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Describes how Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A's baseball team, employs statistical methodologies to select who is undervalued in the marketplace. Examines why few teams have imitated his organization's successful strategy. Explores threats to Oakland's competitive advantage.

The managing director of MD Foods of Denmark and the president of Arla of Sweden, both cooperatives, were contemplating whether their companies should merge to create Europe's largest dairy company. Arla and MD Foods wished to continue the success of their joint ventures in a much closer relationship, but wondered if their owners (the milk-producing farmers in each country) would approve the merger. In addition, the two companies were different in size, organizational structure, organizational culture, monetary currency used and language spoken. Finally, a cross-border merger of two cooperatives was unprecedented throughout the world. The supplement Arla and MD Food: The Merger Decision (B), product 9B05M013 describes the merger decision.

The inventor and founder of DEKA research was deciding whether to commercialize his latest invention, the Segway Human Transporter, a self-balancing, battery-operated scooter. The transporter was envisioned as an alternative mode of personal transportation in traffic-clogged urban environments. It also had potential application in developing countries with limited transportation infrastructure. With the versatility to carry riders on sidewalks, rough ground, icy surfaces and inside buildings, the market potential seemed unlimited. Yet, the Segway Human Transporter represented an unconventional transportation choice for potential users. Would there be a market for it, or would it be seen as nothing more than a cool invention? Should the inventor proceed with commercialization, and if so, how?

Harlequin Enterprises is a well-known publisher of series romantic fiction. The company is facing threats to its leading position as the world's largest romance publisher. While Harlequin was the dominant and very profitable producer of series of romance novels, research indicated that many customers were reading as many single-title romance and women's fiction as series romances. Facing a steady loss of share, Harlequin convened a task force to study the possibility of re-launching a single title women's fiction program. Students must analyze the organization's capabilities and resources as it considers the launch of this new business line.

Harlequin Enterprises is a well-known publisher of series romantic fiction. The company is facing threats to its leading position as the world's largest romance publisher. While Harlequin was the dominant and very profitable producer of series of romance novels, research indicated that many customers were reading as many single-title romance and women's fiction as series romances. Facing a steady loss of share, Harlequin convened a task force to study the possibility of re-launching a single title women's fiction program. Students must analyze the organization's capabilities and resources as it considers the launch of this new business line.

The worldwide Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic could be traced back to an outbreak of atypical pneumonia in Guangdong Province, China in late 2002. In February 2003, this disease spread to Hong Kong with devastating results. Of the 1,755 people who were infected, 299 died. The senior management at Hong Kong's Queen Mary Hospital managed the SARS crisis by adopting effective infection control measures. They also implemented strategies in gaining employees' trust and co-operation amidst a growing public hysteria caused by severe hospital outbreaks and rising death tolls. They showed wisdom, integrity, and strong leadership during the crisis management.

MAS is an apparel supplier to the world's leading brands. Beginning January 2005, a quota-free international textile trade regime will replace country-specific textile quotas for goods entering WTO member states. Small apparel manufacturers are not expected to survive - Chinese firms could corner as much as 50% of the worldwide market. The case looks at how MAS should be organized to best meet customer demands in a rapidly changing, fashion-driven industry where both speed and flexibility in operations are critical to success. How vertically integrated should MAS become? Should it invest in building a retail brand? Or should it go downstream and bring raw material suppliers in-house? Or instead focus on configuring its supply chain to optimize its existing business processes? How should MAS manage and deploy its IT systems to improve knowledge sharing and information management capabilities across the organization, and perhaps strive for a competitive edge?

The Newfoundland Centre for the Arts (NCA) was a theatre, dance and visual arts organization with a long history of promoting indigenous Newfoundland and Labrador arts. The center was a democratic, member-driven organization, and stakeholders disagreed over aspects of the center's mandate and operations. NCA had also experienced financial difficulties, including a crisis in 2002 that almost resulted in closure. Funding came through, and the general manager undertook a strategic review of the organization. She must now present her recommendations to ensure the long term viability and success of NCA to the board of directors.

KTM is a successful European off-road motorcycle manufacturer with sales in 72 countries. KTM has been experiencing impressive growth in both its top and bottom lines over the past several years, but it is facing significant growth pressure from its venture capitalist investor. The chief financial officer must determine how the company could achieve its growth objectives. Options include geographic expansion (increase U.S. emphasis, or expansion to new European Union countries) or product expansion. Implementation options include a merger, acquisition or internal growth. Several opportunities for geographic expansion and product diversification exist, and implementation options include make, buy or ally decisions.

The Newfoundland Centre for the Arts (NCA) was a theatre, dance and visual arts organization with a long history of promoting indigenous Newfoundland and Labrador arts. The centre was a democratic, member-driven organization, and stakeholders disagreed over aspects of the centre's mandate and operations. NCA had also experienced financial difficulties, including a crisis in 2002 that almost resulted in closure. Funding came through, and the general manager undertook a strategic review of the organization. She must now present her recommendations to ensure the long term viability and success of NCA to the board of directors.

