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Provides a context and exercise for introducing retail inventory management, including cost optimization, service-level criteria, and forecasting in single and multiproduct settings. The owner of a single-location paper and paper products store considers the implications of expansion for inventory management. Considerations include lost sales, retail metrics for multiproduct settings, and shelf space constraints. An Excel spreadsheet accompanies and is integral to the case, allowing students to explore these issues. For spreadsheet inquiries, please contact customer service at 1-800-545-7685 or custserv@hbsp.harvard.edu

Metso Paper, the world's largest producer of paper machines, aims to transform itself into a knowledge- and information-based service and solution provider for the paper industry by aggressively exploiting information technologies. In the fall of 2002, Jorma Hujala, a vice-president of the Development, References, and Projects Department of Metso Paper's largest business unit, Rautpohja, attended a corporate-wide brainstorming meeting to decide how to improve the paper machine production and delivery process. Due to low growth in its traditional markets, the company needs to consider extending its strategy and business model to become not just a machine producer but also a supplier of services related to the value chain of paper production. In executing the new strategy, the company considers its world-class knowledge and capabilities to be its key competitive asset. Over the past decade, the department had improved project delivery performance through aggressive use of IT. Hujala and his team had to think carefully about how to enable and support the new corporate strategy and how to continue to develop their IT services and competencies accordingly.

Provides a context and exercise for introducing retail inventory management, including cost optimization, service-level criteria, and forecasting in single and multiproduct settings. The owner of a single-location paper and paper products store considers the implications of expansion for inventory management. Considerations include lost sales, retail metrics for multiproduct settings, and shelf space constraints.

The final paper assignment for the Self-Assessment and Career Development course.

Concerns the decision of International Paper, the world's largest pulp and paper corporation, about when to adopt the provisions of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards 106 (SFAS 106),'Employers'Accounting for Postretirement Benefits Other than Pensions.'SFAS 106 requires the accrual of a significant balance sheet liability to recognize the future cost of promises made to employees to pay for benefits during retirement, most importantly for health insurance benefits. Compared to the prevailing'pay-as-you-go'accounting, the provisions of SFAS 106 typically require a higher annual expense for'other postemployment benefits'(OPEB). Set in late November 1992, a year after the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) announced the final form of SFAS 106. Application of the new rules was required for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 1992, but as usual earlier adoption was encouraged. In addition, on adoption of the new standard companies were given the option of either recognizing the liability for accrued benefits immediately, or gradually over a period of up to twenty years. Thus, IP was faced with decisions both of when and how to adopt SFAS 106.

Describes a company which has broken an unwritten cordial agreement amongst the three Australian paper manufacturers to split the domestic market three ways by market segment. The company invades another's'territory'with advanced technology, quality, and, importantly, by using the other company's poor environmental record to protect itself against retaliation. The defender finds itself unable to respond by adding capacity as public pressure denies it the ability to add capacity and upgrade the technology. Having won a large share of the market, and having successfully introduced a new recycled paper product, the invader is now considering the financial, strategic, and ethical issues of further expansion.

A paper mill's paper machines are a bottleneck in the operation. The causes include poor scheduling, lack of investment, and ineffective process control. The plant manager is charged with improving this situation fairly rapidly and has a number of proposals for change from which to choose.

Supplements International Paper (A).

Involves transfer pricing among three divisions of a company.

A professional turnaround manager attempts to implement a massive global downsizing program at the world's largest producer of consumer tissue products. The plan involves laying off almost one third of the company's 34,000 hourly and salaried employees and dramatically changing the company's business focus through massive asset sales-all in less than a year.

A rewritten version of an old case that updates the dates and prices and simplifies the economics. The issue is still one of determining a suitable inventory of wood for the mill to last through the winter.

Students are required to do a team project. During the project, they are to do a benchmarking study of a business process to determine best practice or to study a single business process for the purposes of discovering improvement opportunities. The student teams are required to report their results in a 10- to 15-page paper. In years past, students have struggled to'ground'their findings properly in the specific observations and other data they have collected through direct observation, interview, survey, and other methods. As a result, the persuasiveness of their papers has suffered. Furthermore, and of longer term concern, the students have not fully exploited the opportunity to develop a critical management skill--reasoning inductively to discover how a process or system works when an adequate explanation is lacking a priori.

Describes the major structural changes taking place in the paper industry in the 1970s: major oil and pulp price increases, pollution legislation, a shift in industry development from OECD countries to LDCs and NICs and the technological revolution in paper making. These factors have led to important changes in the competitive environment, and specifically to the emergence of three companies pursuing'global strategies.'Can be used with Dominion Engineering Works.

