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Richard Breeden proposed corporate governance reforms for MCI. Breeden is a former chairman of the SEC who was a court-appointed "corporate monitor" for the troubled company (formerly WorldCom). The company must adhere to the proposals unless excused by a court order.

In the early 1990s Sears faced and allegations by the California Department of Consumer Affairs that the company's auto repair centers had been overbilling customers and making unnecessary repairs. Top management must evaluate the problem and come up with a plan to improve performance. An abridged version of an earlier case.

Supplements the (A) case.

Manville Corp.'s senior managers are surprised when Japanese government officials advise them not to go forward with their plan to add a cancer warning label to diatomaceous earth (DE) products sold in Japan. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has ruled that a component of DE is probably carcinogenic, and Manville has prepared to modify its labels and material safety data sheets and to mount a communications effort inform customers of the cancer warning. Now, Manville's senior managers are being told that it is "culturally inappropriate" to proceed with this plan in Japan. An abridged version of an earlier case.

Discusses the concept of a fiduciary, as developed in the Anglo-American common law tradition, and outlines the principal differences between the legal standard applied to fiduciaries compared to ordinary arms'-length contractors.

In June 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, upholding the principle of affirmative action in university admissions, which had been challenged as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment. This case includes excerpts from the amicus curiae briefs filed by General Motors and by the United States.

The Trend Micro team's discussion of consumer strategy at its quarterly meeting in Germany provides an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of the team's decision process.

The founder and CEO of Trend Micro is seeking to develop an effective decision-making process for the company's multicultural executive team as part of his effort to develop a more cohesive and focused global organization. This case describes the company's growth and development, including the efforts made to develop an approach to decision making that melds the best of Eastern and Western cultures.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

In September 2000, the president of Bridgestone-Firestone, the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Bridgestone Corp., was invited to appear before a U.S. congressional subcommittee investigating the August 2000 recall of more than 6.5 million tires made by the subsidiary. The tires had been implicated in several hundred auto accidents and dozens of fatalities in the United States and elsewhere around the globe. This case depicts the tire controversy and the decisions it posed for Bridgestone's management. Tracing Bridgestone's evolution from a regional multinational to a global player by way of acquiring Firestone, a U.S. tire maker founded in 1900, the case shows how cultural differences between the two business systems played a part in creating the situation and in shaping Bridgestone/Firestone's responses to it. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Supplements the (A) case.

The top management team at India's leading home finance company must decide how to deal with the emergence of intense competition at the end of the 1990s. Having founded the industry and dominated it for nearly 20 years, the well-respected company faces a bevy of new entrants from the banking, mortgage finance, and insurance sectors. In particular, management must decide how to respond to an aggressive new competitor who has copied HDFC's processes, lured away some of its key staff, and whose misleading, but lawful, advertising of interest rates is drawing customers away from HDFC.

A recent MBA graduate heads international marketing for his family's Mexico-based rosin supply business, he must decide how to respond to the aggressive tactics of his much larger American competitor. Among other things, the U.S. competitor is spreading false rumors among the Mexican company's European customers. This case provides background on Mexican culture and society as seen by the case protagonist.

The general manager of Avon Mexico, Fernando Lezama, must decide whether to promote a woman to the position of vice president of sales. If appointed, the candidate would be the first female in all of Latin America to hold an executive position and one of the first women in Mexico to attain this level of responsibility. Lezama's all-male executive team has doubts about the candidate's readiness, but Lezama is also cognizant of Avon's global vision which calls for the advancement of women at all levels of the organization. Earlier in the year, the Avon Mexico organization had completed an exercise called "appreciative inquiry" aimed at enhancing gender relations in the workforce.

Presents the results of the decision taken in the (A) case. Describes the subsequent challenges faced by Avon Products in promulgating its globalization worldwide.

The Community Standards Panel of Harvard Business School must determine whether two students have violated the school's community standards, and if so, what sanction would be appropriate. Concerns allegations of plagiarism. In a second-year elective course, two students submitted a joint paper, substantial portions of which were taken nearly verbatim from their sources. The material was not footnoted. However, the sources were listed in the bibliography provided at the end of the paper. The students, who are not from the United States, claim that they followed the citation practices customary in their home country.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

In April 1998, when the Chinese central government bans all forms of direct selling in China in April 1998, executives at Avon China must decide how to respond. The first direct sales company to enter China after its opening to outsiders, Avon sparked widespread interest in direct selling among the Chinese. Just as Avon is about to complete a new $40 million plant in Guangzhou, however, the government cracks down on local abuses of direct selling by banning all forms of the practice. Avon must decide whether to abandon its traditional business model in the face of these developments.