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The management team at ING Bank of Canada was preparing to launch Canada's first discount bank. Initially, the bank planned to serve its customers using mail and telephone. Later, it planned to supplement the telephone banking service with an interactive voice response system and an Internet-based service. ING hoped to attract customers by offering significantly higher interest rates on its savings products than any of its competitors. There was some skepticism about the viability of the proposed business model. At the time of the case, the president and CEO of ING Bank was reviewing the proposed launch strategy.

The Acer Group was one of the world's largest PC and computer component manufacturers. The vice president of global operations is pondering whether the timing and environment is conducive for Acer, based in Taiwan, to commence full-scale manufacturing operations in the Chinese mainland. Students are asked to examine the criteria on which Acer should base its decision to manufacture overseas and, in so doing, create the framework for a corporation's global manufacturing strategy.

The president and chief executive officer of Michigan Auto Products, together with the company's executive committee, must decide whether or not to build inventory to hedge against a possible strike at the end of the existing union contract. He also wants to determine an appropriate strategy for the new contract negotiations to take place with the union over the next six months. (A Microsoft Excel model is available for use with this case, product 7A98E031.)

A small CPA firm puts in a new performance measurement system, and profits increase by 350% in less than a year. This case illustrates the reasons for improved profitability as well as the sustainability of levels of growth, the opportunities, and the threats that await the company.

A group of Trojan Technologies, Inc. employees grappled with the issue of how to structure the business to interact effectively with its customers and manage the company's dramatic growth. The London, Ontario manufacturer of ultraviolet water disinfecting systems believed that strong customer service was key to its recent and projected growth and had come to the realization that changes would have to be made to continue to achieve both simultaneously. The group hoped to develop a structure to address these issues. The executive vice president was to lead the development and implementation of the new structure. The transition to the new structure was to coincide with the new fiscal year.

The president of Central Parking must decide how to grow the company with options including continued consolidation of the parking industry and/or growth through related diversification. Initiates discussion of a successful consolidation strategy.

E Ink is a high-technology start-up attempting to revolutionize print communication through electronic ink displays. The founders and top managers of this two-year-old firm are striving to translate a technological breakthrough into a working prototype, move from prototype to full-scale manufacturing, and maintain market excitement about the company. At the same time, they are dealing with a fundamental organizational concern: How to retain E Ink's creativity, drive, and sense of fun while focusing the company on growth and the demands of a first-product introduction.

Eighteen months after launching Nickelodeon Latin America, general manager Taran Swan must leave the company's Miami headquarters for her New York home because of complications with her pregnancy. Unable to travel for at least the next six months, Swan must decide how she will continue to run the channel from New York. Should she put an interim acting head in place, and if so, who among her team should it be? What adjustments will she need to make in her leadership style and working relationships with her team? The case describes the channel's launch and first 18 months on the air, focusing on how Swan puts together her team and crafts the company's culture.

Describes a leading fast food operator/franchiser trying to consolidate and standardize its operations worldwide and focus its efforts on a few key markets. Lends itself to a discussion of how global the fast food industry is, whether Tricon's new international strategy is consistent with industry structure and its competitive position, and, if so, which country markets to focus on.

Chai-Na-Ta (Asia) Ltd. is the Hong Kong-based operating arm of Canada's Chai-Na-Ta Corp., an integrated ginseng firm. The decision has been made to enter the mainland China market and the general manager must make decisions on the entry city, target market(s), product(s) focus, distribution, and pricing. Although he has significant knowledge of the Hong Kong market, he is unsure of the degree to which this can be transferred to the mainland markets. This case pushes the student to develop a marketing strategy in a situation in which there is imperfect market information.

Describes the procedures and processes used by Cisco Systems in its acquisition of high-technology firms. Its goal is to retain key engineering talent and to leverage existing product development efforts, but to quickly merge acquired companies its own systems and procedures. In addition to describing the general approach used by Cisco, this case describes some of the specifics involving its acquisition of Summa Four, a designer/manufacturer of a related product line, whose major activities are located in New England.

Nanpo (Holdings) Ltd., a Hong Kong-based Chinese food distributor, is planning for its initial public offering on the stock exchange of Hong Kong. Nanpo was established in 1981 with a mandate to be the sole distributor of poultry, fresh water fish, livestock, and fruit and vegetables produced in Guangdong, the bordering province of mainland China. Throughout the years, Nanpo has built up an admirable market share in many food categories and a distribution channel of 500 wholesalers. In 1993, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation in the People's Republic of China reaffirmed its sole distributor status. The management of Nanpo has developed an aggressive growth plan, which includes new food processing facilities and forward integration into retail outlets and restaurant chains. Nanpo has turned to the capital market of Hong Kong to finance its future growth. Nanpo's management has decided to float 25% of the company and has engaged a local merchant bank, Hinson Capital, as its lead underwriter. Three weeks away from the planned IPO, Jack Yang, a director of Nanpo, is once again reviewing the details of pricing.

Millenium Media's CEO reviews the company diversity report and considers the challenges of maintaining a diverse workforce in light of the news that three individuals, two of whom are people of color, are leaving for opportunities with a competitor.

A company supervisor listens to an employee, an African American woman, announce she is leaving the company and tries to understand the situation.

Fingerhut, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, is a direct-marketing company that sells a smorgasbord of consumer goods through an array of specially targeted catalogs. In November 1996, an article in the Star Tribune, a major Minneapolis newspaper, drew attention to a class-action lawsuit pending against Fingerhut that suggests the firm made its profits by exploiting the poor. Several civil rights groups rallied around the suit and submitted amicus curiae in favor of the litigation. The case illustrates issues in ethics and management communication. Discussions focus on the constituencies. Is Fingerhut exploiting its customers or providing them with an affordable method of obtaining valued consumer goods on credit? Do retailers have a duty to offer products at reasonable prices? Are the high interest rates reasonable given the risk? What are the options: pawn shops, rent-to-own? What is the profile of the typical Fingerhut customer? Discussions also focus on the issues communicating to the constituencies. How much damage will the lawsuit do to Fingerhut's image as an ethical, socially conscious company? What communication strategies can the firm employ? Should it react to the lawsuit? What should it tell its employees?

This exercise allows students to assess probability distributions (.05, .25, .50, .75, .95 fractiles) for 10 uncertain quantities and to calibrate the reliability of their assessments.

Recounts two complex negotiations in which Netscape and Microsoft compete to win a browser contract with AOL--then later with KPMG. After reviewing the web and browser sectors, this case recounts AOL's dramatic negotiations with Netscape and with Microsoft over which firm's web browser would be used by the online service. A path-breaking deal was announced between AOL and Netscape to use Navigator as the "default" AOL browser, only to be undermined the next day by an AOL-Microsoft deal that designated Microsoft Explorer as the "preferred" AOL browser. The deal also put an AOL icon, the Windows desktop, the "world's most valuable cyber-real estate." Describes the first stages of a see-saw negotiation the following year in which Netscape and Microsoft were again competing, but this time for a major deal with KPMG. Concludes as KPMG has awarded the contract to Netscape with Microsoft still scrambling to get the business.

In July 1999, US Federal District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson had to decide whether, as alleged by the US Department of Justice, Microsoft had illegally monopolized the supply of personal computer operating systems. The trial, originally expected to take two months from its October 19, 1998, starting date, had continued for eight months and generated two million pages of documentation. If he concluded that Microsoft had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act as charged, Judge Jackson had to decide what remedial measures he should order to be implemented. However he decided the complex issues before him, his opinion would have to be "bullet-proof," for the losing party would almost certainly appeal to the United States Supreme Court. HKS Case Number 1522.0