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A paper company whose subsidiary, a mill, was on the verge of bankruptcy turned the mill into a profitable operation within a few years. It used a multiyear learning process in which employees developed four progressively more sophisticated problem-solving loops: fix-as-fail; prevention; root causes; and anticipation.

After a period in which many companies experimented with decentralizing their information systems (IS) organization, companies are now consolidating data centers, giving central IS staffs more authority, and establishing companywide standards and procedures. The result is a hybrid organizational model that allows companies to benefit from the cost savings and control that centralization provided but with the user-responsiveness and flexibility that decentralizing permits.

Motorola began a program of skills training in 1980 to teach its work force statistical process control and other quality improvements techniques. After many problems, Motorola changed the program from a narrow emphasis on specific techniques to one including everything from reading and English comprehension to graduate work in computer-integrated manufacturing. The company forged partnerships with local schools and colleges to provide elementary education as well as business courses. The result is Motorola University. McKinsey Award Winner.

How do you manage yourself and your interaction with others when you feel your personal values challenged? What should you be aware of as you proceed with sensitive, ethical issues? Jonah Creighton coordinates the company's fast-track training program, and when he tries to place some participants at two of the company's overseas divisions, he learns of their discriminatory hiring practices. He finds this deeply troubling and attempts to have the issue addressed by his supervisor and others at the company. As he tries to act in accordance with his personal standards and convictions, his relationship with his supervisor deteriorates, and he feels increasingly uncertain about his future at the company. People do not seem to be responding to the problems he sees, and Jonah wonders how to proceed.

Covers Jonah's two-hour meeting with the company's executive vice president who is next in line to become president, and the outcome of the discriminatory hiring incident that initially troubled Jonah.

Traces the history of a collaborative effort to create an organization to manage a major international development project in the slums of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Focuses on a serious set of disagreements which develops several months into the project between the two principals, an Ethiopian woman who founded the project and a British entrepreneur who is the coordinator of the donor consortium. Designed to provide 1) an example of entrepreneurial action in the nonprofit sector, particularly in international development, 2) the opportunity to diagnose problems in the working relationship of two people who have very different backgrounds, and 3) the opportunity to devise plans for each person to take in addressing the problems.

The desktop printer industry in 1990 is characterized by significant uncertainty about new technologies and about the types of features customers may demand in the next decade. The case looks at the positions of Hewlett-Packard, Canon, Kodak, Xerox, and IBM enabling students to consider different approaches competing firms may take to manage strategic risks in a rapidly changing, high technology industry.

Describes the situation facing RJR Nabisco one year after the leveraged buyout by Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts. A vehicle for analyzing the financial restructuring of a highly leveraged, but operationally healthy, company.

Consists mainly of excerpts from Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill. Mill explains what utilitarianism is and gives his rationale for accepting it as a moral philosophy.

Presents a classic dilemma in legal ethics--the conflict between an attorney's obligations as an attorney, in this case to protect a client's confidentiality, and his or her own moral obligations as a person. An attorney must decide how to respond to the father of a missing young woman who has asked for information about her whereabouts. The attorney knows from conversations with his client that the young woman is dead and where her body is. Shows students what role-related obligations are, why they have strong moral claims, and the difficult dilemmas role obligations can create.

Describes how the attorney resolved the dilemma he faced, the reasons for his decision, and the consequences he suffered. Displays vividly the personal toll that moral conflicts can create for professionals with role obligations.

An edited, shortened version of Phil Knight: CEO at Nike with parts of Nike (E) integrated into it.

Provides an opportunity to evaluate an investment in a new product line in strategic, competitive, organizational, and economic terms. The economic analysis involves an estimation of the relevant cash flows and discounting them at an appropriate hurdle rate.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 290064.

An integrated sequence of three cases on the financing of a technical workstation manufacturer. This case focuses on Sun's competitive strategy which requires an inordinately high rate of growth (over 20% per quarter) and commensurate amounts of working capital. Students are asked to evaluate the importance of access to capital for the company and decide whether Sun should rely on the public equity markets or seek funding from a corporate partner.

Describes a specific opportunity to seek financing from AT&T as part of a proposed technological joint venture. Students must consider the price paid and control rights attached to a large block of shares and outline a negotiating position for each side.

Outlines the financing agreement reached by Sun and AT&T in early 1988.

Management is attempting to penetrate the California retail grocery market with the company's line of all-fruit preserves. Substantial up-front fees (slotting allowances) have been requested by the chains. Management must decide how to respond.

This technical note discusses the three types of foreign exchange risk: transaction exposure, translation exposure, and economic exposure. It addresses the nature of those risks and presents some methods that companies might use to manage them. Included in this note are discussions of the financial accounting and reporting requirements of FAS No. 52 (Foreign Currency Translation), of foreign exchange markets, of hedging strategies, and of such activities as loan swaps and licensing agreements.

In 1989, PepsiCo withdrew an advertising campaign featuring Madonna following complaints from religious groups regarding the content of a Madonna video.