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The president and owner of a small sandal factory realizes that if his company is to survive in the long-run, the manufacturing operation would need to become more efficient. Relaxed tariff barriers had increased the level of foreign competition in the country, particularly in the footwear industry. He had recently attended a seminar on total quality control (TQC) sponsored by the local trade association. Despite the potential benefits of TQC and its record of past successes, John was uncertain whether the Mexican employees would be able to implement TQC, a system that appeared to be based on different norms and values than those of Mexican workers.

The president and owner of a small sandal factory decided to implement TQC in his company factory. This case outlines the steps he followed, the problems he encountered and the measures he took to correct them as he introduced his employees to TQC. This case is intended to be used in conjunction with Sandalias Finas de Cuernavaca, S.A.: Total Quality Management (A), case 9A95C018.

Scott Hall, vice-president of finance and chief financial officer of Champion Road Machinery Limited, was preparing a presentation on the company's proposed dividend policy for a board of directors' meeting scheduled for the middle of August. It had been only three months since the company completed its initial public offering, at which time the prospectus stated that: The company does not anticipate paying cash dividends on the common shares in the foreseeable future, but intends to retain future earnings for reinvestment in the business. However, earnings were well ahead of those projected in the prospectus and the company had succeeded in managing cash better than anticipated.

The vice-president of operations must submit a valuation and recommendation to expand his plant to handle a doubling of sales over the next three years. Students will have to understand the process review for capital allocation in this large corporation in order to make their recommendation, as well as complete a discounted cash flow.

An extremely successful consultant is having difficulty balancing his career and family needs. He is mid-career in a demanding job requiring increasing amounts of time and commitment. The pressures to produce from his boss and clients are becoming more difficult to manage and his family life is suffering.

This case describes the visioning process at Xerox Canada. The chairman, CEO and president of Xerox Canada has been meeting with her leadership team since eight o'clock in the morning to craft the organization's new vision statement. Three and a half hours into the meeting the team hits a road block. With 30 minutes left in the session, the CEO must decide whether and how to proceed. (A three-minute video can be purchased with the case, video 7A95M015.

The new editor of the London Free Press (LFP) was appointed in November, 1987, with a mandate to make changes. Like most other North American daily newspapers, the LFP had been gradually losing readership, and its share of advertising revenues in the community was shrinking. Despite its ability to remain profitable, the new editor thought that it was not living up to its potential, especially since it was the only daily newspaper in London. He feared that there were ominous signs of continuing decline in market share, which could only mean still lower profits in the future. He had been hired from the Toronto Star and put in charge of LFP's newsroom and editorial department to do whatever was necessary to reverse this trend. Now, in 1991, he wondered if it would be possible to stop the slow decline of the newspaper, or if its shrinkage was an inevitable consequence of broader trends in the information industry and Canadian society. A follow-up case (9A95M017) is available.

This case is designed for in-class distribution to build on the London Free Press (A) case, 9A95M016. It presents information about an organizational change proposal involving the reorganization of the editorial department into cross-functional work groups which is designed to support the locally-responsive strategy of the London Free Press. The new cluster form of organization meets resistance from many who question not only whether it is a viable option, but also whether anything needed to be done at all. McLeod must decide whether, and how to proceed.

The president of a national computer sales and installation company wants to develop a plan to improve morale and reduce turnover. The company has grown rapidly is experiencing high employee turnover and low morale. In addition, a report, prepared by the controller, indicates a link between the increasing turnover and reducing customer retention (sales) data.

Managers at Chicago Research and Trading, are at a final point in the negotiation and faced with a decision to sign the statement of intent to form a Russian-US Joint Venture. The pending decision highlights the importance of being willing to give up obtaining some additional information about the joint venture that would make MPI surer of their investment in favor of gaining the trust of their Russian partners. It also demonstrates the importance of intuition in decision making. JV Dialogue has gone on to be one of the most successful Russian-foreign joint ventures by most accounts. (A nine-minute video of the CEO answering students' key concerns about starting the joint venture can be purchased with the case, video 7A95G006.)

