcoming press meeting in New York City to discuss Unilever's current (i.e., 2005) performance and announce Unilever's decision to create an umbrella mission statement for the company. This case focuses on the central question of whether or not consistency between brand messages is necessary or inherently problematic.

The case describes the evolution between 1999 and 2005 of an unusual innovation team within the office of the Chief Information Officer of BP. The team leader, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Phiroz Darukhanavala ("Daru"), eschewed a large group and a venture budget in favor of a small, lean team intimately engaged with BP's business units. The case described several mechanisms created by the CTO office during its early evolution, aimed at expanding executives' appreciation of emerging technology capabilities, building a network of relationships through which emerging technologies are scouted and vetted, and providing structured mechanisms for technology transfer. In late 2005 the CIO's Advisory Group challenged the CTO office to "keep reinventing yourselves." Students are asked to assume Daru's role and suggest new processes and structures to continue the evolution of the CTO office. The teaching note describes what the team actually did, and addresses questions raised at the end of the case.

A married couple who have a successful industrial B2B business evaluate whether or not to sell the business to two of their offspring, who are both entrepreneurial MBA graduates. Complicating factors include the fact that the sale price and structure need to finance the couple's retirement and give fair inheritance treatment to the remaining siblings. In addition, the father has had some health issues and the business is doing well, so there is a lot of forward momentum to sell to the next generation

Because U.S. legislators are often most attentive to the issues raised by people who create jobs in their states, Bob Epstein, a local business owner, has been asked by activists to help lobby for a bill that would mandate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in California. Before deciding whether he should work to establish the business community's backing for this bill, Epstein must weigh the pros and cons of supporting measures that might put his business (and standing in the community) at risk.

In December 1999 Thomson Financial (TF) began a radical transformation from forty-one divisions toward a more integrated firm organized around customer segments. This required active, coordinated involvement from business, organization, and technology functions, as well as sustained investment and execution through the crises of the technology market crash and September 11, 2001. By 2005 TF had emerged as one of the top three financial information firms globally (with Bloomberg and Reuters).

Personal computer game maker Blizzard filed a lawsuit in 2002 against the developers of the bnetd project. The bnetd project was a volunteer effort of game enthusiasts and programmers frustrated with difficulties encountered playing Blizzard's personal computer games on its 24-hour Battle.net online gaming service. Via reverse engineering of Blizzard's software, the bnetd developers created and disseminated a free open source software program that mimicked the Battle.net playing experience while improving on some of its deficiencies. Blizzard, one of the world's most successful PC game publishers and a part of international media conglomerate Vivendi Universal, charged the bnetd developers with breach of contract and various counts of intellectual property infringement. The defendants maintained that U.S. law, in an effort to spur innovation in the United States, protected their activities. Describes the events leading up to a court-ordered mediation session between the two parties in October 2003. Students are asked, as business managers, to determine the legal and non-legal alternatives available to Blizzard and the bnetd developers, and to decide which strategy to pursue from each party's perspective.

The Indian electricity sector was opened to the private sector under the IPP policy. The NTPC, India's largest and perhaps most efficient generator had to respond to the changing scenario. It set out to set up the Simhadri project in Andhra Pradesh, going beyond to original mandate. The IPP policy, its perversities, the background of the power sector, the problems there in and the response of NTPC are discussed. Case (B) discusses the issues related to Project Planning and Implementation.

China has been a member of the WTO for more than five years. Its implementation of requirements has been a mixed bag. While China's growth is still spectacular, many institutional problems remain. And there is a new problem--a spectacular trade asymmetry with the United States.

In 2005, Jay Cross, New York Jets president, must decide how to proceed with finding a new home for the football team he heads after New York's Public Authorities Control Board rejects a $1.4 billion plan to build the New York Sports and Convention Center (NYSCC) on the West Side of Manhattan. If built, the NYSCC would have served as the home for the Jets and possibly the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Examines the roles that various constituencies played in the development process.

