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A retail-furniture company that abandoned the standard retail-industry business model, disavowed debt and equity-growth financing, and embraced a unique multiple-stakeholder model that valued quality and relationships ahead of the bottom line while producing stellar financial results achieves contrarian success. Its culture supported an energized, positive growth environment for its employees that fostered high employee engagement and, in turn, high customer engagement. Now the founder was confronting his biggest challenge: how to institutionalize the unusual business model, culture, and employee environment he has built. His primary objective is to preserve and protect his "relationship" business model, which is the heart and soul of his business's success.

This case explores management's challenge of how to best use a $10 million contribution to make the greatest impact for the poor. Acumen Fund is global philanthropic venture capital fund that seeks to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor at the base of the pyramid. In recent years, the organization has expanded its work into talent building and knowledge creation. Students learn the different roles intermediary organizations like Acumen Fund play in facilitating the development of successful BoP ventures and why are these efforts needed.

Awarded 1st place in the 2008 oikos Casewriting Competition. VisionSpring sells affordable reading glasses to the poor at the base of the pyramid through Vision Entrepreneurs and, more recently, through franchise partners. Winner of the prestigious 2008 Oikos Case Competition, this case explores how to scale VisionSpring's approach to serving the poor. (Note: In 2008, The Scojo Foundation changed its name to Vision Spring.)

The case deals with a scam that has been run out of Nigeria since 1990. In it, foreign companies are approached for their assistance in facilitating an international transfer of funds in order to receive a very large but unearned commission. In the case, a Hong Kong-based manager who is travelling to Nigeria is unaware that he is walking into a situation where his company is about to be cheated. The objective of the case is to raise the issue of ethics in the conduct of international business. A follow-up case (9B08M039) is available.

The owner of a small scuba diving operation in the Bahamas is reassessing his strategic direction in the light of declining revenues. Among the changes being considered are shark diving, family diving, exit, and shifting operations to another Caribbean location. These options are not easily combined, nor are they subtle. The case is intended to provide a work-out on the relationship between strategy, organization and performance, and how changes in strategy will dramatically affect the organization. The case also highlights the importance of understanding demographic changes as part of an environmental analysis. (A nine-minute video can be purchased with this case, video 7B08M041.)

The (A) case describes a series of controversial events and alleged misdeeds that placed Citigroup in the public spotlight and launched investigations into the company's business practices by regulators in Japan and Europe in the fall of 2004. CEO Chuck Prince must decide what to do to right the company and restore its reputation.

This case describes the leadership initiatives of two of General Electric's (GE) chief executive officers: Jack Welch and Jeffrey Immelt. Under Jack Welch's leadership, GE, one of the most admired firms in the world, began its transformation from a manufacturing conglomerate to one that focused on services. Welch's stature as a management leader grew as GE's stock price increased. Many of Welch's management practices were adopted by U.S. and global organizations. While his changes resulted in excellent financial performance, sustained over a long period of time, not all within GE agreed with his methods. Welch's departure in 2001 triggered a steep decline in GE's stock price. His successor, Jeffrey Immelt, took over the company days before the terrorist attacks in September 2001 and has spent the last few years preparing the firm for its next stage of growth.

The case deals with a scam that has been run out of Nigeria since 1990. In it, foreign companies are approached for their assistance in facilitating an international transfer of funds in order to receive a very large but unearned commission. In the case, a Hong Kong-based manager who is travelling to Nigeria is unaware that he is walking into a situation where his company is about to be cheated. The objective of the case is to raise the issue of ethics in the conduct of international business. A follow-up case (908M39) is available.

The owner of a small scuba diving operation in the Bahamas is reassessing his strategic direction in the light of declining revenues. Among the changes being considered are shark diving, family diving, exit, and shifting operations to another Caribbean location. These options are not easily combined, nor are they subtle. The case is intended to provide a work-out on the relationship between strategy, organization and performance, and how changes in strategy will dramatically affect the organization. The case also highlights the importance of understanding demographic changes as part of an environmental analysis.

In January 1999, William Durden was named the 27th president of his alma mater, Dickinson College. He quickly came to understand that for much of the 20th century, the Dickinson community had lacked a strong sense of organizational purpose. By autumn, Durden had turned to the life and writings of Dr. Benjamin Rush, the man responsible for securing the college charter in 1783, as the inspiration for the story. After introducing Durden and the challenges confronting Dickinson, the case describes the early history of the college and the ideas and accomplishments of Rush. It then provides students with a brief overview of the strategic challenges that had surfaced for Dickinson by the mid1990s. Finally, the conclusion indicates that Durden still had to resolve many issues associated with the identity story.

Robert Wessman took over Actavis in 1999 when it was a failing 90-person domestic generic pharmaceutical maker in Iceland. Within 7 years he had brought Actavis to number 5 worldwide, with 11,000 people, active in 40 countries, global manufacturing, and $1.6 billion. The case explores the reasons for the success of this global venture.

BzzAgent is a word-of-mouth marketing firm. The founder, Dave Balter, sees blogs as an important way to communicate BzzAgent's unique positioning: transparency. He sees the firm's blog--the BeeLog--as a way for the firm to participate in conversations with clients, employees, and "agents." However, he has been unhappy with the level of interaction the blog has been generating, and is considering shutting it down. The case provides a context for a discussion about word of mouth marketing and social media, as well as about blogs specifically. It also provides examples of other corporate blogs, and allows for students to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of this potentially-important form of communication.

