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John Trani is Stanley Works' new CEO. This case describes his philosophy, communications, and actions during his first seven months in office, aiming at a major transformation of strategic postures, organizational structure, and company culture.

From seven candidates, students must choose two who are most qualified for the COO position at an entrepreneurial Danish multinational organization, and two who are the best choices for country manager in Vietnam for the company.

Colly Farm is an entrepreneurial cotton farm complex that has to compete on a world market. In going public it has to satisfy the market that it can remain profitable in volatile times.

Provides an overview of knowledge management, including descriptions of knowledge management strategies, processes, organization, infrastructure, systems, and challenges. Describes the approaches at two leading consulting firms, Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, that have been pioneers in knowledge management strategies.

A firm that started in corn processing and moved up the value-added food chain decides to spin-off the original commodity part of the business. How does the new spin-off survive and how does it develop a strategy? Firms in the food system are separating out their commodity parts of the business from branded food products. How does the new commodity firm develop a strategy for the future?

This fictitious case study by Idalene F. Kesner, the Frank P. Popoff Professor at Indiana University, and Sally Fowler, assistant professor at Victoria University, explores the issues that arise when the wires get crossed between a team of consultants and their key client. The client is the CEO of a newly-merged company; the consultants have been hired to help knit together the two former companies' policies and cultures. Unfortunately, the client's impression of the current status of the new company and the consultants' assessment of the situation facing them are vastly different. In 97605 and 97605Z, John Rau, Charles Fombrum, Robert H. Schaffer, and David H. Maister advise the consultants and the client about their options, offer their perspectives on what makes a good client/consultant relationship, and discuss the difficulties that face newly merged companies.

This fictitious case study by Idalene F. Kesner, the Frank P. Popoff Professor at Indiana University, and Sally Fowler, assistant professor at Victoria University, explores the issues that arise when the wires get crossed between a team of consultants and their key client. The client is the CEO of a newly-merged company; the consultants have been hired to help knit together the two former companies' policies and cultures. Unfortunately, the client's impression of the current status of the new company and the consultants' assessment of the situation facing them are vastly different. In 97605 and 97605Z, John Rau, Charles Fombrum, Robert H. Schaffer, and David H. Maister advise the consultants and the client about their options, offer their perspectives on what makes a good client/consultant relationship, and discuss the difficulties that face newly merged companies.

This fictitious case study by Idalene F. Kesner, the Frank P. Popoff Professor at Indiana University, and Sally Fowler, assistant professor at Victoria University, explores the issues that arise when the wires get crossed between a team of consultants and their key client. The client is the CEO of a newly-merged company; the consultants have been hired to help knit together the two former companies' policies and cultures. Unfortunately, the client's impression of the current status of the new company and the consultants' assessment of the situation facing them are vastly different. In 97605 and 97605Z, John Rau, Charles Fombrum, Robert H. Schaffer, and David H. Maister advise the consultants and the client about their options, offer their perspectives on what makes a good client/consultant relationship, and discuss the difficulties that face newly merged companies.

Almost all companies today compete to some degree on the basis of continuous innovation. And many turn to customers for information to guide that innovation. The problem is that customers' ability to guide new product and service development is limited by their experience and by their ability to imagine and describe possible innovations. How can companies identify needs that customers themselves may not recognize? A set of techniques Harvard Business School Professors Dorothy Leonard and Jeffrey Rayport call empathic design can help resolve those dilemmas. Its basic principle is observation--watching customers use products or services. But the critical twist is that such observation is conducted in the customer's own environment--in the context of normal, everyday routines. In such a context, the company is privy to a host of information that is not accessible through other observation--oriented research methods such as focus groups or usability laboratories. This article explores a new way for companies to spark innovation--a new way for them to identify consumer needs, and thus design successful new products to meet those needs. The techniques of empathic design--effectively gathering, analyzing, and applying information gleaned from observation-are familiar to top engineering/design firms and a few forward-thinking manufacturers, but are not common practice.

