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In a decade, CEMEX has become the third largest cement company in the world and has achieved an enviable growth record. CEMEX has established its public image as a digital leader, leveraging information technology and e-business ventures in the traditional low-tech and conventional cement industry. The case, however, illustrates that being a digital leader is only part of the story. The CEMEX Way is focused on developing the right behaviors and values in CEMEX people globally to use information about products, customers, and operations effectively. This requires deploying common processes, information practices, and IT infrastructure to promote profitable growth globally and locally as well as integrate its acquisitions to its way of doing business rapidly. As the cement industry is rapidly consolidating worldwide, the case raises the issue of how a company competes with information, people, and IT capabilities to use its knowledge and information to bring the company's growth to new levels. This is an abridged version of a case.

In a decade, CEMEX has become the third largest cement company in the world and has achieved an enviable growth record. CEMEX has established its public image as a digital leader, leveraging information technology and e-business ventures in the traditional low-tech and conventional cement industry. The case, however, illustrates that being a digital leader is only part of the story. The CEMEX Way is focused on developing the right behaviors and values in CEMEX people globally to use information about products, customers, and operations effectively. This requires deploying common processes, information practices, and IT infrastructure to promote profitable growth globally and locally as well as integrate its acquisitions to its way of doing business rapidly. As the cement industry is rapidly consolidating worldwide, the case raises the issue of how a company competes with information, people, and IT capabilities to use its knowledge and information to bring the company's growth to new levels.

The Beetle made Volkswagen (VW) a household name all over the world for more than 50 years. But in the early 1990s, the VW Group, with its Audi, Seat, and Skoda brands, was in bad shape: a high cost base, costly duplications between the different car brands, and a weak model line-up had led profits to decline by 85% in 1992. At this point, Ferdinand Piech, CEO of Audi, was asked to take over as CEO of the VW group. The company ended 1993 with a loss of almost 1 billion eurodollars. In 2001, the group's net income increased to a record-breaking 2.9 billion eurodollars. Between 1993 and 2001, sales were up from 39.1 billion to 88.5 billion eurodollars, with international sales increasing from 55% to 72%. VW Group's turnaround included making Audi a premium brand, saving Seat from near bankruptcy, and transforming Skoda Auto from a cheap eastern European car maker into a respected player. According to Business Week, VW was "one of the world's best car companies." Describes the transition from 1993 to 2001. Takes readers through VW's successful implementation of a platform manufacturing system, its globalization strategy, the move upmarket, and many innovations along the business system.

Many companies are exploring mass customization as a way to demonstrate market leadership and capture price premiums. Examines Adidas' recent "mi adidas" initiative, aimed at delivering customized athletic footwear to retail customers. Discusses the practical implications associated with expanding the initiative from a small pilot to a wider operation with retail presence. Enables the reader to evaluate an interlinked set of issues, from marketing, retailer selection, and information management through production and distribution, project management, and strategic fit. Offers three alternative routes for moving forward as of October 2001 and challenges participants to decide the future direction of "mi adidas."

Supplements the (A) case.

Any company can learn to compete more effectively with stronger rivals by mastering the concept of balance in the face of attack. Balance is a judo strategy principle that emphasizes the importance of retaining the initiative and shaping the competition in ways that make it easier to win. Rather than get thrown on the defensive, successful judo strategists learn to engage with powerful opponents by mastering three techniques: grip your opponent, avoid tit-for-tat, and push when pulled. These techniques are illustrated with a variety of examples drawn from both new- and old-economy companies.

With efforts to de-layer organizations and reduce functional boundaries, coordination increasingly occurs through networks of informal relations rather than channels tightly prescribed by formal reporting structures or detailed work processes. However, although organizations are moving to network forms through joint ventures, alliances, and other collaborative relationships, executives generally pay little attention to assessing and supporting informal networks within their own organizations. Social network analysis is a valuable means of facilitating collaboration in strategically important groups such as top leadership networks, strategic business units, new product development teams, communities of practice, joint ventures, and mergers. By making informal networks visible, social network analysis helps managers systematically assess and support strategically important collaboration.

