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Describes the events that transpired during the May 1996, Mount Everest tragedy. Examines the flawed decisions that climbing teams made before and during the ascent.

After assuming the position of CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America (PCNA), Gary Rodkin faces organizational problems within PCNA and external friction between PCNA and its largest bottler, the Pepsi Bottling Group. In addition to the challenge of organizational alignment, this case also provides an opportunity to examine effective leadership, reorganization, and brand management in the context of the beverage industry.

After assuming the position of CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America (PCNA), Gary Rodkin faces organizational problems within PCNA and external friction between PCNA and its largest bottler, the Pepsi Bottling Group. In addition to the challenge of organizational alignment, this case also provides an opportunity to examine effective leadership, reorganization, and brand management in the context of the beverage industry.

In the fall of 1999 Garry Ridge, the newly appointed CEO of WD-40 Company, wanted to rejuvenate the company and stimulate its employees to look beyond the firm's relatively narrow focus of the last 43 years. The very nature of WD-40 Company's success in capturing the market had created its own limited growth opportunities. The A case describes the company's one-product business success, and Ridge's background. The B case reveals some of the challenges Ridge faced in implementing change. The B case tells how the new CEO helped WD-40 company achieve growth in both new products and markets through related acquisitions. Despite these purchases, though, the company's earnings failed to climb in the years between 1998 and 2001. Ridge concluded that he needed to do more than just buy more companies, so he framed a model of strong leadership and "learning theory" that he thought would enable the company outsmart its competitors. He built a framework that was demanding, yet forgiving, when individuals fell short. Ridge held employees responsible for their results, but he encouraged everyone to acknowledge mistakes and learn from them. The company's financial results suggest success for his leadership model. This case set lends instructors a valuable tool to conduct conversations in the classroom about leadership and leading strategic change.

In the fall of 1999 Garry Ridge, the newly appointed CEO of WD-40 Company, wanted to rejuvenate the company and stimulate its employees to look beyond the firm's relatively narrow focus of the last 43 years. The very nature of WD-40 Company's success in capturing the market had created its own limited growth opportunities. The A case describes the company's one-product business success, and Ridge's background. The B case reveals some of the challenges Ridge faced in implementing change. The B case tells how the new CEO helped WD-40 company achieve growth in both new products and markets through related acquisitions. Despite these purchases, though, the company's earnings failed to climb in the years between 1998 and 2001. Ridge concluded that he needed to do more than just buy more companies, so he framed a model of strong leadership and "learning theory" that he thought would enable the company outsmart its competitors. He built a framework that was demanding, yet forgiving, when individuals fell short. Ridge held employees responsible for their results, but he encouraged everyone to acknowledge mistakes and learn from them. The company's financial results suggest success for his leadership model. This case set lends instructors a valuable tool to conduct conversations in the classroom about leadership and leading strategic change.

Corporate values can motivate employees, but handled incorrectly they can do just the opposite. A recent study shows how the CEO of a small ad agency promoted strong values, only to see his staff misinterpret them and brand him as a hypocrite. Here's how to avoid a similar catastrophe.

Supplements Joline Godfrey and the Polaroid Corp. (A).

After assuming the position of CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America (PCNA), Gary Rodkin faces organizational problems within PCNA and external friction between PCNA and its largest bottler, the Pepsi Bottling Group. In addition to the challenge of organizational alignment, this case also provides an opportunity to examine effective leadership, reorganization, and brand management in the context of the beverage industry.

Many participants and observers have analyzed the 1996 Mount Everest tragedy and blamed a host of factors, including the weather, equipment failures, and human error. This article examines the people and events through three theoretical lenses: behavioral decision theory, group dynamics, and complex systems. Factors at each level--individual, group, and organizational system--interacted with one another to cause the tragedy. This analysis provides a framework for understanding and diagnosing large-scale organizational failures, and it provides several important lessons for managers making and implementing high-stakes decisions within organizations.

Coming up with fabulously successful products takes more than creative people with groundbreaking ideas. Top executives need to roll up their sleeves and get involved. Because they control resources and have the power to cut through red tape, they can clear a path for the creative team to develop hit products.

Mergers with substantial business overlap face a barrier to speedy integration: Antitrust regulations limit the information companies can share before a deal closes. But as Dow Chemical and Union Carbide found, premerger planning by "clean teams" of former employees can help merging companies hit the ground running.

