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Examines the valuation of United Parcel Service (UPS) at the time of its IPO in mid-1999. Offers students the opportunity to assess UPS's current performance relative to its major competitor, Federal Express (FedEx), and to judge whether that performance is sustainable. Students then make projections of UPS's future earnings performance, estimate on IPO price, and assess the reasonableness of their estimate compared to the valuation of FedEx and best-in-class leaders.

A senior manager in a U.S. manufacturing firm must make a recommendation about whether to move 57 labor-intensive jobs from the existing California plant to a new facility in a Mexican maquiladora. The Mexican opportunity would require deciding the mode of entry (subcontracting, shelter operator, or wholly owned subsidiary) and location (border or interior).

ING Direct Canada is a retail banking operation and a subsidiary of one of the top global providers of integrated financial services, ING Group of the Netherlands. ING Direct Canada needs to meet the operational demands of a growing client base, while maintaining its current staffing levels, physical space, and commitment to same-day account processing. The senior vice-president of operations must implement procedures to cope with the immediate challenges of the company's growth, as well as develop a long-term strategy. Options to consider include new technology, increased efficiencies, or relaxing the same-day processing requirements.

Describes an entrepreneur's attempts to invent, manufacture, and distribute an inexpensive electric toothbrush.

Highlights giving and receiving feedback in an MBA classroom setting.

Wal-Mart has been growing at 15% per year for the last 10 years. Can it keep growing at that rate for the next 10 years? CEO Lee Scott reflects on his strategy for achieving such growth, relying on a combination of supercenters, neighborhood markets, and international interest.

McDonald's has over many years built an operating strategy based on consistency and quality through a limited product range. Competitive forces have drawn the company into a much wider variety of foods and services to maintain growth. Now, new competitors threaten to beat McDonald's at its own, original game.

Explores the highly successful PC and low-end server manufacturer's entry into the large-scale server market in the United States. A key difference of this new market is the intense service element required to support the larger hardware. Specifically, the industry standard is to have a technician onsite with a required part within four hours of problem diagnosis. This type of service presents a problem for Dell, as its potential customers are widely dispersed throughout the United States. Should Dell create an in-house field service team to ensure service quality and maintain control of its customer relationships or outsource the field service to a third-party provider? Complicating the issue is the presence of IBM, the biggest player in the large-scale server market.

Glegg Water Co. is an international company that specializes in customizing premanufactured components into full industrial water treatment systems. In the early 1990s, the water treatment industry had introduced a process that removes charged particles from water used in industrial applications. This technology was superior to resin technology because it was more environmentally sound and more reliable. However, its applications were limited to low water flows. Glegg, through its development of the E-Cell, refined the technology, making it available to high water flow operations. Despite the clear technological superiority, Glegg was finding it difficult penetrating the market. The CEO must develop a strategy and marketing plan that will make E-Cell the industry standard.

On January 7, 2002, Paul Levy became CEO of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a troubled organization, in serious financial difficulty. This case describes the situation Levy inherited, his negotiations prior to taking the job, and his first six months as CEO.

Starbucks, the world's leading specialty coffee company, developed a strategic alliance with Conservation International, a major international environmental nonprofit organization. The purpose of the alliance was to promote coffee-growing practices of small farms that would protect endangered habitats. The collaboration emerged from the company's corporate social responsibility policies and its coffee procurement strategy. The initial project was in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas and resulted in the incorporation of shade-grown coffee into the Starbucks product line, providing an attractive alternative market for the farmer cooperatives at a time when coffee producers were in economic crisis due to plummeting world prices. Simultaneously, the company had to deal with growing pressures from nonprofit organizations in the Fair Trade movement, demanding higher prices for farmers. Starbucks was reviewing the future of its alliance with Conservation International and its new coffee procurement guidelines aimed at promoting environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable coffee production. The nature of the industry puts the case in the global context from both the supply and demand sides.

AIG is an American insurance company. A trade dispute between the United States and the European Union threatens to block the accession of China to the World Trade Organization, and AIG plays a role as the only foreign firm to own fully controlled subsidiaries in China. The disagreement is about the future of these existing subsidiaries, as well as potential new ones that AIG might seek to establish in China. What are the issues from each stakeholder's perspective, and what options are available to resolve this dispute?

