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Charles Hughes, president and CEO of Land Rover North America, Inc., is debating product positioning options for the new Land Rover Discovery. The positioning decision must consider the role of the Discovery vis-`a-vis other vehicles in the LRNA line, the brand's strengths and weaknesses versus competition, and the positioning of the Land Rover umbrella brand in the U.K. An allocation of marketing funds across brands and mix elements must also be determined and decisions on the company's innovative retailing strategy and experience marketing initiatives made. The case contains rich consumer behavior data. Includes color exhibits.

Too often when managers think about pricing, the first question they ask is, What should the price be? In fact, what they should be asking is, Have we addressed all the considerations that will determine the correct price? Robert J. Dolan describes two broad qualities of an effective pricing process and provides eight steps to enable managers to develop and use such a process. The pricing scorecard included at the end of the article will allow managers to evaluate how well their pricing practices meet these guidelines.

Reengineering efforts are sweeping the country as companies shift from purely functional organizations to those that better accommodate horizontal work flows. Broad, crosscutting processes such as product development and order fulfillment have become the new organizational building blocks, Managers, in turn, have begun to develop new ways of working. But much remains to be learned about how these new organizations are crafted and led. The critical questions involve strategy and management practice. In this roundtable, Xerox's Allaire, USAA's Herres, SmithKline Beecham's Leschly, and Pepsi's Weatherup, four senior executives who have helped pioneer the shift to process-based organizations, discuss their experiences. They represent diverse industries and a wide range of competitive challenges, but their observations about processes and process management are strikingly similar.

Achieving the full profit potential of each customer relationship should be the fundamental goal of every business. The logic is as simple as it is compelling: Profits from customer relationships are the lifeblood of all businesses. And, at the most basic level, these profits can be increased in only three ways: by acquiring new customers, by enhancing the profitability of existing customers, and by extending the duration of customer relationships. Yet the business models that drive decisions in most large companies were forged before it was possible to focus directly on these key drivers of business profitability. Today companies can use information and technology tools to link their investments in customer relationships to the returns that customers generate. In other words, companies can now optimize what the authors call the value exchange: the relationship between a company's financial investment in customer relationships and the return that customers generate in responding to that investment.

Information technology now permeates every aspect of a business, requiring CEOs today to involve themselves in IT planning and decision making. Which IT investment responsibilities should the CEO delegate and to whom? When senior executives consider IT investment options, what should they look for? How do they learn what they need to know to ask the right questions? What role should other managers play in the decision? Six experts--Bob L. Martin, Gene Batchelder, Jonathan Newcomb, John F. Rockart, Wayne P. Yetter, and Jerome H. Grossman--share their views.

Few managers of high-technology companies view manufacturing as a primary souce of competitive advantage. Indeed, companies in high-tech industries increasingly outsource manufacturing completely. In so doing, they hope to avoid the risks of investing in expensive manufacturing plants and losing sight of what they see as their true source of advantage: product research and development. The authors' research in the health care industry over the past decade suggests that such thinking is often costly and potentially dangerous to the competitive health of high-tech companies. In fact, it is not only possible but also necessary to excel at developing new products and new manufacturing processes simultaneously. In many high-tech markets in which product technology is rapidly evolving, manufacturing process innovation is becoming an increasingly critical capability for product innovation.

The lingering belief that environmental regulations erode competitiveness has resulted in a stalemate. One side pushes for tougher standards, the other tries to roll standards back. The authors' research shows that tougher environmental standards actually can enhance competitiveness by pushing companies to use resources more productively. Managers must start to recognize environmental improvement as an economic and competitive opportunity, not as an annoying cost or an inevitable threat. Environmental progress demands that companies innovate to raise resource productivity--precisely the new challenge of global competition. It is time to build on the underlying economic logic that links the environment, resource productivity, innovation, and competitiveness.

Can an organization with a four-decade track record of growth avoid becoming the victim of its own success? Since the Nature Conservancy was founded in 1951, it has worked to save threatened habitats and species by buying and setting aside land. Year by year, the number of acres under its protection has increased, membership has risen, and donations have grown. The leader of any nonprofit company might justifiably envy the Conservancy's performance, but its president and CEO, John Sawhill, isn't satisfied. Since taking the job in 1990, Sawhill has led a major shift in strategy with far-reaching implications for the day-to-day activities of the organization's 2,000 employees. He believes that the Conservancy must change now to achieve its mission over the long term. In this interview, he discusses the challenges inherent in refocusing a large, successful, mission-driven organization.

Every morning, Paul Marsh, the chairman, president, and CEO of Kansas-based Coltrane Farm Equipment & Manufacturing, climbs the six flights of stairs to his office as part of his stress management plan. But recently the stress has intensified. In just five months, Marsh is retiring, and critics charge that there is no one suitably prepared to step into his job. Coltrane has prospered mightily under Marsh's leadership, and in recent years he has pushed the company to grow overseas. At the same time, Marsh also has a history of conflict with his closest subordinates. Coltrane's former president and COO left eight months ago and has not been replaced, and the head of international operations was fired in 1992 after just 21 months on the job. With the clock ticking, can Coltrane develop a plan to find a replacement for Marsh who can successfully lead the company into the next century? In 95509 and 95509Z, John Pound, Philip A. Lichtenfels, Alonzo McDonald, and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld offer advice on this fictional case study.

