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Supplements the (A) case.

This case presents a simple model of the drivers of profitability in a professional service partnership and conducts an empirical exploration of the determinants of profitability among AmLaw 100 firms over the period 1994 to 1999.

After the company's IPO is withdrawn, the company enters a period of severe financial distress. The consultants recommend that the company be liquidated. The CEO must convince the board, the lenders, and the landlords that the company can and should be saved.

Pixar, Inc. is the subject of an article that suggests its share price is currently overvalued. The article is picked up in summary by several wire services. Pixar's management must determine the appropriate public response. Its choices range from ignoring the article, to a brief response, to a point-by-point refutation.

Through a series of mergers, Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon chairman and CEO, successfully shared the co-CEO title twice while building the largest telecom company in the United States. The strong and complementary cultures of the companies that Seidenberg and a key group of executives had merged was a major factor in their success. However, in the steps leading up to this, decreased revenues in their traditional wireline business intensified their dependence on the growth of wireless and broadband services. As Verizon moved into this less familiar territory, the culture that had sustained them through change would have to be evaluated as they embarked on a new wave of growth. As the future of Verizon become more dependent on business in areas that bore little resemblance to the Baby Bells, were the lessons from past successful mergers less applicable?

This competitive bidding game consists of four teams, which can be two to four students. (Several games can be played simultaneousely.) Each team runs a printing company that has a capacity of forty press hours a week plus overtime. The case gives budgeted costs, saying which are likely to be variable. Teams bid on lists of jobs and schedule the work they win. Too much work incurs late penalties; two little leaves unused capacity. Four rounds of bidding are scheduled and at the end each team computes its income statement.

HP had been a highly successful and respected company for decades. It was well known for its company culture and management practices--the HP way--which emphasized both profits and people. Changing markets, strong competitors, and the growth of its computer business, however, battered the company in the mid-1990s. To turn things around, HP hired Carly Fiorina, the first outsider to lead the company. Describes Fiorina's strategy and the impact of decisions she made with respect to the acquisition of Compaq and HR policies on HP's venerable culture and performance.

Supplements the (A) case.

In October 2002, Brazilians elected a left-wing president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, for the first time in that country's history. As markets faltered in response, Lula sought to reaffirm his commitment to fiscal discipline, a floating exchange rate, and inflation targeting. By August 2003, however, his attempt to change market sentiment was threatened as the country faced a looming recession. Skeptics began to worry that the new PT (Worker's Party) government would be forced to resort to printing money to meet its campaign promises. Furthermore, after Argentina's massive default on its public debt at the end of 2001, observers were questioning the sustainability of Brazil's debt situation. Lula was under intense pressure to deliver results immediately and implement measures that would help spur the economy.

George Barker, the 40-year-old CEO of his family's commercial real estate design and development firm, must deal with the unsatisfactory performance of his brother Peter, who is also in the business. Although Peter's performance is upsetting to George, George feels that it will be difficult to navigate the family ownership and other business factors to deal with the problem.

Toyota is a large, international automobile manufacturer with plans to become the largest worldwide automaker, striving for 15% of global sales. Toyota is committed to becoming the leader of the hybrid-electric automotive industry and is relying on changes in the industry and customer perceptions to bring its plan to fruition. Toyota's challenge is to develop consumer attitude and purchase intent from an early adopter, niche market model into universal mainstream acceptance.

Hill & Knowlton is a division of one of the world's largest communication services group. Tagging e-mail communications to support knowledge management codification and connection strategies is an important issue for managers. Issues related to privacy and performance need to be considered. The worldwide director of knowledge management at Hill & Knowlton must assess the degree to which tagging should be enforced in a communication services organization that supports numerous clients around the world.

The senior managers of the India Design Center used 360-degree feedback to develop their team competencies. Now, three new managers are about to join their management team, and Ashok Kumar, director of the center, must decide how to integrate the new managers in a way that maintains the team's newfound trust and camaraderie. Describes the managers' work activities, including engineering, human resources, and finance responsibilities, to allow a diagnosis of how the managers can benefit from working together as a team. Also notes the challenges these managers face as they work with their bosses and counterparts at the company's headquarters in California, which is 13.5 time zones away. The team is one that could presumably benefit from better cross-functional coordination and communication regarding their collective relationship with the company's headquarters in California.

This appendix supplements the multimedia case, "Hugh McColl and NationsBank: Building a National Footprint through M&A". The instructor can use this appendix as a supplement for the convenience of the reader. This document is not intended to substitute for the digital case. Note that Darden Business Publishing also makes available an Appendix that contains 68 pages of printed material drawn from the case: UVA-F-1420. In contrast, this document is an abbreviated supplement that contains only tabular material of financial information. **************************************** This appendix supports student preparation of the associated multimedia case study. See the abstract and teaching note for that case to obtain a summary of the teaching purpose, subject, issues, and classroom applications. Information contained in this appendix is a subset of the information available in the multimedia case and is prepared mainly for the convenience of the student. In particular, this appendix would be useful in executive education settings and where the student needs hard-copy reference to the material in the case. Generally, students who are heavy computer users will find this appendix redundant. Thus, the instructor's use of this appendix is entirely optional and should be linked to the needs of the student.

The Shun Electronics' KL Radio division wants to expand the three departmental cost centers to eight, each with its own overhead cost allocation rate. As a result, it appears that the total costs for four of their six radios will increase, while two will decrease. The case puts students in the role of having to (a) understand why such a result occurred; (b) explain the specific changes made in the cost allocation system; and (c) evaluate whether the changes are an improvement.

This technical note provides an introduction to quality management tools, with a focus on the concepts of process control and process capability.

This case describes a situation (based on actual events, but disguised in this telling) in which city officials receive a warning that as a result of persistent snow followed by rain, there is a significant probability of a major landslide from a hillside above the town. If a landslide were to occur, it would likely damage a group of homes at the bottom of the hill, and might cause injuries. The question the officials face is whether to encourage a voluntary evacuation or whether to order a mandatory evacuation -- and, in either case, how best to go about it. Case number 1729.0

HBR's editors searched for the best new ideas related to the practice of management and came up with a collection that is as diverse as it is provocative. The 2004 HBR List includes emergent concepts from biology, network science, management theory, and more. A few highlights: Richard Florida wonders why U.S. society doesn't seem to be thinking about the flow of people as the key to America's advantage in the "creative age." Diane L. Coutu describes how the revolution in neurosciences will have a major impact on business. Clayton M. Christensen explains the law of conservation of attractive profits: When attractive profits disappear at one stage in the value chain because a product becomes commoditized, the opportunity to earn attractive profits with proprietary products usually emerges at an adjacent stage. Daniel H. Pink explains why the master of fine arts is the new MBA. Herminia Ibarra describes how companies can get the most out of managers returning from leadership-development programs. Iqbal Quadir suggests a radical fix for the third world's trade problems: Get the World Bank to lend to rich countries so that there are resources for retraining workers in dying industries.