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As it entered the 21st century, the Polish government faced the dilemma of how to develop an optimal telecom structure and related services. For decades, the government owned and operated a national telecom monopoly, but in the late 1990s they gradually allowed the entry of some competitors, many of whom brought new technologies. The government had undertaken a major privatization program, and it faced the question of whether, and how, it should privatize; yet privatization would have to be accompanied by ongoing regulation in order to ensure that managerial decisions were made in the interests of the nation, as a whole. This challenge of continual government intervention could reduce the attractiveness of acquiring the government-owned agency, in spite of its market dominance. Students will have the opportunity to: analyze the telecommunications industry in Poland; determine the technological changes that will impact the future of telecommunications throughout the world and the Polish telecom industry; examine the current regulatory environment in the Polish telecommunication market; evaluate the current state of, and the opportunities in, e-business in Poland and the rest of Europe; and, develop a comprehensive action plan for a joint venture partner.

The vice-president of Robarts Research Institute is attempting to put together a financing structure for a biotechnology company, Diabetogen, being spun off by the Institute. He must assess the worth of the company, how the equity should be divided among its stakeholders, and how much of the company must be given up to first-round investors.

The efforts of Swatch to reposition itself in the increasingly competitive global watch industry are reviewed in this case. Extensive information on the history and structure of the global watch industry is provided and the shrinking time horizons decision makers face in formulating strategy and in responding to changes in the industry are highlighted. In particular, the case discusses how technology and globalization have changed industry dynamics and have caused companies to reassess their sources of competitive advantage. Like other companies, Swatch faces the difficult task of deciding whether to emphasize product breadth, or focus on a few key global brands. It also must decide whether to shift manufacturing away from Switzerland to lower cost countries like India.

Monsanto, a biotechnology giant highly committed to sustainable development efforts, needs to assess the attractiveness of the drinking water treatment industry before deciding its entry to it. Four dimensions of the global water treatment industry are described: types of products and services, applications, end-users and geographical markets. The drinking water treatment segment, which is classified into municipal drinking water treatment and residential drinking water treatment, is examined in depth. Players in these two categories produce the chemicals and equipment necessary to purify tap water supplied to consumers and residential water purification devices. The bottled water industry is considered a substitute of the drinking water treatment segment. The primary objective of the case is to answer the question Is the industry attractive? and to introduce students to industry analysis and industry segmentation.

Oak Valley Inc. is a $2.1 billion Toronto-based company operating in various consumer markets. In early 1993, the company launched a management development program with the objective of promoting a culture that thrived on best practices. Five years later, the chief executive officer is attempting to evaluate the impact of the program on participants. Hoping to generate new insights that could be applied to similar events in the future, he has asked a team of five past participants to meet to discuss what they learned. This short case deals with the attitudes and behaviors most conducive to individual and group-based learning. The case provides an excellent vehicle for discussing how people learn, how teams can accelerate the learning process, and how companies can create positive learning environments.

A non-profit manager faces a challenge in how to grow a network of informational services to patients, their parents and medical practitioners, including allied health professionals. To date, this service has been free. Should it now be priced, and if so, how and at what price? The service also links five hospitals who can share diagnostic information for greater system efficiency. All of these hospitals put up seed money for the development of the network. How to grow this business is the challenge, including marketing, organizational structure, pricing and operational concerns.

A senior manager in a hospital is determining a system-wide approach linking physicians, social welfare agencies, and single issue volunteer health organizations in a coordinated network. The approach taken will determine likely success or failure of this innovative approach. The hospital faces a problem as the initiator of the network, as it is a teaching hospital and is viewed by many in one community as too big. The decision maker has to be able to sell the idea to the board (who seek accountability), the various agencies (who seek direct benefits) and the community at large (who seek a seamless health care delivery system). Thus potential conflicts and trade-offs abound.

The emphasis of this case is on the deliberate governmental policy to foster industrial structure transformation, by examining the transition of the Taiwanese economy from a manufacturing-based economy to that of a successful high-tech-oriented economy. The case affords discussion on political and societal issues pertaining to the conflicts between China and Taiwan and risk confronting businesses in this peculiar environment. It also serves as a platform to debate portability of science park concepts among different geographic regions and the necessary conditions for the continued survival of an established science park.

The president director of Dharmala Manulife, a large, successful Canadian-Indonesian joint venture life insurance company, faced a significant disruption to operations due to social unrest in Jakarta. Moreover, the Asian financial crisis had resulted in a massive devaluation of the rupiah, in terms of the U.S. dollar. Thus, premiums on U.S.-dollar denominated policies had become prohibitively expensive almost overnight. Policy surrenders, redemptions, and lapses were occurring at an alarming rate. This erosion of the company's client base also meant that sales agents (who worked solely on commissions) were not only losing clients, but were also facing a tremendous challenge in writing new policies in light of the economic, political, and social chaos. Given the external situation, the president director and his senior management team were forced to develop effective strategic marketing decisions. The case asks students to consider the marketing plan for the launch of a new product designed to address the market realities and how to manage the commissioned salesforce in light of the disruption to operations.

Top management at Research in Motion (RIM) were considering a significant change in strategic direction. RIM manufactured two-way pager, wireless PC card and OEM radio products. With the anticipated convergence of wireless and Internet e-mail, RIM saw an opportunity to sell end users a two-way, e-mail end-to-end solution, including both hardware and telecommunication service. Management had to assess whether this was an attractive opportunity. If they did enter the market, RIM would have to decide whether to target individual users or corporate information technology departments and select channels to reach its targeted customers. RIM also faced some challenging marketing communication issues, since about 50 per cent of potential users showed no interest in a mobile e-mail solution.

