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Commentary by an executive familiar with the industry on what went wrong at Prelude and what the difficulties are in creating economies of scale in the lobster fishing industry.

Describes political and economic developments that completely change the assumptions on which the strategic options in the (A) case were based. This requires a fundamental reconsideration of the economic/political, strategic, and organizational dimensions and the options. In addition, the head of Opel wants to become number one in East Germany in spite of its formidable local competitor, Volkswagen.

Focuses on the strategic issue of how to approach the East German market after the Berlin wall came down in late 1989. Within an unusually rich economic-political and organizational-personal context, the chairman of GM's German subsidiary has to respond to Volkswagen's preemptive move in East Germany. The rapid and unexpected political changes complicate the decision process. How do rapid and unexpected political changes impact this response?

Should General Motors make a strategic manufacturing investment in East Germany after becoming number one in this market through an aggressive marketing strategy? The proposal, dependent on government assistance and based on a number of uncertain economic assumptions, seeks to introduce Japanese manufacturing methods into East Germany. How and why did Opel achieve market leadership in Volkswagen's back yard? Are the assumptions and objectives of the East German manufacturing investment reasonable?

ABB Germany faces some newly emerging strategic and organizational challenges resulting from Europe 1992 and German reunification. In terms of organization, ABB Germany has created a holding company and has separated operations and service activities into legally independent units, a shift that is gaining popularity in Europe. Strategic opportunities and challenges are described for two business areas: standard products and transportation. Why does ABB prefer to break the organization into legally separate units? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach? What, as a result, is likely to happen to the international matrix? What explains the recent success of standard products? What will happen to the transportation business in Europe? Will the German operation become ABB's European locomotive?

The long-term competitiveness of most manufacturers depends on their product development capabilities. Yet most companies' development process is unruly and unfocused, with a collection of projects that do not match business objectives and consume far more development resources than are available. An "aggregate project plan" can help managers to focus on a set of projects, rather than individual ones. A central element of the plan is the project map, which categorizes projects into five types: breakthrough, platform, derivative, R&D, and partnerships. With the plan, managers can improve resource allocation, project sequencing, and critical development capabilities.

Beech-Nut's CEO must decide what to do. Asks students to consider how much evidence of impurity should be enough to trigger management's acknowledgment of a problem. What are the cognitive and attitudinal factors and pressures that lead people to persist in beliefs long after they appear untenable to more objective observers?

The CEO of Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp. must decide what to do when he receives information that the company's supply of apple juice concentrate may be adulterated. The concentrate is used in many of the company's juice products. It appears that others in the company may have had reason to doubt the authenticity of the concentrate for several years. The case illustrates the importance of accurate information and open channels of communication to ensure sound decision making by top management. Also illustrates how emphasis on financial objectives and designated goals may obscure important ethical and legal considerations. May be used to discuss organizational barriers to information flow, approaches to decision making, and the role of the FDA and other U.S. regulatory officials in ensuring food purity.

The main issue has to do with the lack of fit or incompatibility between the early environmental requirements for strategy and the cultural constraints on the organization. Describes the internal resistance to the proposed changes and top management's efforts to resolve the contradictory requirements of strategy and culture. A second major issue concerns the challenge facing a general manager who has been given responsibility for operationalizing the forced solution. Provides a brief background on Johnson & Johnson culture and the corporate systems and structures. A consolidated version of two earlier cases.

A general manager at Lexon Computer Corp. must decide whether interception and surveillance of employees' e-mail is acceptable company practice, and whether to follow the advice of his computer operations manager who wants to fire the person who complained that the practice violates employees' privacy. The case introduces the topic of employee privacy in the electronic communications environment and potential conflicts between employees' privacy interest and employers' property interests. This case series permits students to compare and contrast the perspectives and modes of reasoning of managers, judges, and policy-makers as they approach the question of employee privacy in the electronic work environment.

Lexon Corp. lawyers must decide how to respond to two lawsuits challenging the company's interception of electronic mail on privacy grounds. They must also formulate a company policy on e-mail. One suit was filed by an employee dismissed from her job after asking that her boss stop intercepting and reading electronic mail messages. The second is a class action suit for invasion of privacy by all those sending or receiving electronic mail messages from the California location. Introduces students to the emerging law of employee privacy in the electronic communications area and to the characteristic ways the law develops. Can be used to contrast a management perspective on employee privacy.

