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Given the growth in Asian markets, it is important for Western managers to understand what drives the success of Japanese and Korean business groups--keiretsus and chaebols. The purpose here is twofold: 1) to analyze, compare, and contrast the ownership, structure, government influence, financing, and culture of each of these two types of business groups; and 2) to analyze how each has dealt with the recent financial crisis in Asia. From this analysis emerge important lessons for strategic international management. The chaebols and keiretsus both emphasize the idea of harmony, but they have different interpretations of this concept and enact it differently. Both groups have altered their structures in response to the new global financial environment. The chaebols have taken the opportunity to solidify and expand their core business units and become more vertically integrated, whereas the keiretsus have succeeded only in the limited disposal of some nonperforming units.

Akamai's stock price declines dramatically with the NASDAQ in 2000, causing virtually all employee options to go underwater. Ownership and retention incentives are largely destroyed, and employee morale falls sharply. Management weighs the pros and cons of various alternative "solutions" to this problem (including repricing, issuing a new supplemental grant, canceling the underwater options and issuing a delayed regrant, and making a tender offer to exchange underwater options for fewer shares of restricted stock).

Supplements the (A) case.

Examines the possible reasons for unsatisfactory performance and proposes ways of dealing with it.

The (A) and (B) cases describe the evolution of HP supply chain for its PC business in Europe between years 1992 and 1999 and the different initiatives: build-to-order, vendor-managed inventory, supply hubs, top value, channel assembly program, etc. What should be the next step in this highly competitive environment?. Case (C) deals with HP strategy of outsourcing production to SCI, a contract manufacturer.

The (A) and (B) cases describe the evolution of HP supply chain for its PC business in Europe between years 1992 and 1999 and the different initiatives: build-to-order, vendor-managed inventory, supply hubs, top value, channel assembly program, etc. What should be the next step in this highly competitive environment?. Case (C) deals with HP strategy of outsourcing production to SCI, a contract manufacturer.

The (A) and (B) cases describe the evolution of HP supply chain for its PC business in Europe between years 1992 and 1999 and the different initiatives: build-to-order, vendor-managed inventory, supply hubs, top value, channel assembly program, etc. What should be the next step in this highly competitive environment?. Case (C) deals with HP strategy of outsourcing production to SCI, a contract manufacturer.

This exercise is designed to introduce students to (Q,R) inventory reorder policies, where Q is the order size and R the reorder point. The exercise is motivated by the issues faced by Caterpillar (CAT) in managing its parts warehouse in Europe. The Caterpillar example is based on information obtained from their website, but the numbers utilized in the exercises and assignment are fabricated to achieve the pedagogical objective.

Laurence & Ralph (L&R) is not a case, per se, but a note on the classical Newsboy Problem. This type of problem is exemplary in capacity or inventory economics. It occurs every time a product needs to be ordered or service capacity needs to be set when demand in the forthcoming sales or service period is uncertain. Fundamentally, the inventory decision is equivalent with a capacity decision, as inventory represents a capacity to sell product in the future, while capacity is a form of inventory for future service.

This case describes Brazil's political and economic evolution from the end of WWII to October 1998, focusing on the policies and effects of the Real Plan, an economic stabilization plan implemented between 1994 and 1998. Contagion effects of the Russian Crisis in August 1998 led to massive capital outflows from Brazil and put pressure on foreign exchange reserves. Brazil needs to decide what actions to take with respect to its system of fixed exchange rates. See also the B case (UV1619) and C case (UV1620).

This case describes the events between October 1998 and early January 1999. To prevent a devaluation of the Brazilian real, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided a standby loan to Brazil. The case outlines the conditions under which the loan was granted and the effect of the loan on Brazil's balance of payments. In January 1999, Minister of Finance Cardoso faces two new challenges: getting congressional support for fiscal reform and a moratorium on debt payments declared by one of Brazil's states. See also the A case (UV1618) and C case (UV1620).

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were best friends and socially conscious entrepreneurs when they founded Ben & Jerry's Homemade in the 1970s in Burlington, Vermont. The company was well-known for being offbeat, quirky, and committed to socially responsible ventures and using organic ingredients in its products. When the company went public in 1984, most people bought the stock because they believed in the company's values and mission. In late 1999, the financial and economic world was quite different, and two suitors-Unilever and Dreyer's Ice Cream-appeared, both very interested in acquiring Ben & Jerry's. This case describes not only the background and history of Ben & Jerry's, but the factors involved in the founders' having to decide what course of action to take.