Large international corporations commonly engage in IT outsourcing. However, the process of evaluating, selecting, and subsequently contracting out or selling the organization's IT assets, people, and/or activities to a third-party supplier creates the possibility of a "Winner's Curse." This occurs when the supplier overpromises on what can be delivered for the contract price. This article presents a longitudinal outsourcing case study that explicates the often abstruse Winner's Curse, its effect on post-contract management and the relationship, and how it was alleviated by a mutual renegotiation of the terms of the deal. Building on auction and IT outsourcing theory, the article provides both a model of IT outsourcing processes and a Winner's Curse typology for understanding IT outsourcing ventures. To avoid the experience of relational trauma as a consequence of a Winner's Curse, this article identifies six lessons that client and supplier companies should consider before signing IT outsourcing deals.

The globalization of the field of human resource management (HRM) has led to some common changes in international HRM practices. On the surface, this indicates a degree of convergence. Deeper examination, however, reveals a different picture. Many differences in HRM remain due to a variety of limiting factors, ranging from economic stages of development to business strategies, national culture, and fixed enterprise mindsets. Using evidence from a selection of diverse economies in Asia, this article explores and maps out these patterns and discusses the challenges for research and management practice.

The practice of corporate philanthropy has evolved significantly over the past several decades and has now become an integral part of corporate strategy. This article identifies an emerging form of corporate community involvement called "Corporate Social Initiatives" (CSI). These programs differ from their predecessors in that they are connected to the firm's core values, responsive to moral pressures, based on the firm's core competencies, and have clear objectives and means of measurement. Firms are adopting these initiatives as part of a strategy that seeks competitive advantage through reputation assets or as a response to perceived pressures from the moral marketplace. This article explicates the drivers behind the increased interest in CSI, relates CSI to changes in the environment of social expectations for business, reviews potential challenges to CSI programs, and suggests critical factors in the design of successful CSI programs.

Abstract to follow.

In 2000, Fairfield Communities, Inc. was one of the largest timeshare operators in the U.S. The company's portfolio of resorts consisted of 35 resorts located in 12 states and the Bahamas. Of the company's resorts, 25 were located in destination areas with popular vacation attractions such as Daytona Beach, Florida, and Las Vegas, Nevada and ten were located in scenic regional locations. Fairfield sold and financed vacation ownership intervals (VOI) providing a deeded interest in the use of a fully furnished vacation property of a specific size, at a specific location, at a specific time of the year and a specified length of stay. Customers typically provided a down payment of 16%-18% of the purchase price and financed the balance. Approximately, 80% of Fairfield's customers elected to finance their VOI purchases through the company on terms of up to seven years and at interest rates of approximately 15% per year. To finance its rapid growth, Fairfield securitized the receivables by "selling" them to special purpose entities (SPE). The SPE issued debt collateralized by the receivables. As permitted under U.S. GAAP, Fairfield accounted for the SPE using the equity method of accounting rather than consolidating the SPE's financial statements. Thus, the SPE's debt did not directly appear on Fairfield's balance sheet. An acquisition offer from Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise-line company, was withdrawn after Carnival's stock price dropped 42% after the announcement. In November 2000, Fairfield received an offer from Cendant Corporation to acquire the company for $15 per share. Valerie Amphlett, an analyst with Arbitrage Fund, has been asked to examine Fairfield's recent financial performance, including an analysis of the effects of the company's accounting treatment of the SPE to determine whether Fairfield is worth $15 per share.

This case analyses the first years of operation of 12Snap, a German start-up launched in 1999 and considered today the largest mobile marketing channel in Europe. It focuses on the changing market positioning and business model of the company, which evolved from B2C mobile retailing to B2B mobile marketing.

Provides a narrative description of the price war in the U.S. airline industry that broke out in Spring 1992.

