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Gino SA is a manufacturer of burner units that are sold through exclusive contracts with distributors. As a result, the three distributors have significant bargaining power with Gino. A leading boiler manufacturer, who is currently purchasing through a distributor, has approached Gino to receive OEM treatment (a further discount by purchasing the burners direct from the manufacturer in return for a commitment to purchase a percentage of their burners from Gino). In deciding whether to pursue the company's first direct OEM relationship, the marketing manager must consider the impact of his decision on the distributors, the competition, and the company's corporate management.

Supplements the (A) case.

Explores how location affects a firm's strategy and identifies the different ways location affects industry structure, choice of a firm's position, and the sustainability of that position. The intellectual foundations lie in an appreciation of institutional economics. Specifically, the starting premise is that specialized intermediaries resolve transaction costs between potential buyers and sellers and help make mutually advantageous deals occur. The absence of such specialized intermediaries gives rise to the institutional voids. Specifies how such voids constrain companies' choices. Specific questions addressed are (1) What are global industries? (2) What constitutes a global strategy? (3) When and how should strategy be tailored to particular locations? and, (4) How sustainable are strategies predicated on the existence of institutional voids?

In 2001, News Corp. is the smallest of the major media and entertainment conglomerates, but it has the broadest global presence. In an effort to establish a major distribution presence in the United States, News Corp. had looked to acquire DirecTV, the largest U.S. direct broadcast satellite provider, in what many observers had considered would be a "transforming acquisition." After 20 months of trying to do so, and the recent competitive offer from Echostar, Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp., withdrew the company's bid for DirecTV. This case describes how Murdoch has created a global empire from a single newspaper in Australia. News' major assets include its newspaper businesses, film and television production, satellite broadcasting, television channels, and book and magazine publishing. Also describes News' distinctive operating style and Murdoch's role in shaping the corporate culture. News Corp. must now confront three sets of questions. First, how important is it for News Corp. to establish a distribution presence in the United States, and should it pursue a different approach? Second, how should it tackle the deteriorating economics of two of its core businesses: newspapers and network television? Third, what will be the impact of recent repeals of cross-ownership restrictions in the media industry on News Corp.'s competitive position vis-a-vis other major conglomerates?

Business has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years. So has warfare. Every executive knows firsthand the daunting challenges of the 21st century business environment: disruptive change, fleeting opportunities, an overall sense of uncertainty and disorder. Although military commanders have long faced such challenges on the battlefield, meeting them has become more difficult in today's world of electronic weaponry, blurred battle lines, and amorphous enemies. In this article, Eric Clemons and Jason Santamaria lay out the concept of maneuver warfare--a philosophy tailor-made for today's uncertain combat environment--and analyze its applicability to business. Maneuver warfare isn't designed to destroy an adversary. Rather, it's used to render an enemy unable to fight as an effective, coordinated whole. This approach recognizes that it is impossible to control disorder and uncertainty; thus, the only viable option is to use those forces against your opponent. The authors have distilled seven guiding elements of maneuver warfare: targeting critical vulnerabilities, boldness, surprise, focus, decentralized decision making, rapid tempo, and combined arms. They illustrate each element with examples from both the military and corporate arenas. Although warfare often seems a facile metaphor for business, the authors argue that the principles of maneuver warfare are relevant to business strategy because they have been developed to address conditions that mirror those facing today's executives. Furthermore, the approach--with its focus not on overpowering a rival but on outflanking him, targeting his weaknesses, and rendering him unable to analyze the situation--can help achieve a decisive advantage with a minimal deployment of resources.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Many companies proudly think of themselves as innovative. The great majority of them, however, are adept at producing only sustaining innovations--products or services that meet the demands of existing customers in established markets. Few companies have introduced genuinely disruptive innovations, the kind that result in the creation of entirely new markets and business models. And, yet, the motivation to pursue such innovations should be urgent. In almost any industry, the most dramatic stories of growth and success were launched from a platform of disruptive innovation. Clayton M. Christensen of Harvard Business School, Mark W. Johnson of Innosight in Woburn, Massachusetts, and Darrell K. Rigby of Bain & Co. are close observers of innovation successes and failures at large and small companies. Drawing on a decade's worth of research, they offer two sets of litmus tests that senior managers can use to shape business plans to improve their chances of success. Following a detailed exploration of the litmus tests, they try out their ideas in a hypothetical example that asks whether Xerox could disrupt Hewlett-Packard's ink-jet printer business. They conclude by outlining the process any company needs to institute if it wants to create an engine capable of building new disruptive businesses over and over again. If senior managers pursue the path outlined here--and if the growth businesses they start or acquire are truly disruptive in character--it will be less difficult and risky than many have supposed to create wave after wave of new corporate growth.

Companies often undermine their intellectual capital through faulty or incomplete patent filings. A little-known device called the "continuation patent" can retroactively change a patent's language and keep competitors from exploiting patent loopholes.

In its first quarter of 2002, Wal-Mart became the largest company on the globe (by sales) and expanded into Japan. Was the giant retailer unstoppable? This case explores Wal-Mart's top issues in fueling top- and bottom-line growth: diversification into groceries, new retail channels such as the Neighborhood Markets, and continued international expansion.

