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A student contemplates creating and selling calendars to fellow students in order to raise funds for charity. He must decide the nature of the calendars, the target audience, the pricing, promotion and distribution of the calendars. The supplement (B) case, product 9B02A019, outlines the promotion and distribution of the calendars, and provides a reaction to the calendar. The supplement (C) case, product 9B04A001 discusses the publishing of the third edition of the calendar.

Ji'nan Broadcasting Corporation, Shandong province's public broadcaster, is entering the data and voice transmission markets. The company is preparing for an initial public offering in 2005 and must show strong, positive growth. The most likely source of that growth is expected to come from Shandong's under-served business sector. Currently, no data services are available and only one company provides voice services. The data and voice project's scope indicates that multiple vendors might be needed. For an upcoming meeting with Nortel Network's account sales manager, the project manager must provide recommendations on vendors, equipment and network specification options.

Two engineers formed Teqswitch Inc. to design and produce faster networking equipment. Five years after they began, the company has 120 employees in Canada, England and Australia and sales in the tens of millions. The company decided to expand into Latin America and has worked out a $15 million joint venture with Unitas in Argentina to sell components. Teqswitch establishes an office in Buenos Aires and works with Unitas to develop sales personnel and business processes. As the company is about to launch its next generation of products, the vice-president international of Teqswitch receives information from the joint venture partner about terminating the agreement. He must determine what has gone wrong.

Stamford Machine Corporation is a market leader in the manufacturing of photocopiers and office equipment. The director of corporate business ethics and compliance has been notified that the company is being served with a discrimination lawsuit. A newspaper announcement was released to the public outlining details of the charges and before the director could leave his office, he receives a call from a journalist asking for the company's comments. He must determine if there has been a breach in the company's policy on discrimination and plan how the company will deal with the media.

Helped the Aged Canada, a non-profit organization, has hired Kate Archer to manage their prosthetic clinic in Haiti. After her arrival in Haiti she learns that its key employee does not meet her performance expectations. Communicating with the employee, a deaf-mute, however, was very difficult and required the use of another employee as translator. She must communicate her performance expectations to the employee. The supplement to this case, Kate Archer In Haiti (B), product number 9B01C036 describes how Kate develops a contract and finalizes the agreement with the employee.

The Microsoft Corporation is one of the most successful software developers in the world. The company has been involved in an anti-trust suit with the U.S. Justice Department since the early 1990s and is about to launch the latest version of their combined personal computer operating and Internet browser software. The company, when faced with government intervention, must determine how to effectively rally support to fight the challenge and continue with normal business at the same time.

Procter & Gamble is a major player in the global hair care industry. In a practice common to many companies facing fierce competition in a lucrative market, Procter & Gamble hired a competitive intelligence contractor to monitor the activities of a rival company. As a result, Procter & Gamble acquired valuable information on the competitor. While legal counsel confirmed that the information was not gained through illegal activities, senior executives acknowledge that Procter & Gamble's own core values may have been compromised.

Teck Cominco is an integrated natural resource group with activities in mining, smelting and refining ores. A number of complaints of ill health by contract workers at one of the plants lead to medical tests. The test results revealed elevated levels of thallium. Concerned about employee safety, plant management immediately shut down the operation until it was safe for workers. The operations manager must plan how he will handle the media over the next few weeks.

The president and chief executive officer of a large food manufacturer is preparing his company's strategic agenda for the next five years. One of the top five food manufacturers in Canada, the company went public and restructured its management team six years ago. The efforts were successful, resulting in an increase in the company's market share. Recent food industry trends, however, added box stores and private label brands to the domestic competition. At the same time, the terms of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement are expected to abolish food-related tariffs within two years, opening up competition from across the border. While the company has experienced success in the past five years, the president and chief executive officer needs a strategic plan that will take the company to the next level.

Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) is a key component of the security infrastructure for Microsoft, the large, internationally known software manufacturer. The program manager of the center has been informed by a hacker of a potentially damaging security vulnerability in a piece of Microsoft's Internet server software. Neither the hacker nor MSRC knows for sure if systems using the software have been compromised, but they do know that the vulnerability has been discussed in hacker news groups. The program manager must determine who should be told, what needs to be done and when. This case and the accompanying Microsoft Security Response Center (B) and (C) cases (products 9B01E020 and 9B01E021) look at the strategy to solve the problems and deal with any possible public relations issues that arise from it.

