Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) faced a significant public relations challenge following a February 5, 2021, social media post from a Canadian cookbook author questioning if others were also experiencing hard butter that would not soften at room temperature. Very quickly, the post received hundreds of replies in the affirmative, prompting a #Buttergate hashtag that soon spilled into mainstream national and international media coverage. The “Buttergate” controversy grew when it was speculated that the cause of the hard butter was due to the addition of palm oil to cow’s feed, with some experts highlighting the negative environmental and health impacts of palm oil. As the lobbying and promotional organization representing Canadian dairy farmers, DFC held a decades-long reputation for quality and transparency with Canadian consumers. Buttergate called this reputation into question, prompting the chief executive officer of DFC, Jacques Lefebvre, to issues a series of statements as the organization navigated the controversy, ultimately forming an expert working group to further investigate the issues that had been raised by consumers and in media reports. While everyone awaited the working group’s final report, what did DFC need to do to rebuild consumer trust in the quality of its product?
The Gautrain Rapid Rail Link Project was started in 2006 and is one of the biggest public-private partnership transport infrastructure ventures ever undertaken in Africa. It is also the first rapid rail transport system implemented in South Africa. Both the scope and the novelty of the project required sound management in all of its different parts. This case defines a public-private partnership, then considers the aspects of financial and risk management.
The Gautrain Rapid Rail Link Project (Gautrain Project) was started in 2006. It is a rare example of a successful public-private partnership (PPP). The project involved the provincial government of Gauteng (represented by Gautrain Management Agency) as the public partner and Bombela Concession Company (Bombela) as the private partner. The project was underpinned by a thorough feasibility study, approvals from South Africa’s National Treasury Department, a comprehensive PPP concession agreement (CA), and meticulous contract management capability. Supplement to accompany the following products: W35413, W37124, W37143, W37144, W37145, W37146, and W37147.
The Gautrain Rapid Rail Link Project was started in 2006. It is a rare example of a successful public-private partnership (PPP). The project involved the provincial government of Gauteng (represented by Gautrain Management Agency) as the public partner and Bombela Concession Company as the private partner. The general case, which accompanies this part in the exercise series, provides the basic outline of the story. The Gautrain Rapid Rail Link Project is recognized as one of the largest transport infrastructure PPP projects in Africa and as a major transport initiative of the provincial government of Gauteng. It has been breaking new ground to ensure that specific socio-economic development objectives are met. This project has set a benchmark for South Africa that can be adopted by other infrastructure providers.
This case concerns a young MBA from India, Yashovardhan Agarwal (Yash), who, in 2024, contemplated the growth strategy of SVG Fashions Pvt. Ltd. (SVG), his family’s textile business. The company’s vision was to be a one-stop textile solution provider converting “fibre to fashion.” However, changes in the market and competition required significant investments in developing competencies that could make the company future-ready and more profitable. Yash deliberated on whether to expand the current business, build a business-to-business athleisure brand by selling through offline retail channels, or build a direct-to-consumer online athleisure apparel brand. Yash needed to be sure that the choices he made not only offered profitable growth but also built relevant core competencies to sustain SVG’s competitive advantage in the future.
In 2022, Australia-based property and home development company Douglas Family Group was full of internal conflict. The co-owned family business had recently decided that changes were needed in order to grow and secure a stable family income for the future. To that end, the company brought in non-family advisers and board members, and eventually hired a non-family chief executive officer (CEO). However, the organizational changes did not go smoothly, due to the myriad challenges of introducing external employees to a family business. Soon, family members and top management alike started to complain that the changes did not work and demanded that the previous CEO, a second-generation Douglas family member, come back to fix things. As revenue decreased and conflict spread, the family knew it only had one chance to fix things and save the company. What was the best course of action to get back on track?
Amid rising online content, modern consumers want a personalized online shopping experience and to be presented with products, services, and deals that are relevant and specific to them. Anil Bains launched Attryb to create a hyper-personalization stack to deliver a meaningful experience to each website user. Using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and statistical models, Attryb's predictive intelligence model could assess thousands of customer signals to create meaningful segments that increased acquisition, engagement, and sales for online sellers. However, small and medium companies establishing direct-to-consumer websites often lacked strong technological capabilities and were preoccupied with starting their businesses. How could Attryb convince these prospective clients about the economic benefits of its solution and communicate the value without being overly technical?
On November 9, 2020, Chhavi Jain wanted to participate in a contest created by her college friend Vikas Jack on the Dream11 mobile application. The contest was for the final match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 between the Delhi Capitals and the Mumbai Indians scheduled for November 10. In the contest, each user must create a team of 11 players. A user's performance was evaluated based on their team's performance in the live match. Jain faced the dilemma of selecting the 11 players for her team on Dream11. The number of credits for each player was different, depending on their past performance, and the total credit sum of all players had to be less than 100 credits. She did not know the players and their past performances in the IPL. Which players should she select in her team to increase her chances of winning the contest?
