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The Londolozi game viewing reserve in South Africa became a defining icon of ecotourism during the 1990s and early 2000s--that is, a tourist business promoting ecological land management and, at the same time, local economic development. The reserve was in a region in the northeastern part of the country, not far from Mozambique, that sorely called out for progress in both these dimensions. The Sabi Sand Game reserve (within which Londolozi was located) was initially created by the government to provide hunters with an area in which to hunt wildlife. The government retained a portion of the reserve as the Kruger National Park, which allowed visitors to view wildlife, but banned hunting, in an effort to boost wildlife populations. The KNP was initially fenced off from the Sabi Sands Game reserve to prevent hunters from moving into the wildlife reserve. The fence, however, also prevented traditional east-west migration of animals across the region. Through the 1980s and 1990s, the farms within the Sabi Sand Game reserve converted their functions from hunting to wildlife viewing, and the fence was taken down. The new challenge for the farms while transforming into wildlife viewing became land management and local economic development.

Established in 1938, Highly Confident Transportation ("HCT") is a leading third-party logistics ("3PL") company in Taiwan. Originally a trucking and en-route transportation company serving domestic customers, HCT has transformed into a company providing integrated logistics services to global customers. Throughout its history, the company has prospered despite fierce competition, economic hard times and a rapidly changing market environment. HCT now competes against both domestic and foreign players. Despite these challenges, Chen Rong-chuan, chief operating officer of HCT, sees immense opportunities in the trend since the 1990s of outsourcing logistics functions to professional logistics companies such as HCT. In order to increase profits for the company, he has pushed for innovation and a service-oriented approach to be the future directions for HCT and has implemented a complete cultural change throughout the company. He has stressed the vital role of information technology throughout HCT's development into a leading 3PL company that offers logistics solutions both within Taiwan and around the world. This case can be used as a teaching tool for logistics or supply chain management courses.

In late 2006 and early 2007 a number of imports from China, including toys, were found to pose health risks. With safety concerns about Chinese imports on the minds of readers, on July 26, 2007 the New York Times carried a feature article on the precautions Mattel, the world's largest toymaker, took to ensure the safety of its toys. In contrast to other toymakers, Mattel owned the factories in China where its most popular toys, such as Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, were made. Mattel's precautions, however, were not sufficient to shield it from health hazards in the toys it made in China. This case follows a number of product safety snafus, mainly around high lead levels, that Mattel faced from its various suppliers in China. In each situation, Mattel must weigh legal, ethical, and business considerations in determining how to best react.

In November 2006, two members of the FLIR Commercial Vision Systems (CVS) executive team attended a week-long program at Stanford University entitled "Customer Focused Innovation." Upon returning home, they created an "Innovation Center" based on what they had learned. Over the next 18 months, the Innovation Center was used to develop product ideas, improve manufacturing processes, and other tasks requiring creative thinking. FLIR CVS was a division of FLIR Systems, a manufacturer of thermal imaging cameras that used infrared radiation to "see" even in the total absence of light, or in adverse visibility conditions such as smoke or fog. The CVS division was developed and marketed products for commercial applications such as security monitoring, night vision cameras for automobiles, systems that allowed boat captains to see in foggy conditions, or imaging equipment for fire-fighting. The case provides a detailed description of one day-long session at the Innovation Center. The case explores the cultural bases of the Center's success during its first 18 months, and the impact of the Center on the company culture. It also poses problems facing the FLIR executives, such as how to make use of the large number of ideas generated at the Center, how to improve the Center's innovation sessions, how to expand the concept to other company divisions, and how to scale the program as the company expanded.

In Africa, the usage of insecticide treated bed-nets (ITNs) has shown to be one of the best ways to prevent malaria. USAID, the principal U.S. agency for providing assistance to countries, has just announced that by mid-2008, it will provide an additional $5 billion for malaria prevention and treatment in Africa. Specifically, the agency would like to see Tanzania improve not only ITN coverage (currently at only 14%) but more importantly ITN usage by the country's 35 million citizens. As of 2004, only 10% of children under the age of 5 were sleeping under bed-nets. USAID's goal for 2010 is to increase this to 80%. In this simulation, students need to develop a compelling proposal for USAID for reducing the malaria burden in Tanzania. View Video.

