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In mid-2011, the management of Brasil Foods, a leading Brazilian branded foods producer and protein exporter, is evaluating strategies for international and domestic growth. The team has just received approval from Brazil's antitrust authorities to complete the merger of Perdigao and Sadia, the two massive food producers that had combined to form Brasil Foods in 2009. Now, the team is free to focus on their ambitious plan to double revenues by 2015. Domestically, the plan calls for Brasil Foods to maintain its allowed retail market share and expand its presence in the fast-growing food service sector. Internationally, the plan sets out a vision of Brasil Foods evolving from an exporter to a true multinational. The team believes their operational expertise and scale combined with Brazil's booming economy and vast agricultural resources form the ideal platform for achieving their vision. Yet, amid a wealth of possibilities, they face tough choices, such as which emerging markets to pursue first. They also face serious personnel issues, including integrating employees from Perdigao and Sadia-longtime industry rivals-and developing an international team that understands foreign markets.

In 2001, CSCEC, the largest residential building constructor in China, greeted its new General Manager, Wenjie Sun, who was the President of China Overseas, a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of CSCEC. In the following 9 years, Sun strived to advance the transformation and development of CSCEC, making it a highly competitive company from one of bureaucratic in nature, listed in Shanghai Exchange of Share A, and enter the echelon of Fortune 500. In 2010, Sun retired at the age of 64, and Jun Yi, Sun's close associate, took over the top position. Immediately after Yi's succession, he made all efforts to push the transformation and development of CSCEC in a new era. Yi embraced the hope that CSCEC would be further upgraded in the following 5 or 10 years in his tenure. He started to make adjustments in regard to the corporation's strategic goals and developing path, its business structure and mix, its business models, internal management controls, etc. CSCEC's own operation conditions had changed greatly compared to that 10 years ago, so did its external business environment. Faced with these circumstances, Yi was pondering over such questions: Were the series of strategic measures taken by CSCEC appropriate? What new measures should be taken in the next step?

Environmental stewardship was part of REI's culture since the company was founded, and integral to its corporate purpose. In 2005, REI began carefully measuring its environmental impact, establishing aggressive sustainability goals, and implementing programs to achieve these goals. The corporate social responsibility group, which oversaw the environmental sustainability program, took the approach that social and financial objectives should not be viewed as tradeoffs. For instance, growth objectives (increasing the number of stores and sales per store) should not come at the expense of energy consumption objectives for flat or decreasing corporate energy usage. Insisting that both objectives be met would lead to creating thinking and innovative solutions. The case describes the environmental stewardship program at REI, its objectives, and philosophy of implementation.

This case depicts China Merchants Bank's second strategic transformation. In the 90's, China Merchants bank creatively introduced an all-in-one-card and an all-in-one-net based on IT systems and network, enabling itself to expand nationwide. By successfully entering the emerging credit card industry, the bank confirmed its retail banking strategy in 2004, followed by its great success in occupying 1/3 credit card market share. The market share-driven strategy didn't last forever. Recognizing business environment changes, the company changed its strategy focus to profit-driven in 2009. It's the second time that information technology enables business success.

Suitable for MBA, Executive MBA, GEMBA, and executive education programs, this case uses CEMEX, a global cement producer based in Mexico, to set the stage for unfolding an analysis of a growth through acquisition strategy. It offers a discussion about the firm's overall strategy to acquire on a global scale instead of growing organically and provides an opportunity to introduce basic financial, marketing, and operational terms that can be explored in following classes. The material includes a PMI process that further allows discussion on that technique. The case opens with a conference call and another barrage of questions for CEO Lorenzo Zambrano about his bid to buy Australia-based Rinker Group in October 2006. Until this point, CEMEX has had a long-standing habit of buying businesses in emerging markets; this acquisition would be a departure from that strategy. If the deal goes through, it would be the single largest acquisition in CEMEX's history, and it would be among its few forays into a developed market other than in the neighboring United States. The company has grown exponentially and successfully. Why would this effort be any different? Was the acquisition a good idea or not? And if it was, how would Zambrano and his leadership team convince Wall Street and others of that?

