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When discovered in the 1990s, the Kashagan oil field was the second largest oil field in the world. The project sponsors (equity investors) signed a 40-year production sharing agreement (PSA) with the Kazakh government in 1997, with the expectation the field would be developed at a total cost of $57 billion and would be pumping oil by 2005. Unlike most contracts in the energy industry, the Kashagan agreement was a "flexible PSA" meaning the contractual terms-the allocation of risks and returns-depended on ex post realizations of such things as capital costs and profitability. The parties incorporated contingencies into the contract to make it fairer and more flexible, and to ensure it remain viable over the project's 40-year life. Due to a combination of problems and challenges, the project was still not done in mid-2007. At that time, the sponsors, led by the Italian energy company ENI, announced the project would not be completed until 2010 and the total cost was likely to be $136 billion. Although oil prices had risen dramatically between 1997 and 2007, thereby making the project worth considerably more, the Kazakh government indicated its desire to renegotiate key provisions of the contract. The sponsors had to decide whether to renegotiate the contract and, if so, which parts.

"Any important port in the world that has container handling operations should have container machinery made in China." With this dream, Guan Tongxian who was 59 years old came to Shanghai, leading thirteen people from Shanghai Port Machinery Company to start a difficult venture with one million US dollars. Today, ZPMC has assets of over 7 billion US dollars. However, he makes only 50,000 US dollars a year without holding any equities. He has kept such a low profile that even MBA programs in top Chinese universities might not be aware of his success. Chinese traditional culture has been playing an influential role in the personal growth of Guan Tongxian. Guan was influenced by the old generation of intellectuals in his childhood: "At that time, there were old Xiucai and Jinshi in Beijing, and I followed them to learn Chinese poems and listen to them speaking of Confucianism that promotes an idea of 'cultivating oneself, putting family in order, ruling the country and giving peace to the world.'"

This case is set in April 2013, and discusses the key elements that have contributed to the successful operations of the Rolls-Royce Singapore Seletar Campus. In 2006, Rolls-Royce had decided to expand its production capacity and set up operations outside the UK to meet growing customer demands and future growth. Asia was the Group's largest and fastest growing market, with almost half of their new aircraft-engine orders coming from customers in this region. In order to meet this increased demand, Rolls-Royce helped strategise and facilitate the company's largest investment to date: the US$565 million (SG$700 million) Seletar Campus - a 154,000 square metre site housing cutting-edge manufacturing, training and research capabilities. However, while building the facility was relatively straightforward; sourcing the right talent was more challenging. The issue of technology and knowledge transfer essentially came down to developing the high-value skills necessary to assemble and test Trent aero engines and manufacture wide chord fan blades to Rolls-Royce standards. Rolls-Royce was committed to growing its own highly-skilled workforce, and invested heavily in training staff with the intention of developing high-value skills through internationally recognised qualification programmes. Rolls-Royce knew that the local labour market lacked enough seasoned aerospace technicians with the desired manufacturing experience to meet their requirements. To overcome this challenge, the Group developed several collaborations with existing and new partners to develop training and qualifications programmes. This case discusses the challenges encountered, and the way they were overcome, by this public-private partnership that successfully created an ecosystem, which could provide a steady stream of new recruits with the high-value prerequisite skills mandatory for developing quality aerospace technicians.

The CEO of EFL (India), a direct sales organization, must decide which changes to the sales compensation systems would better motivate his sales reps and improve their sales performance.

A social enterprise organization, whose mission is to battle poverty and gender discrimination through providing access to technology, is faced with the prospect of losing some or all of its government funding in a time of global recession. Under the legal structure of a non-governmental organization, Digital Opportunity Trust has partnered with large corporations and other organizations and established a local presence in disadvantaged areas. It has worked in a partnership setting to mobilize the information technology knowledge of young people and train them to become leaders of change in their local communities, which in turn will give them the relevant skills and experience to support their own career paths. The organization's striking success has been driven by its innovativeness and, more particularly, its noticeable efforts to reconcile the corporate and non-profit aspects of doing business, along with the challenges that come with it, without compromising the quality of the social enterprise brand that it is bringing forward.