Provides an account of how The Cradle, a nonprofit adoption agency, went from the brink of dissolution to become a thriving organization carrying out its mission. Under the leadership of Julie Tye, the organization and its board underwent an extensive strategic planning process and made significant changes to the organization's strategy, structure, and culture. Describes the condition of The Cradle before Tye's arrival.

This case examines a company that rents and leases computers. The primary objective of the case is to provide a scenario where students can see the link between operational flow measures such as inventory, throughput, and flow time and financial flows. The case presents a scenario where a firm sees financial performance worsen even though sales increase. A link between the operational measures and financial flows allows students to understand the causes.

John Williams, senior director of marketing for Microsoft's .NET, was trying to build the .NET brand, a comprehensive family of next-generation connectivity software products. Highlights the challenges of branding and positioning a complex technology offering. The first challenge facing Microsoft was to develop a common definition of .NET, which had been in flux over the prior two years. The second challenge was to choose between an umbrella branding strategy, a sub-branding strategy, and an ingredient branding strategy. The third challenge was to create a value proposition that would appeal to three very different target audiences: business decision makers, IT professionals, and developers.

Discusses the challenges that internal departments face as organizations grow and expand. The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, grew significantly over a short period of time, creating considerable problems in the finance department, as staff and systems failed to keep pace with the evolving demands placed by the museum departments. These problems resulted in outdated policies and procedures, unhappy users, and frustrated employees. The finance department needed big changes but had to make them while maintaining vital functions, improving morale, and instituting new policies and procedures. Discusses several key nonprofit management issues, including change management, the role of leadership in a crisis, the challenge of informal personnel networks and knowledge management, and key financial issues facing nonprofit organizations.

Annette Innella is just coming into the lunchroom at Concord Machines when Bob Dunn starts screaming at her. After throwing his lunch tray against the wall, he stomps out, leaving Annette stunned. Naturally, Annette, the new senior VP for knowledge management, is beside herself. She knows her proposal to establish a cross-functional knowledge management committee is progressive thinking for this old-line manufacturer, but Bob's reaction is totally over the line. If Bob stays, she goes--that's all there is to it. Bob is contrite, but he's under a lot of pressure. The general manager of the Services Group, he's just returned from a two-week trip around the globe to gear up his troops to beat revenue targets again, despite shrinking budgets and hiring freezes. Now an e-mail from Annette requests that two of his best people devote half their time to what he calls her "idiotic" Knowledge Protocols Group. CEO Jay Nguyen is in a bind. Bob is his top manager--he brings in all the money. And even though future revenues are going to have to come from somewhere else, Jay is not totally behind Annette's initiative in the current business climate. He can't afford to lose Bob. But if he reins in Annette, it will look like he's condoning Bob's outburst. What should he do? In R0201A and R0201Z, four commentators offer advice in this fictional case study.

When Renault and Nissan entered into a strategic alliance in March 1999, Nissan was in trouble. The Japanese automaker had struggled for 8 years to turn a profit. Its margins were notoriously low, and purchasing costs were 15% to 25% higher at Nissan than at Renault. Adding to the cost burden was a plant capacity far in excess of the company's needs. And the company's debts, even after the Renault investment, amounted to more than $11 billion. Either Nissan would turn the business around, or it would cease to exist. A veteran of turnarounds at Renault and Michelin, Carlos Ghosn was asked by Renault's CEO to go to Tokyo to save Nissan. He faced an uphill battle as a non-Japanese, non-Nissan outsider--and he knew it. In this first-person account, Ghosn tells the story of Nissan's turnaround. He explains how he relied on cross-functional teams. Ghosn also contends that success is not simply a matter of making fundamental changes to a company's organization and operations; the company's identity and the self-esteem of its people must also be protected. But making changes and safeguarding identity is sometimes a precarious balancing act. The key, he says, is to nurture a strong corporate culture that taps into the productive aspects of a country's culture.