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Explores the basic vocabulary and issues related to product policy within a firm.

Provides general managers with a framework with which they can structure and understand pricing decisions. Draws examples from existing HBS case materials.

Clorox's Brita skillfully exploits a tide of water safety concerns, growing a home water (filtration) business from inception to a 15% U.S. household penetration in ten years. The dilemma in the case arises as the period of increasing returns seems to be drawing to a close, and management must use its legacy, an installed based and a strong brand equity, to take the business forward into a less friendly environment. Students can model the relation between the primary demand for pitchers and the derived demand for filters to decide where they want to put future investments.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 500-024.

The management team at ING Bank of Canada was preparing to launch Canada's first discount bank. Initially, the bank planned to serve its customers using mail and telephone. Later, it planned to supplement the telephone banking service with an interactive voice response system and an Internet-based service. ING hoped to attract customers by offering significantly higher interest rates on its savings products than any of its competitors. There was some skepticism about the viability of the proposed business model. At the time of the case, the president and CEO of ING Bank was reviewing the proposed launch strategy.

The Acer Group was one of the world's largest PC and computer component manufacturers. The vice president of global operations is pondering whether the timing and environment is conducive for Acer, based in Taiwan, to commence full-scale manufacturing operations in the Chinese mainland. Students are asked to examine the criteria on which Acer should base its decision to manufacture overseas and, in so doing, create the framework for a corporation's global manufacturing strategy.

A group of Trojan Technologies, Inc. employees grappled with the issue of how to structure the business to interact effectively with its customers and manage the company's dramatic growth. The London, Ontario manufacturer of ultraviolet water disinfecting systems believed that strong customer service was key to its recent and projected growth and had come to the realization that changes would have to be made to continue to achieve both simultaneously. The group hoped to develop a structure to address these issues. The executive vice president was to lead the development and implementation of the new structure. The transition to the new structure was to coincide with the new fiscal year.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 100021

A small CPA firm puts in a new performance measurement system, and profits increase by 350% in less than a year. This case illustrates the reasons for improved profitability as well as the sustainability of levels of growth, the opportunities, and the threats that await the company.

The price of a bond is a function of the promised payments and the market-required rate of return. Because the promised payments are fixed, bond prices change in response to changes in the market-required rate of return. For investors who hold bonds, the issue of how sensitive a bond's price is to changes in the required rate of return is important. There are four measures of bond-price sensitivity that are commonly used: Simple Maturity, Macaulay Duration (effective maturity), Modified Duration, and Convexity. Each of these measures provides a more exact description of how a bond price changes relative to changes in the required rate of return.

This note provides a brief overview of the relationship between the macro behaviour of the economy and the resulting impact on investment returns. It is designed to be used within a course on investments or portfolio management. The note starts by establishing a framework for estimating the long-run expected returns of the two major categories of financial assets - equities and (long-term) bonds - on the basis of the fundamental valuation theorem, which states that value comes from expected future discounted cash flows. The note demonstrates that this theorem implies that the long-run expected real returns on equities depend on the dividend growth rate and the expected average growth rate in dividends, which in turn depends on long-run macroeconomic growth. Expected long-term real returns on bonds depend on the yield to maturity and the long-run inflation rate. The note then goes on to establish the long-run behaviour of four key macroeconomic variables: output, inflation, interest rates, and exchange rates. An overview of how to identify business cycle positions is an important component of this analysis. Also, the analysis focuses on methods for identifying disequilibrium situations for interest rates. Finally, the note concludes by discussing some short-run influences on macroeconomic variables and the key role of monetary policy.

The president of Central Parking must decide how to grow the company with options including continued consolidation of the parking industry and/or growth through related diversification. Initiates discussion of a successful consolidation strategy.

E Ink is a high-technology start-up attempting to revolutionize print communication through electronic ink displays. The founders and top managers of this two-year-old firm are striving to translate a technological breakthrough into a working prototype, move from prototype to full-scale manufacturing, and maintain market excitement about the company. At the same time, they are dealing with a fundamental organizational concern: How to retain E Ink's creativity, drive, and sense of fun while focusing the company on growth and the demands of a first-product introduction.

Updates Sunrise Medical, Inc.'s Wheelchair Products.

Eighteen months after launching Nickelodeon Latin America, general manager Taran Swan must leave the company's Miami headquarters for her New York home because of complications with her pregnancy. Unable to travel for at least the next six months, Swan must decide how she will continue to run the channel from New York. Should she put an interim acting head in place, and if so, who among her team should it be? What adjustments will she need to make in her leadership style and working relationships with her team? The case describes the channel's launch and first 18 months on the air, focusing on how Swan puts together her team and crafts the company's culture.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

Describes a leading fast food operator/franchiser trying to consolidate and standardize its operations worldwide and focus its efforts on a few key markets. Lends itself to a discussion of how global the fast food industry is, whether Tricon's new international strategy is consistent with industry structure and its competitive position, and, if so, which country markets to focus on.