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The administrative assistant at the Edmonton, Alberta branch of Vandelay Securities was faced with a dilemma. Her superior had requested a purchase of shares in a firm whose securities were restricted to residents of Alberta for one of her clients who resided in British Columbia. On the purchase request form, the client's province of residence was listed as Alberta, and a post office box address was given. This transaction was the latest in a series that made her feel uncomfortable. The primary teaching objective of this case is to explore when and how one should blow the whistle. The individual's responsibility to herself, the firm, the clients and other stakeholders in exposing the unethical acts of a colleague is presented for debate. Secondary ethical issues include insider trading, high-pressure sales tactics, conflict of interest, and misrepresentation to a regulator.

On a clear day in August 1999 in the new headquarters of drugstore.com, against a backdrop of the Blue Angels flying in formation over Lake Washington practicing for their hydroplane Seafare Cup performance, Peter Neupert was pleased with his company's IPO performance. Just last month, on July 28, 1999, drugstore.com had burst to life as a public company. Shares priced at $18 had soared as high as $69 on the first day of trading, providing a total valuation for drugstore.com of more than $2.9 billion--and a record: drugstore.com was the fastest company ever to reach a valuation of $1 billion. The team had built a virtual drugstore on the Web. During the first six months of its existence more than 160,000 customers had come to shop for more than 17,000 drugstore products and prescription drugs. Customer orders were electronically sent to distribution centers run by Walsh Distribution and RxAmerica, both located in Texas. Drugstore.com had entered into outsourcing agreements/partnerships for fulfilling the orders with these two firms. For six months ending July 4, 1999, drugstore.com sold products to approximately 168,000 customers, and had net sales of $4.2 million with an operating loss of $30 million. In June of 1999, drugstore.com had 980,000 unique visits to its Web site compared to 560,000 unique visits of its competitor PlanetRx.

Explores Microsoft's overall financial reporting strategy by examining the company's treatment of two accounting issues--software capitalization and revenue recognition. For both issues, the company selects accounting methods that are relatively conservative. Also discusses the issue of managing analysts' expectations and Microsoft's tendency to provide analysts with very conservative expectations for the future. Provides a forum to discuss possible reasons for Microsoft's accounting and disclosure choices and also discusses the Securities and Exchange Commission's recent investigation into Microsoft's accounting practices.

Greg Erman and Nancy Benovich-Gilby have assembled a team and selected a market for the launch of a high-potential venture based on using an Internet-based service to manage the flow of sales leads between principals and their distribution channel partners. Their development process is key.

Focuses on the ongoing competitive battles in the global home video game market that is estimated to exceed $15 billion by 1999 in the United States and Japan alone. Describes how Sega Enterprises has redesigned its development processes to create a revolutionary 128-bit video game console (named Dreamcast). Having lost its leading position in an accelerating market to Sony's Playstation console, Sega is trying to reclaim its former position through an aggressive entry strategy in the Japanese market. Integral to this strategy is the ability to bring its Dreamcast console to market rapidly and to manage its relationships with independent game developers. Focuses on: 1) hardware and game software development, 2) the role of market share in an environment of increasing economic returns, and 3) the dynamics of market entry strategies as a function of development capabilities and competitive responses.

A look at the industrial restructuring in the brokerage industry made possible by e-commerce. Focuses the student's attention on the decision alternatives facing Charles Schwab, one of the industry leaders in January 1998. In a word, the challenge is "Do they slash prices to meet competition from companies like E-Trade or do they stand still?"

This addendum to George's T-shirts (UV0680) offers a revised forecast in the form of a cumulative distribution function for the two key uncertainties in the case. It can be used as the basis for introductory risk analysis tools such as Crystal Ball or @Risk.

Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), one of the world's leading semiconductor foundries, has grown dramatically in 16 years. UMC pursued a strategy of vertical disintegration as part of the chairman's vision of turning UMC into a pure-play foundry. This case discusses the major technological and competitive forces affecting the industry and looks at UMC's restructuring through the eyes of the chairman. The case provides enough detail to engage the class in a discussion of the merits of UMC's vertical disintegration strategy and the possible pitfalls of this approach going forward.