Describes events that occur after the decision point in Australian Paper Manufacturers (A). With these facts and more detailed market projections, this case intensifies the long-term financial, strategic, and ethical decisions confronting the invader.

A comprehensive review case that entails both investment and financing decisions. Students must value an acquisitions opportunity and determine how Nelson Paper ought to finance both the acquisition and its regular capital expenditures program.

Serves two roles: first, provides a reasonably comprehensive description of an ongoing budgeting and reporting system for the international operations of a large American company. Second, allows the student to focus on and critically analyze a series of specific complaints about the system which have been voiced by the management of two of the firm's foreign subsidiaries.

Deals with a transfer pricing problem in a complex, international situation. A broad range of issues are present in the case, or are needed for a thorough case analysis. Such issues include: relevant costs; the appropriateness of profit centers; the appropriateness of decentralization; international funds transfers; and the measurement of integrated profit.

Designed to serve two roles: first, it provides a reasonably comprehensive description of an ongoing capital budgeting system for the international operations of a large American company. Second, it allows the student to focus upon and critically analyze a series of specific complaints about the system which have been voiced by the management of two of the firm's foreign subsidiaries.

Created in 1900 by the tire manufacturer Michelin, the Michelin Restaurant Guide was widely considered the international benchmark of food rating, and, by 2013, boasted paper editions in 23 countries, and had recently expanded to the United States and Asia. Paper sales however had dropped, following the emergence of free, online guides, global players, and more broadly, the wider diffusion of the Internet. In 2012, the Guide had launched a new range of services targeting restaurateurs. The Director of the Guide was contemplating developing the Guide even more internationally and on digital formats, but also knew he needed to limit costs.

Victor Alexander was intrigued by the packet of papers that lay in front of him. The papers comprised a brochure that Garden State Bank had put together in an effort to sell the Bonnie Road Distribution Center in Somerset, New Jersey, for $9.7 million. It was April 2013 and the New Jersey real estate market was recovering and the capital markets were in disarray. Alexander had convinced 10 friends to put up $200,000 each in addition to his own $200,000 to acquire one or two troubled properties. Alexander decided to focus on warehouse properties due to their relatively small size, their strong historical performance, and his relevant experience. He wondered whether Bonnie Road would make a good investment.

This note is intended to provide students with a basic understanding of how to evaluate empirical research papers. While reading both case studies and empirical research require close attention and scrutiny, evaluating empirical research requires a different'lens'-this note briefly outlines how to adopt this mindset. It includes a review of the major sections of an empirical research paper (Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion), as well as guidelines on how to evaluate each section.

Robin Bienenstock, a senior sell-side equity research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, considers how to build her research franchise given the changing nature of the industry and the firm. A collaborative research paper called'Computer in Your Pocket'was recently published by four of her colleagues, but she was not consulted or asked to contribute. As clients call Bienenstock asking for her response to the investment conclusions in the paper, Bienenstock wonders 1) how she should respond to the report and 2) how she can increase her collaborative work in the future. As she continues to grow her franchise in terms of both the number of companies under coverage and team members, she wonders how she can best organize her team in order to leverage herself effectively.

This is Part B to the'Arauco: Forward Integration or Horizontal Expansion?'case. This short case looks at the company in late 2007 after it has decided to invest in a Brazilian joint venture involving forests, saw mills and a paper mill. The case acts as an epilogue and allows students to revisit the concept of forward integration into paper in the Brazilian context.

A significant part of the long-term economic growth in developed economies depends on the translation of scientific research into new products and processes. Focuses on the front end of this value creation stream. The laboratory of George Whitesides has a 30-year history of outstanding chemistry research as reflected by the quality and quantity of journal papers, paper citations, successful graduates, breakthrough ideas and concepts, and new companies. Details the research philosophy and processes for selecting research problems and forming teams. Whitesides guides students to choose challenging research topics rather than safe, incremental research, and problems that require interdisciplinary teams. Allows discussion of: the principles for operating a creative and productive lab; the role of the leader in creating the infrastructure and systems for discovery and learning; the issues of resource allocation and the appurtenant wasted effort as researchers seek academic research support; and the scale and scope limits for highly successful labs. Also discusses applying the Whitesides lab principles and processes to nonscience organizations and teams.

