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Someone wise once said, "A job worth doing is worth doing together." Yet why is it so difficult to work together as a team? This case presents the story of a team whose relationships are strained and deteriorating in a business where teamwork is essential to the success of the business as a whole. Individual team members begin to care less and less about their ongoing employment with the company and this manifests itself through blatant insubordination, lack of focus on team success, and power plays against team leaders. Readers put themselves in the place of the protagonist who recognizes the situation needs addressing. This case is based upon real experiences, but the company and team members are disguised. It works well in modules on managing teams and will help students develop an ability to diagnose and design useful interventions for issues that teams encounter.

How do companies develop a strategy that is both low-cost and differentiated without becoming squeezed in the middle? Describes how Teva, Israel's first and largest multinational, achieved its globally dominant position in generic pharmaceuticals, an industry that has undergone significant change over the last 20 years. Examines its strategies to defend itself against both low-cost competitors from India and other emerging markets as well as Big Pharma companies, which are adopting increasingly aggressive tactics in genetics.

When a tsunami hit Southeast Asia on December 26, 2004, the leadership team at a Swedish tour company must manage a devastating crisis affecting thousands of its customers and employees in Thailand. Documents the challenges the company faced in the first ten hours of the crisis. Amid the uncertainty of those first hours, the leadership team must make a range of decisions to orchestrate the company's response and manage the rest of its business. Describes the chaotic environment of a crisis, especially when the normal course of business is interrupted, and puts students in the shoes of a range of managers, each having to make decisions on his/her own, while coordinating with one another to enable the company to respond effectively.

The board of directors of Medtronic, Inc., a company known for its commitment to effective corporate governance, must prepare for the departure of Chairman & CEO Bill George and the retirement of four long-time directors. The company had experienced rapid growth in the early 1990s as well as significant change in the composition of its board. Now the Medtronic directors must evaluate how the board has changed, how it will continue to change, and how it should prepare for the future.

A Charlottesville-based manufacturer of "kooky" active-wear clothing must decide whether to outsource some of its shirts to a manufacturer in Hong Kong. While providing lower costs, the supplier reduces Yo Wear's flexibility to respond to changes in demand volume. Students must determine the relevant costs of sourcing in Hong Kong and making to order in house. A newsvendor-type model is required to determine the optimal order size from Hong Kong.

Describes the political ramifications in the United States of Dubai-based DP World's acquisition of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). Because P&O operated some port terminals in the United States, DP World obtained clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States before P&O shareholders approved the deal in February 2006. Nonetheless, a ruckus over port security erupted both in Congress and in the press and this ruckus led DP World to promise that it would relinquish the U.S. terminals of P&O. Also contains a brief description of Dubai and its relationship to the U.S., a discussion of issues related to port security, and a brief history of U.S. security concerns with foreign direct investment. Ends with a depiction of the Bills passed unanimously by the U.S. House and Senate to further regulate foreign investment in the wake of the DP World debacle.

Supergrid is a mammoth wind-power development scheme for Europe, recently proposed by Airtricity. This firm, founded in 1997, is a fast growing power-development company focused on wind. Already having built about 600 megawatts of wind turbines in Scotland and Ireland, Airtricity has now expanded to the United States. But its "Supergrid" proposal, to build offshore wind turbines with capacity of 30,000 megawatts of power would change the face of European energy networks, use new technology, and help several European countries meet their Kyoto targets for reducing CO2. The issues are whether a small company like Airtricity has the human and capital resources to pull this off, and whether the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and the EU can be made to cooperate on such a project.

In January 2006, the president of Friendster needs to choose between two strategic options to revive the company. Friendster started the social networking industry in 2003, but has been overtaken by MySpace and Facebook. The two options are: 1) offer new features to help members enhance their offline lives, such as arranging events with their friends; and 2) offer features, such as the ability to import friends' blogs, pictures, recommendations, and feeds, to help members manage their experiences with their online friends. The two choices have very different value propositions and have very different competitive implications. Also describes the dynamics of relationships inside Friendster and discusses how these dynamics prevented Friendster from maintaining its leadership position. As such, allows for integration of organization and strategy in an entrepreneurial setting, and should be taught with LinkedIn (A) to facilitate cross-case comparisons.

Chronicles entrepreneur Lisa Conte's two ventures, Shaman Pharmaceuticals and Napo Pharmaceuticals. Shaman was formed to make drug discovery and development more efficient by studying traditional, indigenous healers in the tropics. Shaman had identified a promising compound that came to be known as crofelemer. For a variety of complex reasons, Shaman declared bankruptcy, and Napo, Conte's new company established specifically for this purpose, bought Shaman's library of compounds, including crofelemer. At the time of the case study, Napo was developing the compound for sale in large western markets while arranging an innovative public-private partnership to develop and distribute crofelemer in the developing world. In developing countries, the compound would treat diarrhea, which kills over 2.5 million children every year. However, the public-private partnership proved difficult to arrange. Concludes with Conte deciding whether to proceed with the partnership that would not only save the lives of children, but also provide much-needed capital to keep Napo in business. Highlights the difficulties of establishing partnerships across sectors and pursuing complex negotiations within the complicated market and regulatory environment associated with the pharmaceuticals industry.

