Whether taught to students unfamiliar with U.S. business culture or to students unacquainted with working in China, this case allows for an exploration of values that shape attitudes and behaviors in both countries. The material presents one executive's unique leadership experience in managing across cultures. From creating cross-cultural teams to balancing the goals of corporate in the United States and local operations in China, Owen Rankin's role as a leader in the middle is rich with experiences dealing with preconceived notions. The case works as a source for any manager working outside his or her home country. In the (A) case Owen Rankin, VP of corporate reputation at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), is appointed to head up J&J's Olympic Games committee. He was tasked with convincing others in the organization to move forward on the project. Rankin and his team spent months going back and forth to China, meeting with J&J business-unit leaders, and trying to persuade them to support the project. The (A) case ends at Rankin and his core committee back in China at their final decision-making meeting-would it be a go or a no-go decision? The (B) case presents Rankin's experience to build a team, engage stakeholders, develop and activate programs, attend the games, and then wrap up the closing of the sponsorship. As Rankin and his team supervised the dismantling of the event, thoughts turned to the next Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, and London, England. Should J&J continue to be a sponsor?

Whether taught to students unfamiliar with U.S. business culture or to students unacquainted with working in China, this case allows for an exploration of values that shape attitudes and behaviors in both countries. The material presents one executive's unique leadership experience in managing across cultures. From creating cross-cultural teams to balancing the goals of corporate in the United States and local operations in China, Owen Rankin's role as a leader in the middle is rich with experiences dealing with preconceived notions. The case works as a source for any manager working outside his or her home country. In the (A) case Owen Rankin, VP of corporate reputation at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), is appointed to head up J&J's Olympic Games committee. He was tasked with convincing others in the organization to move forward on the project. . Rankin and his team spent months going back and forth to China, meeting with J&J business-unit leaders, and trying to persuade them to support the project. The (A) case ends at Rankin and his core committee back in China at their final decision-making meeting-would it be a go or a no-go decision? The (B) case presents Rankin's experience to build a team, engage stakeholders, develop and activate programs, attend the games, and then wrap up the closing of the sponsorship. As Rankin and his team supervised the dismantling of the event, thoughts turned to the next Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, and London, England. Should J&J continue to be a sponsor?

With a cross-disciplinary perspective, this field-based case series uses the purchase of a manufacturing company based in China to set the stage for an analysis of cost accounting, operational effectiveness, and cross-cultural communication. It offers a discussion about the strategy to purchase a Chinese firm to enter a promising business line for the Chinese market and provides an opportunity to introduce basic accounting, management communication, and operational terms that can be explored in following classes. The material includes an overview of a partnership between a Westerner and two Chinese executives, the issues they discovered through due diligence, plans to break into a new market, and their efforts to communicate lean manufacturing principles in another language and culture. If possible, inviting colleagues from accounting, communications, or operations to jointly teach the class enriches the discussion and provides an integrated learning experience. The A case opens with an overview of the capacitor factory in the province of Henan, China that Peer Nielsen, Baocheng Yang, and Zhihong Li are thinking about purchasing. They discovered several issues: workers' wages had gone unpaid for months, payroll taxes were years in arrears, one of the company's most profitable production lines had been "rented out." Not only were local competitors using its technology, some were producing the same capacitors under the China Star brand. Then there were the production lines that lacked raw materials and the huge unexplained power bill. But the political brass in the region was eager to see new owners purchase the factory with intent to manufacture and would provide the necessary permits and support to get started. Should the group buy it?

With a cross-disciplinary perspective, this field-based case series uses the purchase of a manufacturing company based in China to set the stage for an analysis of cost accounting, operational effectiveness, and cross-cultural communication. It offers a discussion about the strategy to purchase a Chinese firm to enter a promising business line for the Chinese market and provides an opportunity to introduce basic accounting, management communication, and operational terms that can be explored in following classes. The material includes an overview of a partnership between a Westerner and two Chinese executives, the issues they discovered through due diligence, plans to break into a new market, and their efforts to communicate lean manufacturing principles in another language and culture. If possible, inviting colleagues from accounting, communications, or operations to jointly teach the class enriches the discussion and provides an integrated learning experience. The B case adds a twist. After the purchase, following a 90-day stabilization period, an optimization plan, a strategic review, and a purchase of land to build a larger operation, the leadership team was finalizing plans to drop two production lines and invest in supercapacitor production. At that point, a key air conditioner customer asked to meet with the team, seeking to double its capacity to meet market demand-which would entail ordering at least triple the number of capacitors China Star was then producing. There was only one problem: the requested product would be a line slated for elimination. Did it make sense to ramp up a line China Star had planned to de-emphasize?