Exercise: Fictional Case
 
I am Prince Camik of XYZ. I have been frozen in the Artic permafrost for 100 years. My loyal followers have found a way to bring me back, but of course, I need a quick education so that I can help my people.
 
Let me tell you a little about my country, we are a developing country in the near artic with a long history of one family paternalistic government (unfortunately under the rule of the evil empire for the last fifty years). We have just seceded from the empire, so far so good, and we are looking for advice. Our natural resource base is relatively minimal, except for this uranium stuff they tell me about, we have light manufacturing, and a developing service sector. Our major asset is that we are strategically located at the junction of many major transportation routes, land, air, and sea. We have a relatively well-developed military establishment, that is, for a developing country. And I control the economy. Interestingly, there has been a recent potentially major discovery of substantial natural gas reserves. Of course, various governments and firms that want to help XYZ have contacted me. They talk about win/win solutions (I know you have someone on your staff who is expert in these situations) and how much money they can make for us. I don’t want to be a cynic, but I remember hearing that same kind of talk a hundred years ago shortly before I ended up deep in the permafrost.
 
Lately, there has been some unrest due to concern as to whether we are making significant progress both on the economic, social and cultural fronts. Various groups are talking about wanting their rights. Some went so far as to question my ability to rule wisely. I thought about deporting them to Hawaii (hot weather isn’t good for XYZns), but decided it was more humane to bury them in the permafrost near a wooly mammoth carcass. It reminds me of the good old days.
 
This gives me some time to look at some alternatives and I have contacted you knowing how well informed you are about business, political economic and cultural matters having attended the graduate program at the University of Toledo.  I am sure you can help me develop a set of policies that will benefit XYZ.
 
First I would like some information about the topics listed below (written out). Then I would also like a general set of recommendation (five to seven) about what I should do (written out).  Just remember, this is a serious exercise for the future of XYZ and I am a sensitive sort of guy. So tell me about:
-Why is culture so important and how has it changed in the world?
– The advantages of a market based economy
– The advantages of a mixed economy/socialism
– Free trade/free flows of investment
– What about Democracy vs. Good old fashion totalitarianism
– What we should do about our currency, the Woolly Mammoth, which is nonconvertible?
-What about multinational companies? Can we trust them?
-Should I trust the international institutions?
– And what about U.S. economic and foreign policy?
-What about globalization?
 
I will give you a maximum of 30 minutes to work on this case and don’t worry about listening devices we are all friends anyway. In fact, now that I think about it, so were some of the members of the opposition. Good Luck or better yet, as we say in XYZ, keep your head above the permafrost.