Intermountain Health Care (IHC), an integrated delivery system based in Utah, has adopted a new strategy for managing health care delivery. The approach focuses management attention not only on the facilities where care takes place but also on physician decision making and the care process itself, with the aim of boosting physician productivity and improving care quality, while saving money. This case explores the challenges facing Brent James, executive director of the Institute for Health Care Delivery Research at IHC, as he implements new structures and systems (including a data warehouse for care outcomes, electronic patient records, computer workstations, clinical data support systems, and protocols for care) designed to support clinical process management across a geographically diverse group of physicians with varying levels of interest and dedication to IHC. Also highlights an innovative strategy for creating and disseminating knowledge at the individual and organizational levels to maintain high standards in care delivery.

Well before the fateful morning of September 11, 2001, the threat posed to Americans and the United States by Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda ("The Base") network of terrorists was well documented and closely monitored. Two US agencies-the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)-each maintained units devoted to bin Laden. In 1998 and 2000, al Qaeda attacks on US targets had precipitated intensive investigations which yielded a wealth of knowledge about the terrorist operation. Those attacks also promoted increased cooperation between the FBI and CIA, which regularly exchanged personnel and information. Moreover, throughout the summer of 2001, there had been a steady drumbeat of warnings about terrorist attacks, which the US government treated with utmost seriousness. American travelers abroad, US embassies, businesses and military installations were all in a heightened state of alert. The Federal Aviation Authority issued general warnings to airlines. An FBI office reported on suspicious Middle Eastern men taking flying lessons in Phoenix; an aviation student in Minnesota was arrested. The CIA notified the FBI that two suspected al Qaeda members were in the US. This case brings together accounts of what U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies knew about al Qaeda before September 11, 2001 and raises the question of why that knowledge-tips, satellite pictures, intercepted communications, defector reports, courtroom testimony-did not thwart the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. It frames, in particular, the challenges of synthesizing intelligence-the difficulties involved in assembling seemingly random incidents into a coherent picture and distinguishing between credible warnings and probable false alarms. It can be used as a vehicle for discussion about intelligence-gathering per se, as well as government inter-agency and inter-departmental coordination.

In the spring of 1998, nonprofit agencies known as "child-sponsorship" organizations found themselves on the defensive. The agencies-dedicated to raising charitable funds in the United States to support children and their communities in poor, developing countries-had been the subject of a scathing critique, a two-part series in the Chicago Tribune accusing them, in effect, of misleading donors. The series asserted that the organizations had not lived up to the promise implicit in fundraising advertisements: that specific children would benefit directly from the contributions of individual sponsors. The agencies mounted a spirited and largely successful public defense of their approach-one in which aid was targeted not only at individual children but at the communities in which they lived. At the same time, however, they sought new ways to reassure the public about their effectiveness. This case details the ensuing effort by a group of six child sponsorship agencies to agree on "industry" standards that would make their goals and methods clear. The case describes the differing situations of the various organizations so as to lay the groundwork for discussion about likely difficulties in reaching agreement on standards, as well as extrapolation as to what sort of standards could both command consensus among the agencies and satisfy public demands for "transparency." The case serves the broader purpose of framing the issues and dynamics of industry self-regulation more generally, particularly in a nonprofit context. See also, Part B (1665.0). HKS Case Number 1664.0

Cheryl Hailstrom, the CEO of Lakeland Wonders, a manufacturer of high-quality wooden toys, is the first person outside the Swensen family to hold the top job. But she's not a stranger to this 94-year-old company: She'd been the COO of one of its largest customers and had worked with Lakeland to develop many best-selling products. Wally Swensen IV, the previous CEO, chose Cheryl because she knew how to generate profits and because he believed her energy and enthusiasm could take the company to the next level. Yet here she is, nearing her six-month anniversary, wondering why her expansive vision for the company isn't taking hold. She's tried to lead by example: traveling a pounding schedule to visit customers, setting aggressive project deadlines, and proposing a bonus schedule. She has a plan to reach the board's growth goals. The problem is that while Cheryl's senior managers are giving her the nod on the surface, they're all really dragging their feet. Is Cheryl pushing too much change too quickly? Should she bring in outsiders to speedily adopt the changes she envisions and overhaul Lakeland's corporate culture? Or should she keep trying to work with the current team? In R0210A and R0210Z, commentators Kathleen Calcidise of Apple Retail Stores; executive coach Debra Benton; Dan Cohen, co-author of The Heart of Change; and consultant Nina Aversano offer advice in this fictional case study.

