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In January 1994, Igor and Ludmilla Ivanovic opened the doors of their bakery, Iggy's Bread of the World. This case describes their unusual mission statement and the way in which they try to bring a social consciousness mentality to a for-profit business. Six years later, they have grown beyond their physical and administrative capacity. The Ivanovics must decide how to reconfigure the leadership structure of the company without losing their control over the fundamentals.

Sam Marcus recently purchased a small cabinet-making company, and is looking for dramatic growth. The company competes in commercial and residential construction markets; shortly after the acquisition, the company gains a large new residential customer. The case traces the changes made at the company and how the relationship with this customer begins to deteriorate. At the end of the case, Marcus must decide whether to fix or end the relationship.

Enables a thorough analysis of Ventro (formerly known as Chemdex), which builds and operates multiple B2B marketplace companies. Examines Ventro's business model and strategy as well as the company's operating, technical, and management expertise. Part of the Building-E-Business Online series.

Weeks after the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261, 64 mechanics claim that they have been "pressured, threatened, and intimidated" into taking shortcuts. After briefly describing Alaska Airlines' history and CEO John Kelly, the case details how the airline responded to the crash and the resulting investigations. Also describes labor relations between management and its largest unions. At the end of the case CEO Kelly prepares for a news conference to respond to the mechanics allegations. Teaching purpose: To address crisis management, corporate diplomacy, labor relations, public relations, and transportation safety.

Reuters Greenhouse Fund had successfully invested in a portfolio of 79 companies working in areas relevant to Reuters Group's strategic interests. It had itself facilitated a powerful network among the companies and, become a respected global venture capital firm. Funding requirements for 2001 had grown beyond Reuters Group's expectations, and CEOs John Taysom and David Lockwood must decide on the best funding strategy.

This case presents the managerial dilemma faced by the treasurer of South Carolina in 1998. Until last year, the South Carolina state pension fund (with over $17 billion in assets) was barred by the state constitution from investing in equities. After the constitution was amended, the state government had to decide how much to invest in equities and what assets to choose. Using domestic and international data, the concepts of standard deviation, correlation, covariance, diversification, and risk are introduced. Additionally the case looks at the equity premium from a global setting. This case covers two days and will be used early in the Risk and Return module, just before the introduction of the CAPM.

Bush Boake Allen, a flavor and fragrance firm, is considering strategic options that would integrate customers into its innovation process via a potentially disruptive Internet-based technology. As this approach could result in dramatic changes to the firm's business model and relationship with customers worldwide, Julian Boyden, president, CEO, and chairman, faces serious opposition from senior managers.

The founders of University Technology Ventures, a fund of funds designed for university professors, face numerous challenges in raising their first fund. The role, economics, and structure of funds-of-funds are examined in the course of examining the partners' dilemma.

A publicly traded funeral home and cemetery consolidator faces imminent financial distress. The company has aggressively grown through use of debt. Restructuring the debt is potentially very costly to creditors, shareholders, suppliers, and other corporate stakeholders. Cross-border and accounting issues potentially complicate the restructuring.

Beenz.com, an incentive-based Web currency and customer management tool, is reassessing its business in August 2000, one year after launch. The original vision was to make the currency globally available and recognized. However, the company's rapid internationalization and growth have presented a number of pressures that challenge that vision.

Pokemon, the colloquial name given to a collection of 150 fantastic, animal-inspired creatures with organic powers and the capacity to evolve, are the stars of video games, trading card games, and TV cartoons. Conceived in Japan in 1996, Pokemon quickly became that nation's favorite toy phenomenon, and attracted the attention of Nintendo of America, which, in February 1998, purchased all intellectual rights to everything bearing the Pokemon name outside Asia. Launched in September 1998, Pokemon quickly took the United States by storm, single-handedly resuscitating Nintendo's lagging video game sales and earning stature as one of the top three licensing success stories by year-end 1999 (on worldwide sales of $7 billion and U.S. sales of $1.2 billion). How did management at Nintendo and licensing partner 4Kids Entertainment accomplish this and, perhaps more importantly, can they sustain (and perhaps grow) Pokemon's success over time? Is Pokemon just a passing fad to be "milked," or can it be managed as a sustainable brand franchise? Was Pokemon's success simply a fluke, an unpredictable function of mere good fortune, or is sound brand strategy and planning the cause? Includes color exhibits.