Village Automotive is a rags to riches story that describes leadership from the perspective of an entrepreneur who has built a highly successful automobile retail business. As the owner reaches retirement age, he is faced with decisions about growth, succession and strategy. At the same time, the case considers the changes taking place in the automobile industry and the different business approaches taken by the owner and his son-in-law.

Gives students an opportunity to understand the challenges inherent in forecasting the diffusions of innovations. Provides data for forecasting the adoption of electronic books. Students are encouraged to use the Bass Model framework, while being cognizant of its limitations.

The case is about the privatization of water in the Argentinean province of Tucumán, and its subsequent re-nationalization, which attracted major media and NGO coverage as epitomizing the drawbacks of public-utility privatization. It looks at the conflict between the Provincial Government of Tucumán and Aguas del Aconquija SA, the concessionaire.

Business schools are facing intense criticism for failing to impart useful skills, prepare leaders, instill norms of ethical behavior, and even lead graduates to good corporate jobs. These criticisms come not just from students, employers, and the media but also from deans of some of America's most prestigious B schools. The root cause of today's crisis in management education, assert Warren G. Bennis and James O'Toole, is that business schools have adopted an inappropriate--and ultimately self-defeating--model of academic excellence. Instead of measuring themselves in terms of the competence of their graduates, or by how well their faculty members understand important drivers of business performance, they assess themselves almost solely by the rigor of their scientific research. This scientific model is predicated on the faulty assumption that business is an academic discipline like chemistry or geology when, in fact, business is a profession and business schools are professional schools--or should be. Business school deans may claim that their schools remain focused on practice, but they nevertheless hire and promote research-oriented professors who haven't spent time working in companies and are more comfortable teaching methodology than messy, multidisciplinary issues--the very stuff of management. To regain relevancy, the authors say, business schools must rediscover the practice of business and find a way to balance the dual mission of educating practitioners and creating knowledge through research.

Supplements the (A) case.

This case looks at issues facing three National Football League (NFL) teams in 2004: the Arizona Cardinals, Houston Texans, and San Francisco 49ers. The case is written from the perspective of a consultant that will be moderating a debate on business management priorities facing NFL clubs. Each of the three clubs profiled faced different issues in 2004. The Cardinals struggled with poor attendance, an out-of-date stadium, and public reluctance to fund a new facility. The Texans, a new team that had played its first season in 2002, were building their franchise. The 49ers, once one of the league's elite franchises, were struggling with poor on-field performance, salary-cap limits, and an obsolete facility. The case prepares students for a discussion of business management priorities, including competitive success, financial success, and enhancement of fan loyalty and support.

Supplements the (A) case. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Advances in information technology, together with increasing economic globalization, are creating dilemmas regarding the levels of definition of property rights that exist with respect to knowledge-based resources. The issues at stake include enforcing property rights of companies without alienating consumers and making knowledge-based resources affordable. Proposes a framework to help resolve these dilemmas and predict the costs vs. benefits of defining the property rights over resources. The costs vs. benefits are mainly determined by: capture costs and rent dissipation created by nonexclusivity of the resource; exchange and policing costs related to the resource; costs of reduced investment created by nonexclusivity of the resource; exchange value of the resource; and the social costs of exclusivity of the resource.

To find the secrets of business success, what could be more natural than studying successful businesses? In fact, nothing could be more dangerous, warns this Stanford professor. To generalize from the examples of successful companies is to reach conclusions from an unrepresentative data sample, falling into the classic statistical trap of selection bias. Drawing on a wealth of case studies, for instance, one researcher concluded that great leaders share two key traits: They persist, often despite initial failures, and they are able to persuade others to join them. But those traits are also the hallmarks of spectacularly unsuccessful entrepreneurs. To discover what makes a business successful, then, managers should look at both successes and failures. Otherwise, they will overvalue risky business practices, seeing only those companies that won big and not the ones that lost dismally. They will not be able to tell whether their current good fortune stems from smart business practices or from coasting on past accomplishments or good luck. Fortunately, economists have developed relatively simple tools that can correct for selection bias even when data about failed companies are hard to come by.

For General Motors (GM) China, 2004 brought a wide variety of new challenges that added to an already complex business environment. Industry structure was changing quickly, demand and supply projections for motor vehicles had promised substantial increases in sales and profits but suddenly optimism faded. China's membership in the World Trade Organization created expectations of a level playing field for foreign investors, but major barriers remained, including continuing government intervention, competition from government-owned assembly firms, arbitrary rules such as sector-specific credit restrictions and violation of intellectual property with the copying of foreign automobile designs and false-branding of parts. Meanwhile, inflation was increasing and the government was unsure whether and how to use monetary and fiscal policies. This is an abridged version of GM in China, product 905M07.