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John Hansen, CEO of ThermoLase, must develop a plan of action to exploit the company's new development-stage revolutionary hair removal technology with negligible revenues and a $500 million market capitalization. This nascent public Thermo Electron spin out company has the opportunity to change the U.S. beauty industry if Hansen can develop and execute an effective rollout strategy. Teachng Purpose: To introduce students to the Thermo Electron development strategy in the context of a high-potential, development-stage, retail/consumer-oriented business.

A medium-sized investment management firm is attempting to decide whether to try to grow, and if so, how. It is a complicated decision because the managing partner and her colleagues have significantly different views. This case provides the background on the industry, firm, and situation.

Continues the plot about growth and sales strategies, and adds interesting pricing and sales compensation elements. The partners' meeting sharpens the disagreements among the five partners, and forces Anne Howard, the managing partner, to develop a clear action plan.

Goes to the heart of the sales strategy issues by asking discussion participants to: 1) develop a salesperson recruiting process, 2) choose among four resumes, and 3) develop a sales compensation approach.

Eve Stacey, a recent Harvard MBA, has the challenging task of evaluating the market opportunity for NutraSweet in China. She must decide how best to develop the market for the product in China. May be used with NutraSweet in China (B).

Set in January 1994, this case concerns a discussion between a money manager and her assistant about approaches for analyzing an offering of convertible bonds by Boston Chicken. The analysis compares the insights available from standard descriptive ratios with those available from valuation analysis. The case is intended to be a student's first exercise in analyzing convertible bonds, and it assumes some familiarity with option-pricing theory and bond valuation. The format of the case (clear tasks and conversational style) is intended to disarm the novice. Nevertheless, the case raises many important and interesting points that will easily fill a class period.

Provides the context and hard copy material to accompany a video sales presentation. Participants are asked to develop criteria for evaluating a sales presentation and then to apply the criteria to the video presentation.

This case exercise enables an understanding of applying Queuing models in the context of Queues in a post office. The issues of universalization of country due to computerization, appropriate segmentation of client system to help demand analysis are also highlighted.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 297011

The financial vice president must decide the value and form of an acquisition offer to be made to a small hand tool company.

Management of a small hand tool company must decide on the terms and conditions of its sale to a "friendly" acquirer.

Discusses the joint venture between two companies with different capabilities: 1) technology provider and 2) transportation agent. Discusses how to capture value from joint venture and biotechnology: 1) who are winners and who are losers; 2) how much value can/should be captured; 3) sustainability issues; 4) implications for agriculture/agchem industry/relationships between supply chain members. Delta & Pine and Monsanto are licensing a new technology cotton seed. They must decide how to do it and how to evaluate its success.

Designed to help students identify patterns in their approaches to developing networks of relationships. A "network" refers to the set of relationships that help people to advance professionally, get things done, and more generally, develop personally and professionally. A rewritten version of an earlier exercise.

Designed to help executives identify patterns in their approaches to developing networks of relationships. A "network" refers to the set of relationships that help people to advance professionally, get things done, and more generally, develop professionally and personally. A rewritten version of an earlier exercise.

A regional producer of baked goods faces the challenge of developing and bringing to market as quickly as possible a new nonfat cookie. The project manager decides to use CPM (critical path method) to coordinate the product's introduction. The case provides the necessary planning data to create and schedule the project network diagram. The case is designed to be used with the note "Network Planning/Scheduling Techniques for Project Management," (UVA-OM-0294) or similar reading.

Meredith Hellicar's mission as general manager of corporate development is to make TNT Ltd. one of the biggest and most diverse transport and logistic companies in the world, with approximately $5 billion in turnover in 1993, a leading provider of logistics services in Asia. The case describes the approach she used to rank countries and select China and Thailand as priority markets. She has just presented her recommendation to the board when a major independent distributor in Indonesia contacts her for a potential partnership. She has to rapidly decide how to handle this unexpected opportunity and reconsider her priorities.

During the 20-year evolution of a family-owned, entrepreneurial sailboat company, two founders leverage their design and marketing skills to build one of the most recognized brands in the recreational boating industry. The founder then considers management succession and the need to improve financial planning and control systems to capitalize on brand value.

Two psychological traps, anchoring and framing, and their role in negotiation are described. The anchoring section describes how first or opening offers can be used effectively in negotiation. Examines how opening offers serve as an anchor, changing one side's perception of the other side's bottom line and hence the set of possible outcomes. The framing section describes how framing--alternative description of an object, event, or situation--can be used effectively in negotiation. Uses a real-estate dialogue to illustrate three common varieties of framing: losses versus gains, short and long horizons, and aggregation and segregation.

Two exercises designed to illustrate the relationship between BATNAs (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) and reservation prices and three exercises that illustrate the central ideas of Pareto efficiency are presented. The BATNA exercises involve multiple negotiated alternatives and uncertainty. The Pareto efficiency exercises illustrate the value of side payments and differential valuation of issues in the creation of joint gains.

Paula Ellis, assistant to the publisher, believes an Internet edition of South Carolina's largest newspaper, The State, is critical to the future of the $90 million State-Record Co., a subsidiary of Knight-Ridder, Inc. Ellis supported the creation of an experimental electronic edition covering the Susan Smith murder trial. The experimental edition has evolved into a daily electronic edition called The CyberState. However, lack of advertiser interest and recent financial pressures from increasing newsprint costs have generated internal pressure to scale back or eliminate The CyberState. Ellis must determine the appropriate level of funding and establish various performance goals for fiscal year 1996.