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The resignation of Mississippi Senator Trent Lott from his position as Majority Leader was an event unprecedented in the history of the US Senate. It occurred precipitously, in the wake of remarks he had made at an event where no one expected controversy-the 100th birthday party of the Senate's oldest member, South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. Lott's remarks, in which he praised Thurmond's 1948 run for the Presidency as the candidate of the segregationist Dixiecrat Party, only gradually sparked a firestorm, however. This case tells the story of how the controversy grew, with particular emphasis on the role of non-traditional media-specifically on the role of those political writers who distributed their views through "web logs". The case describes how the Lott story spread from the keyboards of such "bloggers" to the more mainstream print and television press-to the point at which public pressure culminated in Lott's resignation from the Senate leadership. This case allows for discussion of the evolution of the press, as new electronic media facilitated the efforts of a range of voices to reach a wider public, and of the life-cycle of what some have termed press feeding frenzies, wherein the fate of major public officials or policy issues seemingly follows a sort of dramatic script, as they take center stage in the reporting of the moment. The case can be used either by those with a special interest in the way in which public officials deal with the press, or by those with a special interest in the internal dynamics of the mass media. It can be used in conjunction with "Managing a Press Feeding Frenzy" (1135.0, 1135.1), "Breaking the Bad News: Divad" (841.0), and/or "Siege Mentality: ABC, the White House and the Iran Hostage Crisis " (823.0). HKS Case Number 1731.0.

Describes political and economic forces that influenced the development of an all-digital, high-definition television (HDTV) standard in the United States between 1986 and 1996. Outlines the stakes for various government and industry participants in the standard-setting process. Contrasts the market-led approach used in developing U.S. HDTV standards to the government-led processes employed in Japan and Europe, where billions of dollars were invested in R&D but the resulting analog standards were soon abandoned. Concludes with a series of unresolved policy issues facing U.S. regulators in 1996, for example, whether to intervene to resolve technical disputes between the broadcasting and computer industries, whether to mandate or simply authorize use of an HDTV standard, and whether to set specific deadlines for broadcasters' deployment of HDTV technology.

In mid-2003, China was the fastest-growing telecom market. Telecom subscribers are estimated at 472 million. With the size and growth of telecom, China is a hot spot for new telecom and IT technologies. Furthermore, China's sheer market power provides a strong position for establishing telecom policies and standards that have important global and economic implications. This case provides the underlying background to discuss the key issues and decisions facing China's policymakers.

New e-technologies such as mobile Internet phones and interactive television are widely predicted to generate a wealth of opportunities through the creation of new e-business models. At the same time, numerous high-profile Internet ventures have gone belly-up, and millions of investors around the world have been caught out. A focus on the successes can give the impression that an ingenious business model is all that is needed to create a thriving e-firm. But do these models really matter? What can we learn by examining the Internet failures or the problems inherent in each model? What are the real key factors determining the survival or failure of e-firms?

World Bank IT provides services (communications, applications, video conferencing, knowledge sharing, distance learning, information sharing, client commerce, crisis management, etc.) on a global basis to the poorest countries in the globe via satellites. This case covers the bank's global business strategy transformation and the role that IT plays in enabling that vision. Covers strategy and implementation topics and conveys a sense of using IT to narrow the digital divide on a global scale while recapping the evolution of the bank's IT strategy and implementation from 1995 to 2003.

Canadian Tire Corp. consists of five main business groups: a large retail chain providing automotive parts, sports and leisure, and home products; a financial division; a petroleum division; a specialty automotive parts division; and a retailer of casual and work wear clothing. The information technology group is faced with developing an implementation plan for the development of a business intelligence infrastructure and business capability at Canadian Tire Retail. Concurrent to this initiative is the development and implementation of an information technology strategy for Canadian Tire Corp., which places a number of programs on the priority list, with business intelligence seen as a high priority item for which the organization can score some quick-win business successes.

Over the last five years, a variety of market mechanisms have emerged to address various issues pertaining to business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. However, there is a general lack of understanding on the part of researchers and practitioners on two key issues: What are the key characteristics of these market mechanisms? What factors drive the choice of one market mechanism over the other? Addresses these questions through a study of 12 different market mechanisms in 200 B2B electronic marketplaces. Four factors--degree of fragmentation, asset specificity, complexity of product description, and complexity of value assessment--significantly drive the choice of an appropriate market mechanism for an organization. To gainfully exploit these market structures, organizations need to devise new strategies and reconfigure their supply chains.

