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Grainger is a distributor of MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) equipment, based in the US. Most revenues were from the US in 2008, but Grainger was positioning itself to expand its limited global presence. Grainger was increasing the volume of private-label products, which offer higher margins and meet price points. These private label products were sourced primarily from China, by a separate business unit (Grainger Global Sourcing, or GGS) within Grainger. The GGS network, as of 2008, had significant cost inefficiencies. Furthermore, the network was not well-suited for increasing global sales of the private label products. The task in the case is to re-engineer the supply chain to improve efficiencies and better position Grainger for global growth.

Celanese, a global leader in the chemical industry, had spent a number of years implementing a single instance ERP solution and integrating the divisional IT functions into a shared services model. Around 2007, after years of application and IT service growth, many in Celanese IT believed that their internal operations were in desperate need of tighter coordination and process discipline. They looked to Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) to guide their process integration effort. This case describes the first three years of the IT organization's journey with the ITIL process framework.

Even before Australian lawmakers abolished university tuition in 1973, students in Australia had long benefited from low tuition and large government subsidies. By the early 1980s, however, the nation's universities faced growing budget challenges and an apparent shortage of capacity as demand for higher education surged. Policymakers, cognizant of a growing budget deficit as well as a hard-hitting recession, hesitated to provide increased funding to higher education. The debate over how best to finance Australian higher education finally came to a head in the late 1980s, following publication of the Report of the Committee on Higher Education Funding (commonly known as the Wran Report). Although the Wran Committee had considered several potential funding schemes, it ultimately proposed a radical system in which students would pay tuition financed through income-contingent loans provided by the government. The Wran Report proved to be of particular interest to the Australian Prime Minister, Robert Hawke. The government's fiscal position seemed to demand that educational financing be overhauled, but there was no consensus on how best to do this. Could the Prime Minister convince his Australian Labor Party to abandon the free-education plank in its platform? And even if he could, how could he be sure that the Wran Committee's strategy was the right one and that its recommendations were workable? Would following an American model of full tuition for higher education and government-guaranteed student loans make more sense? These were just a few of the questions that the Prime Minister confronted as he contemplated new approaches for financing higher education in Australia.

This case illustrates the complexity and importance of hiring decisions in the Chinese operation of a global design and innovation firm.

This case presents two vignettes from the perspective of Laura White, a newly-promoted manager of the Cook Islands operations for a large Australian bank. In Vignette A, White learns of the existence of an Offshore Banking Unit (OBU) - the source of significant revenue to the Islands' economy - in which the customers' identities are unknown. The bank has just brought on a new CEO who has emphasized the importance of transparency and knowing your customer. Given the context of the CEO's philosophy and White's new role as manager, she must decide whether or not to raise her concerns to her manager regarding the OBU. Vignette B provides further history on White's previous experience with an ethical scandal in the bank. After having been told by her manager that bringing more attention to the Cook Islands' OBU banking operations will only cause more problems, she must decide once again if and how to elevate the issue.

This case is written from the perspective of a member of Oracle's valuation team during Oracle's bid to acquire Sun Microsystems in 2009. Sun was an industry leader in the IT sector, and it had many suitors, including IBM. Oracle had distinguished itself as the world's largest and most reputable sellers of database management systems and other related software, and it had recently acquired several low-margin companies and turned them into higher-margin operations. Combining Sun and Oracle had the potential to create the Wal-Mart of the enterprise software industry. A supplemental student spreadsheet is available to verified users.

This case follows Laura Milanes as she defines the problems facing Midco Pharmaceuticals, a leading manufacturer of store brand over-the-counter (OTC) drugs and vitamins. Students analyze Midco's new-product development (NPD) process. This requires critical-path, capacity, and process flow analysis. Students then conduct a cost-benefit analysis and make recommendations.

Todovino sells Spanish wines through wine clubs and web sites. Founder-CEO Gonzalo Verdera has partnered with many companies to create cobranded wine clubs, but now he is pondering a joint venture with one of his rivals, a brick-and-mortar wine chain. Todovino would provide the online presence for the chain. Should Verdera help his rival? What are the risks and benefits for Todovino?

This case speculates how Japanese companies might implement IFRS, with particular emphasis on consolidation accounting.

This case highlights the puzzlingly high rate of diarrhea-related child mortality in developing countries despite the existence of a simple, effective treatment: oral rehydration therapy (ORT). ORT treated extreme dehydration caused by diarrhea, which was a leading cause of death among young children in developing countries, particularly in Africa and Asia. Heralded in the 1970s as one of the most important medical advancements of the 20th century, ORT contributed to a reduction in diarrhea-related child deaths from roughly 4.5 million in 1980 to 1.5 million in 2000. Yet for reasons unclear to the global public health community, the mortality rate stalled at around 1.5 million, where it remained in 2010. In presenting the problem of diarrhea-related death, the solution represented by ORT, and the various factors potentially influencing ORT utilization, the case allows students to analyze the possible causes of low ORT utilization and potential measures to address them.