In January 2006, eClinicalWorks (eCW) had an acquisition opportunity that could fundamentally change the way they had done business since the inception of the company in 1999. eClinicalWorks was a privately run business in the healthcare information technology field that took in $25 million in revenue in 2005. Revenues for 2006 were projected to reach $40 million. This successful electronic medical record (EMR) company had grown thanks to their reliable software and responsive customer service. The company had achieved this growth without the help of any outside financing. The five co-founders of eCW, who treated each other like an extended family, invested years of sweat equity and hard work to shape eCW as they wanted. They were also proud of their company culture, which de-emphasized traditional company hierarchies and encouraged independent thinking and cooperative working arrangements across departments. Keeping the company private, in their view, had helped them to maintain this culture. The opportunity to acquire another EMR company offered eCW the chance to grow quickly in an industry that is estimated to take in more than $40 billion in overall revenues in 2007. But this acquisition would require outside financing of some sort. Was this the moment to accelerate the rate of growth to which eCW had become accustomed-catching up with, rather than anticipating, how their customer base would expand? Or should they maintain the same approach that had worked so well since 1999?

In May 2005, Steve Bollinger was about to become president and chief operating officer of Pervasis Therapeutics, a small cell therapy start-up in Cambridge, MA. If proven successful, Pervasis' product, Vascugel, could change the way vascular disease is treated and have a major impact in a large and underserved population. However, Vascugel had not yet gone into human clinical trials, and getting it to market would mean navigating the FDA approval process, as well as raising the capital necessary to finance the endeavor. It was up to Bollinger to decide on a strategy for Vascugel's clinical trials. In addition, he would have to decide how much money the company needed to raise, taking into account the interests of the company's founders and existing venture investors. Finally, while Bollinger was expected to lead the company for the next two to three years, Pervasis' board was planning to launch a search for a permanent CEO in the future.

One of the directors described his time working at Nissan as a "near-death experience." It was a bumpy ride, but under the guidance of Carlos Gosen, Nissan became one of the most remarkable corporate turnaround stories in the automotive or any other industry. In this case, students can see how Gosen carried out his plan to rescue Nissan by building an emotional connection between customers and the brand, introducing cross-functional teams, designing the Xterra, encouraging managers to "lead from the middle," organizing the Shift marketing campaign, and answering the question, "What's your brand stand for?" Now, Nissan faces such issues as finding the right balance between managing costs and building demand and the level of differentiation needed to maintain the customer's relationship to the brand.

Reflecting on an innovative joint venture that his company executed with a public school district in 2004, the CEO of Wireless Generation, a five-year-old, privately held educational technology company, is contemplating the company's product development strategy in 2006. Highlights the strengths and limitations of developing products for public sector organizations in markets created by legislation , as well as the opportunities and challenges of developing a product for mass distribution in partnership with one client. Also provides an overview of approaches to teaching literacy in grades kindergarten through third grade, as well as the assessment and accountability landscape in U.S. public education.

It draws upon unique insights from some of historic key players as well as the current ones and sets up situations that can be interpreted from different roles in an organization (marketing, operations, senior management, etc.) and some of the issues they faced being the first multi-cultural Disney theme park in the world. Disneyland Resort Paris opened its gates in April 1992 amidst enormous controversy as a bastion of American cultural imperialism in Europe. By 2006 it was the most visited tourist site in Europe with over 12 million annual visitors. In spite of a difficult tourist industry in the early 2000s, Disneyland Resort Paris's attendance remained stable: 60% of its visitors were repeat visitors, and guest satisfaction was extremely high. The operation had created 43,000 jobs, invested more than €5 billion and contributed to the development of a new region. As the leaders developed their execution plans, they wondered what principles should guide them and how to interpret Disney in multicultural Europe. Guests from different parts of Europe wanted different things from a vacation: how could they keep the classic Disney magic yet successfully appeal to European consumers? After 15 years of switching between French and American leadership, the answers were still not obvious. The leaders agreed that the 2007 celebrations of its 15th anniversary should set the scene for Disney's recognition as a well established experience in the heart of Europe, and a long-term financial success. But what would it look like and what path would take them there? Learning objectives: The case was written to support two teaching objectives; the class can focus on one or both depending on time and instructor objectives. It raises issues that can be dealt with through perspectives of organizational behaviour, general management and marketing. 1. Identifying the complex role of national or ethnic cultures in multinational firms.

