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Provides an overview of key issues on management of international alliances, including: 1) the logic of collaboration; 2) selecting partners; 3) structuring alliances; 4) alliance networks; 5) alliance dynamics; 6) limits to alliances; and 7) the role of governments.

In the West, we believe that privatizing an Eastern European enterprise will invariably improve governance, management, and performance. But the positive effects of privatization are far from automatic. In fact, most newly privatized companies need dominant, experienced Western shareholders to compensate for the weaknesses of communist-educated managers. Whereas privatization with a strong shareholder can work miracles, privatizations without one rarely do well for long. Because owners must educate, motivate, or replace incumbent managers, ownership is critical. Privatization is a means to an end, not always an end in itself.

Since winning independence in 1965, Singapore achieved some of the world's highest rates of economic growth. A large part of GDP and employment came from direct investment by multinational companies in low-cost assembly work, but in the 1990s Singapore's rising wage rates increasingly priced it out of these industries. Could Singapore change itself from an assembler and fabricator of Western-designed parts to a designer and marketer of desirable products? Lee Kuan Yew, "the father of Singapore," repeatedly had shown an ability to guide the nation through such transitions. Not only did his successor have no such track record, but the next transition might be the hardest yet.

Examines Gerber Products Co.'s evaluation of Alima S.A., one of Poland's largest food processing plants, as a potential overseas investment in 1991. Factors that influenced Gerber's decision are discussed in detail: property rights, taxation issues, and Poland's political economy.

Describes Burroughs Wellcome's response to protests over the pricing of its AIDS drug AZT in September 1989. Also presents short-term reactions by government officials, AIDS activists, and investors to Burroughs Wellcome's strategy.

Describes key developments relating to Burroughs Wellcome, AZT and other AIDS drugs, and the AIDS issue in general from late 1989 through 1992. Includes excerpts from Wellcome PLC's financial statements and updated statistics on AIDS in the United States.

"Think global, act local" goes the saying. But Gurcharan Das, who helped build Vicks Vaporub into what is now one of Procter & Gamble's most successful Indian brands, believes that "think local" is at least equally good advice. The key to all business success, he argues, is local passion. The most successful global brands, Das argues, are those that make best use of the rich experience their geographical diversity gives them. Business truths are invariably local in origin, but they are often expressions of fundamental human needs that are the same worldwide. Flexible, open-minded managers can take local insights with a universal character and make them global.

For generations, emigrant Chinese entrepreneurs have operated in a network of family and clan across many national borders. Chinese businesses in the Pacific Rim and beyond make up the world's fourth economic power. The author calls this global network of entrepreneurial relationships the Chinese commonwealth. The author details the Confucian tradition and the values that have hindered so many Chinese businesses in the recent past, including Wang Laboratories. The sudden wealth of expatriate Chinese communities and the new possibilities for business still come down to a patchwork of many small enterprises that often have no respect for one another. But a new ideology of economic self-interest that transcends politics and the constraints on traditional Chinese business may lead to even greater integration of the commonwealth.

In 1991, Bill George, CEO of Medtronic, the world's largest manufacturer of pacemakers, was evaluating his strategic options in light of the changing economic environment. In the United States, Europe, and Japan, governments were considering regulatory changes to reduce health care expenditures, including reduction in pacemaker prices. The case outlines Medtronics development of the cardiac pacemaker and its diversified businesses. It then examines Medtronic's pacemaker operations and the changing health care environment in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Facility location decisions made by many U.S. manufacturers during the past decade yielded disappointing results. These decisions were typically tactical, stop-gap actions that have resulted, at best, in short-lived benefits. Many firms moved manufacturing overseas to obtain a factor cost advantage, only to find that the cost advantage was fleeting, and that the distances the move introduced between manufacturing and other key groups (e.g., customers, suppliers, development, and sales) had constrained their ability to compete. This article explores the impact that facility location has on the critical capabilities that define a company's ability to compete. It discusses the shortcomings of the "tradition" approach to facility location, which ignores the internal workings of the company, and outlines a new capability-centered approach that creates sustainable benefits by fostering the development and growth of the unique set of critical capabilities required by a company's strategy, customers, and competitive environment.

When Peter Johnson became the administrator of Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) in Portland, Oregon, he realized that BPA had to listen to its harshest critics--the people affected by the agency's decisions. When Johnson arrived in 1981, BPA was reviled for its approach to decision making--the agency first made decisions and then explained them. Despite the warnings of attorneys, and his own apprehensions, Johnson opened up BPA's decision making to the public. The first attempts to involve BPA's critics were filled with confrontation, but success soon followed. Early experiences proved to Johnson that involving the public in BPA's decision making was a practical alternative to litigation. Former adversaries became BPA's partners in making better decisions, and the agency gained authority and legitimacy.

The new vice president of international contracts for Timothy & Thomas North America, Jonathan Stein, faces tough decisions regarding the company's Pakistani contractors. In a plant in Lahore, Stein sees girls who look no older than ten, sweeping the floor. T&T shorts are currently the hottest item in Timothy & Thomas's line of casual clothes. Like the rest of the company's products, the shorts have a wholesome American image. But that image doesn't fit the image of those girls at work - or Timothy & Thomas's reputation for social responsibility. In fact, the company's new Global Guidelines for Business Partners prohibit the use of child labor. The complicated situation puts Jonathan Stein on the cutting-edge of company policy. Six experts on global sourcing and labor in developing nations discuss the agonizing decisions that confront Stein and his company.

Describes the position of Utility #1 in negotiating Group A with respect to 1) its SO emissions reduction requirements; 2) the costs of its alternative compliance strategies; and 3) the nature of its state regulatory environment.

Describes the position of Utility #4 in negotiating Group A with respect to 1) its SO emissions reduction requirements; 2) the costs of its alternative compliance strategies; and 3) the nature of its state regulatory environment.

Describes the position of Utility #1 in negotiating Group B with respect to 1) its SO emissions reduction requirements; 2) the costs of its alternative compliance strategies; and 3) the nature of its state regulatory environment.

Describes the position of Utility #2 in negotiating Group B with respect to 1) its SO emissions reduction requirements; 2) the costs of its alternative compliance strategies; and 3) the nature of its state regulatory environment.

Describes the position of Utility #4 in negotiating Group B with respect to 1) its SO emissions reduction requirements; 2) the costs of its alternative compliance strategies; and 3) the nature of its state regulatory environment.

Describes the position of Utility #1 in negotiating Group C with respect to 1) its SO emissions reduction requirements; 2) the costs of its alternative compliance strategies; and 3) the nature of its state regulatory environment.

Describes the position of Utility #2 in negotiating Group C with respect to 1) its SO emissions reduction requirements; 2) the costs of its alternative compliance strategies; and 3) the nature of its state regulatory environment.

Describes the position of Utility #3 in negotiating Group C with respect to 1) its SO emissions reduction requirements; 2) the costs of its alternative compliance strategies; and 3) the nature of its state regulatory environment.