Executive consultant Marshall Goldsmith tells his CEO clients that he's not the real coach; the people around them are. To change your behavior, he says, quit whining about the past and start asking your colleagues how you can do better. You're not done until they think you are.

Business fads can change companies, for better or worse. They can introduce useful ideas, but often fail to deliver on promises. So how can managers tell a fad from a tool that might endure? For one thing, beware of suspiciously simple techniques. If they seem too easy, they probably are.

Cheryl Hailstrom, the CEO of Lakeland Wonders, a manufacturer of high-quality wooden toys, is the first person outside the Swensen family to hold the top job. But she's not a stranger to this 94-year-old company: She'd been the COO of one of its largest customers and had worked with Lakeland to develop many best-selling products. Wally Swensen IV, the previous CEO, chose Cheryl because she knew how to generate profits and because he believed her energy and enthusiasm could take the company to the next level. Yet here she is, nearing her six-month anniversary, wondering why her expansive vision for the company isn't taking hold. She's tried to lead by example: traveling a pounding schedule to visit customers, setting aggressive project deadlines, and proposing a bonus schedule. She has a plan to reach the board's growth goals. The problem is that while Cheryl's senior managers are giving her the nod on the surface, they're all really dragging their feet. Is Cheryl pushing too much change too quickly? Should she bring in outsiders to speedily adopt the changes she envisions and overhaul Lakeland's corporate culture? Or should she keep trying to work with the current team? In R0210A and R0210Z, commentators Kathleen Calcidise of Apple Retail Stores; executive coach Debra Benton; Dan Cohen, co-author of The Heart of Change; and consultant Nina Aversano offer advice in this fictional case study.

It isn't always easy to change leadership hats or to alter the way you assess a business problem. Under pressure, most executives fall back on the management style or approach that worked in the last crisis they faced. But old approaches rarely work in new and demanding situations. Just ask Leonard Schaeffer, chairman and CEO of WellPoint Health Networks, one of the country's largest and most successful managed-care companies. In this account, he describes how he consciously adopted three very different styles of leadership at critical points during his 30-year career, depending on the business challenges at hand. Schaeffer headed up the U.S. Health Care Finance Administration during the Carter years--and led the charge toward more efficient work practices at that agency. Then he transformed Blue Cross of California from a floundering bureaucracy losing close to $1 million each day into a strong public company, WellPoint. The dire circumstances at Blue Cross had dictated that Schaeffer initially be an autocratic leader, which he considers the managerial equivalent of being an emergency room surgeon--forced to do whatever it takes to save a patient's life. Most recently, Schaeffer has turned into a reformer--a leader who works with one foot outside the company to spur changes in health care and society. There are pitfalls in switching leadership styles, Schaeffer admits, but this flexibility is necessary for realizing corporate--and personal--success.

On the day of the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center, 1,779 employees of Marsh & McLennan Co. (MMC) had office space in the twin towers and another 129 were visiting that day. From his office at MMC headquarters in midtown, CEO Jeffrey Greenberg watched in horror as the second plane hit. By the time the towers fell, he had gathered a team of his colleagues to begin to outline how the company would respond. In this first-person account, Greenberg relates what it was like to manage through the unimaginable. The needs of MMC's people and the families of employees who perished took top priority. In the midst of chaos and unforeseeable problems, Greenberg and his colleagues improvised ways of communicating and assembled a broad-based program of support. Help appeared from all sides from people of various rank, title, and functional expertise within MMC as well as past chairmen, outside directors, and retired executives. An emergency communications center was immediately set up at MMC headquarters and became a centralized location for messages and information and a memorial to colleagues lost in the attacks. The company arranged for grief counselors and established a family assistance center and a Family Relationship Management Program for those who had lost MMC employees. It has also provided families with access to long-term psychological and financial counseling. At the same time, Greenberg offers lessons about leadership, company culture, and adaptability. He and his colleagues held responsibility for a business devastated by operational destruction and financial losses and facing dramatically changed market conditions. Their resolve was not simply to keep it on course but to come back stronger than ever.

