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Wegmans is considered the "best" food retailer in the United States by Fortune Magazine. The produce department has been a key distinguishing feature of the store. The changes in the U.S. and global produce industry are forcing Wegmans to rethink its role in the industry. Teaching Purpose: The produce industry is an excellent example of the revolution occurring in the food industry. Enables students to evaluate changes in the produce industry.

Examines the recruiting process of Bowles Hollowell Conner & Co. (BHC), an investment banking firm known for its work with middle market companies. Specifically, presents a profile of the firm and its recruiting process and then examines that process through the firm's recruiting efforts at Harvard Business School (HBS). Includes the resumes of 17 second-year HBS students who sought interviews for an associate position with BHC and raises the issue of how interview selections were made from those resumes.

Marriott Corp.'s chairman and CEO must decide whether to recommend a restructuring of the company to the board of directors. The proposal he is considering would split the Marriott Corp., a premier hotel developer, owner, and manager, into two separate companies by a stock dividend to shareholders. One of the new companies would contain most of Marriott Corp.'s profitable management operations, while the other would retain ownership of its hotel properties as well as most of its long-term debt.

Manville Corp.'s senior managers must decide how to respond to a new scientific study suggesting that fiberglass, the source of 75% of the company's profits, may be another asbestos and must act under conditions of great uncertainty. In particular, when should a manager inform employees and customers about potential product risks, and how should hazard communications be handled to inform without inflaming?

Flour milling in recent years has had a great deal of consolidation. The fourth generation of a privately held firm is debating how to protect themselves in the industry as consumption, production, competition, logistics, technology, and patterns are all changing.

In early 1990, the company is contemplating changes in its European plant network for producing hypodermic products, including the total production capacity to be provided, the number and location of plants over which to spread this capacity, and which products should be allocated to various plants (and countries). After years of having too much capacity, the latest sales forecasts indicate that it will soon be running out of capacity, and the company has to decide how to react. In analyzing this decision, students are invited to review the decision-making processes that the company has followed in the past--and that have resulted in too much capacity and high manufacturing costs--and asked to propose changes in the way it approaches such decisions in the future.

It has been four years since Jeff Furman had first travelled to Russia to find a partner so that Ben & Jerry's "finest quality, socially conscious, and economically feasible" super-premium ice cream could be produced in Russia. Now, just a few months in operation, the joint venture was up and running and already profitable. The partners wanted to expand and opportunities were readily available but Jeff questioned the feasibility of such a move. This case presents a common dilemma faced by international companies--how to manage divergent partner goals and perspectives.

Costs relating to companies' impact on the environment are increasing at a dramatic rate. Thus, managing, measuring, and reporting of these costs has become an important issue for managers. Accounting for environmental responsibilities is one of the largest and most challenging issues facing accountants today. This case provides an example of how one company is reacting to the increased pressures for environmental responsibility and how environmental responsibilities affect management accounting, financial reporting, and management control.

A small company faces the dilemma of how to finance growth (i.e., internally generated cash flows vs. outside financing sources). An innovative concept positions the company in promoting a niche within the kitchen-cabinet industry and in looking for an optimal way of leveraging that concept for fast growth.

After many years as a German luxury car producer, Mercedes-Benz announced two major strategy shifts in 1992, toward a full line of automotive products and toward a globally diverse set of plans and activities. As part of this shift, Mercedes planned to build a major plant in Alabama for the manufacture of sports-utility vehicles.

Explores the roles of CEO Rudi Gassner and the 9-person executive committee in leading BMG International. BMG International is the international music subsidiary of Bertlesmann, a German company that is the second-largest media conglomerate in the world. Describes a 1993 decision that Gassner and the executive committee must make about whether or not to change managers' business plans and bonus targets as a result of a newly negotiate reduced manufacturing cost. Allows for discussion of a number of timely and important issues: 1) the complexities of managing and growing a large global business; 2) the tensions between centralized corporate control and decentralized local management in a global organization; 3) the impact of leadership style on corporate culture and performance; 4) the challenges of leading a senior mangement team; and 5) the final decision by CEO Rudi Gassner and the subsequent actions taken by the members of the executive committee.

Sunrise's CEO must decide whether to intervene in a decision by a division, Guardian Products, to introduce a new lightweight standard wheelchair. Guardian wants to introduce the wheelchair to complement its line of commodity crutches, walkers, and other patient aids. If introduced, the new wheelchair will compete with an existing product offered by the largest and most profitable Sunrise division, Quickie Designs. The CEO hesitates to take action because he does not want to disrupt a precedent of total divisional autonomy that is integral to Sunrise's culture.

Edgar Scherick, a leading television movie producer, must determine whether fact-based movies garner higher Nielsen ratings than fictional movies. Scherick has data for all 1992 TV movies broadcast on major networks. Ultimately, Scherick must decide whether it is worthwhile to pay for the option for the rights to fact-based movies.

NYPRO, Inc., one of the world's leading manufacturers of plastic injection-molded products, is asked by the Vistakon Division of Johnson & Johnson to manufacture molds that Vistakon will use to produce disposable contact lenses. The required dimensional tolerances for NYPRO's molds are 10 times tighter than it has ever achieved before. The case describes how engineering teams in these two companies attempt to work together to develop a capable process for making molds and lenses.

Colonial Broadcasting, a major American television network, must determine whether fact-based television movies garner higher Nielsen ratings than movies based on fictional concepts. Furthermore, the network must decide whether to accept a fixed-fee advertising contract or a sliding-scale contract.

The CEO is preparing a recommendation to the board regarding several potential outside investments in the company, which is currently operating in bankruptcy. In making his decision, the CEO has to consider various financial and strategic factors, including possible synergy benefits and support for the company's huge planned expenditures on new aircraft. To assess the relative merits of the competing investment proposals, it is also necessary to value the company's assets and prescribe a new capital structure for the company after it leaves Chapter 11. Tax factors are extremely important in the analysis. The final decision must be acceptable to the company's creditors and be compatible with allowed U.S. bankruptcy practices.

A newly reopened automobile engine plant has been organized along total quality and teamwork principles. Employees now is to solve problems and ensure quality, rather than watch parts being produced. New operating and financial systems have been installed to promote continuous improvement, waste elimination, and cost reduction activities.

Presents the problem facing a newly appointed high-school principal. Raises issues about interpersonal and group behavior including lack of open conflict resolution and the need to intervene in an interpersonal conflict. Also raises the issue of intergroup conflict between headmasters and department chairmen, as well as value questions concerning the need for discipline and innovation. Discusses several structural questions concerning the existing "house system" organization. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Describes the problems facing a recent MBA graduate in his job as general manager of a mobile cellular company owned by a parent corporation. Raises issues of corporate divisional relationships and the difficulties facing an inexperienced manager who seems to be receiving little support. A redisguised version of an earlier case.

Coolidge (CKC), a chemical manufacturer, is being sued for patent infringement. Plaintiffs are the patent holder and its sole licensee, who is also a CKC competitor. An analyst at CKC has done breakeven decision analysis from CKC's perspective, balancing going to court with settling out of court, but no analysis has been done for the plaintiffs.