個案總覽

On April 12, 2013, Corey Rennell, the founder and CEO of CORE Foods (CF), was faced with the decision of whether or not to withdraw $100,000 worth of CORE Meals from distributors and retailers who had purchased product from the last production run. The company's product, CORE Meals, was a meal replacement nutritional bar made from high quality, organic, mainly plant-based ingredients that were minimally processed. Since the products did not use preservatives, CORE Meals lasted only a week without refrigeration, one month when chilled and six months frozen. The company had recently switched to a new type of oats, one of the main ingredients in CORE Meals. However, within weeks, the company received complaints from customers about a spicy cayenne-like after-taste, something that was not evident during the initial product testing. While the after-taste was not a health issue warranting a mandatory product recall, Rennell and his team felt it would be a "disservice to consumers if they sold something that had a different aftertaste from what they were used to." A decision as to whether or not to withdraw may come at a high cost to the brand and/or the bottom line. What were the alternatives? And what action(s) should Rennell and his team take going forward that was both in keeping the company's ethos as well as maintaining its financial viability?

This case is about a for-profit social enterprise in Rwanda named the Rwanda Trading Company (RTC) which purchases coffee beans from coffee growers in the country, roasts the beans and exports them to other coumtries. The company was begun in 2009 by Todd Brogdon who also managed the organization. The primary goals of the company were twofold: (1) Have a positive impact on the poorest of the poor in the country; and (2) To be profitable. RTC has been able to achieve these goals since its founding by working with the Rwandan coffee growers on a multi-year agriculturalo training program. All had gone well until the spring of 2016, when a German company named SRO which owned such coffee companies as Peet's Coffee & Tea and Green Mountain (which was owned by Keurig) decided to change the terms of its contract with RTC. A provision in the contract RTC signed with SRO was that their company would carry 180-day receivables. Brogdon immediately realized that this would lead to a serious cash flow problem that would threaten all of the good work they had been able to perform with the Rwandan coffee growers.

Wayne Williams, the CEO of Telect, Inc. has proposed that he and the company's CFO, Stan Hilbert, spend a month or more riding around the country on their Harley Davidson motorcycles visiting the company's customers in honor of the company's upcoming 30th anniversary in September 2012. Wayne wants to take the ride to personally thank the customers who have helped the company reach this milestone and to showcase the firm's product offerings. He would also like to find out from customers what more Telect could be doing to meet their needs. Stan is concerned that the ride could backfire and be misinterpreted by customers, eroding rather than enhancing customer relationships. He is also concerned that employees will not see the ride as the best use of the company's resources and CEO and CFO's time, and that the company may not want to take on the physical risks of having its executive team travel around the country by motorcycle. The students are put into the shoes of the CFO and must decide whether or not to support the ride. If they support the ride, they need to craft a strong argument for the ride to present to the company's board of directors. If they decide not to support the ride, they need to craft a strong argument that will have a chance of convincing the CEO to change his mind about the ride. The case was written primarily for use in MBA and Executive Education strategy and/or executive leadership courses, but it is also suitable for use in an undergraduate level strategy or leadership course. The case focuses on strategic leadership and the role of the executive team in both shaping corporate culture and in developing and maintaining strong relationships with the organization's stakeholders, and in particular, its customers. There is both a full length (12 pages) and abridged (5 pages) version of this case.

Against the background of a fragmented cable industry Chris Kyle at Shentel is evaluating a renewal offer to carry AMC Networks' programming. The offer includes a significant price increase as well as conditions that require Shentel to carry additional AMC channels. AMC's position is fortified by its ownership of the #1 TV show in the US, The Walking Dead. Shentel is concerned about price escalation and the additional capacity demands on its network, and must make a recommendation on whether or not to accept AMC's offer.

Spreadsheet supplement for NA0481

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.

The case describes the journey of Zola, an online wedding registry designed to greatly improve the clunky and impersonal wedding registry process. With innovative features such as group gifting, scheduled delivery, and honeymoon donations, Zola was described as the registry for Millenials. As the company achieved significant traction and looked to scale, it had to choose from three distinct strategic growth paths to pursue: 1) become the go-to registry site for all major life events; 2) become the online home department store for Millenials; 3) become the premier all things wedding website. As well, the CEO and her team needed to decide whether and how to raise capital in the context of this strategic decision.

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.

Supplement to case IMB639. 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.

In February 2017, a purchasing manager for General Motors Company (GM) needed to come up with a sourcing proposal to source e-boost modules, which were required to support the enhanced 2020 Chevrolet Bolt Electric Vehicle and the new 2020 Chevrolet Bolt Autonomous Vehicle. GM had four possible international suppliers to choose from. Each supplier had its pros and cons in terms of price, product development capability, and the architectural nature of the braking system. GM wanted to be a disrupter to the autonomous vehicle industry. Its top priorities were public safety and defect-free quality. In order to continue to maintain the market leadership position, GM wanted to retain the intellectual property of the e-boost modules. Which supplier would best meet the needs of the company?

In January 2016, the 113-year-old tea brand Brooke Bond Red Label (Red Label), a sub-brand of Hindustan Unilever Limited, created a groundbreaking advertising campaign that launched India's first transgender pop band, 6 Pack Band. The campaign comprised six videos, which reached over 25 million people in a short span of time and won numerous awards. By mid-2016, Red Label's 6 Pack Band was clearly hitting the right notes with its target audience, but questions began to be raised about the future of the campaign. What should Red Label do next? Should it create more content around 6 Pack Band or abandon it altogether? Should it seek out other relevant and thought-provoking social issues for advertising purposes? If so, which issues should it address, and how?

With the quarter ending December 2016 closing on a sour note after a loss of ₹79.7 million, Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Limited found itself reassessing its business expansion strategies. The company's stand-alone net profit in fiscal year 2015-16 was down 35.73 per cent from the previous fiscal year. Its launch of a new range of imported air purifiers in 2015 as part of its expansion plan may have hit an obstacle with the dip in profits. Should the company enter into new segments such as air coolers, water dispensers, and water purifiers to increase its product portfolio and revenue? Considering that competitors were already fighting it out in these segments, would the timing be right? What strategic capabilities could the company leverage, and what were the possible obstacles to success in the new segments?