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Designed to explore recognition issues in the context of a potential market downturn. In late 2000, Lucent Technologies reports multiple revisions to its recent financial results due to revenue recognition problems, leading to a dramatic decline in its stock price. This disclosure comes in the wake of a period of spectacular growth for the communications equipment industry during the 1990s. From the perspective of a securities analyst covering the industry, are the troubles at Lucent indicitive of larger revenue recognition issues throughout the industry? Facilitates a discussion of potential early warning signs of the risks faced by Lucent's competitors.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 107025

This note describes the current state of information technology connectivity in the health care sector.

Work groups are the building blocks of organizations. They are found in all areas of an organization, from research and development to customer service, and at all levels, from the executive suite to the factory floor. Some are incredibly successful, while others are dismal failures. Team work is hard work, and all too often groups do not live up to their potential. Provides a framework for analyzing work groups so that group leaders and members can identify actions that will enhance their effectiveness. Helps provide insight into the factors most profoundly shaping the development, dynamics, and effectiveness of task-performing groups and, in particular, group culture, its antecedents, and consequences. To illustrate how the framework is used, it looks at and analyzes an actual work group: the new product team of the Merit Corporation. Examines the impact of leadership style on group culture and outcomes and describes how one leader's individual style can affect the way teams operate and perform.

What does it take to build a successful career over time? Describes Amy Schulman's career progression and role as a star senior litigator and top executive at one of the world's largest law firms. It focuses on different stages in her career and what she did to be successful at each stage. The demands on her time--client development, casework, firm leadership responsibilities, mentoring her people, managing her team, spending time with her family--were changing over time. After being chosen to sit on the firm's Global Board as well as its Executive and Policy Committees, Amy Schulman feels that there are things that are being left undone. She must decide how to allocate her time.

For decades, Progressive has proven to be one of the most innovative players in the US auto insurance industry, but can it maintain its lead? Progressive has moved up to the number three position in the industry in 2006, but competitors are finally waking up to the threat the company poses. Can they make it to the number one slot? If so, how? What advice would you give CEO Glenn Renwick?

The firm has to choose between an established brand, Tanishq, and a new skunkworks brand, GoldPlus, to go after the Indian plain gold jewelry market: Tanishq, initially targeted at a western customer, has undergone strategic retooling and has currently been repositioned to serve the "traditional yet modern" Indian woman. The brand still carries some baggage from its past. GoldPlus, on the other hand, is a new brand that is positioned to serve the plain gold wedding jewelry market. A variety of strategic, economic, organizational and brand investment reasons make the decision an important one.

In 2005, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) leadership decided to take a hard look at issues of race and institutional barriers impeding the progress of African American and Hispanic students. Examines how a large, urban public school district attempts to systemically address and eliminate the district's minority student achievement gap. The (A) case gives an overview of MCPS' past efforts to address the district's minority student achievement gap leading up to July 2005. It shows how a school district with a long history of dealing with racial issues and the minority achievement gap continues to grapple with many of the same issues related to access, equity and belief systems. Picking up where the (A) case ends, the (B) case examines MCPS' new approach and specific efforts to narrow the district's achievement gap through data utilization, accountability mechanisms, and professional development after July 2005. The (B) case also details the leadership team's challenges in communicating about race. It is accompanied by a video supplement of MCPS Superintendent Jerry Weast speaking explicitly about race and the achievement gap to MCPS administrators.

This case uses several reports to compare China and India, and it encourages students to analyse the long list of public policies that have restrained India's economic growth and FDI inflows, and that have acted as barriers to liberalization reforms. Presented are the historical realities that supported India's political philosophy of autarky and government intervention. Finally, the case leads students to consider the future prospects for India, and potential foreign investors there, through comparisons with China.

Lulu.com is an e-commerce company that distributes content for book authors, video producers, calendar designers and other intellectual property creators that can be captured in digital formats. At this time, Lulu.com has developed a successful niche market in print-on-demand books within the United States. However, the vision of its founder is much larger. The president is faced with the strategic dilemma of whether to expand Lulu.com's product offerings or to focus on internal operations for the next six to 12 months.

An abstract is not available for this product.

Deals with the concept of how to orchestrate a consistent CSR strategy consolidating many diverse social initiatives started within a business group. The CSU-CCA Group (CSU-CCA) is one of the leading retailing businesses in Central America. The Group includes the Corporacion de Supermercados Unidos (CSU), a supermarket chain, and the Corporacion de Companias Agroindustriales (CCA), in charge of fresh- and private-label product storage and distribution for CSU supermarkets. The CSU-CCA Group was involved in several social programs for both its personnel and other members of the communities in which it operated. Some of these programs were institutionalized, while others were not. In some cases, the Group's involvement had stemmed from a personal initiative driven by one of its employees or managers, although the programs were not aligned to company strategies. By mid-2002, the Group made a corporate decision to articulate its social engagements within its business strategy as a means of becoming more effectively involved in the communities in which it operated. Accordingly, in May 2002, the Corporate Affairs Department (CAD) was created to oversee corporate social responsibility issues and external communications with stakeholders. The CAD reported to the CSU-CCA Board Chairman. Discusses the role of Manuel Zuniga, Corporate Affairs Department Director and Social Responsibility Committee member, who, at the next meeting, will need to propose an overall CSR strategy for the Group, including a recommendation as to which social ventures to support and which not to. He would also need to answer other questions: How should the company draw away from the programs it would no longer support while preventing the alienation of those in charge of them? How should CSU-CCA develop future programs? How should it go about raising personnel awareness of, and commitment to, social programs?

