In April, 2009, the director of media strategy at henderson bas, a Toronto-based online advertising agency, was evaluating the current campaign for Primus Telecommunications (Primus). It had been two months since the Primus home phone bundle banner advertisement campaign had been launched, and initial results were not as expected. While there were a lot of visitors attracted to the Primus website, those visitors were not converted into paying customers at a high enough rate. This poor conversion rate had pushed the cost per acquisition of new Primus customers to uncomfortably high levels, threatening the campaign's future. By gathering form usage data from the website and subsequently implementing visitor-tracking software, the director focused her attention to analyze the results to determine why visitors to Primus' website were not converting into paying customers.

In late 2006, the four partners of Oncidium Business Consulting disagree on a number of questions, such as the firm's future direction, the responsibilities of each partner and how profits are to be divided. The A1 case, 9B09D015, takes the viewpoint of the founding partner and majority holder of the firm's shares. The A2 case, 9B09D016, looks at the situation from the position of one of the minority partners.

In late 2006, the four partners of Oncidium Business Consulting disagree on a number of questions, such as the firm's future direction, the responsibilities of each partner and how profits are to be divided. The A1 case, 9B09D015, takes the viewpoint of the founding partner and majority holder of the firm's shares. The A2 case, 9B09D016, looks at the situation from the position of one of the minority partners.

The case illustrates a sports betting product offered by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission. The particular game involved has odds that favour the bettor over the game provider under certain settings. The supplement B case, product 9B09E015, summarizes the results from a series of bets made and provides an email response from the game provider following the discontinuation of this particular game. The case provides an interesting introduction into probability or simulation and expected value calculations.

This supplement to OLGC Finds Its Match (A), product # 9B09E014, summarizes the results from a series of bets and provides the email response from the game provider following the discontinuation of this particular game.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER -INFORMS Case and Teaching Materials Competition, 3rd place</strong></p><br>A freelance geologist was asked for advice regarding two mining claims to property on Sturgeon Lake, near Thunder Bay, Ontario. Specifically, he was asked if there was enough gold on the property to pursue an economically feasible mining opportunity. The geologist determined that an analytical approach would best aid the analysis of the multiple factors he would need to consider in arriving at a decision about whether or not to proceed with the mining operation. The first stage in ore extraction involved building an access road, and the second stage was to implement a drilling program. There was considerable uncertainty surrounding the costs and actual feasibility of completion of these stages; yet only when these stages were completed could actual mining of the property begin. If mining proceeded, it was assumed it would take 10 years to extract all the gold from the site, and the total amount of gold in the mine would be extracted at an even rate over the 10-year period. Mining costs were assumed to be $30 an ounce, and the geologist used a discount rate of 20 per cent before taxes when evaluating projects.

In recent years, many countries with publicly funded healthcare have started using cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) along with review of clinical data as a tool to assess the overall benefit of a new drug to the society and set priorities with regards to health care budget. Cost effectiveness was formally incorporated into the Ontario drug review system in 1993 and the Canadian drug-review system in 2003. The issue of using cost effectiveness has become increasingly contentious in recent years: some newly approved cancer drugs cost $3,000 to $6,000 or more for one treatment cycle, but their high prices means that they were often classified as being not cost effective. This note reviews many of the competing interests in debates over drug funding and dilemmas about healthcare financing decisions in the presence of limited budgets.

This case considers the process of organizational transformation undertaken by Partners Healthcare System (PHS) since the 1990s as their hospital and affiliated ambulatory medical practices have adopted both EMR and CPOE systems. Encompassing a strategic investment in information technologies, wide-spread process change, and the pervasive use of institutional clinical decision support and knowledge management systems, this story has been 15 years in the making, culminating in 2009 with the network-wide use of EMR and CPOE by all PHS doctors. These developments in turn opened the door to the redefinition of services delivery and to the replacement of established therapies through the leveraging of the knowledge residing in 4.6 million now-digitized PHS patient records. As such, the PHS experience serves as a window into how one organization strove to address the daunting challenges of 21st century health care services information management, as a template for success in the implementation of large-scale information systems among research-based hospitals across the United States, and more broadly as a learning platform for industry executives in their efforts to transform health care delivery through data and knowledge management.

A professor is considering buying a new car and is evaluating two models, one with air conditioning and a comfort package, the other with no extras. The two cars are relatively close in price but still above his initial budget, and he is wondering how much he might be able to negotiate the price. A factor that complicates the matter is that the car with the comfort package has a lower interest rate. The professor therefore needs to understand what the net present value of the difference in the two payment plans is.

One of the most basic revenue management problems is how to allocate a fixed capacity to various types of classes of customers so that the total profit is maximized. Using the example of a flight traveling from Toronto to Vancouver, the revenue management problem is to decide, in each period, how much of the realized demand to accept and how much to reserve for the latter classes in order maximize the revenue. The crux of the problem revolves around the trade-off between spoilage and dilution. The author uses various mathematical formulae (including the static model, Littlewood's Two-Class model and n-Class model of expected marginal seat revenue) to model optimal seat-allocation outcomes.

