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An abstract is not available for this product.

An abstract is not available for this product.

Professional cycling teams use road bikes made up of several parts or components: frames, forks, wheels and tires, saddles, seat posts, handlebars, and pedals. Pedals hold a cyclist's special shoes in place so they can "clip in" for greater control and power, and several companies make different models of pedals. Lance Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour de France, uses Shimano pedals. Shimano, founded and based in Sakai City, Japan, makes many of the key components of a bike. The fact that each of the different components to a high-end road bike are manufactured by different companies makes for a complicated bike industry supply chain. By 2006, Shimano had grown from a family-based business (founded by Shozoburo Shimano in 1920) that focused on freewheels, to a $1.6 billion global company (with net income of $186 million) that not only manufactured mid- to high-end bike components (and low-end components as well), but also made fishing tackle. Eighty percent of the company's sales were from high-end bike components and 20 % from mid-range bicycle components. Seventy-five percent of the company's earnings could be attributed to components. Shimano led the bike component industry, owning over 80 % of the high-end component market. But growth did not come overnight. Shimano's leaders reflected on the company and its growth trajectory. They were particularly proud of Shimano's market domination, largely attributable to the company's commitment to research and technology, as well as to the amount of value the company had been able to leverage from the industry's supply chain. As new technologies and new companies began to enter the market, and the longer term sales trend of a mature road bike industry remained relatively flat--despite the "Armstrong effect"--Shimano's leaders and their team wondered how to continue their growth in the mid- to high-end components market and achieve growth on an even greater global scale.

In preparation for hosting the 2004 Olympics, the city of Athens, Greece embarked on an extensive renovation project, New Images for Athens, to beautify the city. In total, over 1,600 buildings received attention at a cost of over 4.5 million euros. The work was carried out through a partnership that involved local officials, architects, skilled trades people, the business community, and Greek citizens. Initial results were visually impressive; most of the projects lay along the routes to the Olympic venues in the city and tourists enjoyed the brightly colored buildings and small parks that were created. However, after the Olympics, Athens had to evaluate the long-term gains from the NIA program. What value had been created initially and how could that value be sustained for the permanent residents of the city. HKS Case Number 1821.0

Summarizes the background and career highlights of Jack Valenti, longtime head of the Motion Picture Association of America and the Motion Picture Association. Sets up three difficult negotiation challenges facing Valenti over a rating system for movies, the financial syndication rules for television networks, and a French-backed "culture exemption" for movies in world trade talks.

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Hewlett-Packard decided that, to grow more rapidly, it needed to design a revolutionary disk drive product that would create an entirely new market or application for magnetic recording technology. The company followed most of the "rules" good managers follow in such situations: heavyweight project team, lots of senior management support, etc. But it still failed.

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Provides an overview framework for understanding international strategy. Observes that international strategy draws on much of the same theory as corporate strategy. The same tests that can be applied to justify expansion across businesses--the better off and ownership tests--also apply to expansion across borders. What is different about international strategy is that widening a firm's domain to the entire globe introduces substantively different degrees of heterogeneity, scale, and volatility across markets. These three factors create new opportunities and trade-offs for multinationals. Effective international strategy is based on a source of competitive advantage that capitalizes on one of these factors and aligns the configuration of all its activities in support of that advantage. Multinationals need to choose the products they offer, the countries in which they compete, the location of their activities, and their organizational design contingent on their international strategy.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 606-088.

The B-case of this three part series shows how performance lagged behind expectations. Women dropped out of the scheme, sales decreased during the harvest season, and the system risked losing momentum. HLL needed to decide whether to wait for the system to eventually take off, or to implement changes to the complex system of interdependent variables and players. This case shows how a mere innovation, as outlined in the A-case, is insufficient to create a sustainable model. Learning, facing reality, and giving the system time to evolve are key success factors.

The C-case of this three part series presents the actual changes that were implemented, the rather impressive successes achieved over time, and HLL's vision for the future. Within less than a decade, HLL hopes to build a pool of 100,000 self-employed women covering 500,000 villages, and reaching 500 million people, thus creating opportunities for rural women and their families to live in improved conditions and raise their overall standard of living.

