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Komia Holdings SA is the second largest fixed-telephony operator in Poland. The chief executive officer must decide if the company should participate in the government bidding process to acquire an operating license for the third generation (3G) wireless telecommunications in Poland. This technology will allow the company to offer high-speed Internet access as well as many promising multimedia services on mobile handsets. He must consider his company's strategy, competition from other operators and several political debates about the bidding process that has lead to changes in the way the process is handled. The supplement, Komia and the 3G Wireless Phone Auction in Poland (B), product 9B01M038 follows, with the decision of Komia to participate in the bidding process.

Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) is a key component of the security infrastructure for Microsoft, the large, internationally known software manufacturer. The program manager of the center has been informed by a hacker of a potentially damaging security vulnerability in a piece of Microsoft's Internet server software. Neither the hacker nor MSRC knows for sure if systems using the software have been compromised, but they do know that the vulnerability has been discussed in hacker news groups. The program manager must determine who should be told, what needs to be done and when. This case and the accompanying Microsoft Security Response Center (B) and (C) cases (products 9B01E020 and 9B01E021) look at the strategy to solve the problems and deal with any possible public relations issues that arise from it.

BootCamp4MBA.COM is an online educational Web site that helps students prepare for an MBA program or undergraduate degree. The president of Strategic Management Science, Incorporated, the owner of BootCamp4MBA.COM, struggles to improve the sales of BootCamp's online business school preparatory courses. A comprehensive marketing plan must be developed and implemented quickly, including appropriate pricing, product offerings and market communications necessary to advertise and sell products and services online.

Global Sources Limited is Asia's leading publisher of business-to-business (B2B) trade-related magazines. In the latter half of the 1990s, the Internet became a powerful force for change in the business world, leading to an explosion of Internet-related activities by both traditional bricks and mortar companies, as well as countless upstart dot.coms. The chairman and chief executive officer of Global Sources had foreseen the opportunities afforded by the Internet early on, and had made it an integral part of the company's strategy. Currently, the level of activity in the B2B portal space has evolved so quickly that a noticeable degree of confusion among suppliers, buyers and investors about the merits and drawbacks of these portals has arisen. Moreover, the sustainability of these ventures has been brought into question, which is causing a dramatic reversal of fortunes for many companies. The result is that there are strong signs that the industry will experience a significant consolidation. This has left Global Sources chairman with the key challenge of generating greater visibility among users and potential users of the companies services, as well as greater interest from the investment community in order to remain viable. The company must be able to educate and convey its value proposition to its users, as well as determine whether it should continue to remain an independent player, purchase a competitor, or enter into a strategic alliance.

Corporate Promotions Incorporated, a small merchandising company producing specialty advertising products, custom clothing and pre-printed paper for promotional campaigns, had an opportunity to bid on a sales contract of two to five million dollars. Serious cash flow problems threatened to prevent the company from servicing the customer, and the company's president approached the Bank of Ontario to request a $75,000 increase to its working capital loan. The loan manager must review the company's past and future financial positions before deciding on the requested loan increase.

The director of business development of the electronic banking division of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) had just won a long-fought battle to implement a wireless banking initiative for customers with mobile devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants. Now he had to make a number of key decisions relating to the strategy. These decisions included which services to offer (banking as well as non-related services), which devices and standards to support and whether to partner with a third-party content supplier. An extensive glossary of wireless technology terminology is included with this case.

Strategic Intelligence Pte. Limited is a research and new-media company that provides Asian-based economic and political information. The managing editor is facing several challenges in building a new online business intelligence service that focuses on Asia's new economy. As the person responsible for the company's first Internet related initiative, he is expected to design, manage and help market the new initiative that will be independent from, yet complementary to, the company's existing events-oriented and research services. Although he is satisfied with the content that has been developed, he still needs to resolve several issues regarding target audience, pricing policy, revenue diversification options and service awareness. A sense of urgency pervades the situation, since he is expected to ensure that the new service will contribute 25 per cent of total company revenues within the next year.

Stella Artois, Interbrew company's flagship brand of beer, has experienced phenomenal success on the international market. The United Kingdom market has played a critical role in that success, and Interbrew needs to assess the reasons for this. Interbrew's managing director and its chief marketing officer are meeting to have a discussion about how to proceed in developing the Stella Artois brand. First, they need to understand what part of the company's success was due to expert marketing practices and what part might possibly be due to being in the right place at the right time. As well, they want to assess what possible steps might be taken to spread these practices across the corporation for use in the company's global marketing strategy.

Welcome Pharmaceuticals was a joint venture between North China Pharmaceutical Corp. and Hong Kong Triple Well International and is a leading producer of vitamin C in China. The company's general manager had just returned from an industry wide meeting, and was disturbed by what he had learned: there was a worldwide oversupply of vitamin C and already sagging prices had not yet hit rock bottom. The general manager knew the only way for Welcome to survive was to reduce costs, and because Welcome's material costs were already among the lowest in the industry, the only area left to trim was labor costs. The management team was called together to decide whether this was, in fact, the company's only option. If so, the management team had to quickly decide how to go about effecting what was bound to be an unpopular change among several tiers of workers.

