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The inventory manager of sales and distribution for Toffee Inc., a confectionery company, had just concluded a meeting with all relevant personnel. The meeting had not been entirely positive. The words of the production manager still echoed in his ears: "If the ingredient inventory is not re-examined and reworked to the firm's advantage then [soon] the final products based on these ingredients will cease to yield the kind of profits that the firm expects." The inventory manager needed to prepare a comprehensive forecasting and inventory management plan with a view to minimize the cost of managing the supply chain by judicious use of resources, better forecasting, and improvement in the ingredient inventory purchasing and management systems.

In December 2012, the senior management team of Whole Foods Market Inc. was contemplating the company's options for international expansion, including further expansion in Canada. The company, headquartered in Austin, Texas, was a natural and organic foods supermarket that had become known and trademarked as "America's Healthiest Grocery Store." It had seen steep growth since its inception in 1977 and had an appetite for more. Ten years ago, its first Canadian store was opened in Toronto, followed by three more stores in Ontario and four in British Columbia. Was it time to expand deeper now and, if yes, into which provinces? It would be interesting to expand into Quebec with a store location in Montreal, but that province had a strong union presence, which was inconsistent with the company's culture. Also unclear was which management team should be running an extensive Canadian operation. Should the current U.S. team facilitate the expansion, or should a Canadian management team be developed? A systematic approach to assessing the options was needed.

The equity analyst for a large investment bank is in the process of evaluating a potential takeover of Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada's largest drugstore retailer, by Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada's largest grocery retailer. Rumours of the takeover have been circulating for some time, and the analyst wants to provide her buy-side clients with both her comments on the proposed transaction and her assessment of a reasonable offering price.

By 2013, Victoria's Secret, one of the most successful intimate apparel companies in the world, controls 35 per cent of the global lingerie market from its headquarters in California. However, the company's gross profits are beginning to decline because of higher buying and occupancy expenses and higher promotional costs. This slide in profitability, if left unchecked, has the potential to destroy the share price and brand equity of this eponymous brand. What can be done to reverse these financial trends?

On July 12, 1971, Sport Participation Canada, a not-for-profit company, was established by the Canadian government to encourage Canadians to increase their physical activity levels to fight the "obesity epidemic" that was causing health care costs to soar. One year later, the company was nationalized and renamed ParticipACTION. To spread its message, it relied on humourous ads, especially on TV, to encourage adults and children to exercise more. Despite considerable public support, the organization did not have enough capital to continue its operations without increased government funding and was forced to close in January 2001. The resulting uproar led the government to change its mind, and ParticipACTION was revived in 2007. However, its success with nationwide programs such as Sports Day in Canada and Bring Back Play was not enough to save it from further cuts in 2014. Would turning to social media outlets help to re-energize its campaign to encourage Canadians to adopt a healthier lifestyle? Could the organization attract enough donations from the public and private institutions to make up for the shortfall in government funds? These were the dilemmas facing its board in 2015.

"Intel's Mobile Strategy in 2015 and Beyond" examines the company's 2014 - 2015 strategy to become a more important mobile player. In early 2015, the semiconductor giant had virtually no presence in the smartphone market, and had only recently gained a real presence in the tablet market. Getting into the mobile market was strategically vital for Intel as the notebook market had been shrinking due to cannibalization from tablets. Flattening demand for notebook processors also meant that production volume in Intel's multi-billion fabrication plants was flattening as well. Intel's mobile efforts had led to losses of $5 billion by the first quarter of 2015. Most phones and tablets ran on a competing architecture designed and licensed by ARM Holdings, and Intel competitors Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung and MediaTek made most of the processors for mobile devices. Intel's efforts to gain market share included compensating its manufacturing customers for the cost of using Intel's more expensive chips. Its goal was to supply chips for 40 million tablets by the end of 2014 (which it exceeded). Intel was also engaging in new partnerships and investment tactics in China to sell Intel-branded chips for the low end of the tablet market. In pursuing the mobile market, Intel had encountered technology challenges and delays, as well as an internal resistance to selling the lower-priced, lower-margin mobile processors, despite having data showing customers' increasing desire for mobile products. Intel had very little time to establish a relevant presence in the mobile market, and the question was whether implementing these new strategies would be enough.

