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Entrepreneur Judy Wicks has built The White Dog Cafe from a carry-out muffin shop into a full-service restaurant. She has ambitions to provide her diverse clientele with more than an acclaimed dining experience. She also wants to incorporate broader community concerns into her restaurant's operations. How can she meld her social values with her business objectives?

Discusses patents, licenses, and deal making in a start-up venture. The entrepreneur, Jeff Hawkins, holds a patent on Palm Print, a pattern recognition algorithm. After licensing Palm Print to his employer, he led three years of development of commercial products for the company. Focuses on Hawkins's efforts to start a new, noncompeting venture that requires cross-licenses for the Palm Print enhancements. The employer wants Hawkins to stay to develop the new products "in-house" and resists making an agreement.

The idea that "relationships" exist between consumers and products has implicitly occupied a central place in brand marketing thought and practice. Now as relational (one-on-one) marketing is said to be replacing transactional (mass) marketing as the dominant paradigm of the field, explicit theoretical development of these ideas becomes critical. This case presents detailed qualitative data on three women and their relationships with brands. Intended to reveal the deep connections consumers may form with brands across product categories, providing new insights into phenomena such as brand loyalty and brand equity that will inform brand management practice.

In April 1995, the Japanese yen hit a post-World War II high against the U.S. dollar. The yen's relentless ascent affected firms on both sides of the Pacific, but fell particularly hard on Japan's big four automakers. This case explores how endaka--or"high yen"--changes the competitive environment for the automakers and how they respond to the change. Examines how macroeconomic and political shifts can dramatically affect the competitive position of firms operating in a global economy. Also describes how firms can reshape their strategies to compete even in starkly different domestic environments.

First Community Bank, a bank-within-a-bank at Bank of Boston, was established in 1990 as a unique venture to serve urban communities. By 1995 it has achieved profitability but must manage relationships with the mainstream at Bank of Boston, serve as a change agent and role model, and face the challenge of reexamining its mission and structure.

Bob Holland takes over as CEO of this iconoclastic ice cream company in February 1995 when it faces a major crisis. Holland must now develop a strategy that both adapts to the external environment and is consistent with the company's unique heritage.

The company is coming into the market with an industrial chemical in the 1990s. Their competitor is a firm which has had a monopoly in the market for many years through patent protection. Hudson must decide on a pricing policy for its new product.

Explores the peso crisis of 1994-95 and why it occurred. Students must examine Mexico's policies, the capital market's reactions, and the implications of devaluation for future capital flows and growth.

In June 1995, Barbara Schetter, VP and general manager of R.R. Donnelley's Digital Division, is struggling to gain acceptance from other groups and divisions at the printing giant. The Digital Division employs radically new technology--digital printing presses and transactions management systems--to deliver short-run, customized printing. But it is based on a completely different business model than Donnelley's traditional businesses and is finding it difficult to overcome informal resistance.

The acting controller and head of the accounting department at Texas Western Thailand has been reprimanded for developing and using a modified version of the standard company accounting system in Thailand. He believes that the modified system is more appropriate for conditions within his division and in the Thai environment. This case could be used in an international accounting class to discuss problems arising from different accounting methods among countries; in an international cross-cultural management course, or in an international organizational behaviour course dealing with the tensions between international standardization versus local responsiveness.

Helps students to understand how the characteristics of a business are reflected in its financial statements.

The dramatic shifts of the imaging industry from analog to digital technology is creating emerging markets in 1995. How can a competitor position itself to enter the market successfully? This case describes the key technologies, market segments, competitors, and strategic issues in the emerging digital camera market. Focuses on the emergence of business and consumer segments for desktop personal computer imaging--the so-called "descent to the desktop." Competitors profiled are Apple, Canon, Dycam, Eastman Kodak, Fuji, and Sony.

Weston Presidio Capital encounters substantial difficulties while raising its first fund. The incentives and roles of investment advisors ("gatekeepers") pension funds and consultants are explored. The relationship with lead investors is considered.

