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Illustrates the payoff structure of various positions involving put and call options and the use of put-call parity in understanding the relationships among various positions. Examines the cases of insured equity, interest rate caps and floors, callable and extendable debt, and corporate balance sheets.

In the largest attempted employee-buyout in history, a large U.S. commercial airline seeks substantial wage concessions from its employees in return for 53% stake in the airline's common stock and guaranteed seats on the board of directors. Management must convince employees, shareholders, Wall Street analysts, and the media that the buyout makes sense from value, operating, and strategic perspectives.

A British bank with strong roots in the cooperative movement encounters declining profitability in an increasingly competitive and deregulated financial services industry. It attempts to grow by broadening its customer base and increasing the range of products and services offered. It turns to activity-based costing as part of its reengineering effort to learn more about the process and product costs and customer profitability, and contemplates what actions to take based on this new information.

Deals with the basic accounting conventions (or concepts). The five operative statements of financial concepts issued by the FASB are also discussed.

Robert Adams, president and CEO of Xerox Technology Ventures (XTV), confronts several changes in his organization. Established by the Xerox Corp. to invest in fledgling organizations, XTV is now being offered the opportunity to undertake buyouts of many of Xerox's units.

The Bardolini Division of Mattson Foods, with plants in the northeast and midwest, wants to open up the western market for its pizza. Management must decide whether to build a new plant on the West Coast, and what type of technology to put in the plant if they decide to build it. The case addresses the issue of building a plant for marketing purposes and raises a number of logistical issues, including transportation and warehouse economics. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 295127

A Wall Street analyst has just learned that FPL (the holding company for Florida's largest electric utility) may cut its dividend in several days despite a 47-year streak of consecutive dividend increases. In response to the deregulation of the electric utility industry, FPL has substantially revised its competitive strategy over the past several years. The analyst must decide whether a change in dividend policy will be a part of FPL's financial strategy in this deregulated environment.

FPL's dividend policy and the reaction of the financial markets are examined.

An introduction to inventory accounting practices, procedures, and methods. Financial analysis concerns about inventory are also covered.

Describes the economic logic leading to the deregulation of the U.S. airline industry in 1978 and subsequent competitive developments. The roles of computerized reservation systems, airport hubs, route strategies, and fleet management are raised as unanticipated tactical responses. The decision focus of the case emphasizes the prospect of regulation. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Provides an overview of the company's history, industry, competitive position, strategy, and organization. Analyzes the culture and morale at Apple. Written at a time when the company faces a very compelling threat to their business, and when morale within the company is very low. The purpose is to identify the key organizational issues that the company must address.

Describes the building of Apple's new strategy. Explores how the human resource function at Apple Computer can best support that strategy.

Depicts a "team-building" intervention by an organizational consultant at a small computer company.

To be handed out in class as a follow-up to Datavision (A).

Describes the events to follow Datavision (A) and (B). Covers the aftermath of two previous team-building meetings and leaves off with the protagonist struggling with how to proceed.

The expanded use of project management techniques is not always met by a concomitant increase in the pool of competent project managers. Senior managers readily acknowledge the ad hoc manner in which most project managers acquire their skills, but are unsure how better to develop a supply of well-trained project leaders for the future. Over the last several years, we have conducted interviews with dozens of senior project managers asking the question: "What information were you never given as a novice product manager that, in retrospect, could have made your job easier?" From the responses, we offer some rules as a useful means of understanding the challenge project managers face and some ways to address these concerns: understand the unique context of project management; recognize project team conflict as progress; understand who the stakeholders are and what they want; accept and use the political nature of organizations; understand what "success" means, operationally; remember that enthusiasm and despair are both infectious; build and maintain a cohesive team; and use time carefully, or it will use you.

A new CEO is hired to manage the turnaround of a family-owned newspaper publisher. In a departure from previous management, he implements a new compensation scheme that explicitly ties executive pay to market-value-based measures of firm performance. Because the company is not publicly traded, payoffs under the executive compensation plan are based on the firm's appraised value. Determining a value for this company (including any value created by the turnaround manager) is a complicated exercise. Additional complications arise because the firm's value also determines potential cash distributions to family members who wish to sell their shares back to the company. Certain family goals may also be inconsistent with the CEO's objective of maximizing the present value of the firm's assets.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 295114

Do men and women have distinct leadership styles? Do they approach management differently? This note summarizes the two perspectives that have dominated the ongoing debate on gender differences in organizational leadership and management behavior. Psychological theories emphasize the different outlook, attitudes, and values inculcated in men and women during their development and socialization. In contrast, situational theories argue that gender differences are few, and largely an artifact of differences in opportunity, power, and lack of representation in business and organizational settings. The evidence from research studies is reviewed briefly.