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Agilent Technologies was spun-off from Hewlett Packard in an effort to establish a new brand in the high-tech industry. The senior director of global brand management was reflecting on the company's challenges in focusing its worldwide marketing effort in the multiple business sectors. Agilent was intended to establish itself as a separate company from Hewlett Packard while still continuing in the Hewlett Packard tradition of excellent customer service and reliability. Now, with smaller advertising and marketing budgets, downsizing of the company, fierce competitive pricing and service, and an evolution from within Agilent Technologies to provide more service and knowledge through its Web site, the marketing and communications challenges have changed since the company's introduction.

While McDonald's breakfast and snack sales have been increasing, they have not kept pace with industry growth. The primary barrier to this sales growth in the Canadian market, according to a franchise owner, is the quality of the coffee. McDonald's in Canada has been attempting to build its coffee brand equity for many years. They had switched to the Higgins and Burke coffee but had little success changing customers' negative perceptions. To truly change customer perceptions, McDonald's needed to revolutionize their coffee program. McCafe was introduced in response to this coffee issue. McCafe was full service coffee bar, located in a McDonald's restaurant as an extension to the front counter or located as a stand-alone restaurant. Over 300 McCafes existed worldwide. While McDonald's would like to get a piece of the lucrative coffee market, McCafe's main objective was to eliminate coffee as a barrier to breakfast and snack sales. The question for one franchise owner is whether McCafe's strong initial sales can be sustained.

Vincor International Inc. was Canada's largest wine company and North America's fourth largest in 2002. The company had decided to internationalize and as the first step had entered the United States through two acquisitions.The company's chief executive officer felt that to be among the top 10 wineries in the world, Vincor needed to look beyond the region. To the end, he was considering the acquisition of an Australian company, Goundrey Wines. He must analyze thestrategic rationale for the acquisition of Goundrey as well as to probe questions of strategic fit and value.

Strong leadership is a critical determinant of success in times of crisis. Most businesses operate in a complex and uncertain environment in which strategies that were successful in the past quickly become redundant in the face of change. Unless mitigated by a decisive leader, problems that ill-prepared organizations face are likely to evolve into a full-fledged crisis. This article identifies six behaviours or mindsets that are critical for leaders in crisis situations. While no one can be prepared for all possible crises, leaders have to use foresight to anticipate the worst and have a general idea about how they are going to respond if they face a crisis. A contingency plan should be created and existing response plans should be tested to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various people on the crisis management team before a real crisis hits. While leaders have to be decisive and confront facts rather than try to explain them away, they also have to be exceptional communicators, making people feel informed, safe and connected. Leaders have to be visible and connect with the people on the shop floor as in the boardroom. Lastly, leaders must be prepared to take risks and make quick decisions in the face of uncertainty. They must have the courage to make the best possible decision with the set of all available facts, coupled with a solid professional background and instinct. The leader must then communicate that they have knowledge and control of the solution, and full confidence in the chosen course of action. Anything less and they will lose the confidence of the people and worsen the level of uncertainty and tension in a crisis situation.

A business leader's greatest battle today is to win the trust of stakeholders. The leaders who win are those who communicate open and often, have a clear and committed communications policy, initiate formal and informal programs and assess their own performance in communicating effectively. Here's sound advice from authors who have taught CEOs how to do it.

The need to focus on soft issues has forced managers to take their eye off the ball and lose sight of the fact that strategy matters more than ever. But these same managers must not only realize that strategy matters, they must develop and deploy tough strategies that will defeat the competition. Today, managers must play to win.

While it is important that a board have some directors who are independent and others who are financially literate, having a board that works - and works well -- requires a mix of directors with significant expertise and experience and the right dynamics. This author, the head of a firm that recruits directors, explains what makes a board work well. Absolutes, like having independent directors, are important, but what makes a board work really well is a mix of directors with expertise, experience and the right dynamics.

When Enron was still - and only - a pipeline company, it lost a major contract in India because local authorities felt that it was pushing negotiations too fast. In fact, the loss of the contract underlines the important role that cultural differences play in international negotiation. For one country's negotiators, time is money; for another's, the slower the negotiations, the better and more trust in the other side. This author's advice will help negotiators bridge the cultural differences in international negotiation. When it comes to negotiating with businesspeople around the world, knowing your opposite's culture is as important as understanding his or her goals.

The rich are different than you and me, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote. That truism can be applied to the differences between employees and executives today, and perhaps nowhere is the gap more conspicuous than in the benefits and perks executives receive while they're working for a company -- and continue to receive once they retire. Moreover, most companies hide these perks. The time has come, writes this author, to open up and disclose.

