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Between 1985 and 1990, the global economy witnessed an unprecedented surge in flows of foreign direct investment (FDI). This sudden increase called back into prominence the range of questions that have long surrounded FDI. What causes firms to expand or contract their purchase of foreign assets? How do patterns of investment affect trade and development? What is the impact of FDI on host countries? This note explores these questions in some detail and includes data summarizing recent trends in FDI flows.

Traces the birth and development of 3M Corp., focusing in particular on the origins of its entrepreneurially-based ability to innovate. In particular, it highlights the role of CEO William L. McKnight in creating a unique set of values, policies, and structures to nurture and develop continuous renewal. With the changing environment of the 1980s, however, a new generation of CEOs begin to adopt new policies and change the cultural norms that helped 3M grow. The trigger issue focuses on what other changes are required.

Examines some of the habitual ways of thinking that are applied to so-called "diversity" questions to reveal the commonalities and limitations of these models--the way they can reinforce unexamined assumptions and destructuve emotional reactions--and to suggest an alternative way of framing such questions that opens the possibility for creativity and new learning.

The Virgin Atlantic Airways (VAA) case was written on the occasion of the company's 10th anniversary. In 10 years, VAA has brought many innovations to the airline industry and won many awards for its service. It has fought against giants on an international scale and has survived the airline industry's most difficult years. The case describes the history of the firm, its achievements, and its practices especially in terms of operations, human resources and marketing.

Gives an overview of the collapse of a prestigious financial institution and the organizational failings that contributed to it. Outlines the history of Barings Bank, the creation of its securities business, particularly in the Far East, and how Nick Leeson, a Barings trader in Singapore, was able to run up massive losses in derivative trading, which caused the collapse of the bank. Identifies the cultural clashes, remuneration system, control failings, and other issues that severely weakened the effectiveness of the matrix management system, an important contributor to the collapse.

Describes how Nick Leeson, a Barings trader in Singapore, concealed his unauthorized trading activities, how Barings blindly financed them, and how the internal and external controls failed to identify the mounting losses. Identifies areas of poor internal control, inadequate computer systems, and a breakdown in information flow. Also discusses the failure of internal and external audit and regulatory systems.

Describes the revised marketing strategy for a commodity chemical and the resulting salesforce opposition that confronts a new marketing manager. The changes in the strategy aim for: margin improvement, new segmentation, centralized decision making, and pan-European optimization. A 1993 ECCH award winner. This is a revised version of an earlier case.

The management team at Electrohome's Projection Systems Division must decide what to do in response to a surprise new product introduction by Sony Projection Systems. The new product threatens Electrohome's position at the high end of the market. This case focuses on competitive analysis as three players from three differnet regions of the world vie for profitable positions in the industrial projection systems market.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

The object is to define what is meant by mergers and acquisitions and to understand why they happen. The impact of these deals on shareholders of both the acquiring and acquired companies is investigated, and the reasons why some mergers succeed while other fail are examined. Finally, in order to determine the value of a firm, some valuation frameworks are provided.

Follows the Novolin prefilled insulin syringe through its launch decision for the United States.

Chronicles BP Oil's process of developing, implementing, and assessing its global branding, along with key decision points at three critical areas along the way. BP Oil International is the retail/consumer marketing division of a company that is historically known for oil exploration and production. Its advertising manager is pressing the company to pay more attention to its brand equity, specifically consumer awareness and brand associations (image). The advertising manager and his boss have put together a proposal to create a global brand equity program (Brand Image Program), the keystone of which is a global advertising campaign. Now they must persuade the Marketing Strategy Group, a central oversight body, to approve the program.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

Virtually all managers are aware that the key to winning in the market today is tailoring one's offerings to the needs of each customer while maintaining low costs and prices. But most manufacturers have focused only on the products themselves, largely ignoring another element that differentiates a company's offerings and has a huge impact on costs and profits: services. Instead of tailoring their packages of services to customers' individual needs, many suppliers simply add layers of services to their offerings. The authors have found that suppliers usually give customers more services than they want at prices that reflect neither their value to customers nor the cost of providing them. But some companies are realizing that they can lower the cost of providing services and use them more effectively to meet customers' needs, gain more business, and enhance profits. From the authors' study of the best practices of those companies, they have developed a model for providing flexible service offerings.

Increasingly, senior executives who wish to expand their company's product, geographic, or customer reach consider alliances to be the strategic vehicle of choice. In the past five years, the number of domestic and cross-border alliances has grown by more than 25% annually. But the term alliance can be deceptive: in many cases, it really means an eventual transfer of ownership. The median life span for alliances is only about seven years, and nearly 80% of joint ventures end in a sale by one of the partners. Based on the author's experience with more than 200 alliances in various stages, they have developed a way for managers to diagnose whether an alliance is likely to lead to a sale and to devise an appropriate strategy--to assess bargaining positions and the risks of unplanned outcomes, and to plan for the partnership's evolution. They distinguish six types of alliances based on their probable outcomes: collisions between competitors, alliances of the weak, disguised sales, bootstrap alliances, evolutions to a sale, and alliances of complementary equals.

One of the most consistent patterns in business is the failure of leading companies to stay at the top of their industries when technologies or markets change. Why is it that established companies invest aggressively--and successfully--in the technologies necessary to retain their current customers but then fail to make the technological investments that customers of the future will demand? The fundamental reason is that leading companies succumb to one of the most popular, and valuable, management dogmas: they stay close to their customers. To remain at the top of their industries, managers must first be able to spot disruptive technologies. To pursue these technologies, managers must protect them from the processes and incentives that are geared to serving mainstream customers. And the only way to do that is to create organizations that are completely independent of the mainstream business.

The ability to gather, arrange, and manipulate information with computers has given business people new tools for managing. But data processing tools have done more than simply enable executives to do the same tasks better. They have changed the very concepts of what a business is and what managing means. To manage in the future, executives will need an information system integrated with strategy, rather than individual tools that so far have been used largely to record the past. The executive's tool kit has four kinds of diagnostic information: foundation information, productivity information, competence information, and resource-allocation information. The sources of the information are so diverse, and sifting through and interpreting it for a specific business are so difficult, that even small companies will need help from data specialists.

The hierarchical organization based on the strategy-structure-systems doctrine of management no longer delivers competitive results. While a top-down structure of corporate divisions gives managers tight control and allows companies to grow, it also fragments resources and creates a vertical organization that prevents small units from sharing their strengths with one another. Structural fixes, such as skunk works, alliances, and acquisitions, have not solved the problem. Based on a study of 20 companies with vanguard management styles, the authors predict a managerial revolution that will focus on horizontal processes rather than vertical structures. The job of management will be to promote three core organizational processes: frontline entrepreneurship, competence building, and renewal.