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Executives who become trustees for nonprofit organizations frequently get bogged down in operating details while ignoring issues that could determine the enterprise's success or failure. An administrative model, identifying six policy levels - major, secondary, functional, minor, standard operating procedures, and rules - can guide their interventions. In general, board members should devote their energies to policy levels having the most impact on the organization's future and let the rest of the issues go. They also must attend to the four phases of policy development - establish objectives, formulate a statement, implement, and evaluate. Finally they must recognize that information is their most critical resource.

A company needs reliable information on product costs. But sometimes it's difficult to know if a cost system is failing to deliver. It's time to redesign a cost system when, for instance, manufacturing managers want to drop products that seem to earn the biggest profits. Chances are those items are more troublesome than the cost system reflects. Also, when departments develop their own cost systems, it probably means the old one is no longer working properly. Sometimes changes in a company's product market strategy or competitive environment can render a cost system obsolete. When margins are paper thin, companies need more accurate costs than ever.

Managers who commit their companies to designing more manufacturable products encounter the problem of how to organize their professional staff. How should design and manufacturing engineers be encouraged - or made - to work together? What changes does the team approach to design entail? Here are four organization approaches to designing for manufacture, each with advantages and drawbacks: 1) the manufacturing sign-off approach; 2) the integrator approach; 3) the cross-functional team approach; and 4) the product-process design department. Hybrid approaches may well be better than any individual one.

Collaboration between competitors is in fashion. But the rise of competitive collaboration has triggered unease about its long-term effects. Companies that benefit most from competitive collaboration never forget that their partners may be out to disarm them. They know that harmony is not the most important measure of success; indeed, occasional conflict may be the best evidence of mutually beneficial collaboration. Successful companies also guard against competitive compromise by informing employees at all levels what skills and technologies are off-limits to the partner. Finally, they learn from their partners, viewing each alliance as a window on their partners' broad capabilities.

Forward-looking companies, installing marketing and sales productivity (MSP) systems, are seeing increases of up to 30% in sales and sales force productivity. MSP systems automate routine tasks and gather and interpret data that was either scattered or uncollected before. They not only upgrade sales and marketing efficiency but also improve the timeliness and quality of executives' decision making. Viewed as a corporate strategic investment, companies can exploit the synergies possible from linkages with other parts of the organization.

Too many managers do not understand what it is that makes experts so valuable to their organizations. Experts combine analytical reasoning with intuitive judgment, sharpened by long experience. The result is problem-solving ability that cannot be taught or easily learned. Few organizations are structured to recognize the worth of experts financially or through advancement. Companies should make room in the reward system for honoring expertise.

Women managers cost more to employ than men. Turnover is higher, and they are more apt to plateau or to interrupt their careers. Career primary women are effective managers and serve as beacons for younger women. Career-and-family women are willing to trade ambition for the flexibility to raise their families; their willingness to forgo advancement but still give their best can greatly upgrade middle management. Opportunity, flexibility, and family support are the keys to retaining the best women and eliminating the extra cost of employing them. McKinsey Award Winner.

Startup companies face a difficult tension: they need the best managers, but they lack the resources or financial stability to match the compensation and benefits these managers can get elsewhere. Evaluate compensation and benefits choices from four perspectives. How do they affect cash flow? What are the tax implications? What is the accounting impact? What is the competition doing?

In 1988 Playto Industries' Teach-Her doll, the company's first new product since Jim Clayton became president, was a winner in the East. Clayton planned to take Teach-Her national and to introduce another toy, Playto's Labs. But he needed $30 million--almost as much as the company's existing capitalization--to grow. Monument National Bank would lend no more than $20 million. The best option seemed to be subordinated bonds. Rates were high, but if Playto made the bonds convertible, rates fell from 12.5% to a more manageable 8.75%. Now Clayton has a knot in his stomach: interest coverage might drop to half of that in 1988, a competitor might imitate Teach-Her, Playto's Labs might flop--the company could end up in serious trouble. Five finance experts discuss the case.

The microwave oven was invented in the United States 40 years ago, but it is a Korean company that now produces the most ovens. Samsung's story is told in this article adapted from The Silent War: the Global Battles Shaping America's Future, and it's a lesson on how companies in developing countries are becoming world-class competitors. Dedicated people, company policy that encourages investment in minds as well as technology, and timely opportunity all helped Samsung's rise.

