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Every year since 1982, Naturewise Apparel has donated $400,000 to charity through its Corporate Giving Fund. This year, Dana Osborne, the founder and CEO of the children's clothing manufacturer, decided to allow each of the company's regional divisions to decide for itself where the money should go. Her goal was to include all employees in the program and to pay back the various local communities that support the company. Dana's good intentions backfired, however, when an abortion clinic in Illinois was bombed and the bomber claimed affiliation with a radically pro-life group called TermRights. Naturewise's Midwest division had inadvertently provided donations to TermRights through a nonprofit umbrella corporation called CHICARE. How should Dana handle the media? Five experts consider this fictitious scenario and give advice on forming an effective media policy.

Martha Radosevich, president of Health Payment Review, a small software start-up, confronts a serious cash-flow problem: Health Payment Review has built a PC-based prototype but has run out of funds to build a commercially acceptable mainframe product. As a stop-gap measure to generate cash, Marcia tries to sell the PC prototype but encounters resistance from conservative buyers. Teaching Purpose: To highlight the challenges of selling and negotiation faced by entrepreneurs, and to help students develop their skills in this area.

Chandler, a large U.S. consumer products firm, is rationalizing its European operations. Tony Pesci, protagonist, is deciding which plants to close for maximum efficiency. The manufacturing/marketing relationship is strained as efficiency is being weighed against cross-cultural marketing.

Xerox Corp. is on the verge of launching a new line of photocopiers made largely from refurbished or recycled parts. In spite of this reclaimed content, the company intends to position the machines as "new." The move is a response to growing environmental pressures in Western Europe and throughout the world. The challenge is how to bring the new line to market, especially with respect to pricing and promotion.

Swissair established two alliance networks in 1989 in order to improve its competitiveness. In order to evaluate the benefits of the alliances, Swissair's history, products, and cost structure are described, as is the international airline industry and the major players. The challenge for Swissair is how to gain further economies of scale in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Cunard, the world's oldest luxury line company, is confronted with several key issues involving its marketing and marketing communications strategy. One concerns the balance between image/positioning advertising and short-term-oriented promotional advertising/communications on behalf of each individual Cunard ship (i.e., "pull" vs. "push" communications). Related to this is the overall mix of marketing communications tools used by Cunard--media advertising, direct marketing, etc. Another issue is the emphasis in marketing communications between focus on the Cunard corporate identity and focus on the identity of the individual ships. The organizational setting is one of integrating marketing communications for the company and its products. Impacting consideration of the issues is a period of economic conditions adversely affecting sales, along with the effects of the U.S.-Iraq conflict on consumer leisure travel.

Because of the regulatory environment in the railroad industry, J&L Railroad's profitability is dependent upon the price of diesel fuel. In this case, the student must decide how much of next year's expected fuel demand should be hedged and how it should be hedged. Hedging alternatives include exchange-traded futures and options as well as commodity swaps, collars, and corridors offered by Continental Bank's Risk Management Group.

A group of Lotus employees propose extending all health care and other benefits to the spousal equivalents of lesbian and gay employees. The vice president of human resources considers the proposal during a reorganization and period of financial uncertainty.

With very few exceptions, established premium producers eventually begin to lose market share and profitability to new, dynamic competitiors. These companies respond by focusing on their old success strategy without regard to changes in the marketplace. This is what happened to the Swiss watch industry, until Swatch CEO Nicolas G. Hayek turned it around. This case analyzes Hayek's commitment to change, his innovative vision, his charismatic leadership, his alignment strategies, and the actions he took to align the organization to the new vision.

Leland O'Brien Rubinstein Associates, Inc. (LOR), which profited by selling portfolio insurance to institutional investors, attempts to rebuild itself after the 1987 stock market crash by creating new products to meet the unsatisfied needs of equity investors. LOR proposes to sell a new family of products, called the SuperTrust, which would let investors trade an exchange-listed basket security and to buy collateralized put options on broad equity indices. The case examines the needs that gave rise to the SuperTrust project as well as the institutional roadblocks LOR had to overcome to bring this offering to market.

After years of deteriorating financial performance and eroding market position, Safeway, Inc., the largest public grocery store chain in the United States, found itself the target of a hostile takeover offer. Management decided to take the company private in a $4.3 billion leveraged buyout sponsored by Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts. This case begins with the controversy surrounding Safeway's sale of its Dallas division as a result of the LBO and retraces the events leading up to the LBO. Continues with a discussion of the challenges facing management in restructuring the company--including the renegotiation of uncompetitive labor contracts and the intense pressure from the capital markets (through hostile takeover offers) to relinquish control of the company.

Continues the story of Mrs. Fields Cookies. Explores the new challenges the company faced managing its geographic growth and its expansion of products and markets through combination stores. Details the decision of Debbi and Randy Fields to delegate management responsibility.

Kurt Landgraf, newly named CEO of Du Pont Merck Pharmaceutical Co., addresses complaints of discrimination from African-American scientists in R&D during significant downsizing and dramatic changes within the pharmaceutical industry.

The French subsidiary of the German publishing company Gruner & Jahr, itself a subsidiary of the Bertelsmann Group, is considering the launch of a new business magazine called CAPITAL. The market looks unattractive, is new to the company, and the financial risk is high. The case describes the various steps in product development. Students must decide on whether to introduce the magazine and how. CAPITAL was subsequently launched and became the business magazine with the largest circulation in Europe.

Concerns the decision whether or not to launch a satellite television service in Asia in the 1990-1991 period. STAR TV was a joint venture between Hutchison Whampoa and Li-Ka Shing and was established to launch such a service. Li-Ka Shing's son, Richard, was CEO. Considers the background to the satellite TV industry in Europe and the United States, the likely success of such a venture in Asia, and strategic and tactical issues.

Colgate-Palmolive, the U.S.-based consumer products firm, has long emphasized international experience for its managers and has developed a comprehensive policy to manage expatriate assignments. The rise in dual-career families has made some managers reluctant to accept foreign assignments, causing Colgate-Palmolive to reexamine the way it manages international career development.

A comprehensive review case that entails both investment and financing decisions. Students must value an acquisitions opportunity and determine how Nelson Paper ought to finance both the acquisition and its regular capital expenditures program.

Nike and Reebok, the two largest athletic footwear companies, look to contractors in Asia to manufacture their shoes. Sourcing from Asia offers advantages of low cost and flexibility, but raises questions about human rights and corporate responsibility. How Nike and Reebok have addressed these questions is the focus of this case.

The new general manager of Warner Cable's Medford, Massachusetts complex faces a number of turnaround challenges in 1985, including service deficiencies, customer complaints, high turnover, and low employee morale. By 1988 he has turned the situation around, but some employees and superiors question his turnaround style. Their concerns have broad implications for career systems at Warner. Teaching objectives include the understanding of human resource management tradeoffs in a turnaround situation, and the appropriateness of individual management styles over time as a company improves its productivity and communications.

Barilla SpA, an Italian manufacturer that sells to its retailers largely through third-party distributors, experienced widely fluctuating demand patterns from its distributors during the late 1980s. This case describes a proposal to address the problem by implementing a continuous replenishment program, under which the responsibility for determining shipment quantities to the distributors would shift from the distributors to Barilla. Describes support and resistance within Barilla's different functional areas and within the distributors Barilla approached with the proposal.