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In this supplement to Research in Motion: The Acquisition of Slangsoft (A), product 9B03M009, the director of strategic alliances is preparing to send off the letter of intent to his president for his signature and discovers some disturbing information written about Slangsoft.

Discusses the historical context of the global beer industry, followed by a discussion of the industry in each major world market, including North America, Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America. The U.S. market has only seen growth in crafting brewing and microbrewing, and some major U.S. brewers have sought growth through access to international markets. However, companies that have been most successful internationally are those that have small domestic markets. These include South African Breweries, Interbrew and Heineken.

Maple Leaf Foods is Canada's largest and most dominant food processor. The recently appointed senior marketing director discovers on her first day on the job that the hot dog business at the company is completely broken: market share is down, profits are in free-fall, the products taste bad, there is a proliferation of brands and her team is a mess. To make matters worse, she inherits a job where there is little market data in the files and little to go by to help guide her decisions. She must prepare a short-term plan and a clear strategy for the future. The supplement to this case, Maple Leaf Consumer Foods - Fixing Hot Dogs (B), product 9B03M018, looks at the senior marketing director's short-term plans. Also available is the video, Maple Leaf Consumer Foods - Fixing Hot Dogs, product 7B03M017, that provides an update to what happened and a discussion with the senior marketing director.

In this supplement to Maple Leaf Consumer Foods - Fixing Hot Dogs (A), product 9B03M017, the senior marketing director coordinates the gathering of data on the company's hot dog products and spends considerable time analyzing the data. She has determined areas for improvement and works with senior management, research and development, production, distributors and consumers in implementing improvements on taste and product positioning. With her short-term plans in order, she now must present her future strategy to senior management.

Dell Computer Corporation is one of the largest computer manufacturers. The company's international business strategy has supported its global position and performance facing the Asian economic crisis. Its investment in Malaysia has reduced its foreign exchange exposure, and supported its low cost advantage. Now Dell needs to decide if it wants to expand its commitment in Malaysia and or other locations such as China.

Biosonics Incorporated was a rapidly growing entrepreneurial company specializing in the application of high frequency technology as a measurement tool for medical research. The president and one of the founding partners must determine the future direction of the company in the face of several possible options: continue to sell the company's measurement system; introduce the system into new, related markets; develop application technology for the clinical market; sell the company's intellectual property; sell the rights to the technology; or sell the company.

Talisman Energy is the largest Canadian oil and gas producer, with main business activities in exploration, development, production and marketing of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquid. At a special board of directors meeting, the management and board of Talisman conducted a review of the Sudan operations to assess its fit within the current business portfolio. After years of direct and often angry criticism by human rights groups and the fact that the United States government was threatening to restrict firms operating in Sudan from listing their securities on American markets, the board was considering its options in the region. The Sudan project had good economic value for Talisman with good future prospects and production possibilities. Additionally, the company had gone to considerable lengths to develop and implement socially responsible policies and programs in Sudan. Senior management believed that they had contributed to an increased quality of life for the people of Sudan. Despite this, activist groups had continued to attack Talisman for their role in Sudan. The continued pressure from activists and governments were believed to be responsible for a steady decrease in share price. The issue before the board in conducting this review was to question whether continuing operations in Sudan was compatible with Talisman's mandate to operate in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.

RFA Capital Management Inc. is the asset management subsidiary of Realty Financial Advisors Inc. The two principals of the company were deciding whether to bid on a recent investment opportunity. An upcoming commercial mortgage backed securities transaction was looking for a risk buyer for its high yield debt bonds and the principals were interested in participating in the transaction. This was a relatively new investment class. They wondered how they could sell this opportunity to one of RFA Capital Management's institutional or private investors, what yield requirements they should demand and how to price these bonds. As time was a factor, they wondered whether they should bid on this investment opportunity without first lining up the capital. They also wondered what long-term opportunities this investment might provide.

Shanghai COS Software Ltd. designs and develops smart card operating systems. The company's marketing manager must decide the best basis for segmenting the burgeoning market for smart cards for wireless devices in China. She has excellent data on this duopoly market, the segments and their buying criteria. In fact, she already has received significant orders for low-end cards from each of the two large customers. However, she and the senior management team must decide on a market positioning for this young high-tech start up. She must select one of the two major customers whose size, structure and procedures are quite different. She must also decide whether the company should market low margin/high volume or high margin/low volume products. Both products seem to have a very short life expectancy in the face of rapidly changing customer expectations. The investors in the company want it to achieve profitability fairly quickly and still adopt sustainable positioning in the marketplace.

In late 2001 and in 2002, investors, securities regulators, the energy industry and the capital markets watched as the details of behind the collapse of Enron Corporation unfolded. Enron was the largest corporation to collapse in U.S. history, with the company's share price losing most of its value in the 10 months preceding its bankruptcy petition. A large shareholder, like virtually all of Enron's shareholders, was unhappy with his losses and he wanted to know how, despite all the checks and balances in the financial reporting system, this collapse happened suddenly and with so little warning. This shareholder wondered whether the system be relied upon to protect him and what he should do in the future if he continued to invest in capital markets.