The general manager and director of training are becoming frustrated with the significant obstacles they must face. The challenge they face is converting an unfinished building into a Western-style hotel. Achieving this standard of quality and service did not come easily and the hotel required twice as many employees to operate than comparable hotels in the West. There were 20 expatriates managing the hotel when it opened. This number was to be reduced to 10 but it increased to 22. The number of employees and expatriate managers had a major impact on the budget. The inability to interest the staff in a career in the hotel or to want to become supervisors are significant obstacles facing management.

The financial results of Euro Disney and the problems experienced after its start-up are described. It can be used as a follow-up to the Harvard Business School case Euro Disney: The First 100 Days, HBS 693013.

A project manager in the Operational Research Department of an automobile assembly plant must decide how he can most effectively redirect his team to meet management's deadline and design expectations. For five months, he had been supervising the work of three young company employees who were developing a simulated assembly line. However, because his current responsibilities left him in charge of four or five projects at a time, all in varying stages of completion, he had left his assistants to work together with very little intervention from him. As a result, he was facing the pressure of an uncompleted project and an unnecessarily elaborate design. (This case should be used with Antar Automobile Company - Part I: The Automation Project and Antar Automobile Company - Part III: Conflicting Objectives.)

A project manager in the Operational Research Department of an automobile assembly plant has to decide how he can most effectively redirect his team to meet management's deadline and design expectations. For five months he had been supervising the work of three young company employees who were developing a simulated assembly line. However, because his current responsibilities left him in charge of four or five projects at a time, all in varying stages of completion, he had left his assistants to work together with very little intervention from him. As a result, he was facing the pressure of an uncompleted project and an unnecessarily elaborate design. (This case should be used with Automobile Company - Part I: The Automation Project and Antar Automobile Company - Part II: Team and Individual Objectives.)

About 15 operators work in a simple hybrid batch-flow environment to produce the Earth Buddy novelty product. The case introduces the topic of process analysis. Sufficient information is presented to introduce and discuss the following concepts in an 80-minute class: capacity, throughput time, cycle time, bottleneck identification and resolution, and work-in-process inventory accumulation and draw-down. Issues that can be explored during the discussion include: shift scheduling, the impact of cross-training, batch versus flow production, rush orders, and the impact of defects on capacity. (An Extend simulation file is available for this case, Earth Buddy - Extend Simulation file.)

The management team at Electrohome's projection systems division must decide what to do in response to a surprise new product introduction by Sony Projection Systems. The new product threatens Electrohome's position at the high end of the market. The case focuses on competitive analysis as three players from three different regions of the world vie for profitable positions in the industrial projection system market. This case presents Electrohome's perspective of the same event documented in the Barco Projection Systems (A) case (HBS 9-591-133). Two follow-up cases Electrohome (B): The Phoenix Project and Electrohome (C): The Marquee Launch are available.

This case follows Electrohome (A): Projection Systems Division, and discusses the key events that have taken place among the competitors since the (A) case date. Electrohome is developing a new projection system which has the potential to be the best projector on the market. Of key importance is an understanding of the likely actions and reactions of the major competitors in the market. If the Phoenix project fails, Electrohome will likely go bankrupt.

This case follows Electrohome (A): Projection Systems Division, and Electrohome (B): The Phoenix Project. The Phoenix project is on track for completion before a critical trade show in January 1993. It is now August and the management team must decide whether or not to pre-announce the product or delay the announcement for maximum impact and surprise.

The vice-president of Damark Packaging Inc. must decide whether to accept or reject a US$1-million order for shrink wrap packaging equipment. Should Damark focus on external markets for survival? Is there a 'fit' between the company's external environment, its internal resources and the preferences of its management team. Pedagogically the case explores the issue of external markets and the decision faced by many companies of how to decide on the external environment that presents the best opportunities for their organization.

This is the second case in a two-part case series about decisions relating to the introduction of a new product, Johnson's face powder, to the Philippines market. In the first case, J & J (Philippines), Inc. - Johnson's Face Powder (A), the student was asked to assess the merit of the strategy, both in terms of market acceptance and their calculations as to projected contribution. In this case, the marketing vice president of J&J (Philippines) gets a phone call from the U.S. headquarters telling him to cancel the introduction. The subsequent discussion focuses on the issue of how product policy should be managed in an international organization. (A two-minute video can be purchased for this case, J & J (Philippines) Inc. - Johnson's Face Powder - Video.)