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The United States and Europe exhibit very different approaches to information privacy--a condition of limited access to identifiable information about individuals--from both regulatory and managerial perspectives. Grounded in different cultural values and assumptions about the meaning of privacy (a "human rights" issue in Europe versus a contractual issue in the United States), these differences have led to regulatory and managerial conflicts. In this article, the differences between the two approaches are explored. U.S. corporations would be well served to embrace some of the premises of the European perspective. However, the United States would be poorly served by the creation of a federal regulatory structure such as some commonly found in Europe.

Monsanto, an American company founded in 1901, originally specialized in chemicals. In 1995, the firm reoriented its strategy around more lucrative, but unproven, fields such as agricultural biotechnology. Describes how, in the space of a few years, Monsanto became market leader of bioengineered cereal crops--commonly known as genetically modified organisms--but is accused of applying an unsafe gene technology and trying to dominate world food supplies. The firm is caught up in a worldwide controversy. Documents how Monsanto was implicated in a trade dispute and reacted poorly to public criticism, particularly in its lack of dialogue with stakeholders. Illustrates how public pressure obliged Monsanto to stop following a promising strategy.

It's August 2000, and Maitri AIDS Hospice in San Francisco is reevaluating its approach to fundraising. In recent years, Maitri has been relying increasingly on government, corporate, and foundation grants. Yet Don Spradlin, Maitri's associate director for individual gifts who was hired in early 1999 to focus on individual donations and special events, has made some progress in increasing the number of individual donors over the past year and a half. He inaugurated two new earned income strategies, both of which have attracted new donors and positive publicity for Maitri. Nonetheless, individual donations still account for only 8% of annual operating expenses, and Spradlin is struggling with defining his purpose and that of individual donors within the traditionally grass-roots organization.

Provides a framework for thinking systematically about innovations in philanthropy. To be successful and sustainable, innovative approaches to philanthropy need to create value for donors and recipients, as well as for society. Three historical innovations in society are professional foundations, federated community campaigns, and community foundations. Even the most innovative program contains threads of the old. Modern innovations include charitable giving funds, e-philanthropy, and venture philanthropy. The most successful innovations are those that expand the volume of donated funds in a sustainable way while improving the productivity of those funds through increases in efficiency or effectiveness. The challenge of the philanthropic project is, at the most basic level, to keep pace with changing needs and opportunities facing the social sector.

This case provides a succinct account of the high profile failure of the Clinton Administration's initiative to reorganize the US health care and health insurance system so as to provide universal coverage at the same time as controlling costs. The case traces the origins of the reform impetus and describes the structure and proposal of the Administration's health care task force, chaired by First Lady Hillary Clinton and directed by Ira Magaziner. The case focuses, however, on the extent and nature of opposition to the plan, particularly from the business community, implicitly raising the questions of how the Administration might have handled matters differently and what factors whether substance or tactics or both allowed the opposition to be successful. The case is a vehicle, too, for discussion of the business-government relationship in the U.S. through its focus both on the nature of the US health insurance system (largely linked to private employment) and on the variety of business and interest groups within the US private sector. HKS Case Number 1600.0

This case provides a succinct account of the high profile failure of the Clinton Administration's initiative to reorganize the US health care and health insurance system so as to provide universal coverage at the same time as controlling costs. The case traces the origins of the reform impetus and describes the structure and proposal of the Administration's health care task force, chaired by First Lady Hillary Clinton and directed by Ira Magaziner. The case focuses, however, on the extent and nature of opposition to the plan, particularly from the business community, implicitly raising the questions of how the Administration might have handled matters differently and what factors whether substance or tactics or both allowed the opposition to be successful. The case is a vehicle, too, for discussion of the business-government relationship in the U.S. through its focus both on the nature of the US health insurance system (largely linked to private employment) and on the variety of business and interest groups within the US private sector. HKS Case Number 1600.0

Kathy Levinson, the president and COO of ETRADE and a lesbian mother of two children, must decide whether and how to participate in the "No on Knight" campaign. The campaign opposes California ballot proposition 22, which requires California to recognize only marriages between a man and a woman. This case provides background for Levinson's decision, in which she must balance her obligations as an executive with her personal values and commitments.

Supplements the (A) case.

Entrepreneur Janice Schwartz is hoping to grow her start-up company by creating a technical advisory board and compensating members with discounted company stock. Schwartz is considering six candidates that can help her online education company in a variety of ways: as a potential customer, a media maven, venture capitalist, and technical advisor. The case suggests ways of compensating the advisory board and raises questions about whether there are new rules in the new economy about building professional networks, and when offers of equity constitute bribery and wrong doing.

