This case presents the real-world history of a field program to promote the financing of viable small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in one of the poorest and most troubled countries of the world. A key goal and expectation of the donor-funded project was the promotion of social enterprises - sustainable local businesses that create employment and promote economic development. A second, and just as significant expectation, is that the services provided by this program on a subsidized basis should also become sustainable, as a service that can be costed-out to the financial institutions and clients. The idea of 2 Bridges refers to the two sides of the effort: one that operates through lending by commercial banks, and one that operates through creation of an angel venture fund to invest in equity of the SMEs. The program in Honduras is described in detail, along with issues and questions for further analysis, discussion, debate, and potential implementation in other countries and contexts.

The launch of BlackBerry by Research in Motion (RIM) in 1999 laid the foundation for the development of smartphones. The next decade was a period of spectacular growth for RIM, making its two co-CEOs billionaires. At the end of 2007 the company had a market capitalization of more than $60 billion. Sales peaked at almost $20 billion in 2011. In 2016, sales were $2.2 billion and the company had lost money for four straight years. With the market capitalization having fallen to $4 billion by August 2016, the survival of BlackBerry (the company changed its name from RIM to BlackBerry) was uncertain.

CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE: CX) - Cemex - had made a name for itself in the global marketplace for two things - excellence in execution and rapid growth through acquisition. In an era in which globalization was a practice for multinational firms calling highly industrialized countries home, Cemex broke the mold. It was a multinational player calling a lower income country, Mexico, home. Led by Lorenzo Zambrano, the grandson of the founder, Cemex had followed a rapid growth trajectory through repeated acquisitions. Now, in 2006, it was once again on the prowl, stalking the Rinker Group of Australia. But Rinker was not for sale.

CEMEX of Mexico closed its acquisition of The Rinker Groups of Australia in April 2007 after raising its offer to US$15.85 per share. This represented a 54% premium over Rinker's closing price prior to the initiation of the hostile offer. CEMEX, in-line with its customary acquisition process, financed the entire purchase with debt. But within a year CEMEX was struggling to service its sizeable outstanding debt as business conditions and financial results declined with the financial crisis of 2008. The company was facing debt service of $5.5 billion in 2009, money which it did not have. CEMEX would need to propose a strong and convincing financial restructuring plan to its creditors if it wished to survive.

The discovery of Volkswagen's intentional deception on the NOx emissions of its diesel engine products in September 2015 resulted in nearly an instantaneous loss of 30% of the company's value. In the weeks and months that followed, VW found itself under attack from nearly every possible government regulator, consumer interest group, and environmental action interest worldwide. It faced $18 billion in potential financial penalties, and possibly of more import, irreparable damage to its global reputation. Out of the hundreds of news stories and investigative committees two questions were repeated: How did this happen and how could it be rectified?

NeoGenius Co., Ltd. (NeoGenius) was an early-stage entrepreneurial venture based in South Korea. Founded in February 2000, NeoGenius provided a wide range of business-to-business (B2B) e-business software and related services. In June 2001, the company was up and running, but it faced competition from larger firms, and the effects of a global economic downturn; as a result, its financial performance was falling short of expectations. NeoGenius had received significant offers from three different entities: a business partner, a competitor, and a venture capitalist. The chief executive officer had only a short time to choose from several options, including growth and exit.

This two-case series focuses on leadership succession and strategic transformation in a Chinese private business, Qingdao Red Collar Group Co., Ltd. (Red Collar Group).<br><br>Case A describes the strategic transformation put forward by the founder and chief executive officer, who firmly believed that the personalized customization model (i.e., the model based on made-to-order products) was the future of the traditional mass-production model. As a result of a decade of efforts and millions of dollars in investment, Red Collar Group successfully launched a global suit-customization supplier platform, Red Collar Made to Measure. In 2013, Red Collar Group upgraded its strategy, aiming to provide thorough solutions for the garment industry. Behind the strategic transformation in this case is the story of the chief executive officer, who was willing to hold on to his dream despite the lack of support from his employees. He was looking for a professional manager to succeed him as the leader of the company.<br><br>See 9B17M004 for Case B.

This two-case series focuses on leadership succession and strategic transformation in a Chinese private business, Qingdao Red Collar Group Co., Ltd. (Red Collar Group).<br><br>Case B illustrates the succession story from the perspective of the chief executive officer’s daughter. When most of the professional managers did not meet the chief executive officer’s requirements, he reached out to his children. His daughter joined Red Collar Group in 2005, and succeeded her father as president in 2009 after he had observed her good performance and strong capabilities. Although she has performed remarkably as a leader, she understood that the succession was still a work in progress and that various challenges needed to be overcome while implementing the strategy.<br><br>This case is a supplement to 9B17M003.

