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When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on Monday morning, August 29, it cut a wide swath of destruction in the area; but despite inflicting enormous damage, it initially appeared that the storm had spared low-lying New Orleans the worst of its wrath. But as Katrina moved on, it soon became clear to those who had not evacuated the city that something was going very wrong: almost every part of New Orleans began to flood, and by the next day roughly 80 percent of it would be under water. The rapidly rising floodwaters, the result of three major breaches in the levees protecting the city, created a massive humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands of residents escaped to rooftops or attics, where they waited anxiously for rescue, or waded in waist-deep water to find shelter; many went to the Superdome, which was already packed with people who had waited out the storm there, or to other improvised shelters in the city. As the days dragged on, it would become increasingly apparent that almost every aspect of the response from state, local, and federal government was falling far short of what was needed: evacuees languished in squalid shelters or on highway overpasses waiting for buses that did not come; looting and more serious crimes were reported to be rampant; food, water, and medical care were in short supply. As public outrage grew, fed by TV footage of distraught storm victims, emergency response officials and political leaders, all the way up to President George W. Bush, found themselves scrambling to cope with the "ultra-catastrophe" that Katrina had visited on New Orleans. HKS Case Number 1844.0

Supplements the (A) case.

An abstract is not available for this product.

An abstract is not available for this product.

This is the second of two cases on Kraft Canada's entry into the single-serve coffee and hot beverage market. Kraft Foods: The Coffee Pod Launch (A) describes the initial situation facing the category manager, who must decide whether to launch a new line of coffee pods that Kraft plans to introduce shortly in the United States. The (B) case summarizes key elements of the marketing strategy, and the preliminary results. Students are then faced with the challenge of what to do next.

For more than 70 years, beginning in 1929, one party-the Party of Institutional Revolution, known by its Spanish initials PRI-dominated political life in Mexico, at all levels of government. But when Vicente Fox, a candidate of the rival National Action Party (PAN) won the presidency in 2000, change rippled through the country's overall political structure. This case tells the story of the emergence of competitive elections at the municipal level-in particular, one municipality emblematic of larger change. In describing the change in political life in Chignahuapan, a jurisdiction of some 50,000 in the Sierra Norte mountains northeast of Mexico City, the case frames the question of whether electoral change can lead to sustainable reform of local government. It is a question which arises when, surprisingly, a reform-minded PAN administration gains power in the locality in February 2002-and proceeds to change both administrative processes (opening meetings of the local Council for the first time) and moving generally toward transparency and improved local services. The reform administration, was, however, limited by law to just one term-thus, posing the central question of the case: in what ways can a reform administration seek to ensure that the changes it initiates will not be transitory? HKS Case Number 1841.1

An abstract is not available for this product.

An abstract is not available for this product.

In this supplement to Lonrho PLC (A): An African Conglomerate, product 9B05M067, Sir John Craven discusses his decision to accept the chairman position. It also looks at the general direction taken by Sir John, and how Lonrho had faired as it took this new direction. Lonrho has decided to focus on mining in Africa and dispose of non-mining related assets.

A highly respected investment banker was offered the chairmanship of Lonrho, a conglomerate headquartered in London, England with operations primarily in Africa as outlined in Lonrho (A): An African Conglomerate, product 9B05M067. The investment banker's decision is discussed in From Lonrho to Lonmin (B): Restructuring a Conglomerate, product 9B05M068. This supplement looks at the next step in the firm's strategy development, to consider whether the company should focus on a particular type of mineral extraction, and if so, what kind.

Two business partners must decide whether or not accept an order for a large website project just after they had accepted an even larger order from key pharmaceutical company. This supplement to Infinet Communications Inc. (A), product 9B06A006, looks at what the rapid expansion and subsequent shrinking wreaks on the employees. Students are asked to make recommendations about ways to build a more flexible workforce.

This is a supplement to Infinet Communications Inc. (A), product 9B06A006. It highlights what the company did in hiring and organizing employees, and new systems that better tracked its project work.

ENVIE and ACTIF are two French social enterprises that aim at creating employment opportunities for long-term unemployed people through refurbishing and selling used goods. Both organizations are regarded as successes in their field, as both their economic and social performances are superior to the averages of other organizations in the field, yet ENVIE scaled much further than ACTIF. The case describes how they were founded as well as how each of them grew from one local site to a national network. Their respective scale-up strategies are illustrated at length, emphasizing how each of them designed a new organizational structure, selected new sites, hired new site entrepreneurs, raised start-up funds, developed partnerships and built systems and capacity.

In 2004 and 2005, Wal-Mart began to implement a nonmarket strategy to respond to detractors and improve its image. This case details the many steps that Wal-Mart took, from becoming politically involved to creating community relations offices to working with special interest groups. Wal-Mart ran ads in various newspapers, launched a major environmental initiative, extended health care benefits, set up a diversity task force, and announced support for local businesses in communities in which it planned to open new stores. Study questions set up a discussion of Wal-Mart's actions.

The Chinese operations of Alcatel, a global communications solution provider based in France, were faced with strong local competition and a difficult market. It remained unclear how Alcatel would be able to recover growth in the Chinese market. Initiatives were underway to increase focus on services over equipment, to increase Chinese research and development presence, and to merge with U.S. competitor Lucent.

An abstract is not available for this product.

An abstract is not available for this product.

Most cases on M&As focus on the value of an individual deal (synergies, price, integration issues). In the case series "Acquisition Wave in the Fine Chemicals Industry", we take another perspective. We aim to describe how managers' decisions to make an acquisition and to determine the acquisition price are likely to be influenced by the merger activity in their industry and their competitors' actions. Driven by shareholder pressure to focus their portfolios, leading specialty and fine chemicals players such as Degussa, Clariant and Rhodia entered into major fine chemicals acquisition in 2000 and overpaid. Subsequently, this led to decreasing stock prices and financial turmoil. The fact that the other firms overpaid, despite publicly available signals from stock markets indicating the overpayment, and the nature of the chemicals industry and management, are clear indicators for irrational herd behavior.

The Splash Corporation (A) case, product 9B06A014 focuses on the domestic Philippine market, particularly the competitive dynamics in the existing product lines of skin care and hair care. The Splash Corporation (B) case focuses on international expansion and the introduction of a new line of nutraceutical products. Both cases are set between late 2005 and early 2006 but deal with very different issues.

For the first five years, Malaysia's Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) pursued its original mission and vision, seeking to create a research and design corridor (Multimedia Super Corridor - MSC) that would be at the leading edge of the new economy. However, many analysts criticized key elements of the MDC. Some analysts feared that civil servants lacked the technical capability. Others feared the MDC lacked the ability to encourage a risk-taking culture. Many pointed to the lack of entrepreneurial activity. Stan Shih concluded that there were simply not enough knowledge workers in Malaysia. By 2003, the MDC had shifted its focus to the development of labor-intensive IT-related activities at the low end of value chains, taking advantage of Malaysia's low costs and its geographical position as a potential Asian hub. This is a supplement to Malaysia's Multimedia Development Corporation (A), product 9A98G001.