A new approach to philanthropy, led by venture capitalists and the "new wealth." has emerged in the last two years. They are applying the same accountability criteria from results as they would with their investment portfolio.

Executives should not take a reputation for ethical leadership for granted. Based on interviews with senior executives and corporate ethics officers, this article reveals that a reputation for executive ethical leadership rests on two essential pillars: the executive's visibility as a moral person (based upon perceived traits, behaviors, and decision-making processes) and visibility as a moral manager (based upon role modeling, use of the reward system, and communication). Developing a reputation for ethical leadership pays dividends in reduced legal problems and increased employee commitment, satisfaction, and employee ethical conduct. The alternatives are the unethical leader, the hypocritical leader (who talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk), and the ethically neutral leader (who may be an ethical person, but employees don't know it because the leader has not made ethics and values an explicit part of the leadership agenda). The article also offers guidelines for cultivating a reputation for ethical leadership.

Internet entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky applies what he does best--building high-tech companies--to improving education in Argentina.

On the eve of Teach For America's tenth reunion, Wendy Kopp, the 32-year-old founder and leader of the national teacher corps, is considering how to increase the impact of the organization. To date, the organization has placed 5,000 teachers in under-resourced public schools. Kopp wonders how to expand the corps-both in size and scope-without compromising the quality of the teachers and the entrepreneurial culture of the organization. Critical to this endeavor will be understanding how to leverage her resource appropriately. She has just hired a COO and a director of site expansion to help with this effort.

Rebecca Wilson, a recent policy school graduate, has started an unexpectedly successful small nonprofit to help urban high school students tap the many sources of financial aid for post-secondary education and thus boost their odds of attending college. As she seeks to expand her operation, she needs to reach beyond the network of friends and supporters who bankrolled the start-up. Applying for foundation support requires her to prepare formal financial statements for the first time. It embeds basic accounting in the context of a comprehensible organization, to solidify students' intuition about the function of financial statements, and guides them through the preparation of simple but complete actual and pro forma statements. An Excel spreadsheet paired with the case offers templates that allow students to construct realistic financial statements with very limited preparation and a minimum of computational drudgery. HKS Case Number 1595.0

Supplement for case HKS497.

Supplement for case HKS497.

What is the relationship between good fortune, professional success, and a moral obligation to other people? Jai Jaikumar, who as a youth was saved by a shepherd woman after a tragic mountaineering accident in the Himalayas, and who later rose to the top of his professional domain, believed that good fortune, success, and obligation were necessarily and inescapably connected. This case recounts the extraordinary true story of Jai's mountain fall and subsequent rescue. Contains remarkable parallels to the HBR classic The Parable of the Sadhu, except that here we learn the opposite perspective, with the story revealed through the eyes of the foreigner in distress who must place his fate in the hands of a stranger.

What is the relationship between good fortune, professional success, and a moral obligation to other people? Jai Jaikumar, who as a youth was saved by a shepherd woman after a tragic mountaineering accident in the Himalayas, and who later rose to the top of his professional domain, believed that good fortune, success, and obligation were necessarily and inescapably connected. This case describes Jai's understanding of the moral implications of his rescue, and its particular relevance for his subsequent professional success and ultimate appointment as a professor at Harvard Business School. As a teacher, Jai encouraged each of his students to ask the questions that he asked himself: How did you get this far in life, and what does this mean, if anything, for your duties to others?

Artists for Humanity (AFH) is a nonprofit that hires 30 to 40 teenagers each year for after-school work and training in the arts and entrepreneurship. The young artists, working in six different studios, make and sell the art they produce. AFH was started in 1990 by local artist Susan Rodgerson and six middle school students in a Boston garage studio; in 1993, they were able to expand and move to two floors of a wharf-area warehouse. At the time of the case, Rodgerson, the executive director, is weighing issues of expansion, staff turnover, and a capital campaign to raise money to secure a building (the warehouse lease ran out in 2001). The case showcases the challenges that face many small nonprofit organizations, and outlines some of the particular characteristics that describe nonprofit organizations that also have an entrepreneurial arm.

The San Francisco Opera, second largest in the United States, has embarked on a initiative to attract a larger audience and more support from Silicon Valley. Given that the opera's traditional constituency is the older, wealthier residents of San Francisco, this represents an important change. The opera also hopes to use Silicon Valley relationships to strengthen its Web site.