The unionized warehouse employees at Tepperman's Home Furnishings, a large furniture retailer, had been on strike for more than three weeks. Tepperman's, a family-owned and operated business, had a reputation for commitment to its employees and the community. Since the strike began, store sales were declining and picketers were causing difficulties for customers and other employees. Management needed to make some fast strategic decisions in order to manage the crisis situation. The supplement Tepperman's Home Furnishings (B), product 9B03C029, looks at the situation two months after the strike.

This is a supplement to Tepperman's Home Furnishings (A), product 9B03C028. Two months after the end of a month-long strike by the warehouse employees, Tepperman's executive board of directors had another key decision to make: should the company lay off 12 warehouse employees in order to reap the benefits of using a contract delivery service? Relationships were still strained within the company and management wondered what they should do.

A top student in an MBA program had been pursued by the top-tier consulting firms that were recruiting at his school. Impressed by the prestige of the industry, he decided to choose a career in management consulting. After less than a year in the profession, the recent graduate is disillusioned. He is offered a marketing position that pays much less, but may be a better fit for him in a number of ways. He considers whether he should leave his lucrative career, whether he should accept the offer for the lesser paying position and whether he could be making another faulty career decision. In the case supplement Jack Harris (B), product 9B03C038 the former consultant reflects on his career decision-making.

Elite Inc. is a highly successful public relations firm. Elite's chief financial officer has been spending 18-hour days in an effort to get his work done. The newly appointed chief executive officer must determine the cause of the excessive workload and develop a strategy to deal with the chief financial officer's performance. The supplement Elite Inc. (B), product 9B03C040 discusses the implementation of the strategy and its outcome.

A year and a half after calling off their campaign against fast-food giant McDonald's, the vegan campaign coordinator of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), contacted Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to warn them that they would be the next target. He pointed out in his letter that while many of KFC's competitors had convened advisory panels to help them investigate the welfare of animals raised and slaughtered for their businesses, KFC appeared completely uninterested in the issue. PETA would rather not engage KFC in a campaign, but if the company refused to put together an animal welfare panel and to begin to look into the issue of how to raise and slaughter their chickens more humanely, all the leaflets, action alerts, posters, billboards, T-shirts and press releases PETA was now preparing would be dedicated to KFC and its cruel treatment of chickens. In January 2003, PETA, fed up with what it saw as KFC's lack of open communication, public misinformation, and outright stonewalling on change, announced a campaign against the company to the media in a news event replete with bloody descriptions of the cruelties of KFC's animal factories. Now it was time for Kentucky Fried Chicken to respond.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducted by its newly appointed music director, performed a rarely heard composition. The musical performance was, by all accounts, superb. While most in the audience cheered the performance, a few of the audience members stormed out of the concert hall. These audience members were largely reacting to the high-tech mixed media show designed by a well-known artist that accompanied the performance. This performance was one of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's recent occasional and innovative breaks from concert tradition. The vice-president and general manager of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra recognized that opportunities existed onstage and offstage for broadening and enriching the orchestra's services and the concert experiences of its audience, in order to facilitate growth.

Canadian Tire Corporation consists of five main business groups: a large retail chain providing automotive parts, sports and leisure and home products; a financial division; a petroleum division; a specialty automotive parts division; and a retailer of casual and work wear clothing. The information technology group is faced with developing an implementation plan for the development of a business intelligence infrastructure and business capability at Canadian Tire Retail. Concurrent to this initiative is the development and implementation of an information technology strategy for Canadian Tire Corporation, which places a number of programs on the priority list, with business intelligence seen as a high priority item for which the organization can score some quick win business success.

Henry Birks & Sons, Inc. (Birks) is a large fine jewellery retail chain. The president and chief executive officer has spent several years streamlining the Canadian operations and building his management team in anticipation of an expansion. Its parent company, Iniziative Regaluxe, is looking for a return on its $65 million investment in Birks. This return will come about only if Birks proceeds with an initial public offering, or is bought out by a major competitor. Although the chief executive officer believes that expansion in the United States is the only way to find growth, this strategy is called into question when environment factors are examined. He must decide if expansion into the United States is the answer.

This note discusses the impact of immigration on attitudes and government policy in Western Europe's three largest countries, Spain, France and Germany. It also examines how the histories and political structures of these countries have influenced immigration policy and the integration of immigrant populations. Finally, it predicts the impact that immigration policy will have on employment and productivity in what some observers have dubbed Fortress Europe.

Pinnacle Technologies is an unusual company in that it acts essentially as a subsidiary of U.K.-based Psion Teklogix although it is 100 per cent independent. Psion Teklogix manufacturers wireless data communication devices that are used primarily in inventory management activities performed in warehouses, ports, factories and airports. In the mid 1990s, Psion gave Pinnacle Technologies exclusive Middle Eastern rights to the Teklogix technology and product line. It also assisted in training Pinnacle's development staff, programmers and sales representatives. By 2002, Pinnacle was prospering and was thinking of diversifying into related and unrelated software services. The chief executive officer must decide to what degree Pinnacle should diversify from its core business and determine what financial and managerial resources are required for the diversification. (A 27-minute video is available featuring a discussion with the chief executive officer of Pinnacle, product 7B03M054.)