As of 2005, over 10 million people were using peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks to swap music, movies, and software for free. P2P software programs such as Kazaa, Limewire, and eDonkey received a great deal of media attention. Music and movie industry organizations believed that downloading copyrighted material was stealing. The same industry associations took the P2P companies to court, maintaining that the P2P software developers should be held responsible when users unlawfully copied copyrighted songs, movies, and television programs. P2P software creators claimed that they were merely promoting a technology with multiple uses. Indeed, P2P was a network architecture that could be deployed to a number of other applications, such as distributed computing, instant messaging, voice telephony, spam filtering, and other commercial activities. In the midst of high-profile battles between the entertainment industry and P2P file-sharing software developers, a number of proprietary systems offering legal downloads had emerged. Entertainment industry supporters pointed to Apple's iTunes .99 cent download fee per song as an indicator of the future. Although iTunes satisfied entertainment industry executives that it was possible to pay for downloads successfully, the battle between proprietary systems and P2P file sharing seemed to continue. Who would win in the long run?

Ryan and David Kratz have formed a new company, under very favorable terms, with a fiberglass boat builder. But at the signing of the agreement for the new company's information, the builder's spouse suggests that the Kratz's share of ownership be reduced from 67% to 50%, substantially changing the ownership dynamics.

Supplements the (A) case.

In January 2006, Joe Hogan, head of General Electric (GE) Healthcare Technologies, prepared to step into William Castell's shoes as CEO of GE Healthcare, the world's leading manufacturer of diagnostic imaging equipment. In 2004, former CEO Jeff Immelt acquired Amersham for $10 billion. The acquisition was part of Immelt's GE-wide move to reemphasize research and development. Hogan had run GE Healthcare's predecessor organization, GE Medical Systems (GEMS). A 20-year GE veteran, Hogan witnessed three distinct stages of the subsidiary's development as it evolved from the Global Product Co. (GPC) to the modified GPC and then to GE Healthcare. By 2005, the company had a 34% market share of the worldwide diagnostic imaging equipment business. GE executives designed the acquisitions to catalyze the firm's move from an engineering and physics-based diagnostic company to a life sciences-based health care solutions company that could better meet worldwide health care needs. Hogan wondered: What challenges did GEMS' previous quantum leaps portend for this new step-function change?

Innovation was linked to Timberland's heritage. In 2005, CEO Jeff Swartz and COO Ken Pucker hoped the Invention Factory, an advanced concept lab, would develop new breakthrough products and reinvigorate the company's culture of innovation. Since the 1960s, Timberland had relied on innovation, developing the world's first waterproof boot and, in the 1980s, category-defining boat shoes and day hiking boots. Creating variations of these core products, along with expansion into apparel, had sustained Timberland's business for more than 30 years. Timberland's growth in the past six years was due to increased international sales and new customer segments. As Timberland's leaders looked to the future, they hoped Doug Clark, a biomechanist, and his Invention Factory team would bring a scientific approach toward building the next generation of Timberland products and ideas. The team had to convince those in the mainstream business to accept their new ideas and integrate them back into the product line.

The issue of privacy stirred a tumultuous uproar when the ABC County Health Department (ABCCHD) was planning for an e-Healthcare system that utilized information technology to streamline the administration process of patients. ABCCHD had hired a software vendor, Info-Health, a company that specialized in information system development for the healthcare industry to help in the project. The privacy of patients with Sexually Transmitted Diseases/Human Immunity System was a thorny issue in the implementation of the e-Healthcare system. A trade-off between privacy and cost was discussed and debated. Three alternatives, with varying degrees of privacy and cost, were considered.

Being in charge of cleaning up the March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill accident, meant that Otto Harrison, the general manager of Exxon International Alaskan Operations, was there when the storm clouds over the event were thick. Despite years of learning, wisdom, growth, and dealing with success and failure, Harrison had never faced a challenge of this magnitude. He was sure his experiences would be utilized in full force. The questions he thought about included whether three different governing bodies, the state of Alaska, the federal government, and Exxon, a publicly held corporation, could work together toward a common goal-to leave few signs of the biggest oil spill ever to occur in North America. What type of help was most needed now? Would Exxon's plan satisfy the numerous stakeholders? How would the plan be viewed publicly? What impact would the cleanup plan have on Exxon's business? In the (A) case, the Exxon Valdez accident and immediate challenges are described so students can put themselves in Harrison's place to lead through the crisis. The (B) case (epilogue) outlines more problems and includes actions taken to try to clean up the oil as quickly and effectively as they could. The tragedy changed the oil industry in many ways-some of which are described in the epilogue.

Martin Field, the new controller for the automobile replacement-parts company Run, Inc., is not comfortable with a large write-off that the family-owned company plans to make in 2004. Fairly new to the position, Field had not prepared the financial information for the annual report and he hesitated to alert anyone about the balance between the receivables and inventory items. Although external auditors give Run, Inc.'s financials a clean bill of health, Field was still not comfortable and must decide what steps to take.