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Describes McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc.'s investment decision and strategic plans in 1990, following the situation in the (A) case. Outlines the competitive situation in other types of mobile communications in the United States and the United Kingdom in 1991.

Provides an update of competition in mobile communications through 1992 for both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Describes a competitor's decision to install capital equipment using switching technology incompatible with McCaw's.

In June 1992, CFMF management finds that despite a number-two ranking nationwide among long-haul carriers, two smaller rivals are far more profitable for the year-ended 1991. Management confronts the issue of encroaching competition from the country's smaller regional and niche carriers. CFMF management is faced with a unionized labor force and a transcontinental network of consolidation centers in an industry moving toward non-union labor and regional networks connected by rail.

NutraSweet's worldwide patent-protected monopoly on aspartame, the low-calorie high-intensity sweetener, ended with the 1987 entry of the Holland Sweetener Co. (HSC) into the European market. Following the arrival of a challenger, NutraSweet acted to reduce sharply the price at which it offered aspartame to its European customers. NutraSweet's pricing move raised the question: were its actions in Europe a credible signal of how it would respond to entry in the U.S. market (where its patent was due to expire in late 1992)? This case explores some aspects of the game between a challenger (such as HSC) that is looking to enter a market and an established player in the market (such as NutraSweet) that may engage in signalling behavior.

Describes the structure and recent trends of the metal container industry, Crown's successful strategy for competing in the industry, and John Connelly's leadership over more than 20 years. In 1989, William Avery succeeded Connelly as CEO and is forced to consider new strategic options in the face of industry change.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 793-035.

A new paradigm is required to explain patterns of competitive success and failure in information technology. Success flows to the company that establishes proprietary architectural control over a broad, fast-moving, competitive space. Architectural strategies have gained importance in information technology because of the astonishing rate of improvement in microprocessors and other semiconductor components. Since no single vendor can keep pace with the outpouring of cheap, powerful, mass-produced components, customers insist on stitching together their own local systems solutions. Architectures impose order on the system and make the interconnections possible. The architectural controller is the company that controls the standard by which the entire information package is assembled.

For many managers, being strategic means pursuing the opportunities that fit the company's resources. This approach is not wrong, but it obscures an alternative approach in which being strategic means creating a chasm between ambition and resources. Winners find less resource-intensive ways of achieving their ambitious goals. Managers at competitive companies can leverage their resources in five basic ways: by concentrating resources around strategic goals; by accumulating resources more efficiently; by complementing one kind of resource with another; by conserving resources whenever they can; and by recovering resources from the marketplace as quickly as possible.

Teaches the evolution of the corporate strategy of Sharp Corp., Japan. Sharp Corp., a second-tier assembler of TV sets and home appliances, gradually and consistently improved performance by developing expertise in electronic device technologies such as specialized ICs and LCDs and used these technologies to develop innovative end products. As a result, the company was regarded as a world leader in opto-electronics and was becoming a premier comprehensive electronics company. Teaching Objectives: Explores how the company identified, developed, and leveraged its lay technologies. Also discusses how the company coordinated across multiple businesses, and its organizational capabilities.

In the mid-1980s, the Holland Sweetener Co. (HSC) was facing the decision whether to enter the European and Canadian aspartame markets, following the ending of NutraSweet's patents there. A major question facing HSC was whether NutraSweet would respond to entry in an accommodating, or an aggresive, manner. Thus, NutraSweet might initiate a price war in Europe or Canada as a warning to anyone considering entry into the U.S. market, once its patent expired there in 1992. On the other hand, such a response might simply be viewed as "water under the bridge" by the time the U.S. market opened up. In that case, NutraSweet might do better opting for a live-and-let-live approach in Europe and Canada. Given the uncertainty surrounding NutraSweet's reaction, HSC had to make its entry decision in a fog. This case explores some aspects of the game between a company that is established in a number of markets and companies that seek to enter those markets.

Supplements the (B1) case.

Supplements the case.

Updates Wal-Mart Stores' Discount Operations case from 1985 to 1992.

Introduces Wal-Mart's initial plans to enter the Mexican retail market. Designed for use with Wal-Mart Stores' Discount Operations.

As the Cold War ends and demand decreases, the defense industry faces its most profound shift since the end of World War II. Boom-bust patterns drive the industry, but in addition to a cyclical drop in procurement, reforms of the 1980s shaved contractors' profits and greatly increased the risk of bidding on new programs. Furthermore, many contractors have crippling excesses of production and engineering capacity. Defense contractors can no longer seek to grow faster than their industry is growing. Instead, they must shrink faster than their industry is shrinking, and they must shrink smart to capture the large market that will remain for those who survive. Shrinking smart means investing only in those businesses in which the company can be preeminent and stripping down, shutting down, selling, or spinning off everything else.

Nucor is a minimill deciding whether to spend a significant fraction of its net worth on a commercially unproven technology in order to penetrate a large but hitherto inaccessible segment of the steel market. This case is an integrative one designed to facilitate full-blown analysis of a strategic investment decision.

This two-part exercise is used to introduce the strategy process. In Part I, a slightly injured gold prospector must decide which route to take to file a claim. The route through the valley is safer but may take too long. The other (over mountains) is riskier, and a storm is brewing. Part II has the prospector sprain an ankle, so he or she must rely on an uneducated, drinking trapper friend either to help get out (which may take too long) or to file the claim on the prospector's behalf (alone). This exercise requires students to assess the external environment and their own capabilities to select a strategy. Then they must lead and motivate another, less committed person to help implement it.

The boardmembers of Minute Publishing must decide the fate of the company's three-year-old national newspaper, America Today. They can either follow the advice of CEO Neil Harcum, who implores them to continue the paper's publication, or CFO Peter Rawson, who wants to shut down the presses. Both sides have convincing arguments. Harcum has a proven track record of making newspapers profitable. He argues that Minute "cannot allow the beancounters to set policy." Rawson, on the other hand, explains that America Today is losing $100 million a year and has broken Minute's 20-year string of earning gains. In making its decision, Minute's board will also be choosing a new CEO. Harcum is retiring at the end of the year and doesn't want Rawson to take his place.

The case traces Bryan Upton's 20-plus years as managing director of a Sheffield-based cutlery company and describes the strategic and organizational actions he took to raise sales and earnings at more than 25% annually, even as the local industry was in steep decline. After outlining how the U.K. cutlery industry has evolved, the case describes the major changes introduced by Upton and his mentor Jerry Hahn in Richardson Sheffield to upgrade production technology, innovate the product line, and instill customer orientation. The case focuses on the impact of Upton's controversial approach to human resource management in general and to management selection and development in particular on the organizational climate at the firm. The case closes by identifying some major changes that threaten Richardson Sheffield. In 1986, Hahn's ownership position is sold to an Australian industrial company with a different operating style and different strategic objectives for Richardson Sheffield. Top management is also undergoing a transition, with Upton gradually moving aside and outsiders being introduced. Finally, the approaching 1992 EC market harmonization presents new competitive challenges and market opportunities.