As owner and CEO, Wim Van der Borght had grown Bananas in 8 years from a 4.5 million euro company into a 40 million euro group of companies with a range of field marketing activities in Belgium and the Netherlands. The core of the group consisted of two companies - Bananas and Demonstrate - which were operationally completely independent and acted as competitors in the market. The two companies had different strengths and different cultures. In August 2008, Wim needed to decide on the right degree of interaction or integration of Bananas and Demonstrate. He also wanted to expand the companies' activities to a more comprehensive marketing offering and needed to consider international expansion opportunities.

Supplemental Material for Product Number 712451.

In 2010, Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) considered adding photovoltaic solar panels to the roofs of some of its facilities. This was driven by both financial and environmental considerations. In 2008, the company had added solar panels to 11 buildings in a project ("Phase 1") that was justified largely as a learning exercise. The new project ("Phase 2") would have to meet both financial and environmental objectives. The case describes the company's experience with solar power generation as well as providing representative assumptions for parameters in the financial analysis. An Excel spreadsheet is available for students, incorporating the basic analytical methodology used by REI.

Speadsheet supplement for case number BE17.

It's a dynamic that plays out in industry after industry: One company makes a big acquisition, and rivals feel pressured to respond with deals of their own. But the authors' research in the tech industry suggests that alternative strategies often make more sense. They advise managers to consider three less direct responses and provide guidance on determining the best strategy.

In preparation for the 90th anniversary of Harvard Business Review, the editors combed the magazine archives and other sources to select iconic charts that relate to the practice of management. This two-page spread illustrates the Experience Curve, the Growth Share Matrix, the Five Forces, Disruptive Innovation, and the Market Pyramid.

Shoppers once relied on familiar salespeople to help them find exactly what they wanted--and sometimes to suggest additional items they hadn't even thought of. But today's distracted consumers, bombarded with information and options, often struggle to find products or services that meet their needs. Advances in information technology, data gathering, and analytics are making it possible to deliver something like the personal advice of yesterday's sales staffs. Using increasingly granular customer data, businesses are starting to create highly customized offers that steer shoppers to the "right" merchandise--at the right moment, at the right price, and in the right channel. But few companies can do this well. The authors demonstrate how retailers can hone their "next best offer" (NBO) capability by breaking the problem down into four steps: defining objectives, gathering data (about your customers, your products, and the purchase context), analyzing and executing, and learning and evolving. Citing successful strategies in companies such as Tesco, Zappos, Microsoft, and Walmart, they provide a framework for nailing the NBO.

Bell, Nortel and Chapleau, Ontario, set out to transform the community of Chapleau through the deployment of technology and business solutions. Together they deploy a wireless broadband network in town, providing mobile internet access to the 2800 residents and town visitors. They also worked with the town's five schools, hospital and local businesses to identify and deploy business solutions. The hospital is given an indoor wireless network, an upgraded telephone system and additional computers. The schools are given laptops, wireless access, multimedia equipment, and teacher training. The community itself, in addition to the free wireless broadband service, is provided with a community portal, computer training and free access to a myriad of technologies. The local community centre is set up with multimedia equipment. University researchers are brought in to study the impact of the technology on the community, small businesses, health and education. A diabetes healthcare trial is launched. Employment is provided to 5 local residents. Over the course of two years, millions of dollars are spent and much is learned, by not only Bell and Nortel but also the community itself, government (federal, provincial, municipal) and others. Bell and Nortel create lasting relationships with community members. A degree of interdependence is established. Almost two years later, the project is nearing its end. The Chapleau Town Council voices their concern about what will remain in the community. They request sustainability solutions for the investments made by the project team. The steering committee must determine the needs and saliency of the project stakeholders and propose a sustainable solution.