This set of three cases represents a mediation involving three professionals at a consulting firm: two disputants (a new MBA consultant and the manager of a group of programmers) both working on a client team, and an "interested" mediator with his own pressures and agenda, who would prefer to focus on business issues and resolve the dispute quickly. The dimensions of the dispute are both professional (whether changes should be made to a computer system being installed by the team) and personal (issues of respect and authority). The cases are designed to be used as part of a unit on mediation. We use the cases in a series of cases that permits each student to serve in disputant and mediator roles. Class discussion (see Teaching Note) focuses on skills, the process of mediation, resolutions reached, and the role of the "interested mediator," a role in which MBA graduates frequently find themselves.

This set of three cases represents a mediation involving three professionals at a consulting firm: two disputants (a new MBA consultant and the manager of a group of programmers) both working on a client team, and an "interested" mediator with his own pressures and agenda, who would prefer to focus on business issues and resolve the dispute quickly. The dimensions of the dispute are both professional (whether changes should be made to a computer system being installed by the team) and personal (issues of respect and authority). The cases are designed to be used as part of a unit on mediation. We use the cases in a series of cases that permits each student to serve in disputant and mediator roles. Class discussion (see Teaching Note) focuses on skills, the process of mediation, resolutions reached, and the role of the "interested mediator," a role in which MBA graduates frequently find themselves.

This set of three cases represents a mediation involving three professionals at a consulting firm: two disputants (a new MBA consultant and the manager of a group of programmers) both working on a client team, and an "interested" mediator with his own pressures and agenda, who would prefer to focus on business issues and resolve the dispute quickly. The dimensions of the dispute are both professional (whether changes should be made to a computer system being installed by the team) and personal (issues of respect and authority). The cases are designed to be used as part of a unit on mediation. We use the cases in a series of cases that permits each student to serve in disputant and mediator roles. Class discussion (see Teaching Note) focuses on skills, the process of mediation, resolutions reached, and the role of the "interested mediator," a role in which MBA graduates frequently find themselves.

On April 4, 2000, at a board of directors' meeting, CEO Anatoly Chubais, Russia's legendary reformer, announced his plan to break up the Russian joint stock company Unified Energy System (UES). The plan envisioned breaking up the giant energy monopoly along two lines of business: electricity transmissions and generation and sales. His proposal met a fierce storm of opposition from foreign minority shareholders of UES as well as from Boris Fedorov, a fellow reformer in the early to mid-1990s. This case examines the dynamics of implementing structural reforms in a highly uncertain environment.

AOL Time Warner, which has been billed as the "first fully integrated media and communications company of the Internet Century," raises the fundamental question of how value will be created and captured by the merger of AOL and Time Warner. This case describes just how different AOL was from Time Warner in strategy, culture, and execution, and permits a thorough analysis of how value is proposed to be created through capturing synergies within the new company. The discussion of synergies is divided into three levels: tactical, strategic, and transformational. The key question to address is whether a merger of this sort is the most effective way to create value or whether contracting and other mechanisms is equally good or perhaps superior. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

NeoPets.com, a rapidly growing Internet start-up headed by Chairman and CEO Doug Dohring, faces decisions about its international expansion strategy--whether to enter a joint venture with a conglomerate in Singapore to exploit Asian markets as well as which other regions to target. NeoPets allows its users--mostly children and teens--to create and care for virtual pets in an online world. The Web site is free to users and is supported by advertising akin to product placement in movies. NeoPets reached profitability four months after launching operations in late 1999, largely due to the fact that it spends nothing for customer acquisition, relying strictly on word-of-mouth. As of July, 2001, the company had over 8 million unique users and was ranked #four among all U.S. Web sites for "stickiness," the average amount of time that users spend online.

Frontier Adventure Racing is a relatively young company that is facing some significant financial issues. The company president, owner and organizer of Canada's most recognized series of adventure races (Raid the North), is passionate and knowledgeable about the sport of adventure racing. Also, as the captain of Canada's top adventure racing team, his profile has loaned credibility to his own company and has heightened media coverage of its races. The company has great products, a solid international reputation among adventure racers, and good name recognition in the field. Even so, the company is up against some serious financial hurdles, having made little or no profit four years in a row. The Sports Network and The Outdoor Life Network have offered two hours of television coverage for the company's next race and half of the ad spots during the show if Frontier Adventure Racing is willing to pay the production costs. This kind of coverage would boost the company's visibility, but where could the company come up with the funding? Already faced with the problem of finding new sponsors, a bill for sponsorship, and a need for TV production costs over and above the normal cash requirements, the president knows the situation is difficult at best, and wonders what possible options are available to him.

This case serves as a supplement to any course on incentive design and implementation. The analysis first locates incentive strategy within the larger structure of organizations and markets and then helps to define the central components and difficulties of incentive design. The case focuses on the principal difficulties in implementing incentive systems, including the trade off between objective and subjective performance metrics, how to design incentive systems in team environments, and the inherent problems with designing incentive systems in environments where workers are involved in multiple activities.