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It's been only four years since First Rangeway Consulting went public, but to CEO Kenneth Charles, it seems like a lifetime. In the grand old days of its IPO, the company couldn't grow fast enough to meet customer demand; top talent answered the siren call of its options; and the owners gleefully watched their wealth escalate along with the stock. Post-bubble, First Rangeway's stock is down 80% from its peak value, potential hires are wary, and the company feels beleaguered by Sarbanes-Oxley and SEC requirements. First Rangeway's stock price is on the mend, and there are some extremely tempting opportunities on the horizon that will require a heap of capital. Rangeway's CFO speculates that these opportunities could mean as much as 30% growth over the next several years. Should First Rangeway remain public or go private? In R0402B and R0402Z, four experts weigh in on this fictional case study: Tom Copeland, the former chair of UCLA's finance department and managing director of corporate finance at Monitor Group; Chan Suh, the cofounder, CEO, and chairman of Agency.com; Ed Nusbaum, the CEO of Grant Thornton; and John J. Mulherin, the president and CEO of the Ziegler Companies.

Measuring the value of intangible assets such as company culture, knowledge management systems, and employees' skills is the holy grail of accounting. Executives know that these intangibles, being hard to imitate, are powerful sources of sustainable competitive advantage. If managers could measure them, they could manage the company's competitive position more easily and accurately. In this article, the creators of the Balanced Scorecard draw on its tools and framework--in particular, a tool called the strategy map--to present a step-by-step way to determine "strategic readiness," which refers to the alignment of an organization's human, information, and organization capital with its strategy. In the method the authors describe, the firm identifies the processes most critical to creating and delivering its value proposition and determines the human, information, and organization capital the processes require.

The CEO is often the most isolated and protected employee in the organization. Few leaders, even veteran CEOs, can do the job without talking to someone about their experiences, which is why most develop a close relationship with a trusted colleague, a confidant to whom they can tell their thoughts and fears. In his work with leaders, the author has found that many CEO-confidant relationships function very well. The confidants keep their leaders' best interests at heart. They derive their gratification vicariously, through the help they provide rather than through any personal gain, and they are usually quite aware that a person in their position can potentially abuse access to the CEO's innermost secrets. Unfortunately, almost as many confidants will end up hurting, undermining, or otherwise exploiting CEOs when the executives are at their most vulnerable. The leader is often the last one to know when or how the confidant relationship became toxic. The author has identified three types of destructive confidants. The reflector mirrors the CEO, constantly reassuring him that he is the "fairest CEO of them all." The insulator buffers the CEO from the organization, preventing critical information from getting in or out. And the usurper cunningly ingratiates himself with the CEO in a desperate bid for power.

Modern information technology started four decades ago, yet in most major corporations, IT remains an expensive mess. This is partly because the relatively young and rapidly evolving practice of IT continues to be either grossly misunderstood or blindly ignored by top management. In this article, the authors say a systematic approach to understanding and executing IT can and should be implemented, and it should be organized along three interconnected principles: First, Long-Term IT Renewal Plan Linked to Corporate Strategy. Such a plan focuses the entire IT group on the company's overarching goals during a multiyear period, makes appropriate investments directed toward cutting costs in the near term, and generates a detailed blueprint for long-term systems rejuvenation and value creation. Second, Simplified, Unifying Corporate Technology Platform. Instead of relying on vertically oriented data silos that serve individual corporate units (HR, accounting, and so on), companies adopt a clean, horizontally oriented architecture designed to serve the whole organization. Third, Highly Functional, Performance-Oriented IT Organization. Instead of functioning as if it were different from the rest of the firm or as a loose confederation of tribes, the IT department works as a team and operates according to corporate performance standards.