The continued success of technology-based companies depends on their proficiency in creating next-generation products and their derivatives. So getting such products out the door on schedule must be routine for such companies, right? Not quite. Behnam Tabrizi, a Consulting Professor of Engineering Management in the Department of Industrial Engineering & Engineering Management at Stanford University, and Rick Walleigh, a partner at Ernst & Young LLP, recently engaged in a detailed study--in which they had access to sensitive internal information and to candid interviews with people at every level--of 28 next-generation product-development projects in 14 leading high-tech companies. They found that most of the companies were unable to complete such projects on schedule. And the companies also had difficulty developing the derivative products needed to fill the gaps in the market that their next-generation products would create. The problem in every case, the authors discovered, was rooted in the product definition phase. And not coincidentally, the successful companies in the study had all learned how to handle the technical and marketplace uncertainties in their product definition processes. The authors have discerned from the actions of those companies a set of best practices that can measurably improve the definition phase of any company's product-development process.

In early 1996, the vice president of the instant drinks department of Nestle (Philippines), had to decide how to respond to a major change in Nestle's environment. Until January 1996, imports of coffee in any form - green beans, roasted, or ground and processed - were prohibited. As of January 1996, however, coffee within a specified quota could be imported over a 30 per cent tariff. Nestle was the only foreign-owned producer of coffee in the Philippines and had over 60 per cent of the market, up from 52 per cent seven years before. Over the same period, total coffee consumption in the Philippines doubled. Nestle produced its coffee from Philippine-grown robusta beans, since Philippine arabica beans were of inferior quality. Outside the Philippines, however, usually a mixture of robusta and arabica beans were used. There were rumors that both Procter and Gamble (Folgers) and Kraft General Goods (Maxwell House) were planning to enter the Philippine market, initially via imports, but possibly in the future with production facilities.

Seven years after graduation, an MBA grad accepts the COO position in a company he's never heard of in an industry he knows nothing about. Moving up a vertical learning curve, he is involved in a crisis, and exposed to change and people management. He also must develop a complementary working relationship with the CEO.

Describes a senior management team's strategic decision-making process. The division president faces three options for redesigning the process to address several key concerns. The president has extensive quantitative and qualitative data about the process to guide him as he and the senior team attempt to make improvements.

The managing director of a new Malaysian producer of stainless steel tubing received a letter from the company's attorney in Washington, DC, informing him that the U.S. Specialty Tube Group had written to the U.S. President concerning stainless steel tubing imported into the U.S. from Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia at dumped prices that was causing injury to the U.S. industry. For the next year, the managing director considered how he should respond to this threat, while at the same time increasing the company's exports to the U.S. so that it could meet its sales and profits goals. One year later, he was informed that a formal antidumping action had been taken against imports of stainless steel tubing from Malaysia (and other countries). He is considering what he should do now, both to preserve the company's U.S. market and maintain alternative markets in other countries.

In 1994, Egon Zehnder faced stagnation in the U.S. market and needed to discuss plans for intiating growth. Due to market demand the firm was not forced to implement options contemplated in 1994 to initiate growth.

Executives at Black & Decker Corp. challenge managers to design and develop a cordless electric power drill for professionals that will enhance its reputation among that group of users and significantly lift the company's share of that market. Moreover, the new product must have a platform that, with modest changes, will suit both the North American and European markets. Like many such projects, the time line is short. The management challenge is to put together an international team and develop strategies for defining competitive opportunities, refining program objectives, ensuring effective communication, and keeping people focused. Designers--including engineers and product designers--must overcome a series of technical challenges related to the power the drill will deliver, battery location, and ergonomics. Models are a key design tool in the development process and are used to test consumer reactions in both North America and Europe.

This case describes the major strategic and organizational transformation at Komatsu aimed at changing it from a Japan-based producer of construction equipment to a truly global company with the ability to leverage its groupwide portfolio of resources and capabilities into a new, more diverse business base. Details efforts to build and acquire foreign operations, to specialize and integrate overseas units, to expand responsibilities of offshore operations, and to localize management.

Supplements the (A) case.

Profiles the career of a Emmet Stephenson, the founder of over a dozen successful companies, as a model of entrepreneurship and management.

This case details the sexual harassment case brought against Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America by nearly 300 female employees in April 1996. The recommendations developed for the company by former U.S. Labor Secretary Lynn Marten are presented. In response to the harassment controversy, Marten was asked to review the plant's policies and to formulate a plan for a "model workplace."