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This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Creating a business-driven IT infrastructure requires that executives thoroughly understand their firm's strategic context. By formulating a series of business and IT maxims--short simple statements of the business' positions--they can identify the IT infrastructure service suited to their company. The authors' framework has four components: First, consider strategic context. What business demands, roles, and relationships are critical to infrastructure decisions? Second, articulate business maxims. The maxims should focus employees' attention on the firm's competitive stance, the extent of coordination across units, and the implications for information and IT management. Third, identify IT maxims. From the business maxims, executives identify IT maxims. The maxims specify the role of IT and levels of investment relative to competitors, whether processing is tailored or standardized, and how different types of data are accessed, used, and standardized. Finally, clarify a firm's view of IT infrastructure. A company should determine how it sees infrastructure from among four views: none, utility, dependent, and enabling. It can forgo synergies among units and not invest in infrastructure services, use the infrastructure primarily to reduce costs, make investments primarily to respond to current strategies, or overinvest in IT infrastructure to provide flexibility in responding to long-term goals.

Supplements Ready-to-Eat Breakfast Cereal Industry in 1994 (A).

Supplements Ready-to-Eat Breakfast Cereal Industry in 1994 (A).

Supplements Ready-to-Eat Breakfast Cereal Industry in 1994 (A).

Presents a conceptual framework for thinking about markets characterized by asymmetric information. Presents the standard economic analysis of "the lemons problem," and demonstrates how asymmetric information may lead to market inefficiencies and alter the distribution of surplus. Then discusses the potential to overcome these problems through credible signals of quality, illustrated by the example of education as a signal in labor markets. Concludes by briefly discussing the incentives of firms to screen consumers in order to price discriminate or to target particularly profitable consumer groups.

Shakeouts are a fact of life in almost every industry--witness the shrinking number of players in areas as diverse as banking, software, and hospital supply distribution. The key to survival is sensing your industry's shakeout before the competition does. And the first hurdle for managers to overcome is the belief that it can't happen to them. It can and it probably will. This article outlines how companies can detect the early warning signs of a shakeout. Explains how adaptive survivors, such as Dell Computer, successfully adjust their businesses in the midst of a bust, and how aggressive amalgamators, such as Arrow Electronics, cut costs and acquire smaller rivals in order to remain standing after a seismic shift. But the fact remains that most companies will get squeezed out during a consolidation. Although it is enormously difficult for executives to come to terms with the grim news, the sooner they do so, the better. All is not necessarily lost: with the right timing, also-rans can make a profitable exit from an industry.

Describes India's move from a controlled economy toward a more market-oriented one, commencing in 1991. Highlights the extent of changes in the product, capital, and labor markets, and the political situation at the central government, as these stood in 1995.

Sets out the strategy and competitive competencies of one of the leading grain trade and processing companies in the world. An overview of the company's innovations in corn and oilseed by-products is provided. The strategy of the firm is to add by-products to corn, soybeans, and wheat processing so that they become part of a food, feed, fuel, and pharmaceutical industry complex.

As in most emerging markets, a significant portion of the Indian private sector is dominated by extensively diversified, often family-owned or controlled, business groups. This case examines the strategy and structure of one of the largest business groups in India, at a time when the economy is going through substantial transition. RPG Enterprises' restructuring in response to the policy reforms in India (1991-95) allow one to understand the underlying reasons for the existence of the business group in the first instance. Also permits a discussion of some of the difficulties of restructuring in an emerging market.

Updates Apple Computer--1992.

Supplements Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

In 1996, Sri Lanka had a mixed public and private bus system, with about one-third of passengers carried by public companies and two-thirds by private. The private buses were not earning enough from passenger fees to replace their buses and as a result there were many complaints of overcrowding and safety problems. The public buses were making do largely because they received free buses from the government. Improving bus service was critical for the country since approximately 80 percent of motorized passenger trips are carried by buses. The government was considering a variety of reforms including fare increases and consolidation of small public and private operators. This case can be used to discuss the politics and rationale for regulation and privatization. And the case describes a 90 year history privatizing, nationalizing, and re-privatizing the bus industry. HKS Case Number 1377.0.

