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Newfoundland-based Fishery Products International (FPI) is one of the largest seafood companies in North America. FPI has experienced its best performance in a decade and has recently survived a hostile takeover bid by three competitors who acted in concert. The chief executive officer (CEO) has just returned from New Zealand where he was visiting a major competitor to see if there was the possibility of a strategic alliance. The CEO knew he had to do something to prevent another hostile takeover and to continue to grow shareholder value while still maintaining the social conscience of FPI. Some of the issues facing FPI were: performance, strategic leadership and corporate governance, and implementing an integrated product differentiation/cost leadership strategy.

In 1998 it appeared that Japanese auto companies could be forced to pay duty on their non-NAFTA imports into Canada. The U.S. Big Three auto makers (GM, Ford and Chrysler), in contrast did not have to pay such a tariff on their offshore imports such as those made by Ford-owned Jaguar (United Kingdom) and GM's Saab (Sweden). The Japanese and U.S. firms were treated differently because of the 1966 Auto Pact that made all Big Three imports duty-free. However, in the early 1980's, in order to encourage auto investment, the Canadian government granted virtual Auto-Pact status to Japanese firms (Toyota and Honda) that located in Ontario. This eliminated tariffs on the Japan-made models they sold in Canada. Public debate arose during the Free Trade Agreement (1989) and North American Free Trade Agreement (1994) trade negotiations. The U.S., under the Big Three influence, pushed Canada to withdraw the Pact-like benefits it used to attract the Japanese factories. Canada eventually complied with the U.S. demands, while leaving the Pact in place for U.S. automakers. This led the Japanese government to challenge the fairness of the proposed tariff at the World Trade Organization (WTO). While waiting for the WTO process to unfold, the Japanese and U.S. automakers were considering how to respond to the forthcoming judgement.

Dunes Inc. is a concept for a tanning salon and healthy lifestyle retail store on a university campus. Two students have developed and refined a business plan, and are about to present their proposal to the manager of the university's community centre. The two partners must thoroughly assess the potential costs of operation, determine whether the profits will justify their equity investment, and decide whether the business will be an attractive investment for future potential buyers.

Dynamic Engine Inc. is one of 12 divisions of the automotive parts maker North American Auto Parts. With guidance from the parent company, Dynamic Engine has well-established human resources policies, training programs and employee assistance programs that are available to all employees. The materials and purchasing manager must deal with the poor attendance of an employee whose performance until recently was considered above average. He discusses the issue with the employee and believes the problem has been resolved. Shortly after this conversation, he discovers that the absenteeism problem with this employee is still occurring, and now must determine what his next step is to resolve this issue.

Polymer Technologies Inc. are specialists in integrating metal and plastic to produce margin switches, relays and electromechanical products for the automotive industry. The program manager must decide whether or not to automate production of a component of power automobile seats called the seat switch substrate, and if the decision is made to automate, whether it should be done in-house or outsourced.

A professor has decided to build an equity portfolio made up of common shares from major companies. He has to decide what fraction of the portfolio should be devoted to each of the four issues by determining the best method of calculating risk. Excel files are available, products 7B01E009A and 7B01E009B.

Lucent Technologies is a worldwide company that delivers systems and software for next-generation communication networks. The company is restructuring to try to improve its stock value after significant losses. A key component of the company's restructuring is the retention of their information technology employees. There is an industry wide shortage of IT workers, causing a large number of these workers to job-hop for better pay. The chief executive officer needs to decide what employee compensation programs should be in place, determine if workplace conditions and rules need to be changed and if the company's recruiting program is attracting the best talent.

Komia Holdings SA is the second largest fixed-telephony operator in Poland. The chief executive officer must decide if the company should participate in the government bidding process to acquire an operating license for the third generation (3G) wireless telecommunications in Poland. This technology will allow the company to offer high-speed Internet access as well as many promising multimedia services on mobile handsets. He must consider his company's strategy, competition from other operators and several political debates about the bidding process that has lead to changes in the way the process is handled. The supplement, Komia and the 3G Wireless Phone Auction in Poland (B), product 9B01M038 follows, with the decision of Komia to participate in the bidding process.

Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) is a key component of the security infrastructure for Microsoft, the large, internationally known software manufacturer. The program manager of the center has been informed by a hacker of a potentially damaging security vulnerability in a piece of Microsoft's Internet server software. Neither the hacker nor MSRC knows for sure if systems using the software have been compromised, but they do know that the vulnerability has been discussed in hacker news groups. The program manager must determine who should be told, what needs to be done and when. This case and the accompanying Microsoft Security Response Center (B) and (C) cases (products 9B01E020 and 9B01E021) look at the strategy to solve the problems and deal with any possible public relations issues that arise from it.

Shortly after the Microsoft Security Response Center found out about a security vulnerability in a part of their Internet server software, the Internet Information Server development team was brought in to find a solution. The team determined that a patch developed months before would fix the problem. They needed to notify the world's Internet users immediately to prevent them from being attacked by hackers. The team had to figure out how to keep the security vulnerability quiet, and then suddenly tell the whole world about it. This supplement to Microsoft Security Response Center (A) 9B01E019 extends the situation as new information surfaces about the vulnerability.