Cruzsalud was a medium-sized company, founded in November 2004. The company's business model was based on the concept pre-paid health care, by means of which low-income subscribers obtain a set of health services in exchange for a fixed monthly payment, with prices ranging from 9 to 40 thousand bolivars (US$ 4.00 to 18.60) per month. Once operations were under way, Cruzsalud had to face several management problems linked to expected sales and subscriber fee collection mechanisms. Moreover, Cruzsalud faced a dilemma related to its business model. The Law for Workplace Prevention, Conditions, and Environment, which was passed in July 2005, forced companies, regardless of size, to provide workplace health and safety services. In response to that mandate, and the determination shown by authorities to comply with it, business demand for health services spiraled. This opportunity, together with the difficulties faced in reaching the required volume of customers, led the shareholders to wonder whether Cruzsalud should continue to focus on the low-income sector, as managers proposed, or move towards the market for employee health plans.

Betting exchanges provide an electronic platform that allows ordinary consumers to not only back teams to win, but also to lay odds for other punters to back. This business model allows punters to cut out the middle-man of the bookmaker, and leads to a much more efficient 2-sided market. Betfair.com's domination of the betting exchange has threatened to undermine the core of the traditional bookmakers' business model. The case examines two aspects of the industry: 1. What specific choices did Betfair make to become the dominant betting exchange, winning the competitive battle over Flutter.com? 2. At what stages do Betfair.com's business model and those of the bookmakers interact? Will Betfair.com naturally come to dominate the industry, and if so how should the bookmakers react?

Coloplast's future global manufacturing strategy was based on relocation of volume production of mature product lines to low cost countries like Hungary and China, whereas most creative and innovative activities (pilot production, ramp-up and range care) were held captive in Denmark. The large scale project of offshoring, first volume production and later perhaps other activities, to Tatabanya, Hungary constituted a major shift in the operational strategy for Coloplast, which resulted in a series of organizational and managerial challenges. An important feature of the case is the surprise to the management team of how challenging it was to globalize the operations despite Coloplast's international experience operating a network of subsidiaries in more than 26 countries. The management team learned a lesson of how important it is to have the structure, the organization and the mindset in place when offshoring production. Sourcing internationally is obviously very different from selling internationally as it involves the entire organization. The learning process of the management team and the challenges they faced is unfolded in this case.

The marketing director of a new minor-league baseball team must design, conduct, and then interpret survey research to determine optimal ticket pricing that will yield large attendance figures and contribute to the owner's goal of breaking even in the first year of play. The pricing assignment becomes more challenging when other variables like concessions revenue are considered. Students are asked to complete a quantitative assignment as part of case analysis, but they must grapple with less quantifiable factors as well.

On the return to their homeland of Croatia following a six-year visit to the United States, a couple has decided to open their own coffee house, one that is unique to the Croatian environment - a California-style coffee house that offers the quality, service, product assortment, ambiance and efficiency found in sophisticated coffee shops in developed markets, and all for a locally affordable price. The major challenge faced by the couple is how to grow. Specifically, should they consider franchising over organic growth? If so, how should they go about franchising in a country where the market is developing and where franchising is under-regulated, underdeveloped and misunderstood? This case can be used in entrepreneurship, retailing, international marketing or international business classes. The case provides a practical example of when and how to use franchising.

Google had become an extraordinarily popular website because of the efficiency of its search engine and that popularity spiraled through its applications. The key to Goolge's financial success was placing advertisements tailored to the search queries of each user. Google's objective was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible," and it's strategy had three components: search, ads, and applications. An expanding set of nonmarket challenges accompanied Google's success and growth. Challenges came from all areas: competitors, producers of complementary products, content producers, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and the public. This case explores Goolge's nonmarket challenges, including privacy issues in both the United States and European Union, the spectrum auction, intellectual property, corporate social responsibility, and Google's business practices in China.