In a 30-year career, a recently retired international manager of Xerox Corporation played a major role in the company's international expansion to emerging economies, assumed key responsibilities for the negotiation and founding of several international joint ventures, and served as an expatriate manager of these ventures in several countries (e.g., Mexico, Brazil, and China). The case provides a learning opportunity at both the individual and the organizational levels. As a manager or future manager, the student can learn about critical career decisions, development through international assignments, and the joys and frustrations of the portable life of an expatriate family. At the organizational level, the case provides useful examples of international growth/expansion strategies, challenges for managing joint venture operations, and international human resource policies and practices. Importantly, the case presents these examples/issues in the context of doing business in emerging economies. Frans Ryckebosch: An International Manager (B) case, (9A99C031) may be used as a supplement to this case.

The controller of AMP of Canada learned that her existing transactional processing system was not year 2000 compliant. She must choose between three alternatives: upgrading the existing transactional processing system, implementing a customized software package that many AMP companies already used, or implementing SAP. She knew that Canadian management preferred to implement the very popular SAP system, but her information systems manager did not think that users were ready for SAP and preferred an option involving the existing system. The controller wondered which solution to choose and how to persuade Canadian management, the Canadian information systems department, and headquarters management to support this decision.

The second of the AMP of Canada case series (see the (A) case, 9A99E030 and the (C) case, 9A99E032), this case describes the decision to implement SAP, the project's history, and culminates with the final decision about whether to go live. Not all functionality is complete, but some may be completed before the go live on October 5, 1998, and some may not be immediately required to run the business. With only two weeks left, the project team is divided. The decision in the case is whether to go live, and how to handle the consequences of either decision.

The third in the AMP of Canada case series (see the (A) case, 9A99E030 and the (B) case, 9A99E031), this case describes events immediately after the (B) case. Although the project is officially a success, the organization has changed dramatically since the project began. The two key questions are revisiting the same decisions in cases (A) and (B): should the project have gone live, and was it the right decision to implement SAP.

This note describes the history, merits and limitations associated with the establishment of a sole proprietorship, a partnership and a corporate or limited liability company in Canada in 1999. It reviews the flexibility of each option and the relative liability assumed by the principal owners when choosing the form of organization. The question of liability is then examined further with emphasis on negligence, product liability and professional liability. The note also outlines the standard of care defense that is central to staving off liability lawsuits.

An innovative financial services provider is struggling to arrive at a fixed interest (or SWAP) rate needed by its client. The client's new project would take five years to reach capacity, at which time debt repayments would begin. Hence the client needed to lock in interest rates for the first 10 years of the project. To arrive at a price, the financial services provider planned to start with the zero coupon rate bond yield curve, testing various points along the curve. (The teaching note for this case consists of a PowerPoint presentation. A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is also available for use with this case, product 7A99N034.)

The part owner and general manager of Hidden River Golf Club must prepare for a shareholders' meeting where he will present an overview of the club's financial health and his recommendations on three key issues: whether or not to expand the nine-hole course to 18 holes; the pricing scheme for the upcoming golfing season; and whether to keep or eliminate seasonal golf memberships. Students will be exposed to the usefulness of analytical tools such as the statement of changes in financial position, ratio analysis, cost behavior, and projected statements. They will also see how in-depth analysis is required before any decisions can be made or potential opportunities exploited, and that differential analysis, as a management tool, can aid in decision making.

The founder and managing director of looks.com, a soon-to-be-launched Hong Kong based e-commerce site for brand name cosmetics, fragrances, skin care products and fashion aimed at Asian women, had to make a key strategic decision - should he engage in parallel importing? He considered this decision one that would likely have the largest impact on the success, or failure, of his dream. Parallel importing, also known as grey marketing, involves the legal, though disturbing practice (to many manufacturers and distributors) of sourcing products wholesale from unauthorized distributors. The case issue has universal appeal, given the ever-increasing prevalence of parallel importing throughout the world. Students are introduced to the Internet industry in Hong Kong, and are provided the background information for an in-depth analysis of the positives and negatives of engaging in parallel importing. A short supplement is available: Looks.com (B), 9B00A013.

A leading French cosmetics house has told the founder and managing director of looks.com that they wouldn't be able to sell products directly to looks.com due to the potential conflicts with existing retailers, but has suggested that they could buy the products on the parallel markets instead. Looks.com will have to weigh the benefits and risks of sourcing these products from an unauthorized distributor. This case is a supplement to the looks.com (A)-A Grey Issue case, 9B00A012.

After acquiring Greyhound U.S., Laidlaw, Inc. became the principal provider of intercity transit in North America. Nine months later, the board of Laidlaw asked its CEO to resign, citing performance problems and the need to divest certain operations to strengthen its balance sheet. Laidlaw's attempts to enter and to consolidate selected transportation service industries are examined. Something has gone terribly wrong and the search for the reasons pushes back to fundamental issues associated with growth by acquisition and the corporate management of (arguably) diverse businesses. This sets up a discussion of whether the CEO's strategy was reasonable or fundamentally flawed; whether something could have been done earlier by the CEO or the board, and if so, why action wasn't taken; and finally, the prospects for Laidlaw as they look ahead.