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Presents three fictionalized but realistic situations in which a venture capitalist may find himself. One situation requires crisis intervention to quell a dispute between a vice president of sales and a CEO; another poses the problem of working out the composition of a board of directors; and the third examines the problem of dividing stock among founders.

China is one of the most popular investment destinations in the world. Throughout much of the 1990s, China accounted for 50% of foreign direct investment (FDI) going into developing countries, and between 1994 and 1997, China was the second-largest recipient of FDI in the world, after the United States. The recent agreements between China and the United States and the European Union over China's accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO) may increase China's already impressive FDI inflows significantly. This case examines the drivers of FDI flows into China and the lessons for other developing countries.

Introduces Grey Warner, the vice president of Merck's Latin America region, and his efforts to improve the organizational effectiveness of the region and to introduce a more global business culture and values. Discusses Merck's ethics and values, its Latin American organization, the change methodologies used, and the political and economic conditions in the region. The change methodologies included Myers Briggs personality type assessment, 360 degree feedback management evaluations, a new strategic planning process, and especially, organizational fitness profiling to discover and overcome barriers to achieving the strategic vision. Teaching Purpose: Allows students to examine the management of foreign operations--especially the management of change and the cultural implications thereof.

Six months into the merger of two global money-center banks, Megan Richards, the new bank's foreign exchange sales manager, is trying to retain her client base in light of the bank's inability to deliver foreign currency in a timely manner. The target banks' inferior systems were chosen for political reasons, major corporate clients are calling Megan with their demands and complaints about breakdowns, and Megan is denied support from her boss, vice chairman in charge of Global Capital Markets. Purpose of the case is to introduce operational and political challenges of post-merger integration, especially as they confront front-line middle managers. (We use the case to open our PMI course.)

This case tells the story of Dr. Bruce Siegel, a New York-born physician who, in 1996, takes a position as president of a financially troubled public hospital, Tampa General. Siegel must consider both the prospect of somehow privatizing the deficit-ridden hospital, at the same time walking a political tightrope because of the need to gain the approval of local elected officials for whatever course he plots. His choices are influenced by the fact that Tampa's sizeable African-American community has historically been convinced that privatization of the hospital will lead to a diminution of services for low-income persons of color in the community. Siegel, himself the son of a Haitian mother, must deal with expectations that, as a person of color himself, he will hew to the consensus approach of the Tampa's black community-at the same time understanding well that if does not put the hospital's finances in order, he risks doing grave harm to his career as a medical administrator. HKS Case Number 1608.0

The first ten pages of the case 'Walt Disney Co.: The Entertainment King' are comprised of the company's history, from 1923 to 2001. The Walt years are described, as is the company's decline after his death and its resurgence under Eisner. The last five pages are devoted to Eisner's strategic challenges in 2001: managing synergy, managing the brand, and managing creativity. Students are asked to think about the keys to Disney's mid-1980s turnaround, about the proper boundaries of the firm, and about what Disney's strategy should be beyond 2001.

This case examines the decisions of Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff, founders of Honest Tea. Honest Tea is a start-up in the ready-to-drink tea market. Goldman and Nalebuff must craft an expansion and financing strategy.

The top management team at India's leading home finance company must decide how to deal with the emergence of intense competition at the end of the 1990s. Having founded the industry and dominated it for nearly 20 years, the well-respected company faces a bevy of new entrants from the banking, mortgage finance, and insurance sectors. In particular, management must decide how to respond to an aggressive new competitor who has copied HDFC's processes, lured away some of its key staff, and whose misleading, but lawful, advertising of interest rates is drawing customers away from HDFC.

International Speedway Corporation was diversified across the racing industry. The company owned and operated (1) Motor Racing Network, Inc. (MRN Radio) the nation's largest independent sports radio network, (2) DAYTONA USA, the official tourist attraction of NASCAR, and (3) Americrown and Motorsports International, providers of catering services, food and beverage concessions, and producers and marketers of motor sports merchandise. Each of the company's segments had seen a surge in growth commensurate with the popularity of the sport.

International Paper is evaluating entry into European markets via acquisition of Aussedat-Rey, France's second largest paper company. The student is exposed to both strategic and valuation issues as much of the expected value of the takeover involves long-term position in the fast growing European market. The case also provides an opportunity to understand differences in cross-border takeovers as the bid is contested by a French buyer and opposed by French nationalists, thus raising political issues.

