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On September 1, 1998, the government of Malaysia imposed currency and capital controls in response to the financial crisis that had swept Asia. The controls sparked an enormous controversy in the world of international finance. Some celebrated the controls for insulating the Malaysian economy from the unstable international financial system. Others criticized the controls for trapping investors and allowing the government to protect the interests of "cronies." This debate also raised the central question about the future of the international financial architecture: What is the appropriate balance between financial market freedom and government discretion in the management of the global economy?

Accellion sought to position itself as a service provider in the Distributed File Storage, Management and Delivery market space. Its major targeted customers are Global2000 entreprises and Internet-based providers of premium content who need to supply their organizations and clients with reliable and fast access to their Internet-linked servers. As more and more companies move their applications and data from isolated desktops and local area networks (LAN's) to more globally accessible Internet-based applications, Accellion promises the instant infrastructure to provide the required availability and download and upload times, improving their revenues and reducing their costs. Still new to the industry, Accellion developed its service guarantee as a part of its value proposition to potential customers. The guarantee was designed to credibly promise high service standards to potential clients.

The case documents the strategic options open to Quiñenco, the quoted holding company 82% owned by the Luksic family, in its ambition to become a major multilatina. Their successful strategy has been to acquire under-valued companies, enhance their assets and sell them for a gain. However, the stock price of Quiñenco has languished since the initial IPO in July 1997.

This case discusses the potential benefits and costs of issuing floating-priced convertibles, also referred to as ""death spirals"". These are convertibles where the conversion price is a discount from the market price in a look-back period. The management of Log on America is blaming investment banks and convertible investors for the stock price collapse after the convertible was issued.

Pallotta Team Works is a for-profit, privately owned company that produces multiday fundraising events for nonprofit organizations. Dan Pallotta, the 40-year-old CEO, founded the enterprise in 1992. The company has grown rapidly, having raised over $200 million for charities. As the boundaries between the for-profit and nonprofit sectors blur, this case provides an example of how a for-profit entrepreneurial approach and the market test where the lines between the two sectors are drawn. Pallotta and the company's aggressive style, plus the basic business model, generate a significant amount of controversy among nonprofit organizations and the press. Pallotta is outspoken about the merits of his business model, the appropriateness of his salary, and his company's marketing approach. He wants to increase total philanthropy in the United States. "How many ads for charity did you see on the Super Bowl this year," exclaims Pallotta.

Wil Cardon is the third-generation steward of his family's real estate land development business. He grapples with issues of business structure, intergenerational business, compensation, and family values. This case includes in-depth discussion of the land development business in the Southwest.

In this case, Maverick Lodging, a hotel-management company, assesses the initial effectiveness of its recently implemented balanced scorecard system. The case gives students exposure to (1) determining an appropriate management-control and performance-measurement system for an organization once its strategy and structure have been established, (2) evaluating the design and implementation of a comprehensive balanced scorecard framework, (3) analyzing the usefulness of flexible budgeting as part of a balanced scorecard, and (4) assessing the performance of operating managers.

This case details the implementation of the e-business initiative--the last of Jack Welch's four company-wide strategic thrusts. First, it summarizes the 20-year change process that Welch led, detailing the initiatives he put in place. It then traces how Gerry Podesta, the e-business head in GE Plastics, implemented the new initiative. In doing so, highlights how the "social architecture" (culture and values) and "operating systems" (systems and processes) help the company drive through changes that have it named Internet Week's top e-business of 2000. Ends with questions about the effectiveness of successive pushes on "e-sell," "e-buy," and "e-make" and whether the e-business teams should be broken up and rolled back into the company.

