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Top managers of Wetherill Associates, Inc., a small, privately held distributor of electrical parts to the automotive aftermarket, are considering whether to modify the company's compensation system for its salesforce. The management wants a compensation system that reinforces the company's right-action policy and its team approach to customer service. The case describes the right-action ethic and its application throughout the business.

Marriott Corp.'s chairman and CEO must decide whether to recommend a restructuring of the company to the board of directors. The proposal he is considering would split the Marriott Corp., a premier hotel developer, owner, and manager, into two separate companies by a stock dividend to shareholders. One of the new companies would contain most of Marriott Corp.'s profitable management operations, while the other would retain ownership of its hotel properties as well as most of its long-term debt.

Supplements the (A) case.

Manville Corp.'s senior managers must decide how to respond to a new scientific study suggesting that fiberglass, the source of 75% of the company's profits, may be another asbestos and must act under conditions of great uncertainty. In particular, when should a manager inform employees and customers about potential product risks, and how should hazard communications be handled to inform without inflaming?

Describes how Manville's managers responded when their main product, fiberglass, was classified by an international research agency as a possible human carcinogen.

After many years as a German luxury car producer, Mercedes-Benz announced two major strategy shifts in 1992, toward a full line of automotive products and toward a globally diverse set of plans and activities. As part of this shift, Mercedes planned to build a major plant in Alabama for the manufacture of sports-utility vehicles.

Describes Beech-Nut's resolution of the apple juice matter.

Officials of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must decide whether to refer the Beech-Nut apple juice case to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, and if so, whether to recommend prosecution of individual executives or of the company only.

Describes the results of the charges related to the sale of the apple juice products.

After U.S.-based Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB) and Publicis of France established an international advertising alliance in May 1988, alliance leaders set out to merge offices in Europe. They were confronted with a particularly tricky situation in Germany, which, if handled poorly, could have harmed BMZ, a highly regarded agency in Dusseldorf that FCB had acquired six months earlier. The case looks at how alliance managers resolved the dilemma by forming a second agency network in Europe; how that network, which was composed of advertising agencies from six European countries, was working; and how agencies from different cultural backgrounds were dealing with diversity. May be used with FCB and Publicis (A): Forming the Alliance and (B): Managing Client and Country Diversity.

Describes the work of Jack Welch as CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 1992, focusing particularly on his transformation of the company's portfolio through extensive dispositions and acquisitions and the company's culture through a mandated process called "work out." To a considerable extent, the case tells the story in Welch's own words drawing on earlier cases on Welch prepared by Richard Hammermesh and Frank Aguilar, as well as a 1991 interview with Welch in the Harvard Business Review and an article in Fortune, "GE Keeps Those Ideas Coming."

Describes Becton Dickinson's evolving attempt to develop products and strategies to meet worldwide competitive and market needs. Traces the evolution of a classic parent company-led product-market strategy to truly transnational product and strategy development. Explores the use of an integrative team as the organizational means of achieving global integration while preserving local flexibility.

From a small local bank, Banc One has grown to one of the largest and most profitable banks in the United States under the leadership of its CEO, John B. McCoy. It has an impressive track record of improving the performance of its acquisitions while retaining the previous management and transferring its corporate culture. Banc One's uncommon partnership and its "share and compare" practices are viewed as key to its success. How long will it be able to sustain its stellar track record, particularly when confronted with mounting industry pressures? It has broadened its strategy, resulting in a number of organizational challenges. What lessons can be learned, particularly in terms of Banc One's acquisition approach? How is Banc One responding to the changing industry and how does it organizationally manage this change?

Rhone-Poulenc, France's largest chemical firm, with revenues of more than $7 billion in 1985, seeks to dramatically expand its presence in the United States. From 1986 to 1990, Rhone-Poulenc undertakes 18 separate acquisitions, ranging from small entrepreneurial firms to large divisions of Union Carbide, Monsanto, and Stauffer Chemicals. Having made these acquisitions, however, the French firm is faced with challenges of integrating many disparate operations into a coherent American affiliate. The problem is complicated by differences in the nature of competition (global agrichemicals versus domestic basic chemicals), differences in the attitudes of the acquired employees, and an initial lack of confidence on the part of the acquiring firm. By the end of the case, Rhone-Poulenc management faces a specific choice regarding the best way to integrate several recent acquisitions in the field of specialty chemicals.

Rhone-Poulenc, France's largest chemical firm, has achieved a major position in the United States as the result of an ambitious series of acquisitions. As it expanded in the United States from 1986 to 1990, Rhone-Poulenc management sought to take a "hands-off" approach and allowed the local management to build a coherent and stable U.S. operation. By 1991, however, there is a perceived imperative for the global management of all product lines. A proposal is made to shift the major axis of the firm toward a worldwide product structure, with the effect of changing the role of the U.S. country management. Whether this move makes sense, what the best structure might be, and how any changes are to be implemented are all topics for discussion in this case.

The B case describes Frank Lockfeld building a spreadsheet model that captures the essence of the discussion in the A case. Since this is a difficult model to build, we recommend using the B case when teaching the Calambra Olive Oil sequence early in a module on Monte Carlo simulation. The model, which is also available electronically and should be distributed with the B case, is set up to evaluate scenarios and compare (in multiple columns) the affect of different order quantities for the specified scenario. To turn the model into a simulation model, all the students need do is replace the scenario drivers with probability distributions. Note: the C case may be used in place of--NOT IN ADDITION TO--the B case. Rather than evaluate different order quantities in columns, the C case uses data tables.

Spreadsheet Supplement for UV6185

Integrated Siting Systems, Inc. has developed a satellite-based tracking system that continuously updates and displays the location of every vehicle in its network. A recently signed contract presents new technical challenges that may make the normally installed system inadequate. While it is possible to augment the system so that it will definitely work, doing so is costly. Alternatively, it is possible to conduct an imperfect test that will improve the company's information about whether the normal system will work. An alternative to this system is Emergency Vehicle Positioning, Inc. (see UV0359). Except for the name, date, final paragraph (which mentions the other conditional probabilities), and the exhibit of conditional probabilities, the two cases are identical.

Matt Gruber is an effective and highly motivated executive, yet his inability to deal with superiors is shown by numerous instances of abrasive behaviour. Matt's rise and fall at Kapco is described in this case, which is one of a four-part series (see 9A93D016, 9A93D017, 9A93D018). The series' teaching objectives are to learn to manage and to maintain successful relationships with supervisors and to effectively manage an employee who has difficulty relating upward.