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A proposal to give all pharmacists computer database access to the prescription histories of all British Columbians was meeting stiff media criticism over privacy issues. While the Ministry of Health foresaw many benefits of the proposed Pharmanet to consumers, pharmacists, and government regulators, many others felt access to so much information would lead to misuse or abuse. With provincewide implementation only two months away, the Pharmanet project director had to decide what, if any, additional changes to the database system had to be made to ensure public support.

This case examines a large bank trying to protect itself from the risks and capital requirement created by its loan portfolio. Considers a variety of ways available to the firm to offload the risks.

Tim Trowac and Dave Rahall, two former investment bankers, skillfully execute the leveraged buyout of a golf ball recycling company after working intensely on their due diligence, writing a business and financial plan, and developing the investment memorandum. Six months later, they question the competency of their management team, which they had assembled from former Explo employees rather than conduct extensive searches. Now financial results are poor. Trowac and Rahall need to explain the poor performance and come up with an action plan for their investors.

The senior officers of a national office supplies manufacturer and distributor are at odds over a slow payment, and perhaps insolvent, major distributor, and what the options are to collect the account and maintain sales in the region.

Describes a key decision-making process within Microsoft's Office products division. At a time when the PC software business has a great deal of uncertainty, Microsoft's management has to make a key decision regarding the future of software suites. A strengthening of suite development as a common platform would require significant organizational, process, and strategic alignments that may weaken the individual software divisions. Focuses on: 1) software development, with an emphasis on multi-applications suites; 2) different models of product innovation (common platform versus individual elements); 3) managerial challenges in aligning processes and the organization of several independent development units.

An MBA student has received an offer to join Kraft Foods, a leading consumer packaged goods firm. This unit is a wholly owned subsidiary of a holding company whose other major subsidiary is a leading cigarette manufacturer. The case raises ethical issues of marketing.

Amul Dairy has been a successful change maker in India's dairy system. How does it move from this success to the new challenges facing the Indian food system--is it an appropriate model?

Describes how the German automotive firm BMW is trying to reduce its development time by half with the aid of computer-aided technologies. To leverage these technologies fully in the very competitive automotive industry, BMW is faced with the challenge of changing its processes and organization, gradually building new development capabilities. This tension between the old and the new is played out in BMW's design area, which has historically been responsible for much of BMW's strategic product positioning. Focuses on: 1) managing automotive development, with an emphasis on exterior styling; 2) new computer-aided technologies and their potential impact on development performance; and 3) the organizational and process changes required to gradually build a firm's development capability.

Jeanne Lewis, after six years with Staples, Inc., is promoted to senior vice president of marketing. She is to work for fifteen months alongside her predecessor, a legacy in the organization, "learning the ropes" before he moves on. This case is set nine months after she begins working with the marketing department. Staples has just emerged from a period of prolonged litigation around an FTC antitrust suit challenging Staples' attempted merger with Office Depot. Post-merger, Lewis must determine how the marketing department can most effectively and efficiently help the company maintain its competitive edge in an increasingly competitive and complex market. Looks at the challenges a middle manager faces "taking charge" and managing change in a revitalization situation in which a more evolutionary approach is appropriate.

Traces the founding and development of Houses for Africa, a firm established to build low-income housing in Zimbabwe. Explores entrepreneurship in an emerging market, the problems that arise when complementary markets do not function well, and the importance of distinguishing transitory opportunities from opportunities to establish first-mover advantage following liberalization.

The merger of Asea AB and BBC Brown Boveri required a restructuring of operations and a change in organizational cultures. Competitive success also necessitated the benefits of scale while remaining "local" for political and customer-responsiveness reasons. The case describes these competitive pressures, which resulted in the decision to adopt a matrix organization. To be used with Asea Brown Boveri: The ABACUS System.

A venture capital/private equity fund is preparing to negotiate with the two parties in a prospective PCS joint venture: the entrepreneur and AT&T Wireless. The negotiation will decide how equity and control are shared in the venture.

Danny Wegman, president of Wegmans Food Markets, is trying to decide how to evaluate the success of a nutrition-counseling program for diabetics, and whether and how to expand the program beyond the two stores currently involved. Wegmans, with 57 stores and $2.3 billion in revenues, implemented the program in conjunction with a local hospital and a disease-management company. Initially intended to stem the erosion of pharmacy margins due to managed care plans, the program filled a genuine social need--diabetes can be inexpensively controlled through diet if caught early. In addition to discussing how the program has been established, the case presents financials for the supermarket industry and Wegmans' competitors. The new role of supermarkets in addressing disease, health, and preventive medical needs is also presented.

An Israeli high-tech start-up has developed an innovative simulator which makes possible non-patient training in medical ultrasound. The marketing function moves to the United States, the largest market, while other functions remain in Israel. The case describes a number of options for further growth.

