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Discusses alternative approaches to product portfolio planning, including those of the Boston Consulting Group, General Electric/McKinsey, and the PIMS Program. Examines how portfolio planning can be used in the processes of market selection and setting of business direction within a market.

Describes the marketing planning process adopted by the corporate headquarters of a chain of 22 diverse hotels. Raises the question of whether it is possible to standardize the planning process so that individually tailored marketing strategies are developed for each hotel unit. This company's approach contrasts with the standardized product/market strategy found in some other hotel chains.

The new plant manager must deal with the problems and potentials contained in this highly participatory management style plant.

After one year as new plant manager at a highly participatory management style plant, Denny Goble assesses his handling of various problems.

Designed to introduce the systemic nature of product quality and the complexity of quality problems. Uses a new director, quality assurance, and the discovery of a quality problem. The new director has to decide if it is a real problem, what to do about it, and how to go about orienting an organization toward a better quality attitude.

A dangerous and self-defeating pattern develops when managers hold three simple assumptions that, in combination, prevent the formation of trust: important issues naturally fall into two opposing camps, exemplified by either/or thinking; hard data and facts are better than what appear to be soft ideas and speculation; and the world is a dangerous place requiring a person to adopt a position of pervasive mistrust to survive.

Follows the impact of a change in global strategy on a diversified company's global organization structure. Traces two failed attempts at bringing a business perspective to a geographic organization, and poses the problem of what the international division president can do.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

Follows the impact of a change in global strategy on a diversified company's global organization structure. Reviews the company's subsequent performance internationally. Also presents reflections by top management on future possible change in the organization structure.

Supplements the (A) case.

Management of a resort hotel near Palm Springs is reviewing the hotel's performance nine months after opening and planning a marketing strategy for 1980. Of particular concern is the strategy to adopt during the shoulder and off-seasons when demand for the product is lower. Should the hotel even remain open in the summer when other major hotels in the area are closed? Will attempts to stimulate summer demand negate the hotel's efforts to win a five-star rating? Twelve pages of exhibits include data on hotel usage in the area, and operating costs and revenues for Rancho Las Palmas.

Presents data relevant to a major capital expenditure--the construction of a shrimp plant. Designed to test student's ability to identify relevant cash flows, to estimate the cost of capital, and to decide whether or not to invest.

Provides some answers to the question of why employees join unions. Summarizes recent data on workers' perceptions of unions: their power and instrumentality. Also explores the special situation of white collar workers.

Introduces the student to Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc., its business, its strategy, and its organization. Provides the necessary background for understanding the contributions of Mary Kay Ash, the company's founder and chairman.

An analysis of more than 1,200 businesses participating in the Profit Impact on Market Strategies (PIMS) program shows that gains in market share relate to product quality improvements, new product introductions, and marketing budget increases. Successful strategic approaches for strengthening market share usually involve a balanced, consistent marketing program or a mix of several competitive factors.

To many business people and public officials in the West, the postwar success of the Japanese economy is both an impressive and a puzzling achievement. The success is obvious and measurable; the reasons for it, far less so. Seeking explanations, Western observers often fasten with wide-eyed enthusiasm on the mysterious workings of "Japan, Inc.," that fabled edifice of business-government cooperation. To it they ascribe a continuous application of single-minded energy; from it they expect a continual flow of industrial miracles. In this article, Peter Drucker, long recognized as an authority on Japanese business, takes pointed issue with this familiar myth. No such thing exists, he argues, at least not in the form commonly attributed to it. The accomplishments of Japanese industry are the result not of some all-powerful structure but of Japan's having defined more ably than any other industrial nation some of the essential rules for managing complex organizations in the modern world.

The characteristics of organizations fall into one of five natural configurations, each a combination of certain elements of structure and situation. The five configurations are the simple structure, machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, divisionalized form, and adhocracy. These five configurations serve as an effective tool in diagnosing the problems of organizational design.

Formal guidelines help companies identify and screen acquisition candidates. Two examples illustrate how the process of developing acquisition guidelines differs in focus and content between related diversifications and unrelated diversifications. In both cases, acquisition guidelines relate closely to corporate strategy. The screening process also provides a critical analysis of differences of opinion and improves the consistency between corporate objectives and resources. The procedure's final step involves comparing the candidate's potential for value creation to the cost of the acquisition as well as to the company's other investment opportunities.