This case examines fair value accounting under lAS 41 for a European-listed agricultural firm. Students identify the firm's core operations, distinguishing the IFRS treatment for three distinct assets: land; agricultural assets that reside on the land; and inventory harvested from the land. They also analyze key reporting decisions relating to the agricultural assets, which create frictions such that market value and book value do not converge despite the application of fair value for the majority of the firm's assets. The case also highlights how fair value accounting affects key valuation inputs such as earnings, and the implications for abnormal-earnings based valuation.

This case explores company strategy, business-government relations, and collective action challenges associated with international and domestic lobbying regarding regulation of the chemical industry. In the fall of 2006, a five-year legislative process for a major new law regulating chemicals in the European Union appeared to be nearing its conclusion. REACH, the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals, would create a new European Chemicals Agency, require companies to submit testing data on existing and new compounds, and restrict the manufacture of hazardous substances. Andrew Liveris, CEO of the Dow Chemical Company, has to decide whether the company should engage in direct discussions with the European Parliament and Commission, with the implication that the company can influence the regulations but also would have to support the final outcome. The case summarizes Dow's history, competitive dynamics in the sector, and regulation of the chemical industry before describing the REACH legislative process and various approaches to lobbying used by chemical companies, trade groups, and environmental NGOs.

This case presents the management challenge of a high-growth manufacturing company based in India that is contemplating a major international acquisition. It is a decision that will invoke both geographic and product diversification. Students have to grapple with the trade-offs of an exciting growth opportunity that can stretch the company to new heights against significant risks and challenges that such an acquisition would entail. The case also provides an excellent context for studying the evolution of international strategy in a firm, as it presents Havells from an entrepreneurial startup trading company to a successful manufacturing firm and going on to become a global company. The case will fit well in a strategic manufacturing class, either on the topic of diversification strategy or international strategy. The decision is reasonably complex and allows the instructor to take the class through an in-depth analysis. Given the short length of the case, it can be used effectively in executive education class. The case can serve very well as a final examination case in a strategic management course.

Established in 1908, General Motors ("GM") is a leading global automobile manufacturer. Though the company has maintained its global presence since 1931 and offers a vast range of brands, it is now considered a fading automotive manufacturing leader. GM witnessed a financial crisis in 1992 and successfully attempted to resuscitate its sales and earnings by implementing a revival plan. The success lasted for a decade, but the company observed fierce competition and declining global market share during this period. The company has since reported another loss in 2006. Dwindling sales figures, increasing competition and hefty staff costs are considered to be the key hurdles to GM's success. Furthermore, the introduction of a new pension accounting standard, the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards ("SFAS") No. 158, is expected to further deteriorate the financial performance of GM by recommending full recognition of pension surplus or deficit on the company's balance sheets. The management of GM is focusing on strategies to effectively manage the risks and returns of the pension schemes so that the new pension accounting standard does not adversely affect GM's financial performance.

Students must determine the price (rate) and quantity (efficiency) variance for materials and labor used in manufacturing a new product, along with delivery variances. Does the company product manager's decision to change materials appear to be a good one? This start-up company grew from a cottage industry to a manufacturing company.

This case presents the management challenges of a high-growth manufacturing company based in India that is contemplating a major international acquisition. Its decision will involve both geographic and product diversification. Students have to grapple with the trade-offs of an exciting growth opportunity that can bring the company to new heights against significant risks and challenges that such an acquisition would entail. The case also provides an excellent context for studying the evolution of international strategy in a firm, as it shows Havells growing from an entrepreneurial start-up trading company to a successful manufacturing firm and then a global company.

In mid-February 2009, amid the global financial crisis, the news was grim. The U.S. economy had been in recession since December 2007. If the downturn lasted into early spring, it would become America's longest postwar recession. The economy had shed 3.5 million jobs over the previous 12 months, the worst 12-month period on record. Bank lending was plummeting; the few banks with funds available were holding onto them. With this massive shift into liquid assets (cash and cash equivalents) and away from lending of any sort (even for productive uses or, in many cases, the working capital firms needed to survive), the economy would likely grind to a halt. On this brisk mid-February day in Washington, Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke rolled up their sleeves and reevaluated their plans to address the nearly impossible task of righting the ship. In terms of monetary and fiscal policy, were they doing all they could to halt this epic slide? Were they doing too much?

The Jonathan Rose Companies must decide how to design and launch an innovative new real estate fund focused on green and transit oriented properties. JRC seeks to show through the fund that smart growth and green buildings provide superior economic returns to sprawl and environmentally damaging development. In order to launch the fund, JRC must decide on several important outstanding issues. What will be the fund's investment criteria? To whom should the fund be marketed? How should the fund be structured? What should be the fund's first investment?