Each year the DM Bicycle Company focuses its CSR efforts on fighting childhood obesity, a program that's popular with everyone and in line with the company's mission. This year, though, the CEO's nine-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with Batten disease, and that's all he can think about. For the next fiscal year, he'd like the company to focus on Batten disease research instead of obesity prevention. The HR director, the protagonist of the case, wonders if the effort is more personal crusade than corporate social responsibility. Is it ethical for the CEO to ask employees to share in his family's struggle? Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1006L and R1006Z.

Each year the DM Bicycle Company focuses its CSR efforts on fighting childhood obesity, a program that's popular with everyone and in line with the company's mission. This year, though, the CEO's nine-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with Batten disease, and that's all he can think about. For the next fiscal year, he'd like the company to focus on Batten disease research instead of obesity prevention. The HR director, the protagonist of the case, wonders if the effort is more personal crusade than corporate social responsibility. Is it ethical for the CEO to ask employees to share in his family's struggle? Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1006L and R1006Z.

Each year the DM Bicycle Company focuses its CSR efforts on fighting childhood obesity, a program that's popular with everyone and in line with the company's mission. This year, though, the CEO's nine-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with Batten disease, and that's all he can think about. For the next fiscal year, he'd like the company to focus on Batten disease research instead of obesity prevention. The HR director, the protagonist of the case, wonders if the effort is more personal crusade than corporate social responsibility. Is it ethical for the CEO to ask employees to share in his family's struggle? Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1006L and R1006Z.

Scores of companies have been trying to become mass customizers: businesses that produce individually customized goods or services at the cost of standardized, mass-produced goods. Mass customization entails breaking up the tightly integrated networks that form the backbone of the continuous improvement organization and creating a loosely linked collection of autonomous modules. Each module performs a different task and is perpetually reconfigured in response to customer demands. Automation typically is the key to linking these modules so that they can come together quickly and efficiently. Leaders of mass-customization organizations never know exactly what customers will ask for next. All they can do is strive to be ever more prepared to meet the next request. To that end, mass customizers are forever changing and expanding their range of capabilities.