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This case finds Jack Wright, now Chairman of the Mega Corporation board, having to deal with an offer from a director to buy the company, in either a friendly or unfriendly fashion.

This case finds Jack Wright and the Mega Corporation board having to deal with a conflict situation involving a director and a "sticky situation" that has emerged from another board on which the director sits. The discussion must deal with both the director's dilemma on the other board and Jack's responsibilities as Chair of the Mega board.

In 1998, 38-year-old Gary Loveman was perfectly content with his job as an untenured associate professor at the Harvard Business School. He was a popular teacher with standing room only classes in service management. He lived comfortably with his family in Massachusetts and had successful consulting engagements and executive education assignments with companies such as Harrah's Entertainment. His prospects for tenure review, coming up in the next year or two, looked good. Then his life dramatically changed when the then-CEO of Harrah's, Phil Satre, offered him a job as chief operating officer (COO) of the company. Commuting from his home in Massachusetts, Loveman took the job and never turned back. But hiring Loveman caused some internal and external rumblings. Loveman had never before managed anyone apart from his administrative assistant and some research assistants; he was now going to manage 15 casinos with more than 10,000 hotel rooms and over 35,000 employees. The company was also closing one of its largest acquisitions to date, Showboat. Moreover, the gaming industry was not, in 1998, a common destination for MBA graduates, let alone PhDs--it was an industry dominated by insiders who had spent their careers in gaming, working their way up from the bottom. The tasks facing Loveman as he joined Harrah's were daunting. He had somehow to gain credibility and respect inside Harrah's, as well as in the industry. He had to lead Harrah's through a transition to a more marketing-focused company and help the company break out of a financial performance plateau. And he had to build a set of relationships and a power base to potentially attain the CEO position when Satre stepped down in five years. What could he do to accomplish all this?

Leo Burnett Co. Ltd. is a global advertising agency. The company is working with one of its largest clients to launch a new line of hair care products into the Canadian and Taiwanese test markets in preparation for a global rollout. Normally, after a brand launching, the global brand center turns over the responsibility for the brand and future campaigns to the local market offices. In this case, however, the brand launch was not successful. Team communications and team dynamics broke down in recent months and the relationships are strained. Further complicating matters are a number of client and agency staffing changes that could jeopardize the stability of the team and the agency-client relationship. The global account director must decide whether to proceed with the expected decision to modify the global team structure to give one of the teams more autonomy or whether to maintain greater centralized control over the team. She must also recommend how to move forward with the brand and determine what changes in team structure or management are necessary.

Describes a set of decisions confronting the management team of an early-stage software company. The company has made considerable progress in developing its software but will need additional capital to move forward. Unfortunately, conditions in the capital market are very difficult, and management must decide to address its financial needs. Provides a detailed history of Marv Tseu, the CEO, who had a broad range of interesting experiences in the world of technology.

First Commonwealth Financial Corp., a financial institution in central and southwestern Pennsylvania, implemented the Balanced Scorecard for describing and implementing its new customer-focused strategy. Its founder and chairman decided that the Balanced Scorecard also should become the primary information input for the corporate governance process with the board of directors so that the board could become more knowledgeable about and more actively involved in the company's strategy. Describes how the board became knowledgeable about the company's Balanced Scorecard and how it participated in developing a Balanced Scorecard for itself. In addition to the enterprise and board scorecards, the company also developed scorecards for each senior executive for the governance and compensation committees to assess and reward senior management performance. Extensive exhibits illustrate the three different scorecards and the reports and supporting documents for these scorecards.

By fiscal year 2000, Samsung had pulled far ahead of other "chaebols," Korean conglomerates. For example, the market value of Samsung affiliates listed on the Korea Stock Exchange exceeded the sum of the market value of listed affiliates of second, third, and fourth largest groups: Hyundai, LG, and SK. Samsung's accomplishments during the late 1990s were particularly noteworthy when compared to its long-time rival Daewoo, whose businesses were forced into financial workout disposition of assets overseen by creditors in 1999. Discusses what made the destinies of the two groups totally different.

Taught in Evolution of Global Business. Globalization and corporate fraud are the central themes of this case on the international growth of Swedish Match in the interwar years. Between 1913 and 1932, Ivar Kreuger, known as the "Swedish Match King," built a small, family-owned match business into a $600 million global match empire. Despite the economic and political disruptions of the interwar period, Swedish Match owned manufacturing operations in 36 countries, had monopolies in 16 countries, and controlled 40% of the world's match production. Kreuger companies lent over $300 million dollars to governments in Europe, Latin America, and Asia in exchange for national match monopolies. Relying on international capital markets to finance acquisitions and monopoly deals, by 1929 the stocks and bonds of Kreuger companies were the most widely held securities in the United States and the world. After Kreuger's 1932 suicide, forensic auditors discovered that Kreuger had operated a giant pyramid scheme. His accounts were ridden with fictitious assets, the truth hidden in a maze of over 400 subsidiary companies. Swedish Match's deficits exceeded Sweden's national debt.

