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CASE

Joy to the World...through Software Development at Menlo Innovations

by Paul Clyde, Rich Sheridan

Product Type: Case Publication Date: 10/2012 Product ID#: 1-429-228 Length: 16pages

Make mistakes faster. This slogan, and others like it, can be seen displayed on posters throughout Menlo’s office, a software-development company known for its casual Mondays and extreme interviews. Menlo’s founders are considering opening a new branch, but wonder if they can preserve their culture.

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CASE

Aparajitha: Developing a Thinking Organization

by Paul Clyde, Bharath Krishna Sankar

Product Type: Case Publication Date: 08/2012 Product ID#: 1-429-253 Length: 14pages

Aparajitha is a company that has thrived in the booming economic climate of India. Due to the network of contacts and bank of knowledge it has developed, Aparajitha will be difficult for larger multinationals to supplant. This case illustrates organizational relationships inside and outside the firm; relationships that give it comparative advantages that could be applied in other a...

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CASE

Note on Balance of Payments—Slide Deck

by William J. Streeter

Product Type: Teaching Tool Publication Date: 06/2012 Product ID#: 1-429-271 Length: 32pages

Alarm and confusion regarding balance of payments and the United States’ chronic trade deficit often indicates a lack of understanding. This PowerPoint slide deck aims to provide clarity on this topic. This slide deck can be taught in conjunction with the Note on Balance of Payments: How and Why it All Adds Up (GlobaLens 1-429-250).

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CASE

Note on Balance of Payments

by William J. Streeter

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 06/2012 Product ID#: 1-429-250 Length: 12pages

Alarm and confusion regarding balance of payments and the United States’ chronic trade deficit often indicates a lack of understanding. This note aims to provide clarity on this topic. This note can be taught in conjunction with the Balance of Payments — PowerPoint Slide Deck (GlobaLens 1-429-271).

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CASE

Business Thought & Action: Course

by Robert J. Dolan, Scott A. Moore, Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Course Publication Date: 03/2012 Product ID#: 1-429-206 Length: 432pages

The course Business Thought & Action™ is a robust introduction to business for undergraduate students. It is a holistic start to their business education experience and provides context for business as a whole, rather than each functional area, such as marketing, finance, and operations. Students learn about the broad range of problems and opportunities that businesses face and are...

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CASE

Understanding Macauley Duration

by Sanjeev Kumar

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 08/2011 Product ID#: 1-429-183 Length: 5pages

This pedagogical note offers a clear way to teach Macauley Duration, a financial equation that measures the change in bond prices. The note begins with a brief history of the term, then proceeds to describe the financial assumptions underlying the equation. This note is complemented by a teaching note with an excel table that illustrates how Macauley's Duration is similar to a zero...

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CASE

Pricing Games: Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox

by Valerie Y. Suslow, Francine Lafontaine

Product Type: Exercise Publication Date: 02/2011 Product ID#: 1-428-882 Length: 7pages

Economic game theory can be a tedious and difficult concept, but it doesn’t have to be. This exercise allows students to learn about game theory via an entertaining medium – video games. After considering a pricing war between two video game giants, Microsoft and Sony, students are asked to calculate pricing strategies based off game theory predictions. Students must use a 2-by-2 s...

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CASE

Managing the Value Chain

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 12/2010 Product ID#: 1-429-011 Length: 8pages

This note explains the considerations involved in determining a firm’s vertical, horizontal, and geographic scope. It is organized into five sections: An introduction that presents important questions related to strategy formulation that managers face after mapping their firm's value chain; a second section that provides a brief introduction to Transactions Cost Economics, a framew...

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CASE

Economic Variation Across Firms

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 12/2010 Product ID#: 1-429-001 Length: 10pages

This note is intended to provide insights into variation across firms and industries. It reviews the various types of variation among firms--variations in revenues, profits, size, employment, capital intensity, output per worker, profitability etc. Data tables, timelines and reports are provided as support. This note is intended to show students that these characteristics are impor...

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CASE

Lehman Brothers

by Robert J. Dolan

Product Type: Case Publication Date: 03/2010 Product ID#: 1-429-055 Length: 8pages

This informational case details the story of Lehman Brothers in the wake of the recent financial crisis. In doing so, the case also provides background about mortgage-backed securities and the involvement of financial institutions in the housing crisis. At the end, the case lays out a timeline of important events during the company's last year of operation. This case is included in...

