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Prepares students to view "Path to War"--a movie that depicts the decision-making processes employed by President Lyndon Johnson and his advisers during the Vietnam War. Provides a brief history of the conflict in Vietnam prior to Johnson's decision to commit American combat troops and biographical information about Johnson and the other key participants in the decision-making process.

The Central Intelligence Agency establishes a venture-enabled fund, In-Q-Tel, to allow it to access cutting-edge technologies. Fund managers face a variety of difficulties, some similar to those facing other institutionally affiliated venture funds and some unique.

Lilly ICOS is preparing to launch Cialis, a prescription drug that treats erectile dysfunction, and executives must decide how to position Cialis against market leader Viagra and recent entrant Levitra.

McDonald's executives announce plans to launch a dollar menu in the fall of 2002. Students must evaluate the potential impact of this menu on restaurant revenues, and the sales of McDonald's Value Meals.

Alfonso's Department Store (Ivey, 9A99E002) presents 26 weeks of data on Alfonso's dollar sales and dollar advertising, together with the sales and advertising of competing stores. In the supplement, a consultant presents the results of his analysis of these data. Students are asked to critique this analysis and explore its implications.

Describes the issues facing a founder-CEO regarding building a board of directors, assembling an executive team, managing tension between co-founders, and outsourcing system development work.

The development of a new venture partnership and the challenges associated with raising its first fund are chronicled. The decision to focus on early-stage investments, the determination of the appropriate size of the fund, the fund-raising process, and the steps in closing are all examined. Also presents information on the relationships among the five partners, the division of responsibilities, and the compensation package. Provides personal background on each of the partners and explores their motivation for choosing this career change at this particular moment in their lives.

This case examines how insiders can expropriate value from shareholders in emerging markets when property rights are ill-defined. As such, it provides a platform for considering how institutions and legal rules impact financing patterns and economic outcomes. CME, controlled by the former U.S. Ambassador to Austria, Ronald Lauder, and its Czech partners win the bidding for the first private broadcast frequency with national coverage in the Czech Republic in 1993. After the entity succeeds dramatically, the primary Czech partner wants to sell his share in the operating company. CME must decide whether to buy the stake and at what price.

After the company's IPO is withdrawn, the company enters a period of severe financial distress. The consultants recommend that the company be liquidated. The CEO must convince the board, the lenders, and the landlords that the company can and should be saved.

Pixar, Inc. is the subject of an article that suggests its share price is currently overvalued. The article is picked up in summary by several wire services. Pixar's management must determine the appropriate public response. Its choices range from ignoring the article, to a brief response, to a point-by-point refutation.

Through a series of mergers, Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon chairman and CEO, successfully shared the co-CEO title twice while building the largest telecom company in the United States. The strong and complementary cultures of the companies that Seidenberg and a key group of executives had merged was a major factor in their success. However, in the steps leading up to this, decreased revenues in their traditional wireline business intensified their dependence on the growth of wireless and broadband services. As Verizon moved into this less familiar territory, the culture that had sustained them through change would have to be evaluated as they embarked on a new wave of growth. As the future of Verizon become more dependent on business in areas that bore little resemblance to the Baby Bells, were the lessons from past successful mergers less applicable?

This competitive bidding game consists of four teams, which can be two to four students. (Several games can be played simultaneousely.) Each team runs a printing company that has a capacity of forty press hours a week plus overtime. The case gives budgeted costs, saying which are likely to be variable. Teams bid on lists of jobs and schedule the work they win. Too much work incurs late penalties; two little leaves unused capacity. Four rounds of bidding are scheduled and at the end each team computes its income statement.

HP had been a highly successful and respected company for decades. It was well known for its company culture and management practices--the HP way--which emphasized both profits and people. Changing markets, strong competitors, and the growth of its computer business, however, battered the company in the mid-1990s. To turn things around, HP hired Carly Fiorina, the first outsider to lead the company. Describes Fiorina's strategy and the impact of decisions she made with respect to the acquisition of Compaq and HR policies on HP's venerable culture and performance.