During the soar-and-swoon days of the late 1990s, many people believed that information technology, and the Internet in particular, were "changing everything" in business. A fundamental change did happen in the 1990s, but it was less about technology than about competition. Under Director Diana Farrell, the McKinsey Global Institute has conducted an extensive study of productivity and its connection to corporate IT spending and use during that period. The study revealed that IT is important--but not central--to the fate of industries and individual companies. The primary factors in the productivity surge were competition and innovation. In those industries that saw increases in competitive intensity, managers were forced to innovate aggressively to protect their revenues and profits. Those innovations--in products, business practices, and technology--led to the gains in productivity. In fact, a critical dynamic of the new economy--the real new economy--is the virtuous cycle of competition, innovation, and productivity growth. During the 1990s, IT was a particularly powerful tool for three reasons: IT enabled the development of attractive new products and efficient new business processes, it facilitated the rapid industrywide diffusion of innovations, and it exhibited strong scale economies.

Open source software programs (OSS) such as Linux and Apache give any interested party access to the source code, leading to a distributed innovation model in which users actively participate in the product's development. Often free, OSS products are distributed under many public licenses, are more reliable, and provide greater flexibility and choice. On the other hand, OSS leads to a proliferation of versions and may appeal only to high-end users. The system leads to fascinating competitive and cooperative relationships among companies, between a company and a community, and among communities. How can managers choose?

Focuses on the current IT applications portfolio and plans for the world's second largest cruise line. An IT-intensive organization, it forces students to think through how IT resources should be allocated in this dynamic environment and what kind of management system is most appropriate.

This case concerns a company's advertising and redesign decisions for a DSL service. These decisions affect the switching of customers among various classifications, including those who currently use the service. The focus of the case will be on modeling the dynamics of the system and related optimal decision-making. How to structure spreadsheets using influence diagrams can be part of the discussion. The case provides an opportunity to discuss decisions using different time horizons.

The president of Ford Argentina has to decide on the e-business approach at this subsidiary of Ford Motor Co. The approach must take into consideration the ambitious global e-business transformation proposed by the parent company within the context of a major economic crisis suffered in Argentina.

Orion Bus Industries is a manufacturer of transit buses that are purchased by transit authorities across North America. The majority of Orion's sales are made through competitive bidding processes. The company's goal is to either increase margins while maintaining sales levels or to increase the total volume of sales. The chief executive officer would like to know whether historical contract bidding data can be used to improve the success of future bids for bus contracts.

This case explores the various aspects of information technology that can be outsourced. Cathay Pacific outsourced a significant part of its vital operations from Hong Kong to Sydney, Australia.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 303-106.

The case discusses how Terra Lycos is reshaping itself during the economic slowdown by diversifying its revenue stream and attempting to start selling products once offered for free. As a portal, Terra Lycos' products were, by nature, mainly information based. Can Terra Lycos succeed in transforming its products from free to pay?

This widely debated article now includes 14 Letters to the Editor. As information technology has grown in power and ubiquity, companies have come to view it as evermore critical to their success; their heavy spending on hardware and software clearly reflects that assumption. Chief executives routinely talk about information technology's strategic value, about how they can use IT to gain a competitive edge. But scarcity, not ubiquity, makes a business resource truly strategic--and allows companies to use it for a sustained competitive advantage. You gain an edge over rivals only by doing something that they can't. IT is the latest in a series of broadly adopted technologies--think of the railroad or the electric generator--that have reshaped industry over the past two centuries. For a brief time, these technologies created powerful opportunities for forward-looking companies. But as their availability increased and their costs decreased, they became commodity inputs. From a strategic standpoint, they no longer mattered. That's exactly what's happening to IT, and the implications are profound. In this article, HBR's Editor-at-Large Nicholas Carr suggests that IT management should, frankly, become boring. It should focus on reducing risks, not increasing opportunities. For example, companies need to pay more attention to ensuring network and data security. Even more important, they need to manage IT costs more aggressively. IT may not help you gain a strategic advantage, but it could easily put you at a cost disadvantage.

The leading company in express airfreight shipments is seeking to maintain its superiority in an increasingly competitive global market place. The case describes how FedEx has used information technology to enhance the reliability of its service and add extra features for customers. It also describes the company's efforts to improve service quality in the U.S.A., including new measurement techniques, training, and "internal marketing". With the company facing a profit crunch following its merger with Flying Tigers, the senior vice president customer service seeks to maintain investment in the ongoing quality improvement program.

Supplements Your Next IT Strategy.

Cisco Systems' relentless pace of acquisitions between 1993 and 2000 ground to a halt in 2001, with Cisco buying only two businesses that year. By September of 2002, it had acquired Hammerhead Networks and Navarro Networks for $258 million in stock and planned to buy Andiamo Systems for up to $2.5 billion. Market conditions may have shed light on cracks in its acquisition methodology, but the most profound change, according to CEO John Chambers, was the decision to acquire companies at a later stage of product development than previously. Now, a target had to have a proven product, customers, and management team before any transaction was considered. The (B) case includes a brief update on the company and financials up to July 2002.