Too many organizations descend into underperformance because they can't confront the painful gap between their strategy and the reality of their capabilities, their behaviors, and their markets. That's because senior managers don't know how to engage in truthful conversations about the problems that threaten the business--and because lower level managers are afraid to speak up. These factors lie behind many failures to implement strategy. Indeed, the dynamics in almost any organization are such that it's extremely difficult for senior people to hear the unfiltered truth from managers lower down. Beer and Eisenstat's methodology for getting the truth about an organization's problems onto the table in a way that allows senior management to do something useful with it is to assemble a task force of the most effective managers to collect data about strategic and organizational problems. In this way, the senior team sends a clear message that it is serious about uncovering the truth. Task force members present their findings to the senior team in the form of a discussion. This conversation needs to move back and forth between advocacy and inquiry; it has to be about the issues that matter most; it has to be collective and public; it has to allow employees to be honest without risking their jobs; and it has to be structured. This direct feedback from a handful of their best people moves senior teams to make changes they otherwise might not have.

More than 5,000 joint ventures, and many more contractual alliances, have been launched worldwide in the past five years. Companies are realizing that JVs and alliances can be lucrative vehicles for developing new products, moving into new markets, and increasing revenues. The problem is, the success rate for JVs and alliances is on a par with that for mergers and acquisitions--not very good. The authors, all McKinsey consultants, argue that JV success remains elusive for most companies because they don't pay enough attention to launch planning and execution. The launch phase begins with the parent companies' signing of a memorandum of understanding and continues through the first 100 days of the JV or alliance's operation. During this period, it's critical for the parents to convene a team dedicated to exposing inherent tensions early. Specifically, the launch team must tackle four basic challenges. First, build and maintain strategic alignment across the separate corporate entities, each of which has its own goals, market pressures, and shareholders. Second, create a shared governance system for the two parent companies. Third, manage the economic interdependencies between the corporate parents and the JV. And fourth, build a cohesive, high-performing organization (the JV or alliance). Using real-world examples, the authors offer their suggestions for meeting these challenges.

Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson interviewed and surveyed hundreds of professionals to study the assumptions behind the idea of success. They then built a practical framework for a new way of thinking about success--a way that leads to personal and professional fulfillment instead of feelings of anxiety and stress. The authors' research uncovered four irreducible components of success: happiness (feelings of pleasure or contentment about your life); achievement (accomplishments that compare favorably against similar goals others have strived for); significance (the sense that you've made a positive impact on people you care about); and legacy (a way to establish your values or accomplishments so as to help others find future success). Unless you hit on all four categories with regularity, any one win will fail to satisfy. People who achieve lasting success, the authors learned, tend to rely on a kaleidoscope strategy to structure their aspirations and activities. This article explains how to build your own kaleidoscope framework. The process can help you determine which tasks you should undertake to fulfill the different components of success and uncover areas where there are holes. It can also help you make better choices about what you spend your time on and the level of energy you put into each activity. According to Nash and Stevenson, successful people who experience real satisfaction achieve it through the deliberate imposition of limits.

Multinational companies are the driving force behind globalization, but they are also the source of many of its most painful consequences, including currency crises, cross-border pollution, and overfishing. These problems remain unsolved because they are beyond the scope of individual governments; transnational organizations have also proved unequal to the task. Nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations have leaped into the breach. To force policy changes, they have seized on all forms of modern persuasion to influence public sentiment toward global traders, manufacturers, and investors. By partnering with NGOs instead of opposing them, companies can avoid costly conflict and use NGOs' assets to gain competitive advantage. So far, however, most companies have proved ill equipped to deal with NGOs. Large companies know how to compete on the basis of product attributes and price. But NGO attacks focus on production methods and their spillover effects, which are often noneconomic. Similarly, NGOs are able to convert companies' standard competitive strengths--such as size and wide market awareness of their brands--into liabilities. That's because the wealthier and better known a company is, the juicier the target it makes. By partnering with NGOs instead of reflexively opposing them, companies could draw on NGOs' key strengths--legitimacy, awareness of social forces, distinct networks, and specialized technical expertise--which most companies could use more of.