Nestle SA is the world's largest food company; its acquisition of RowntreePlc in 1988 was, at 2.5 billion British pounds, the largest ever foreign takeover of a British company. This case is the first in a three-part case series positioned before, during, and after the acquisition of Rowntree by Nestle and gives an inside look at a major international acquisition. Includes a note on the world chocolate industry and ends at the point when Nestle must decide whether to launch a hostile bid for Rowntree. Written from Nestle's point of view, it provides the opportunity to consider the benefit of various acquisition possibilities in the industry. Also raises questions as to why Rowntree became a takeover target as well as Nestle's policy of not making hostile takeovers.

The second of a three-part series on the 2.5 billion British pounds takeover of Rowntree by Nestle in 1988. Nestle has launched a hostile bid for Rowntree; this case ends at a breaking point in the process and places us in the middle of a critical negotiation session of the most senior executives of the two companies. Written from Nestle's point of view, it raises questions regarding the takeover price and the potential post-acquisition integration and organization structure.

The third of a three-part case series on the 2.5 billion British pounds takeover of Rowntree by Nestle in 1988. Nestle has acquired Rowntree; this final case raises issues about the post-acquisition integration of Rowntree and Nestle. This case setting is six months after the acquisition and is written from the point of view of the former senior Rowntree manager charged with integrating the Rowntree and Nestle chocolate businesses in Europe.

A condensed version of the Nestle-Rowntree (A) and (B) cases. Intended for use by instructors who wish to move directly to the acquisition negotiation. Ends at the same point in time as the existing (B) case. To reduce the length of the case, some data from the (A) case is eliminated.

In April 1983, the City and County of San Francisco and two irrigation districts in Merced and Stanislaus counties commissioned a feasibility study of their long-standing proposal to dam the Tuolumne River for power and water. At the same time, a coalition of environmentalists, rafters, fishing enthusiasts and California residents known as the Tuolumne River Preservation Trust was lobbying Congress to protect the river from further development under the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The dam proponents had already produced several favorable cost-benefit studies of their proposal; in June 1983, the Trust asked economists at the Environmental Defense Fund to respond to those studies with an economic assessment of the proposed dam's environmental costs.This case is intended to provoke a discussion of how to place an economic value on environmental benefits that are seemingly intangible. The case calls particular attention to the measurement of user benefits, and the special problem of calculating the value placed by non-users on the sheer existence of an environmental asset ("existence value") and the option to use it someday ("option value"). Also relevant is the problem of discounting over the life of a long-term project. HKS Case Number 701.0.

On June 9, 1986, General Electric Co. acquired the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) for $6.8 billion, setting a record for the largest non-oil merger in US history. GE wanted RCA for its defense-related businesses and for its solid domestic sales of consumer goods, an area where GE was faltering. But the "jewel in the crown" was the RCA-owned television network, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). GE was delighted with its new NBC subsidiary, which the media press had christened the "Cinderella network" for its recovery from a profound slump to become the most successful of the nation's three networks. The network's news division, however, was different. It had rarely balanced a budget and was losing at least $50 million a year. From the standpoint of GE--a company which had successfully boosted revenues by ruthlessly cutting expenses and personnel--NBC News needed simply to cut costs. This case describes the process GE underwent to make NBC a profitable venture. HKS Case Number 939.0.

Major government-funded public works projects are often touted both for the needs they will fulfill and the jobs they will provide. This case examines the assumptions underlying San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros' push for publicly financed construction of a domed sports stadium. HKS Case Number 896.0

Epilogue to case HKS257.

Economic Analysis Version of case HKS257 (896.0). Major government-funded public works projects are often touted both for the needs they will fulfill and the jobs they will provide. This case examines the assumptions underlying San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros' push for publicly financed construction of a domed sports stadium. HKS Case Number 896.3

Valley Farms International (VFI) describes some of the problems and issues involved in selling and exporting dairy cattle to a middle-east country. The decision that John Roberts of VFI must make is whether or not to employ the services of a middleman in that country, a practice which is against the law of that country. This case is the first in a series of cases, Valley Farms International (A) through Valley Farms International (F).