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This case traces the evolution of Bacardi Limited's Mexican operation from its inception in the 1930s to its current team-management structure. The case provides an opportunity to examine the growth and maturation of an entrepreneurial organization. It also portrays a variety of managerial styles and structures, affording a discussion of their appropriateness for the competitive environment in each era of the company's life. By extension, students and executives find this case a particularly useful vehicle for exploring and questioning their own managerial styles.

The case 'Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.' focuses on the evolution of Wal-Mart's remarkably successful discount operations and describes the company's more recent attempts to diversify into other businesses. The company has entered the warehouse club industry with its Sam's Clubs and the grocery business with its Supercenters, a combination supermarket and discount store. Wal-Mart experienced a drop in the value of its stock price in early 1993, which it still has not made up. Wal-Mart has advantages over its competitors in areas such as distribution, information technology, and merchandising, to name a few.

In 1992 PepsiCo is considering two opportunities to expand its restaurant business, Carts of Colorado, a $7 million manufacturer and merchandiser of mobile food carts, and California Pizza Kitchen, a $60 million chain in the casual dining segment. The discussion focuses on whether PepsiCo should pursue these opportunities, and if so, how the relationships might be structured, given PepsiCo's large organization and decentralized management structure. Examines strategy formulation and coordination issues in a related set of businesses that are part of a large, decentralized consumer products company.

Ocean Spray Cranberries, one of the nation's most successful agricultural cooperatives, faces some difficult environmental management problems associated with water usage and wetlands development. Because of federal and state wetlands laws, new bogs for expansion had become virtually impossible to develop. Moreover, to protect its valuable brand, Ocean Spray needs to make reasonably certain that its 800 grower-owners utilize the best possible environmental practices in water management and the use of agricultural chemicals. A single incident could cause the company significant harm. The case describes some of the innovative programs undertaken to facilitate best practices among the loose knit community of growers.

Sandford Smith, CEO of Repligen, faces the breakdown of negotiations about a proposed joint venture with a large pharmaceutical firm. He must decide whether to proceed using his firm's internal resources or whether to seek to revise the proposed collaboration. If the deal is to be revived, he must decide on what aspects to compromise.

Aberlyn Capital Management, a venture leasing firm specializing in providing capital to biotechnology firms, proposes to introduce a new product. Aberlyn will base a lease on an intangible product: the patent of a biotechnology firm. This poses a series of short and longer run challenges.

InSpeech, Inc., the largest U.S. provider of speech, occupational, and physical therapists to nursing homes and hospitals, is faltering badly. The company is having trouble retaining its frontline employees--the clinicians who deliver its services--and its customers. Senior managers must assess the problem and devise a turnaround strategy.

NovaCare's CEO is considering how further to institutionalize the company's espoused values and beliefs. One challenge is integrating two newly acquired businesses; another is better aligning the values of the company's managers with those of its front-line employees--the health care providers who deliver rehabilitative services to patients in nursing homes and hospitals.

In 1990, Xerox undertook an "Environmental Leadership Program" designed to make Xerox an industry leader in non-polluting operations, recycling, and products actually designed for the environment. This effort flowed naturally out of the system of total quality management developed at Xerox in the 1980s. Under the new program, Xerox planned to design its products for complete reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling. This effort entailed a complete redesign of the company's product-delivery system, from initial designs, to materials acquisition, to manufacturing, marketing, and after-sales service.

National Convenience Stores seeks to emerge from Chapter 11. Central to the nature of the reorganization plan is the company's determining enterprise value. The various constituencies (secured debt, unsecured debt, etc.) will seek to find an enterprise value that coincides with their interest. The case provides detailed projection data to permit full utilization of the relevant techniques.

EMC Corp. is the target of a shareholder class-action lawsuit for the second time. CEO, Richard Egan, must decide whether to settle the case, as is done in 96% of such cases and as EMC itself did previously, or fight the action.

Costly "wars of attrition" are common. Examples include: 1) the battle over the business of market-making in British government bonds that took place following the 1986 deregulation of the London financial markets, and 2) the battle that took place in the late 1980s between British Satellite Broadcasting and Sky Television over the U.K. satellite broadcasting business. The case explores what can happen when two companies find themselves engaged in a war of attrition. Analysis shows that given any length of time whatsoever, it is possible to rationalize a strategy of fighting for precisely that length of time. This provides a reason why wars of attrition often lead to long fights and large cumulative losses for the players involved. There is an irreducible "fog of war" that makes the war of attrition a very dangerous game to play.