Beyond the recent accounting scandals, something is wrong with the way most companies are managed today. That's the message of this fictional letter from a board member to a CEO, written by Joseph Fuller, CEO of the strategy consulting firm Monitor Group. The letter highlights the challenges and complexities of running a business in today's uncertain environment. The letter addresses a single CEO and company, yet it is intended to speak to executives and boards everywhere: "It wasn't the recession that caused us to make 3 acquisitions in 2 years at very, very high prices; the need to fuel [unreasonable] growth did. Nor was it the recession that caused us to expand our capacity in anticipation of gaining market share; rather, it was our own overly optimistic sales forecasts that led us to that decision. Where did those forecasts originate? From line managers trying to fulfill profit goals that we created after meeting with the analysts. The root cause of many of the problems that became apparent in the last 24 months lies not with the economy, not with September 11, and not with the dot-com bubble. Rather, it lies with that willingness to be led by outside forces--indeed, our own lack of conviction about setting a course." Restoring sound, strategic decision making--thinking that looks beyond tomorrow's analyst reports--will go a long way toward keeping those outside forces at bay, according to Fuller.

Cheryl Hailstrom, the CEO of Lakeland Wonders, a manufacturer of high-quality wooden toys, is the first person outside the Swensen family to hold the top job. But she's not a stranger to this 94-year-old company: She'd been the COO of one of its largest customers and had worked with Lakeland to develop many best-selling products. Wally Swensen IV, the previous CEO, chose Cheryl because she knew how to generate profits and because he believed her energy and enthusiasm could take the company to the next level. Yet here she is, nearing her six-month anniversary, wondering why her expansive vision for the company isn't taking hold. She's tried to lead by example: traveling a pounding schedule to visit customers, setting aggressive project deadlines, and proposing a bonus schedule. She has a plan to reach the board's growth goals. The problem is that while Cheryl's senior managers are giving her the nod on the surface, they're all really dragging their feet. Is Cheryl pushing too much change too quickly? Should she bring in outsiders to speedily adopt the changes she envisions and overhaul Lakeland's corporate culture? Or should she keep trying to work with the current team? In R0210A and R0210Z, commentators Kathleen Calcidise of Apple Retail Stores; executive coach Debra Benton; Dan Cohen, co-author of The Heart of Change; and consultant Nina Aversano offer advice on this fictional case study.

Cheryl Hailstrom, the CEO of Lakeland Wonders, a manufacturer of high-quality wooden toys, is the first person outside the Swensen family to hold the top job. But she's not a stranger to this 94-year-old company: She'd been the COO of one of its largest customers and had worked with Lakeland to develop many best-selling products. Wally Swensen IV, the previous CEO, chose Cheryl because she knew how to generate profits and because he believed her energy and enthusiasm could take the company to the next level. Yet here she is, nearing her six-month anniversary, wondering why her expansive vision for the company isn't taking hold. She's tried to lead by example: traveling a pounding schedule to visit customers, setting aggressive project deadlines, and proposing a bonus schedule. She has a plan to reach the board's growth goals. The problem is that while Cheryl's senior managers are giving her the nod on the surface, they're all really dragging their feet. Is Cheryl pushing too much change too quickly? Should she bring in outsiders to speedily adopt the changes she envisions and overhaul Lakeland's corporate culture? Or should she keep trying to work with the current team? In R0210A and R0210Z, commentators Kathleen Calcidise of Apple Retail Stores; executive coach Debra Benton; Dan Cohen, co-author of The Heart of Change; and consultant Nina Aversano offer advice on this fictional case study.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Vertical command and control sabotages organizations that need bottom-up innovation to be competitive. Yet, organizational integration is increasingly essential. New research shows how technology is helping cutting-edge companies meet the challenge by integrating horizontally. A fundamental management challenge, particularly in large, diversified global enterprises, is the tension between subunit autonomy and companywide cohesion. New research uncovers several ways top companies balance that tension. In the last decade, performance criteria often ignored how managers of subunits contributed to companywide performance. Empowerment efforts improved unit competitiveness but left knowledge sharing behind. Today (because customer needs span internal boundaries and technology has changed the way innovation gets managed) managers are recognizing the need to address the integration side of the tension. At one company, BP, CEO John Browne created a peer-assist process to help his business unit leaders integrate horizontally. Managers who ran similar businesses were assigned to help one another improve both individual and collective performance. As the culture evolved and managers successfully handled ever tougher endeavors, both entrepreneurship and mutual trust were strengthened. Executives who want to build horizontal integration without disrupting entrepreneurship must allow time for persistent action and reinforcement to take hold.