Small technology-based firms often find the domestic market inadequate for their expansion plans, and jump into the international arena. There are opportunities and pitfalls, but the prudent manager can thrive. Here's how.

New leadership appointed in 1977 to head Sweden's National Student Aid Board faces a near-desperate situation. So inefficient is the agency in processing student applications for college living expenses that some students, strapped for cash, face the prospect of asking for public assistance for the poor. CSN chief Billy Olsson, whose background had been in politics, and computer expert Karl-Johan Johansson face the task of finding a way for the agency to provide financial assistance, within the constraints of student income qualifications, in a timely fashion. This organizational production/operational capacity case describes the turnaround strategy-which they call "offensive cutback management"-successfully implemented by Olsson and Johansson such that, by 1991, the CSN was named one of the four best Government Agencies in Sweden. HKS Case Number 1161.3

Whether as analyst or deputy director at the federal Office of Management and Budget, or as the chief executive of Alcoa, Paul O'Neill has sought to inspire those working for him to approach their tasks with vision and without preconceptions. In considering how he has applied disciplined, analytical techniques to different organizations, O'Neill dismisses the assertion of significant distinctions between the public and private sectors.

Describes the start-up and rapid growth of a company whose founder holds strong, non-traditional beliefs about the role of the corporation and its responsibility to society. After profiling Anita Roddick as a person, the case describes the anti-mainstream approach she took to building her highly successful business (no advertising, simple packaging, non-traditional R&D). After elaborating on the strong values she has imposed on the business, concludes by highlighting questions of the business' transferability to the United States and its survivability as Anita steps back.

This note describes ways in which managers can learn to empower their employees through the way they communicate with them. The note is intended as a thought piece before doing skill-development exercises on the various approaches outlined in the note, including listening, clarity, invitations, and descriptions. Language is our primary means of communication. It constrains our thinking, reflects our basic values, and is the most common medium for the exchange of our thoughts and beliefs. The language we speak allows us to convey certain thoughts and causes us to be confused about how to convey other thoughts. Indeed, language can prohibit us from grasping and understanding certain concepts and can make other concepts available to us. With its power as the central vehicle for communicating goals, thoughts, plans, instructions, requests, and so on, in business settings, language is perhaps the most important management tool we have.

Three experts on corporate governance lend their views to the Working Group on Corporate Governance's "New Compact for Owners and Directors." Clifton R. Wharton, Jr., chairman and CEO of TIAA-CREF, offers refinements to the Compact's proposals and describes how TIAA-CREF is trying to use its leverage to bring delinquent directors to task. Harvard Business School professor Jaw W. Lorsch explains why institutional investors neither can nor should function as owners and why the key to developing more effective corporate control is to strengthen the role of outside directors. Lord Hanson, chairman of Hanson PLC, reaffirms the importance of two traditional corporate governance principles: maintaining a unitary board of directors and maximizing shareholder value.

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is the most important catalyst for transforming U.S. business. But since its inception four years ago, the award has been the target of increasingly acrimonious criticism. Most of the criticism is based on misunderstanding. To get to the "truth," the best available source of information on the award was tapped: judges, examiners, and senior examiners. In-depth interviews with 20 of these insiders led to a clear definition of the award's real purpose and the value contained within its seven categories.

Ben & Jerry's is an anti-establishment, values-driven company that has become a successful venture. The dominant founder, Ben Cohen, is not an effective manager, but he brings creative marketing and product skills that have been important to the company's success. He also is controlling shareholder and the force behind the company's socially-minded culture. One of the many policies that have reflected Ben's values but which has created difficulty in managing the organization is the 5 to 1 compensation differential between the top and the bottom of the organization. Up to mid 1990, the company was operating in an explosive growth business with relatively weak competitors; this has changed by the time of the case in September 1990. The case opens as Chuck Lacy is taking over as president. He needs to decide what to do about the 5 to 1 rule and the related issues of Ben's role, and the value of the company's counterculture style. Students must consider the difficulty and importance of the general manager's responsibility in reconciling company values with commercial imperatives and to consider the effect of compensation policy on morale and organizational effectiveness.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 392025.