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The (B) case provides an update of the subsequent events leading to the downfall and further developments up to 2002, with WPP, led by the former S and S Finance Director, Martin Sorell, coming out as the winner in this global consolidation game.

While it is important that a board have some directors who are independent and others who are financially literate, having a board that works - and works well -- requires a mix of directors with significant expertise and experience and the right dynamics. This author, the head of a firm that recruits directors, explains what makes a board work well. Absolutes, like having independent directors, are important, but what makes a board work really well is a mix of directors with expertise, experience and the right dynamics.

When Enron was still - and only - a pipeline company, it lost a major contract in India because local authorities felt that it was pushing negotiations too fast. In fact, the loss of the contract underlines the important role that cultural differences play in international negotiation. For one country's negotiators, time is money; for another's, the slower the negotiations, the better and more trust in the other side. This author's advice will help negotiators bridge the cultural differences in international negotiation. When it comes to negotiating with businesspeople around the world, knowing your opposite's culture is as important as understanding his or her goals.

The rich are different than you and me, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote. That truism can be applied to the differences between employees and executives today, and perhaps nowhere is the gap more conspicuous than in the benefits and perks executives receive while they're working for a company -- and continue to receive once they retire. Moreover, most companies hide these perks. The time has come, writes this author, to open up and disclose.

Taking a hard line may be fine -- but only in the short term, and only if you really believe that your counterpart is you're adversary. But negotiation is often a series of episodes, which means that considering your counterpart as a partner or a collaborator is the foundation of trusting and fruitful-- and ongoing -- negotiation. How the game is played matters more than who wins.

Negotiation has come a long way. A once purely adversarial, one-time event has evolved into a relationship-based, ongoing process that puts a premium on empathy and co-operation. This author, an expert educator who has played a critical role in improving negotiators' skills and the results they achieve, discusses the substantial changes that have occurred in how negotiations are conducted today.

Just as negotiating has become an ongoing process, so too has learning new negotiating techniques. Improving your negotiation skills, write the co-authors of this article, is a long journey that involves constant reflection, awareness, and openness to feedback. In the article, a valuable and extremely useful primer for negotiators, they describe and outline the preparation, value-claiming and value-creating strategies that are the foundation of any successful negotiation.

The right strategy and preparation are important elements in successful negotiation, but unless we use the right verbal and nonverbal communication we may never get what we want. Knowing the rules that that can set the tone or code of a negotiation, and how we can successfully switch that code, is vitally important. Without that knowledge, this author points out, we may never get what we want.

This case explores how the public reputation of a profession evolves as its membership changes. The public reputation of a professional relies on its association's credibility for ensuring, through rigorous certification and self-regulation, that its members place client interests foremost. It demonstrates that if associations deviate from this objective and focus instead on the well-being of their members, the public goodwill of the profession suffers.

Supplements the (A) case.

In the early 2000's, MOL, the newly privatized Hungarian Oil and Gas Concern considers acquiring a controlling stake in TVK, a downstream customer specialized in the production of polymers. The case highlights the tension between long-term competitive/growth strategy and short-term operational issues and cash considerations, in the context of this particular decision. It also provides the opportunity to explore the broader strategic challenges that this company faces, if it wants to stay alive in the consolidating Central European Oil market. This market is particularly interesting and unique after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It faces deregulation, privatization and major consolidation, as the region's economies move into market economies. MOL, in particular, is a very interesting company, which, despite being a small player could successfully challenge Royal Dutch SHELL, Austria's OMV and large Russian oil companies with its bold acquisitions, thus creating one of the first and largest multinational companies of the region.

This case focuses on broad-gauge strategic positioning and implementation in the global financial services sector. Allianz AG, as summarized in the case, is a major German insurance company with its strongest footprint in the domestic property and casualty business, but also occupying market positions in life and health insurance, and in insurance-likes savings products such as variable and fixed annuities as well as reinsurance. This case focuses on strategic options facing management across clients, products and geographies at German, European and global levels.

The case series illustrates the decision-making process and the negotiation complexities of a leveraged buy-out proposal made by Italtel management to their holding company, Telecom Italia. In addition to Telecom Italia and Italtel's perspectives, the cases examine the point of view of the two perspective joint acquirers: Cisco Systems and Clayton Dubillier & Rice, a leading private equity investment house.

The case series illustrates the decision-making process and the negotiation complexities of a leveraged buy-out proposal made by Italtel management to their holding company, Telecom Italia. In addition to Telecom Italia and Italtel's perspectives, the cases examine the point of view of the two perspective joint acquirers: Cisco Systems and Clayton Dubillier & Rice, a leading private equity investment house.

The case series illustrates the decision-making process and the negotiation complexities of a leveraged buy-out proposal made by Italtel management to their holding company, Telecom Italia. In addition to Telecom Italia and Italtel's perspectives, the cases examine the point of view of the two perspective joint acquirers: Cisco Systems and Clayton Dubillier & Rice, a leading private equity investment house.

The case series illustrates the decision-making process and the negotiation complexities of a leveraged buy-out proposal made by Italtel management to their holding company, Telecom Italia. In addition to Telecom Italia and Italtel's perspectives, the cases examine the point of view of the two perspective joint acquirers: Cisco Systems and Clayton Dubillier & Rice, a leading private equity investment house.

The case series illustrates the decision-making process and the negotiation complexities of a leveraged buy-out proposal made by Italtel management to their holding company, Telecom Italia. In addition to Telecom Italia and Italtel's perspectives, the cases examine the point of view of the two perspective joint acquirers: Cisco Systems and Clayton Dubillier & Rice, a leading private equity investment house.

This case study focuses on Infosys Technologies Ltd., one of the leading software companies in India. The key to the success of Infosys has been its ability to leverage an innovative business model: The Global Delivery Model, in order to help its clients economize on costs linked to information technology and software development. The success of Infosys has led to competitors mimicking the business model and the Indian software industry as a whole, witnessing rapid growth. The case questions whether the strategy of Infosys, including the Global Delivery Model, is adequate to maintain the company's trajectory of high growth, and its position as one of the leading software companies in the world.

The case describes a crisis management situation faced by Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler-Benz AG. In 1997 Mercedes introduced a revolutionary new car, the A-class, Mercedes' first entry into the compact car segment. The A-class was positioned as an entry-level vehicle in the Mercedes line and represented Mercedes' attempt to grow beyond its core market. A few days after the car was officially introduced, it rolled-over during a test known as the "moose test" conducted by a Swedish journalist. The A-class's failed moose-test created extensive media coverage in Germany and other European countries, threatening the success of the A-class launch.

The case describes a crisis management situation faced by Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler-Benz AG. In 1997 Mercedes introduced a revolutionary new car, the A-class, Mercedes' first entry into the compact car segment. The A-class was positioned as an entry-level vehicle in the Mercedes line and represented Mercedes' attempt to grow beyond its core market. A few days after the car was officially introduced, it rolled-over during a test known as the "moose test" conducted by a Swedish journalist. The A-class's failed moose-test created extensive media coverage in Germany and other European countries, threatening the success of the A-class launch.