As a family man and the president of a small consulting company, Bruce Cruickshank has a lot of hats to wear. Bruce is passionate about his business and enjoys his work, but the pressures of balancing professional life and family life are beginning to take a physical and mental toll. Bruce has a plan in mind for streamlining and expanding his business, but, as it is, he already feels pressed for time to get things accomplished at the office. His assistant is just as busy with her own duties, and it's difficult to make the time to find, hire and train a new employee. At home, Bruce's wife wishes they could spend more time together. As well, Bruce is a devoted father, and being with his children is important to him. The challenges involved in successfully combining his professional life with his family life and leisure time are uppermost in Bruce's thoughts, and he wants to find a healthier balance for the future.

MessageTech, Inc. provides digital media technology and solutions that help clients customize advertising to their specific needs. The company's proprietary technology has the potential to revolutionize the way large, geographically dispersed retailers approach advertising and promotion by allowing clients the flexibility to customize advertising content, in real-time, to suit the conditions of each individual site. Results of beta testing indicate that clients' sales increase significantly after installation of the messageTech system. Yet, the company has been unable to close on any major sales of the system. The newly appointed chief executive officer has a mandate to commercialize the new technology. He must develop a strategy that balances the company's needs for short-term performance against the actions that will ensure a viable competitive position over the long-term.

WaveRider Communications, Inc. was a Toronto-based company with a mission to become the leader in global wireless technology by developing, selling and supporting products that enabled wireless Internet service providers. It recently launched market its Last Mile Solution, offering Internet service providers the opportunity to provide wireless Internet access at broadband speeds in the unlicensed 2.4 gigahertz spectrum. The wireless Internet access industry was relatively untapped and WaveRider's vice-president of marketing wondered whether the company, as it started its growth phase, should seek an alliance with a competing technology company. To determine the feasibility of this idea, he needed to classify the competition, review the customer barriers and evaluate which technology was the best fit.

A Canadian couple working as volunteers in a human resource centre in Jamaica meet with the centre's principal to discuss their concerns about the general disorganization and lack of motivation at the inner-city community centre's remedial summer school. The principal asks for recommendations to improve the experience for both teachers and students and to address the problems of absenteeism and tardiness.

The assistant product manager at a large packaged goods firm does not receive the promotion she was expecting following her first year of employment. Simultaneously, she receives a call from an executive search firm offering her the potential to move to a competing company. She must decide whether to investigate moving or to stay with her current employer. The importance of managing upwards and the pros and cons of executive search firms are highlighted.

The newly promoted director of sales and marketing at CXP, a publishing company, has just inherited an employee conduct issue. In her previous position she became aware that a sales representative was having sexual relations with the company's clients, but the company's president was dealing with the issue. In her new role she discovers that issue still persists and this employee now reports to her. She realizes that this was a 'hot issue' and needed to determine the best way to handle the situation. There was more to consider than just dealing with the employee, there was the company's relationship with their clients and she did not want to put this in jeopardy.

SalesDriver is a start-up company that develops online software packages for sales incentive contests. The vice president of marketing and distribution, who was also a company founder, considers how to address the challenge of retaining key employees in the growing high-technology industry, where employee turnover is very high.

Rose Jones is the stores clerk in a departmental supply room of a multidepartment, government-funded organization. She must decide what to do about a call from a potential supplier who seemed to be offering her a significant personal gift for placing an order.

The president of Blinds To Go, a small retail fabricator of custom-made blinds, announces his plans of expanding the business across North America one region at a time. With substantial backing from an investment firm, the business has quintupled its revenues in less than two years and is looking to expand aggressively across the United States. However, the company has experienced significant turnover in its senior management positions. The company struggles with the issue of how to get and keep the senior management talent needed to achieve the growth the company wants.

Grand & Toy is one of Canada's largest commercial suppliers of office stationery. The president of Grand & Toy is wary of the competitive threat posed by Staples, a well-known U.S. office supply company, and is reviewing his company's budget forecast to plan for a meeting with senior managers. He wants to use this opportunity to rethink the company's strategy and ensure all competitive threats and opportunities have been considered.

Velsicol Chemical Corporation, a global company focused on producing specialty chemicals, has formed a joint venture with the Estonian government called Velsicol Eesti AS that would produce benzoic acid. The plant that will produce this chemical was previously part of a conglomerate owned and controlled by the Russian government. When Estonia became an independent state this plant was passed on to the country which then privatized and sold a percentage of it to Velsicol. The newly appointed plant manager came from a benzoic plant outside the country and was responsible for government relations, cost management, liaison with the board of directors, performance standards and staffing. He must quickly put together a management team that would be familiar with the current operations and capable of working together to achieve the company's goals. In order to do this, he needed to better understand the employees with whom he was working. A follow-up case, Velsicol Eesti AS (B), is available, (product 9B00M008), as well as a cultural note on Estonia, (product number 9B00M014).