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James and Laura Wiggins had some decisions to make. Last year, James's father had died of a stroke. Death was not instantaneous, however, and the man had lingered in hospital for several weeks in a coma. During this time, no one had been able to access James's father's bank accounts (which were registered in the father's name only). This inability to access the accounts had caused James's mother considerable economic hardship, which impressed upon James the value of a power of attorney (POA). To that end, James asked his lawyer to prepare a power of attorney for him and Laura. James wanted Laura to sign the documents that night. Before signing, Laura had some reservations and a few questions she wanted James to answer. She didn't understand how a POA worked. Was it the same as a will? She and James didn't have a will. Would the POA satisfy both needs?

In 2012, the Ontario provincial government announced that after 41 years in operation, the iconic Toronto tourist attraction Ontario Place would be shut down. The immediate closing would save the province and tax payers an estimated $20 million a year and eliminate at least 48 full-time jobs and 600 summer positions in the process. Ontario Place attendance had dropped sharply from an average of three million visitors during the early 1980's, to just over 327,000 in 2010. The Ontario government planned to keep the park closed until 2017 and spend the five years following closure to redevelop the majority of the site. It established an advisory panel empowered with the task of evaluating how to once again make Ontario Place a popular city venue and tourist destination. The advisory panel was expected to submit a full report outlining the best ideas for the Ontario Place revitalization to the provincial government by the end of the summer.

Centuryply operates in the building materials space - specifically, in interior decoration with plywood, laminates and decorative veneers - alongside other categories like cement, shipping, and logistics. In India, this market is dominated by unorganized players, and plywood has always been treated as a commodity by marketers. Given the boom in real estate across residences and offices, as well as the current rapid lifestyle changes in India, the company expects sustainable and continuous growth and wants to achieve greater success in the wood furnishings category. Centuryply views investment in brand-building as a way to beat commoditization.The focus of the case is to explain innovative branding strategies that may be adopted by marketers to create a brand in the commodity market. In addition, it touches on the difficulties faced by a company to maintain a sustainable brand proposition amid competition. The key question is how to maintain brand-building momentum and take it to the next level.

Supplement for case W12181

t was February 2012 and the founder of Nurturing Green, a plants-as-gifts enterprise, faced an important business decision. As he pondered the deal presented to him by an investment firm, he wondered about the wisdom of giving up 50 per cent control of his company in return for the investment firm's offer of $10 million in capital funding. Would the investors take control of the company out of his hands, or would they provide necessary capital and useful business experience? Further, if he acquired the venture capital, how and where should he allocate the funds and his efforts to maximize the degree of leverage his business could gain from the influx of capital? Should he invest in building warehouses to better serve his customers by achieving lesser lead times? Should he invest in research and development to increase the knowledge capital of his business, or should he consider other options?

Shanghai Pharmaceuticals (SPH), a vertically integrated Chinese pharmaceutical conglomerate, was considering its strategic options in the context of a rapidly evolving industry, policy, and economic environment. The company-essentially a collection of subsidiaries operating under a unified management structure-was formed through the 2009 merger of several state-owned enterprises, part of a broad policy effort in China to streamline state assets, consolidate the fragmented pharmaceutical sector, and enhance the global competitiveness of domestic firms. As it competed with other large domestic firms to become one of the few national champions that the government hoped to create, SPH was also considering an acquisition in the U.S. or Europe. This case allows students to consider the broad trends sweeping China's pharmaceutical industry and health care sector and assess future opportunities there for domestic and foreign businesses.

Sitara was a village in India whose local governing body had 15 members headed by the gram-pradhan. In 2011, the gram-pradhan had approved a project for renovation of a large village pond as per the directives of the central government's MNREGA scheme. However, on starting the excavation work at the project site, it was found that the area was extremely marshy. Manual labourers turned up at the site everyday but declined to work in life-threatening conditions. MNREGA prohibited the use of machines except in the case of extraordinary circumstances without exactly defining what such circumstances might be. Thus, the gram-pradhan was forced to pay labour fees for no work. The case is set at this juncture, where a solution must be found. Part A illustrates how the Indian style of management that relies on competencies such as jugaad (creative improvisation), innovation, and resourcefulness leads to talent management and capability-building even at the bottom of the pyramid. Part B brings forth the trade-off between the management practice of jugaad and management through "systematic innovation." Part C sheds light on the public policy approach of examining the whole situation. The case also explores the competencies needed for the effective functioning of social and commercial institutions in the Indian context.