East Solutions was a successful business process outsourcing (BPO) provider based in Bangalore, India. Although salaries for Indian IT professionals were about half of those of their counterparts in the United States, the board of directors at East Solutions recognized a worrying trend: if salaries in India continued to grow at a fast rate, they would soon erode the cost advantage of sending work to India and potentially threaten the entire Indian BPO industry. As a solution, East Solutions repositioned itself by leveraging technical, industry and process expertise to form a partnership with clients based on value added in addition to cost savings. This plan required East Solutions to refocus on fewer geographic and sector groups. It also required transforming the role of the company's IT managers, who needed extensive training, additional resources and a new compensation strategy. On an average year, the new compensation plan increased the IT managers' incomes by 4 per cent, so it was expected to be popular, but IT managers rejected the new compensation plan and it was abandoned after 18 months. The chief executive officer (CEO) in charge of the new plan for East Solutions was unsure why it had failed.

KSOIL has a project that bills customers on units of documents delivered. The productivity of employees is evaluated on the same basis. The output of the home-based team has increased two to three times compared to its previous office-based performance. As a result, the rewards and compensation for the home-based team have doubled compared to office-based employees. The head of HR is convinced home-based workers are using unfair means to achieve such high output. She is against the decision of the project manager to increase the size of the home-based team. She believes this will only increase the unrest among office-based workers. The general manager needs to make a decision soon, while keeping in mind the profitability, employee welfare and ethics of the firm.

Garry Halper Menswear Limited (GHM) is a medium-sized manufacturer of superior-quality men's suits and jackets that up to now have largely been distributed in Canada. The firm has landed a very large order for men's suits with Sutton's in the United States. To meet the order, the firm has decided to import partly completed suits from China. The treasurer of GHM must assess the financing needs and related risks that result from this large increase in sales. At the same time, he believes that the company's present bank is timid in its response to the firm's needs, and he would like to consider another banking relationship.

General Micro Electronics (GME) designed, assembled, and tested semiconductors for wireless, memory management, wire line telecommunications, and networking applications. In January it purchased a new wire-bonder machine to support its growing contract assembly business. For the first couple of months the new machine performed well, but then its performance became more erratic and eventually was no longer meeting its internal standard for wire-bond strength. The strength of the wire-bond was an important quality dimension of semiconductor chips. With the use of overtime on the existing wire-bonding equipment being very close to full utilization, the need to improve the performance of the new wire-bonding machine was becoming critical. GME's operations personnel were continuously tweaking the new machine in an effort to find a combination of process parameters that would improve the machine's performance. Unfortunately, the performance of the machine continued to deteriorate.

One of the most complex challenges for a family business is when an in-law joins the firm. In-laws are part of the family through marriage; but they form a group of unique stakeholders in the family firm as marriage can be severed but blood cannot be changed. Consequently, in-laws are not always viewed as full-fledged family members. While the firm's founder and family members face challenges as they consider integrating in-laws into the family firm, the in-laws face many challenges in joining a family firm as well. This case illustrates these tensions by tracing John Malone's involvement working as an in-law for Aurum Furniture, a small family business located in a large Midwestern city in the U.S. Issues that would have been straightforward in a non-family firm were anything but that in the non-professionalized family firm. The case provides considerable flexibility with instructors having opportunity to discuss the dynamics among members of a small family business. While we emphasize the challenges faced by in-laws, the case is particularly well-suited to facilitate a more general discussion on the challenges that an individual encounters as he or she joins a non-professionalized family firm. As such, it can be used with family business owners as they reflect on their concept of family and the roles of individual members-especially, in-laws-and the firm's decisions to professionalize. The case can be used with graduate and undergraduate students and workshops in family business or small business management.