Taught in the MBA Evolution of Global Business course, a business history course on the growth of multinationals. Explores the role of the British entrepreneur Weetman Pearson in developing the Mexican oil industry before 1914. Shows this entrepreneur's evolution from a domestic British builder to an international contractor, building tunnels, railroads, and harbors worldwide, including the United States and Mexico. In Mexico, where Pearson developed close relations with the dictator Porfirio Diaz, the government awarded large oil concessions. In 1910, Pearson discovered one of the world's largest oil wells, and this was used as a basis to build an integrated oil company. But by 1918--when the case ends--Pearson is considering whether to sell his investment in the face of growing political risk.

Florida Citrus Department has to deal with increasing competition from Brazil. What position should the industry take on its existing tariff? Who benefits? Who loses?

Jurgen Mehr, the European head of marketing for German software giant Typware, is irate about the salary demands of the American executive he wants to hire. Anne Prevost, the executive in question, is the marketing director at a U.S. software company that has been making forays into Typware's markets. She engineered a huge uptick in sales for her company, and now she is ready to jump ship--provided Typware makes her a good offer. She would be a brilliant catch. But the salary she wants is nearly as much as Mehr's. Since 1996, Typware has ventured aggressively into international markets. The consultants who helped negotiate compensation for overseas employees recommended variable standards depending on the employee's location. However, individual expatriate packages are becoming increasingly complicated. HBR senior editor Bronwyn Fryer explores the question of what kind of international compensation approach Typware should adopt. In R0311A and R0311Z, commentators George T. Milkovich, the Catherwood Professor at Cornell University; Jeffrey Alan Thinnes, the managing director of Manugistics Central Europe, a U.S. software subsidiary based in Germany; Joseph Yaffe, a partner with the global law firm Latham & Watkins; and Dietmar Kokott, the senior vice-president of global human resources, executive management, and development at BASF Group, offer expert advice on this fictional case study.

Jurgen Mehr, the European head of marketing for German software giant Typware, is irate about the salary demands of the American executive he wants to hire. Anne Prevost, the executive in question, is the marketing director at a U.S. software company that has been making forays into Typware's markets. She engineered a huge uptick in sales for her company, and now she is ready to jump ship--provided Typware makes her a good offer. She would be a brilliant catch. But the salary she wants is nearly as much as Mehr's. Since 1996, Typware has ventured aggressively into international markets. The consultants who helped negotiate compensation for overseas employees recommended variable standards depending on the employee's location. However, individual expatriate packages are becoming increasingly complicated. HBR senior editor Bronwyn Fryer explores the question of what kind of international compensation approach Typware should adopt. In R0311A and R0311Z, commentators George T. Milkovich, the Catherwood Professor at Cornell University; Jeffrey Alan Thinnes, the managing director of Manugistics Central Europe, a U.S. software subsidiary based in Germany; Joseph Yaffe, a partner with the global law firm Latham & Watkins; and Dietmar Kokott, the senior vice-president of global human resources, executive management, and development at BASF Group, offer expert advice on this fictional case study.

Jurgen Mehr, the European head of marketing for German software giant Typware, is irate about the salary demands of the American executive he wants to hire. Anne Prevost, the executive in question, is the marketing director at a U.S. software company that has been making forays into Typware's markets. She engineered a huge uptick in sales for her company, and now she is ready to jump ship--provided Typware makes her a good offer. She would be a brilliant catch. But the salary she wants is nearly as much as Mehr's. Since 1996, Typware has ventured aggressively into international markets. The consultants who helped negotiate compensation for overseas employees recommended variable standards depending on the employee's location. However, individual expatriate packages are becoming increasingly complicated. HBR senior editor Bronwyn Fryer explores the question of what kind of international compensation approach Typware should adopt. In R0311A and R0311Z, commentators George T. Milkovich, the Catherwood Professor at Cornell University; Jeffrey Alan Thinnes, the managing director of Manugistics Central Europe, a U.S. software subsidiary based in Germany; Joseph Yaffe, a partner with the global law firm Latham & Watkins; and Dietmar Kokott, the senior vice-president of global human resources, executive management, and development at BASF Group, offer expert advice on this fictional case study.

