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Espoir Cosmetics has received a tantalizing offer: sponsorship of the sequel to the Hollywood hit Diana's She Devils. For Natasha Singh, the U.S.-based company's global marketing officer, the movie is an ideal vehicle for global brand building. As the film is released in each country, Espoir can launch tie-in lipsticks and nail polishes. But some of Espoir's regional executives don't see it that way. One of them--Vasylko Mazur, the head of Eastern European operations and Tasha's old friend--is particularly upset. "Tasha," he says, "you don't realize how different Eastern Europe is from the rest of the world. Movie-based promotions won't do anything for my sales." Tasha understands his point of view. When she was Espoir's marketing head in India, she had to fight for her unconventional local initiatives. But she has come to believe that tastes are changing rapidly all over the world. From Eastern Europe to the smallest towns in India, customers want the products they see on TV, in the movies, and in international magazines. Should Espoir take its new branding initiative global? In R0306A and R0306Z, Peter M. Thompson, president and CEO of PepsiCo Beverages International; Jennifer L. Aaker, associate professor of marketing at Stanford Business School; Harish Manwani and Simon Clift, executives of Unilever; and Masaaki Kotabe, professor of international business at Temple University offer their perspectives on this fictional case study.

Espoir Cosmetics has received a tantalizing offer: sponsorship of the sequel to the Hollywood hit Diana's She Devils. For Natasha Singh, the U.S.-based company's global marketing officer, the movie is an ideal vehicle for global brand building. As the film is released in each country, Espoir can launch tie-in lipsticks and nail polishes. But some of Espoir's regional executives don't see it that way. One of them--Vasylko Mazur, the head of Eastern European operations and Tasha's old friend--is particularly upset. "Tasha," he says, "you don't realize how different Eastern Europe is from the rest of the world. Movie-based promotions won't do anything for my sales." Tasha understands his point of view. When she was Espoir's marketing head in India, she had to fight for her unconventional local initiatives. But she has come to believe that tastes are changing rapidly all over the world. From Eastern Europe to the smallest towns in India, customers want the products they see on TV, in the movies, and in international magazines. Should Espoir take its new branding initiative global? In R0306A and R0306Z, offering their perspectives on this fictional case study are Peter M. Thompson, president and CEO of PepsiCo Beverages International; Jennifer L. Aaker, associate professor of marketing at Stanford Business School; Harish Manwani and Simon Clift, executives of Unilever; and Masaaki Kotabe, professor of international business at Temple University.

Capital One, a credit card company, has built its business on a strategy with a clear customer focus: The company systematically gathers and analyses information on its customers in order to correctly assess their individual credit risk and to offer products and services tailored to their individual needs. The case is designed to illustrate how the concept of customer relationship management (CRM) can be translated into strategy, organizational design, hiring, marketing processes, and IT infrastructure of a company.

In July 1996, the French social security governmental agency (the CNAM) sent a letter to all doctors urging them to prescribe generic amoxicillin instead of Clamoxyl, SmithKline Beecham's (SB) blockbuster antibiotic. Pierre Chahwakilian, Marketing Director of SB in France must decide how to respond: (1) milk Clamoxyl and divert promotional investments towards Augmentin, a more specialized and still patent-protected antibiotic, (2) strengthen Clamoxyl's brand equity among doctors by increasing the effort of medical reps, by launching new forms, or with new advertising, (3) go against SB¿s corporate philosophy and reduce the price of Clamoxyl, or (4) change nothing and count on the resistance of French doctors towards generics. The B case (Augmentin in 2002) shows that GSK (the company formed by the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham) now faces the same options for Augmentin, another blockbuster antibiotic. Should they use the strategy that was so successful for Clamoxyl or have the market conditions changed so much that a whole different approach should be followed?

easyGroup is contemplating its entry into the cinema exhibition business in the UK through the launch of a no-frills cinema. The company believes that it can redeploy the capabilities, such as yield management, that led to the success of easyJet, its low cost airline business, into this new venture. The case examines the market for cinema in the UK, as well as the evolution of easyGroup's portfolio of companies, with a view to assessing the attractiveness of the company's planned launch of easyCinema.

Elise Smart must decide what performance assessment to give one of her employees who has, uncharacteristically, failed to meet one of her key objectives for the year. The situation is difficult for several reasons; the causes of the unacceptable performance are not clear; the employee has previously received excellent appraisals, including a recent one by the vice-president; and the employee was absent for a good part of the year on maternity leave. The various factors that influence sustained performance (ability, motivation, resources, role clarity, reinforcement) are examined, as well as steps leaders can take in improving performance of those for whom they are responsible.

Competition is present, explicitly or implicitly, in many business negotiations. Rarely in buyer-seller negotiations are the bargainers stuck with each other, usually they have an alternative trading partner to whom they can turn. The terms of agreement that are negotiated are shaped by the fact that the alternatives exist. The ability to exploit competition among potential trading partners is a major source of bargaining power. Competition within a negotiation works much like competition in a formal auction. The case describes the bidding for television rights.

