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Gary Van Spronsen, president of Miller SQA, has been asked to leave the thriving subsidiary he helped to reinvent to join Herman Miller's corporate initiative on innovation. Miller SQA has pioneered processes new to the Herman Miller organization, such as computer-assisted sales and value chain integration. This case details the innovations that have led to a completely new business model for a previously underserved market and highlights the integration of target customer, product design, manufacturing, and supply chain management. Includes color exhibits.

Provides a context in which students can explore managerial decision making that is critically informed by data analysis. The setting is a retail bank and the decision making relates to the bank's policy toward online banking. The management team is evaluating whether the bank should charge for access to online banking, provide incentives to use the service, or devise some other policy altogether. With thousands of customers already using the online site, the bank is well positioned to assess the impact of the service on customer profitability and retention before making final policy decisions. Told from the perspective of a recent MBA graduate who was charged with performing the necessary data analysis and ultimately coming up with policy recommendations.

Chiang-Sho Ltd. is a joint venture producing agricultural machinery in China. The CEO must decide how to respond to pressure from the Chinese partner--also the joint venture's largest customer--to increase production and lower prices. The CEO must choose either a growth or harvest strategy.

Japan experienced rapid growth in the 1950s and 1960s while following a set of policies that differ from current policies in fashion. Although some observers believe that Japanese growth occurred in spite of the policies rather than because of them, several countries have looked to Japan's approach during this period as a way to accelerate their own growth. This case provides data on performance and describes the important institutions, policies, and control tools that were used in Japan. A rewritten version of two earlier cases.

Beijing Jeep Corp. Ltd. was one of the first joint ventures between an American company, DaimlerChrysler Corp., and a Chinese enterprise, Beijing Automotive Works. Early in its operations, Beijing Jeep was given preferential treatment on tariffs and foreign exchange and had spent many years developing relationships with senior government officials who protected it from import competition. After several years of negotiations, there was an agreement of terms for China to enter into the World Trade Organization. Terms of this agreement called for a steep reduction in tariffs for imported automobiles, which would lower entry barriers to the Chinese automotive industry, thus creating more competition for the company. Tariffs on components imported from the United States would also be reduced, but not enough to offset the flood of imported vehicles into the market. Entry into the World Trade Organization would mean a lot of changes, and Beijing Jeep must determine whether it should continue focusing on the relationships it has built with the government, or approach its joint venture partner for additional support.

Describes how Siemens, the German electrical engineering giant, has developed and manages global R&D in its large Information and Communications Networks (ICN) division. In 1994, Siemens opened its Bangalore (India) center, which has now grown into one of its largest regional development centers outside Germany. With Bangalore asking for increased resource independence and managerial autonomy, senior management has to decide how the activities in India fit into its global development strategy. This tension is played out in a large software project led by Bangalore developers in which an increase in project autonomy also results in serious technical problems for Siemens in the quality-driven telecommunications equipment industry.

A U.K. and a U.S. firm are entering into a merger agreement. Management must decide whether the merged companies should be domiciled in the United Kingdom and account for the merger as a pooling of interests or the United States and account for the merger as a purchase. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

The footnote disclosure for eBay, Inc. in 2000 indicates that if the company had accounted for employee stock options under the fair value method, its reported profit of $48 million would have been a loss of $91 million. The protagonist is a prospective member of the compensation committee of the board of directors, which provides a corporate governance perspective on the role of compensation in attracting, motivating, and retaining talented employees.

Describes the design and launch of Nasdaq Japan. Addresses issues concerning the design of electronic markets, the impact of information technology on market structures and relationships, the launch of new ventures by established firms, and the cultural issues that arise when starting new ventures in global markets.

Frank Blethen, the fourth-generation publisher of The Seattle Times, ponders the challenges facing this family business. This case reviews the long history of this business and family and asks whether family ownership and management are in the interests of both the company and family.

A Sydney-based biotechnology company is attempting to enter the fast-growing proteomics area. This case highlights choices in business design and changes in these over time. Also addresses issues in geographic location.

Describes a start-up company seeking to exploit population genetic data from long-lived, healthy people. The company must address legal, financial, ethical, and personal issues among its team to launch the company.

Introduces the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Provides a WACC calculation, although it has been intentionally designed to mislead students. Thus, their task is to identify and explain the "mistakes" in the analysis, which are intended to highlight conceptual issues regarding WACC and its components. Such issues are often misunderstood by students. Assumes that students have been exposed to the WACC, CAPM, the dividend discount model, and the earnings capitalization model.

These two cases consider the capital investment decisions to be made by executives of this large chemicals firm in January 2001. The 'A' case presents a go/no-go project evaluation regarding improvements to a polypropylene production plant. The 'B' case reviews the same project but from one level higher, where the executive faces an either/or investment decision between two mutually exclusive projects. The objective of the two cases is to expose students to a wide range of capital-budgeting issues which includes, among others, the identification of relevant cash flows, the critical assessment of a capital investment evaluation system, the classic "cross-over" problem, in which project rankings disagree on the basis of net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR), and the assessment of real option value latent in managerial flexibility to change operating technologies.

The Exxel Group, a leading Latin American buyout fund, faces a challenge when deciding whether and how to exit its largest investment. The capital markets are very weak, precluding an initial public offering. Undertaking a trade sale of the firm, however, proves to be challenging.

Blinds To Go is a manufacturer and retailer of customized window coverings. The company has been steadily expanding the number of stores across North America. The vice-chairman is concerned with the lack of staff in some of these newly expanded stores. With plans of an initial public offering within the next two years, senior management must determine what changes need to be made to the recruitment strategy and how to develop staff that will help them achieve the company's growth objectives.

After acquiring the German online auction company Alando.de, eBay CEO Meg Whitman and her team must integrate Alando's Web site with the company's existing platform. The acquisition is the first step of eBay's journey to become a global trading platform. In addition to the challenge of a technical integration of massive scale, the case explores the inner workings of eBay's senior team. Includes color exhibits.

A week after becoming country manager of eBay's recently acquired German auction site, Philipp Justus must steer the company through a massive technical integration with eBay's Web site. Throughout the seven-month project, Justus and his team must master the challenge of working with counterparts thousands of miles away and determine how much they can change their online trading site without completely alienating their user community.

Students assume the role of adviser to Anita Roddick, the managing director of The Body Shop, and prepare a three-year forecast of the firm's income statement and balance sheet. Introduces percentage-of-sales forecasting, and walks students through the preparation of a simplified forecast, first using pencil and paper, then a spreadsheet program on a personal computer. Emphasizes the importance of being able to talk plainly about one's financial forecast and the insights that are of use to the general manager.

The managing director of this specialty foundry must decide whether to approve a major investment to automate part of her plant's production process. The case presents information sufficient to build cash flow forecasts of production costs incremental to this investment. Discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis reveals that this investment project is attractive but that the benefits hinge on important assumptions about the plant's business volume, the manager's ability to lay off workers over the objections of a labor union, and the hurdle rate. The objectives of the case are to (1) introduce students to the mechanics of DCF analysis of go/no-go capital investment decisions, (2) consider the principle of incremental analysis as the foundation for identifying relevant cash flows for a project, (3) explore the classic trade-offs in capital-for-labor investments, and (4) review analytical adjustments required in comparing projects of unequal lives.