1. Read the short story below. Crunchy TacoPotato. Paneer (cheese) and Potato Burritos.1 These names may sound strange unless you're a customer at a Taco Bell restaurant in India. Yum Brands Inc. (the parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC) opened its first Taco Bell in Bangalore in early 2010. With an increasingly affluent consumer base, India is an attractive market for fast-food chains. Graham Allen, president of Yum's international division, said, "What we're seeing in India is similar to what we saw in China a decade ago. You have a young population with improving standards of living and an enthusiasm to embrace Western brands."However, Yum's push into India puts it into a battle with the other major fast food companies for the wallets and appetites of consumers in one of the world's most populous countries. Although 60 percent of Yum's profits now come from overseas markets, Graham Allen and Niren Chaudhary, the managing director of Yum's India business, recognize the challenges that face them in establishing a strong presence in India. One such challenge is understanding the cultural differences in managing employees.

How will corporate processes and procedures need to change to accommodate its newly hired Indian employees?

2. Read the short story below. Companies across Europe have a problema large gender gap in leadership.1 Men far outnumber women in senior business leadership positions. This dismal picture of sexism in Europe exists despite efforts and campaigns to try and ensure equality in the workplace. But one European company is tackling the problem head-on. Deutsche Telekom, Europe's largest telecommunication company, says that it intends to "more than double the number of women who are managers within five years." In addition, it plans to increase the number of women in senior and middle management to 30 percent by the end of 2015, up from 12 percent today. With this announcement, the company becomes the first member of the DAX 30 index of blue-chip German companies to introduce a gender quota. Deutsche's chief executive Ren Obermann (pictured on right) said,"Taking on more women in management positions is not about the enforcement of misconstrued egalitarianism. Having a greater number of women at the top will quite simply enable us to operate better." In addition to its plans to intensify recruiting of female university graduates, Deutsche Telekom will need to make changes in its corporate policies and practices to attract and keep women in management positions.

What changes in Deutsche Telekom's corporate policies and practices would you suggest in order to attract more female university graduates?

3. Read the short story below. It's an incredibly simple but potentially world-changing idea.1 For each pair of shoes sold, a pair is donated to a child in need. That's the business model followed by TOMS Shoes. During a visit to Argentina in 2006 as a contestant on the CBS reality show The Amazing Race, Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS,"saw lots of kids with no shoes who were suffering from injuries to their feet." Just think what it would be like to be barefoot, not by choice, but from lack of availability and ability to own a pair. He was so moved by the experience that he wanted to do something. That something is what TOMS does now by blending charity with commerce. (The name TOMS is actually short for a "better tomorrow.") And a better tomorrow is what Blake wanted to provide to shoeless children around the world. Those shoe donations have been central to the success of the TOMS brand, which is popular among tweens, teens, and twenty-somethings. And 400,000 pairs of shoes had been donated as of early 2010. Put yourself in Blake's position.

How can he balance being socially responsible and being focused on profits?

4. Read the short story below. After 29 years of flight, NASA's space shuttle program is expected to end in 2010.1 Over that time span, we've seen highs and lows, triumphs and tragedies. Dismantling a program of this magnitude involves massive changes for managers and employees. One change that managers must deal with is how the agency will be structured to revitalize the space programa decision that's not theirs to make. Because it is a governmental agency, lawmakers will make the decision. Congress wants to continue with NASA's existing space exploration program, Constellation. But the president thinks it is too expensive and flawed and wants to use private enterprise until NASA can develop more advanced space vehicles. The reputation of the United States as a leader in space exploration, being the only country to put people on the moon, is at stake. But there's more than national pride. "Losing the lead in space has national security and industrial consequences." The most critical change facing NASA's managers is what to do with its workforce of highly trained and skilled individuals while the future of its space exploration program is debated and decided.

How will they keep employees focused during this change?