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Technological and medical innovation in recent years has opened many new lines of research and development in the healthcare industry. Developments in medicines and devices have begun to yield new treatments offering hope to many cancer sufferers, and many more are predicted to emerge in the coming decade. This case looks specifically at the development of customized treatments for cancer, focusing particularly on the market potential of such innovations and the challenges the industry might expect to encounter going forward.

Most of the talk about better corporate governance has focused on the independence of directors and the separation of the CEO and chair. Not so, argue these authors, who point out that the most important factor is board process - how boards work and reach the decisions they do. Improving process will not only improve board governance but will prove that there really is a link between a board of directors and a firm's financial performance.

An effective advisory board, properly composed and structured, can provide non-binding but informed guidance and serve as a tremendous ally in the quest for superior corporate governance. This author, a lawyer with significant experience on boards of directors, offers a helpful blueprint for establishing an effective advisory board.

A board is often a snapshot of the organization: There are a lot of talented individuals, but the real challenge is getting them to work together, for the common good. These professors have developed five principles to enhance the process. The first principle? It starts at the top, with the chairman.

GSI is a computer services company, the leader in payroll outsourcing in France. The company founder sees the value in selling computer services to create a recurring revenue stream. His years in the French public administration prompt him to create a decentralized and non-bureaucratic company, taking to an extreme the values of empowerment, trust and respect for the individual. Success in the 1970s and 1980s allows the company to grow by acquisition, resulting in a multi-business company with pan-European reach. The founder's ideals play a large part in achieving an employee leveraged buyout in 1987, resulting in much sought-after independence from the large French conglomerate that had given GSI its start. By the early 1990s, several factors pressure results. An economic downturn crimps sales. Huge outlays to develop software and implement a quality program pressure profitability. The plethora of business units, with totally different business models becomes unwieldy. Impatient and angered financial investors from the 1987 leveraged buyout distract top management with petitions to exit. The management team becomes increasingly dysfunctional. At the end of 1994, the founder and Chairman respond abruptly by firing half of his top managers. The Abridged version can be used as an introduction to the ADP-GSI case series on M and A.

GSI is a computer services company, the leader in payroll outsourcing in France. The company founder sees the value in selling computer services to create a recurring revenue stream. His years in the French public administration prompt him to create a decentralized and non-bureaucratic company, taking to an extreme the values of empowerment, trust and respect for the individual. Success in the 1970s and 1980s allows the company to grow by acquisition, resulting in a multi-business company with pan-European reach. The founder's ideals play a large part in achieving an employee leveraged buyout in 1987, resulting in much sought-after independence from the large French conglomerate that had given GSI its start. By the early 1990s, several factors pressure results. An economic downturn crimps sales. Huge outlays to develop software and implement a quality program pressure profitability. The plethora of business units, with totally different business models becomes unwieldy. Impatient and angered financial investors from the 1987 leveraged buyout distract top management with petitions to exit. The management team becomes increasingly dysfunctional. At the end of 1994, the founder and Chairman respond abruptly by firing half of his top managers. The Abridged version can be used as an introduction to the ADP-GSI case series on M and A.

The follow-on to the GSI A case presents the alternatives available to GSI in the summer of 1995. Former senior manager Gluntz has returned in February after a 10 year hiatus and created a plan to turnaround the company. By summer, it's obvious that the option of selling GSI to an appropriate acquirer must be evaluated, given the mounting pressure of financial investors. The case places the reader in Gluntz's shoes to determine whether to resuscitate the company from crisis or sell to one of three alternative buyers, one being ADP.

ADP is an American success story. The founder, with modest beginnings and a good idea, turns a company that does the payroll for a few companies in New Jersey, to a successful company that can boast 136 consecutive quarters of revenue and income growth since going public in 1961. The company is built on a solid economic model of providing outsourcing of payroll and other key applications to earn a recurring revenue stream. In the summer of 1995, management of the US-centric company with a few lackluster overseas experiences must decide whether it should acquire French-based GSI. The case asks the reader to take the position of Gary Butler, President of ADP Employer Services, weighing the risks of a large overseas purchase with the rewards of growth that a new market can promise.

ADP signs its largest acquisition deal in history, to purchase GSI in August 1995. If the divergence of cultures in both companies isn't enough -- ADP management being used to tight controls and double-digit growth and GSI management groomed to run their own show in spite of recent poor financial results -- there are tremendous differences in operations across functional areas to resolve. Both companies have developed and positioned their unique product offerings to serve different market segments in distinct geographies. Consequently, the Sales and Customer Service organizations are also very different, with scopes and profiles that correspond to their own markets. Financial reporting practices are also divergent, for the most part due to country legislation. Human Resource practices are polar opposites. The reader is asked to take the position of Philippe Gluntz, the new President of ADP Europe, straddling the ocean to manage the post-acquisition process. The Expanded Version includes an overview of GSI and ADP, allowing the reader to address the integration challenge without reading the previous cases in the series.