Instructs students in developing their life themes, a vital component of the Self-Assessment and Career Development final paper. Teaching Purpose: To give students instruction while preparing their final paper for the Self-Assessment and Career Development course. A rewritten version of an earlier note.

The Community Standards Panel of Harvard Business School must determine whether two students have violated the school's community standards, and if so, what sanction would be appropriate. Concerns allegations of plagiarism. In a second-year elective course, two students submitted a joint paper, substantial portions of which were taken nearly verbatim from their sources. The material was not footnoted. However, the sources were listed in the bibliography provided at the end of the paper. The students, who are not from the United States, claim that they followed the citation practices customary in their home country.

Non-profit governance at its core is very different from for-profit governance. Certain aspects of non-profit governance are widely pervasive across all non-profits, while all others are idiosyncratic to specific sub-groups of non-profits. After identifying these commonalities, this paper focuses on specific factors which make non-profit governance particularly nuanced and complicated in specific situations.

A set of financial and strategic decisions confront the management of a company trying to develop a technology for creating'electronic ink.'If successful, the company will be able to create'radio paper,'essentially turning a piece of paper into a computer monitor that has all the characteristics of paper but is digitally controlled.

Lisa Frankenberg, co-founder of the Prague Post, is faced with several business and professional decisions. The English-language paper she founded is under pressure from competition and a Czech Republic recession. She must decide how to return the paper to profitability. Similarly, Frankenberg must decide whether to come back to the United States to start a consulting job.

Holt Lunsford was intrigued by the packet of papers that lay in front of him. The papers comprised a brochure that Lonestar Bank had put together in an effort to sell the Shady Trail Distribution Center in Dallas, Texas. Shady Hill was a five-year-old, 120,000-square-foot distribution warehouse facility located on the west side of Dallas. Lonestar was asking $4 million for the property. It was September 2003 and the Dallas real estate market was plateauing and the capital markets were in disarray. Lunsford had convinced 11 friends to put up $100,000 each in addition to his own $100,000 to acquire one or two troubled properties. Lunsford decided to focus on warehouse properties due to their relatively small size, their strong historical performance, and his relevant experience. He wondered whether Shady Trail would make a good investment.

It is impossible to discuss national competitiveness without considering cities and the regions they anchor. Cities are transportation hubs, centers of commercial exchange, and the locus of lives. They thrive by the ways they connect to the world. Demographic changes in recent years-such as the decreasing popularity of cars and increasing urban populations-have implications for 21st century transportation and infrastructure. This is apparent in the case of Chicago, a global city in the vanguard of change. This paper focuses on five major 21st century transportation and infrastructure projects in Chicago: rail decongestion; airport modernization; mass transit modernization; a complete streets plan; and an infrastructure trust as a financing innovation. It also discusses leadership by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to create an integrated strategy that includes technology and education, and how he executes on it.

Technological innovation is considered a competitive strength for America, but the nation does not score as high in deploying its technology. U.S. transportation systems are in need of repair and renewal, and the sector is at the cusp of a technological revolution. The Information Superhighway could reinvent the highway-and airways, railroads, vehicles, and more-by making aspects of the system'smarter'and more connected, cost-effective, fuel-efficient, safer, and more convenient for consumers, businesses, and communities. This paper discusses five trends in for technology-enabled transportation innovation: connected vehicles; connected roads; big data analytics in air transportation; Intelligent Transportation Systems; and innovation in information infrastructure.

In the 20th century, automobiles and airlines pushed rail into the background as an often-troubled and neglected mode. After a review of the long history of rail in the U.S., this paper examines the situation in the 21st century, including the rail market structure, and discusses key players like BNSF, CSX, and Norfolk Southern. Today, by most measures, freight rail is doing better than ever, while passenger rail faces significant challenges-though it is clear that numerous pain points and bottlenecks interfere with optimal use of rail to move both people and goods. This note offers a structured way of thinking through the issues facing rail transportation and discusses three recent freight rail infrastructure projects that hold promise for the future: the National Gateway, the Keystone Corridor, and the CREATE decongestion project in Chicago.

This module note introduces James March's concept of exploration and exploitation, and the management challenge of balancing the allocation of resources to the two activities in the firm. The note also touches on the O'Reilly and Tushman paper on the ambidextrous organization, and mentions some of the other literature.

