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After creating a market for his "new to the world" product and a significant partnership with the German-based SAP AG (SAP), Sridhar Tayur had an opportunity to take the partnership with SAP to another level by establishing a reseller arrangement, available to only a dozen or so of SAP's elite partners out of more than 600-widely considered in the enterprise software industry as a dream come true for technology entrepreneurs. Suitable for use in MBA, EMBA, and GEMBA programs, this case offers the opportunity to focus decision making on several key marketing and sales issues. Should Tayur sign a deal with SAP, thereby handing significant control of the messaging and positioning of SmartOps to a global giant? How reliant on SAP did he really want to get? Would signing the deal make losing control of his company more likely and alienate prospects who were not fans of SAP? What would not doing the deal mean for the relationship with SAP? Would SAP go down the reseller route with a competitor? What exactly was a good reseller contract, and was it possible for a company as small as SmartOps to make the agreement a win-win?

discussion about the firm's overall strategy, post Gulf Oil spill, moving forward. The case describes how within a single decade, BP had emerged as one of the largest energy companies in the world. Within that scope, BP had an odd achievement: It had been building an alternative energy business and had gained a reputation as being an oil company with a regard for the environment. Then a series of preventable accidents, in the United States in particular, started to chip away at the firm's status. In a matter of five years, BP went from celebrating its most profitable period to finding itself selling assets while industry watchers wondered whether the company would survive after being responsible for the largest oil spill in the United States.

Suitable for MBA, EMBA, GEMBA, and executive education programs, this field-based case offers an opportunity to use simulation modeling to evaluate an investment affected by prices, technical success, and yields from raw materials that are all uncertain in a global context.

Supply chain network design choices and the challenges in implementing and understanding how alternatives influence firm performance are key management skills that can be applied to the case of a global company, Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc. (K&S), and its expansion strategy. Suitable for the MBA, EMBA, GMBA, and executive education programs, the case explores the decision to expand the company's tool bonding capacity in order to manage its growth. The question becomes whether to grow current operations in Yokneam Israel or seek alternative sites. And if it was decided to seek a location outside of Israel, where exactly should the company go?

While much of the work on outsourcing to China focuses on the low cost and its tradeoffs, this case examines in depth the interaction between human capital and a firm's cost and capabilities. Suitable for the MBA, EMBA, GEMBA, and executive education programs, the case presents a manufacturer of semiconductor assembly equipment looking to achieve growth in its wire bonding tools segment-in particular, capillaries and dicing saw blades-through geographic expansion. At the time, it manufactured capillaries in Yokneam, Israel, and blades in Santa Clara, California. In the A case the team is charged with designing and opening a new facility in Suzhou, China. Expanding operations to China meant cost savings, and it was where K&S's market had expanded. But it wasn't clear whether it made sense to move the capillary process, the dicing blade manufacturing, or both. And if K&S did move to China, should it keep the Israeli- and American-based factories open as well? And once those decisions were made, what exactly would the knowledge transfer look like?

A middle manager at a large company is unable to get her engineering customers and corporate bosses to see eye to eye on a public relations decision, and now her corporate boss seems to have totally misinterpreted her intentions. Suitable for MBA or executive education classes, this field case is a composite of actual experiences and fabricated elements. The case addresses a scarcity of material on the unique dilemmas faced by middle managers.

What material should be included in a teaching note, the instructional tool that accompanies your business school case study -- and makes its use far more likely? All good teaching notes have several characteristics in common. This technical note can help any business school professor, case writer, or collaborator create a teaching note that helps an instructor use your case to its fullest potential.

Jeremy Leahman, president of Filtroil, Inc., and Albert Randolph, founder of the firm, had partnered with a supplier in China to ramp up the manufacture of their China-based filtration system and start a new zinc alloy venture. They opened a new factory in Dongwan that was a merger between Shenzhen Filtroil and their supplier, Liu Li-whose own factory was on the verge of bankruptcy. Liu would own 10% of the merged factory and Shenzhen Filtroil would own the rest and acquire all of the necessary equipment. The two businesses filter and zinc would operate under the same roof. One year later Leahman was on a plane headed for China to hash out problems with Liu, who had demanded a monthly raise for himself and his wife, a new company car, and an increase in profit sharing. He had also threatened to delay product shipment to the United States if his conditions were left unmet. Qian Kai Nam (Qian) and Shea Kai Young (Thomas), who ran Shenzhen Filtroil and were in on the zinc partnership, believed that Liu's behavior put the entire business relationship at risk. The case reveals options Leahman could take to manage the situation. The case is suitable for use in organizational behavior, human resource management, and strategy classes at the MBA and executive education levels. The material can be used to exemplify the challenges of changing a U.S.-based company into a global competitor.