Rapidly growing Vipp sells highly differentiated (and expensive) "designer" versions of a product that most buyers think about in purely functional terms: Trash bins. Examines how the company successfully produces and positions a trash bin so that it is regarded as an "art object" (and which has been displayed as such as the Paris Louvre). Though it is a tangible product, a Vipp bin's price cannot be even remotely justified by its functional features; customers, rather, pay dearly for the intangible aspects of the product, which the firm works very hard to keep integrated with the physical product. Deals with a range of issues confronting creative economy companies, such as how to produce products with very important intangible components, how to assure and manage the design integrity of a family of products, how far to extend a brand, how to manage creative employees, and where to source creative work.

After a "first career" in business, HBS graduate Christopher Crane becomes CEO of a worldwide microfinance network. The organization's twin challenges are: 1) developing metrics to give it an accurate picture of its situation and impacts, and 2) generating rapid growth. Students learn how non-financial metrics are integral to Opportunity International's mission but are difficult to define and measure; tailored metrics are necessary for demonstrating success to donors and for strategic planning. Also, the organization is committed to helping as many people out of poverty as quickly as possible, but donations and repayments are not enough to fuel rapid growth; other financial tools are needed. Explores the challenges of measuring non-financial success and considers the trade-offs of continuing as a non-profit versus converting to a for-profit entity. Students will gain skills relevant to growing an organization that is mission-driven but financially constrained, and that has a complex array of international stakeholders.

Founded in 1987, China Merchants Bank (CMB) is a pioneer in the use of technical innovation and IT as a competitive tool in the rapidly evolving Chinese banking sector. With a relatively small branch network when compared to its larger competitors, CMB uses an IT-driven strategy to introduce an "all-in-one" card, which integrates a suite of financial products to drive its personal banking business enabling CMB to be ranked 6th among China's commercial banks and 2nd among the other national commercial banks in terms of total assets as of June 2006. Underlying its excellence in personal banking is CMB's leadership in developing its credit card business. By April 2006, CMB had issued a total of over 5 million credit cards, capturing one-third of the Chinese credit card market. In September 2006, CMB's IPO in Hong Kong fetched about $2.4 billion and, given deregulation in the banking sector in China, CMB's President was presented with new challenges and opportunities concerning how such funds should be productively allocated to ensure CMB's competitiveness.

Vinod Kapur has founded a unique enterprise, Keggfarms, based on a special poultry chicken he bred to address the nutritional and income needs of some of the poorest people on earth: India's rural villagers. As of November 2006, Keggfarms was supplying chicks to about 4 million poor villagers, generating incomes for 700,000 households when they sold the eggs and meat. In November 2006, Kapur faced a number of issues, including how to expand without capital, how to deal with imitation, and how to balance Keggfarm's for-profit and social values.

How should creditors pursue their claims in a multi-jurisdiction bankruptcy? David Butters, Managing Director at Lehman Brothers, negotiates a restructuring of Navigator Gas Transport, a shipping company that is headquartered in Switzerland, incorporated in the Isle of Man, and operates ships that travel around the world. In analyzing the choices he faces, students must consider how the initial capitalization of Navigator contributed to its financial distress, evaluate several restructuring plans from a variety of perspectives, and assess how Butters might resolve the legal inconsistencies that arise in a multi-jurisdiction bankruptcy. In addition, they must determine if Butters has sufficient information about, and control over, operations at Navigator to be confident engaging in a lengthy set of legal proceedings.

In Tokyo on Monday, April 24th, 2006, the U.S. dollar fell to a three-month low against the yen, carrying over its weakness from Friday's trading in New York, where it had fallen more than two yen (1.75%). Mr. Teruhide Osawa, president of OSG Corporation in Japan (OSG), a multinational cutting-tool producer, was following the foreign exchange market on his computer screen that Monday and was very surprised to see that the yen had appreciated 1.75% in one day. He wondered if such a big change would cause problems for the company's business. Faced with big fluctuations in the yen-dollar exchange rate, he summoned the manager of the Support Center Finance Group, asking him to analyze and report on how OSG's foreign currency transaction exposure was measured, and how it could be managed. He asked the manager specifically how the company was currently hedging its foreign currency exposures. The Finance Group gave a presentation at a meeting of the board of directors on May 29th, 2006. They explained that in order to eliminate short-term transaction exposure, a variety of hedging methods were available at varying costs to the company. After the presentation by the Finance Group, members of the board got into a heated discussion.