Breezy Plains Acres began in 1927 as a small farming operation in Minnesota consisting of a section of land with a homestead. Now run by fourth and fifth generations of the Richter family, it was a five million dollar, complex agri-business that included both owned and rented cropland and pasture, five sites, several hog finishing units, and cattle. This was no simple farm with a cow in the pen, a pig in the sty, and a few acres as depicted in "Little House on the Prairie." Chuck Richter was in his early sixties and had begun to consider transitioning away from the day-to-day operations of the farm/ranch toward retirement. He realized that with increased complexity came increased challenges in relation to how to sustain the operation within the family for future generations. He had one farming son, seven off-farm children and fifteen grandchildren. He was concerned about who would sustain the farm, and how many of the non-farming children had the interest, and, equally important, the financial resources, to buy-in to the operation. As he considered estate planning, he recalled examples of farm families torn apart and farms being sold to strangers because of the children fighting due to how the estate was divided. Being fair to his children was of central importance. As he reviewed the challenges, he thought, "What can I do to help assure that future generations of Richters will still own and manage Breezy Plains Acres?"

John O'Callahan returned from the University of Guelph as a new graduate, engaged to be married. He excitedly told his parents that he and his fiancée would like to take over the family dairy farm after their wedding in the summer. His parents, Michael and Audrey, were happy to hear the news as they had always planned that their family farm would transition to the next generation. At the same time they were somewhat anxious since they did not expect the decision to come so soon, and had not made formal succession plans or discussed this issue with their children. Michael and Audrey wanted to ensure that the selling price and other arrangements would enable them to retire comfortably and that any purchase would consider all three of their children. John was given the task of coming up with a proposal that contained a reasonable valuation of Cloverleaf Dairy as a starting point for a family discussion. Although his parents and sisters seemed positively disposed toward the purchase, in order to proceed, the valuation had to satisfy all parties over the short and long term.

This case describes the founding and growth of a commercial real estate business by a father-son partnership up to the point of deciding whether to stay private or take the company public (IPO) in light of an economic downturn. It focuses attention on the analysis of the two alternatives through their effect on financial and non-financial risks and rewards. Consideration of how to address the possible changes in ownership, leadership, and management in light of the decision is brought into play. Descriptions of the evolution of a father-son relationship are used to foster a conversation about the "uniqueness" of this relationship as it pertains to the company's value and the value of the company to its investors.

Andrea Ruma has worked for three years at Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket (Ruma's), a 112- year- old family business in Massachusetts. Andrea is trying to decide whether she will stay in the business or leave to go back to teaching. The problem for Andrea is that her father, Jim Ruma, will not share any information on the company strategy, finances, estate planning, or succession planning, nor provide her with any feedback on whether she is doing a good job. Although Jim is 72 years old, he is an active and opportunistic businessman. In the last twenty years, he has gotten out of the wholesale fruit business and has entered five new business areas, all without any planning. Although the company is profitable and provides good income to four family members, Andrea has doubts as to whether she should commit to the company with the idea of possibly taking over the business as the only viable fourth generation family member.

The case relates the history of an Australian family transport firm from its foundation, through its expansion and diversification into agriculture and tourism, to a business and succession crisis nearly 90 years later. Rita Buchanan, youngest daughter of Noel Buchanan, the third generation owner, gave her father an ultimatum about the transfer of firm ownership. Noel's response, that he would sell the firm provided Rita remained the majority shareholder, brings interlinked family and business problems into focus: the owner's failure to plan for succession following a dispute seven years earlier with his son, who then left the firm; the discontent of his three daughters about how this lack of succession planning affects their futures; the owner's estrangement from his wife, Cherie, over the owner's ongoing extramarital relationship; Cherie's resentment of Rita's strategic role in the firm; and the firm's falling profitability, especially after a cyclone [hurricane] destroyed its farm and left many trucks idle. The case requires a decision about whether the youngest daughter should accept her father's offer, and what actions are needed to safeguard the interests of the other stakeholders and ensure the future of the firm.

