Cisco Systems, Inc., the dominant global supplier of the routers and switches that formed the backbone of the Internet, was considering entry into the cloud-based education market in China through the design and marketing of an in-classroom device, the Sunbird. The new vice-president and chief technology officer of Enterprise Networking Group, Cisco Greater China, had met with a Politburo member of the Communist Party of China and State Councilor with responsibilities including China’s science, technology and education policies. The vice-president had introduced Cisco’s global operations and the two women had discussed partnering, technology transfer, cross branding, joint product and service development, cooperation with Chinese companies, and the IT revolution and its effect on Chinese education. How could Cisco profitably join in the Chinese education IT revolution? Cisco had never entered the educational IT equipment space in any part of the world with its own dedicated product. Should it develop the Sunbird for the Chinese market?<br><br> A <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa9uTc1JKDI>video is available for viewing online.

In early 2011, the founder of REfficient, an asset recovery service based in Hamilton, Ontario, was thinking about how she should manage the rapid growth that seemed just around the corner. Founded in 2010 to help cable firms generate value from their stock of surplus equipment, REfficient, with no direct competitors in the Ontario market, had grown rapidly and had a list of corporate customers, two warehouses and five employees. The company was positioned as the efficient way for customers to recover value from their surplus assets; it would collect and inventory them, provide an online list and track the environmental impact of selling or discarding them. The company was now looking to secure a pilot project with the Ontario provincial government. Innovative in the “green” sense because of its innovative reuse, recycle or resell model, as well as its integrated carbon footprint estimator, REfficient was a good match for the program. But how would it deal with an increasingly large variety of items, given its limited resources and space?

A young Aboriginal entrepreneur faces three major challenges to growing his lifestyle apparel business. First, he has been unable to find a trusted partner who is both competent and passionate about the venture. Second, he is spread thinly across the multiple roles involved with running and growing the business. Third, he has not yet fully tested any of the proposed business models to determine whether they will require considerable investment or abandonment. The entrepreneur lacks the time and space to think strategically about his best course of action. The case challenges students to evaluate his company's business model and performance and to chart a successful strategy for the future, considering the dual perspectives of being a solo entrepreneur and an Aboriginal businessperson.

The director of corporate responsibility at Cameco Corporation, a global uranium mining company, is debating whether to engage in formal negotiations leading to a partnership with a remote First Nations community in northern Saskatchewan, and if so, how. The director knows that a partnership may be costly upfront but it might also lead to future opportunities. Keenly aware of the need to manage rapidly growing expectations within the First Nations community, while also managing the expectations of long-term partners, the director needs to decide on a way forward that will deliver the best results for all concerned.

This case focuses on Pfizer, the largest research-based pharmaceutical company globally with sales of over $51 billion and operations in 175 countries in 2013. It introduces students to the field of green chemistry and discusses the business and environmental effects of such a strategy. While Pfizer has measured the benefits of green chemistry, communicating these externally has been challenging. In addition, manufacturers of generic drugs largely have not embraced green chemistry. As the first lead of Pfizer's Green Chemistry team, the first of its kind in the industry, how will you prepare for a meeting with your team's steering team to address progress and new initiatives? You will have to understand the complex market by, for example, identifying key drivers for other pharmaceutical companies, including generics, for adopting green chemistry. How should Pfizer communicate the impact of its sustainability efforts, including "greener" drugs, to the public?

This case chronicled the digital transformation of DBS Bank in seeking regional growth amidst a new digital era in the Asian banking industry. Led by its CEO, DBS invested heavily in technology and undertook radical changes to 'rewire' the entire enterprise for digital innovation. Key thrusts of its digital transformation strategy involved the revamp of its Technology and Operations organization, the development of scalable digital platforms, the leverage on technology to redesign the customer experience, and the internal incubation and external partnering in seeking new digital innovation. However, questions remain whether DBS has done enough to put digital at the heart of banking? What should be the next steps in their digital strategy? Where should the bank direct its technology investment dollars? How can DBS systematically assess the opportunities and threats of digital disruption in the banking industry and devise a set of possible strategic responses? How can DBS stay at the forefront of digital innovation to become the Asian Bank of Choice for the New Asia?

Giulia Ferrato, a recent MBA graduate, has developed a high-quality, lightweight titanium piton, a tool used in mountain climbing. She is currently contracting for the production of the pitons. At the time of the case, her sole customer has made an offer of significant guaranteed demand for a two-year period, and, almost simultaneously, she is presented the opportunity to take over the forge operation of her contract manufacturer. She is trying to decide what would happen to her business under such a scenario.

Giulia Ferrato, a recent MBA graduate, has developed a high quality piton, a tool used in mountain climbing. Owing to the security of a customer's offer to guarantee a significant level of demand for a two-year period, she agreed to take over the forge needed for production. She is now trying to decide whether or not to introduce a new product line, a wall hammer. Some of the current capacity can be used to make this product, but its manufacture would incur some new costs. A move away from offering only a single product line also raises the issue of cost allocations.

Giulia Ferrato, a recent MBA graduate, founded TenAlpina Tools to make and sell mountain climbing tools of her own design. While the fledgling company is growing and profitable, with overall profit margin about where Giulia had anticipated, she is having trouble understanding individual product-line gross margins and divergent market pressures on those margins. She has decided to explore the effects of the way in which she allocates costs.

The three founding members of the Civil Society Human and Institutional Development Programme (CHIP), a Pakistani not-for-profit organization, need to determine how to satisfy management and operational costs. CHIP is a mainstream development organization in Pakistan, with a focus on Human and Institutional Development. CHIP became successful by maintaining high standards of management practices. Such standards require regular financial support to account for the cost of institutional necessities, such as staff positions in financial and administration management and human resources. While international donors are willing to work with CHIP due to its high management standards, they are not willing to meet the costs of these standards.

