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This case examines a proposed marketing joint venture which would introduce Neilson brand chocolate bars to Mexican consumers. Pepsico Foods' Mexican subsidiary -- already servicing 450,000 retail stores -- has suggested a joint branding agreement. Alternative distribution arrangements are available which would allow Neilson to maintain greater control over its name, at the cost of slower market access. (A sequel to this case is available Neilson International in Mexico (B).)

Neilson linked up with Sabritas, a Pepsico Co. subsidiary, and launched Neilson brand chocolate bars in Mexico. The next year, Neilson sales to Mexico exceeded $23 million. The Mexican peso abruptly underwent a 40% devaluation which put major pressure on both partners' margins. This raised issues of future pricing and competitive response. More fundamentally, there were now concerns about the overall stability and potential of the Mexican market. (This is a supplement to Neilson International in Mexico (A).)

The expanded use of project management techniques is not always met by a concomitant increase in the pool of competent project managers. Senior managers readily acknowledge the ad hoc manner in which most project managers acquire their skills, but are unsure how better to develop a supply of well-trained project leaders for the future. Over the last several years, we have conducted interviews with dozens of senior project managers asking the question: "What information were you never given as a novice product manager that, in retrospect, could have made your job easier?" From the responses, we offer some rules as a useful means of understanding the challenge project managers face and some ways to address these concerns: understand the unique context of project management; recognize project team conflict as progress; understand who the stakeholders are and what they want; accept and use the political nature of organizations; understand what "success" means, operationally; remember that enthusiasm and despair are both infectious; build and maintain a cohesive team; and use time carefully, or it will use you.

Supplements Walt Disney's Dennis Hightower: Taking Charge & Dennis Hightower: Walt Disney's Transnational Manager.

This case examines a proposed marketing joint venture which would introduce Neilson brand chocolate bars to Mexican consumers. Pepsico Foods' Mexican subsidiary -- already servicing 450,000 retail stores -- has suggested a joint branding agreement. Alternative distribution arrangements are available which would allow Neilson to maintain greater control over its name, at the cost of slower market access. (A sequel to this case is available bearing the same title, case 995G04.)

A new CEO must take action to return the company to profitability, to clarify the vision, and then to build the infrastructure (human, capital, and information) needed to support the long-term change in strategy and organization. The case provides a rich description of the evolutionary nature of the vision for change and the development of the organizational and information infrastructure needed to support it. The company institutes changes in structure, management systems, people, and processes in a second round of organizational change initiatives--this time more radical in nature.

The age of the empowered board of directors is here. Major public corporations now acknowledge that they have no choice but to make management more accountable to shareholders and that strengthening the hand of outside directors is the logical means for doing so. But exactly how to proceed remains an open question. More specifically, directors and managers wonder how the relationship between the board and the CEO should be recast. Most directors and managers agree that the board should be a more effective watchdog without undermining management's ability to run the business. They also say boards need to decide how to distance themselves more from their CEOs without turning a constructive relationship into an adversarial one. Five corporate leaders--John G. Smale, Alan J. Patricof, Sir Denys Henderson, Bernard Marcus, and David W. Johnson--share their views.

At its core, corporate governance is not about power but about ensuring that decisions are made effectively. That is why reforms of power relationships will not by themselves create more smoothly run organizations. What is needed is a system in which senior managers and the board truly collaborate on decisions and both regularly seek the input of shareholders. The first step to improving a company's governance system is rethinking the role of directors. They must have expertise in the company's industry and in finance; meeting procedures should focus on new strategies, not just on reviewing past performance; directors need better access to company information; they should be required to devote substantial time to the corporation; and their compensation should be linked to stock performance. Second, managers, board members, and shareholders must set up lines of regular and direct communication.

A problem facing managers in the 1990s is how to exercise adequate control in organizations that demand flexibility, innovation, and creativity. How do senior managers protect their companies from control failures when employees are encouraged to redefine how they do their jobs? Today's managers must permit employees to initiate process improvements and new ways of responding to customers' needs--but in a controlled way. Fortunately, the tools to reconcile the conflict between creativity and control are at hand: Belief systems communicate core values and inspire all participants to commit to the organization's purpose. Boundary systems establish rules and identify pitfalls. Diagnostic control systems allow managers to ensure that employees are meeting goals efficiently and effectively. And interactive control systems enable top-level managers to focus on strategic uncertainties.

