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Describes how close relationships with customers require close interfunctional and interdivisional coordination. Explains where the closest vendor/customer relationships arise and how they stress internal coordination. Also enumerates and briefly describes the way in which interfunctional coordination can be achieved.

An introduction to the formal analysis of strategic situations. Ideas of game trees, backwards induction, and dominated strategies are introduced. The methods of backwards induction to find optimal strategies is related to the method of successive eliminations of dominated strategies for games of perfect information.

Describes the changing environment faced by Motorola in the 1980s and the recognition by its CEO, Bob Galvin, that "change is needed." Also describes a major challenge set forth by Galvin to the organization to do something to prepare for the future. The challenge is somewhat ambiguous, however, and the reaction is mixed.

Supplements the (A) case.

Describes the implementation of the "organization effectiveness" process which was designed to make major changes in two major divisions at Motorola. The reactions and actions of each division are described in some detail, as well as the initial results.

Describes the efforts of a vice president of purchasing to coordinate and centralize purchasing procedures in a multinational company. He encounters a lack of active cooperation. A rewritten version of an earlier case by G. Lombard.

Accompanies Donna Dubinsky (A), (B), (C), and (E) but offers a unique additional perspective, that of the "antagonist" in this case, Debi Coleman. Coleman, vice president of manufacturing at Apple, offers her observations on the distribution conflict at Apple and her concerns about the Macintosh Division.

Explains the need for functional integration and the four ways to obtain it. A bibliography is provided. The note is managerial rather than scholarly in tone.

Spreadsheet supplement for case number 197085.

Describes a program of value-analysis workshops undertaken by this company as part of its massive effort to regain the number one position in its industry. The value-analysis workshops are the second half of the company's two-part Quality Has Value process. The focus is on: 1) the general question of how to apply value analysis, an industrial-engineering based tool, to white-collar work, and 2) how to handle some very sensitive issues that came out of the value-analysis workshop for a particular department.

In recent years, Au Bon Pain (ABP), a chain of upscale French bakeries/sandwich cafes based in Boston, confronted a set of human resource problems endemic to the fast food industry (i.e., a labor shortage which made it difficult to attract and maintain quality crew personnel and management candidates, an inadequately trained management staff, and high turnover). To deal with the resulting "cycle of failure" while increasing individual initiative and performance at the unit level, ABP devised a new compensation-incentive system for its store managers--the Partner/Manager Program. Under this program, store managers would be paid a standard base salary plus a share of the incremental profits. The case asks students to evaluate the program by comparing it to ABP's existing compensation system, determining the different ways in which managers from two stores operating under an experimental run of the program achieved their results, and by considering the strategic implications of implementing the program in all of the company's stores.

Describes a dispute between the owners of the major league baseball teams and the players' union about the profitability of the baseball teams. The issue is important because of the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations. A consultant is brought in to decide whether a representative team, the Kansas City Zephyrs, is making or losing money. He has to settle a number of accounting disputes about roster depreciation, signing bonuses, deferred compensation, and stadium costs.

As coach, general manager, and now president of the Boston Celtics, Auerbach has followed his own management philosophy based on loyalty, pride, teamwork, and discipline. The lessons he discusses in this interview are applicable to managers everywhere. The manager of a sports franchise encounters the same problems as any manager running an organization. Unions, uncooperative owners, and the difficulties of keeping players disciplined and motivated all play a part in Red Auerbach's job.

Since 1977, British Petroleum (BP) has operated a post-project appraisal unit - a team of inside analysts and investigators who scrutinize projects several years after they have been completed to learn why they succeeded or misfired. The appraisal process has helped managers be more accurate in developing project proposals and more efficient in implementing them. At BP, every project generates a return on investment at least as high as that in the project's forecast.

The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co. (HSB) dominates the market segment in which it operates. Its success comes largely from the company's service delivery system, a joint product of HSB's marketing and operating managers. Vital to strategy implementation is involving the employees who deliver the service. Successful companies focus on shared values, control by peer groups, generous incentives, and--where possible--a close relationship with the customer. Using databases imaginatively permits many of these businesses to substitute information for assets that both enhance service effectiveness to existing customers and attract new ones.

Business owners who have found venture capitalists (VCs) willing to put money into their companies may be tempted to take the money on any terms. Because they need the capital, the last thing they want to do is upset a deal. Owners don't have to agree without negotiation to each provision the VCs want. Owners do have some leverage in the negotiations, particularly if their businesses already show a profit or if they are selling a highly desirable service or product.

Traditional compensation systems that value status instead of contribution do not reward the entrepreneurial activity U.S. companies need. They're also unfair, costly, and inefficient. Now U.S. employers are changing their pay practices to forge better links between compensation and performance. Traditional ideas about hierarchy come into question every time one of these changes is made, so attacks on pay that look like fine-tuning are actually revolutionary in what they portend for organizational design.

No matter what their business, managers need to know how much cash they have to pay their obligations. Unfortunately, some of the cash flow measures they usually use to check their cash position--including net income plus depreciation (NIPD) and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT)--only work when sales are steady. When sales skyrocket, the measures overestimate cash; when sales plummet, they underestimate cash. A new concept, net operating cash flow--double prime, more clearly indicates the position of a company's cash bottom line.

Managers often take projects well past the point at which they should drop them. To see if they have come to this point, managers must look closely at themselves and recognize which of the influences they may be under. Some influences are psychological--they've been rewarded in the past for sticking to their guns, so why shouldn't the same thing happen this time? Some are social--no one likes a loser. And some are structural--important members of the organization are publicly committed to the project. The rest of the job belongs to top management. Its course is to rethink what behavior it rewards and how it staffs projects and to ensure that its information systems report the real odds.

Discusses the background of the foreign exchange market. This includes information about the participants and how the market operates. The problem set verses students in the arithmetic in the many common foreign exchange problems such as calculating forward premium and discounts, determining hedge ratios, covered interest arbitrage, etc.