Just before the celebration of the 2014 Chinese Lunar New Year, Tencent, the world's fourth largest Internet company, launched a mobile application for its popular WeChat platform: the Red Envelope. By clicking on a virtual red envelope icon, gifts of money could be sent to or received from friends and family to celebrate this special occasion. Combining a Chinese cultural tradition with modern social networks, this simple initiative soon became a major milestone in China's mobile market. It brought more than eight million users to Tencent's WeChat Payment platform in the first eight days after the New Year, helping the company break the barrier of mobile payment adoption among its vast user base and giving it a significant advantage in the country's competitive mobile payment market. This somewhat unexpected, record-making success, also made many companies rethink how to survive and thrive in China's rapidly growing technology sector.

Fishbay.in is an online store where Indian consumers can buy fish that is delivered to their home. Although the founder originally targeted individual consumers and households, he soon found that restaurants were also interested in buying fish online. Unlike individuals, restaurants were more concerned with quality than price and typically ordered larger quantities. The founder wonders whether he should stick to his original plan of targeting individual consumers or shift his focus to the restaurant business.

The chief executive officer of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) had the daunting task of sustaining a business that had suffered the tragic loss of two of its airliners in a span of just four months. Prior to this, a US$392 million loss, as well as the inability to compete with lower-cost carriers, had posed a great challenge to MAS. Management was planning to initiate a cost-cutting strategy to manage pricing and the competitive challenges of the aviation industry when these incidents shocked the world. The disasters greatly impacted customer confidence, as reflected in the company's declining booking rates and stock prices. With its reputation severely damaged, MAS was faced with many hard-hitting questions from various stakeholders about the airline's prospects. Many felt there was a need to transform the entire business model. The top executives pondered various options, including a rebrand of the airline, a new discounted pricing structure to build volume, a private equity infusion, a merger and filing for bankruptcy. Each option would have to be considered very carefully, as the changes made to the business would decide the future of MAS.

In September 2013, the managing director of Darling Kenya, a hair care product company headquartered in Nairobi, was pondering his next move. As a leader in the beauty hair care industry in Africa, the company needed to stay a step ahead of increasing competition from both local and multinational firms. With limited room to grow in the industry, he was looking at a set of alternatives to protect Darling's brand from losing market share. Which option would benefit the company the most: exploring new advertising channels, especially on the Internet and in social media; reinvigorating the brand with new packaging and higher quality; or entering the rural market through road shows?

Sarah Brown, co-owner and manager of the Green Alliance (GA), a for-profit company developed to foster and promote corporate sustainability was concerned about the future of the relatively new venture. The economic recession had slowed growth drastically in the first months of 2010, and the GA had yet to break even. Andrew Kellar, Sarah, and a silent partner who had since exited the company, had started the Green Alliance (GA) in 2008 to develop a coalition of companies devoted to spreading the concept of sustainability through cooperative efforts. The companies which became members of the GA would receive a sustainability and "Green" audit and rating. Individuals who became members of the GA could receive discounts from the corporate members of the GA. The GA was limited to the Seacoast area of New Hampshire, as of early 2010. Both Sarah and Andrew felt that there were more opportunities for expansion in that area. Kellar also felt that the company could replicate the business model in other geographic areas. A question was left as to how to accomplish any expansion. Sarah also knew that some people might become competitors in other areas.

Beaufort Solutions Inc. (Beaufort) was a very small technology company based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada that has been developing software solutions since 2003 for the rapidly changing and burgeoning digital photo industry. Beaufort's innovative technologies in the photo kiosk, web, and event photography market segments enabled the transformation of digital images into quality prints and gifts for consumers. The company's go-to-market strategy, in tandem with a substantial marketing partner, involved providing "big box" retail clients with a fully integrated digital photo solution that was intuitive for consumer use. A "lifestyle" company with a history of ups and downs due to events beyond its control, Beaufort had recently won the business of a significant strategic customer through the strength of their exceptional team and superior customer service. Building on this momentum, Beaufort was in the process of proving themselves to another, more substantial Canadian retailer, the success of which would change the company forever. In June 2011, Todd Hiscock, Beaufort's CEO, was pondering the consequences of success and wondering how much growth would best fit the company.

The Fídelló Cigar Cutter case highlights the introduction of a new-to-the-world product to a niche market with an elite target customer group. Chris Jones, the inventor of the Fídelló cigar cutter and managing partner of The Fídelló Company, spent nine years perfecting his product. After successfully test marketing a limited number of hand-assembled prototypes, Jones and his partners had funded the production of 5,000 units and were ready to launch the first new cigar cutter in more than thirty years to an uninformed public.

This case highlights entrepreneur Tom Wilson's dilemma: he must decide how to expand Springy Fields, his adult sport and recreation business. After the economic aftermath of 9/11 cost Tom his structural engineering job, he decided to turn his side business of running a spring and summer Ultimate Frisbee league into his full-time job. Over time, Tom's league grew substantially and he expanded into beach volleyball, soccer, flag football, and dodge ball. The Internet helped Tom remove the biggest expansion roadblock: the time required to complete administrative and customer-service tasks. Without the Internet, Tom doubted he could have achieved a fraction of the success he enjoyed between 2002 and 2010. Heading into the 2010 season, Tom realized he had plateaued and needed a new growth strategy. Each of the numerous options for expansion had its own unique set of financial risks and lifestyle implications. The case examines the myriad issues associated with developing a growth strategy that meets Tom's financial and lifestyle goals.