Describes the role of a leading Indian business leader in the campaign for independence before 1947 and his close relationship with the legendary Mahatma Gandhi. Provides the opportunity to consider the impact of colonialism on shaping Indian entrepreneurship and the role of the small Marwari group, originally from the Marwar region of Rajasthan, in creating many of India's leading business houses, including the Bajaj. The Bajaj, like other Marwari, were traders who after World War I transitioned into manufacturing, including sugar manufacturing and steel rolling.

Having already made 10 acquisitions of competitors in the last decade, the CEO of Arrow is evaluating the acquisition of another small competitor to boost sales, become #1 in a niche market segment, and achieve economies of scale. He is struggling with whether the deal makes strategic sense given forecasts that this niche segment is declining, whether the price is too high given the competitor's lack of profitability, and how to integrate the company into Arrow to maximize its value if he does the deal. Provides information to permit valuing the acquisition and developing a post-merger integration strategy and plan.

Reviews the principal ways in which the owners of a family business achieve their governance objectives of a suitable identity and sensible direction and the discipline to achieve these. Covers the responsibilities and rights of owners, plus governance procedures, plans, policies, statements, rules, agreements, and structure.

An abstract is not available for this product.

Examines the ways in which a leader can create, influence, and manage a school district's organizational culture to support continuous improvement of student achievement outcomes.

GFS-China Technologies is a joint venture between Standard Industries (Standard) of the United States and Good Fortune Enterprises (Good Fortune) of China. The joint venture was created to manufacture various automotive heating ventilation and air conditioning parts. Two weeks after GFS-China began operating, Good Fortune's president stopped the joint venture and would not allow the joint venture general manager into the plant. Good Fortune's president wrote a letter to Standard and demanded that the venture general manager be replaced. After various meetings and communications between the partners, it was decided that a new general manager would be appointed and would come from Stan-dard. Steve Parker, a Standard manager who was in China working as Asia Pacific purchasing manager for Standard HVAC, was asked if would be interim general manager in GFS-China. It was now up to Parker to decide if he should accept the position and, if so, what he should do to get the joint venture back on track.

Since the company launched its software product in August 2003, the word "Skype" has become synonymous with free calls over the Internet. Skype developed software that allowed people around the world to talk to each other for free. Prior to the company's $2.6 billion acquisition by eBay, announced in September 2005 and finalized in October 2005, the Skype network had grown to over 55 million registered users. Within two years of the Skype beta product launch, the software had been downloaded over 205 million times and the user growth rate had climbed to an impressive 130,000 new users per day. Skype's registered user growth rate exceeded that of KaZaa, Hotmail, and ICQ over the initial 24-month period after each company launched its product. From Skype's inception until the company's acquisition by eBay, the company had secured over $20 million in venture capital funding, while operating with just over 200 employees. eBay announced its intention to acquire Skype in a cash and stock transaction totaling $2.6 billion on September 12, 2005. The acquisition was completed on October 14, 2005. Within six months of the announcement, Skype went on to sign co-marketing deals and partnerships with Motorola, Intel, Kodak, Netgear, Panasonic, Philips, and Warner Music Group. Skype continued to break new records and achieve significant growth: the total number of registered users climbed to over 100 million in April 2006 and the number of simultaneous Skype users online was propelled to 6 million. By mid-2006, it was believed that Skype carried an estimated 7% of all global international voice traffic. Looking forward, the Skype team had a number of challenges with which to contend. How would the eBay acquisition impact Skype's distinctive culture? How would Skype compete with emerging services such as GoogleTalk and incumbents such as AT&T? What strategy should Skype pursue to sustain its growth?

Ocean Park was the only amusement park in Hong Kong until 2005, when Hong Kong Disney exploded onto the scene. Outlines Ocean Park's history and its response to Disney's encroachment into its market. Ocean Park acted swiftly and decisively to capitalize on the excitement generated by Disney, thus turning what could have been a threat into an opportunity. In terms of business-level strategy, the park moved to accentuate the differences with Disney rather than compete head-on. As the CEO stated, "We have no intention of trying to out-Disney Disney." The park focused on its aquarium, animals, and thrill-rides as opposed to the "fantasy" and animated characters that make up Disney's core competence. By following this strategy, the park was able to capture a large portion of Disney visitors that came from Mainland China. Also discusses a recent restructuring, human resources management issues, and other challenges that the park faced in 2006.