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A U.S. manager in a multinational consumer products company has been assigned to lead a product launch in Argentina with an international team. This case highlights how issues around cultures, virtual teams, and matrixes organizations intersect and challenge managers to use all their leadership skills.

This case focuses on the financial health of Aspire, a forty-year-old nonprofit organization serving the needs of the developmentally disabled. To meet the residential, educational, and vocational needs of its clients, Aspire has grown significantly by expanding services and buying residences. As a nonprofit organization, Aspire has to consider financial implications and organizational/mission concerns as it explores the purchase of a building and the consolidation of administrative activities. The case enables students to explore the strengths and weaknesses of Aspire's financial situation, the primary financial indicators that different types of lenders would consider, as well as the financial and organizational costs and benefits to Aspire for the various lending options. The case profiles several different types of financing options, including traditional bank loans, the issuance of tax-exempt bonds, and the participation of a community development financial institution. Students are asked to do analysis and recommend a financing choice for Aspire. The case is based on work that the Illinois Facilities Fund, an Illinois community development finance institution, did with Aspire in 2000.

Studies the impact of tariffs, subsidies, and quotas on the U.S. steel market. Focuses on "winners" and "losers" from different policies. Applications to the events in the U.S. steel market in 2001 illustrate the impact of these policies.

In 1996, the St. Louis-based manufacturer Zoltek launched a massive expansion of capacity to produce commercial-grade carbon fiber, a composite material used to produce a wide variety of end products ranging from sporting goods to windmill blades. Zoltek's goal was to become the dominant firm in a market whose growth was expected to be spectacular starting in the late 1990s. Describes Zoltek's major strategic moves in the mid-1990s and provides a possible example of the Stackelberg leadership model from oligopoly theory.

Presents an analysis of the decision regarding a new product introduction. The main issues for discussion are: sunk costs, incremental costs, cannibalization, shared facilities, and the treatment of inflation.

The New York Audubon Society (NYCAS), founded in 1979, became the National Audubon's largest chapter, with a city-wide membership of more than 10,000 members. Prior to 1993, NYCAS' services were provided entirely by volunteers working in a committee structure, with the board composed primarily of committee chairmen. The nature of the organization transformed as it grew in size and complexity from focusing on bird conservation to broader environmental advocacy. In 1993, the board undertook a dramatic change and hired an executive director, primarily for fundraising purposes. Discusses fund accounting and nonprofit accounting practices, as well as the NYCAS' experiences dealing with organizational growth, investment management, grant acquisition and use, fundraising, nonprofit status, and financial disclosure.

Chris Johnson has been given the task of initiating and managing the world's largest SAP rollout. The scope is global, the time frame for completion is five years, and the cost is estimated at 3 billion Swiss francs. Johnson has to move to Switzerland to start building an organization and get Nestle ready for a new way of managing the business. Documents his first months in his new job and lays out the early challenges.

Jim Sharpe, 10 years after receiving his MBA from Harvard and working for others, has finally become his own boss and 100% owner of manufacturer of aluminum extrusions. After 10 months of an unfunded search, he acquires the business in an LBO and prepares to face his employees on the first day.

Williams, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based firm in various energy businesses, must decide whether to accept a financing package offered by Berkshire Hathaway and Lehman Brothers. The proposed one-year credit facility would provide the firm with financial resources in a difficult period.

This problem set focuses on process-analysis calculations, including throughput, capacity, cycle time, and utilization. See also UV3514 and UV3516.

This problem set focuses on process-analysis calculations, including throughput, capacity, cycle time, and utilization. See also UV3512 and UV3514.

For 10 years, Academic Medical Hospital's chief of staff had struggled to decrease the amount of time patients spend waiting in the emergency department. Moving patients through the department is a complex task and therefore long wait times had always been excused. But now, the hospital has adopted Six Sigma, a highly disciplined and data-intensive method for streamlining the emergency-care activities and reducing patient wait time. This case traces the design and implementation of a Black Belt improvement project. The various phases of Six Sigma methodology (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) are described in the setting of the patient wait-time study and several statistical tools are demonstrated with operating- performance data. The case ends with the Black Belt being concerned about the statistical significance of the results of the recently completed pilot study as well as deep-rooted implementation resistance from several key stakeholders in the hospital and in the medical school. Having led her team through the various phases of Six Sigma and having completed the pilot study, the Black Belt wonders how to focus the next team meeting. The case can be used to teach Six Sigma methodology, to critique effectiveness of application of the phases and tools, and to deal with the statistical significance issues and the implementation concerns. See also the B and C cases.

The board and management of Swissair were challenged in a new way after the country decided in 1992 against joining the European Economic Area. Swissair had to remain globally competitive or run the risk of becoming an insignificant regional airline given that it no longer operated under the same conditions as airlines in the European aviation market. Describes the strategic decisions and developments until the collapse of the airline in 2001, with a focus on corporate governance issues.

In January 2000, four major Danish companies launch an online B2B marketplace. The alliance process forces each to consider its capabilities, strategy and compatibility with other partners. Their venture quickly encounters unforeseen obstacles and opportunities, including a chance to develop the world's first B2G (business to government) marketplace. Simultaneously, similar alliances launch competing Nordic marketplaces, threatening the venture's expansion, if not its survival.

The Bertelsmann-owned French book club, France Loisirs, has successfully operated a subscription-based business model delivering a remarkably high profit margin. Considering rising economic pressure and a declining member base, the case introduces the club's basic business principles and summarizes strategic options for sustainability and further growth from a top management perspective.

French IT consulting giant Cap Gemini is poised to purchase the consulting arm of Ernst & Young, a U.S.-based Big 5 accounting firm. In doing so, many differences need to be resolved, including negotiating with Ernst & Young entities all over the world as well as converting Ernst & Young partners into employees of publicly held Cap Gemini. Amidst all of the decisions, the market for IT consulting services is changing rapidly, further complicating the merger negotiations and implementation. Teaching Purpose: To study the range of issues that must be considered and resolved in negotiating a professional services firm merger, the valuation and motivational challenges associated with merging a private entity into a public entity, and the challenges of negotiating a cross-border merger.

Putnam Investments uses technology to enable many of its frontline service providers to work routinely and permanently from their homes. This case explores issues related to this strategy, from conceptualization to implementation and highlighting continuous improvement.

Mount Auburn Hospital is preparing to introduce a physician order entry (POE) system throughout the hospital, starting with the labor and delivery ward. POE systems replace paper-based and oral medication ordering processes with an information system; the physician uses the system to enter medication orders, which are then transferred to the hospital's pharmacy. This is Mount Auburn's first experience with POE systems, and the implementation team must determine how best to introduce the technology to the physicians and other personnel who will use it.

Data Services provides flexible, scalable data processing and information storage to the fast food industry. Sales have grown steadily, but the company has operated at a loss since its founding five years ago. Data Services management is enthusiastic about the company's prospects. The chief executive of Armistead, the insurance company that owns Data Services, is under pressure from corporate officers to slough off the subsidiary. A business analysis is done not only to help the CEO decide whether to continue investment in Data Services, but also to determine if the company is well-managed. Information includes the day-to-day operations of Data Services, its sales process, profit and loss statement, revenue and expense analysis, and cost allocations.

During the 1990s, Argentina carried out an ambitious program of economic reforms, including the privatization of its telephone system and other state-owned utilities. In 2002, however, a severe economic crisis forced Argentina to default on its foreign debts, devalue its foreign currency, and freeze bank accounts. As part of the emergency measures, the government ordered the freezing of telephone and other utility tariffs and the renegotiation of all utility concession contracts. HKS Case Number 1678.0