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Provides an introductory note to production processes and the use of flow diagram.

At the conclusion of a small-scale pilot survey, management must decide whether to invest in a larger survey or terminate the project. The objective of the study is to use psychographic measurement techniques to study the alternative positions of cranberry sauce. Illustrates the methods and abilities of multivariate statistical procedures in survey data analysis and product positioning studies. A major question is whether the findings of the pilot work justify further expense and analysis. No special competence in statistics is required for discussion of the case.

A consumer attitude survey involving more than 1,000 cranberry users has been conducted. Multivariate statistical procedures including factor analysis, cluster analysis and multiple discriminant analysis have been employed to suggest four attitude segments in the marketplace. The research team has suggested changes in product and advertising strategy. What should management do next? Provides an example of psychographic research procedures applied to a commodity grocery product. No special statistical competence is assumed on the part of the student.

It is important for managers to realize that they cannot receive the benefits or cost reduction provided by a steep learning-curve projection and at the same time accomplish rapid rates of product innovation and improvement in product performance. Managers need to exercise care in choosing between the learning curve approach, which shows that manufacturing costs fall as volume rises, and the experience curve approach, which traces declines in the total costs of a product line over extended periods of time as a volume grows. When selecting a strategy, management investigates: the practical limit to volume/cost reduction, the pattern of changes in the organization which accompany progress along the learning curve, and the expected results when the practiced limits of cost reduction are reached.

New England Telephone has developed an "upward communications program" based on the theory that communications operate up-and-down like gravity; downward communications flow more quickly and efficiently than communications upward, which require special incentives to be effective. The upward communications program at New England Telephone started with "private lines" that permitted all employees to discuss anonymously any matter with any responsible official. The program may adapt to any business. It is a management tool, introduced gradually, and adapted to different individual and group needs. Methods for success of the program are outlined.

Effective administration depends upon three basic personal skills which, for analytical purposes, can be classified as technical, human, and conceptual. Technical skills include a proficiency in methods, processes, procedures, or techniques. Human skill is an ability to lead and work effectively in a group. Conceptual skill, critical for policy decision-making, involves the ability to see the organization as a whole, recognize how various functions interrelate, and understand how the organization is related to the industry, community, and nation. This three-skill approach emphasizes that good administrators can be developed.

Effective sales management achieves a balance among four key areas: defining the role of personal selling, deploying the sales force, managing the accounts, and understanding the selling costs. Because sales depend on the customer, management's overall concern should be managing the customer, not the sales force.

Requires an analysis of both the process flows and the production control system used in a cranberry receiving plant. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Deals with the use of critical path method for the construction of remote control building, which is part of a water purification system. Discusses the necessity of determining the shortest possible time in which a job could be done without spending more money. Case uses "activity on node" diagram. Based on Space Constructors Inc.

Summary of the main concepts of (simple) decision trees--structuring a problem, assigning endpoint values, using probabilities, averaging out and folding back. Also treats risk profile.

Although internationally recognized for quality design, the collaborative's billings have been on a plateau for four years and they are losing jobs to architects with sophisticated marketing practices. The main issue is how marketing can be integrated into a design partnership believing that formalized strategy and promotion interfere with creativity. Other issues include the problems of marketing a professional service, whether efficiency and quality can coexist, how architects are selected, and defining an architect's product.

Supplements the (A) case.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 675-014.

Regular use of the relaxation response counteracts the harmful effects of stress. Stress creates high blood pressure, or hypertension, through the documented "fight-or-flight" response of the hypothalamus. The relaxation response is an innate, integrated set of physiologic changes opposite to the fight-or-flight response. There are many techniques that elicit the relaxation response. Various investigations indicate that regular use of one of these can also reduce alcohol intake, drug abuse, and cigarette smoking. The business community has the opportunity to help itself and its employees by introducing these stress-reducing techniques into the workplace.

A case study examines the history of McDonald's compensation schemes for managers. The initial plans, managers complained, based compensation on sales volume, were too complicated, and used bonus payments based on supervisors' subjective evaluations which inaccurately recognized performance. McDonald's then developed four alternative plans. Four experts comment on the plans and outline various objectives: to be result-oriented, to produce extra effort, direct effort, provide compensation, encourage risk, place an emphasis on higher sales, avoid rapid upward mobility, and provide a comprehensible system which the managers find fair.

A basic note to be used at the beginning of the introductory marketing course to familiarize students with the arithmetic techniques, concepts, and terms that are typically employed in the analysis of a first year marketing case.

A cognitive style model provides some explanation of the processes affecting managers' assessment of their environment. Systematic thinkers tend to look for methods, make plans, define the quality of solutions in terms of method, discard alternatives quickly, conduct ordered searches for additional information and complete all steps of the analysis they have begun. Intuitive thinkers keep the overall problem continuously in mind, redefine the problem frequently, rely on hunches, consider a number of alternatives simultaneously and explore and abandon hunches quickly.

U.S. business considers the "productivity crisis" a competition problem. One solution to the problem is the use of the "focused" factory system to increase productivity. This type of plant concentrates on performing a couple of manufacturing tasks extremely well. Overhead costs are lower and quality higher than in the typical factory. Current high factory costs are a result of "professionalism" in the plant and product proliferation. A manufacturing focus can be achieved through explicitly outlining corporate strategy, translating this strategy into manufacturing functions, examining the product system carefully, and reorganizing the system to produce a "congruent" focus.

Presents the problem facing a newly appointed high school principal. Raises issues about interpersonal and group behavior including lack of open conflict resolution and the need to intervene in an interpersonal conflict. Also raises the issue of intergroup conflict between headmasters and department chairmen, as well as value questions concerning the need for discipline and innovation. Discusses several structural questions concerning the existing "house system" organization.

Provides strategic analysis and recommendations.