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How do family businesses handle succession? What happens when siblings compete for the position of CEO? Can nonfamily board members navigate successfully through conflicts among family members? Should they even try? This fictitious case study examines a host of issues with which family businesses regularly grapple. It describes the situation that faces the board of directors of Benson Electric, a rapidly growing family enterprise, upon the unexpected death of CEO and patriarch Buck Benson. Benson, the son of the company's founder, left no succession plan. Caught in the middle of an emotionally torn and feuding family, the directors must determine how to proceed. How can they manage the succession process without alienating family members and worrying employees and customers? In 98108 and 98108Z, four commentators--Joseph A. Wolking, Kent Noble, Kelin Gersick, and Victor Ney--advise the directors on their best course of action.

It is no longer news that over the past five years, Sears, Roebuck and Co. has radically changed the way it does business and dramatically improved its financial results. But the now-famous Sears turnaround was more than a strategic and financial break with the past. It was a radical change in the logic and culture of the company, based on a new business model--not so much "the softer side of Sears" as the softer side of measurement. Led by CEO Arthur Martinez, a group of more than 100 top-level Sears executives spent three years rebuilding the company around its customers. In rethinking what Sears was and what it wanted to become, these managers developed a business model of the company--the employee-customer-profit model--and an accompanying measurement system that tracks success from management behavior through employee attitudes to customer satisfaction and financial performance.

The classic business ratios for measuring performance--return on equity, return on assets, and return on sales, to name a few--may be useful. But none is designed specifically to reflect how well a company implements its strategy. Enter return on management (ROM), a new ratio that gauges the payback from a company's scarcest resource: managers' time and energy. Unlike other business ratios, ROM is a rough estimate, not an exact percentage. Still, it is expressed like other business ratios by an equation in which the output is maximized by a high numerator and a low denominator: Knowing which organizational factors conspire against or work to maximize an organization's productive energy will help managers calculate a rough measure for this equation. Harvard Business School Professor Robert Simons and HBS doctoral student Antonio Davila offer five "acid tests" to help managers measure their company's ROM.

Mention "human resources" and most line and operating managers groan. Simply put, HR has a reputation for inefficiency and incompetence. But a new and transforming era for HR has arrived, asserts Dave Ulrich, a professor at University of Michigan's school of business. The challenges of today's competitive environment mean that HR must refocus its work away from activities that sap value from the organization and instead focus its efforts on achieving outcomes that improve company performance. Ulrich says HR's radical reinvention must be led by senior managers.

While many contemporary American corporations continue to exemplify high levels of corporate social responsibility, virtually all publicly held firms are finding themselves under growing pressure from the investment community to maximize shareholder value. As a result, the interests of the firm's non-shareholder constituencies are being neglected. The government must step in and function as arbiter, enacting rules and regulations that define what we expect of corporations in the way of such things as working conditions, environmental protection, and job training. But since the political process constitutes the only remaining vehicle for the expression of non-shareholder stakeholders, if corporate managers wish to be free to maximize shareholder value, it is inappropriate for them to also participate in shaping public policy.

Advocates of the World Wide Web claim it is a great leveler and that participants have a more equal voice. This flatness of the Web creates a major challenge for many businesses: How do you attract visitors and prospective customers to the firm's Web site? The Web site that can attract more visitors, all other things being equal, is more likely to communicate its message to a wider audience or sell its product to more people. Organizations want to build mountains--or "attractors"--in the otherwise flat landscape of Web-based marketing and advertising. This article classifies existing approaches to creating attractors, identifies four basic types of attractors, and predicts that there will be a move toward creating highly interactive attractors as a device for mass customization. The article also addresses the notion of sustainable attractiveness and presents recommendations for designing an attractor.

This study of 453 supplier-automaker relationships in the United States, Japan, and Korea examines the extent to which automakers manage their "arm's-length" and "partner" suppliers differently. The findings indicate that U.S. automakers have historically managed the majority of their suppliers using an arm's-length model, Korean automakers have managed suppliers primarily as partners, and Japanese automakers have somewhat different relationships with suppliers depending on the nature (i.e., degree of asset specificity and value) of the component. Only Japanese automakers have strategically segmented suppliers in such a way as to realize many of the benefits of both the arm's-length as well as the partner models. Firms should think strategically about supplier management and should not have a "one-size fits-all" strategy for supplier management.

Does the Braun plaque removal (electronic toothbrush) product under development have a chance against the dominant American player, Interplak? Under an innovative female project manager, the Braun team has come to a decision point that is made urgent by the recent purchase of Interplak by Bausch & Lomb, a major company with a threatening presence in Europe. Looking at the product development process, the "product semantics" of the current design (does it communicate superior value to the consumer?), the technical problems yet to be solved, and the pressure to follow the Interplak lead, students have to develop a product strategy that fits the competitive situation and the competency and character of the company.