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CASE

Toll Brothers

by Scott A. Moore

Product Type: Case Publication Date: 02/2010 Product ID#: 1-429-037 Length: 10pages

Toll Brothers has lost focus on what it does best. This is the surprising story of a dominant luxury home builder whose volatility during the housing boom and bust has nearly devastated the company. Students use this case to analyze business stress, decline, and how to respond. The case is complementary to an excerpt from "How the Mighty Fall: A Primer on the Warning Signs" by Jim...

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CASE

Setting the Scope of Your Business

by Scott A. Moore

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 01/2010 Product ID#: 1-429-004 Length: 7pages

The purpose of this note is to consider the decisions that firms' leaders make about the scope of their business. It examines three companies--Domino's Pizza, General Mills, and General Electric--who define their businesses in different ways and asks students to evaluate them from the perspective of a potential investor. They should consider the following: What does the company do?

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CASE

Analyzing Firm Activities: the Value Chain

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 01/2010 Product ID#: 1-429-002 Length: 6pages

This note is an adaptation for classroom use of Chapter 2 of "The Services Shift" by R.E. Kennedy (2009). It introduces students to Michael Porter's 1985 value chain approach to strategically analyzing firms, which says that a firm is a system of interconnected activities with both physical and information linkages. It takes students through the basic steps of analyzing a firm's va...

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CASE

Trade and Comparative Advantage

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 12/2009 Product ID#: 1-428-934 Length: 10pages

Whether nations benefit from trade is a question that has been passionately debated throughout history. The theory of comparative advantage is one of the more useful, yet frequently misunderstood, topics in economics and public policy. This note introduces the theory of comparative advantage. A companion note, "Beyond Comparative Advantage: Theories of Strategic Trade" (WDI case #...

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CASE

Beyond Comparative Advantage

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 12/2009 Product ID#: 1-428-935 Length: 8pages

The so-called New International Economics (alternatively, Strategic Trade Theory) explores situations where markets economic conditions depart from standard conditions – because of market power, economies of scale, externalities, etc. Economists have shown that it is theoretically possible for government intervention to improve national incomes. This note unpacks several Strategic...

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CASE

Understanding Balance of Payments

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 08/2009 Product ID#: 1-428-789 Length: 8pages

National governments keep track of financial flows into and out of their countries by using balance of payment (BOP) accounting, a system for measuring a country’s sources and uses of foreign exchange over a specified period of time, generally one year. Policy makers, economists, and business analysts use BOP indicators to track a country’s economic performance and position vis-à-v...

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CASE

Relearning Lessons We’ve Forgotten

by Michael Costello

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 04/2009 Product ID#: 1-428-800 Length: 4pages

It's easy to forget childhood lessons. This is the story of how Purina, at the time one of the world's leaders in animal feeds, had to relearn the lesson of the piggy bank.

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CASE

Subsidies in a Market Economy

by Ted London

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 02/2009 Product ID#: 1-428-648 Length: 11pages

A review of the topic of subsidies yields a wide range of perspectives. Many economists believe that subsidies, when used appropriately, are helpful because they can encourage market development and a more equitable distribution of benefits and resources in society. Others disagree, believing that subsidies distort markets, create inefficiencies, and misallocate capital. Despite th...

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CASE

What's your VQ?

by James D. Price

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 02/2009 Product ID#: 1-428-792 Length: 9pages

Building a brand new business from scratch is fraught with peril. Yet ironically, (and contrary to popular belief), the most successful entrepreneurs and venture investors are remarkably risk-averse people who are simply very good at managing and mitigating risk. This note provides a straightforward methodology for understanding and effectively managing the risks inherent in any ne...

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CASE

Maritime Transportation

by Ravi Anupindi

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 01/2009 Product ID#: 1-428-712 Length: 30pages

This conceptual note is focused on one of the most important aspects of international trade and commerce – maritime transportation. The majority of global trade, in fact more than 90 percent of world trade in terms of tonnage, travels by sea. From raw materials to finished consumer goods, this system is vital to the world economy. This note outlines the key aspects, players, and ch...

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CASE

The Services Shift

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 01/2009 Product ID#: 1-428-762 Length: 18pages

Most business people, pundits, and politicians in the U.S. and other developed nations have come to grips with the phenomenon of manufacturing jobs moving offshore: the process variously referred to as “outsourcing” or “offshoring.” But a far bigger wave of change is approaching the shores of those same developed nations: the globalization of services. Where are the jobs going? Whi...