Details the rationale for and design of a unique organizational response by Motorola to the challenges of contingent staffing at its semiconductor facility in Austin, Texas. The new outsourcing strategy is built on principles of supply chain management and business webbing to deliver flexibility in staffing, cost controls, and high-quality workers. Through a detailed description of the company's existing methods for hiring contingent workers, it brings to light the organizational costs borne by firms that fail to develop an integrated strategic approach and provides an opportunity to examine the incentives of the different players (both internal and external) to participate in a new staffing model based on interfirm alliances with staffing companies. Also, sets up a discussion of the potential difficulties the company is likely to run into in implementing the new staffing model and broader issues, such as the evolving nature of the employment contract, employee trust and loyalty, and strategic issues that arise when multiple firms compete for the same workforce.

Biogen is a successful biotech company facing a critical juncture. CEO John Mullen ponders how technological changes introduced into the research function will shape larger corporate decisions. This world in which biotechnology companies operated had changed dramatically over the past few years. Parts of biology were rapidly evolving from being an individualistic, wet lab, bench-science driven field toward one where scientists manipulated huge amounts of data and divided up research steps into a factorylike production process. At the same time, the cost of developing a drug and bringing it to market had ballooned, from an estimated $231 million in 1991 to $802 million in 2000. Biogen was conservative in adopting new genomics tools. This case describes how the company decided to bring in house the latest genomics in silico tools and applied them to the discovery and research phase for drug development. The company also then restructured its research strategy. As the new tools and early-phase research began to bear fruit, Mullen realized that they implied significant changes down the road for other parts of Biogen.

Discusses the macroeconomic and political situation in the United Kingdom from the end of World War II through 2001. Focuses on the interactions among macroeconomic performance, labor relations, the corporate governance system, and social services. In particular, compares and contrasts the policies (and their implications) adopted by successive government administrations, from the postwar Clement Attlee Labour government to the administration of Conservative Margaret Thatcher and finally to Tony Blair and "New Labour."

Dozier Industries was a U.S. manufacturer of electronic security systems. In 1994, it received a large order from the United Kingdom, which stipulated payment in British pounds. The company received a deposit, with the balance expected to be paid in 90 days. The contract provided a slim profit margin, which could be easily eliminated by an unfavorable change in exchange rates. The chief financial officer had to decide whether to accept the foreign exchange risk or to hedge the exposure.

In 2001, News Corp. is the smallest of the major media and entertainment conglomerates, but it has the broadest global presence. In an effort to establish a major distribution presence in the United States, News Corp. had looked to acquire DirecTV, the largest U.S. direct broadcast satellite provider, in what many observers had considered would be a "transforming acquisition." After 20 months of trying to do so, and the recent competitive offer from Echostar, Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp., withdrew the company's bid for DirecTV. This case describes how Murdoch has created a global empire from a single newspaper in Australia. News' major assets include its newspaper businesses, film and television production, satellite broadcasting, television channels, and book and magazine publishing. Also describes News' distinctive operating style and Murdoch's role in shaping the corporate culture. News Corp. must now confront three sets of questions. First, how important is it for News Corp. to establish a distribution presence in the United States, and should it pursue a different approach? Second, how should it tackle the deteriorating economics of two of its core businesses: newspapers and network television? Third, what will be the impact of recent repeals of cross-ownership restrictions in the media industry on News Corp.'s competitive position vis-a-vis other major conglomerates?

Summarizes world markets for oil and natural gas from 1980-2001. Examines the rise of OPEC, two oil shocks, Gulf War efforts, and recent pricing issues facing Saudi Arabia.

The director of development at a large law firm and two other members of a selection committee will be interviewing three candidates for an articling position at the firm. The director must decide what questions to ask of the three law students applying, keeping in mind what questions she could not ask of the candidates. Through role play, students are given the opportunity to develop interview questions and interview the candidates.

This case examines the decisions of John Lynch, president and CEO of Knoll Furniture, to go public in early 1997. Knoll went private in an LBO in 1996 and Warburg Pincus, the LBO sponsor, wants Lynch to take Knoll public. Lynch needs to weigh the positive and negative issues of a public offering.