George Barker, the 40-year-old CEO of his family's commercial real estate design and development firm, must deal with the unsatisfactory performance of his brother Peter, who is also in the business. Although Peter's performance is upsetting to George, George feels that it will be difficult to navigate the family ownership and other business factors to deal with the problem.

In October 2002, Brazilians elected a left-wing president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, for the first time in that country's history. As markets faltered in response, Lula sought to reaffirm his commitment to fiscal discipline, a floating exchange rate, and inflation targeting. By August 2003, however, his attempt to change market sentiment was threatened as the country faced a looming recession. Skeptics began to worry that the new PT (Worker's Party) government would be forced to resort to printing money to meet its campaign promises. Furthermore, after Argentina's massive default on its public debt at the end of 2001, observers were questioning the sustainability of Brazil's debt situation. Lula was under intense pressure to deliver results immediately and implement measures that would help spur the economy.

Toyota is a large, international automobile manufacturer with plans to become the largest worldwide automaker, striving for 15% of global sales. Toyota is committed to becoming the leader of the hybrid-electric automotive industry and is relying on changes in the industry and customer perceptions to bring its plan to fruition. Toyota's challenge is to develop consumer attitude and purchase intent from an early adopter, niche market model into universal mainstream acceptance.

Hill & Knowlton is a division of one of the world's largest communication services group. Tagging e-mail communications to support knowledge management codification and connection strategies is an important issue for managers. Issues related to privacy and performance need to be considered. The worldwide director of knowledge management at Hill & Knowlton must assess the degree to which tagging should be enforced in a communication services organization that supports numerous clients around the world.

The senior managers of the India Design Center used 360-degree feedback to develop their team competencies. Now, three new managers are about to join their management team, and Ashok Kumar, director of the center, must decide how to integrate the new managers in a way that maintains the team's newfound trust and camaraderie. Describes the managers' work activities, including engineering, human resources, and finance responsibilities, to allow a diagnosis of how the managers can benefit from working together as a team. Also notes the challenges these managers face as they work with their bosses and counterparts at the company's headquarters in California, which is 13.5 time zones away. The team is one that could presumably benefit from better cross-functional coordination and communication regarding their collective relationship with the company's headquarters in California.

The Shun Electronics' KL Radio division wants to expand the three departmental cost centers to eight, each with its own overhead cost allocation rate. As a result, it appears that the total costs for four of their six radios will increase, while two will decrease. The case puts students in the role of having to (a) understand why such a result occurred; (b) explain the specific changes made in the cost allocation system; and (c) evaluate whether the changes are an improvement.

The resignation of Mississippi Senator Trent Lott from his position as Majority Leader was an event unprecedented in the history of the US Senate. It occurred precipitously, in the wake of remarks he had made at an event where no one expected controversy-the 100th birthday party of the Senate's oldest member, South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. Lott's remarks, in which he praised Thurmond's 1948 run for the Presidency as the candidate of the segregationist Dixiecrat Party, only gradually sparked a firestorm, however. This case tells the story of how the controversy grew, with particular emphasis on the role of non-traditional media-specifically on the role of those political writers who distributed their views through "web logs". The case describes how the Lott story spread from the keyboards of such "bloggers" to the more mainstream print and television press-to the point at which public pressure culminated in Lott's resignation from the Senate leadership. This case allows for discussion of the evolution of the press, as new electronic media facilitated the efforts of a range of voices to reach a wider public, and of the life-cycle of what some have termed press feeding frenzies, wherein the fate of major public officials or policy issues seemingly follows a sort of dramatic script, as they take center stage in the reporting of the moment. The case can be used either by those with a special interest in the way in which public officials deal with the press, or by those with a special interest in the internal dynamics of the mass media. It can be used in conjunction with "Managing a Press Feeding Frenzy" (1135.0, 1135.1), "Breaking the Bad News: Divad" (841.0), and/or "Siege Mentality: ABC, the White House and the Iran Hostage Crisis " (823.0). HKS Case Number 1731.0.