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Susie Gordon and Antonio Barile, a married couple, own a manufacturing company together. When their first child was born, they agreed that Susie would stay home with the kids while Antonio ran the business, and then, after a few years, they would swap roles. Now Susie is itching to get back to work, but Antonio is reluctant to step out of the CEO's job and return home. Does he have to honor their original deal--and what will happen if he doesn't? This fictional case study is written by Jim Sharpe and James Weber and features expert commentary by Paola Carniglia, Linda Katz, and Mike Katz.

Susie Gordon and Antonio Barile, a married couple, own a manufacturing company together. When their first child was born, they agreed that Susie would stay home with the kids while Antonio ran the business, and then, after a few years, they would swap roles. Now Susie is itching to get back to work, but Antonio is reluctant to step out of the CEO's job and return home. Does he have to honor their original deal--and what will happen if he doesn't? This fictional case study is written by Jim Sharpe and James Weber and features expert commentary by Paola Carniglia, Linda Katz, and Mike Katz.

Susie Gordon and Antonio Barile, a married couple, own a manufacturing company together. When their first child was born, they agreed that Susie would stay home with the kids while Antonio ran the business, and then, after a few years, they would swap roles. Now Susie is itching to get back to work, but Antonio is reluctant to step out of the CEO's job and return home. Does he have to honor their original deal--and what will happen if he doesn't? This fictional case study is written by Jim Sharpe and James Weber and features expert commentary by Paola Carniglia, Linda Katz, and Mike Katz.

Small differences in the leadership of teams can have large consequences for the success of their efforts. Many initiatives fail not because of a fatal error in judgment or insufficient ideas, knowledge, motivation, or capabilities to deliver a solution. They fail because, as is so often heard, "we needed to be more of a team to succeed," "we weren't a sufficiently high-performing team," or "our team suffered from a lack of leadership." In a world where most problems faced by organizations are too complex for a single individual to tackle alone, leadership frequently involves designing, launching, and managing teams. And yet teams are fickle. Even as teams become more common at all levels of organizations, a shocking number of them fail to live up to their potential or even to deliver at all. Teams remain the most flexible and powerful units of learning, change, and performance in most organizations but require effective leadership to succeed. This note summarizes the conditions leaders can create to increase the chances of creating, managing, and participating in successful teaming environments.

Inventory strategy can be a key driver of a firm's success or failure. Conversely, an inappropriate inventory strategy can erode customer service and can quickly deplete cash, especially for startups or other cash-starved firms. Because of the important strategic and tactical roles played by inventory within a business, it is important to understand the fundamentals of inventory management. This Reading begins by defining key terms and concepts. It then explores how to determine an inventory model that is appropriate to each business situation. Determining a model depends on finding answers to a pair of related questions: Can inventory be replenished within a defined selling period? If it can, a new question arises: What is the replenishment trigger? A "single-period model" applies to products with a limited useful life that cannot be carried over for sale in a subsequent period and a "multi-period model" applies to products that can be carried over for sale in a subsequent period.

It is often assumed that a quality inspection for a product or service comes at the end of a process. For example, an article of clothing may include a sticker that reads "Inspected by #12." Total Quality Management places greater emphasis on monitoring individual steps within an entire production process to ensure that the process is running the way it was intended. Paying close attention to the underlying processes connected to a product or service can greatly benefit companies and the customers they serve. This Reading introduces key concepts and considerations in applying process control beginning with product inspection. It provides an overview of the most commonly used statistical and analytical tools called Statistical Process Control (SPC). SPC is applicable to all processes in manufacturing and services whenever there is a measurable output that must deliver a high-quality product or customer experience.

Organizations without the means to improve rarely can keep up with competition. Improvement requires a deep understanding of underlying operating processes and an ability to assess their performance. The essence of process analysis is the ability to answer the questions, "How is this process doing?" and "How can it do better?" In this Reading, readers observe an operating process and consider the data that needs to be collected so that they are able to answer these key questions. How can a process be described as "doing" well? The answer depends on what the customer promise is and how the firm seeks to create and capture value for its stakeholders. Is the company focus on speed, quality of service, and customer satisfaction? Its measures of success would be very different from another business running a high-volume, capital-intensive factory with a customer promise of low cost, focusing on capital utilization, high volumes, and specific measures of efficiency and productivity. The Reading begins with an overview of the steps in analyzing a process, beginning with process flow diagrams, represent the sequence of tasks and flow of product and information. Concepts introduced in the reading include batch processes, bottleneck analysis and cycle times, and calculating capacity and labor utilization. A variety of numerical analyses are introduced to measure process performance with a focus on 3 critical dimensions: capacity, efficiency, and effectiveness.

This Reading expands on the basic concepts of Process Analysis. It begins with explanations of generic types of processes: the job shop, the worker-paced line, cellular manufacturing, the machine-pace assembly link, and the continuous flow process. Each process type has different characteristics and key management challenges associated with it. The Reading continues with an introduction to the impact of variability (in this case, in processing times) on process performance. The final section covers process improvement with a focus on quality and learning.

