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Supplements the (A) case. Designed to be handed out midway through class.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 297022

Illustrates the "Service Profit Chain" in action. QVC, whose initials stand for Quality, Value,, and Convenience, demonstrates clearly how a strong customer focus can lead to establishing a strong franchise in the retail sector and a highly profitable business whose revenue has grown 14% per year for 1992-96--usually at the expense of the rival Home Shopping Network and through higher customer retention.

Explains relationships between asset specificity, holdup, and vertical integration. In particular, it emphasizes solutions to the holdup problem through vertical integration and contracting.

"Create shareholder value" has become management's mantra. Managers have developed an extensive set of tools for determining which parts of their businesses add to or subtract from shareholder value. Unfortunately, merely applying the tools of value-based analysis does not suffice to add shareholder value; these tools focus on financial management and what top managers do, whereas value creation results from actions by individuals and groups throughout the firm. A comprehensive value-based management (VBM) system must engage, motivate, and reward people throughout the organization who create shareholder value. The system offered here targets five stages of development: value-based analysis; management of commitment and stretch targets; VBM training and open-book management; employee empowerment and task-focused training; and sharing the value. The VBM system continues with dialogue among top managers about where stretch goals should be focused in the future and the involvement of all employees in determining the best means to achieve those goals. Equally important is an ongoing commitment to training in VBM and the tasks that derive from it. VBM cannot create a strategic vision for a company. But when it is focused on creating both economic value and enhanced customer value, and is an integral part of the culture, the firm maximizes its future prospects.

A descriptive manual for how to manage the process of project management. Major sections are: 1) define and organize the project, 2) plan the project, and 3) track and manage the project. 12 processes are described in detail.

BSE or Mad Cow Disease is symptomatic of a series of technology crises. This case deals with how governments, scientists, businessmen, farmers, and the media face very difficult issues under exteme pressure.

A view of career management for people interested in starting or playing a major role in an entrepreneurial venture is presented.

Focuses on InterSoft of Argentina, a growing software company in Argentina. In 1993, InterSoft acquires a Russian software company and Emilo Lopez, the vice president and director of InterSoft's Systems Software Lab, must manage a creative, cross-cultural, "virtual" team. This case illustrates InterSoft's origins and highlights the relationship between the founding partners, Lopez and Felix Racca.

Focuses on InterSoft of Argentina, a growing software company in Argentina. In 1993, InterSoft acquires a Russian software company and Emilo Lopez, the vice president and director of InterSoft's Systems Software Lab, must manage a creative, cross-cultural, "virtual" team. This case reveals a quarrel that arises over e-mail between an Argentine programmer and a Russian programmer. Lopez, as the manager of the development team, must decide how to handle the situation. Since the exchanges between these programmers were preserved in e-mail files, this case provides a unique opportunity to analyze a conflict situation as it escalates.

Supplements the (A) and (B) cases. Designed to be handed out at the end of class.

The CEO of the marketing and refining division of a major oil company is in the midst of implementing a profit turnaround. He transforms the strongly centralized, functionally-organized division into 17 independent business units and 14 internal service companies. The division also launches a new, market-segmented strategy aimed at high-end buyers. The CEO recognizes, however, that the new organization and strategy require a new measurement system. He turns to the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) because of its ability to link measurement to strategy, and to help the new profit-center managers develop customized strategies for their local responsibilities. The case describes the development of the initial divisional BSC, the linkage of the divisional BSC to independent business unit and internal service company BSCs, and linkage of the BSC to managers' compensation. Concludes with the senior executives reflecting on how they are using the BSC in their management processes.