In the late 1980s Howard Schultz led the Starbuck's Coffee Co. to explosive growth, transforming a small whole-bean coffee company into a national retail power. Starbuck's success hinged on its reputation for quality and personal service. Schultz feared that the company's rapid expansion, plus the retail industry's high turnover and reliance on part-time workers, were threats to Starbuck's competitive edge. How could Schultz reduce turnover and encourage loyalty and enthusiasm among his employees?

Facing competitive pressure from local health care suppliers and a shift in patient demand, the hospital's executive management team develops a strategic plan to reposition the hospital, including investment in new technology and upgraded facilities to attract leading-edge physicians and nursing staff. As part of this plan, they hire design consultants to create a new corporate identity for the hospital. This case examines this complex project, focusing on the relationship between marketing and design as they work through the renaming of the hospital, the creation of a new identity to satisfy the various publics served by the hospital, and implementation of a communications plan.

This case examines the design of Apple's first notebook computer in a context of extreme time-to-market pressures that challenge Apple's "time-to-perfection" culture and functional organizational structure. Its focus is on industrial design (ID), user testing, and mechanical design interaction in creating design alternatives, identifying user-centered themes that bring coherence to the design. The examines tensions between diverse concepts of product, competing priorities, and tradeoffs between design perfection and time-to-market. Holistic approach of ID versus incremental approach of other groups is highlighted.

Under the leadership of CEO Lorenzo Zambrano, Cementos Mexicanos, S.A. (Cemex) has become the largest cement producer in North America and the fourth largest in the world. As a component of its globalization strategy Cemex expanded into the United States by building terminals and exporting cement from Mexico. U.S. producers countered with an antidumping petition under Section 731 of U.S. trade law, complaining that they were injured by the imported cement. The case presents the situation in the cement market and the administrative process that resulted in a 58% duty on Cemex imports. Focuses on Cemex's strategy for addressing the antidumping petition and its aftermath.

In the mid-1985s, Oticon A/S, a Danish manufacturer of high-quality hearing aids, begins to experience significant losses. Lars Kolind, newly named CEO, introduces a vision for company headquarters that would entail a fundamental restructuring and transformation of the organization. Management and employees revolt and refuse a planned move of company headquarters. Should the CEO proceed with the proposed radical change, or has a recent turnaround been sufficient to restore Oticon to its No. 1 market position? In 1990, Kolind decides to abandon his plan to move Oticon headquarters, but insists on the pursuit of his vision for what he now calls the spaghetti organization--so named because of its relative lack of structure. Shortly after implementation, the company suffers further financial losses. A new managing director, brought in by Kolind, begins to address the financial dynamics of Oticon A/S, and within six months, profitability is restored. By 1993, the company enjoys its greatest profit since it was founded in 1904. Has Kolind achieved the competitive advantage he sought? How can it be sustained in the years to come? A 1994 EFMD award winner.

The Gulf War-the US led effort to oust Iraq's armed forces from neighboring, oil-rich Kuwait-may be best remembered for the sheer effectiveness of the tactics and power which achieved the US military objectives in short order. But between the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent US-led counter-offensive, there ensued a series of delicate negotiations through which the Bush administration put together the political building blocks which allowed Operation Desert Storm to commence. This case is the first history focused specifically on the details and dynamics of those negotiations-with regional Arab powers, members of the UN Security Council and key members of Congress-and the variety of tactics which were employed. The case is based on original interviews with a number of key players, including then-Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney, US Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering, and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. It is part of a series about US military interventions and negotiations against a backdrop of military threats. All are useful for those interested in negotiations theory, diplomacy and the politics of military interventions. See also Carrots, Sticks, and Question Marks: Negotiating the North Korean Nuclear Crisis (C18-95-1297.0 and 1298.0; and A `Seamless' Transition: United States and United Nations Operations in Somalia, 1992-1993 (C16-96-1324.0 and 1325.0). HKS Case Number 1264.0

The NutraSweet Co. has very successfully marketed aspartame, a low-calorie, high-intensity sweetener, around the world. NutraSweet's position was protected by patents until 1987 in Europe, Canada, and Japan, and until the end of 1992 in the United States. The case series describes the competition that ensued between NutraSweet and the Holland Sweetener Co. (HSC) following HSC's entry into the aspartame market in 1987. Describes the subsequent move and countermove in both the marketplace and the courts. Also, discusses the business "game" that takes place at both the tactical and value levels. Ends with the final countdown to the expiration of NutraSweet's U.S. patent.

Top managers of Wetherill Associates, Inc., a small, privately held distributor of electrical parts to the automotive aftermarket, are considering whether to modify the company's compensation system for its salesforce. The management wants a compensation system that reinforces the company's right-action policy and its team approach to customer service. The case describes the right-action ethic and its application throughout the business.