The program manager and his team at the Microsoft Security Response Center decide to keep the security vulnerability and its solution quiet over the weekend. They contact the Microsoft Premier Support Organization, which provides high level service to large companies, to get the solution to as many of their customers as possible, since large companies would be hackers' first targets. The bulletin was ready for release and as far as the program manager could tell, the problem had remained quiet. He had to decide whether to release the patch the following morning or wait until they could prepare the patch in many languages. This is a supplement to Microsoft Security Response Center (A) and (B), products 9B01E019 and 9B01E020.

BootCamp4MBA.COM is an online educational Web site that helps students prepare for an MBA program or undergraduate degree. The president of Strategic Management Science, Incorporated, the owner of BootCamp4MBA.COM, struggles to improve the sales of BootCamp's online business school preparatory courses. A comprehensive marketing plan must be developed and implemented quickly, including appropriate pricing, product offerings and market communications necessary to advertise and sell products and services online.

Global Sources Limited is Asia's leading publisher of business-to-business (B2B) trade-related magazines. In the latter half of the 1990s, the Internet became a powerful force for change in the business world, leading to an explosion of Internet-related activities by both traditional bricks and mortar companies, as well as countless upstart dot.coms. The chairman and chief executive officer of Global Sources had foreseen the opportunities afforded by the Internet early on, and had made it an integral part of the company's strategy. Currently, the level of activity in the B2B portal space has evolved so quickly that a noticeable degree of confusion among suppliers, buyers and investors about the merits and drawbacks of these portals has arisen. Moreover, the sustainability of these ventures has been brought into question, which is causing a dramatic reversal of fortunes for many companies. The result is that there are strong signs that the industry will experience a significant consolidation. This has left Global Sources chairman with the key challenge of generating greater visibility among users and potential users of the companies services, as well as greater interest from the investment community in order to remain viable. The company must be able to educate and convey its value proposition to its users, as well as determine whether it should continue to remain an independent player, purchase a competitor, or enter into a strategic alliance.

This note provides a non-technical description of the Chinese legal system relevant to international business. It outlines the Chinese concept of law, the Chinese legal system, dispute resolution, the 1999 Unified Contract Law and the legal framework for foreign investment enterprises.

Corporate Promotions Incorporated, a small merchandising company producing specialty advertising products, custom clothing and pre-printed paper for promotional campaigns, had an opportunity to bid on a sales contract of two to five million dollars. Serious cash flow problems threatened to prevent the company from servicing the customer, and the company's president approached the Bank of Ontario to request a $75,000 increase to its working capital loan. The loan manager must review the company's past and future financial positions before deciding on the requested loan increase.

The director of business development of the electronic banking division of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) had just won a long-fought battle to implement a wireless banking initiative for customers with mobile devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants. Now he had to make a number of key decisions relating to the strategy. These decisions included which services to offer (banking as well as non-related services), which devices and standards to support and whether to partner with a third-party content supplier. An extensive glossary of wireless technology terminology is included with this case.

The OHNo Swim Club is a small non-profit organization whose board of directors is swayed from its mission by one of its wealthy members. In the process the club loses control of its mission, makes a decision that comes close to financially bankrupting the organization and eventually loses several members before it rebuilds itself with a stronger dedication to its mission. Through the rebuilding process, it learns the importance of choosing board members with financial sophistication, the difficulties of a start-up enterprise and the importance of maintaining a mission and communicating that mission to members.

Strategic Intelligence Pte. Limited is a research and new-media company that provides Asian-based economic and political information. The managing editor is facing several challenges in building a new online business intelligence service that focuses on Asia's new economy. As the person responsible for the company's first Internet related initiative, he is expected to design, manage and help market the new initiative that will be independent from, yet complementary to, the company's existing events-oriented and research services. Although he is satisfied with the content that has been developed, he still needs to resolve several issues regarding target audience, pricing policy, revenue diversification options and service awareness. A sense of urgency pervades the situation, since he is expected to ensure that the new service will contribute 25 per cent of total company revenues within the next year.

Stella Artois, Interbrew company's flagship brand of beer, has experienced phenomenal success on the international market. The United Kingdom market has played a critical role in that success, and Interbrew needs to assess the reasons for this. Interbrew's managing director and its chief marketing officer are meeting to have a discussion about how to proceed in developing the Stella Artois brand. First, they need to understand what part of the company's success was due to expert marketing practices and what part might possibly be due to being in the right place at the right time. As well, they want to assess what possible steps might be taken to spread these practices across the corporation for use in the company's global marketing strategy.

Welcome Pharmaceuticals was a joint venture between North China Pharmaceutical Corp. and Hong Kong Triple Well International and is a leading producer of vitamin C in China. The company's general manager had just returned from an industry wide meeting, and was disturbed by what he had learned: there was a worldwide oversupply of vitamin C and already sagging prices had not yet hit rock bottom. The general manager knew the only way for Welcome to survive was to reduce costs, and because Welcome's material costs were already among the lowest in the industry, the only area left to trim was labor costs. The management team was called together to decide whether this was, in fact, the company's only option. If so, the management team had to quickly decide how to go about effecting what was bound to be an unpopular change among several tiers of workers.