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This case involves the decision of a publishing company, El Diablo, to target a traditionally underserved market with a series of books about gang life and street vigilantism. The decision has repercussions within the firm, as collegial relationships are tested by office politics, and outside of the firm, where community response to the project is less than positive. Civil rights groups challenge the company's development of pulp fiction targeted at black youths as unethical and likely to lead them to violence. Also, the hiring of a minority candidate by the minority director of the new products division is questioned by top management. The case raises difficult questions: Does a corporation have a civic duty to its target audience? How might that manifest itself? At the intersection of profit and responsibility, who has the right of way? (Role-play opportunities are explained in the teaching note.)

Introduces Handspring, a manufacturer of handheld devices, and concentrates particularly on the company's and founders' historical and forward-looking relationships. At the time of the case, Handspring is generating approximately $500 million annually in sales and is a leading brand of PDAs. The company founders are Donna Dubinsky, Ed Colligan, and Jeff Hawkins--the "legendary" team that developed Palm Computing's handheld PDA in 1992. The founders look back to their rationale for striking out on their own from Palm and the lessons learned and different paths followed in this second company founding. Focuses on the creation, valuation, and nurture of Handspring's myriad relationships, including supplier and manufacturer relationships, marketing agreements, and new business partnerships.

The venerable British retailer Marks & Spencer suffered a series of setbacks in the late 1990s. The company's performance, which had been solid for decades, quickly deteriorated, forcing the rapid turnover of chief executives and many restructurings. Perhaps the largest change the retailer made was the abandonment of its global expansion plans, withdrawing from continental Europe and trying to sell off assets in the United States, including the well-known clothiers Brooks Brothers. This case examines the changes Marks & Spencer made between 1998 and 2001, as the company tries to shore up its ailing core business, U.K. retail, while deciding on an appropriate global strategy.

After nearly two decades of spectacular performance, Home Depot reported a disappointing performance in the year 2000. The company began expanding its business scope as a result of saturating its growth in the core business. This case explores whether the disappointing performance is just a temporary slip or if the company is reaching the limits of sustainability of its competitive advantage.

GE's chief litigation counsel sought to rationalize litigation flow by viewing it as a manufacturing process. By applying the principles of Six Sigma, P.D. Villareal created an Early Dispute Resolution (EDR) system that enabled both lawyers and managers to work together to address potential disputes early and efficiently. Though the savings in time and energy were tremendous and obvious, evaluating the financial savings proved trickier. Also on the horizon was the challenge of spreading the program throughout the enormous GE global organization.

The Boston Lyric Opera was the fastest growing opera company in North America during the 1990s. Having successfully completed a move to a larger facility in 1999, the board and general director recognize the need to develop a formal strategic planning and governance process to guide the company into the future. Board members, senior managers, and artistic leaders use the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as the focus of a multi-month strategic planning process that develops a strategy map and objectives in the four BSC perspectives for three core strategic themes. This case describes the high-level scorecard development, its cascading down to departments and individuals and the directors' interactions--using the Balanced Scorecard--with the artistic leaders and board of directors.

This case centers on the decisions a key executive must make to restore the image and profitability of his multinational pizza franchise in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The case contains information on franchising in Brazil and background information on both the franchiser and franchisee (disguised). In addition, the student is given information about Brazil; Brazilian dining habits and preferences with specific regard to pizza; information on competitors; and key aspects of IPH's marketing strategy and operations. .

A video rental store is considering offering home delivery service. Management must value the project under different financing strategies and methods, specifically adjusted present value (APV) and weighted average cost of capital (WACC).

Nintendo must make some important decisions related to the launch and design of the successor to its 16-bit Super NES console. A rewritten version of an earlier case. This is part of a case series examining the competitive dynamics in the home video game industry from 1970 into the new millennium.

Nintendo must make some important decisions regarding relationships with third-party game developers. This is part of a case series examining the competitive dynamics in the home video game industry from 1970 into the new millennium. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Balancing professional and private lives continues to challenge single and committed partners alike. Professionals are expected to work long hours. It is simply part of the ethos of professional service firms. This case focuses on the lives of three couples connected to professional service firms and their ensuing challenges in balancing professional and private life. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Stella Artois, Interbrew company's flagship brand of beer, has experienced phenomenal success on the international market. The United Kingdom market has played a critical role in that success, and Interbrew needs to assess the reasons for this. Interbrew's managing director and chief marketing officer are meeting to have a discussion about how to proceed in developing the Stella Artois brand. First, they need to understand what part of the company's success was due to expert marketing practices and what part might possibly be due to being in the right place at the right time. They also want to assess what possible steps might be taken to spread these practices across the corporation for use in the company's global marketing strategy.

Describes Sony's entry into the home video-game market and its strategy for gaining market share. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Set in the context of the rise and fall of the Internet stocks in the United States.

An analyst's critique of Amazon's prospectus from the perspective of its bond holders.

This case presents four exercises that teach compounding interest and valuing bonds.

Lucent Technologies' New Ventures Group has created innovative ways to commercialize Bell Labs research. The success of this approach now forces the group to evaluate whether to stay inside Bell Labs or become an external venture capitalist group.

Alibris is an Internet-era company providing search and fulfillment services for hard-to-find (rare, used, and out-of-print) books. At the time of the case, the company had made decisions to change its revenue model, to become involved in the fulfillment process for each book it sells by establishing a cross-dock facility, and to purchase Oracle's Internet commerce software. However, the implementation of this software has been very difficult, delaying the launch of the new fulfillment business and costing large amounts of money at a time when cash is scarce. The company's leaders, who are not IT professionals, must decide whether to continue with Oracle or begin anew with another product.