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The owners of a retail jewellry store must decide whether to continue to offer a snowfall promotion that gave customers a 100 per cent cash refund for all November and December purchases if there was more than 15 centimetres of snow on the following January 7.

In January 1997, Sir John Craven, a highly respected investment banker and chairman of the investment bank Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, was offered the chairmanship of Lonrho, a conglomerate with headquarters in London, England, and operations primarily in Africa. Lonrho's more significant interests were in hotels, mining, agribusiness and trading. The company was experiencing financial trouble, and was no longer respected by the financial community in London. Tiny Rowland, the tycoon entrepreneur who built the firm, had recently been fired. The firm lacked the leadership and direction it needed to remove itself from its current financial troubles and prosper in the future. Sir John needed to decide whether he should accept the offer of the chairman position, and if he did, what direction Lonrho should take. Supplements From Lonrho to Lonmin (B): Restructuring a Conglomerate, product 9B05M068 and Lonrho (C): Lonmin, product 9B05M069 look at the Sir John's decision and the company's focus.

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.

The founder and owner of Jill's Table, a specialty food and housewares store is thinking about the challenges ahead of her. As a small business operating in the same arena as the mass merchandising chains, she has to decide how to position her service offerings so as to survive and even thrive in a highly competitive environment. As a Retailer of the Year award winner (2004 Canadian Gift and Tableware Association, Housewares and Gourmet Division), she knows that her challenges go beyond competition and touch on areas such as customer service, associate training, buying and finance.

The founder and owner of Eden Creations debut line of hand-crafted specialty beaded jewelry had been well received by the local bridal industry, and several retailers throughout the region had placed orders. She now has to develop a formalized marketing plan to ensure the continued success of her company before returning to her postgraduate studies.

Two business partners must decide whether or not the accept an order for a large website project from a telecom just after they had accepted an even larger order from a key pharmaceutical company. Not only will the telecom order fall outside their pharmaceutical industry boundaries, it may require doubling the number of employees from 45 to 90 in this early stage entrepreneurial company. Serving the large pharmaceutical company could jeopardize the larger order and the company's reputation, to say nothing of the company's cozy 'family' culture. The supplement Infinet Communications Inc. (B), product #9B06A007, looks at the havoc that rapid expansion and subsequent shrinking wreaks on the employees. In the supplement Infinet Communications Inc. (C), product #9B06A008, describes what the company did in hiring and organizing employees and new systems that better tracked its project work.

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.

A partner in an early stage entrepreneurial company wants to revolutionize the way pharmaceutical companies communicate with medical doctors. He created eRep, an online site for a doctor to interact with a pharmaceutical company's sales representatives. Unfortunately, after two years of trying to entice a key pharmaceutical company to support the development of an eRep working prototype, he has not been able to find such a co-developer with $1 million. Sales executives expressed interest in the concept, but seemingly no one wants to be the first mover. How should he overcome these obstacles and launch this product?

Board directors suffer from conflicts of interest just as managers do and, so, can't be trusted to act in shareholders' interests. The solution is to make directorship a high-profile public service.

A recent study shows that even criminals benefit from being mentored. So why are so few rank-and-file employees paired with their more seasoned colleagues?

Offering customers too many product choices may decrease their sense of well-being.

Labor churn should be taken into account when assessing the costs of doing business in China.

Top management teams whose members don't trust one another perform worse when they're handed unilateral decisions than when they slug it out to reach a consensus.

Conference designer Richard Saul Wurman describes his approach to assembling a memorable and inspirational gathering.

Companies that sell subscription model, "all-you-can-eat," digital content are boosting profits by carefully manipulating consumption.

Because executive pay policies show very little sensitivity to company value, underperformers often are overpaid, whereas top performers are underpaid.

Private equity investors in Asia are fine-tuning the art of the turnaround using three principal strategies.

The case presents CEMEX Mexico's situation in 2004, shortly after its social responsibility committee was created and became operational. Two distinctive stages in SR development are described. During the first stage, the company's SR approach was paternalistic and lacking in strategic meaning. The second stage started as a result of several organizational changes undertaken to streamline SR efforts and to incorporate them into the company's business strategy. This shift was initiated in the late 1990s, when CEMEX reviewed its contingency management processes and fueled the creation of its Social Responsibility Unit, the coordination of community relations and the establishment of its Communications and Social Responsibility Committees. Although social responsibility initiatives had begun to bear fruit, the company faced the challenge of integrating it into its culture. SR was a strategy known mainly to top management, but it was not explicitly embedded in training, recruiting, compensation or performance evaluation practices. This hindered its swift incorporation into the company's organizational culture. The case describes the organizational change process (in terms of strategy, structure and culture) that resulted from SR adoption and the managerial decisions geared at its internalization. There was little evidence to assess how deep this cultural change really was. A personnel survey had revealed that most employees were unaware of CEMEX's community-oriented initiatives. The SR Manager's goal was to turn this issue into a personal trait for both the company and its employees -i.e., to embed it in CEMEX Mexico's DNA. Yet, some members in the organization were still doubtful.