Case considers the creation and early growth of California-based TATCHA, a Japanese-themed luxury beauty brand. It explores how Vicky Tsai developed the concept, assembled financial and management resources,and launched the first product of Japanese blotting paper in 2009 using a grassroots marketing campaign. Identifying a 200-year old book employed by Japanese geisha, Tsai started to diversify her product line into skin and other cosmetic products. The case ends in December 2010 with Tsai receiving an acquisition offer, and debating the merits of exiting or continuing to build her business.

Some technology transitions are exceedingly difficult for incumbent firms to execute. The bankruptcy filing by the Eastman Kodak Company highlighted the difficulty companies faced when their core business transitioned from an analog to a digital world. Kodak's business was built on the sale of a complex manufactured product - color photographic film that was exceedingly difficult to manufacture - with correspondingly high barriers to entry. Over more than a century, it developed the complex chemistry and high speed coating technologies that enabled it to roll-coat tiny strips of plastic with as many as 24 layers of complex organic dyes and photosensitizers at thousands of square feet per minute. Its color film and paper products including Kodachrome and Kodacolor preserved many of the iconic images of the last century. Beginning in the 1990s, the company built a digital photography business, yet by 2012 the company was in reorganization and its prognosis was guarded. Kodak faced a particularly challenging analog to digital transition, like many companies that have faced the waves of creative destruction wrought by technological innovation. Why was an analog to digital transition in the core technology of a business particularly challenging? This note reviews some of the management research on how firms have fared with technology transitions, and then explains why the conversion of a technology from analog to digital is uniquely problematic. The challenge that faced Kodak is the same challenge facing companies like Panasonic and Sony, telecom equipment companies, and other industries now that the underlying technology through which products and services are built has changed.

The case is concerned with Elia Nuqul, the founder of Jordanian-based Nuqul Brothers, a large diversified business group. It shows how Nuqul, a Christian Palestinian whose family was forced to flee to Jordan after the creation of Israel in 1948, built a business in his new home, first in trading and later in consumer products such as hygienic paper mnaufacturing. The case shows the challenges of building such an entrepreneurial business in a developing region with high political instability. The case is positioned within the wider context of the regional conflict in Palestine and Israel, and it provides a vehicle for exploring the role and responsibility of entrepreneurs, if any, in such conflicts.

Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk, the three founders of Airbnb, an online private accommodation rental market, stared at each other across the kitchen table in their San Francisco apartment. It was March of 2009. A single sheet of paper sat on the table in front of them. The three founders were on the verge of finishing the three month program at YCombinator (YC), a business accelerator located in Mountain View, CA.

In April 2008, after successfully transitioning Octone Records to Universal Music Group and relaunching the label as A&M/Octone Records, president and chief executive officer James Diener is facing a new challenge. Diener and his executive team have trouble convincing a new, promising act, Paper Tongues, to join A&M/Octone on a so-called all-rights deal, which specified that the label would receive a percentage of all of the artist's revenue streams, including recorded music, concert-ticket sales, merchandising, commercial licensing, sponsorships, and endorsements. Negotiations have stalled. Should A&M/Octone hold on to its'all-rights or no deal'stance? Or was it time to switch to a recorded-music-only deal? Designed for use alongside'Octone Records,'HBS No. 507-082, the case allows for an in-depth examination of new-product development and talent management strategies in the context of the music industry. The case provides rich insights into how contracts between labels and artists are structured, and how advances in technology are impacting the music industry and its players.

The case describes 2 individuals who have met and are in the process of starting a company together. Each is still at his/her former employer, and each has signed a different employment agreement that on paper may prohibit some contemplated acts - i.e., soliciting customers or employees. The case focuses on how individuals should think about leaving their employers in general and how these specific legal agreements may impact the situation in this case. In addition, the case includes issues around dealing with venture capitalists, non-disclosure agreements, as well as how to select and work with a lawyer.

This case describes the efforts of Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, to improve liquidity in money markets during the subprime crisis. The case explains the four main new tools for monetary policy (or quantitative easing) the Federal Reserve has used between 2007 and 2009: the Term Auction Facility (TAF), the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF), the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF), and the Asset Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (AMLF).

ZINK Imaging'describes the issues confronting CEO Wendy Caswell as she uses a partnership model to commercialize ZINK's disruptive printing technology platform, ZINK Paper. The case focuses on the frameworks ZINK has used to decide which markets to target and which business partners to choose. Caswell contemplates changes to the partnership model in an effort to speed product introduction to manage the company's burn rate and reach profitability. The context for the case is the company's imminent need to raise an additional $25 million.