Dave Butler, the CEO of Universal Pipe, Inc. (UPI), a producer of PVC pipe, had to decide whether to acquiesce and let the Japanese parent company that owned UPI file for bankruptcy as part of UPI's sale to a private equity firm or to find an alternate solution. If the sale were to go forward UPI would probably be liquidated and all personnel would be dismissed. Butler considered this to be immoral and he pondered buying the company himself. This was risky because the economy was not doing well; the company had been performing poorly until most recently and carried a large debt load. Very little time was left and rumors about the impending bankruptcy were flying. The case describes the industry, its key material PVC and the producers of PVC resin; the mode of competition in the pipe industry and the checkered past of the company due to poor decisions by prior top management. This forms the basis for developing a proposal to the current owners; formulating a post-acquisition strategy and related forecast of future performance should the current CEO go ahead and prevail with a risky acquisition.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 705-475.

Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), dubbed "the greatest literary show on earth" was an annual event held in late January at the Diggi Palace in Jaipur. JLF provided a platform for international authors and Indian language authors from the subcontinent to engage in a literary dialogue. By 2011, JLF attracted the largest festival audience in the Asian Pacific region with approximately 60,000 visitors from 24 countries. It featured 224 speakers in 140 sessions, and 100 musicians in 20 concerts. Success had already changed the character of the festival from the earlier more intimate days and had created a momentum that, if not managed correctly, could compromise goals such as the democratic ethos of the festival. While JLF had achieved explosive growth and critical success, its expenses still exceeded its revenue. Could JLF find an organizational and financial "template" which could sutain the festival into the future?

Birchbox offers trial-sized beauty products delivered monthly by mail -- attracting rave reviews. Seeing the success of this model, numerous "copycat" clones seek to offer the same service. Many of these copycats focus on non-U.S. countries, but others are challenging Birchbox on its home territory. Can Birchbox defend its position? How?

The "Big 3" - Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Chrysler - were all headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Born between 1903 and 1928, they dominated the automobile industry in the U.S. for decades until they became complacent. In the 1970s they started losing share to better quality, more fuel-efficient foreign imports. By 2008 they were teetering, and two required federal government assistance to stay afloat. Within three years, remarkably, the Big 3 had turned around by improving competitiveness in quality, design and cost. Ford's Alan Mulally, GM CEO Ed Whitacre, and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne took different approaches to guide their respective companies to improvements in product design, quality, and cost competitiveness that led to sales increases, solid profitability and positive cash flow. From October 2010 to October 2011, GM, Ford, and Chrysler sales increased 1.8%, 6.2%, and 27%, respectively. GM and Ford reported strong profits and better-than-expected sales, and agreed to pay bonuses to unionized workers as part of new contracts. The Big 3 were gaining market share-Ford was now handily outselling Toyota Motor Corp. in the U.S. after falling behind in 2007. Many saw the "Big 3" turnaround as proof that a unionized manufacturing industry could be revived through strong, decisive leadership on multiple fronts and improved union relations.

On October 28, 2011, 1,500 people, including many civic and business leaders, gathered outdoors in a Charlotte, North Carolina city square to celebrate the launch of Envision: Charlotte, a first-in-the-nation smart grid plan aimed at reducing energy use in the central business district. The initiative called for a 20% reduction in energy consumption in the city while promoting the region's burgeoning energy sector by attracting green-minded companies to the urban core and position Charlotte as a highly progressive business center. The idea was to make Charlotte the "new energy hub of America" and diversify away from its historical reliance on banking - a historically volatile industry. Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers and the other leaders in attendance hoped that rallying around a shared idea and supporting a civic initiative such as Envision was the formula for economic sustainability.

Godrej, a Fast Moving Commercial Goods (FMCG) company in India, historically known for its refrigerators in the Indian market, contemplated launching a new product for rural markets. Chotukool was an unconventional cooling solution targeted at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) segment in India. More than 80 percent of the population in India does not own refrigerators and 50 percent of the population earns less than US$2 per day. The study tracks Godrej's journey of disruptive innovations from the conception of the idea to the marketing challenges faced by the company. It also focuses at length on how the organization plans to execute two parallel business models, one aimed at the consumers of traditional refrigerators while the other one simultaneously targets current non-consumers. The case focuses on the management challenge of innovating across the value chain in order to succeed at social innovations.