It's been only four years since First Rangeway Consulting went public, but to CEO Kenneth Charles, it seems like a lifetime. In the grand old days of its IPO, the company couldn't grow fast enough to meet customer demand; top talent answered the siren call of its options; and the owners gleefully watched their wealth escalate along with the stock. Post-bubble, First Rangeway's stock is down 80% from its peak value, potential hires are wary, and the company feels beleaguered by Sarbanes-Oxley and SEC requirements. First Rangeway's stock price is on the mend, and there are some extremely tempting opportunities on the horizon that will require a heap of capital. Rangeway's CFO speculates that these opportunities could mean as much as 30% growth over the next several years. Should First Rangeway remain public or go private? In R0402B and R0402Z, four experts weigh in on this fictional case study: Tom Copeland, the former chair of UCLA's finance department and managing director of corporate finance at Monitor Group; Chan Suh, the cofounder, CEO, and chairman of Agency.com; Ed Nusbaum, the CEO of Grant Thornton; and John J. Mulherin, the president and CEO of the Ziegler Companies.

It's been only four years since First Rangeway Consulting went public, but to CEO Kenneth Charles, it seems like a lifetime. In the grand old days of its IPO, the company couldn't grow fast enough to meet customer demand; top talent answered the siren call of its options; and the owners gleefully watched their wealth escalate along with the stock. Post-bubble, First Rangeway's stock is down 80% from its peak value, potential hires are wary, and the company feels beleaguered by Sarbanes-Oxley and SEC requirements. First Rangeway's stock price is on the mend, and there are some extremely tempting opportunities on the horizon that will require a heap of capital. Rangeway's CFO speculates that these opportunities could mean as much as 30% growth over the next several years. Should First Rangeway remain public or go private? In R0402B and R0402Z, four experts weigh in on this fictional case study: Tom Copeland, the former chair of UCLA's finance department and managing director of corporate finance at Monitor Group; Chan Suh, the cofounder, CEO, and chairman of Agency.com; Ed Nusbaum, the CEO of Grant Thornton; and John J. Mulherin, the president and CEO of the Ziegler Companies.

This case describes the challenge faced by the executive director of a (disguised) human rights watchdog agency. The state wants to increase the number of inmates in its prisons (without increasing the size of the facilities). This requires the approval of the board of the watchdog agency. Staff to the board has conducted a study that suggests that additional crowding in the prison might be dangerous, and recommends against approving the increase in inmates. Notwithstanding the staff arguments and recommendation, a majority of the board is set to approve the increase. The question posed is whether, in this circumstance, the executive director has a moral duty to leak the report or other information about the decision, to the press. HKS Case Number 1728.0

The resignation of Mississippi Senator Trent Lott from his position as Majority Leader was an event unprecedented in the history of the US Senate. It occurred precipitously, in the wake of remarks he had made at an event where no one expected controversy-the 100th birthday party of the Senate's oldest member, South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. Lott's remarks, in which he praised Thurmond's 1948 run for the Presidency as the candidate of the segregationist Dixiecrat Party, only gradually sparked a firestorm, however. This case tells the story of how the controversy grew, with particular emphasis on the role of non-traditional media-specifically on the role of those political writers who distributed their views through "web logs". The case describes how the Lott story spread from the keyboards of such "bloggers" to the more mainstream print and television press-to the point at which public pressure culminated in Lott's resignation from the Senate leadership. This case allows for discussion of the evolution of the press, as new electronic media facilitated the efforts of a range of voices to reach a wider public, and of the life-cycle of what some have termed press feeding frenzies, wherein the fate of major public officials or policy issues seemingly follows a sort of dramatic script, as they take center stage in the reporting of the moment. The case can be used either by those with a special interest in the way in which public officials deal with the press, or by those with a special interest in the internal dynamics of the mass media. It can be used in conjunction with "Managing a Press Feeding Frenzy" (1135.0, 1135.1), "Breaking the Bad News: Divad" (841.0), and/or "Siege Mentality: ABC, the White House and the Iran Hostage Crisis " (823.0). HKS Case Number 1731.0.

This case focuses on Nordea's move from e-banking to e-business and the way the bank established an e-habit and e-trust among its customers. It examines the main e-business services that Nordea currently offers to its private and corporate customers. These include e-identification, e-signature, e-billing, e-salary and e-payment. The case also discusses multi-channel management and pricing issues as well as future growth opportunities.