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CASE

Cross-Border Project Valuation

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 12/2008 Product ID#: 1-428-649 Length: 17pages

Managers face a number of challenges when using traditional valuation approaches to value projects in an emerging market. It is important, therefore, that managers not only be aware of, but also account for these challenges. This note is divided into the following three sections: 1. A review of the traditional approach to valuation; 2. An overview of commonly used shortcuts for cro...

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CASE

BP & Whiting Refinery (A)

by Tom Lyon

Product Type: Case Publication Date: 12/2008 Product ID#: 1-428-727 Length: 11pages

Teaching Note available to Registered Educators This case describes the situation facing BP America's President Bob Malone in late 2007. Malone could not understand where they had gone wrong while attempting to expand the refining capacity at their Whiting, Indiana plant. They had followed all the rules set out by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and legally obta...

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CASE

Greenbacks for Belize

by William J. Streeter

Product Type: Mini-Case Publication Date: 11/2008 Product ID#: 1-428-694 Length: 3pages

In November 2007 Belize's Prime Minister submitted a proposal to the National Assembly calling for the replacement of the Belizean dollar with the U. S. dollar. The case asks the students to analyze the pros and cons of the proposal from the Belizean and American point of view.

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CASE

Weyerhaeuser Company

by Stuart Hart, Mark Milstein

Product Type: Case Publication Date: 09/2008 Product ID#: 1-428-672 Length: 20pages

Weyerhaeuser is the world’s largest private owner of standing softwood timber, North America’s largest producer of softwood lumber, and the world’s largest supplier of softwood pulp. The company had spent years investing in a model of forestry they now called Weyerhaeuser Forestry and looked forward with much anticipation to the ‘Wall of Wood’ that was expected as high-yield planta...

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CASE

The Italian Crisis of 2008

by William J. Streeter

Product Type: Exercise Publication Date: 09/2008 Product ID#: 1-428-685 Length: 4pages

This exercise describes the fiscal policy challenge faced by the Italian government after surpassing the government debt and budget deficit levels allowed by the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The government must decide whether or not to leave the EMU as part of the economic plan to stabilize the national budget.

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CASE

Understanding Exchange Rates

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Conceptual Note Publication Date: 03/2008 Product ID#: 1-428-646 Length: 8pages

In today’s global economy, exchange rates have a significant influence on a firm’s competitive position. It is critical, therefore, that business managers understand exchange rates so that they can make informed decisions and manage risks, ultimately in order to better compete in the marketplace. Exchange rates, however, are poorly misunderstood. Indeed, managers often don’t know w...

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CASE

Exchange Rates Quiz (A)

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Exercise Publication Date: 03/2008 Product ID#: 1-428-662 Length: 4pages

This multiple choice quiz accompanies the conceptual note, Understanding Exchange Rates. This quiz is designed to help students strengthen their ability in calculating exchange rates, measuring appreciation and depreciation, and analyzing how exchange rates affect a firm’s competitive position. This is one of five exchange rate quizzes offered. All five quizzes cover similar concep...

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CASE

Exchange Rates Quiz (B)

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Exercise Publication Date: 03/2008 Product ID#: 1-428-700 Length: 4pages

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CASE

Exchange Rates Quiz (C)

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Exercise Publication Date: 03/2008 Product ID#: 1-428-701 Length: 4pages

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CASE

Exchange Rates Quiz (D)

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Exercise Publication Date: 03/2008 Product ID#: 1-428-702 Length: 4pages

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CASE

Exchange Rates Quiz (E)

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Exercise Publication Date: 03/2008 Product ID#: 1-428-703 Length: 4pages

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CASE

Mzansi at Standard Bank

by Paul Clyde

Product Type: Case Publication Date: 03/2008 Product ID#: 1-428-590 Length: 25pages

This case explores the different formal and informal financial instruments used by the low-income population in South Africa. From the Standard Bank's perspective and its own product targeted to the low income population (the Mzansi accounts), the case looks at the different forms of competition that Standard Bank faces and the various institutional arrangements that they have established.

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CASE

IT-Enabled Services: Healthscribe

by Robert E. Kennedy

Product Type: Mini-Case Publication Date: 09/2003 Product ID#: 1-428-652 Length: 2pages

This mini-case is from the IT-Enabled Services Series. It is designed to be used alongside IT-Enabled Services cases (A) through (F). Case (A) describes Healthscribe India, an Indian-based offshore medical transcription and data management company.