This series of cases follows a Darden student's career decision and tracks his search process for an acquisition candidate in the retail industry. The (A) case confronts the student's career choice. But the (B) case, the student has decided to acquire his own business and must construct a timetable in the (C) case. The (D) case provides summaries of six candidates for acquisition, followed by an acquisition check list in the note.

This case follows the valuation and negotiation process Wally Camp underwent. The (A) case starts with a description of the business and Wally's assessment of the problems with its current management. Then the case describes the valuation of the company's assets and ends with a valuation decision.

This case invites students to discuss the key resources, factors, and relationships that could be causing the poor performance of a student-run consulting organization. Students are asked to develop a causal-loop diagram showing the key resources, feedback relationships, and delays in the system. Sufficient information is available for students to develop and test a computer simulation model. Policy analysis is expected once a valid model is developed.

This case describes and presents the hog industry crisis of 1998, when farmers suffered from the lowest prices in 30 years, as a perplexing systems problem. Students are asked to hypothesize what went wrong. Tools useful in the analysis include casual loop mapping and systems modeling. Policy alternatives are presented for the students' analysis and recommendation.

This case presents an operating challenge: how does an organization sustain the initial progress achieved through its new quality-improvement system. Nurses and other clinical staff feel that the culture does not support the acknowledgment of mistakes, and the operations manager is trying to ascertain whether this "blame-game" environment is the cause of the improvement slowdown or whether there are other factors. Students are asked to apply systems-thinking tools to reveal their hypotheses of the causes of the improvement problem and to create a stock-flow map of the system structure. A systems-dynamics model can be used in class or as a preparation assignment. The simulation model enables students to develop a deeper understanding of the systems-dynamics behavior. The subsequent cases in the series UV3506 and UV3507; UV3508 is an abridgment of the A, B, and C cases) provide students with opportunities to practice the quantification of systems relationships (dominated by soft variables) and to develop a simulation model.

This case presents a firsthand account of a flying experience on Southwest Airlines in June 2004. The narrative reports on the cross-country flying experience of one passenger. See also "Marlene's Marvelous Adventure: JetBlue Airways" (UV0126).

For five weeks, Michael "Mac" Ling had been at the Lexington, Virginia, plant of Darden Motor Works (DMW), interviewing production supervisors, quality experts, maintenance supervisors, and repair personnel. He was investigating a puzzling problem: how dirt was infiltrating the paint on trucks assembled at the facility--and how to stop it. Small particles were causing a big, and expensive, problem. Nearly one out of three trucks had to be reworked owing to dirty paint, at a cost of a few dollars to a few hundred dollars per vehicle. The student must develop some hypotheses regarding the causes of the problems.

This story offers students the opportunity to practice systems thinking, including the analysis of behavior over time graphs, the application of systems archetypes, and the design of system interventions.

This case series (see also UVA-OM-1080 through UVA-OM-1082) deals with the transition from a push-based supply chain to an agile pull-based system. In 1999, John Speirs was hired as director of Operations. He brought with him the new agile concept and, with the approval of the U.K. managing director, Stella David, started to create revolution not evolution at Bacardi Southampton by forming an Agile Office. The A case sets up the operations problems and lets the reader follow the implementation story of a new paradigm in operational thinking at Bacardi while hinting at some of the stumbling blocks Southampton would eventually face from its own employees. An argument is presented that leads Southampton to implement the agile-system change program. In addition, data on sales trends and projected financial savings from the agile program are provided. The case ends positively with Southampton wanting to sell the concept to the rest of the Bacardi organization, but it is unclear how. Students should discuss the pros and cons of the agile system, its application to this industry, the timing of the implementation, and methods to communicate the message throughout the supply chain. Financial savings gained from the program are highlighted, and the program's thoroughness should be discussed. An Excel model that simulates financial savings but does not mimic Bacardi's exact thinking is provided in the D case as a learning tool for students. The model allows students to explore the origins of cost savings using a push or a pull system, and it enables students to perform scenario analyses of various business and internal operating conditions.

The president of Wilkerson, faced with declining profits, is struggling to understand why the company is encountering severe price competition on one product line while able to raise prices without competitive response on another product line. The controller proposes that the company develop an activity-based cost model to understand better the different demands that each product line makes on the organization's indirect and support resources. A rewritten version of an earlier case.