Strategizing is the process of perceiving, analyzing, and shaping competitive situations. This note aims provide some basic orientation and sketches some frameworks that can guide the strategizing process.

Decision trees can be helpful in analyzing the key drivers of profitability and in designing risk-mitigation strategies. When analyzing competitive situations, each player's viewpoint can be represented by a separate decision tree, creating a "decision forest." In some situations, it is also useful to summarize two players' decision trees in a single payoff matrix. This note introduces those concepts step by step.

This note introduces some key game-theoretic concepts and techniques, with an emphasis on their underlying motivations. It covers the following topics: • Domination • Iterated elimination of dominated strategies • Nash equilibrium • Randomized Stra

The case is a continuation of Lesser Antilles Lines (UV0351 and UV3879), which describes the price competition between two duopolistic shipping companies facing inelastic demand for cargo volume. Customers have inelastic and time-sensitive demands, restricting their strategic possibilities. The case extends this setting to multiple competitors using a multinomial logit model of customer demand.

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (BSkyB) packaged television content into channels and distributed it via satellite to subscribers and to other distribution platforms. Sports programming and, in particular, live coverage of Premier League Football was one of BSkyB's main attractions for its customers and lay at the core of BSkyB's positioning. In 1996, BSkyB acquired a four-year license to the exclusive broadcasting rights of all Premier League football matches for (pounds) GBP670 million. The year was 1999 and, as the expiration of the Premier League license drew nearer, new strategies for the upcoming licensing round had to be formulated.

By the end of 2002, Qwest Communications Inc., a major U.S. communications company, was reaching a precarious level of illiquidity in the face of huge debts. To reduce that debt, Qwest offered its institutional investors a chance to exchange some unsecured bonds for new senior-subordinated secured notes. But bondholders had no reliable data on Qwest's financials, and there is a two-day deadline for accepting Qwest's offer. See also the B case (UV3889).

By the end of 2002, Qwest Communications Inc., a major U.S. communications company, was reaching a precarious level of illiquidity in the face of huge debts. To reduce that debt, Qwest offered its institutional investors a chance to exchange some unsecured bonds for new senior-subordinated secured notes. But bondholders had no reliable data on Qwest's financials, and there is a two-day deadline for accepting Qwest's offer. See also the B case (UV3889).

In November 1977, U.S. Air Force officials expressed mounting concern about the restrictions on their tactical capabilities that resulted from a string of problems with the new F100 engine in F-15 and F-16 fighter jets. The F100 engine, produced by Pratt and Whitney Aircraft, was a powerful new engine that played a critical role in the U.S. air-defense system. Development of the engine had started in the late 1960s, and its performance specifications pushed the envelope of the technological possibilities. Although setbacks had to be expected, there had long been a growing concern about the unreliability of the F100 engine in combat situations. The Air Force felt that Pratt had been largely unresponsive in prior discussions of these problems and was now reviewing its options.

The B case recounts the events that culminated in the development of an alternative to Pratt and Whitney's F100 jet engine. Following an initial development program, the Air Force announced a split order for 120 engines from General Electric for the F-16 and 40 engines from Pratt and Whitney for the F-15. While this order would only meet the needs for the year 1985, Secretary of the Air Force Verne Orr had decided to hold off on any long-term commitments and to observe contractor performance and field experience during the first year. A few days later, the Navy chose General Electric's F110 engine as a replacement for Pratt's TF30 in the F-14. See also the A (UV3883) and C (UV3886) cases.

On September 17, 2004, Ford Motor Company announced the details of a "revitalization plan" for its ailing Jaguar Cars subsidiary. The plan was aimed at cost savings and reducing excess capacity and overhead expenses (e.g., withdrawing from Formula One racing). In the same period, Jaguar launched a Web-based advertising campaign for its entry-level X-Type and a provocative ad series for its XJ flagship model based on themes from the Seven Deadly Sins. The case provides opportunities to discuss Jaguar's innovative ad campaign and to explore economic models that explain expenditures on non-informative advertising as a signal of product quality (handicap principle).

The case is a continuation of Lesser Antilles Lines (UV0351) which describes the price competition between two duopolistic shipping companies facing inelastic demand for cargo volume. Customers have inelastic and time-sensitive demand, restricting their strategic possibilities. The fictional case introduces additional pricing instruments to this setup. The duopolists can now offer price guarantees and include most-favored-customer clauses and last-look provisions in their contracts.

This case introduces students to the design of artificial agents and evolutionary tournaments through W. Brian Arthur's minority game. Following Arthur, the game is motivated by the story of El Farol, a popular music bar in Santa Fe, California. The bar tended to attract large crowds with its programming of Irish music on Thursday nights. The venue offered only a limited amount of space which detracted from the enjoyment of music programs when the audience outgrew the bar capacity. Moderately attended events were highly successful with most patrons. A crowed bar, however, would diminish this enjoyment to the point where most patrons would have preferred not to attend the event. Since El Farol did not pre-sell tickets, patrons had no information about the evening's attendance until they arrived at the restaurant. Although there was no information about attendance at upcoming events, patrons could learn attendance levels in previous weeks by word of mouth and, over time, formed expectations about future attendance based on their knowledge of past attendance figures.

This note offers an introduction to reorganization procedures within the U.S. bankruptcy law from a business perspective. It can be used to explore the strategic dimensions of bankruptcy procedures and to set the stage for UV3875.

In the spring of 2000, nine Western European governments were preparing for the sale of licenses that would allow private operators of 3G networks to use certain blocks in the spectrum of radio frequencies. The governments' objectives included the competitiveness of the resulting telephony market, an efficient allocation of licenses, and the generation of revenues to supplement governmental budgets. Most governments were considering the use of auctions to sell their licenses in the private market. Different countries faced different market conditions, and differed in their preferred choice of auction format.

In the spring of 2004, Google was one of the most-talked-about IPO ideas since Netscape had gone public in 1995. Bullish investors believed Google could set off a string of successful IPOs following a lull in tech-offering activity since 2000. Executives at Google faced several questions in the following months: Should Google go public? What options did Google have for taking its shares to market? Was the traditional form of book-building necessarily the best course of action? Could a sealed-bid auction (e.g., W.R. Hambrecht's OpenIPO) yield superior results?

Students conduct game-theoretic analyses as they examine the situation of Germania Fluggesellschaft MBH at the launch of its first scheduled flight service on the Frankfurt-Berlin route in the fall of 2001. Entry into this market will bring Germania into direct competition with Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which currently holds a monopoly on the route. Students perform strategic analyses from the viewpoints of both competitors, to explore the strategic implications of repeating the same game several times (i.e., explore the difference between games and supergames), to discover the strategic role of reputation in repeated interactions between players, to understand the value of deterrence and evaluate the threat of predatory pricing, and to create a successful business model for entry into a market that is dominated by a large, monopolistic incumbent. See also the B case (UVA-QA-0621).