In this case, Copeland executives have hired Bain & Company, a management-consulting firm, to make recommendations about a capital-appropriations request. A teaching note is available to registered faculty, along with a video supplement to enhance student learning.

Examines business computing as it is evolving in the 1990s. Compares the highly centralized and tightly controlled systems of the past with today's flexible, networked, client/server technology. Serves as an introduction to client/server terminology and technology.

An account executive has the task of calculating a beta value for three stocks of interest to an important client, based on five years of monthly total returns. The client is interested in these beta values as measures of the riskiness of the three investments. This case is best used near the beginning of a module on regression. It focuses on the simple linear regression model relating equity returns to market returns. This use of regression (to calculate a stock's beta) is very common in financial analyses and will be seen by the students in other courses. The case serves to clarify the distinction between systematic and unsystematic risk and between R-squared and the standard deviation of residuals as measures of forecasting uncertainty.

Describes Citibank's worldwide operations, which include activities in developing and developed markets. The bank's structure also varies across markets and regions, varying from autonomous national affiliates to an industry/product-based structure in its domestic U.S. market. While the bank has an existing organization for handling large multinational customers with significant operations (and thus business) in multiple regions, the bank is considering how also to serve local customers who are in the process of expanding to more than one region.

The Privacy Review Committee of Avalon Information Services must decide how to deal with concerns voiced by its retail supermarket customers about the privacy of consumer data collected through Avalon's point-of-sale data collection program. One customer is proposing that Avalon adopt a system requiring consumers to affirmatively consent to participate in the program in place of the "opt-out" system used to date.

Traces the birth and development of 3M Corp., focusing in particular on the origins of its entrepreneurially-based ability to innovate. In particular, it highlights the role of CEO William L. McKnight in creating a unique set of values, policies, and structures to nurture and develop continuous renewal. With the changing environment of the 1980s, however, a new generation of CEOs begin to adopt new policies and change the cultural norms that helped 3M grow. The trigger issue focuses on what other changes are required.

In 1993 the municipally owned utility serving Gainesville, Florida was threatening to build a 23-mile rail spur to connect its coal-fired power plant with the tracks of the Norfolk/Southern Railway. The railroad currently delivering the coal, CSXT, had announced a large rate increase to take effect at the end of its current five-year contract and had refused to allow Norfolk/Southern Railway, which was offering a lower rate, to use CSXT tracks to deliver coal to the plant. CSXT had responded to the utility's threat to build the spur by reducing its proposed rate increase and the utility now had to decide whether it should proceed with the spur or accept the new CSXT offer. This case may be used to discuss barriers to entry, market power, and appropriate public policy responses. HKS Case Number 1299.0

A middle-level division manager must decide whether he should support an investment request for a third attempt at launching a new product developed by a struggling business unit. Describes the long, difficult process by which the unit has developed the product--a computer privacy screen--after years of problems and continuing losses, and its absolute faith in the project. Also presents the division manager's concerns about the need for discipline and control, setting up a tension that is focused on the launch decision.

Labatt Breweries of Canada introduced its Ice Beer to the Canadian market, it gained rapid acceptance by consumers, and has spawned imitators and attracted the interest of brewers in the United States. The president of Labatt Breweries, Hugo Powell, must decide if and how Labatt should enter the U.S. market with its product and new brewing technology. The case provides information on the Canadian and United States beer markets, pointing out the differences that Labatt has to consider in trying to profit from its new product in the U.S. An in-depth note Note on the Mexican Beer Industry is available to accompany this case.

The business development manager for General Electric (GE) Canada, met with executives from GE Supply, a US-based distribution arm of GE. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss new business opportunities in energy management and efficiency. The business development manager had identified some opportunities for business development in Canada, while leveraging GE's strategic capabilities did not fit well with GE's corporate structure. He was keen to work with GE Supply but wanted to retain a high level of operating autonomy. The challenge was to put together an appropriate organizational structure and find a home for the new development idea. (A sequel to this case is available, GE Energy Management Initiative (B). A 12-minute video may also be purchased with this case, GE Energy Management Initiative - Video.)

Six months into the operation of the energy management business, GE Energy Management Initiative has lost a bid for a large contract. Its general manager learns that the division to which it reports is getting out of the energy management business because of a questionable strategic fit within the division, and a lack of results. The general manager wonders how to proceed. (This is a sequel to GE Energy Management Initiative (A).)