Jan Gronski, managing director of the Cisco China Research and Development Center (CRDC), and Ivo Raznjevic, engineering director, set out to establish a new R&D facility in Shanghai, China. This case focuses on the building of a culture through human-resource practices while describing such steps as securing an appropriate building, assembling a workforce, seeking appropriate projects, developing managers, building teams, evaluating performance, protecting intellectual property, and managing growth. The case presents specific challenges that arise regarding talent management: How does a manager overcome dramatic cultural differences within a diverse workgroup? Should a local female employee be promoted from a test engineer to a development manager? How should Raznjevic help his newest manager through his first encounter with Cisco's ranking system? What action, if any, should Raznjevic take regarding a senior engineer who sent out a controversial e-mail? This material highlights organizational culture and offers an opportunity for students to learn to recognize and manage difference. The case could be taught near the end of a term to serve as a review of organizational behavior at a graduate level or in an executive education program focusing on issues of team-building, growing managers from within, and related talent-management issues in a global context.

A finance manager at a large pharmaceutical company is on loan to a new new subsidiary, leading to an ambiguous reporting structure. When an executive three levels above him wants information his temporary supervisor has deemed confidential, his career appears to hang on what he does next. Developed for use in an MBA organizational behavior course, this case would work well in an executive education class on organizational design, career development, or leadership. While the events and people are real, the names of participants and the company are fictional.

A brutal winter storm hits the Baltic Sea region, felling 200 million trees and leaving forest owners and lumber industry competitors devastated. The chairman and majority owner of a large private timber mill in Sweden needs an action plan to pull through the disaster quickly-before the felled timber rots. Will they be able to rescue the timber? How shall his business react to the sudden oversupply? How will the exponentially increased supply be absorbed? What will the short- and long-term effects of the storm be on the timber markets? This case was developed for use in a first-year marketing class on balancing needs, interests, and responsibilities. The material would also work in a class on crisis management.

This first case in a two-part series offers a look at diversity recruitment in a Fortune 500 company. With a white male champion at the helm, the A case shows how competent leaders do something interesting with diversity in a hiring system that has a strong pipeline of diverse talent for future consideration. Other Fortune 500 firms ask it to share recruiting best practices. But the head of recruiting wonders if his work efforts will change JPMC when he sees mostly male faces of on the cover of a recent (2008) Fortune magazine.

How do we get a manager to recruit the best talent-and reward them for being a better manager for doing it-when we really want them to be a great banker? That was the question one of the top ranking female executives at JPMorgan Chase asked. This two part case offers an interesting and unique approach to diversity recruitment at a Fortune 500 company. With a white male champion-Jamie Dimon-at the helm, the material unfolds a view of how competent leaders do something interesting with diversity. In the A case, Diversity Recruiting Executive Mark Settles is hired, sets up a system, and nearly a year and a half later, the company has a strong pipeline of diverse talent for future consideration. Indeed, other Fortune 500 firms ask Settles to share recruiting best practices. But as he looks at the September 2008 issue of Fortune magazine, Settles can't help but wonder how his work has impacted JPMC. The mostly male faces of the cover caused Settles to step back for a second and consider whether his efforts were going to change the company. The B case describes several efforts that Settles sought to further integrate diversity into the talent life cycle, from recruiting to development, to creating an environment in which employees felt welcome as individuals and free to maximize their talents anywhere in the organization.

Suitable for undergraduate, graduate, and executive education programs, this version of the K2 story provides the full version of the story based on sequential dates. Written as a replacement for the much-used Greenland Case (UVA-OB-0581) this undisguised case can be taught in a similar manner. Chris Warner led a team of experienced mountain climbers on an expedition to reach the summit of K2-the second highest in the world. After failing to succeed on their first two attempts, Warner and his team brought together other teams representing eight different countries hoping to work together for success. Their story is an account full of examples where a leadership point of view was taken or not taken. The successes and failures of the expedition's approach is bursting with real world examples and offers an exciting framework to house theoretical concepts about team building and leadership.

