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American businessman, Greg Casagrande, founder and president of the South Pacific Business Development Foundation (SPBD) in Samoa has a decision to make: who should he hire to be the next general manager of SPBD, when the contract of his current general manager ends in January 2005. Should he hire a local Samoan or a palegi, a foreigner? Casagrande founded the SPBD, a microfinance institution (MFI) providing financial services to poor people, in January 2000. He hired a Samoan with an MBA from the US to be his general manager. Nine months later Casagrande discovered that the general manager was engaging in a variety of fraudulent activities, as were some of his staff. Casagrande was forced to leave his home in New Zealand to fly to Samoa to step in directly. He instituted a number of reforms, including the decision to lend to women only. Casagrande's reforms put the SPBD back on track and, in 2002, he hired Minh Lai, a Vietnamese-Canadian investment banker, to become the general manager. Lai built on Casagrande's reforms, expanded the client base, and introduced new products, including a savings product. But questions still remained. Was SPBD having its intended impact on the lives of its women clients? Would SPBD reach its goal of financial self-sufficiency by 2006? HKS Case Number 1804.0

In 2003, Minh Lai, manager of the South Pacific Business Development Foundation (SPBD), a nonprofit microfinance institution providing financial services to women in Samoa, made a decision to lend to fa'afafines after several asked whether SPBD would lend to them. Fa'afafines are biologically men, but dress and behave like women. How boys become fa'afafines varies. It may be a matter of choice by a boy to take on a female role or it may be a role that they are raised to play by a family that has no or few daughters and needs someone to carry out female tasks within the household: cooking, cleaning, and washing. HKS Case Number 1805.0

Examines how Lifefont (pseudonym), a multidivisional consumer packages goods company, develops a system to manage and measure the impact of promotional events in retail outlets.

Since the 1980s, Kingsford had continued to enjoy steady, moderate growth of 1% to 3% in revenues each year. During most of this time, the charcoal category as a whole grew as well. However, the summer of 2000 represented the first softening in the category in several years. Forces students to step into the brand manager's shoes, analyze the reasons for the current situation, and come up with recommendations related to pricing, branding and advertising, and merchandising and promotion of the Kingsford brand.

Uses Ford's and Toyota's financial statements to familiarize students with the information provided in pension footnotes. Allows students to combine that information with other financial statement information to create a greater understanding of the costs of each company's business. Includes directive questions.

Teradyne, a leading manufacturer of semiconductor test equipment, embarked on a multiyear effort to improve its product development capabilities and to implement more formalized project management approaches. Examines the development of a new-generation tester that involved significant hardware and software design. For this, the company decided to implement new approaches to project management and project teams. Invites discussion of the effectiveness of these approaches and the general lessons for the management of product development.

Scharffen Berger, a premium brand chocolate, is growing rapidly and must decide where and when to add capacity in the production line and with what technology. The company must consider the demands of marketing, the impact on quality and reputation, and the economics of alternative approaches to increasing output in both the short term and long term. Provides an opportunity for students to examine the existing process technology and flow, to understand the determinants of product quality, and to make recommendations about changes that will expand the capabilities of the firm in supplying its premium products to a rapidly growing market segment.

Follows the decision by ICICI (one of India's largest banks) to expand internationally in June 2001.

Describes the change process Whitbread employed in transforming its organization and culture from a single underperforming business operating in a relatively stable environment to a multibusiness, high-commitment, and high-performance corporation operating in more competitive markets. Describes how CEO David Thomas employed the Strategic Fitness Process (SFP), a strategic leadership process for organizational and cultural change, to create commitment to change within his leadership team and among 100 key executives in all parts of the company. Allowing a senior team to reinvent the corporation, SFP guides the senior team in developing a statement of strategic and organizational direction. SFP then guides the senior team through a systematic diagnosis as well as through change development and execution.

When the city of Boston applied to host the Democratic Party presidential nominating convention of July 2004, it did so in the belief that the event would bring the city both prestige and economic benefit. But by the time the convention was to be held, the terrible events of September 11, 2001 had intervened and, as a designated "national special security event," the convention was now subject to the tightest possible measures for security and protection. As a result, key sections of the city, and miles of roads, were virtually shut down in order to permit the convention to take place in the city's major indoor sports arena, and the event engendered complaints, not plaudits, from citizens and business owners alike. This case tells the story of the planning that preceded the convention, as federal officials by presidential directive in charge of national special security events found themselves having to balance expectations of a civic celebration with their own grave concerns about terrorist threats. The case is divided into three parts. Part A (1807.0) describes the elaborate planning process set up by the US Secret Service, which had overall responsibility for security planning for the convention, and the disputes among local, state and federal officials as to how draconian security measures had to be; it focuses in particular on two of the thorniest issues facing planners: whether to shut down a busy public transit station and a portion of a major interstate highway providing access to Boston from the north. Part B (1808.0) details the complex negotiations to resolve these and other security matters; the Epilogue (1808.1) provides a brief overview of the implementation of the security plan at the convention. HKS Case Number 1807.0.