GSI is a computer services company, the leader in payroll outsourcing in France. The company founder sees the value in selling computer services to create a recurring revenue stream. His years in the French public administration prompt him to create a decentralized and non-bureaucratic company, taking to an extreme the values of empowerment, trust and respect for the individual. Success in the 1970s and 1980s allows the company to grow by acquisition, resulting in a multi-business company with pan-European reach. The founder's ideals play a large part in achieving an employee leveraged buyout in 1987, resulting in much sought-after independence from the large French conglomerate that had given GSI its start. By the early 1990s, several factors pressure results. An economic downturn crimps sales. Huge outlays to develop software and implement a quality program pressure profitability. The plethora of business units, with totally different business models becomes unwieldy. Impatient and angered financial investors from the 1987 leveraged buyout distract top management with petitions to exit. The management team becomes increasingly dysfunctional. At the end of 1994, the founder and Chairman respond abruptly by firing half of his top managers. The Abridged version can be used as an introduction to the ADP-GSI case series on M and A.

This last document in the ADP-GSI series describes the outcome of the acquisition through interviews with ADP and former GSI managers. ADP management is very pleased with the results. ADP Europe management, particularly Philippe Gluntz, has played a key role as leader and buffer between the ADP and GSI culture and operations. During Gluntz's tenure as President (1995- 2001), much of the previous GSI culture and relative high level of autonomy has continued, albeit in an environment focused on growth. Gluntz's successor now has to determine if and how he should continue the autonomy.

In this case, four consultants discuss business planning issues that they are each having within their respective consulting firms. The case addresses how professional compensation, project staffing, hours worked, overhead costs, and billing rates impact profitability.

Grandview Excavators Ltd. is a privately owned company that prepares and excavates land for construction development. A recently promoted project estimator has prepared a quote for a project. He receives a phone call from the customer stating that the quote was too low and to resubmit a new quote for a suggested higher amount. He makes the adjustment and submits the second quote. A few days later the company is awarded the project and work begins immediately. After the project is completed, the project estimator receives payment and discovers the payment is less than the original quote amount. It is not clear why the payment has been reduced and he must decide whether to contact the client directly for an explanation or advise his boss.

An alliance can be broken or underperforming, yet too many companies fail to see that their partnerships are just drifting or not producing. Recognizing that an alliance is broken and taking steps to mend the various relationships are vital if a company is to realize its expected ROI. This author has sound advice for maximizing the return from the substantial investment in an alliance.

Managing your company's goals in an alliance of 10 or more partners presents particular challenges. Managed properly, the constellation represents a real opportunity to win. Becoming part of an alliance constellation, like the airline industry's Star Alliance, can help a company compete and win. And while a constellation is, in some ways similar to a bi-lateral alliance, it also presents particular challenges. This author discusses these challenges, and some tactics that managers can use to make a constellation - and their own company's strategy - succeed.

Making the transition to Vertical Solutions Marketing is an appealing option for growing revenues. Managers would do well to read this article before choosing this option. Vertical Solutions Marketing is an appealing option for growth, especially in an era in which organization have already been pared to the bone. But managing the evolving tension between the company's old and new business structures and sharing and transferring resources among the solutions units must be done carefully if the move to VSR is to succeed. These authors suggest 11 best practices.

Enterprise-wide risk management contributes to better governance, yet despite the pressures, many companies are in no hurry to implement ERM. Despite pressures to do so, many companies have yet to implement practices for better risk management. Such practices, whether implementing Enterprise-wide Risk Management or putting better information in the hands of directors, greatly improve corporate governance, these authors discovered. Moreover, they make the risk manager's job much more important.

Well-designed incentives, more than checks and balances, will help reduce the information asymmetry between senior management and the board of directors. Information asymmetry may never be more pronounced than in the imbalance between managers and board members. Simply put, management knows more than the board. To level the playing field, the board can implement performance-based incentive systems. But as these authors point out, to what extent should boards integrate financial and non-financial measures of performance in corporate incentive plans?

Fix the audit committee -- make it stronger and more independent -- and you'll fix what's wrong with corporate governance. Not so, says this highly expert governance consultant. Audit committees are a strange invention. They are supposed to provide the independence that their master-the full board-does not provide, but their accountability is often unclear. So, how did this peculiar state of affairs come to be? And what are the chances of real change?

In June 1998, The Board of Directors of INSEAD, a leading international business school based in Fontainebleau (France) had to decide to proceed with an investment in a second campus in Singapore. Over the past 20 years INSEAD had established an international reputation and had developed some expertise on Asian business. The case presents the history of the project, the process by which the idea was transformed into an investment proposal and presents various views on the potential and risks of such development.