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Spreadsheet Supplement for case 287033.

Canada's largest chemical company produces and markets butyl rubber in two divisions, each treated as a profit center. The new plant in the North American Division operates below capacity resulting in a significant volume variance and an operating loss. The European Division is at capacity and is profitable. The actions of the European Division affect the capacity utilization of the North American Division. Includes divisional financial statements and interviews with the vice-presidents of each division.

Bill Ryan, president of the Gillette Co.'s Personal Care Division, is considering changing the division's planning and control system for marketing. White Rain, the division's most recent success, had been launched by taking shortcuts through the system, while other marketing programs the system produced sometimes still faltered. The case examines the components of a planning and control system for marketing, criteria for good systems and good programs, and ways that marketing managers work with a system.

Involves the initial public offering of a firm's stock. The offering includes a money-back guarantee to investors from the issuing firm which comes in the form of a "put" option. Option valuation is thus an important issue in this case.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 287063

Focuses on the competitive interaction between Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola specifically and the effect their dominance has on the other industry participants. Coke and Pepsi's competitive strategies are examined in an in-depth analysis; each firm's behavior is used to demonstrate the influence their strategic choices have on the future evolution of the industry. Taught in the section entitled "Predicting Competitive Behavior" of the Competition and Strategy course and should be taught in conjunction with Note on the U.S. Soft Drink Industry in 1986.

Supplements Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi-Cola (A).

Supplements Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi-Cola (A).

Walt Disney is considering hedging future yen inflows from Disney Tokyo. It is evaluating techniques using FX Forwards, swaps, and Yen term borrowings. Goldman Sachs presents a rather unusual but potentially attractive solution: Disney could issue ECU Eurobonds and swap into a Yen liability. The case explains how this alternative would work and suggests to the students ways to evaluate the hedging choices.

Reynolds must source a substantial portion of the financing of its Nabisco acquisition in offshore bond markets. Morgan Guaranty has proposed a yen/dollar dual currency Eurobond that could be hedged into dollars. This structure is compared to Eurodollar Bonds, Euroyen Bonds, and Euroyen Bonds swapped or hedged into dollars.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 287057

In the 1980s Japan dominated the world industry for video cassette recorders. This case looks at the evolution of the technology and competition in VCRs, the battles between VHS and Beta, and the emerging threats to Japanese dominance.

Many U.S. companies have written off the Japanese market, believing that Japan's distribution system is impenetrable or that the Japanese buy only Japanese products. U.S. companies are represented in more than 85% of Japanese industrial sectors, however, and at least 12 hold the number one market position. These companies have been both creative and tenacious in obtaining this position. Their experience teaches some important lessons.

In many companies, corporate accountants preparing financial statements face intense deadline pressure. Using standard methods of allocating selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses is a quick and easy way for them to calculate nonmanufacturing costs for different product lines. But management pays a price when company accountants take this shortcut. To allocate SG&A costs properly, controllers need to compile all expense data to produce a precise breakdown of all expense categories for each product line. The next step is to incorporate this information into the annual financial plan, with the goals of making fair and reasonable cost allocations.

When managers make decisions, they think forward and backward whether they know it or not. Thinking backward means looking for patterns, linking events, and searching for metaphors that explain causes and effects. Thinking forward entails weighing variables, making calculations, and preparing alternative plans. You will think backward well if you use more than one metaphor to describe a situation, resist the temptation to infer a cause from just one clue, and sometimes look for unexpected causes to explain effects. You will think forward well if you learn when to rely on the computations and models of computer science and how to compensate for the errors they produce.

Without a system to measure goals and performance, managers of nonprofits often mistakenly continue with projects that no longer serve organizational goals or start activities of questionable usefulness just because there's money in the till. They tend to fear accountability and think that systemizing their organization will take the romance out of their mission. But only when nonprofits institute and rigorously maintain a system of standards will they become purposeful, effective, and efficient.

The Logistics and Distribution unit of Xerox's Business Systems Group was gaining 3% to 5% a year in productivity - not good enough in light of industrywide price cuts in business machines. One solution, benchmarking, measures L&D's warehouse and distribution performance against comparable activities in other industries. After a search, L&D found the best warehousing and materials handling organization was at L.L. Bean. By looking closely at the operation of Bean and other noncompetitors, L&D has raised its productivity 10% each year and gained a better position against its real competition.

A sole proprietor, with depleted savings, has requested both an operating loan as well as a line of credit. The operating loan will be used to retire his 'run-away' trade debts and the line of credit to service his cash-tight months.

In this exercise, the owner and sole proprietor of an art importing business must prepare a statement of changes in financial position.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Union army faced the task of supplying the growing numbers of Union conscripts with shoulder arms. Existing government stockpiles were inadequate, and the chief of ordnance was forced to consider the alternatives: government inventories of outmoded muskets; private manufacturers; and European arms manufacturers. Further confusing matters was the fact that, given recent strides in rifle development, new weapons promised higher rates of fire and easier handling, but high-quality innovations in rifle design were scattered among many impractical ones. Part A provides an overview of the complicated character of the ordnance environment at war's outbreak and lays out the tensions between improving Army rifle design and maintaining a smoothly functioning supply system. Part B chronicles the efforts of Christopher Spencer, inventor of an innovative repeating rifle, to secure contracts with army ordnance in the face of resistance. The case is designed to illustrate problems in the management of procurement and supply under critical circumstances and the place of innovation in that process: How reasonable is technological conservatism in times of crisis? It also raises issues of the interaction between existing strategic doctrine and new technologies. Finally, it illustrates some of the sources of innovation in weaponry and the paths by which such innovations may be adopted. HKS Case Number 771.0.