The Novartis Venture Fund is considering investing into a start up, Genedata, and must take into account the valuation analysis by both the start up as well as Venture Valuation -- an independent boutique organization that specializes in valuing high growth potential startups. NVF uses the Venture Valuation inputs to determine how best to structure the next round of financing for Genedata and the case requires the reader to discuss and analyze pricing, further financing requirements, and exit strategy for the fund.

WuXi Pharmatech has gone from zero to $21 million in sales in three years. The company must decide its growth strategy and how best to finance and organize for rapid growth.

Tells the story of Agora, the largest media company in Poland, describing its corporate strategy of diversification since its founding in 1989 by entrepreneurial journalists closely linked to the anti-communist movement Solidarity. Describes in detail Gazeta Wyborcza, the country's best-selling daily newspaper and Agora's main revenue contributor. In late 2003, Fakt, the new daily owned by a German publishing house, took the lead on the Polish newspaper market, harming Gazeta Wyborcza's sales and advertising revenues. Places students in the position of Wanda Rapaczynski, Agora's CEO, who, in mid-2005, explores ways to improve Agora's position in an increasingly competitive environment.

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (BSkyB) packaged television content into channels and distributed it via satellite to subscribers and to other distribution platforms. Sports programming and, in particular, live coverage of Premier League Football was one of BSkyB's main attractions for its customers and lay at the core of BSkyB's positioning. In 1996, BSkyB acquired a four-year license to the exclusive broadcasting rights of all Premier League football matches for (pounds) GBP670 million. The year was 1999 and, as the expiration of the Premier League license drew nearer, new strategies for the upcoming licensing round had to be formulated.

David Jacobs founded a high-end ski apparel company in 1978. He successfully built and grew the company, establishing a major international brand that appealed to ski racers and other active skiers. In 1995, he sought external financing to support further growth of the company and structured a financial deal with CHB Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Denver. By 2004, Jacobs was ready to consider alternative types of equity transactions that would provide a source of liquidity to him and his family, including sale of Spyder to another apparel company and sale of a large block of stock to a private equity firm. Poses issues of valuation of a privately owned company and presents alternative ways to harvest wealth from a private company. Also brings up family business issues because the transaction would have a significant effect on two of his children who are involved in the business.

The government of South Korea has chosen John Hynes and Gale International to construct New Songdo City. This is an entirely new city, about the size of Boston, between the new Incheon airport and the capital of Seoul. The proposed city is the government's attempt to create an Asian financial and business center to rival Shanghai and Tokyo. But how to design, market, build, and finance a whole city is up for grabs. Is this the typical developer hubris or can it really work?

McDonald's relative success in India has several important lessons for global MNCs that are interested in exploring the challenges and opportunities in emerging markets. Given the unique cultural space of India, where most people do not eat beef and pork, where most people prefer vegetarian foods, and where people's food habits are dominated by regional food preferences, how could a beef-based hamburger chain achieve success? This case analyzes McDonald's carefully planned context-specific strategies for its business growth in India.

Having lost the sweepstakes for the endorsement of LeBron James to Nike, Reebok needs to explore new frontiers for business growth. Reebok has decided to establish a stronger and more emotional relationship with the male urban consumer. The undertaking requires a focus on the sneaker as a fashion accessory, incredibly effective buzz marketing, and the ability to penetrate the networks that operate within the hip-hop culture. Further, it needs to devise a way of capitalizing on cool trends to take its new proposition global.

The case describes the development of a radically new product within a large automobile company. It illustrates the difficulties encountered by the development team, both technically and concerning the organizational conflicts arising due to competition for resources, differing views of strategic priorities, internal resistance and insufficient relationship management with internal and external partners.

A description of the events leading to the collapse of China Aviation Oil under US$550m of derivative trading losses and subsequent attempts to identify the causes and save the company from liquidation via a debt restructuring scheme of arrangement.