Is investing in new technology always the right choice for a company and its customers? Allan Moulter, the CEO of Quality Care, isn't sure he wants to invest in the computerized reception system that consultant Jack Zadow has outlined for him. But in this HBR case study, the argument Zadow makes is impossible to ignore. Quality Care's rivals have invested in similar systems or are planning to do so. The new system promises to take care of routine busywork, freeing staff up for other interactions with patients. It seems as if the competition hasn't even cut staff and is counting on increased customer retention to pay for the investment. And yet, Quality Care's surveys of its own customers show that they prefer the human touch when checking in. How would customers feel if the first "person" they met when they came in the door turned out to be a machine? Six experts weigh the costs and benefits of technology in a service industry. In 96106 and 96106Z, commentators Thomas O. Jones, Mary Jo Bitner, Eric Hanselman, Christopher A. Swan, Teresa A. Swartz, and Terri Capatosto offer advice on this fictional case study.

Is investing in new technology always the right choice for a company and its customers? Allan Moulter, the CEO of Quality Care, isn't sure he wants to invest in the computerized reception system that consultant Jack Zadow has outlined for him. But in this HBR case study, the argument Zadow makes is impossible to ignore. Quality Care's rivals have invested in similar systems or are planning to do so. The new system promises to take care of routine busywork, freeing staff up for other interactions with patients. It seems as if the competition hasn't even cut staff and is counting on increased customer retention to pay for the investment. And yet, Quality Care's surveys of its own customers show that they prefer the human touch when checking in. How would customers feel if the first "person" they met when they came in the door turned out to be a machine? Six experts weigh the costs and benefits of technology in a service industry. In 96106 and 96106Z, commentators Thomas O. Jones, Mary Jo Bitner, Eric Hanselman, Christopher A. Swan, Teresa A. Swartz, and Terri Capatosto offer advice on this fictional case study.

Is investing in new technology always the right choice for a company and its customers? Allan Moulter, the CEO of Quality Care, isn't sure he wants to invest in the computerized reception system that consultant Jack Zadow has outlined for him. But in this HBR case study, the argument Zadow makes is impossible to ignore. Quality Care's rivals have invested in similar systems or are planning to do so. The new system promises to take care of routine busywork, freeing staff up for other interactions with patients. It seems as if the competition hasn't even cut staff and is counting on increased customer retention to pay for the investment. And yet, Quality Care's surveys of its own customers show that they prefer the human touch when checking in. How would customers feel if the first "person" they met when they came in the door turned out to be a machine? Six experts weigh the costs and benefits of technology in a service industry. In 96106 and 96106Z, commentators Thomas O. Jones, Mary Jo Bitner, Eric Hanselman, Christopher A. Swan, Teresa A. Swartz, and Terri Capatosto offer advice on this fictional case study.

Requires students to value Boston Beer's IPO. Set in Boston in 1995, Jim Koch, the founder of Boston Beer, must determine the appropriate price for his firm's stock in its IPO.

Public sector unions are the fastest-growing sector of organized labor in the US, and are key players to be considered by a wide variety of elected and appointed public officials. This case, in contrast to most in both public management and business school collections, is told through the eyes of a labor leader, the executive director of the Ohio state government branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. It traces the evolution of an emerging union philosophy aimed at improving the long-term lot of members through increased productivity and efficiency, goals articulated in Ohio State government through a variation of total quality management techniques. The sense of steady, incremental progress and labor-management cooperation is disrupted, however, when a legislative demand for cost savings turns the state's Department of Administrative Services into a budget battleground. AFSCME executive director Paul Goldberg must decide how to respond to the immediate crisis in a way that preserves the "quality management" approach in which he believes but also convinces members that the union will continue to stand up for them.

This case focuses on the contractual relationship between a state's office charged with forestalling child abuse and neglect and one non-profit provider of social services for those purposes. The case points out the reasons the state of Massachusetts decided to contract for services and how it chose to define that contractual relationship. At the same time, the case also allows for discussion of whether the non-profit provider La Alianza Hispana would be well-advised to take on the work proffered by the state, given its organizational mission and capacity. Ultimately, the final part of the case reveals the disastrous end to which the Massachusetts-Alianza contract led. [See also High Stakes and Frightening Lapses: DSS, La Alianza Hispana and the Public-Private Question in Child Protection Work (C16-94-1265.0).]

Illinois Superconductor Corp. a technology start-up, came up with an innovative new superconducting filter for use in cellular base stations. It needed to estimate the demand for its filters. The manager came up with a simple chain-ratio-based forecasting model that, while simple and intuitive, was too simplistic. The company had also commissioned a research firm to develop a model-based forecast. The model-based forecast used diffusion modeling, analogy-based forecasting, and conjoint analysis to create a forecast that incorporated customer preferences, diffusion effects, and competitive dynamics.