This case analyzes the Hilton Hotels Corporation's CRM strategy at a key juncture in its history, immediately after the firm has been taken private by Blackstone. The case provides students with a comprehensive history of the evolution and IT enablers of Hilton's CRM Initiative, as well as the proprietary OnQ enterprise system. The case thus offers a rare opportunity to engage in a longitudinal evaluation of the firm's CRM initiative, and to enable students to propose the future evolution of the initiative based on their analysis.

The executive team at Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union has pushed the concept of members first deeply throughout the organization, empowering employees to put member-owners' interests ahead of either the organization's interests or their own interests. As a result of this focus, the credit union must determine what to do with its profitable indirect auto lending business, which some see as inconsistent with the strategic direction set by the management team.

Kasahara, the founder and CEO of mixi, the most successful Japanese on-line social network, is deciding between two strategic options: (i) B2C or (ii) C2C, to leverage the power of the social network. In the B2C option, mixi would become a portal for on-line shopping for both digital content and tangible goods and charge the business sellers a fee. In the C2C option, mixi would facilitate exchanges between mixi's members through on-line flea markets or auctions and charge the members for successful transactions. In choosing between the two options he has to consider other upstart networks, particularly in the field of mobile social networking.

A carpenter is considering options for improving the manufacturing process of his custom wood-flooring concept. He started the business as a part-time venture and wanted to increase production efficiency to accommodate the growing interest for his pine flooring design. The carpenter was unsure whether he should invest in new equipment or hire part-time labor, but he knew that either way, he would have to change the current process to ensure that capacity would meet the upcoming year's forecasted demand.

The human resources manager at the Alice Saddy Association (Alice Saddy), a non-profit agency in London, Ontario, Canada, supporting people with developmental disabilities who lived independently rather than in group homes, informed the executive director that some of the support workers believed that the current organizational structure caused confusion, slowed decision making and created potential risk for the people served by Alice Saddy. The executive director agreed that there were some problems related to the structure of the organization. However, the structure reflected the mission of Alice Saddy and changes were likely to be resisted by the management team for that reason. The executive director had to decide how to proceed.

This case (1834.0 and related epilogue 1834.1 and abridged case 1834.3) tells the story of Major General David Petraeus and the US Army's 101st Airborne Division in the months following the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the fall of Baghdad, and collapse of Saddam Hussein's government. Having completed their combat mission, and with just a few days notice, the 101st is ordered to Mosul, Iraq's third largest city and the capital of Nineveh province. Their orders were spare - get up to Mosul and Nineveh Province and get things under control. The case details the development and implementation of the 101st strategy to bring stability to Mosul and the surrounding area and provides insight into General David Petraeus and his approach to leadership. While set in a military organization in wartime, the case is not about military operations. Petraeus and his division, with little notice or preparation, undertake traditionally civilian tasks associated with reconstruction and governance. HKS Case Number 1834.3

Michael Reich is having severe doubts about how he split the equity with his co-founders two months ago, when they completed a one-page "November Agreement." Since then, Michael has found an angel investor and has worked non-stop on the business, while one co-founder was off enjoying the winter break with his family and the other worked on lucrative consulting contracts for other companies. Michael has just sent his co-founders a proposal that would re-allocate the equity within their founding team, and all three founders are getting ready to reopen a negotiation they thought had been finalized.

Geoff Smart, founder and CEO of ghSMART & Co., wanted to build ghSMART into the #1 management-assessment firm for CEOs and investors. However, he had just received two pieces of very bad news: the demise of an existing project and the loss of a $1 million engagement he thought was already sold. The news raised difficult questions about how Geoff had structured his firm and had designed its governance and incentive systems.

The experienced entrepreneurial chief executive officer (CEO) of Jadelink International Limited strives to create a modern jewelry brand representing a new perception in jade. The CEO has achieved early success of growing sales rapidly and bringing Jadelink products to Shanghai, the trendiest city in China. But the company wants to expand business to the Asian and international luxury goods markets. This requires intensive capital to continue to build up the company scale. This case examines the consideration of venturing a new business in the China market, managing business growth and acquiring venture capital. It also allows discussion of factors leading to a successful entrepreneurship and dealing with business highly associated with industry tradition, people connection and product design and innovation.