In January 1994, Danie Niemandt, general manager for South African Breweries operations in Tanzania, must determine how his company should respond to the entry of a new competitor in its market--East African Breweries. South African Breweries has executed a successful turnaround of the brewery operations in Tanzania. East African Breweries is backed by Guinness plc, one of the world's largest beer brewers, and Guinness has committed itself to investing the resources necessary to build a leading presence in the Tanzanian market. The challenge facing South African Breweries in Tanzania illustrates the challenge the company faces in many of its international markets. The company has built its international strategy around its operational expertise, but must now adjust to the entrance of well-funded global beer competitors in several of its international markets. Intended for use in a course on international business and strategy.

This case provides a succinct account of the high profile failure of the Clinton Administration's initiative to reorganize the US health care and health insurance system so as to provide universal coverage at the same time as controlling costs. The case traces the origins of the reform impetus and describes the structure and proposal of the Administration's health care task force, chaired by First Lady Hillary Clinton and directed by Ira Magaziner. The case focuses, however, on the extent and nature of opposition to the plan, particularly from the business community, implicitly raising the questions of how the Administration might have handled matters differently and what factors whether substance or tactics or both allowed the opposition to be successful. The case is a vehicle, too, for discussion of the business-government relationship in the U.S. through its focus both on the nature of the US health insurance system (largely linked to private employment) and on the variety of business and interest groups within the US private sector. HKS Case Number 1600.0

Jamaica's relationship with the International Monetary Fund had often been tense. Currently, the country had no agreements with the IMF, and Prime Minister P.J. Patterson had sworn that his country would never again borrow from the Fund. Still, there were significant advantages to be gained from cooperation with the IMF. Not only was it a source of valuable technical expertise, but Fund approval of the government's policies could facilitate borrowing on world financial markets or from other multilateral organizations. Recently, the IMF appeared to be softening in its opposition to the government's policy direction. However, it seemed unlikely that the country could reach a borrowing agreement with the IMF without significant policy adjustments, particularly in the matter of the exchange rate. Under these circumstances, Dr. Davies had to determine whether he should approach the Fund for assistance, and if so, what policy changes the government would be willing to make in order to secure that assistance. HKS Case Number 1602.0

This case invites students to estimate the costs of a new debt issue. Designed as an introductory case for use early on in an MBA course, it requires students to compute the yield-to-maturity on the WorldCom bonds from price data and from spreads over Treasury securities for bond-rating categories. The exercise allows for discussion of benchmarking in the context of credit markets.

This case discusses the e-business strategy of Ducati, an Italian manufacturer of high-performance motorcycles. It describes how, on January 1st, 2000, Ducati exclusively sold through the Internet its new MH900e motorcycle at 15,000 Euros per unit. It was the first motorcycle ever sold through the Internet and the first-year production of the MH900e was sold out after just 31 minutes! The case also presents the way the company created the physical and the virtual World of Ducati.

Ameritrade Holding Corp. is planning large marketing and technology investments to improve the company's competitive position in deep-discount brokerage by taking advantage of emerging economies of scale. In order to evaluate whether the strategy would generate sufficient future cash flows to merit the investment, Joe Ricketts, chairman and CEO of Ameritrade, needs an estimate of the project's cost of capital. There is considerable disagreement as to the correct cost of capital estimate. A research analyst pegs the cost of capital at 12%, the CFO of Ameritrade uses 15%, and some members of Ameritrade management believe that the borrowing rate of 9% is the rate by which to discount the future cash flows expected to result from the project. There is also disagreement as to the type of business that Ameritrade is in. Management insists that Ameritrade is a brokerage firm, whereas some research analysts and managers of other online brokerage firms suggest that Ameritrade is a technology/Internet firm. To obtain executable spreadsheets (courseware), please contact our customer service department at [email protected].

In March 2000, the board of The Harvard Management Co. (HMC) approved significant changes in the policy portfolio determining the long-run allocation policy of the Harvard University endowment. These changes included a sharp reduction of the allocation to U.S. equities and U.S. nominal bonds and a significant investment in the new U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). This case focuses on the analysis that led HMC management to recommend such changes to the board.

Examines the tensions that occur in family shareholder groups and how to prepare for them and manage them.

This explores the valuation of an opportunity to license a compound before it enters clinical trials. Describes Merck's decision tree evaluation process is presented. Information required to evaluate a specific licensing opportunity is provided, including the costs of the three phases of the review process, the revenues if approved, and the probability of various outcomes. It includes an introduction to decision tree analysis and valuation.