In 1980, Apple was the leader of the personal computer industry, but by 2002 it had suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Wintel camp. This case examines Apple's strategic moves as the PC industry evolves in the 21st century and poses the question: Can Steve Jobs make Apple "insanely great" again?

In mid September 2001, Jennifer Campbell, the chief financial officer of this large CAD/CAM (computer-aided design and manufacturing) equipment manufacturer must decide whether to pay out dividends to the firm's shareholders or repurchase stock. If Campbell chooses to pay out dividends, she must also decide on the magnitude of the payout. A subsidiary question is whether the firm should embark on a campaign of corporate image advertising and change its corporate name to reflect its new outlook. Serves as an omnibus review of the many practical aspects of the dividend and share buyback decisions, including (1) signaling effects, (2) clientele effects, and (3) finance and investment implications of increasing dividend payout and share repurchase decisions. Can follow a treatment of the Miller Modigliani dividend irrelevance theorem and serve to highlight practical considerations in setting dividend policy.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 702-469.

How can firms develop a competitive defense strategy that minimizes both the self-inflicted and competitor-inflicted damages of price competition? Before acting to defend market share or initiate price cuts, managers must anticipate the long-term strategic consequences and weigh them against the short-term benefits. A pricing decision should never be made simply to make the next sale or meet some short-term sales objective, but to enhance the firm's long-term ability to operate profitably. Pricing is like playing chess. Those who make moves one at a time--seeking to minimize immediate losses or exploit immediate opportunities--will invariably lose to those who envision the game a few moves ahead.

Examines the competitive challenges facing Robert Mondavi as the wine industry begins to consolidate globally. Mondavi faces challenges from foreign competitors entering the U.S. market as well as diversified global alcoholic beverage companies entering the wine business.

AOL Time Warner, which has been billed as the "first fully integrated media and communications company of the Internet Century," raises the fundamental question of how value will be created and captured by the merger of AOL and Time Warner. This case describes just how different AOL was from Time Warner in strategy, culture, and execution, and permits a thorough analysis of how value is proposed to be created through capturing synergies within the new company. The discussion of synergies is divided into three levels: tactical, strategic, and transformational. The key question to address is whether a merger of this sort is the most effective way to create value or whether contracting and other mechanisms is equally good or perhaps superior. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

NeoPets.com, a rapidly growing Internet start-up headed by Chairman and CEO Doug Dohring, faces decisions about its international expansion strategy--whether to enter a joint venture with a conglomerate in Singapore to exploit Asian markets as well as which other regions to target. NeoPets allows its users--mostly children and teens--to create and care for virtual pets in an online world. The Web site is free to users and is supported by advertising akin to product placement in movies. NeoPets reached profitability four months after launching operations in late 1999, largely due to the fact that it spends nothing for customer acquisition, relying strictly on word-of-mouth. As of July, 2001, the company had over 8 million unique users and was ranked #four among all U.S. Web sites for "stickiness," the average amount of time that users spend online.

Examines the economics of the oil and gas industry with a focus on 1998 through 2001. Discusses the rationale behind using a growth in scale as a means to increase profitability and to gain competitive advantage. Also examines the classic strategic implications of vertical integration and questions the necessity of remaining vertically integrated in today's markets. During 1998-2001, the industry structure changed dramatically with the occurrence of a wave of merger activity. Set at the end of 2001, as BP's chief executive, Lord John Browne, ponders the company's future. BP set off the merger activity in 1998 with its combination with Amoco. Other major oil concerns quickly followed suit. Several large and dominant firms, termed "supermajors," separated themselves from the rest of the competitors. Although a large number of independent specialty firms also exist, the supermajor firms no longer believe them to be direct competitors. After the case discussion, students should be able to: 1) understand the basic economics of the oil and gas industry, 2) analyze the rationale behind vertical integration strategies, 3) analyze why the industry restructuring occurred, and 4) understand the economies of scale of the supermajor firms as well as the potential problems their immense size could create.

In early 2002, XM and Sirius were fighting for control of the emerging U.S. market for satellite radio. Each company targeted consumers in automobiles, providing 100 channels of CD-quality audio for a monthly subscription fee of $10-$13. Wall Street analysts predicted that these companies would be profitable by 2005-2006, but investors were increasingly skeptical of ventures that required huge, irrevocable bets on customer acquisition and infrastructure. This case describes the business models of the satellite radio companies, the technology they employed, and their target markets. Poses questions about their pricing strategies, strategic partnerships with auto manufacturers, and whether they should develop interoperable radios that receive either company's signals.

In this conversation, McKinsey's T. Michael Nevens takes the wraps off the "productivity paradox" and explains why competition and innovation, not IT, are the real drivers of productivity.

Quack.com was in dire straits. An early entrant in the voice portal market, Quack was quickly running out of money. The company's management team had just returned from a road show for a second round of venture financing, but they had been unsuccessful. To exacerbate this issue, Quack's two major competitors had each received substantial funding. At the current burn rate, Quack could survive on its bridge financing for only three more months. Moreover, after the first few months of running the voice portal, Quack's business-to-consumer model for voice portals was already showing signs of weakness. Quack's management believed the failure of its road show could be related to its B2C focus. The company was facing many major decisions that would reshape and dictate the future of the firm. This case deals with the possible options for new strategic direction.