Details a thinly disguised situation facing a recent Harvard MBA graduate who was forced by a prospective employer to place a dollar value on a grant of stock options. There are two objectives: 1) Serves as an introduction to option valuation, in which students have an opportunity to use market data to value an option in a realistic setting. 2) The setting permits a broader discussion of the wisdom of option-based incentive plans and the popular misconceptions of the value of option grants based on a widespread misunderstanding of how options work and how they are valued.

Eric Palmer arrived at the top floor of Camden Robotics, a supplier of industrial automation tools, excited to tell CEO Tom O'Reilly about his latest win: a print ad account with a well-known local software maker. "You pulled in more business?" the boss responded. "It's really working out, then, isn't it?" Six months earlier, Palmer, the head of marketing communications at Camden, had been in a less optimistic mood as he'd walked into the executive suite. His department had recently expanded and hired some pricey designers, but because of the economic slowdown, Camden was launching fewer marketing campaigns, and Palmer had feared that his department would be targeted for layoffs. Instead, O'Reilly proposed recasting the marketing function as a business unit. It would continue to provide services to other units within the company, but it would also be free to engage in "value pricing" and could propose project work internally just as outside agencies might. In addition, the new group, Creative Central, could serve customers outside Camden in its spare time to earn revenue to defray its expenses. At first, the reaction to the news was overwhelmingly positive across the company. Palmer was thriving in the role of corporate entrepreneur. But several months into the change, the complaints started. As the discontent grows, O'Reilly is left to decide whether this organizational change is working. In R0204A and R0204Z, commentators Dan Logan, Michael McKenney, Mark P. Rice, and Jeffrey W. Bennett weigh in on this fictional case study.

Eric Palmer arrived at the top floor of Camden Robotics, a supplier of industrial automation tools, excited to tell CEO Tom O'Reilly about his latest win: a print ad account with a well-known local software maker. "You pulled in more business?" the boss responded. "It's really working out, then, isn't it?" Six months earlier, Palmer, the head of marketing communications at Camden, had been in a less optimistic mood as he'd walked into the executive suite. His department had recently expanded and hired some pricey designers, but because of the economic slowdown, Camden was launching fewer marketing campaigns, and Palmer had feared that his department would be targeted for layoffs. Instead, O'Reilly proposed recasting the marketing function as a business unit. It would continue to provide services to other units within the company, but it would also be free to engage in "value pricing" and could propose project work internally just as outside agencies might. In addition, the new group, Creative Central, could serve customers outside Camden in its spare time to earn revenue to defray its expenses. At first, the reaction to the news was overwhelmingly positive across the company. Palmer was thriving in the role of corporate entrepreneur. But several months into the change, the complaints started. As the discontent grows, O'Reilly is left to decide whether this organizational change is working. In R0204A and R0204Z, commentators Dan Logan, Michael McKenney, Mark P. Rice, and Jeffrey W. Bennett weigh in on this fictional case study.

Eric Palmer arrived at the top floor of Camden Robotics, a supplier of industrial automation tools, excited to tell CEO Tom O'Reilly about his latest win: a print ad account with a well-known local software maker. "You pulled in more business?" the boss responded. "It's really working out, then, isn't it?" Six months earlier, Palmer, the head of marketing communications at Camden, had been in a less optimistic mood as he'd walked into the executive suite. His department had recently expanded and hired some pricey designers, but because of the economic slowdown, Camden was launching fewer marketing campaigns, and Palmer had feared that his department would be targeted for layoffs. Instead, O'Reilly proposed recasting the marketing function as a business unit. It would continue to provide services to other units within the company, but it would also be free to engage in "value pricing" and could propose project work internally just as outside agencies might. In addition, the new group, Creative Central, could serve customers outside Camden in its spare time to earn revenue to defray its expenses. At first, the reaction to the news was overwhelmingly positive across the company. Palmer was thriving in the role of corporate entrepreneur. But several months into the change, the complaints started. As the discontent grows, O'Reilly is left to decide whether this organizational change is working. In R0204A and R0204Z, commentators Dan Logan, Michael McKenney, Mark P. Rice, and Jeffrey W. Bennett weigh in on this fictional case study.