Taking a hard line may be fine -- but only in the short term, and only if you really believe that your counterpart is you're adversary. But negotiation is often a series of episodes, which means that considering your counterpart as a partner or a collaborator is the foundation of trusting and fruitful-- and ongoing -- negotiation. How the game is played matters more than who wins.

Negotiation has come a long way. A once purely adversarial, one-time event has evolved into a relationship-based, ongoing process that puts a premium on empathy and co-operation. This author, an expert educator who has played a critical role in improving negotiators' skills and the results they achieve, discusses the substantial changes that have occurred in how negotiations are conducted today.

Just as negotiating has become an ongoing process, so too has learning new negotiating techniques. Improving your negotiation skills, write the co-authors of this article, is a long journey that involves constant reflection, awareness, and openness to feedback. In the article, a valuable and extremely useful primer for negotiators, they describe and outline the preparation, value-claiming and value-creating strategies that are the foundation of any successful negotiation.

The right strategy and preparation are important elements in successful negotiation, but unless we use the right verbal and nonverbal communication we may never get what we want. Knowing the rules that that can set the tone or code of a negotiation, and how we can successfully switch that code, is vitally important. Without that knowledge, this author points out, we may never get what we want.

To the surprise of many, it's back! We're talking about GROWTH, the intoxicating - and in many cases, company destroying -- strategy that had fallen out of favour these past five years or so. But look, along with a stock market revival, the pace of M&A's and other growth strategies has also picked up. But still, it's caveat emptor. This strategist and author has sound advice for today's hungry, growth-oriented CEOs.

The market is up, and the CEO is rewarded with a huge compensation package. The market is down, and the CEO is rewarded with a huge compensation package. There's plenty wrong with this picture, not the least of which is the lack of any link between pay and performance, and the absence of any long-term performance measures. This author, a recognized expert in executive compensation, has several excellent suggestions for changing the picture.

That the terrain of decision making is mined with moral hazards has never been much in doubt. But the real question for executives is this: Just how can you make your conscience your guide? This author has suggestions and strong advice that, when taken, can help restore public confidence in business leaders.

What makes a leader the most? This author argues that it is a compassionate approach, a leaderful practice that exhibits humility and seeks to serve others rather than power for its own sake. As a result, people learn to count on others because they have learned that each member, even the weakest, will be kept in mind when decisions are made.

The Pizza Public Company Limited is a division of the Minor Group of Companies and focuses on the management and operation of food-service outlets. This case series takes place between November 1999 and February 2000 and covers the negotiation process between Pizza Public Company Limited and Tricon Restaurants USA regarding the renewal of the company's franchise agreement for Pizza Hut in Thailand. After 20 years of managing the brand, an agreement cannot be reached and Pizza Public Company Limited must plan for the development of a new pizza brand. In the (A) case, the chief operating officer of Pizza Public Company recognizes that the negotiations are breaking down and faces the challenge of how to engage the team and develop a contingency plan should the company lose the Pizza Hut brand. Supplement cases (B) through (E), products 9B03A025, 9B03A026, 9B03A027 and 9B03A028, follow the negotiation process.

An historic hotel faces the twin challenges of seasonal demand and a decline in its most important market. The hotel's general manager is considering several expansion/renovation proposals to address these problems, each of which implies a different strategic focus. The decision is complicated by the fact that the hotel is located in world-renowned Banff National Park, an environmentally sensitive area administered by the Canadian government. Growing public concern over development in national parks implies that an overly ambitious expansion plan is likely to be rejected, yet this may be the hotel's last chance to add significant capacity for the long-term. The case demonstrates the role of social and political forces in business decisions, while underscoring the interdependency of target market, positioning and marketing mix decisions.

Rachel Turner works as a cook in the largest restaurant of the Lincoln Diner chain. There are a variety of human resources problems in this company and the staff association representing the employees is weak. In this context, Rachel stands up for her co-workers, almost as an unofficial steward. The situation culminates with Rachel's abrupt, unsubstantiated suspension by her difficult boss, leaving her wondering whether or not she should file a grievance. Her decision is complicated by the fact that she is romantically involved with the computer operations manager at Lincoln Diner head office, who also faces a decision as to how to react to this development. The supplement (B), (C) and (D) cases, product numbers 9B03C033, 9B03C034 and 9B03C035 follow the matter through two more decision points to its resolution.