Zibusiso Mkhwanazi, chief executive officer of Avatar South Africa, looked out of his office window in Johannesburg. Mkhwanazi was contemplating whether he should stay at Avatar or move on to new things. This question was triggered by a media briefing that South Africa's Minister of Health had just given in which he outlined the rollout for the COVID-19 vaccine. Avatar had been directly involved with the communication strategies the president of South Africa and the Ministry of Health used to reach the majority of the population in a country in which access to the internet was not equal. The work had been innovative, challenging, and a matter of life and death. Mkhwanazi had enjoyed and thrived on the work, and felt it had been the outstanding achievement of his career. Mkhwanazi had never stayed in a job when the job had stopped challenging him. He started his career when computer technology was disrupting the way organizations worked and communicated. Initially, he was motivated by money. However, he had achieved his goals and now had different motivations. At Avatar, he had helped develop a culture through faith-driven leadership, but Avatar no longer gave him the joy and fulfilment of working on the cutting edge of technology. His dilemma was whether he should stay at Avatar with the people he had come to love and care about, or leave to find something that would satisfy his passion for innovative and creative work.
<b>All royalties from the adoption of this case will be donated to Birchway Niagara. </b><br><br>In March 2023, Women’s Place of South Niagara (Canada), an organization focused on ending abuse and intimate partner violence, rebranded as Birchway Niagara, to better represent what Birchway offered: it was not only a place for women. However, Jennifer Gauthier, its executive director, found herself in the fall of 2023 reflecting on the mixed success of the rebrand. The problem, according to Gauthier, was that “our communication was not as bold as it needed to be to really get the message out there.” Should she back away from the new brand and focus on the organization's core mission or go all-in on the new brand? Was a solution using both goals within one marketing campaign the right way forward? <br><br>
In 2019, Shannondale Developments looked at purchasing the former industrial factory at 152 Shanley Street in Kitchener, Ontario. Nic Tyers, one of the co-owners of Shannondale and Ian Pinchin, the development manager, saw an opportunity and developed an Agreement of Purchase and Sale (APS), working through many challenges to ultimately secure the purchase. The case outlines the situation leading up to the decision to acquire the property and the many challenges they faced as they went through the potential acquisition process. The case challenges students to try to understand the numbers behind the purchase of this environmentally challenged site and to use them to make the decision whether to purchase it.
This case presents a scenario where Madrigal, a U.S. retailer with a rich 20-year history and a solid loyalty program, faces a turning point with the arrival of a new CEO. This leadership change reveals a critical gap in understanding the customer base, prompting an urgent audit of historical purchase data to assess customer growth patterns. Students are tasked as the CMO to analyze four years of transactional data, addressing questions on customer value, characteristics, and segmentation. The case study emphasizes the importance of a thorough customer-base audit to develop strategies for sustainable growth, serving as a practical learning tool for evaluating any company's customer base health.
Honeygrow, a healthy food chain, has seen steady growth since opening its first location in Philadelphia in 2012. Justin Rosenberg, founder and chief executive officer of honeygrow, is assessing the advantages and disadvantages of an expansion strategy and wondering how he should lean into social media more to aid and develop his brand story further.
RésuNavi was a startup founded in Vancouver, Canada, that aimed to create a more efficient, equitable, and accessible job application system by using artificial intelligence (AI) to tailor jobseekers’ résumés to their ideal roles. The company faced challenges and strategic dilemmas including a volatile market, scaling impact while managing growth, balancing specialization and broad applicability, addressing privacy concerns, and differentiating itself from competing platforms like SkillSyncer and ChatGPT. This case study explores how RésuNavi adapted to change and prepared for growth while contending with the paradox that the company’s success would reduce the need for its services.
<div style="font-size: 0.94em; line-height: 1.4;"><p align="justify">When Kellogg’s CEO Gary Pilnick suggested during a CNBC interview that families facing financial hardship could eat cereal for dinner, a backlash was triggered. As Kellogg’s was attacked across social media, some consumers insisted the company had benefited from rising food prices and calls for a boycott emerged. If companies aren’t quick to respond to consumers’ concerns, they can find themselves buffeted by negative media attention. To be prepared for a media misstep, companies should consider the following steps. First, have a crisis plan: The best strategy is to hope for the best and plan for the worst. That means developing a crisis communications plan before something stirs up unwanted media attention. Second, let spokespeople do their job: The person who caused the problem should not be the one who fixes it. Third, have a Plan B: Identifying fallback communicators in a crisis plan and making sure they’re prepared to play the role will increase the plan’s value. Fourth, apologize and clarify: Even if a company decides it hasn’t committed wrongdoing, it should apologize for the confusion that its comments or actions caused. Fifth, be open to dialogue: A willingness to engage in open communication can help foster reconciliation. Sixth, rebuild trust: This can involve taking action to improve the quality, safety, or reliability of products or services or enhancing efforts to show a commitment to certain values.
<div style="font-size: 0.94em; line-height: 1.4;"><p align="justify">The December 2022 holiday season was anticipated to mark the first “post-COVID” holiday. However, an unusually severe storm hit at the end of December, causing widespread flight cancellations. Most airlines recovered within a day or two, but Southwest Airlines Co. was disproportionately affected. By December 28, 2022, the airline had cancelled 59 per cent of its flights, compared to an average of 1–2 per cent for other airlines. This led to a total of 16,700 cancellations between December 21 and December 31. The crisis was exacerbated by Southwest Airlines Co.’s outdated crew management software, insufficient ground crews, and its unique point-to-point route network. Unlike hub-and-spoke networks, which concentrated resources at major hubs. Southwest’s point-to-point system offered more non-stop flights but lacked flexibility in crisis response. In the aftermath of the crisis, Southwest was grappling with various critical questions. Would investments in new technology suffice? Which technological advances would make the best investments? With obvious structural deficiencies in place, should the airline consider restructuring? How should Southwest navigate the aftermath of the December 2022 crisis to ensure resilience and sustainability?