Earls Restaurants, Ltd., a Canadian restaurant chain headquartered in Vancouver, was facing a communications crisis in April 2016, when it changed its sourcing policy with regard to beef. In a bid to appeal to millennial consumers, who were conscious of animal welfare standards, it decided to source beef from a U.S. farm that had its beef independently certified as humane. This cut out the restaurant’s traditional supply sources among Canadian ranchers, most specifically in Alberta, where the restaurant chain had been founded. The backlash was immediate. After discussing the situation with his core management team and asking a consultant for help formulating a communication strategy, the company’s president had to decide how to proceed to restore the company’s reputation. Should Earls do nothing and wait for the attention to die down, go back to sourcing its beef through Canadian suppliers, or continue to serve humane beef in its restaurants?

In 2015, the executive director of Furniture Bank had successfully managed the Toronto social-service agency by turning a $300,000 net loss two years prior into a $100,000 net income. He had employed a variety of strategies and information technologies to integrate and rationalize business processes that resulted in significant productivity and performance improvements. However, Furniture Bank, which collected unneeded furnishings from donors and distributed them to those in need, had been a victim of its own success; it had maximized its capacity and was struggling to meet growing demand for its services. The executive director had to explore growth opportunities, specifically those accessible by leveraging information technology (IT), and choose from among four likely options.

This two-part analytical case illustrates the situation of Money Cash Flow Inc., a fast-growing Canadian insurance company, where the human resources management at its Montreal call centre has gradually become a major concern. In view of the many customer complaints and the growing number of employee departures, senior management wants to correct the situation and get the company back on an even keel. A stable and committed workforce is an important factor in the company's success. Management recognizes that human capital is the main source of its value added and a strategic advantage in its industry.

Supplement to case HEC162. This two-part analytical case illustrates the situation of Money Cash Flow Inc., a fast-growing Canadian insurance company, where the human resources management at its Montreal call centre has gradually become a major concern. In view of the many customer complaints and the growing number of employee departures, senior management wants to correct the situation and get the company back on an even keel. A stable and committed workforce is an important factor in the company's success. Management recognizes that human capital is the main source of its value added and a strategic advantage in its industry.

In the 1980s, Serge Belair founded Traductions Serge Belair. In the early days, he worked from home, translating documents for a number of Quebec companies in his basement office. Over a period of almost thirty years, Traductions Serge Belair, now operating under the name TRSB, grew from a small business to a company of 150 employees, with sales of close to $20 million and national ambitions. TRSB provides customized business solutions in translation and terminology management that are fully integrated with its clients' brand image and marketing efforts. Two-part case: TRSB (A): Strengthening a Service Brand in Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing With this case, students will decide how to strengthen the brand of this business-to-business (B2B) service company to ensure its survival. TRSB (B): 360° Marketing and Communications for a World-Class Translation Company TRSB's objective is to double its sales over the next five years. To achieve this goal, the company has earmarked $250,000 for its marketing efforts next year, a significant increase over the previous year. The members of the communication and marketing team are wondering how to promote this new brand image, making it better known and respected in Canadian business communities. TRSB's marketing personnel will be working to enhance the organization's presence across all media to increase the company's visibility and stimulate interest in its services, but they need some advice.

In the 1980s, Serge Bélair founded Traductions Serge Bélair. In the early days, he worked from home, translating documents for a number of Quebec companies in his basement office. Over a period of almost thirty years, Traductions Serge Bélair, now operating under the name TRSB, grew from a small business to a company of 150 employees, with sales of close to $20 million and national ambitions. TRSB provides customized business solutions in translation and terminology management that are fully integrated with its clients' brand image and marketing efforts. Two-part case: TRSB (A): Strengthening a Service Brand in Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing With this case, students will decide how to strengthen the brand of this business-to-business (B2B) service company to ensure its survival. TRSB (B): 360° Marketing and Communications for a World-Class Translation Company TRSB's objective is to double its sales over the next five years. To achieve this goal, the company has earmarked $250,000 for its marketing efforts next year, a significant increase over the previous year. The members of the communication and marketing team are wondering how to promote this new brand image, making it better known and respected in Canadian business communities. TRSB's marketing personnel will be working to enhance the organization's presence across all media to increase the company's visibility and stimulate interest in its services, but they need some advice.