St. Mary Maternity Hospital, a nonprofit organization, had a mission to deliver healthy babies at normal weight and to offer medical care to expectant mothers regardless of their financial situation. This case demonstrates the value of staying focused on achieving a mission statement. To achieve the hospital's mission, it was important to identify factors that could affect the weight and health of babies. This case demonstrates how a few factors related to birth could result in insightful and actionable recommendations for doctors, administrators, and policy makers.

The case describes the phenomenal growth of Facebook, a social networking site launched in 2004, which had reached approximately 1 billion members by 2012. The case provides an overarching picture of the company's growth over the last eight years, from its founding to present day global expansion, covering the competitive landscape, the challenges it has faced along the way (including controversy over its privacy policy), its growth strategy and product development, marketing, and organizational challenges.

Bribery is pervasive in emerging markets, in part because of growth imperatives from headquarters, and companies can rack up millions in fines. CEB authors draw on research involving more than 700,000 employees at multinationals in more than 115 countries to suggest several steps managers can take to keep their employees on the right side of the law.

The authors' research on which types of businesses are most likely to manipulate reviews showed that small, independent hotels are more apt to praise their own properties and trash competitors'. There's not much that managers can do about competitors' suspicious positive reviews, but they can address negative reviews of their own establishment by rebutting suspicious claims.

Companies introducing a brand in China face special naming challenges because of the complexity of Chinese characters and pronunciations. The authors show four different approaches companies can take, favoring sound or meaning similarities, and describe the pros and cons of each.

Feeling strapped for time? Try giving a few hours away by helping someone else. Surprising new research shows that doing so makes people feel that they have more time, not less.

Western corporations seem to be taking for granted the favorable taxation policies they've enjoyed for the past 30 years. But companies that are hoarding cash should keep in mind that those policies could change. Their big reserves may soon prove irresistible to governments that are strapped for funds.

Every country's economy is a mix, but usually one group--producers or consumers--gets favored through tax breaks or subsidies. China and the U.S. stand at opposite extremes. If the U.S. economy is to get stronger, it should emulate Germany, which has a more balanced set of economic policies. Tariffs are high enough to protect German producers from Asian rivals but low enough to prevent them from becoming complacent. Taxes on fossil fuels go to support R&D in value-added manufacturing and clean energy sectors.

As the global economy continues to sputter, new businesses--and the jobs they create--are more important than ever. Here's a visual look at the factors in various countries that affect the entrepreneurial climate.

A small US-based crowdsourcing platform illustrates the entrepreneurial challenges in a new 'industry' - the crowdsourcing industry. The firm's president founded and manages a virtual firm, which he launched even before the term crowdsourcing was coined. He has chosen to focus his firm, initially, on selling labor services to the American real estate market. Now that he has successfully built a network of reliable providers and repeat clients, his dilemma is how to grow his firm.

Healthware, a digital communication agency specializing in healthcare, is based in Salerno Italy. The firm has 72 employees in two countries as well as clients in 14 countries. The case illustrates the location trade-offs of operating - and growing - a global digital company far from the epicenter of Italian business. The theme is universal. Once the firm is far from a nation's epicenter, a dynamism may be absent but the advantages are quite tangible: lower costs and employee stability. This teaching case is based on actual companies, people, and events, though some details have been dramatized or disguised.

In 2005, a successful Peruvian-based software company was seeking to grow by exporting its software products. The case illustrates the entrepreneurial challenges in selling software products from a developing nation that is not on the forefront of the technology world. LOLIMSA has successfully grown its market into several Latin countries outside of Peru. The firm is considering trying to enter the lucrative American market for the second time, but knows that the investment in market entry is substantial.

This case address two major issues of importance to an integrated delivery system ( IDS) in promoting goal congruence: the design of financial responsibility centers and the selection of an appropriate transfer pricing methodology. It helps students to see that, in a truly integrated IDS, treating hospitals (and other providers) as standard expense centers and using two-part transfer prices can help to improve goal congruence.