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GSI is a computer services company, the leader in payroll outsourcing in France. The company founder sees the value in selling computer services to create a recurring revenue stream. His years in the French public administration prompt him to create a decentralized and non-bureaucratic company, taking to an extreme the values of empowerment, trust and respect for the individual. Success in the 1970s and 1980s allows the company to grow by acquisition, resulting in a multi-business company with pan-European reach. The founder's ideals play a large part in achieving an employee leveraged buyout in 1987, resulting in much sought-after independence from the large French conglomerate that had given GSI its start. By the early 1990s, several factors pressure results. An economic downturn crimps sales. Huge outlays to develop software and implement a quality program pressure profitability. The plethora of business units, with totally different business models becomes unwieldy. Impatient and angered financial investors from the 1987 leveraged buyout distract top management with petitions to exit. The management team becomes increasingly dysfunctional. At the end of 1994, the founder and Chairman respond abruptly by firing half of his top managers. The Abridged version can be used as an introduction to the ADP-GSI case series on M and A.

GSI is a computer services company, the leader in payroll outsourcing in France. The company founder sees the value in selling computer services to create a recurring revenue stream. His years in the French public administration prompt him to create a decentralized and non-bureaucratic company, taking to an extreme the values of empowerment, trust and respect for the individual. Success in the 1970s and 1980s allows the company to grow by acquisition, resulting in a multi-business company with pan-European reach. The founder's ideals play a large part in achieving an employee leveraged buyout in 1987, resulting in much sought-after independence from the large French conglomerate that had given GSI its start. By the early 1990s, several factors pressure results. An economic downturn crimps sales. Huge outlays to develop software and implement a quality program pressure profitability. The plethora of business units, with totally different business models becomes unwieldy. Impatient and angered financial investors from the 1987 leveraged buyout distract top management with petitions to exit. The management team becomes increasingly dysfunctional. At the end of 1994, the founder and Chairman respond abruptly by firing half of his top managers. The Abridged version can be used as an introduction to the ADP-GSI case series on M and A.

The follow-on to the GSI A case presents the alternatives available to GSI in the summer of 1995. Former senior manager Gluntz has returned in February after a 10 year hiatus and created a plan to turnaround the company. By summer, it's obvious that the option of selling GSI to an appropriate acquirer must be evaluated, given the mounting pressure of financial investors. The case places the reader in Gluntz's shoes to determine whether to resuscitate the company from crisis or sell to one of three alternative buyers, one being ADP.

ADP is an American success story. The founder, with modest beginnings and a good idea, turns a company that does the payroll for a few companies in New Jersey, to a successful company that can boast 136 consecutive quarters of revenue and income growth since going public in 1961. The company is built on a solid economic model of providing outsourcing of payroll and other key applications to earn a recurring revenue stream. In the summer of 1995, management of the US-centric company with a few lackluster overseas experiences must decide whether it should acquire French-based GSI. The case asks the reader to take the position of Gary Butler, President of ADP Employer Services, weighing the risks of a large overseas purchase with the rewards of growth that a new market can promise.

ADP signs its largest acquisition deal in history, to purchase GSI in August 1995. If the divergence of cultures in both companies isn't enough -- ADP management being used to tight controls and double-digit growth and GSI management groomed to run their own show in spite of recent poor financial results -- there are tremendous differences in operations across functional areas to resolve. Both companies have developed and positioned their unique product offerings to serve different market segments in distinct geographies. Consequently, the Sales and Customer Service organizations are also very different, with scopes and profiles that correspond to their own markets. Financial reporting practices are also divergent, for the most part due to country legislation. Human Resource practices are polar opposites. The reader is asked to take the position of Philippe Gluntz, the new President of ADP Europe, straddling the ocean to manage the post-acquisition process. The Expanded Version includes an overview of GSI and ADP, allowing the reader to address the integration challenge without reading the previous cases in the series.

GSI is a computer services company, the leader in payroll outsourcing in France. The company founder sees the value in selling computer services to create a recurring revenue stream. His years in the French public administration prompt him to create a decentralized and non-bureaucratic company, taking to an extreme the values of empowerment, trust and respect for the individual. Success in the 1970s and 1980s allows the company to grow by acquisition, resulting in a multi-business company with pan-European reach. The founder's ideals play a large part in achieving an employee leveraged buyout in 1987, resulting in much sought-after independence from the large French conglomerate that had given GSI its start. By the early 1990s, several factors pressure results. An economic downturn crimps sales. Huge outlays to develop software and implement a quality program pressure profitability. The plethora of business units, with totally different business models becomes unwieldy. Impatient and angered financial investors from the 1987 leveraged buyout distract top management with petitions to exit. The management team becomes increasingly dysfunctional. At the end of 1994, the founder and Chairman respond abruptly by firing half of his top managers. The Abridged version can be used as an introduction to the ADP-GSI case series on M and A.