Andy Lewis was the fourth-generation publisher and editor of a small family- owned newspaper in rural Mississippi. Lewis faced the challenges of operating a weekly newspaper in a changing industry amid concerns that members of the next generation of the Lewis family did not want to take on operation of either the 133-year-old newspaper or the family-owned insurance agency. The family firm leader is conflicted because he sees himself as both a steward of a family business as well as a steward of an important community asset. Although Andy had successfully managed the paper and the insurance agency and earned a good living for himself and provided for the needs of his family, he believed that he had paid a high price in the sacrifice of his time to achieve these results. The case examines alternative successors to Andy Lewis as editor and publisher of the newspaper; the economic, organizational, and logistical challenges associated with operating a rural weekly newspaper; and the role that an ancillary business played in generating revenue.

Stefan Konrad is the head of South Asia and Middle East business for the consultancy Leman Highlander, headquartered in New York. He's concerned about employee turnover in the Mumbai office, where the firm's star performer, Vijay Kumar, is doing a great job of attracting clients but also of alienating employees. Two years earlier, on one of Stefan's regular visits to Mumbai, he asked Vijay about some consultants who had abruptly quit. Vijay's response was to storm out of the office and send a letter of resignation to the firm's managing partner--who talked him down and instructed Stefan to keep Vijay happy in the future. But the problems are continuing, and on this latest visit, Stefan gets an earful from some of Vijay's colleagues. He must decide whether and how to raise the issue over dinner that night. Ishan Raina, the CEO of India's OOH Media, and Eric Olson, the global managing partner of leadership consulting at Heidrick & Struggles, offer commentary.

Stefan Konrad is the head of South Asia and Middle East business for the consultancy Leman Highlander, headquartered in New York. He's concerned about employee turnover in the Mumbai office, where the firm's star performer, Vijay Kumar, is doing a great job of attracting clients but also of alienating employees. Two years earlier, on one of Stefan's regular visits to Mumbai, he asked Vijay about some consultants who had abruptly quit. Vijay's response was to storm out of the office and send a letter of resignation to the firm's managing partner--who talked him down and instructed Stefan to keep Vijay happy in the future. But the problems are continuing, and on this latest visit, Stefan gets an earful from some of Vijay's colleagues. He must decide whether and how to raise the issue over dinner that night. Ishan Raina, the CEO of India's OOH Media, and Eric Olson, the global managing partner of leadership consulting at Heidrick & Struggles, offer commentary.

Stefan Konrad is the head of South Asia and Middle East business for the consultancy Leman Highlander, headquartered in New York. He's concerned about employee turnover in the Mumbai office, where the firm's star performer, Vijay Kumar, is doing a great job of attracting clients but also of alienating employees. Two years earlier, on one of Stefan's regular visits to Mumbai, he asked Vijay about some consultants who had abruptly quit. Vijay's response was to storm out of the office and send a letter of resignation to the firm's managing partner--who talked him down and instructed Stefan to keep Vijay happy in the future. But the problems are continuing, and on this latest visit, Stefan gets an earful from some of Vijay's colleagues. He must decide whether and how to raise the issue over dinner that night. Ishan Raina, the CEO of India's OOH Media, and Eric Olson, the global managing partner of leadership consulting at Heidrick & Struggles, offer commentary.

This case presents organizational challenges facing a physician champion of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH). Dr. Julian Kuffler, working with his employer, the Mount Desert Island Hospital System (MDI), hoped to persuade the primary care physicians in the system to embrace the PCMH care model. Physician resistance was strongly opposed to some of the key principles of PCMH, such as managing the health of a defined population, standardizing chronic care management protocols, delegating patient care tasks to non-physician members of a care team, and to having strong physician leadership at the system level. At the same time, MDI was a small rural "critical access hospital" with declining admissions, predominantly outpatient-based revenues, and deteriorating finances. MDI leadership viewed high quality primary care to be essential for MDI to be able to attract the best health system partner with which it could affiliate to become part of a larger, more financially viable organization. MDI leadership also hoped to find a partner that could also support its participation in new population health arrangements such as accountable care organizations.