The general manager of a local gasoline/distillate sales and distribution business unit must communicate a new strategy to the unit's 300 employees. An initial strategic planning exercise identified a high-priority list of opportunities that blended the parent division's national strategy with a customized, local strategy. But for the new strategy to be effective, the old measurement system, which stressed only sales volume and cost reduction, had to be replaced. The manager led the development of a local Balanced Scorecard (BSC), derived from the division scorecard (described in the (A) case). To communicate the critical features of the local BSC, the unit's senior managers established a Super Bowl competition in which all employees were challenged to achieve stretch targets on five BSC measures. This case describes the communication and management processes for the Super Bowl measures.

The general manager of a Lubricants Business Unit in Mobil's U.S. Marketing and Refining division launched a project to develop a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) for his unit. The purpose was to provide focus for all employees of the unit, enabling it to operate on an integrated basis. After the unit's scorecard had been developed, the general manager challenged the project team to extend the effort out to every employee in the business unit. The team started by constructing a cause-and-effect tree that linked high-level business unit objectives down to positions or tasks for every individual. The team then visited all locations, using the cause-and-effect tree to link the unit's strategy and scorecard to individuals' responsibilities. This case describes the construction of individual BSCs and their impact on employee behavior.

In early 1992, Mr. Eu, managing director of Kanzen Tetsu Sdn. Bhd. (KTSB), a new Malaysian producer of stainless steel tubing, received a letter from KTSB's attorney in Washington, DC, informing him that the U.S. Specialty Tube Group had written to the U.S. president concerning stainless steel tubing imported into the United States from Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia at dumped prices that was causing injury to the U.S. industry. For the next year, Mr. Eu considered how he should respond to this threat, while at the same time increasing KTSB's exports to the United States so that KTSB could meet its sales and profit goals. In March 1993, Mr. Eu was informed that a formal antidumping action had been taken against imports of stainless steel tubing from Malaysia (and other countries). Mr. Eu is considering what he should do now, both to preserve KTSB's market in the United States and maintain alternative markets in other countries.

This note describes the links between inflation, exchange rates, and interest rates in an international setting. Students are introduced to the basic ideas, which are illustrated with data from four countries. The note emphasizes the managerial implications of these links and their relevance to forecasting exchange rates. It is useful as both background reading to supplement cases and as part of preparation for a lecture on the topic.

Supplements the (A) case.

Companies that enjoy enduring success have a core purpose and core values that remain fixed while their strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. The rare ability to balance continuity and change--requiring a consciously practiced discipline--is closely linked to the ability to develop a vision. Vision provides guidance about what to preserve and what to change. A new prescriptive framework adds clarity and rigor to the vague and fuzzy vision concepts at large today. Managers who master a discovery process to identify core ideology can link their vision statements to the fundamental dynamic that motivates truly visionary companies--that is, the dynamic of preserving the core and stimulating progress.

What should managers working abroad do when they encounter business practices that seem unethical? Should they, in the spirit of cultural relativism, tell themselves to do in Rome as the Romans do? Or should they take an absolutist approach, using the ethical standards they use at home no matter where they are? Many business practices are neither black nor white but exist in a gray zone, a moral free space through which managers must navigate. Levi Strauss and Motorola have helped managers by treating company values as absolutes and insisting that suppliers and customers do the same. And, perhaps even more important, both companies have developed detailed codes of conduct that provide clear direction on ethical behavior but also leave room for managers to use the moral imagination that will allow them to resolve ethical tensions responsibly and creatively.

Thousands of businesses have reengineered work to focus employees on processes that clearly provide value to customers. They have done away with their functional silos and created process-complete departments, each able to perform all the cross-functional tasks required to meet customers' needs. Although many of those efforts have paid off in the form of lower costs, shorter cycle times, and greater customer satisfaction, many others have resulted in disappointment. What went wrong? In a study of U.S. electronics manufacturers, the authors found that process-complete departments had faster cycle times than functional departments only when their managers had used one or more of four ways to cultivate collective responsibility: structuring jobs with overlapping responsibilities, basing rewards on unit performance, laying out the work area so that people can see one another's work, and designing procedures so that employees with different jobs are better able to collaborate.