The newly promoted inventory manager wonders if there is an easier, more reliable means of forecasting sales demand. Currently, forecasts are based on the plant manager's, sales/marketing manager's, and inventory manager's knowledge of industry trends, competitive strategies, and sales history. The inventory manager must decide if using statistical forecasting methods would ease the forecasting process and make the forecasts more reliable. Students are exposed to different forecasting techniques, including executive opinion, linear regression, and time series. The data characteristics include seasonality, trend, and random fluctuations.

The general manager of the Wilkins plant in Paso Robles, California has received instructions from the head office to reduce inventory by 30% in the next quarter. Although inventory had been accumulating over the past years, this had been seen as a benefit to the company for a couple of reasons. One is that the cost of raw materials has risen in the past year. The second is that the company has a policy of no layoffs, so having inventory in stock allows the company to minimize the use of overtime and temporary workers. The general manager wondered whether revising the production planning process would be enough to solve Wilkins' inventory problems.

The founder, chairman, and managing director wants to make Biocon, Ltd. one of the top 10 biotech firms by 2015. The company has dealt in low-risk enzymes and generic drugs for many years. In order for the company to grow, the chairman believes that Biocon must enter the riskier business of drug discovery and development. Without making large investments in new capabilities, the company cannot become a top 10 biotech firm.

Faced with press allegations that executives' stock options might have been backdated, the Board of UnitedHealth Group needs to determine whether its accounting for the options was proper, and if not, what the restatement amount should be and what governance/compensation changes, if any, it should undertake. From an accounting standpoint, allows for the discussion of different methods to account for stock options--intrinsic value method versus fair value--and the differences in the degree of monitoring associated with amounts recognized in the financial statements and amounts only disclosed in footnotes. From a corporate governance standpoint, discusses how the board of directors should respond to this type of crisis in a company with an otherwise exceptional financial performance largely attributed to its long-tenured CEO.

Engineer John Harrison must determine why motorcycle racer Marco Presto does not feel that his motorcycle is providing enough power as it comes out of corners. Harrison uses engine simulation software to help him in his work.

Details power dynamics that unfold in the firm when one of its best and brightest threatens to leave. It focuses on the dynamics of attracting, hiring, compensating, negotiating, and leveraging a star performer in a professional service firm. In particular, traces the detailed events from the resignation of a star to the manager's struggle to decide which of the eligible candidates should be hired. Four candidates and their firms are discussed in great detail. The case allows students to consider both individual (e.g., background, aspirations, attitudes, past short-term and long-term performance) and organizational (e.g., cultures, strategies, structures, performance management systems) factors in choosing a candidate to maximize individual-organization fit.

Charts the development of outsourcing service provider ExlService. Founded by Indian nationals Vikram Talwar and Rohit Kapoor, the firm has moved through several phases of evolution. At the conclusion of the case, the company is offering highly sophisticated outsourcing solutions to manage complex processes for insurance and financial services companies. Throughout ExlService's history, it constantly faces pressures to revise and redefine its service offerings (as outsourced services become commoditized) and retain its well-trained workers (who are highly sought after in India). Chronicles the connections between the firm's investors and the company's strategy and competencies.

Although Wal-Mart, the world's largest company by revenue, was into its 9th year of operations in China, its stores were still losing money. It had created a miracle in the U.S. retail industry by revolutionizing the sector's business model and successfully implementing its model through innovative practices that enabled it to sell national brands at "Every Day Low Prices". The challenge Wal-Mart faced was whether it could transport its successful model to win in a market with many differing characteristics which threatened its low-cost structure and which could nullify its competitive advantage. Concerned with the application of established domestic business models in international expansion. Also sheds light on other globalization issues such as market entry strategy, localization vs. standardization, the effect of regulation changes on the competitive landscape, and firm performance.

Rite-Solutions, a software company headquartered in Rhode Island, was founded by two successful executives that had seen innovation stifled in traditional companies. They observed that people with ideas generally had to present them to management for approval, a process that was intimidating and tended to favor ideas that were well presented, rather than those that were good. In addition, software people were often uncomfortable speaking in public, preferring communication by computer. The Rite-Solutions culture was based on trust and collaboration, with a desire to tap into the creativity of the entire organization. The founders tried a number of methods to involve employees in innovation, which became more difficult as the company grew and added remote offices. They eventually invented a stock market, called "Mutual Fun", where any employee could develop an idea and get other employees to provide their opinions, comments, or time to move the idea forward in their spare time. Communities of common interest formed around these ideas (stocks). When a stock made sufficient progress, and attracted sufficient support, top management could put corporate resources behind it, resulting in a new product, process improvement, or new technology. There were three types of stock: cost-savings ideas, product ideas that utilized technology the company already understood, and new technologies that the company should evaluate. The market began in 2004 and was very successful. By mid-2006, Rite-Solutions had begun to license it to other companies. Discusses the culture of Rite-Solutions, the operation of Mutual Fun, and asks about the application of this tool in other corporate environments.

This case is about the way Pragati Software Private Limited, a small but profitable software training company set up in Mumbai by an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad sent away half its employees in three rounds of layoff in its tenth year.

EndoNav developed an innovative medical device to make colonoscopy procedures easier and faster to perform and less painful to receive. Despite of excellent technology, IP protection, a reasonably large market, and relatively low regulatory risk, the founder (Jaime Vargas) and his business partner (Kenneth Kelley, GSB MBA, 1987) are unable to secure venture funding. The company eventually decides that it must adapt its product and business plan so that it can be funded on a smaller scale by angel investors.