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Companies sometimes issue rebate coupons entitling the holder to a certain amount off the price of their products. This case explores the effects of rebate coupons on the game between two companies that operate in a market where there is very little underlying customer loyalty. Analysis indicates that all sellers gain, even if only one seller issues rebates. When all sellers issue rebates, all sellers gain more. The effect is seen to depend on the presence of an underlying rule of the marketplace ("one-price-to-all").

Mounting financial losses and increasing public scrutiny present many challenges to the board of directors of a large nonprofit health insurer. This case series presents chronologically the increasing problems of the company.

In the mid-1990s McLeod Motors rationalized a number of motor end shields to reduce manufacturing costs, improve service, and reduce inventories. However, inventories have apparently risen. Students must identify why McLeod has inventory, how large the inventory might have been before the rationalization, how large they might be now, why they are so large, and what could be done to reduce inventory levels. The case can be used in conjunction with a discussion on inventory function.

In order to increase revenues, develop new technologies, and manage information technology more efficiently, Xerox decided to sign a 10-year, $3.2 billion contract with Electronic Data Systems (EDS). This case describes the events that preceded Xerox's decision to outsource information technology.

Anasazi, a hair-care products start-up based in the Midwest, is having growing pains as it tries to develop a new distribution model for the professional hair salon industry. The company has completed several rounds of venture financing but, to continue, needs to raise more capital earlier than expected. It goes through a process of refining and refocusing its strategy to raise the new funds.

Describes Donna Coe and her illustrious 15-year career in the towing industry. Donna is an accomplished woman with a great deal of experience in managing employees in a difficult and demanding work environment. Presents a series of four vignettes taken from Donna's day-to-day management experiences. Each situation presents a different problem faced by Donna and by many managers working in similar labor-intense businesses. Problems of discipline, insubordination, embezzlement, and promotion are also presented.

The evolution of Procter & Gamble's development of efficient consumer response (ECR) involved a series of trials, a resolve to distribute diapers on the basis of product movement, a conscious effort to move to a new means of distribution across all lines, a first cut at a new system, and finally, the development of the existing mix of integrated IT systems linking the value chain from factory to shelf.

Presents Black & Decker's performance against a Japanese competitor and others in the power tools market. Black & Decker is anxious to regain its market share leadership in particular segments of the market.

In the largest attempted employee-buyout in history, a large U.S. commercial airline seeks substantial wage concessions from its employees in return for 53% stake in the airline's common stock and guaranteed seats on the board of directors. Management must convince employees, shareholders, Wall Street analysts, and the media that the buyout makes sense from value, operating, and strategic perspectives.

A British bank with strong roots in the cooperative movement encounters declining profitability in an increasingly competitive and deregulated financial services industry. It attempts to grow by broadening its customer base and increasing the range of products and services offered. It turns to activity-based costing as part of its reengineering effort to learn more about the process and product costs and customer profitability, and contemplates what actions to take based on this new information.

The Bardolini Division of Mattson Foods, with plants in the northeast and midwest, wants to open up the western market for its pizza. Management must decide whether to build a new plant on the West Coast, and what type of technology to put in the plant if they decide to build it. The case addresses the issue of building a plant for marketing purposes and raises a number of logistical issues, including transportation and warehouse economics. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Robert Adams, president and CEO of Xerox Technology Ventures (XTV), confronts several changes in his organization. Established by the Xerox Corp. to invest in fledgling organizations, XTV is now being offered the opportunity to undertake buyouts of many of Xerox's units.

A Wall Street analyst has just learned that FPL (the holding company for Florida's largest electric utility) may cut its dividend in several days despite a 47-year streak of consecutive dividend increases. In response to the deregulation of the electric utility industry, FPL has substantially revised its competitive strategy over the past several years. The analyst must decide whether a change in dividend policy will be a part of FPL's financial strategy in this deregulated environment.

Provides an overview of the company's history, industry, competitive position, strategy, and organization. Analyzes the culture and morale at Apple. Written at a time when the company faces a very compelling threat to their business, and when morale within the company is very low. The purpose is to identify the key organizational issues that the company must address.

Depicts a "team-building" intervention by an organizational consultant at a small computer company.

Describes the economic logic leading to the deregulation of the U.S. airline industry in 1978 and subsequent competitive developments. The roles of computerized reservation systems, airport hubs, route strategies, and fleet management are raised as unanticipated tactical responses. The decision focus of the case emphasizes the prospect of regulation. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

A new CEO is hired to manage the turnaround of a family-owned newspaper publisher. In a departure from previous management, he implements a new compensation scheme that explicitly ties executive pay to market-value-based measures of firm performance. Because the company is not publicly traded, payoffs under the executive compensation plan are based on the firm's appraised value. Determining a value for this company (including any value created by the turnaround manager) is a complicated exercise. Additional complications arise because the firm's value also determines potential cash distributions to family members who wish to sell their shares back to the company. Certain family goals may also be inconsistent with the CEO's objective of maximizing the present value of the firm's assets.

This case examines a proposed marketing joint venture which would introduce Neilson brand chocolate bars to Mexican consumers. Pepsico Foods' Mexican subsidiary -- already servicing 450,000 retail stores -- has suggested a joint branding agreement. Alternative distribution arrangements are available which would allow Neilson to maintain greater control over its name, at the cost of slower market access. (A sequel to this case is available bearing the same title, case 995G04.)

CIBA-GEIGY is a large, diversified multinational corporation that transforms itself in the 1990s through a massive structural and cultural change. The case describes the changes implemented and the processes used to effect change in portfolio, people, and structures. By the middle of 1994 CIBA is assessing how effective the transformation has been and whether it has gone too far, or not far enough.

A new CEO must take action to return the company to profitability, to clarify the vision, and then to build the infrastructure (human, capital, and information) needed to support the long-term change in strategy and organization. The case provides a rich description of the evolutionary nature of the vision for change and the development of the organizational and information infrastructure needed to support it. The company institutes changes in structure, management systems, people, and processes in a second round of organizational change initiatives--this time more radical in nature.