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Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

Intermon Oxfam is a Spanish nongovernment organization that is almost 50 years old. Explains the tensions that arose during its growth--in a short time going from lending support to Jesuit missionaries in the Third World to being one of the leading development NGOs in Spain, integrated within one of the most important international NGO groups: Oxfam. Provides the opportunity to review the history of the organization, analyze its governing body (the board of trustees) and human resources and volunteer policies, and gain exposure to its mission and culture in order to choose a candidate for a position on the management team.

In early 2005, Nestle is in the midst of a decision: whether or not the Fairtrade mark should be applied on Partners' Blend, a new instant coffee product to be marketed in the growing UK 'ethical' coffee segment. Application of the Fairtrade mark on the Partners Blend product means that Nestle must go against its historical position of not offering minimum guaranteed prices to coffee farmers. As part of their deliberations, Nestle executives must consider their coffee sourcing program at large, their corporate social responsibility framework, Nescafe and corporate Nestle branding, the UK market, and the potential consumer benefit or backlash that could result from releasing such a product.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently approved a drug-coated stent for use in angioplasty procedures. The stent is expected to reduce the rate of repeat procedures due to restenosis and to postpone the need for more invasive surgery, such as coronary bypass. However, the drug-coated stent costs three times as much as an uncoated stent, which will increase the cost of the medical procedure. Public demand for the stent is overwhelming; however, because of the higher cost and huge demand, the cost of medical care could increase dramatically. Examines the trade-off between quality improvements and higher costs of medical treatment by looking at the impact on several stakeholders: patients, hospitals and insurers.

Located in the highlands of Peru, the Tintaya copper mine has long been a source of intense conflict between local community members and mine operators. The mine, which was owned and managed first by the Peruvian state and later by BHP Billiton, stands on 2,300 hectares of land expropriated from local subsistence farmers. In 2000, to contest this loss of land, mining-related environmental degradation, and allegations of human rights abuses, a coalition of five indigenous communities forged an alliance with a group of domestic and international NGOs to build their case against the BHP Billiton and pursue it directly with the company's Australian headquarters. The outcome of these efforts was the inception of a unique corporate-community negotiation process known as the Tintaya Dialogue Table. In December 2004, after three years of negotiation, BHP Billiton and the five communities signed an agreement compensating families for lost land and livelihoods and establishing a local environmental monitoring team and community development fund. However, just as the company resolves one conflict, another group of local stakeholders emerges with new demands--ones that the company may not be able to meet. The conflict with this new group culminates in a violent takeover of the mine in May 2005, whereupon BHP Billiton staff are forced to shut down operations, abandon the mine site, and devise a new strategy for winning back local support.

Supplements the (A) case.

This note addresses a number of different frameworks that general managers and consultants use to address problems. A general framework for addressing Operations Management is presented that can be used by both operations consultants and general managers.

Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) is beginning to disrupt plain old telephone service (POTS). Ron Close has been offered the job of heading Bell Canada's nascent VoIP business. Bell is Canada's largest telco and supplier of POTS. The case provides a platform for discussing a disruptive innovation (VoIP) and its implications for an incumbent player. Ron Close explains how Bell addressed the technology challenge, and its managerial and organizational consequences in an available video, product 7B06M009.

Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) is beginning to disrupt plain old telephone service (POTS). Ron Close has been offered the job of heading Bell Canada's nascent VoIP business. Bell is Canada's largest telco and supplier of POTS. The case provides a platform for discussing a disruptive innovation (VoIP) and its implications for an incumbent player. Ron Close explains how Bell addressed the technology challenge, and its managerial and organizational consequences in an available video, product 7B06M009.

The Rayovac case discusses the company's bold and risky acquisitions strategy as it diversifies into personal care and grooming, lawn and garden care, insecticides and pet foods. The company assumes it can successfully manage diverse product categories across diverse geographic markets in which it has limited experience. Success will depend on how well the acquired companies are integrated and managed under Rayovac's supervision. Increasingly, it will also depend on external conditions beyond Rayovac's control, such as macroeconomic conditions and foreign exchange fluctuations. Students should be able to analyze the case from the point of view of international business and strategy and perform a financial analysis of potential future returns using different assumptions for sales growth and margins of the various businesses acquired.