Every morning, Paul Marsh, the chairman, president, and CEO of Kansas-based Coltrane Farm Equipment & Manufacturing, climbs the six flights of stairs to his office as part of his stress management plan. But recently the stress has intensified. In just five months, Marsh is retiring, and critics charge that there is no one suitably prepared to step into his job. Coltrane has prospered mightily under Marsh's leadership, and in recent years he has pushed the company to grow overseas. At the same time, Marsh also has a history of conflict with his closest subordinates. Coltrane's former president and COO left eight months ago and has not been replaced, and the head of international operations was fired in 1992 after just 21 months on the job. With the clock ticking, can Coltrane develop a plan to find a replacement for Marsh who can successfully lead the company into the next century?

Every morning, Paul Marsh, the chairman, president, and CEO of Kansas-based Coltrane Farm Equipment & Manufacturing, climbs the six flights of stairs to his office as part of his stress management plan. But recently the stress has intensified. In just five months, Marsh is retiring, and critics charge that there is no one suitably prepared to step into his job. Coltrane has prospered mightily under Marsh's leadership, and in recent years he has pushed the company to grow overseas. At the same time, Marsh also has a history of conflict with his closest subordinates. Coltrane's former president and COO left eight months ago and has not been replaced, and the head of international operations was fired in 1992 after just 21 months on the job. With the clock ticking, can Coltrane develop a plan to find a replacement for Marsh who can successfully lead the company into the next century? In 95509 and 95509Z, John Pound, Philip A. Lichtenfels, Alonzo McDonald, and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld offer advice on this fictional case study.

Most managerial work happens through talk--discussions, meetings, presentations, negotiations. And it is through talk that managers evaluate others and are themselves judged. Using research carried out in a variety of workplace settings, linguist Deborah Tannen demonstrates how conversational style often overrides what we say, affecting who gets heard, who gets credit, and what gets done. Tannen's linguistic perspective provides managers with insight into why there is so much poor communication. Gender plays an important role. Tannen traces the ways in which women's styles can undermine them in the workplace, making them seem less competent, confident, and self-assured than they are. She analyzes the underlying social dynamic created through talk in common workplace interactions. She argues that a better understanding of linguistic style will make managers better listeners and more effective communicators, allowing them to develop more flexible approaches to a full range of managerial activities.

Private investment in infrastructure is again the rage among foreign investors and governments in the developing countries of Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Managers should not get carried away, however: A look at a few recent experiences shows that the pitfalls of the past are still present today. The authors review ill-fated foreign investment projects and conclude that foreign investment in infrastructure is dangerous because the hosting nations view it as an obsolescing bargain. In the face of this discouraging evaluation, the authors have some suggestions for minimizing risks. These range from the general, such as taking care to choose the right businesses to invest in, to more specific advice on setting rates and buying insurance. Nevertheless, investors should not expect security in infrastructure investment. Indeed, the paradox of infrastructure projects may be that higher returns cause higher risk, rather than the converse.

Examines the growth of the CD-ROM publishing industry and its impact on the Encyclopaedia Britannica Co., which chose to ignore it.

In September 2003, Mason Sexton, a young, inexperienced developer, was making plans to replace a rooming house he had inherited next to the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville with a new 14-unit, 5-story apartment house. His attempts to assemble the information, approvals, and resources necessary to point out the steps and risks inherent in the development process. Using the example of a small-scale residential project, this case illustrates development lessons applicable to projects of any scale. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 396001

Three examples of capacity analysis are provided. Calculations for cycle time, manufacturing lead times, capacities, labor cost, labor content, and utilization are performed for three different types of processes: a bread-making process with two independent lines; a croissant-making process involving two parallel dependent lines, one for making the dough and one for mixing the filling; and an automobile component assembly operation. The impact of process imbalance, machine reliability, and scheduling on available capacity is illustrated.

Presents a model for understanding the behavior and evolution of primary, stable work groups over time. The model describes contextual factors, design factors, and emergent culture as determinants of group behavior and performance. Describes emergent behavior, norms, roles, and rituals as aspects of group life. A rewritten version of an earlier note.

Students are instructed to interview a recent purchaser of a low-involvement product or service in depth about his/her buying decision. The exercise provides students with first-hand understanding of important concepts in consumer choice domain (e.g., stages in the buying process, decision-making roles, habit versus deliberation).

Students are instructed to interview a recent purchaser of a high-involvement/utilitarian product or service in depth about his/her buying decision. The exercise provides students with first-hand understanding of important concepts in consumer choice domain (e.g., stages in the buying process, decision-making roles, habit versus deliberation).