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Bryant Pharmaceutical's flagship product, a popular arthritis medicine called Seflex, is selling well--but not well enough. With generic versions due on the shelves in a couple of years, the drug company is looking for a dramatic sales increase. VP Laura Goldenberg knows she has to reach more consumers, but in an environment where people bombarded with advertising are using devices such as TiVo to skip ads, her job has suddenly taken on a new intensity. In search of a new, gangbuster campaign, Laura and her ad agency come up with the idea of product placement--not your typical integration of a product into a television or movie script, but a less traditional approach. Their idea is to hire a much-loved, elderly actress to extol the virtues of Seflex on a morning news program. The news segment would be about arthritis, and Seflex would be casually mentioned during the interview. The company would have to pay the actress $1 million, and there are risks: What if it gets out that Bryant is paying her? What if the actress errs and says something about Seflex's side effects? Should the company green-light Laura's plan? This fictional case study looks at the pros and cons of traditional product placement and newer, more subtle alternatives to advertising. Commenting on the case in R0310A and R0310Z, are Bob Gamgort, president of Masterfoods USA; Michelle R. Nelson, an assistant professor of journalism and mass communications at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; FTC commissioner Mozelle W. Thompson; and Mike Sheehan, president and CEO of Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos.

Laura Esserman, a surgeon and faculty member at the University of California at San Francisco as well as a graduate of Stanford Business School, is engaged in a major effort to change the delivery of breast cancer services and the information systems used to support both research and patient care. A true visionary with enormous personal charm and charisma, Esserman has run into obstacles and opposition as she tries to get support in a bureaucratic, complex, academic medical organization. Focuses on Esserman's accomplishments and various other actors and brings up the issue of how she should develop more power and influence to move along her vision.

Dell has recently concluded a site selection process in Brazil to determine where it will locate its manufacturing plant in that country, which will be its first manufacturing plant in Latin America. After a lengthy site selection process in the first half of 1998 involving five states in Brazil - São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Minas Gerais, and Rio Grande do Sul - Dell has decided to locate the plant in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Although a number of factors influence Dell's decision, one of them is the generous incentives that Governor Antonio Britto of the relatively centrist Partido do Movimento Democratico Brasileiro (PMDB) has offered Dell. However, after Dell makes this decision, a new governor, Olivio Dutra of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, or Workers' Party) is elected in October 1998 and takes office in January 1999. The PT is a socialist party. Having made an issue of what he considered to be overly generous incentives offered to transnational corporations during his campaign, Governor Dutra seems likely to rescind the incentives that the Britto government had offered. Given this situation, Keith Maxwell, Dell's Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations, must make a recommendation to Michael Dell. The case presents three possible options for Dell: (1) leave Brazil entirely; (2) move the plant to another state within Brazil; (3) try to renegotiate with Governor Dutra.

Set during the devastating earthquakes in 2001 in El Salvador, the case narrates the process of implementing SUMA, a supply management system. It addresses the complexity of a humanitarian operation where numerous un-coordinated parties are involved in a highly politicized environment. Beyond providing managers and the public with information about the amounts of aid collected, stored and distributed, SUMA contributes to the situation with a degree of visibility and accountability essential to prevent the aid from manipulation or diversion.

In a world context of international institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund and their interaction with developing countries, this case looks at an African development initiative to address its own problems: The New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). With an emphasis on democracy and governance, NEPAD's primary objective is to eradicate poverty in Africa and bring long-term and sustainable political, economic, and social change to the region. Examines in depth this initiative "by Africans for Africans" and how it is likely to evolve.

The Yale Investments Office must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments--hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and so forth. Considers the risks and benefits of a different asset allocation strategy. Highlights the choice between different subclasses, e.g., between venture capital and leveraged buyout funds.

A new CEO, Steve Luczo, together with COO Bill Watkins, have led a turnaround of Seagate, raising productivity dramatically and increasing innovation through teamwork, cross-functional collaboration, and other transformations in the culture of this manufacturer of disk drives for computers. After going private as part of the turnaround, Seagate executed a successful public offering in 2002. Several months later, the CEO wonders how to convince investors that the capabilities built in Seagate's turnaround will help the company flourish and innovate in a demanding technology industry.

A team of private equity investors must value the leveraged buyout of a Yellow Pages business that operated in both the United States and the United Kingdom. In the process, they must wrestle with issues of how to conduct cross-border valuations and how to value a stable cashcow business along with a growth business. The case analyzes the economics and incentives of carried interest and compares different valuation methods--Capital Cash Flow and Free Cash Flow.

Describes the process that the firm employs to allocate resources to new product development projects. Examines whether the firm can sustain its competitive advantage given its existing game design process.

The operations manager of a custom kitchen cabinet manufacturer wants to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the company's production line. He plans to purchase a computer numeric controlled router, but must decide whether to purchase a new or a used machine. He must also decide on changes to the cabinet manufacturing line to ensure that the plant's capacity will meet forecasted demand in the upcoming year.