The senior vice-president for corporate development for Charles River Laboratories must prepare a presentation to the company's board of directors requesting up to a $2 million investment in a Mexican joint venture with a family-owned animal health company. However, the chief executive officer views the proposed joint venture as a potential distraction while his company continues to expand rapidly in the United States. He is also worried about the risks of investing in a country like Mexico and the plan to partner with a small, family-owned company. Moreover, the Mexican partner is unable to invest any cash in the joint venture, which would need to be fully funded by Charles River Laboratories. The supplement Alpes S.A.: A Joint Venture Proposal (B) looks at what happened.

The senior vice-president for corporate development for Charles River Laboratories must prepare a presentation to the company's board of directors requesting up to a $2 million investment in a Mexican joint venture with a family-owned animal health company. This is a supplement to Alpes S.A.: A Joint Venture Proposal (A).

Every Tuesday evening, after a hectic day at the NBC Universal offices in Universal City, Neal Baer kicked up his feet to watch the latest episode of the award-winning police television series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU). SVU was part of the triumvirate Law & Order franchise created by Hollywood legend Dick Wolf. The suite of shows included the original Law & Order, SVU, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Baer, an Emmy-nominated writer, was a "showrunner" for SVU--industry slang for the person in charge of every aspect of a television series, from story creation to script writing to direction and post-production--essentially the person who "ran the show." The term, showrunner, arose from the need to distinguish the executive producer from the writers, cast members, and post-production people who were often called "co-executive producers." Being a showrunner was analogous to being a baseball manager: "While the baseball manager reports to a general manager as well as a team owner(s), he is still perceived by the players, the public, and the journalists as the driving force behind the team. He is lauded if the team is successful, and fired if the team is losing. The same is true for the showrunner. Also, like a baseball manager, the showrunner works with other producers, who like the manager's coaching staff--the pitching coach, and the first- and third-base coaches--are professionals and expert at what they do." As a showrunner, Baer was a lot like senior managers at traditional corporations--he and SVU had earned enough respect within the industry to lead to a significant amount of autonomy but not absolute freedom. He needed to keep people below and above him happy. And he needed to be strategic at a high level to make a successful series while juggling tight deadlines and budgetary constraints, among other day-to-day details, on multiple episodes.

The CEO of ChoicePoint, a leading company in the rapidly growing U.S. personal data industry, must reexamine the company's business model after a serious breach of data security affecting some 145,000 U.S. citizens. He must decide on steps to strengthen data protection in the company and clarify his stance on regulating a largely unregulated industry.

Gender in the workplace. Is it still an issue? While it is increasingly easier in the early 21st century for women to work, manage, and take positions of high responsibility in American business, some issues and difficulties still remain. This series of vignettes touches on some difficult situations-for both women and men-involving sexual and romantic relationships in the workplace, decisions on whether to start a family, dress codes, family obligations, and sexual harassment.

This case describes the history of a "non-traditional" business group, Semco, starting from the 1980s, when Ricardo Semler assumed responsibility for the company and triggered a genuine revolution in terms of management practices. Since then, Semco's workforce has grown from 90 to 2,500 employees and its annual turnover climbed from US$4 million to US$160 million in 2001. The secret for transforming a conventional workplace into an unconventional hive was given: giving up control.

Monsanto is a large chemical manufacturing company specializing in chemical products for agricultural use. This case explores the company's attempt from 2002-2004 to launch a version of genetically-modified wheat in Canada. It details opposition to the launch from farmers and environmentalists, and focuses on how these groups used communications to resist Monsanto's product launch.

A senior partner in a healthcare consulting firm has to decide what to do in the face of accusations from the chief executive officer of a major healthcare firm. The CEO, reading a prepared statement at a press conference, has accused the senior partner at Kohlberg Associates of a serious, unreported conflict of interest. The senior partner has to consider several issues, including if he should respond, how to respond, who to contact first, and most importantly, what he should say. Adding to his problem is the fact that he is in a state of shock and may not be in an optimum mental state.

This note introduces four common underlying processes and the analytical probability distribution used to forecast the outcomes of each. The note also illustrates how to use Excel functions to calculate probabilities from the four resulting probability distributions: the binomial, normal, Poisson, and exponential.