An updated "Four Products" case. This 2008 version includes: sliced peanut butter, foldable bicycle tires, high-end wooden puzzles, and artificial dirt for thoroughbred race tracks. These four products form the basis to assess the drivers of new product adoption. In particular, one of the critical tasks in the marketing of new innovations in predicting demand and rates of diffusion for those products. And while one can speculate on the scope and rate of diffusion for any given product, it's helpful to compare and contrast diffusion across products. Doing so allows one to focus on the drivers or product characteristics that influence product diffusion, making one product a star and another a dog. Specifically, looking across products allows one to pick up on things that get lost in discussing a single product. Note that this case often gets used with HBS Note #505-075, "Note on Innovation Diffusion: Rogers' Five Factors," which either can be distributed along with the case or after the case has been taught.

Pete Flint and Sami Inkinen, co-founders of RealWide.com, a real estate search web site, met for lunch at the Fish Market restaurant in San Mateo, Calif. to discuss the coming week. It was September 21, 2005, and they planned to have their web site go live within a week. Although both felt proud of what they had accomplished over the last year, this was certainly not the time for nostalgia or back-patting. A number of critical pre-launch issues would likely consume this morning's discussion. In particular, they had yet to finalize the details of their first major financing and decide on a national or local (i.e., Bay Area) focus. Additionally, certain real estate listing web sites were threatening to block their search crawlers; some of their advisors were urging them to focus more on strategic issues and less on tactical execution details; and then there was the matter of the name-did RealWide truly represent their company? As they sat down, they both wondered, what would the coming week bring?

Unlike most developed economies around the world, Hong Kong did not have a minimum wage law to protect workers' livelihoods. Attempts by the Legislative Council to motion for legislation governing minimum wage and standard working hours had ultimately been unsuccessful. A major reason was considerable opposition from the business community, which feared that deviating from a purely market-dictated wage regime would hurt Hong Kong's position as the world's freest economy and aggravate unemployment. In late 2006, the Hong Kong government launched the Wage Protection Movement, a program designed to protect the wage level of cleaning workers and security guards through voluntary and non-legislative means. It was, however, met with vicious attacks from members of the Legislative Council who advocated a minimum wage, accusing the government of not heeding the plight of low-income earners and instead allowing the issue to drag on without legislation. This case is about economics and business, introducing the topics of minimum wage legislation, Hong Kong's unique economic situation and the probable effects of a minimum wage on the world's freest economy.

Progressive Insurance, a leader in the automotive insurance market, has succeeded through innovation. The case describes the company strategies for differentiating their service through Immediate Response Vehicles, Express Quote (comparing prices for prospective customers, and multichannel marketing agents, 1-800 numbers, and the Web). Through these programs and a series of creative advertising campaigns the company has built a strong brand in a relatively short time. Channels with their pricing and channel strategies remain.

The Water Cooler case is support to a DVD (Windows Media Player) depicting Geoff Mueller's first day at work at the fictitious company called Ginko. The first part of the DVD details the day through the eyes of the many employees at Ginko and how they view Geoff. The second part shows how Geoff Mueller personally experienced that day. The two perspectives are entirely different. The Water Cooler DVD is available, product # 7B08M024. Please contact Ivey Publishing for the DVD.

In May 2007, the Engstrom Auto Mirrors plant, a relatively small supplier based in Indiana, faces a crisis. The business was in the second year of a downturn. Sales had started to decline in 2005; a year later, plant manager Ron Bent had been forced to lay off more than 20 percent of the work force. Plant productivity was dropping, employee morale was low, and product-quality issues had begun to surface. Relationships with key customers were at risk. Downturns were not new at Engstrom. When the plant had reached a similar crisis point years earlier, the institution of a Scanlon Plan, a company-wide employee incentive program, had proven critical in building morale, increasing productivity and product quality, and leading Engstrom into a turnaround. For several subsequent years, Engstrom workers had received regular Scanlon pay bonuses. But the bonuses had stopped in 2006, and now Ron Bent must determine how to get the plant back on track. Should he revise the Scanlon setup? Remove Scanlon and try another plan? Identify and change other organizational factors that may be sabotaging Scanlon?

Alex Sander is a new product manager whose drive and talents are attractive to management, but whose intolerant style has alienated employees. This tension is presented against the backdrop of a 360° performance review process. Sander works in the Toiletries Division of Landon Care Products, which has recently been acquired by a European beauty company. Sander is leading the launch of a European skin care product into the U.S. market, which requires working with a multinational product development team. Sander's interactions with peers and direct reports in the case paint a picture of a tough, inflexible high achiever who uses temper as a management tool. At the end of the day, Sander's supervisor Sam Glass will provide Sander with 360° performance feedback-the first time this process has been used at Landon. Sander remains skeptical about the value of the process and feedback, and of a long-term fit with the organization. On the other hand, Glass has a very high personal interest in keeping Sander at the company, but wonders how the organization can best develop and manage this star performer.

Ken Winston, the regional sales manager at a securities brokerage firm, has reorganized his generalist salespeople into "Key Account Teams" (KAT), to increase sales of specialized, higher-margin fixed income products. Winston is also implementing a new corporate performance management system. To help improve coordination between sales and marketing, Winston must solicit feedback from marketing staff on how responsive his salespeople are to marketing's directives. The marketing group has information on product costs that allow it to forecast product profitability, and by persuading the sales force to focus on those products the marketers can improve firm-wide margins. The KAT model, implemented six months earlier, has challenged the core internal values of the organization - such as a salesperson's control of his or her customer base and the appropriateness of product specialization. However, the long-term test of the new organizational structure will be its alignment with external changes in the securities industry: how securities are bought and sold and the types of new products flooding the market.