In 1990, President Alberto Fujimori swept to power in Peru on a wave of public enthusiasm for his promised reforms. Indeed, over the next five years Fujimori accomplished something of an economic turnaround miracle. He also vanquished a homegrown terrorist movement and proved a willing partner in the war against drugs. The international community, including the US, admired and supported him. By Fujimori's side stood a shadowy figure, Vladimiro Montesinos. Never appointed to any official office, Montesinos nonetheless became the virtual head of the intelligence service, and he exercised unique influence over Fujimori. His reputation was as Mr. Fix-it: he could get anything done. Both Fujimori and the US (he had a relationship with the CIA) benefited from his services. With Montesinos' behind-the-scenes assistance, Fujimori's government became ever more authoritarian, extending executive influence over the judiciary, the military and the legislature. But in September 2000, the reason for Montesinos' remarkable effectiveness was dramatically exposed with the television airing of a videotape in which he bribed an opposition congressman. As the story unfolded, Montesinos was revealed as the mastermind of a sophisticated network of corruption which reached into most sectors of society: the legislature, judiciary, media, military and industry. Working with the primary evidence of the videotapes, this case paints a rarely glimpsed picture of corruption in action. It describes Montesinos' rise to power, and the mechanics and protocols of bribery and fraud. HKS Case Number 1722.0

In the late 1990s, the leadership of Neighborhood Conservation Services (NCS) of Barberton, Ohio--a nonprofit housing rehabilitation organization founded two decades earlier to help reverse the decline of this aging industrial city--found its once popular mission had suddenly become politically controversial. The long unassailable idea of using public funds to target low-interest loans to lower-income homeowners was being questioned by elected officials in the city of 28,000, officials concerned that limiting loans to those of low-income--in conjunction with a concentration of public housing and rent subsidies--might make Barberton a "magnet" for low-income households. A mayor intent on reviving the city's tax base and attracting and retaining the middle class challenged NCS to demonstrate how its policies could help the city. This new political climate posed a difficult and crucial strategic challenge for the organization--which relied on funds voted by the City Council for the overwhelming majority of its budget. NCS, believed its leadership, would have to find ways to reconcile its mission with the new political climate in town or find a new way to fund its programs--or simply close up shop. This nonprofit management case is meant to allow for discussion of how organizational strategy should adapt to political change. In particular, it raises the question of the extent and nature of the obligation of those receiving public funds to defer to elected officials. The case can also be used in discussion of housing policy per se, to explore the question of when and where housing subsidies are appropriate. HKS Case Number 1707.0

When a career public employee in a research division of the US Forest Service gets a call from a lobbyist for a coalition of environmental advocacy groups, he finds himself confronting an opportunity of which he's not sure it's right to avail himself. The lobbyist-well-versed in the specific research being undertaken by the department in which "Sammy Sockeye" works, and well aware of budget cuts affecting the quality and scope of such work-offers to "help." Her coalition would, if he agrees, exert public pressure in order to force the soon-to-be-announced federal budget to include an increase in the budget of Sammy's department. The fact that Sammy himself believes very much that the public would be better served by such a budget increase complicates the already difficult question.

Microsoft is on the verge of launching its Smart Watch technology, which will allow specially designed watches to receive up-to-date information on sports, business, traffic, news, etc. After several years of effort and millions of dollars spent, the questions now revolve around launch strategy and likely consumer adoption. Is this the next big thing for Microsoft or is this a waste of money and resources? Complicating the matter is the fact that although Microsoft designed and will operate the technology to deliver information to these watches, the watches themselves will be sold and marketed by several prominent watch-making partners.

Cape Wind has proposed placing a 170-tower wind farm, with each tower more than 400-feet tall, in Nantucket Sound. Not surprisingly, public reaction is mixed. Some view the wind farm as clean, renewable energy. Others view it as an eyesore and a desecration of a valued public resource. Other attempts at wind farms in the United States have run into similar resistance. Although the public can agree that wind power is a good idea, no one wants a wind farm in their community. How can firms overcome this type of resistance to change?

The Global Conservation Fund is an international nonprofit organization with a $100 million endowment and an exclusive focus on land preservation. The fund and its director must decide which projects to fund over the next year and what financing mechanism to use. Describes the fund's efforts to develop a rating system for projects and various financing options used by conservation organizations, including debt-for-nature swaps, carbon credits, and conservation trust funds. Teaching purpose: To evaluate alternative projects in a nonprofit setting and to consider alternative financial instruments to advance biodiversity conservation.