This last document in the ADP-GSI series describes the outcome of the acquisition through interviews with ADP and former GSI managers. ADP management is very pleased with the results. ADP Europe management, particularly Philippe Gluntz, has played a key role as leader and buffer between the ADP and GSI culture and operations. During Gluntz's tenure as President (1995- 2001), much of the previous GSI culture and relative high level of autonomy has continued, albeit in an environment focused on growth. Gluntz's successor now has to determine if and how he should continue the autonomy.

Château Online looks at the situation of an e-tailer in 2001. The firm has done well and is a European leader. However, it faces the twin challenges of creating the online market for wine purchasing and the threat of entry by major players.

In July 1996, the French social security governmental agency (the CNAM) sent a letter to all doctors urging them to prescribe generic amoxicillin instead of Clamoxyl, SmithKline Beecham's (SB) blockbuster antibiotic. Pierre Chahwakilian, Marketing Director of SB in France must decide how to respond: (1) milk Clamoxyl and divert promotional investments towards Augmentin, a more specialized and still patent-protected antibiotic, (2) strengthen Clamoxyl's brand equity among doctors by increasing the effort of medical reps, by launching new forms, or with new advertising, (3) go against SB's corporate philosophy and reduce the price of Clamoxyl, or (4) change nothing and count on the resistance of French doctors towards generics. The B case (Augmentin in 2002) shows that GSK (the company formed by the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham) now faces the same options for Augmentin, another blockbuster antibiotic. Should they use the strategy that was so successful for Clamoxyl or have the market conditions changed so much that a whole different approach should be followed?

This case charts the process of the souring of the Acela Express, a joint venture of Alstom and Bombardier with Amtrak, the US rail passenger service. Alstom and Bombardier won the contract to install high-speed rail service between Boston and Washington. Soon after the Acela's launch, technical problems with the train were severe and Bombardier's relationship with Amtrak became acrimonious. Both sides in the dispute made legal moves and they continue as of the writing of this case. The case examines the histories of the companies involved, the relationship between the respective parties and presents the technological background to the Acela Express. The goal is to highlight key points in the management of relationships for large-scale projects and to explore a number of issues in technology licensing.

In this case, four consultants discuss business planning issues that they are each having within their respective consulting firms. The case addresses how professional compensation, project staffing, hours worked, overhead costs, and billing rates impact profitability.

Capital One, a credit card company, has built its business on a strategy with a clear customer focus: The company systematically gathers and analyses information on its customers in order to correctly assess their individual credit risk and to offer products and services tailored to their individual needs. The case is designed to illustrate how the concept of customer relationship management (CRM) can be translated into strategy, organizational design, hiring, marketing processes, and IT infrastructure of a company.

APL (Australian Pork Limited) is a not-for-profit company focused on securing a profitable future for the Australian Pork Industry through R&D and export development. The case describes the March 2000 introduction of Airpork chilled Australian pork that is air-freighted into Singapore daily, following the outbreak of the Nipah virus and foot-and-mouth disease in neighboring Malaysia (which supplied most of Singapore's pork requirements). The timing of the case is a year after the launch of the product. The top management are involved in rationalizing the performance of Airpork over the year and developing its future strategy.

In June 1998, The Board of Directors of INSEAD, a leading international business school based in Fontainebleau (France) had to decide to proceed with an investment in a second campus in Singapore. Over the past 20 years INSEAD had established an international reputation and had developed some expertise on Asian business. The case presents the history of the project, the process by which the idea was transformed into an investment proposal and presents various views on the potential and risks of such development.

This is the first of a two-case series. When Renault sent Carlos Ghosn to turnaround its alliance partner Nissan, observers were skeptical of his chances. After soliciting recommendations from the employees, he unveiled a three-year plan involving plant closures, job cuts, and a refocus on design. Within two years, the company had achieved a dramatic recovery, posting record profits and proposing a dazzling array of new models. Note that there are two versions of the case: 'Redesigning Nissan (A) & (B)' covers the dynamics of taking charge (case A) and the process of leading change (case B). There is also a combined and condensed version of the cases: 'Nissan's U-Turn: 1999-2001', for instructors wishing to cover the material in a single session.

The problem set contains three problems designed to help students practice their ability to build math programming models. Problem # 1 is a portfolio problem where the student is asked to find a portfolio that minimizes risk (variance) subject to a required rate of return; as such, it is nonlinear. Problem # 2 is aggregate production scheduling; hence, linear. Problem # 3 involves determining how to source a fixed quantity from a menu of vendors with differing fixed- ordering charges and per-unit prices; it is a mixed integer model. All are sufficiently small that they can be easily optimized with standard math programming software (such as Excel's standard Solver).

Supplements the (A) case.

The company's management is considering the possibility of launching a rebranding campaign around the promises "What you need. What you need to know." The questions are whether and when to launch the campaign in view of the large number of training efforts and supporting technologies needed to deliver on the promises.

Supplements the (A) case.

The case describes Microsoft's first significant acquisition in Europe and its first in the telecom equipment (software) market. SendIt is a publicly listed Swedish start-up, which offers the only Windows based solutions to the IP-based mobile phone services market. The acquisition starts in high tone, loses momentum and is finally integrated with some degree of success.