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During the 1990s, Argentina carried out an ambitious program of economic reforms, including the privatization of its telephone system and other state-owned utilities. In 2002, however, a severe economic crisis forced Argentina to default on its foreign debts, devalue its foreign currency, and freeze bank accounts. As part of the emergency measures, the government ordered the freezing of telephone and other utility tariffs and the renegotiation of all utility concession contracts. HKS Case Number 1678.0

Presents a full-scale business plan for the launch of an Internet service provider (ISP) for the Pacific Rim. Set in 1993, the case has a short introduction, followed by the business plan for PacNet. Dr. Kevin Wong, PacNet's founder, plans to take advantage of the exponential industry growth by becoming the dominant provider of Internet services to Pacific Rim businesses. PacNet's growth strategy depends on acquisition and consolidation of ISPs and the development of proprietary software through partnerships.

Tesco, a supermarket chain, has been transformed from a third-rate retailer to a global leader in the past ten years. This case describes how that was accomplished. Interviews with Tesco employees explain the company's approach to understanding customers, motivating employees, succeeding on the Internet, and creating an international strategy.

Everyone knows that industries start out fragmented and then consolidate. But new research suggests that most industries do so in a predictable way. They go through four stages, each one requiring companies to employ a different competitive strategy.

Managing corporate projects as though they were a portfolio of financial options appears to be an exact science. But it's not. That's because decisions to drop projects are never made as objectively as decisions to sell shares.

Zaplet faces internal challenges following the dramatic change in the economy and the resulting market demand for its product.

When it comes to philanthropy, executives increasingly see themselves as caught between critics demanding ever higher levels of "corporate social responsibility" and investors applying pressure to maximize short-term profits. Increasingly, philanthropy is used as a form of public relations or advertising, promoting a company's image through high-profile sponsorships. But there is a more truly strategic way to think about philanthropy. Corporations can use their charitable efforts to improve their competitive context--the quality of the business environment in the locations where they operate. Using philanthropy to enhance competitive context aligns social and economic goals and improves a company's long-term business prospects. Addressing context enables a company not only to give money but also leverage its capabilities and relationships in support of charitable causes. Taking this new direction requires fundamental changes in the way companies approach their contribution programs. Adopting a context-focused approach requires a far more disciplined approach than is prevalent today. But it can make a company's philanthropic activities far more effective.

Describes the economic integration efforts of the Central American countries in the late 1990s.

Describes three stages in Intel's history: the initial success and then collapse in DRAMs and EPROMs, its transition to and dominance in microprocessors, and its move to become the main supplier of the building blocks for the Internet economy. Allows a rich discussion of industry structure and transformation in DRAMs and microprocessors, creation of competitive advantage and value capture, and sustainability.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 703-427.

Describes the 1990s consolidation on the newsprint industry. Questions whether consolidation will ever deliver on its promise. Whereas some industry observers maintain that the effects of consolidation are already visible, others argue that further consolidation is necessary. Others, however, claim that because newsprint is a commodity and firms compete on the basis of price, consolidation will not restore industry profitability. Data to build individual firm and industry supply curves for 2001 is available upon further request. Illustrates the transition from a perfectly competitive industry (demand and supply) to oligopolistic competition (Porter's five forces). To obtain further exhibits, please contact HBSP customer service for more information.

Planning teams and boards of directors focus primarily on developing strategy and less on actually implementing it. Here is a technique they can use for incorporating implementation issues into the planning process, rather than dealing with them after the strategy has been approved. By means of a strategy implementation scorecard, they can identify desired outcomes or measures that become part of the firm's formal strategic plan. Considering such measures during the planning stage not only relates individual and department performance to strategy implementation, it also gives the board a more clearly defined role in strategy.

Corning, Inc. has a 150-year history of building a strategy around innovation. Founded as a glass manufacturer in 1851, the company quickly established itself as a maker of specialty glass products and over the next 100 years diversified into light bulbs, television, cookware, silicones, medical products, and, finally, optical fiber. As the telecommunications industry boomed in the late 1990s, the optical fiber business boomed with it, and Corning's stock hit record highs. The firm made more than $9 billion worth of acquisitions in fiber and photonics (acquiring more than $6 billion worth of goodwill in the process) before the crash hit. Corning's stock collapsed, and in 2002 the company faced serious operating challenges. Designed to be used as an opening case in a course on technology strategy. Outlines the history of innovation at Corning, stressing the company's history of "patient money" and long-term commitment to technology. Briefly summarizes the firm's recent history and then the challenge that faces the firm's chief technology officer in seeking to justify spending on research and development.