Shortly after the Microsoft Security Response Center found out about a security vulnerability in a part of their Internet server software, the Internet Information Server development team was brought in to find a solution. The team determined that a patch developed months before would fix the problem. They needed to notify the world's Internet users immediately to prevent them from being attacked by hackers. The team had to figure out how to keep the security vulnerability quiet, and then suddenly tell the whole world about it. This supplement to Microsoft Security Response Center (A) 9B01E019 extends the situation as new information surfaces about the vulnerability.

The program manager and his team at the Microsoft Security Response Center decide to keep the security vulnerability and its solution quiet over the weekend. They contact the Microsoft Premier Support Organization, which provides high level service to large companies, to get the solution to as many of their customers as possible, since large companies would be hackers' first targets. The bulletin was ready for release and as far as the program manager could tell, the problem had remained quiet. He had to decide whether to release the patch the following morning or wait until they could prepare the patch in many languages. This is a supplement to Microsoft Security Response Center (A) and (B), products 9B01E019 and 9B01E020.

BootCamp4MBA.COM is an online educational Web site that helps students prepare for an MBA program or undergraduate degree. The president of Strategic Management Science, Incorporated, the owner of BootCamp4MBA.COM, struggles to improve the sales of BootCamp's online business school preparatory courses. A comprehensive marketing plan must be developed and implemented quickly, including appropriate pricing, product offerings and market communications necessary to advertise and sell products and services online.

The director of business development of the electronic banking division of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) had just won a long-fought battle to implement a wireless banking initiative for customers with mobile devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants. Now he had to make a number of key decisions relating to the strategy. These decisions included which services to offer (banking as well as non-related services), which devices and standards to support and whether to partner with a third-party content supplier. An extensive glossary of wireless technology terminology is included with this case.

An AmeriChem Inc. plant was maligned at a corporate board meeting with accusations of general abuse of alcohol and drunkenness on the job. The health and safety manager knew that the groundless claims could completely destroy the plant's already doubtful reputation and he had to decide whether to respond and how. The problems are analytically challenging and not clearly defined; they concern the difference between the inter-relation of individual and collective interests. The various aspects of the problem need to be separated and addressed, and the issues must be considered in all of their relevant contexts, making students aware that decisions are most often made in a complex environment requiring diverse thinking and balancing skills.

Top management at Research in Motion (RIM) were considering a significant change in strategic direction. RIM manufactured two-way pager, wireless PC card and OEM radio products. With the anticipated convergence of wireless and Internet e-mail, RIM saw an opportunity to sell end users a two-way, e-mail end-to-end solution, including both hardware and telecommunication service. Management had to assess whether this was an attractive opportunity. If they did enter the market, RIM would have to decide whether to target individual users or corporate information technology departments and select channels to reach its targeted customers. RIM also faced some challenging marketing communication issues, since about 50 per cent of potential users showed no interest in a mobile e-mail solution.

The leader of a newly formed small business banking division of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) decided on the necessity of creating a unifying vision for its 2,000 employees. She knew that a critical success factor in corporate reorganizations was to focus the team, through a corporate vision, on new shared goals they all believed were achievable. If the leadership team believed, then this winning attitude would cascade throughout the division and mobilize the workforce. In turn, this energy would be felt by the customers and become the most competitive weapon she could provide. The process of creating a vision and determining what actions make visions successful is presented within the context of the financial services industry and the challenges facing a new business unit.

The National Hockey League (NHL) was battling within a competitive market to increase the exposure of hockey throughout the United States. Many new franchises had been established and the challenge was to create a fan base to support both the franchises and the league as a whole. As a result, many new initiatives were being examined to educate and excite the American public. The director of new business development for National Hockey League Enterprises, the marketing arm of the NHL, had to evaluate a proposal to establish an IMAX/Ridefilm attraction at NHL SKATE rinks and determine if this approach would increase the exposure of hockey throughout the United States. To prepare his recommendations for the board of directors, he needed to qualitatively evaluate the prospects of the NHL/Ridefilm proposal and perform a quantitative analysis.

An American professor is delighted and proud to be asked to join a prestigious international group of academic researchers. A series of negative experiences - cultural, professional and personal - strain relationships within the group, and the professor's feelings turn to anger and self-doubt. She must decide whether to continue with the group.

This note is designed as detailed supplemental material for management communication courses. It contains information on creating effective business documents in the workplace. Categories covered are: report writing, e-mails and memos, and Internet writing.