Texan entrepreneur Trisha Wilson has founded an interior design firm and watched it grow into one of the most successful firms in the hospitality design services industry. After 20 years of building a company that is truly a reflection of her own personality, Wilson grapples with changes in the firm's work environment during growth, and what will happen to the firm when it comes time for her to retire. Does she have the proper systems in place to ensure that the "Wilson way" of doing business can be replicated and scaled?

A town, "Michigan's little Bavaria," discusses word-of-mouth referral. Enables students to calculate the value of word-of-mouth and understand how to increase it.

Ford encourages its independent dealers to consolidate, showing them the benefits size can bring both to themselves and their customers. Now, consolidated dealerships improve customer service and reduce costs.

Describes the situation at WebSpective, a software company that develops products to help companies manage the network of servers that support their Websites. Describes the use of "concept engineering" tools to interview customers, determine their needs and the resulting product requirements, and prioritize these requirements as the basis for a product and marketing strategy.

For the most part, Glamor-a-Go-Go's board has been thrilled with CEO Joe Ryan's performance. Ryan, after all, had transformed the private-label cosmetics company into a retail powerhouse with flashy outlets from New York to Los Angeles. In addition to saving the company from bankruptcy shortly after his arrival in 1992, Ryan had made Glamor-a-Go-Go a fun and exciting place to work, increasing workers' wages and creating boundless opportunities for anyone willing to work hard and think out of the box. He had also brought more women and people of color on board. And he had made many employees wealthy, with generous stock giveaways and options for the most senior employees down to the most junior. Glamor-a-Go-Go's stock price had grown tenfold during Ryan's tenure. But Ryan's personal affairs were beginning to call into question his leadership abilities. The local paper's gossip column recently ran a photo of Ryan--a married man--leaving a gala event with a beautiful young woman from the company, with the headline "Who's That Girl?" Indeed, rumors about Ryan's philandering were starting to take on a harsher edge. Some people believed his secretary left because Ryan had sexually harassed her. Others believed a mailroom employee had been promoted to factory supervisor because of her affair with the CEO. Having warned Ryan several times about his alleged infidelities, the board is stuck. What should it do about Ryan's extracurricular behavior? Does Ryan's personal behavior even affect the company? Is what Ryan does outside the office the board's concern? In 99511 and 99511Z, commentators Freada Kapor Klein, Mitchell Kapor, Burke Stinson, Patrick Carnes, Daryl Koehn, and Lisa A. Mainiero offer advice on this fictional case study.

For the most part, Glamor-a-Go-Go's board has been thrilled with CEO Joe Ryan's performance. Ryan, after all, had transformed the private-label cosmetics company into a retail powerhouse with flashy outlets from New York to Los Angeles. In addition to saving the company from bankruptcy shortly after his arrival in 1992, Ryan had made Glamor-a-Go-Go a fun and exciting place to work, increasing workers' wages and creating boundless opportunities for anyone willing to work hard and think out of the box. He had also brought more women and people of color on board. And he had made many employees wealthy, with generous stock giveaways and options for the most senior employees down to the most junior. Glamor-a-Go-Go's stock price had grown tenfold during Ryan's tenure. But Ryan's personal affairs were beginning to call into question his leadership abilities. The local paper's gossip column recently ran a photo of Ryan--a married man--leaving a gala event with a beautiful young woman from the company, with the headline "Who's That Girl?" Indeed, rumors about Ryan's philandering were starting to take on a harsher edge. Some people believed his secretary left because Ryan had sexually harassed her. Others believed a mailroom employee had been promoted to factory supervisor because of her affair with the CEO. Having warned Ryan several times about his alleged infidelities, the board is stuck. What should it do about Ryan's extracurricular behavior? Does Ryan's personal behavior even affect the company? Is what Ryan does outside the office the board's concern? In 99511 and 99511Z, commentators Freada Kapor Klein, Mitchell Kapor, Burke Stinson, Patrick Carnes, Daryl Koehn, and Lisa A. Mainiero offer advice on this fictional case study.