Unilever is a solid leader in the Brazilian detergent powder market with an 81% market share. Laercio Cardoso must decide (1) whether Unilever should divert money from its premium brands to target the lower-margin segment of low-income consumers, (2) whether Unilever can reposition or extend one of its existing brands to avoid launching a new brand, and (3) what price, product, promotion, and distribution strategy would allow Unilever to deliver value to low-income consumers without cannibalizing its own premium brands too heavily. Instructors can access video interviews with the managers mentioned in the case, television commercials, and PowerPoint presentations to be used in the classroom or as handouts on the dedicated case website http://cases.insead.edu/unilever/ (copy and paste the url into a browser) using the login and password mentioned in the teaching note.

The flow of product returns is becoming a significant concern for manufacturers. Typically, these returns have been viewed as a nuisance, resulting in reverse supply chains that are designed to minimize costs. These minimum cost reverse supply chains often do not consider product return speed. The longer it takes to retrieve a returned product, the lower the chances that there are financially attractive reuse options. Unlike forward supply chains, design strategies for reverse supply chains are unexplored and largely undocumented. The most influential product characteristic for reverse supply chain design is the marginal value of time. Responsive reverse supply chains are the appropriate choice when the marginal value of time for products is high, and efficient reverse supply chains are the proper choice when the marginal value of time for products is low. Product returns and their reverse supply chains represent a potential value stream and deserve as much attention as forward supply chains.

Although companies spend much effort on the design, analysis, and management of their forward supply chains, they need to pay the same attention to their reverse supply chain. Pioneering firms have learned that making product returns profitable relies on good design of the reverse chains' business processes, including integration with the forward chain. Product modularity offers new possibilities for supply chain design. Optimal closed-loop supply chain management requires three things. First, the type of return needs to be matched with the appropriate closed-loop supply chain. Second, through modular reuse, it is possible to regain optimal value in closed-loop applications. Third, the value of reuse information may in some cases be higher than the value of the returns themselves.

Information and communication technology can help companies realize new, innovative business opportunities in the area of closed-loop supply chains. Examines closed-loop supply chains from three perspectives: processes, customers, and products. Exploiting the possibilities of closed-loop supply chains involves handling uncertainties by providing adequate information. Information on recovery options for a product, product preferences of the customer, and the state of the product can be used to reduce uncertainty. Data that is retrieved from the closed-loop supply chain by new technologies can be transformed into management information in a systematic way. Presents a framework to address uncertainty reduction strategies.

An increasing number of firms in Asia, Europe, and North America engage in voluntary or mandatory end-of-life product management. Because developments in product take-back are driven by a mixture of environmental concerns and economic opportunities, the most promising corporate end-of-life strategies create both economic and environmental value. Introduces a framework that can help managers identify and assess such supply loop strategies. Application of the framework to two specific supply loops demonstrates the usefulness of the framework: recycling and reuse of structural steel sections in the U.K. construction sector. Highlights the importance of supply chain constraints and also shows how lack of data can be a major obstacle to the evaluation of potential win-win supply loops.

Details the planning, implementation, and assessment of a worldwide electronics packaging take-back system by a key supply chain partner. The take-back system was a financial and environmental trade-off between reducing cardboard packaging against increased use of ground and water transportation. Through Internet-enabled life cycle analysis, the new system was shown to reduce waste as well as energy and environmental impacts significantly. The formal introduction of such methods in the electronics industry could save $150 million as well as billions of pounds of waste.

A growing concern for durable product manufacturers is how to manage the products they manufacture when they reach their end of life (EOL). In part, this attention is motivated by a growing number of countries across Europe and East Asia that are enacting legislation that imposes greater responsibilities on manufacturers for managing their EOL products. Even in nonregulated markets, however, some manufacturers are engaging in product recovery to reduce production costs, enhance brand image, meet changing customer expectations, protect aftermarkets, and preempt pending legislation or regulations. Explains when manufacturers should engage in product recovery efforts through partnerships, alliances, or vertical integration and when they should leave this task to independent firms. Technologies that enhance the productivity of product recovery, the level of uncertainty associated with reverse logistics, diverse manufacturing-related capabilities, the uniqueness of recovered assets, and the desire to avoid dependence on other organizations are key determinants that shape the industrial organization of EOL product recovery.