Stumbling Giant: R. J. Reynolds in the 1980s

This overview of R. J. Reynolds in the 1980s reviews the company's competitive position within the tobacco industry and describes the problems it faced in governance, leadership, and product development. This note serves as an introduction for two cases: The Uptown Cigarette (A1, A2, and B) and R. J. Reynolds's Dakota Cigarette (A1, A2, and B). For both of those cases, this case is best used as a preliminary reading distributed to the entire class prior to the other case components.