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This teaching case portrays the issues surrounding the adoption of an emerging technology (mobile internet) by Agriculture ITO - an industry training organization in New Zealand. The widespread geographical nature of the organization creates a unique business scenario that can be of great value to instructors teaching IS management, technology adoption and mobility.

This case study is based on the actual experiences of several companies that we have worked with that want to expand their business into emerging markets. The case outlines and illustrates a framework of analysis that focuses on assessing foreign exchange rate risks, country risk analysis, and management's decision-making process in selecting a target country and about managing the risks associated with this decision. The case provides data on four possible target countries for which methods of forecasting exchange rates (PPP, IRP, IFE, B/P) can be used. The case also provides the opportunity for assessing whether a government is pursuing appropriate macroeconomic policies to avoid crises. Finally, the case allows for an evaluation of the probability of a foreign exchange, financial, foreign debt, and banking crisis in one or more of the four countries. While the case can be used to study macroeconomic policy decisions, its real purpose is to examine management's decision-making process to identify and manage possible risks associated with expanding into emerging markets.

The case has been used in a first-year required course called Global Economies and Markets in a module on monetary policy. On October 24, 2005, President Bush nominated Ben S. Bernanke to be chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System for a term of four years along with a 14-year term on the board of governors. With the U.S. Senate confirmation widely anticipated, Bernanke was expected to take over stewardship of the U.S. monetary policy from Chairman Alan Greenspan when he retired in January 2006. While the U.S. economy was in good shape at the end of 2005, Bernanke had to prepare to deal with two challenges when charting a course for managing U.S. monetary policy. First, the sharp rise in energy prices that began in 2002 had the potential to bring back the specter of inflation and dampen desired consumer and business spending. Second, the housing boom could turn into a housing bust, throwing the mortgage industry into turmoil and weakening consumer business confidence. There was also the possibility that the housing bust could affect broader financial markets. Bernanke had to consider his options for dealing with contingencies in the not-so-distant future.

Examines the leveraged buyout of Hertz in 2005, a complex, high-profile deal and a good example of cutting-edge practice in private equity. The first of a two-part series on the Hertz LBO, adopts the perspective of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the leader of a private equity consortium bidding to buy Hertz from Ford in an auction. Set at the final round of the auction, the immediate problem for the consortium is how much to raise its previous bid. A reasonable bid must be based upon how much value the private equity consortium can create through improvements in Hertz's global operations on the one hand, and a more efficient capital structure on the other. Presents detailed descriptive information on both topics, but does not include detailed financial projections, which must be formulated by students or supplied, for discussion purposes, by the instructor.

In 2002, a massive accounting fraud and corporate looting scandal involving the founding Rigas family made Adelphia the 11th largest bankruptcy case in history, and the third--after WorldCom and Enron--among those triggered by fraud. Set in 2005, when Adelphia is contemplating several options to emerge from bankruptcy, including a $17.6 billion cash-and-stock offer from Time Warner and Comcast, a $17.1 billion cash-only offer from Cablevision, and a $15 billion cash-only offer from KKR and Providence. The fact that both Comcast and Cablevision are themselves family-controlled and with a large wedge between the family's ownership and control rights further complicates the decision.

Executives at First National Bank in South Africa are considering whether to launch a potentially exciting, but rather unorthodox, new savings product. Instead of paying interest, this product gives depositors the chance to win large cash prizes each month. Michael Jordan, CEO of the bank's Consumer Solutions Division, must decide whether to approve the product, weighing the potential benefits against large upfront investment, uncertain market demand, and the complication that the product might face legal challenges.

The Pitcairn Family Heritage(R) fund invests primarily in companies controlled by their founding family or a related foundation. The fund was launched in 1989 by Pitcairn Trust, the family office of the descendents of Pittsburgh Plate Glass (PPG) founder John Pitcairn. The fund has delivered good long-term returns since its inception, but in recent years it has underperformed its benchmarks by a considerable margin.

In this fictional case, Jennifer Gaston, founder and CEO of mid-sized luxury jewelry company Aquamarine, was managing a couple of key hiring issues that had recently cropped up. In just six months, Gaston had brought in a new COO and was about to finalize a multi-month search for a CFO. Although she had nearly completed the transformation of her executive team, she still needed to thoroughly check references on the CFO candidate and extend a formal offer. A lot was riding on these positions and, despite the help of an executive search firm, hiring for them had not been easy. Students are asked to evaluate several aspects of hiring and prepare role plays for them.

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How would you react if you were faced with a humiliating interaction with an abrasive colleague, boss, coworker, or direct report? What if that person is a rainmaker? Most students have found themselves in a difficult situation they thought they had no power to change. This case describes the interaction among four associates at an investment bank and their confrontational team leader-who is also a vice president. Deciding what to do about the vp's behavior is tricky, and there is unease about going upstairs with their complaints. This case allows for a powerful discussion about leadership techniques that only attempt to change behavior.

The case documents the growth strategy that the IMF wanted to orchestrate after the first oil crisis and as the world economy did not return to the growth rates of the 1960s. The case illustrates the pinnacle of Keynesian thinking that prevailed at the time: a view of the international economy as an almost hydraulic system that could be manipulated by government policies at will to reach desirable aggregate targets. The failure of the strategy, among other things, emphasizes the importance of inflationary expectations. The case is also a nice opportunity to discuss the Phillips curve as well as the current global imbalances and what can be done about them.

