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A young manager at a consultancy firm is faced with the lack of business professionalism at a speaking event of a well-known guest speaker. The event is poorly attended by staff and a series of disrespectful actions on the part of the attendees - occurs. The manager must decide how to handle similar situations in the future.

The director of communications at a large university has reviewed results of a communication survey completed by employees. He is pleased that the overall results were favourable, but is concerned with comments in a recent employee newsletter that provided negative feedback of the survey. It is the director's responsibility to take the results of the research and develop a formal communications plan, but as he compares the study findings to the article is confused as to how he should tackle the problem.

The vice-president at a large investment firm has discovered that some clients have taken significant losses and determines that it was due to the actions of one of the firm's investment advisors. He has no choice but to terminate this advisor's employment with the firm and must determine how to communicate with and maintain the relationships with these clients. The supplement, Greentree Investment Corporation (B), product 9B04C016, continues with the situation and looks at dealing with angry customers.

Success in navigating through a crisis situation requires good planning, sound judgement and swift reaction. This note provides a set of detailed guidelines on business crisis management. Areas covered include crisis definition, key principles and a step-by-step assessment of what to do when one occurs.

The director of Lubricants business for Pennzoil-Quaker State Canada is faced with a significant challenge - overcoming the apathy that many consumers had about changing their motor oil. Increasing the frequency of oil changes and improving retention of its customers was critical for the financial success of the company. In response to this challenge, the director had to make a recommendation on adoption and implementation of a major new promotional program. The program, called One-to-One, was designed to create closer relationships among consumers, retailers and Pennzoil-Quaker State. Making the program work required active cooperation from the retail installers who actually performed the oil changes. The supplement Pennzoil-Quaker State Canada: The One-To-One Decision (B), product 9B04A011, focuses on the 240-day field trial of the program.

This supplement to Pennzoil-Quaker State Canada: The One-To-One Decision (A), product 9B04A010 looks at the 240-day field trail of a program designed to build loyalty among consumers, and to increase frequency of oil changes.

A newspaper editor must decide how to deal with negative public reaction to items printed in the paper. He was concerned about the hurt to those involved, and about potential loss of readership and advertising dollars. He wondered what could be done to prevent future incidents.

Hill & Knowlton is a division of one of the world's largest communication services group. Tagging e-mail communications to support knowledge management codification and connection strategies is an important issue for managers. Issues related to privacy and performance need to be considered. The worldwide director of knowledge management at Hill & Knowlton needs to assess the degree to which tagging should be enforced in a communication services organization that supports numerous clients around the world.

Agilent Technologies was spun-off from Hewlett Packard in an effort to establish a new brand in the high-tech industry. The senior director of global brand management was reflecting on the company's challenges in focusing its worldwide marketing effort in the multiple business sectors. Agilent was intended to establish itself as a separate company from Hewlett Packard while still continuing in the Hewlett Packard tradition of excellent customer service and reliability. Now, with smaller advertising and marketing budgets, downsizing of the company, fierce competitive pricing and service, and an evolution from within Agilent Technologies to provide more service and knowledge through its Web site, the marketing and communications challenges have changed since the company's introduction.

The Pizza Public Company Limited is a division of the Minor Group of Companies and focuses on the management and operation of food-service outlets. This case series takes place between November 1999 and February 2000 and covers the negotiation process between Pizza Public Company Limited and Tricon Restaurants USA regarding the renewal of the company's franchise agreement for Pizza Hut in Thailand. After 20 years of managing the brand, an agreement cannot be reached and Pizza Public Company Limited must plan for the development of a new pizza brand. In the (A) case, the chief operating officer of Pizza Public Company recognizes that the negotiations are breaking down and faces the challenge of how to engage the team and develop a contingency plan should the company lose the Pizza Hut brand. Supplement cases (B) through (E), products 9B03A025, 9B03A026, 9B03A027 and 9B03A028, follow the negotiation process.

Based in Saskatoon, Canada, Cameco was the world's largest uranium mining company. It had developed its policy for corporate social responsibility in northern Saskatchewan where it had its major mining operations and where there was a large Cree and Dene Indigenous population. The issue centres on whether the same corporate social responsibility policy can be applied to the company's joint venture with the Kyrgyzstan government to operate a gold mine in eastern Kyrgyzstan. Complicating the decision was a chemical spill that had occurred several months before, and relations with citizens in nearby communities were at an all-time low. The joint venture's vice-president of human resources and corporate relations must decide which of the programs might be successfully implemented in Kyrgyzstan, what new programs might need to be developed, and how best to communicate company policy to the local community.