This fictitious case written by Andy Blackburn, a Boston Consulting Group vice president based in San Francisco, explores the question of how PC companies can make money in the increasingly price-competitive consumer market. The senior staff of Praxim, a multibillion-dollar maker of desktop computers, face some tough questions: Is it possible to make money selling personal computers to consumers? And if so, how? What resources need to be mustered? Where should they be directed? After years of strong profits, Praxim is being dragged down by increasing competition in the consumer segment of the PC market. In response, CEO Jack Thompson has hired a new manager for the consumer division, Linda Marcus, luring her away from a leading packaged-goods company. Linda wants to make Praxim into a trusted brand by putting Praxim's people into retail stores at peak selling times, setting up an 800 number to answer consumers' technical questions in plain English, and bundling extensively. But the other members of the senior staff are skeptical. The vice president of the commercial division argues that PCs are a commodity and urges Linda to concentrate on cutting costs. The chief technology officer wants Praxim to concentrate on developing the next killer app so that it can charge consumers a premium for new technology. The CFO thinks Praxim should cut its losses and mostly give up on the consumer segment. Mindful that continued losses in the consumer segment will pull down Praxim's share price and put his top executives' stock options at risk, Jack is at a loss. Should he try to make money selling PCs to consumers? Can he keep the doubters on his staff from defecting if he goes ahead with Linda's plan? In 98603 and 98603Z, Geoff Moore, Donna Dubinsky, Larry Keeley, George Quesnelle, Scott Ward, and Philip Pifer give Jack their advice.

This fictitious case written by Andy Blackburn, a Boston Consulting Group vice president based in San Francisco, explores the question of how PC companies can make money in the increasingly price-competitive consumer market. The senior staff of Praxim, a multibillion-dollar maker of desktop computers, face some tough questions: Is it possible to make money selling personal computers to consumers? And if so, how? What resources need to be mustered? Where should they be directed? After years of strong profits, Praxim is being dragged down by increasing competition in the consumer segment of the PC market. In response, CEO Jack Thompson has hired a new manager for the consumer division, Linda Marcus, luring her away from a leading packaged-goods company. Linda wants to make Praxim into a trusted brand by putting Praxim's people into retail stores at peak selling times, setting up an 800 number to answer consumers' technical questions in plain English, and bundling extensively. But the other members of the senior staff are skeptical. The vice president of the commercial division argues that PCs are a commodity and urges Linda to concentrate on cutting costs. The chief technology officer wants Praxim to concentrate on developing the next killer app so that it can charge consumers a premium for new technology. The CFO thinks Praxim should cut its losses and mostly give up on the consumer segment. Mindful that continued losses in the consumer segment will pull down Praxim's share price and put his top executives' stock options at risk, Jack is at a loss. Should he try to make money selling PCs to consumers? Can he keep the doubters on his staff from defecting if he goes ahead with Linda's plan? In 98603 and 98603Z, Geoff Moore, Donna Dubinsky, Larry Keeley, George Quesnelle, Scott Ward, and Philip Pifer give Jack their advice.

This fictitious case written by Andy Blackburn, a Boston Consulting Group vice president based in San Francisco, explores the question of how PC companies can make money in the increasingly price-competitive consumer market. The senior staff of Praxim, a multibillion-dollar maker of desktop computers, face some tough questions: Is it possible to make money selling personal computers to consumers? And if so, how? What resources need to be mustered? Where should they be directed? After years of strong profits, Praxim is being dragged down by increasing competition in the consumer segment of the PC market. In response, CEO Jack Thompson has hired a new manager for the consumer division, Linda Marcus, luring her away from a leading packaged-goods company. Linda wants to make Praxim into a trusted brand by putting Praxim's people into retail stores at peak selling times, setting up an 800 number to answer consumers' technical questions in plain English, and bundling extensively. But the other members of the senior staff are skeptical. The vice president of the commercial division argues that PCs are a commodity and urges Linda to concentrate on cutting costs. The chief technology officer wants Praxim to concentrate on developing the next killer app so that it can charge consumers a premium for new technology. The CFO thinks Praxim should cut its losses and mostly give up on the consumer segment. Mindful that continued losses in the consumer segment will pull down Praxim's share price and put his top executives' stock options at risk, Jack is at a loss. Should he try to make money selling PCs to consumers? Can he keep the doubters on his staff from defecting if he goes ahead with Linda's plan? In 98603 and 98603Z, Geoff Moore, Donna Dubinsky, Larry Keeley, George Quesnelle, Scott Ward, and Philip Pifer give Jack their advice.

Shortly after his 1989 inauguration, President George Bush confronts a seemingly intractable dispute which had simmered through the 1980s: how to legislate the clean-up of the so-called "big dirties", large coal-burning Midwest power plants linked to acid rain and a decline in the vitality of lakes and forests in the Northeast. This case describes both the policy innovation which helps to break a long-standing political logjam and the process of negotiation and compromise involving the White House staff (led by White House Special Assistant for Economic and Domestic Policy Roger Porter) and key members of committees of the Congress. Specifically, the case describes how the Bush administration formed an alliance with key environmental groups (such as the Environmental Defense Fund) by embracing the concept of tradeable emission rights-the right to buy and sell permits to emit sulfur dioxide, for instance, one of the key pollutant byproducts of coal-burning. The advent of such "emissions trading", however, can only proceed once agreement is reached on the total amount of pollution reduction to be achieved by the key enabling legislation which will create the permit regime, the Clean Air Act of 1990. This case, in large part, tracks the shaping of that legislation. HKS Case Number 1514.0

The case describes the foreign exchange problems faced by Mr. John Christopher, in the spring of 1995. Christopher's company, TCAS, had just been awarded the bid to deliver and install a new management information software system and local area network computer system for a customer in Canada. TCAS is a US-based company with no previous international experience. The company, as a result of the bid award, was confronted with a very large foreign exchange exposure. TCAS has additional problems, including an operating loss in the previous year, and the potential of continuing losses in the current year in the absence of the subject sale. TCAS needs to make a profit on this contract, manage its foreign exchange exposure, and restructure its balance sheet.

Growth by acquisition (rolling up or consolidating an industry) results in questions about integrating operations, corporate form, financial structure, and management for this company.