The rise of highly-rated nonfiction television programs has sparked concern about the techniques which television producers use to gather images and information. This press ethics case focuses on a particularly controversial technique: the decision of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) to use hidden cameras and undercover producers to gather footage said to show that the Food Lion supermarket chain was re-labeling meat so as to sell what might be spoiled meat as fresh. It also explores the motivations and sources of journalists, as well as the novel approach Food Lion used to strike back at ABC, seeking damages not for libel but for fraud, trespass, and breach of duty of (employee) loyalty, on the part of undercover reporters who actually obtained employment at Food Lion. HKS Case Number 1397.0

In 1996, Sri Lanka had a mixed public and private bus system, with about one-third of passengers carried by public companies and two-thirds by private. The private buses were not earning enough from passenger fees to replace their buses and as a result there were many complaints of overcrowding and safety problems. The public buses were making do largely because they received free buses from the government. Improving bus service was critical for the country since approximately 80 percent of motorized passenger trips are carried by buses. The government was considering a variety of reforms including fare increases and consolidation of small public and private operators. This case can be used to discuss the politics and rationale for regulation and privatization. And the case describes a 90 year history of privatizing, nationalizing, and re-privatizing the bus industry. HKS Case Number 1378.0.

Describes Intel's Hood River project, a new business venture within Intel which sought to establish a market presence for the PC in the living room. Describes the actions of people at different levels in the organization, including the project leader, his direct managers, and Intel's senior management. It describes how the venture was initiated, how funding was won, and how the organization was structured to pursue the opportunity. Also describes the many challenges faced by the Hood River team, which included: defining a new market, establishing and cultivating partners, competing for limited funding resources, competing for limited organization (people) resources, and aligning the objectives of the project with the strategy of the corporation.

This case deals with the possible acquisition of MCA, the entertainment company, by the Seagram Company Ltd. (Seagram). MCA was owned by Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Ltd. (Matsushita). In early March 1995, Edgar Bronfman Jr., the 39-year-old president and chief executive of Seagram Company Ltd. (Seagram), has just concluded a round of meetings with the senior management team of Matsushita. Matsushita, the largest consumer electric products manufacturer in the world, acquired MCA in 1990 for $6.59 billion. Matsushita was clearly interested in selling a portion or possibly all of MCA.

Provides students with the opportunity to track industry evolution over time, to explore the role that signaling may play in such evolution, and to construct and validate industry scenarios.

Sime Darby is one of South Asia's largest regional conglomerates. In 1995, it is contemplating entry into the fast-growing financial services sector in Malaysia through the acquisition of a Malaysian bank. This is in keeping with its activities mirroring those of the Malaysian economy. The case discusses whether to proceed with the acquisition. Exposes the underlying sources of value creation of the conglomerate in the institutional context, which affect the costs and benefits of broad corporate scope, especially the evolving capital market and the tight interrelationship between business and politics.

Today's dynamic markets and technologies have called into question the sustainability of competitive advantage. Under pressure to improve productivity, quality, and speed, managers have embraced tools such as TQM, benchmarking, and reengineering. Dramatic operational improvements have resulted, but rarely have these gains translated into sustainable profitability. And gradually, the tools have taken the place of strategy. As managers push to improve on all fronts, they move further away from viable competitive positions. Michael Porter argues that operational effectiveness, although necessary to superior performance, is not sufficient, because its techniques are easy to imitate. In contrast, the essence of strategy is choosing a unique and valuable position rooted in systems of activities that are much more difficult to match.

The quality of both strategic thinking and action rely, in important ways, on the quality of the strategic conversations underway at all levels in the organization. The design of these conversations is the defining contribution of the strategy-making process. When these strategic conversations about the design of the future operate successfully at both local and organizational levels, they create a "meta-capability" for strategy-making capable of both furthering intended strategy and for recognizing opportunities for emergent strategy.