Fundescola is an educational reform introduced in Brazil in the first decade of the 21st century. It was introduced after Brazil's successful educational access reforms in the 1990s led to skyrocketing enrollment rates, leaving schools unprepared and under-resourced. This led to problems with education quality, especially in poorer communities and poorer states in the North-East. Fundescola was developed by the Federal Government and the World Bank in response. It blended decentralization of funds to schools with the adoption of various new management practices-like strategic planning-to make the schools more effective in providing education. The intervention was subjected to various World Bank evaluations and generally presented as a success. HKS Case Number 1928.0

Vaatsalya has created a no-frills, low-price model of health care to address medical needs in semi-urban and rural India. In India, 80% of health-care facilities are located in urban areas even though close to 70% of the total population resides in villages and small towns. Vaatsalya bridges this gap by creating a viable business model, making good quality health care accessible at affordable prices. The explicit objective of Vaatsalya's business is to provide primary and secondary care services in rural and semi-urban areas. It aims to become a leading provider of low-cost but high-quality health-care services in the country by expanding its network.

If your firm is debating whether to hire a chief sustainability officer (CSO), you may be like fictional electronic components manufacturer Narinex. After losing another big contract to competitor Glistrom, an internal analysis of previous-versus-current RFPs has highlighted one clear area of concern: sustainability. Glistrom recently hired a CSO who has been very visible in promoting its green strategies, even though they don't differ much from Narinex's. With customers increasingly interested in the "greenness" of the products they buy, Narinex needs to change its approach. The executive team debates the questions of cost, brand image, and strategy, and tries to decide whether to handle the issues in-house with current resources, to bring in a consultant to investigate changes, or to hire a CSO. How do you think Narinex should resolve its dilemma? This fictional case was authored by Eric J. McNulty, who writes about sustainability, and Rupert Davis, who heads the sustainability practice at MontaRosa. Commentary is offered by Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer at SAP; Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola; and HBR's readers. Two experts comment on this fictional case study in products R1012N and R1012Z.

If your firm is debating whether to hire a chief sustainability officer (CSO), you may be like fictional electronic components manufacturer Narinex. After losing another big contract to competitor Glistrom, an internal analysis of previous-versus-current RFPs has highlighted one clear area of concern: sustainability. Glistrom recently hired a CSO who has been very visible in promoting its green strategies, even though they don't differ much from Narinex's. With customers increasingly interested in the "greenness" of the products they buy, Narinex needs to change its approach. The executive team debates the questions of cost, brand image, and strategy, and tries to decide whether to handle the issues in-house with current resources, to bring in a consultant to investigate changes, or to hire a CSO. How do you think Narinex should resolve its dilemma? This fictional case was authored by Eric J. McNulty, who writes about sustainability, and Rupert Davis, who heads the sustainability practice at MontaRosa. Commentary is offered by Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer at SAP; Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola; and HBR's readers. Two experts comment on this fictional case study in products R1012N and R1012Z.

If your firm is debating whether to hire a chief sustainability officer (CSO), you may be like fictional electronic components manufacturer Narinex. After losing another big contract to competitor Glistrom, an internal analysis of previous-versus-current RFPs has highlighted one clear area of concern: sustainability. Glistrom recently hired a CSO who has been very visible in promoting its green strategies, even though they don't differ much from Narinex's. With customers increasingly interested in the "greenness" of the products they buy, Narinex needs to change its approach. The executive team debates the questions of cost, brand image, and strategy, and tries to decide whether to handle the issues in-house with current resources, to bring in a consultant to investigate changes, or to hire a CSO. How do you think Narinex should resolve its dilemma? This fictional case was authored by Eric J. McNulty, who writes about sustainability, and Rupert Davis, who heads the sustainability practice at MontaRosa. Commentary is offered by Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer at SAP; Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola; and HBR's readers. Two experts comment on this fictional case study in products R1012N and R1012Z.

The founding CEO of Triple Point Technology, Peter Armstrong, was considering the sale of the company. The company specialized in providing its clients with software used for transaction processing and risk management in various commodity markets. Triple Point Technology had grown substantially in its 13 years of existence and potentially was a source of a significant amount of wealth for its owners. The sale was prompted by a co-founder who wanted to sell his share of the business. The case explores the rationale for owners to monetize at least a portion of their company's value, the sales process, and compares two different offers from the perspective of the company's executives that will have a significant continuing interest in it.

Kiai Marketing Group is a start-up advertising company providing innovative marketing solutions to businesses in London, Ontario. The company's first undertaking is aimed at reaching the post-secondary student demographic by attaching a business's advertising to laptop computers by means of a laptop "skin." The proprietor needs an overall strategic marketing plan to secure his first client. The proprietor must decide what clients to target, how to reach the student market, what to charge clients and what to pay the team of students displaying the laptop skins.

The case analyzes the response of the non-users of shampoo in an emerging environment, namely India. The non-users belong to the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum and they respond with their perceptions about the category of shampoo and well-known brands. The entrepreneur's challenge is to obtain the insights, analyze the attitude of the non-users towards the category and brands, and prepare a strategy to position a new brand of shampoo (Super brand) in the Indian mass market.

The AIG Board underwent significant restructuring after the company was bailed out by the U.S. government in September 2008 in the midst of the financial crisis.

La Fageda is a manufacturer of high-quality, naturally-made yogurts in northern Catalonia, Spain. La Fageda is substantially different from its main competitors such as multinational Danone in that it is a 270-person workers' cooperative with 60 percent of its membership made up of mentally disabled individuals. Since its establishment in 1982, the organization has aimed to integrate the mentally disabled by providing meaningful jobs and dignified salaries. As of March 2010, La Fageda has opened up a new production facility to make ice cream in an urban area outside of its well-known agricultural farm. Students are faced with understanding La Fageda's business model and how it competes against multinationals.