In his role as Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (Minneapolis Fed), Art Rolnick and his colleague, Rob Grunewald, had written'Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return.'The thesis was fairly straightforward; early childhood development (ECD) had the highest returns so states and local governments should invest in it. But the idea of investing in ECD for economic development was new and had never been tested on a large scale, particularly in the way that Rolnick and Grunewald recommended in a later paper - using market forces to drive demand for high-quality ECD programs. The Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF), formed in 2005, invested in two projects designed to test the economists'recommendations. The St. Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program (SPECSP) provided up to $13,000 a year per child for parents in two St. Paul neighborhoods to select a high-quality ECD program of their choice. MELF had also invested in Five Hundred Under 5 (FHU5), a Minneapolis program formed to improve the capacity and quality of providers. Comparing SPECSP to FHU5 would offer insights on the potential impact of supply-side versus demand-side ECD initiatives. Rolnick reflected on the two MELF experiments. Which would be more effective? Would parents in St. Paul really drive up the quality of providers through the choices they made or was it better to work with providers directly to improve quality?

This note explores the limited partner advisory boards. Based on interviews with seven experienced limited partners who serve on a number of different advisory boards, it presents the roles of the advisory board, the ways it can influence the general partner, and the reasons for limited partners to serve on them. It also contrasts the findings of this survey with a paper on the performance differential between university endowments and other institutional investors and hypothesizes the reasons behind it.

Banks throughout New York State suspended specie payments (i.e., payments in gold and silver) in May 1837 following the collapse of several state banks, and the onset of a nationwide financial panic. Amid the chaos, the upstart Whigs were able to depose the longstanding Republican majority in the state legislature. Responding to citizen anger, as well as perennial calls for more banking capital, the Whigs drafted a novel'free banking'bill, which would override the established bank chartering mechanism and allow any association with sufficient capital the opportunity to open a bank and issue bank notes (a widely accepted form of paper money at the time). The bill also required that every note issued by a New York bank be fully backed by bonds or mortgages. if enacted, the bill seemed likely to encourage the establishment of many new banks. There was no telling what the economic impact of the bill's special bank note provisions would be. Once the bill passed the legislature, Governor Marcy had to decide whether to sign this radical proposal into law.

Robert K. Merton wrote a series of papers on the sociology of science in the 1940s and 1950s and is commonly recognized as the founder of the field. Merton laid out four norms that constitute the'ethos'of science: community-wide fundamentals that he proposed were necessary to sustain science as a viable institution.

Considers whether the management of Procter & Gamble (P&G) Pharmaceuticals should adopt Web-based electronic data capture (EDC) as the default standard for the management of its clinical drug trials. Provides a detailed description of the existing paper-based process for clinical trial management at P&G and asks students to consider whether and to what extent the use of information technology--in the form of Web-based EDC--could improve that process. Highlights tensions surrounding the implementation of new technologies and considered potential barriers to implementation both within the firm and with other firms in the value chain. Finally, considers how a firm should structure relationships with external providers of new, process-related technologies.

Celulosa Arauco is a major Chilean producer of market pulp and wood products. Owning over 1.2 million hectares of forest in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, the company's key advantage is the ideal growing conditions in which the company's forests are located. As of early 2004, Arauco is the third largest producer of market pulp (pulp sold on the open market) and is considering increasing its capacity, tying it with Brazilian competitor Aracruz as the world's largest producer. The first phase of the project has been approved by the board of directors and includes a sawmill, plywood mill, and energy complex valued at $120 million. Now, Alejandro Perez, Arauco's president and CEO, is seeking approval for the second phase of the project, which would include the company's sixth market pulp plant at a cost of $1.2 billion. Perez's concerns about the volatility of market prices for the past three years led the company to diversify into wood products like panels, medium-density fiberboard, and other remanufactured wood products. These divisions are highly successful and currently account for approximately 50% of Arauco's revenues. Perez is debating whether the company and its shareholders would be better served by a forward integration into the paper business instead of increasing the company's capacity in market pulp.

Discusses the process of generating implications from life themes, a necessary step for completing the Self-Assessment and Career Development final paper.

In 2002, Apax Partners had to decide whether to accept a less-than-perfect offer for one of its portfolio companies or to refinance it. This company, a maker of paper industry consumables with a global presence, had been purchased in 1999 and performed extremely well since then. Despite being a solid, cash-generative operation, it didn't excite a lot of interest in the market. An early exit at a good multiple would be helpful for Apax's current fund and future fund-raising efforts, whereas refinancing would allow Apax to take some money off the table and share in future upsides. Which is the better choice?