This case deals with PasseportSante.net (PS), a health-related website and virtual community. PS offers expert content and interactive web features enabling members to create and share content and contribute to the site's value proposition. PS was launched in 1998 during the dot.com era, so it preceded the social web era. PS had been Canada's largest consumer health-related website since 2001, but Charmian Harvey, its CEO, realized the site had to adapt if it was to remain successful in today's web 2.0 environment, where social media rules. She knew that social features would be central to the site's strategic development, so the case focuses on comparing PS's existing social features with those offered by competitors. Students learn about the analytical approach to making data-driven management decisions.

Supplement to case HEC169. This case deals with PasseportSante.net (PS), a health-related website and virtual community. PS offers expert content and interactive web features enabling members to create and share content and contribute to the site's value proposition. PS was launched in 1998 during the dot.com era, so it preceded the social web era. PS had been Canada's largest consumer health-related website since 2001, but Charmian Harvey, its CEO, realized the site had to adapt if it was to remain successful in today's web 2.0 environment, where social media rules. She knew that social features would be central to the site's strategic development, so the case focuses on comparing PS's existing social features with those offered by competitors. Students learn about the analytical approach to making data-driven management decisions.

1. Vineet Saraiwala, Assistant Manager, Big Bazaar was planning to study the toothpaste category and some of the brands in the category. Having been exposed to the Consumer Behavior domain, Vineet wanted to use an exploratory to seek inputs on its usefulness to Big Bazaar. Although Big Bazaar was a major force in the new era of Indian retailing scenario, radical changes in the environment with online retailing, discount culture in online and offline brands, premium brands and economy brands in several categories, the kirana shops that have been a part of Indian retailing for decades and differentiation of brands across categories using several non-product associations such as celebrities and user imagery, a study involving consumer behavioral aspects can be immensely useful to Big Bazaar. This case provides a new perspective on how a modern retail (Big Bazaar) can consider the positioning strategies of brands from the viewpoint of consumer mindset associated with brand associations. Such an understanding associated with a category would enable Vineet to consider several options of using them: in retail promotions, in the introduction of a new store brand or to understand the importance of various factors in the study that can be used for enhancing the strategies of Big Bazaar with respect to its consumers in the toothpaste category. 2. The case attempts to approach retailing from several behavioral dimensions that include attitudes, self-brand connection, and celebrity-brand connection.

Roposo founders from their original days as founders of Giveter learnt about sustainable ways of doing business in the e-commerce world and therein lay the roots of Roposo. Over time, they acquired new knowledge about user behavior and exhibited agility in acquiring new functionalities and setting up of new teams to respond to evolving user behavior on the internet both using product development skills and by creating network effects. In doing so, they seem to be stepping on new competitive realms with existing competitors from the Silicon Valley or even from Asian entrepreneurial firms. The question now arises for Roposo founders on what to do and what not to do so that the firm can continue creating competitive advantage both in its original niche space of fashion social networking and more in fashion social e-commerce going forward. At a broad level, this case is ideal to teach MBA students: 1) How firms dynamically acquire capabilities over time responding to the market and external conditions and build competitive advantage. 2) In addition, it also addresses the issue of entrepreneurial pivoting that is essential to entrepreneurial survival. 3) Finally, the case also raises the issue of focus as a key construct in strategy - where firms need to decide whether it wants to build and/or acquire new capabilities keeping in mind anticipated competitive responses from the market.

Dynamic Technologies (DT) is a India-based aerospace manufacturing company which is supplying sub-systems to a Tier 1 aerospace vendor. Owing to superior performance the aerospace OEM offered to directly source the entire system from DT. As a supplier to the Tier 1 vendor, DT was engaged primarily in labor-intensive assembly operations. However, as a direct supplier to the OEM, it will also involve complex precision manufacturing. The question is whether DT will be able to conduct this critical operation in-house or depend on a European company which was engaged in the precision manufacturing when DT was supplying to the Tier 1 vendor. There were other complexities, such as, the vendors for special grade metals were not available in India and these have to be sourced from Europe. The CEO of the company was grappling with two options suggested by his deputies and the inherent risks involved. Can he come up something different?

GoCoop is a four-year old start-up that is creating an international market for Indian artisanal products such as handlooms through a B2B e-commerce platform. The company, founded by Siva Reddy, a former technologist with managerial experience in India as well as abroad has received a round of angel funding, followed by a Series A round recently. It has pivoted (i.e., changed its business model) twice and is now poised for a phase of rapid growth. The case traces the history of the company and examines some of the critical choices made by the entrepreneur and his key learning experiences. The case is anchored on the next steps that GoCoop will have to undertake to meet its growth aspirations. It also provides an opportunity for the class to deliberate and reflect on the choices made by the company and the entrepreneur so far. The case is accompanied by a background note on the marketing of Indian handloom products from an earlier period prior to the advent of electronic commerce. Company videos and those of Indian artisans are also available on YouTube.