Describes the financing and growth decisions facing Direvo, a young German biotech firm with a customer/partner that wants to become an investor. Also discusses the business model for Direvo's directed evolution technology, with applications in both industrial enzymes and pharmaceutical products, either through partnerships or its own product development, with very different risk/return structures. The resulting hybrid business model is a constant source of discussion between the Direvo management team and the lead investor, Techno Venture Management. How should Direvo extract value from the spectrum of business options to develop an optimal exit strategy?

Explores the success factors leading to one's company's rise to the number three ranking in the aggressively competitive toy industry. LeapFrog has made the strategic decision to exploit its educational model in two industry sectors: consumer toys and educational supplemental materials. Senior executives face a number of challenges in sustaining the company's growth. Critical to its success is LeapFrog's ability to leverage its core assets, while simultaneously closely managing its relationships with customers, distributors, suppliers, and partners across these two very different industry sectors.

Electronic Arts (EA) is a highly successful creator of video games for consoles and PCs. The company also creates content for online gaming. EA occupies a unique place in the information processing industry. The company must have the skills of a Hollywood studio to create compelling content, while at the same time negotiate the technological change and uncertainty associated with the platforms (e.g., consoles, PC, Internet) used to operate and distribute the games.

Whoosh, is that all there is? On the eve of becoming a partner at a well-known consulting firm ("the stuff MBA dreams are made of"), a senior executive starts to question what he is doing with his life. Walt Shill had graduated eight years earlier from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and had worked his way up at McKinsey Consulting to become the first American partner in the Japanese office. Shill and his family move back to the United States, where he starts to question his goals. For the first time, it seems that Shill has no target to aim for. Having reached his goals, Shill sets out on an adventure to seek his own meaning of life. He gets into good-enough shape to take a cross-country bicycle ride, which he completes. This undisguised case tells Shill's story and what he learned along the way. It ends with Shill's promise to himself to be less judgmental and to start walking through life with eyes wide open. A CD-ROM containing clips of an interview with Shill accompanies the case.

Examines the transition of an orthopedic surgical group at a premier teaching and research hospital from a system in which the surgeons are compensated with flat salaries to a system where they are compensated based on profitability. Allows for an examination of several critical issues in incentive strategy, including pay-to-performance in a not-for-profit environment, whether a compensation system is truly aligned with value creation (issues of quality of care and research time), and the difficulty in designing a compensation system in a competitive labor market when the objectives of the institution extend beyond pure profit maximization. This is a rewritten version of an earlier case.

The CFO of this infant nutritional products company must choose among competing financing offers. The interplay of Chinese legal and customs restrictions and venture capitalists' bargaining techniques challenge the CFO to navigate a tricky negotiation and to devise a unique business model given these constraints. The case provides a valuation exercise and highlights some of the difficult questions a discerning venture capitalist might ask, requiring the CFO to justify his overall business model and working capital needs. To obtain executable spreadsheets (courseware), please contact our customer service department at [email protected].

Examines the tensions multinationals cause by focusing on Europe's reaction to the growing U.S. multinational investment in the 20th century. Initially, Europeans rarely felt threatened by U.S. investments, however, tensions grew over time. After the Second World War, there was a major political and cultural storm over the "Coca Colonization" of France. Takes its name from the often-cited book by Jean Jacques Servan-Schreiber, published in 1967, which symbolized the ambiguous feelings of many Europeans toward U.S. investment. In other countries, U.S. management practices aroused antagonism.

Towngas, an exclusive supplier of piped naphtha gas and one of the oldest energy suppliers in Hong Kong, invested millions of dollars in its customer relationship management program. The results were higher customer satisfaction as well as new products that generate extra revenue. Explores the reason behind Towngas' choice to use CRM as a tool to strengthen its business and the ways it successfully implemented its CRM strategies. Also discusses why many other companies that had also invested a lot of money in CRM did not succeed in getting the expected return.

Examines Wal-Mart's development over three decades and provides financial and descriptive detail of its domestic operations. In 2003, Wal-Mart's Supercenter business has surpassed its domestic business as the largest generator of revenues. Its international operation seems poised to become the next growth driver for the company as it marches toward the trillion dollar sales mark. But problems are starting to surface even as the company is winning recognition as the number one company in the Fortune 500--unions keep pressuring its minimum-wage employees and allegations of gender discrimination are alleged. Teaching purpose: To introduce students to creating a competitive advantage.

Following the liberalization of India's telecommunications service industry in the early 1990s, Bharti Tele-Ventures grew from a small entrepreneurial telephone equipment importer and manufacturer to become India's largest private-sector telecommunications service group in terms of numbers of customers. Attracting over $1.2 billion in foreign equity investments, more than any other Indian telecom firm, by 2001 Bharti had achieved the country's leading market position in mobile telecom service. By 2003, however, the nature of the game had changed. A spate of mergers and acquisitions had reduced the field to the most successful and best-financed contenders. At the same time, telecommunications regulatory changes let in new, lower priced competitors, significantly altering the rules of the game. Suddenly, in addition to government-owned BSNL and the stately Tata Group, India's oldest business house, Bharti was up against Reliance, the largest and most profitable of a new generation of business groups. Bharti's management and equity partners at Mittal and his partners at SingTel and Warburg Pincus had to determine what to do next.