For the most part, Glamor-a-Go-Go's board has been thrilled with CEO Joe Ryan's performance. Ryan, after all, had transformed the private-label cosmetics company into a retail powerhouse with flashy outlets from New York to Los Angeles. In addition to saving the company from bankruptcy shortly after his arrival in 1992, Ryan had made Glamor-a-Go-Go a fun and exciting place to work, increasing workers' wages and creating boundless opportunities for anyone willing to work hard and think out of the box. He had also brought more women and people of color on board. And he had made many employees wealthy, with generous stock giveaways and options for the most senior employees down to the most junior. Glamor-a-Go-Go's stock price had grown tenfold during Ryan's tenure. But Ryan's personal affairs were beginning to call into question his leadership abilities. The local paper's gossip column recently ran a photo of Ryan--a married man--leaving a gala event with a beautiful young woman from the company, with the headline "Who's That Girl?" Indeed, rumors about Ryan's philandering were starting to take on a harsher edge. Some people believed his secretary left because Ryan had sexually harassed her. Others believed a mailroom employee had been promoted to factory supervisor because of her affair with the CEO. Having warned Ryan several times about his alleged infidelities, the board is stuck. What should it do about Ryan's extracurricular behavior? Does Ryan's personal behavior even affect the company? Is what Ryan does outside the office the board's concern? In 99511 and 99511Z, commentators Freada Kapor Klein, Mitchell Kapor, Burke Stinson, Patrick Carnes, Daryl Koehn, and Lisa A. Mainiero offer advice on this fictional case study.

When a young, former mining executive with no previous elective office experience is elected Mayor of La Paz, Bolivia in 1985, he expects to attack notorious inefficiency and overstaffing aggressively. But, within weeks, Mayor Ronald MacLean finds that, although he faces some predictable antagonists, such as public sector unions resistant to personnel cutbacks, he also faces difficulty in even understanding the workings of the city government. MacLean ultimately realizes that the problems he faces are less those of inefficiency than a more potent antagonist: corruption. This case describes the efforts of Mayor MacLean to understand how and why corruption has taken root in the La Paz government and to devise a strategy to uproot it. The second part of the case specifically spells out approaches which stem from MacLean's belief that corruption is less a reflection of cultural or ethical problems than one of poorly-designed systems which provide the medium for corruption to take hold. MacLean's progress in combating corruption is described, as is its recurrence following MacLean's departure from office. The case is well suited to discussions of organizational change but is best suited to specific discussion of corruption in the developing world and the ways in which progress against it can be institutionalized and sustained. HKS Case Number 1523.0

On Monday, November 16, 1998, the day before Daimler-Benz would officially merge with Chrysler, Dr. Kurt Lauk, head of Daimler-Benz' commercial vehicles division (CVD) reflected on the organizational changes he had directed over the course of the previous two years to make CVD more competitive in an era of industry-wide globalization. To unite an extremely decentralized organizational structure at Daimler, Lauk initiated a worldwide reorganization and the integration of the company's manufacturing operations. He encouraged individual units within CVD to look for collaborative opportunities that would enable the division to realize global scale economies. Although Lauk promoted a global perspective within CVD, he believed that the business units could compete effectively only if they were allowed considerable autonomy to respond to their own unique market conditions. Lauk was proud of the achievements resulting from these directives. However, pressing concerns overshadowed his satisfaction. Although the CVD was profitable overall, its Power Train Unit continued to lose money. In addition, Lauk was concerned about Daimler's progress in building adequate distribution channels in the Asian region. Finally, Lauk considered the impact of the merger with Chrysler on CVD and the general uncertainty concerning how a more centralized organization would affect the CVD.

In 1998, Ohio Polymer is about to negotiate a contract with ProBut Hydrocarbon, Inc. for the purchase of ethylene gas. The contract will require Ohio to purchase a fixed daily quantity of the gas at a set price per ton. Ohio Polymer's senior management is looking for advice on how much gas they should try to obtain and what price they should be willing to pay. A companion case is ProBut Hydrocarbon, Inc., case 9A98E037, which presents the negotiation from ProBut's perspective.

Clorox's Brita skillfully exploits a tide of water safety concerns, growing a home water (filtration) business from inception to a 15% U.S. household penetration in ten years. The dilemma in the case arises as the period of increasing returns seems to be drawing to a close, and management must use its legacy, an installed based and a strong brand equity, to take the business forward into a less friendly environment. Students can model the relation between the primary demand for pitchers and the derived demand for filters to decide where they want to put future investments.