How does one determine the size of a "window of opportunity?" How does one determine what kind of risk is appropriate? Braun's new plaque remover is almost ready to be approved for manufacture and scheduled for launch, but toothpaste is still eating away at the tiny gears in the toothbrush head. Given the imminent launch of its formidable competitor into Europe, Braun wants to enter the market as soon as possible with what it believes is otherwise a superior product. Should Braun launch as planned, knowing that it will correct the gear problem shortly, or should Braun delay the launch until the problem is 100% solved? Some members of management, trusting Braun's engineers, tend toward the former, given the apparently small window of opportunity, whereas Ms. Valiaho, project manager, favors the latter. At this intersection of technology, design, and marketing, students are challenged to struggle with how to make such a decision. They are also encouraged to think about how product strategies, implicit or explicit, influence management decisions.

A large medical electronics firm is refining its outsourcing policies and the new ways in which it needs to work with its suppliers. The firm begins with an objective to purchase assemblies instead of components. This objective evolves until the supplier takes over a large part of the engineering design as well as the product database creation and maintenance. Many problems are encountered, but the product comes to market and is successful. A 1999 EFMD award winner.

A large medical electronics firm develops correct policies for outsourcing. The company develops noncore technology clusters, cluster teams to manage each cluster, and an evolutionary plan for how to interact with supplier partners. A 1999 EFMD award winner.

A large medical electronics firm's policy could not be applied as easily as the company expected. Some adjustments were necessary--depending on the items purchased, existing relationships with suppliers, and the availability of alternative suppliers. A 1999 EFMD award winner.

Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications products and systems company, is embarking on a first-ever global advertising campaign for its brand of mobile phones. The idea for consumer brand building, new to an otherwise technology-oriented, industrial company, has come about as a result of developments in the worldwide market for cellular phones: fast growth, entry of new consumer segments, declining product differentiation, and the growing pressure on prices and margins. The expensive campaign, aiming to cement a relationship with consumers, is notable for a total absence of product-related communication. Under the slogan "Make yourself heard," the ads feature a gallery of faces and a range of situations demonstrating the spirit of communication between people around the world. Some of the issues the case raises are: How do you build a strong brand for a product that is increasingly difficult to differentiate? Can pure brand values stand on their own merits without any references to products? What criteria should you use to evaluate advertising execution? A 2001 ECCH award winner.

A new product combining windsurfing and skiing runs into trouble during its first year of worldwide sales. A group of MBA students studies the problem and collects market data. The product's inventor is left with the task of taking action to save the invention from imminent disaster. What should he do?

Describes the selling activities of a sales engineer with respect to a key account. The loss of the order for a CT scanner provides the background for analyzing the dynamics of the buying situation and the salesman's handling of it. The issues raised are: Who are the cast of characters influencing the buying decision? What seems to motivate them? What sales strategy would be appropriate? This is a revised version of an earlier case.

In 1994, Sony's European operation moved to centralize its organization to improve operating efficiencies, implement pan-European marketing, and develop a unified position vis-a-vis Sony headquarters in Japan. In this transition, the powerful local country organizations lost much of their autonomy in key decision areas. Informally referred to as Big Bang, the radical organizational change ran into trouble almost from the beginning. This case provides the background to the organizational change, including important market forces that are reshaping the consumer electronics market in Europe. A 1999 EFMD award winner.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

Discusses the successful turnaround of Adidas. Describes the financial and competitive situation of Adidas and the sporting goods industry in 1993 when Robert Louis-Dreyfus, CEO, takes over the management of the company. Adidas is in economic and organizational disarray and Louis-Dreyfus' challenge is to turn the company around from its current deficit of close to $100 million. Can he do it? What changes should he make?

When the administration of Peru president Alberto Fujimori embarks on an ambitious privatization program, it turns inevitably to the nation's creaking telephone system. With but 2.5 phone lines per 100 persons, Peru, in the mid-1990s, had the lowest phone "density" in Latin America; installation of a new line took years, except via a thriving black market in existing lines. But the privatization committee which begins to plot the role of both the existing local and long distance phone monopolies, knows that it faces formidable obstacles to change: a suspicious and powerful military which nationalized the phone system in the 1970s; an influential cellular phone operator with his own agenda; existing unions, doubtful legislators who must approve a constitutional amendment to allow privatization to go forward. This case is about the political management of privatization. It describes the "interest group map" developed by the privatization committee and poses the question of what tactical approach should be taken with each. Case users must envision the potential conflicts, the objective desired, and the most useful tactics. The sequel describes the early success of the privatization process, after the phone system's sale to the Spanish phone giant, Telefonica. HKS Case Number 1404.0