Knowledge is being discussed as one of the most important organizational resources. But these resources exist in specialized pockets dispersed across the organization, and dedicated knowledge management (KM) programs are required to improve their flow. However, high failure rates of such programs raise serious doubts about their ability to improve knowledge flows. This case traces the KM program of Infosys Technologies, Ltd - a Global Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise. The case describes how, in 1999, Infosys' top management detected a severe lack of organizational knowledge flows while implementing a program aimed at continuously improving their core business processes. A more detailed examination exposed that the lack of knowledge flows stifled the effectiveness of their organizational structure and their business model. Alarmed by these critical findings, Infosys initiated their KM program. A five-stage knowledge maturity model (KMM) was conceptualized to aid KM implementation. With people, processes, and technology as the three pillars of Infosys' KM program, KMM identified specific capabilities Infosys needed to develop in each of the five levels. Things worked fine till 2004 when Infosys began moving towards KMM Level 4, which required developing clear metrics to measure KM effectiveness, that is, improvements in knowledge flow. In the absence of such metrics, Infosys' Board of Directors started questioning company's financial investment in the KM program. The CEO, who championed the KM program, knew that he faced two key challenges - to convince the Board of future revenue prospects of the KM program, and to identify metrics for assessing improvements in organizational knowledge flows.

After the merger of two local hospitals, hospital leaders much decide how to reorganize services to take advantage of newly created efficiencies. Focuses on the Orthopedics department at one of the hospitals.

Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo, had placed multiple strategic bets on his company. In September 2007, that strategy was due for a major test. TiVo was a maker of digital video recorder (DVR) products and a distributor of DVR technology. Rogers believed that macro-trends in the home entertainment industry--the convergence of standard television with the delivery of video content via broadband Internet, and the related crisis faced by companies whose business models relied on TV advertising--played to TiVo's unique strengths. Leadership in DVR technology and a TV-centric user interface arguably positioned TiVo to become something more than a consumer electronics company. That was Roger's big bet. Implementing it required making six other bets: continuing to sell stand-alone DVRs in the retail market, despite rapidly eroding market share; distributing TiVo service in partnership with cable and satellite TV providers (which also functioned as TiVo's chief competitors in the DVR market); developing a platform for DVR-based advertising; entering the audience research business; leveraging TiVo's intellectual property both through litigation and in the marketplace; and expanding into non-U.S. markets. In late 2007, a pivotal new product, a major distribution deal with cable operator Comcast, and a key intellectual property lawsuit were all reaching points of critical impact.

In 2007, there were three prominent corporate governance ratings firms-The Corporate Library (TCL), Governance Metrics International (GMI), and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). These firms assessed the effectiveness and deficiency of the governance systems of thousands of publicly traded companies. Although members of the investing public agreed that sound policies were important to protect the interest of shareholders from potentially self-interested managers, there were many questions around the usefulness of published governance ratings themselves. Questions ranged from whether a system of governance could be adequately summarized in a single, numerical score to what a high or low rating was supposed to indicate. Furthermore, allegations that ISS engaged in a conflict of interest by selling consulting services to companies on how to improve their ratings led some to question the objectivity of the ratings process.

In 2001, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated acquired the San Diego-based biotech company, Aurora Biosciences. The combination of Vertex's and Aurora's technologies would improve the flow of novel drug candidates into development. However, several questions related to the integration of Aurora into Vertex were still unresolved, the most pressing being Aurora's major collaboration with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF). Were venture philanthropy and foundation deals an appropriate funding mechanism for a public company like Vertex? How could the board of Vertex and the CFF fundamentally align the objectives of a for-profit company with those of a non-profit institution? Those were the questions faced by the Vertex executives.

In 2005, Derek V. Smith, CEO of ChoicePoint, Inc., a leader in the personal data industry, was facing some difficult strategic challenges. Under his watch, the company had allowed a large security breach-compromising some 160 thousand personal files-which it did not prevent or detect immediately. The result was renewed attention and scrutiny on personal data privacy issues causing Congress to consider several new legislative bills. Meanwhile, pressure to make changes in the way he did business was mounting from the media, the Federal Trade Commission, influential privacy rights advocates, and the general public. The case focuses on Smith as he weighs his options after months of trying to change public sentiment. Smith needed to make a decision regarding the proper use of social security numbers but also the restoration of faith in his company and the personal data industry, as both were facing significant legitimacy threats.

(1) To highlight the critical role of the environmental forces driving change and competition in the global marine and offshore industry: oil prices, technology changes and new cycles of industrialisation; (2) To discuss Keppel O&M's approach to strategic management in its volatile market and to evaluate the reasons for the firm's success in such an environment.

Presents one company's efforts to implement a project management organization, or PMO, and the challenges they faced in doing so. Issues brought out in the case include defining the PMO's purpose and mission, the structure and governance of the PMO, and how to successfully implement it in what appears to be a resistant culture. John Strider, AtekPC's chief information officer (CIO), had strong convictions that the PMO-light model was the way to go. He had held back on hiring fill time employees for the PMO and was moving very slowly and cautiously so as not to violate AtekPC's culture. He was also concerned about the many issues that the PMO implementation had already raised. Were small steps building on small successes going to get the job done fast enough? With the ever increasing challenge of successfully managing information technology (IT), organizations are recognizing the need for greater discipline in managing IT projects. For many organizations, this has meant ratcheting up project management skills, processes, and governance structures within the organization by implementing a project management office (PMO). Unfortunately, there is little shared understanding of the challenges of implementing a PMO. Therefore, managers and their organizations have inadequate guidance to help them identify and overcome the obstacles they are likely to encounter.

Examines the evolution of Dove from functional brand to a brand with a point of view after Unilever designated it as a masterbrand, and expanded its portfolio to cover entries into a number of sectors beyond the original bath soap category. The development causes the brand team to take a fresh look at the cliches of the beauty industry. The result is the controversial Real Beauty campaign. As the campaign unfolds, Unilever learns to use the Internet, and particularly social network media like YouTube, to manage controversy.