Suitable for graduate level and executive education programs, this undisguised case describes the life of Dennis Paustenbach, president and CEO of ChemRisk, and what, to his mind, is the typical life of a senior executive: many demands on one's time, multiple projects, and serious consequences for inattention, both personally and professionally. This case can be used to teach students about individual behavior, Type A behavior, time and priority management, balancing work and family life, managing performance, managing energy in professional life styles, organizational behavior, and leadership.

This undisguised case is appropriate for graduate-level organizational behavior, strategy, and leadership courses. Readers will be put in the shoes of a seasoned change agent hired to transform a publicly owned company on the brink of bankruptcy. With a 50% attrition rate, low employee morale, stock market delisting notice, failed ERP system, bank default, new credit facility search, forbearance agreements, and a going-concern opinion, the new CEO faced a significant crisis. The A case describes the situation and raises questions about the firm's viability when James Leto becomes CEO. Several key leaders in the organization push to move the company's core competency away from the reseller business toward an enterprise solutions and services business.

Chris Warner led a team of experienced mountain climbers on an expedition to reach the summit of K2-the second-highest in the world. After failing to succeed on their first few attempts, Warner and his team brought together other teams hoping to reach the summit, and representing eight different countries, to work together for success. Their story is a narrative full of examples, where in some instances, a leadership point of view was taken, and other times it was not. The successes and failures of the expedition's approach makes for a story bursting with real-world examples and offers an exciting framework to house theoretical concepts about team-building and leadership. Although grounded in the written cases, the series also includes an optional a multimedia supplement offers compelling photos and video for students and instructors. The A case presents a challenging moment in the climbers' trek: After the tragic death of another team's Sherpa, Warner must decide case whether his team should abandon its summit push or continue forward.

Chris Warner led a team of experienced mountain climbers on an expedition to reach the summit of K2-the second-highest in the world. After failing to succeed on their first few attempts, Warner and his team brought together other teams hoping to reach the summit, and representing eight different countries, to work together for success. Their story is a narrative full of examples, where in some instances, a leadership point of view was taken, and other times it was not. The successes and failures of the expedition's approach makes for a story bursting with real-world examples and offers an exciting framework to house theoretical concepts about team-building and leadership. Although grounded in the written cases, the series also includes an optional a multimedia supplement offers compelling photos and video for students and instructors. After working together with several other international teams to reach the K2 summit, the descent becomes extremely dangerous. The B case finds the climbers in the midst of a raging blizzard. With a missing Italian mountaineer, a Czech climber suffering from hypothermia and cerebral edema, and the theft of a critical survival tool, Warner must decide whether to go look for the missing climber or try to get his expedition off K2 safely.

Chris Warner led a team of experienced mountain climbers on an expedition to reach the summit of K2-the second-highest in the world. After failing to succeed on their first few attempts, Warner and his team brought together other teams hoping to reach the summit, and representing eight different countries, to work together for success. Their story is a narrative full of examples, where in some instances, a leadership point of view was taken, and other times it was not. The successes and failures of the expedition's approach makes for a story bursting with real-world examples and offers an exciting framework to house theoretical concepts about team-building and leadership. Although grounded in the written cases, the series also includes an optional a multimedia supplement offers compelling photos and video for students and instructors. The C case epilogue describes the daunting physical and moral task team members face while descending K2. One of Warner's team members suggests they faced the ultimate moral dilemma: Do you look to your own self-preservation and survive, or do you look to try to help somebody else at all costs?

"The diversity lady has a label on her forehead and talks about the standard message," one senior executive at a large corporation said. "It's the same message we got 20 years ago. We do it annually but employees never get any of that. I've never had a diversity talk to my staff." Traditional diversity initiatives generally focus on specific dimensions of difference such as gender, race, sexual orientation, able-bodiedness, or religion. This material involves role-plays among a diverse group of players that encourage inclusion of a broader scope of social-identity differences such as diversity of problem-solving styles and emotional intelligence differences.