In 2002, ConAgra Foods CEO Bruce Rohde was deliberating the next steps in the process of transforming the company from an agribusiness giant to a value-added food processor. ConAgra had become the second largest food company and number one food service supplier in the United States following decades of growth through acquisitions, primarily in grain milling and meat processing businesses. During the 1990s, ConAgra made significant inroads into processed foods, with 86% of FY2002 operating profits coming from its value-added businesses. Despite its expanding portfolio of branded products, ConAgra's image as a commodity-oriented agribusiness company persisted. Given the rapidly changing food industry and the divestiture of ConAgra's fresh meat business, Rohde must establish a new identity and direction for the company.

Describes the actions of Costa Rica President Figueres and his cabinet in attracting an Intel assembly and testing plant to their country. The effort was part of a government strategy that sought to develop further the Costa Rican electronics and information technology cluster.

Reviews the competition between stock markets, specifically the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, as it plays out both in the United States and internationally. The competition between the two exchanges is interesting because of technological developments and the globalization of capital markets.

Recognizing and anticipating change in industry patterns is a core competence for companies today, allowing managers to capitalize on opportunities before they are apparent to others. Yet, companies are far from mastering how to recognize such patterns, especially at the strategic level, where information is usually less profuse and much less precise. Pattern recognition is not a new skill, though, at least not to people outside the business world. Since antiquity, naturalists have relied on their ability to spot patterns to make sense of their surroundings. Surprisingly, there is much businesspeople can learn from bird watching in terms of the cognitive demands pattern recognition requires. To learn more, HBR spoke with David Sibley, perhaps the nation's foremost bird watcher and illustrator, and Julia Yoshida, a birder since 1965 and a physician at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts. Sibley explains how expert birders draw on a wealth of tacit knowledge built up over the years to make identifications in a matter of seconds: "Once you've mastered common patterns, the real trick is to educate yourself about where discrepancies are most likely to appear--and to concentrate your attention on those areas." Although so fast as to be almost unconscious, the process he describes seems to be as methodical as one of Yoshida's medical diagnoses. According to Yoshida, "I don't think it's a eureka moment at all. It's a methodical process."

Industry leaders frequently worry that their companies will fall victim to some revolutionary business model or disruptive technology. But new research shows that it's strategically better for incumbents to counter a revolution than to ignore or fully embrace it. Successful incumbents rely on one or more of five approaches to restrain, modify or, if necessary, neutralize a revolutionary threat. A company that perceives a revolution in its earliest stages can use containment strategies. By throwing up roadblocks, an incumbent can often limit the degree to which customers and competitors accept a nascent insurgency. And, sometimes, revolutions die there. If not, early containment buys a company some time to shape the revolution so that it complements, rather than supersedes, the incumbent's strengths. And even if shaping efforts fail, they can give an industry leader more time to work out how to absorb the threat by bringing the new competencies or technologies inside the firm in such a way that they don't destroy its existing strengths and capabilities. When revolutions have progressed too far to slow them down, incumbents must take a more aggressive tack. Neutralizing strategies meet a revolution head-on and terminate it--by, say, temporarily giving away the benefits offered by the challenger for free. Annulment strategies allow the market leader to leapfrog over or sidestep the threat. These five strategic approaches need not be used in isolation.

We've all heard the stories about corporate giants who ignored disruptive innovations and paid a steep price. Most of the nascent technologies that typically bombard executives will not amount to competitive threats and deserve to be ignored. As a result, disruptions are usually not taken seriously until they become obvious--when it's often too late. A disruptive innovation is a technology, product, or process that creeps up from below an existing business and threatens to displace it. Gradually, it improves to the point where it displaces the incumbent. But, the authors argue, disruption isn't inevitable. They have developed a tool that can help companies detect potential disruptive innovations while management still has time to respond effectively. The tool's decision-making methodology harnesses the organization's collective wisdom to determine how likely it is that a particular innovation will seriously damage an incumbent's business. The methodology has two components: an analytical instrument and an organizational process. And the tool's rigorous approach can spell the difference between flailing around and acting effectively in the face of a serious competitive threat.

Avion is interested in a new valve to manage the highly volatile phenol in its production process. Avion and Orion strike a deal for Orion to try to produce these valves. There are time, engineering, and software constraints that make the valve-redesign project a risky endeavor. The A case (UVA-QA-0602) consists of a basic decision tree that has been used as an introductory case in decision analysis and in the core material for an exam. The A case is a rewrite of two earlier cases (QA-0480 and QA-0481). In those cases, the key issues surround the scheduling of the projects, leading to insights about which to schedule first. Here, the scheduling is fixed and the issues are less calculation-intensive and more interesting. In the A case, there are two options: one the students usually see and one they don't. The B case consists of a quick series of changes in the situation that leads to a totally different decision structure and requirement for simulation modeling (or some other technique to handle the introduction of continuous uncertainties). This case also has a wonderful real option embedded in the problem around which an entire class can be built. Because the estimate is continuous, the option problem becomes one of finding the optimal estimated-performance value at which one aborts the software redesign.