Brookfield Properties is a publicly held, North American commercial real estate company focused on the ownership, management and development of premier office properties located in the downtown core of selected North American markets. Most of Brookfield's assets are in the United States with headquarters in New York and an executive office in Toronto. Four of the properties that Brookfield owns are adjacent to the World Trade Center site and on September 11, 2001 the terrorist attacks had an immediate impact on Brookfield employees, tenants and physical property. With little reliable information and in the face of chaos and human tragedy, the president and chief executive officer must develop an action plan that will ensure the safety of all employees and tenants, deal with grief and suffering, assess the damage, enable the company to return to 'business as usual' and reassure investors and the media of the company's commitment to restore Brookfield's position of market strength.

A year and a half after calling off their campaign against fast-food giant McDonald's, the vegan campaign coordinator of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), contacted Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to warn them that they would be the next target. He pointed out in his letter that while many of KFC's competitors had convened advisory panels to help them investigate the welfare of animals raised and slaughtered for their businesses, KFC appeared completely uninterested in the issue. PETA would rather not engage KFC in a campaign, but if the company refused to put together an animal welfare panel and to begin to look into the issue of how to raise and slaughter their chickens more humanely, all the leaflets, action alerts, posters, billboards, T-shirts and press releases PETA was now preparing would be dedicated to KFC and its cruel treatment of chickens. In January 2003, PETA, fed up with what it saw as KFC's lack of open communication, public misinformation, and outright stonewalling on change, announced a campaign against the company to the media in a news event replete with bloody descriptions of the cruelties of KFC's animal factories. Now it was time for Kentucky Fried Chicken to respond.

Chrysler and Daimler-Benz shareholders approved the largest corporate merger in history. After months of talks, the chairman of the German-based Daimler-Benz management board and the chairman and chief executive officer of the U.S.-based Chrysler Corporation were preparing for when the two companies would officially combine forces to create the fifth largest automobile company in the world. These two managers were officially charged with the responsibility of amalgamating two enterprises that were vastly different from each other. Chrysler was known for its efficient production and economically priced vehicles. Daimler-Benz sold only luxury vehicles, and its reputation was based on craftsmanship, quality and safety. Chrysler executives were in the habit of limiting business expenses; Daimler-Benz executives were not. Between the two companies, there were huge discrepancies in cultures, market segments, product lines, salaries and attitudes. Aware of the excitement of their investors and the concern of their critics, the two leaders are expected to forge and promote the vision on which Daimler-Chrysler will base its future.

Rudolph Giuliani was the mayor of New York City during the events of September 11, 2001, and became world renowned for his leadership. Outlined is a description of his background, his first few years in office, the troubles he faced in his last year in office and the sudden shift in his popularity post-September 11, 2001.

A partner at a leading Canadian law firm discovers that one of the firm's employees has been stealing from the business. After a discussion with the employee, he must decide how to handle the crisis in a short time frame: How did this happen? What steps are needed to prevent this from happening again? And how should he deal with the employee? The supplement Harrison-Lockington (B), product 9B03C020 highlights how the partner addresses the issue with staff at the office.

This supplement to Harrison-Lockington (A), product 9B03C019 follows the partner of a law firm and how he responds to crisis in the office - he has found out that an employee has been stealing from the firm.

Canadian Tire is a large retailer of automotive, hardware and houseware products. As part of the company's marketing strategy, the executive director of corporate affairs is reviewing four social marketing programs and must decide which program the company will adopt. She must analyse each of the social marketing programs and assess how the program will contribute to the company's competitive position. She also needs to convince the company's independent associate dealers to adopt and implement the chosen program.

The Alberta government cut its health-care budget and the Edmonton Health Sciences Centre needed to find savings of $15 million. When the recommendation for cuts was announced to the medical staff, it was learned that 18 services would be cut. A group of surgeons attempted to challenge the inaccurate data on which the plan was based, but they were denied a review by the hospital administration. The surgeons had not been included in the consultation because the board decided that the surgeons could not be objective about the viability of their own programs. Convinced that the cuts would compromise the mission of the hospital, the frustrated surgeons decided to send a public statement to the local newspaper, and must decide how to approach the media. The related case, Edmonton Health Sciences Centre, product 9B02C046 looks at the issue from the boards perspective.

Ji'nan Broadcasting Corporation is a public television broadcaster in one of China's provinces. The company is working on a new market opportunity to provide data and voice telecommunication services to the majority of the province's businesses and inhabitants. Currently, no data services are provided in this province and only one competitor offers voice services. The project is behind schedule, over budget and under specification. The project manager must decide which steps to take next in order for the project to succeed.