The Alaska Gold Mine case is my (Mason’s) favorite starter case for undergraduate, MBA, and executive MBA strategy courses. Reprinted here with permission of author Jeffrey Barach along with my PointPoint slides I use to administer the case.

Click to get the:

• Original 1977 Case provided to Mason Carpenter
• Updated case with changes from J. Bourgeois available through Darden Business School.
• PowerPoint.
• Teaching Note
• Video (also below)

The video below provides a lot of good fodder to reference back to when doing the exercise. Start the class session by showing the video before doing anything else. In the part I of the exercise it helps to emphasize that you’ve already worked hard and overcome much … climbed up that hill in the beginning of the video … etc. etc. In the part II there are a lot of great ways to add texture to the debrief of that segment, such as whether or not Pat would be interested in 50/50 partnership that involved him digging down through all that perma frost with you, and likewise how his trusty dog would feel about helping out as well (see the last part of the video segment).

Video contributed by Jeff Martin

Contributed by Mason Carpenter