Cyprus is a small island member of the European Union, constituting 0.2 per cent of the eurozone gross domestic product. During its growth phase, the Cypriot banking system developed vulnerabilities after suffering heavy losses during the Greek sovereign debt crisis. The European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union offered a bailout of US$16.9 billion if the Cypriot government could raise US$7.54 billion from within. The government had a few options on the table - a "one-off" stability levy on all bank deposits (a solution loathed by both native and foreign depositors), a bank restructuring plan, seeking help from Russia (which expected access to the island's oil and gas reserves) and a complete banking system bailout (which would come with oversight and control from those offering the bailout). The economy was fast approaching a standstill and Cyprus had only two days to strike a deal to avoid the collapse of its banking system.

In 2009/10, the commissioner of the Ontario Hockey League was generally satisfied with its operations but knew that certain markets were not reaching their potential. Management needed to use data to make some potentially difficult decisions, including possibly closing several teams down. The data included proximity of competition from other hockey leagues and other sports teams; how long a team had been in its city; how many points the team earned each season and how many of its players graduated to the National Hockey League; the make-up of the city in terms of its size, median income, median house price and its immigrant and visible minority populations; and, finally, the price of tickets. There were a few teams that were significant outliers at each end of the spectrum. What was the league going to do with the teams at the bottom that were dragging down average attendance figures? Student spreadsheet 7B13A028 with data is available.

In May 2011, Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG), a leading real estate company in Vietnam, was going to issue US$90 million of 9.875 senior notes (a debt instrument) in Singapore, due 2016. The company estimated the net proceeds from this offering, after deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and other estimated expenses, to be approximately US$80.7 million. From the perspective of an analyst at a brokerage firm who was monitoring HAG, there were many questions of interest arising from the note issue. These included the cost of the debt and the reasons why HAG chose to raise the money in Singapore, and not in Vietnam. What was the cost at which HAG was borrowing through the Singapore note issue? Was HAG's level of borrowing, after the note issue, exceeding the optimal level? What was the likelihood that HAG would be downgraded within a year from its B rating from Standard and Poor's? How would the risk to HAG's equity be affected as a result of the issue? Would HAG's stock price decline? The brokerage firm analyst needed to decide whether her firm should offload its equity holding in the company.

To Jonney Shih, Chairman of ASUSTek Computer, the introduction of Apple's iPad made clear the need to transition his company to a new cloud-computing era. But the company's roots in the manufacture of Windows-powered desktop and notebook PCs bounded the creativity of his design and engineering teams. The case examines the ASUS's efforts to get into the smartphone business, leveraging experimentation it has done in tablets and a range of hybrid devices. Will its experimentation and recombination of features lead it to market success, or simply confuse consumers?

Based on a variety of metrics, Trader Joe's ranked as one of the most successful grocers in the United States in 2013. Experts estimated that the company had the highest sales per square foot of any major grocery chain, even significantly higher than top performer Whole Foods. In 2013, Trader Joe's faced several threats as larger chains such as Wal-Mart and Tesco had begun to open small-format stores that mimicked the Trader Joe's approach. In addition some analysts had begun to question whether Trader's Joe's was losing its authenticity and "quirky cool" as the firm had continued to grow and expand across the country. What should Trader Joe's do to ensure continued growth?

In 2012, as part of a routine disclosure under U.S. law, Wal-Mart revealed it had spent $25 million since 2008 on lobbying to "enhance market access for investment in India." This disclosure, which came weeks after the Indian government made a controversial decision to permit FDI in the country's multi-brand retail sector, created uproar in India. Lobbying by multinationals drew strong emotions in India, evoking images of the millions spent by Enron in the 1990s to "educate Indians" - a suspected euphemism for bribery. Opposition political parties accused Wal-Mart of bribing the Indian government, which, on the eve of a general election, appointed a judicial commission to investigate Wal-Mart. Already under pressure from allegations of bribery in Mexico, Wal-Mart risked becoming embroiled in another embarrassing scandal. How had the company landed in its current situation and how could it respond to the investigation into its India-related lobbying?

A set of exercises and instructions to be used with the Process Simulator software made by Pro Model. These exercises allow students to investigate the impact of variable processing times on the performance of simple in-line processes. Includes color exhibits.

In March 2013, Susan Plagemann, vice president and publisher of Vogue - widely regarded as the world's most influential fashion magazine, and publishing conglomerate Condé Nast's marquee title - is seeking answers to two questions. First, how she can best approach the intensely competitive advertising market in which some competitors in recent times have had two to three times the page growth that Vogue has had? Second, how should she utilize the growing importance of digital channels that may increase pressure on traditional revenues sources but also fuel new ecommerce partnerships and other opportunities? Can Vogue, as both the fashion industry and the magazine's readers have become so accustomed to, stay one step ahead?

The Ciber Case Series: In early 2012 in the wake of economic uncertainty and industry-wide losses, shipping industry giant Maersk Lines deliberated about its future pricing strategy. Should it continue a strategy of aggressive price cutting as has often worked to its advantage in the past? Or should it consider raising prices for its services despite a weak demand and strong competition?

Student spreadsheet for case CU259.

The executive vice-president and chief operating officer (COO) of Canadian National Railway Company (CN), wants to change the culture at his organization. The COO has been promoted to his current position after CN purchased Illinois Central, and his first task is to review CN's operations across the country. He notices that employees are leaving work early, a practice called "early quits" that is supposed to reward employees for working harder during the day. He also notices there are other practices, such as late starts that encourage lower productivity. With the goal of improving productivity in mind, the COO elects to tackle the issue of late starts before fixing the early quits problem. This case introduces behavioural science as one of the many management tools that can be used to influence behaviour.