Cheryl Hailstrom, the CEO of Lakeland Wonders, a manufacturer of high-quality wooden toys, is the first person outside the Swensen family to hold the top job. But she's not a stranger to this 94-year-old company: She'd been the COO of one of its largest customers and had worked with Lakeland to develop many best-selling products. Wally Swensen IV, the previous CEO, chose Cheryl because she knew how to generate profits and because he believed her energy and enthusiasm could take the company to the next level. Yet here she is, nearing her six-month anniversary, wondering why her expansive vision for the company isn't taking hold. She's tried to lead by example: traveling a pounding schedule to visit customers, setting aggressive project deadlines, and proposing a bonus schedule. She has a plan to reach the board's growth goals. The problem is that while Cheryl's senior managers are giving her the nod on the surface, they're all really dragging their feet. Is Cheryl pushing too much change too quickly? Should she bring in outsiders to speedily adopt the changes she envisions and overhaul Lakeland's corporate culture? Or should she keep trying to work with the current team? In R0210A and R0210Z, commentators Kathleen Calcidise of Apple Retail Stores; executive coach Debra Benton; Dan Cohen, co-author of The Heart of Change; and consultant Nina Aversano offer advice on this fictional case study.

Cheryl Hailstrom, the CEO of Lakeland Wonders, a manufacturer of high-quality wooden toys, is the first person outside the Swensen family to hold the top job. But she's not a stranger to this 94-year-old company: She'd been the COO of one of its largest customers and had worked with Lakeland to develop many best-selling products. Wally Swensen IV, the previous CEO, chose Cheryl because she knew how to generate profits and because he believed her energy and enthusiasm could take the company to the next level. Yet here she is, nearing her six-month anniversary, wondering why her expansive vision for the company isn't taking hold. She's tried to lead by example: traveling a pounding schedule to visit customers, setting aggressive project deadlines, and proposing a bonus schedule. She has a plan to reach the board's growth goals. The problem is that while Cheryl's senior managers are giving her the nod on the surface, they're all really dragging their feet. Is Cheryl pushing too much change too quickly? Should she bring in outsiders to speedily adopt the changes she envisions and overhaul Lakeland's corporate culture? Or should she keep trying to work with the current team? In R0210A and R0210Z, commentators Kathleen Calcidise of Apple Retail Stores; executive coach Debra Benton; Dan Cohen, co-author of The Heart of Change; and consultant Nina Aversano offer advice on this fictional case study.

Surfing on the crest of various consumption trends (health, organic foods, life-styled eating, convenience...), Fresh and Wild launches in the UK a chain of rather focused stores. Should they remain a niche player or try to reach out for the "mass market"? How should they reinforce their management skills and tweak their corporate culture to fulfil their strategic ambitions.

In January 2000, two British middle-tier high technology companies, Stream and Line, announce their merger agreement. On 6 May 2000, in a record period of four months one of the biggest high technology companies with a capitalized market value of more than US$84 billion is formally launched on the world stock markets. On August 1st, the company celebrates its launch with world-wide satellite links in the presence of the newly designated CEO, Roger Farrell. This series of three sequential cases recounts the story of the merger from the perspective of one of the business unit, the Sales Organization, in the UK. The first case, "The Story of a Merger" covers the period between January 2000 and August 2000. It introduces the key character of the three cases, Anne Wright, the newly appointed Sales Organization President. After describing the business and cultures of the two merging companies, it proceeds by giving an account of the two most emotionally engaging events faced by the protagonist early in her position: her introduction to the acquired company, Stream, and the process of site selection and announcement. The second case, "Building the New Organization" covers the second half of 2000. It describes the painful experience of those remaining with the unsuccessful and closing site and the journey of those moving, temporary, to the winning location. After reviewing the appointment process, it gives an account of how the company brings to life the new values of the merged company. The third case, "Bumpy Road of Transformation" gives an account of the major activities during 2001 and 2002. It opens up by going over the residual frustrations as experienced by middle managers. It then proceeds by giving an overview of the systems and initiatives launched by the global and the UK company to equip the organization to meet the challenges of the future.