This case present the dilemma of an employee who, having been terminated in a manner he deems is unfair, has to decide whether to cash or return a $2,500 check wrongfully sent him by his former employer.

Although not set in a business environment, this case illustrates a common dilemma existing in almost any setting: Do you uphold an institution's honor code, although it means implicating a friend and comrade of wrongdoing?

This case illustrates the dilemma of an employee who, having received an offer to go elsewhere (although to a noncompeting business), must decide where his loyalties lie.

This case presents the dilemma of an employee who, when presented with options by his business, must weigh all the different factors (including his career goals and his fellow employees) in deciding what course of action to take.

The Wild Salmon Center was originally created to provide anglers access to some of the best fishing in the world in return for funding research and conservation. Starting in 1998, the Wild Salmon Center expanded from angling tourism to the implementation of conservation programs aimed at protecting salmon rivers in the Russian Far East and U.S. Pacific Northwest. This case discusses the Wild Salmon Center's efforts to protect the pristine watersheds of the Kamchatka peninsula by developing ecotourism angling expeditions to raise funds for the Center's conservation efforts there. The case touches on involvement of local Kamchatka residents, the development of the angling expeditions, and the challenges that the Wild Salmon Center faced as it grew and its strategic direction evolved to larger scale conservation efforts.

Electrosteel Castings Ltd., based in India, had been the largest domestic manufacturer of iron pipes for over four decades. Although it had achieved solid growth in recent years, the market was under increasing pressure as overall growth slowed and new competitors entered the market. The CEO saw international expansion as critical to future growth. It would also provide additional currency for further investment in new process technologies. After extensive study, management narrowed the options to Europe or Southeast Asia. Given limited resources, Electrosteel could enter only one market, either with a new marketing office or a new manufacturing plant. Building an overseas plant was particularly attractive, as it would effectively translate into Electrosteel being considered a local competitor in that market, reducing costs and improving customer service. Awareness of foreign competitors investigating similar international expansion options significantly increased the need for a decision.

Jindi Enterprises is a manufacturer of heat exchanger units for residential and commercial markets in China. Recently, the company's top sales representative, who is also the sales manager for one of the company's provincial offices, quit and joined a competitor. A replacement must be found, but a delay in choosing a strategic direction is seriously complicating the hiring decision. The CEO must determine the corporate strategy and ensure that the hiring strategy reflects these changes.

This case details the rise of hard-disk storage manufacturer MiniScribe in the mid-1980s and the company's demise after executives manipulated the financial information.

This case presents an application of conjoint analysis in a financial services setting. It is best used in a course on marketing research. The decision in the case centers on a fund manager's need to generate additional profit from a mutual fund. To do this, he needs to determine a new pricing structure for the fund. The case presents students with the results from a real-world conjoint analysis and requires them to work through the pricing and profit implications of that analysis.

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to buyer-supplier relationships and supply chain management in general. Views of buyer-supplier relationships have evolved from the old school of the 1980s, where buyers and suppliers were viewed as part of a zero-sum game, to the more collaborationist outlook of the 1990s, which claimed that buyers and suppliers could cooperate to the benefit of both, to the more network-oriented view of the 2000s, where buyers and suppliers are parts of organic business ecosystems. One interesting fact is that, empirically, buyer-supplier relationships exist in surprisingly multifarious forms in different geographic regions and business sectors. There is no one dominant mode. This case provides an outline of eight different real-life examples to illustrate a broad range of buyer-supplier relationships.

Geoffrey Canada, CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone, wanted his organization to grow dramatically to reach thousands of poor and underserved children in Harlem. The agency ran a variety of successful social service programs throughout New York City that were separately funded and ran independently of each other. In 2000, Canada led the organization through an ambitious planning process, promising that within 10 years, its new integrated program would reach $46 million in revenues, serve 24,000 people, and expand to an area three times the size of its current zone. But the plan required the agency to change its management structure, measurement systems, and program goals drastically. How would the organization measure the impact of its work? Could such a system be measured? And how did the changes challenge the passionate directors who first established the component programs?

Explores the career challenges facing highly successful women who leave the full-time workforce for several years to manage family commitments. Carol Cohen is a 1985 Harvard MBA who has professional line experience in a manufacturing environment, followed by a successful transition into investment banking. Details Cohen's decision to return to a professional career after almost 11 years out of the full-time workforce. Describes her decision-making process, including discussions with her husband about shared parenting responsibilities, and provides details of her professional networking, resume development, and interview preparation. Concludes with a job offer to Cohen from Sankaty Advisors, a Bain Capital Partners company. Discussion centers on the decision to return to work, the strategic plan and specific steps, and concludes with questions about setting expectations--both at home and at work--and negotiating terms.

Didier Cherpitel, CEO of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), is implementing a new strategy that will fundamentally change the role of its International Secretariat. The organization is in the early stages of implementing a best practice tool called the National Society Self-Assessment and Cherpitel's challenge is to move forward with the implementation of this tool, while ensuring that the International Secretariat takes the necessary actions to strengthen IFRC's brand and image.