The Executive Director (ED) of a not-for-profit that provided family-centered services to children with disabilities was concerned about the organization's sustainability. The organization was heavily dependent upon financial support from government, however, this funding was insufficient to cover all operating expenses and address the growing demand for services. The ED was interested in developing long-term strategic partnerships to build awareness and generate greater financial support for the organization while remaining true to the organization's mission. She needed to assess current partnerships and determine where to best direct her efforts regarding new partnerships. She also wanted plan that was realistic given the organization's limited people resources.

Board members of a youth camp affiliated with the United Church of Canada were contemplating how to improve the competitive positioning of the camp. The organization recently received a relatively large donation and the Board Chair viewed it as an opportunity to revisit the organization's direction and positioning relative to other camps in the area. The organization faced competition from a number of faith based and non-faith based camps, most of which offered more diverse programming or were positioned with a stronger Christian message. The Board needed to determine how to improve the organization's competitive position without jeopardizing its Christian roots and core mission. It also had to decide how the donated money could support this, whether through a new building or other means.

Founded in 1994, Motor Trike, Inc. produced kits that transformed a motorcycle into a three-wheeled vehicle or trike, providing increased safety and comfort for the riders. Trikes became increasingly more popular as the baby boomer generation aged. Jacquelyn Moore, marketing director at Motor Trike, faced decisions of whether to start an owners' group or brand community for the company and then, if so, how to start the group. Jacquelyn had marketing survey data available to help guide the decision making process, but the data needed to be properly analyzed and presented to the owners of the company.

The CEO of a health care-based REIT is considering alternative nursing home investment strategies. Students must consider macro-industry trends, scale and scope issues and consumer segmentation data in making their recommendations.

In November 2013, the senior manager of Human Resources at Attock Refinery Limited, headquartered in Morgah Rawalpindi, Pakistan, is considering whether to amend the current performance appraisal system to bring it in line with the goal of creating a performance-oriented culture in the company, which refines 70 per cent of the country's crude oil. Significant changes had been made over the last 14 years, but the current performance management system is still not distinguishing between different categories of performers, and employees continue to complain that everyone gets more or less the same ratings and pay increments regardless of the amount or quality of the work they do. Should the weights for objective setting and competencies in the appraisal forms be adjusted? Should competencies be better defined and training sessions held on how to objectively evaluate them? Should there be more direction at all levels in setting specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely objectives? Considering the views of employees and managers in all departments, he must decide what, if any, changes should be made to promote the desired company culture.

They were part of leading a high-profile global consortium aimed at, in the words of Rwandan Minister of Health Agnes Binagwaho, creating "a critical mass of health professionals" and transforming Rwanda's health care system. HRH paired United States faculty from more than 20 institutions-including Dartmouth, University of Virginia, Duke, and Yeshiva-with Rwandan college faculty counterparts. A discipline-specific "twinning model" sought to provide a two-way learning experience that would help support and develop a sustainable health care system in Rwanda. The HRH Program held not only great promise for the country of Rwanda, but it also held personal promise for Dr. Ntakiyiruta's day-to-day life and work. Since joining the University of Rwanda in 2008, where Dr. Ntakiyiruta taught undergraduate as well as post-graduate courses in addition to maintaining a full clinical schedule at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK), there had never been more than four permanent university-employed faculty in the Department of Surgery. If the HRH program achieved its ambitious human resource growth targets, it was reasonable to conclude that the professional lives of devoted physicians like Dr. Ntakiyiruta would witness desired improvements with the opportunity to serve more patients and to educate the next generation of surgeons in Rwanda. It would also provide more time for published research and academic inquiry. When the HRH program was launched a little more than two years earlier, news of the Rwandan effort was accompanied by great fanfare. "This is the boldest effort I've seen to make good on a central promise of global health," said Dr. Paul Farmer, the Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University and Chair of the Harvard Medical School Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. "The fruits of science serve everyone, especially those that bear the highest burden of disease," he also noted.

Analyzes the results of the Thomas Cook turnaround plan after the first year under Harriet Green's leadership (November 2013).

Analyzes the results of the Thomas Cook turnaround plan after the second year under Harriet Green's leadership (November 2014).

This case is set in November 2011. 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.

In November 2009, a year after the U.S. economy began sliding into a deep recession, Joan Uhl Browne, the CEO of Lott Industries, faced a looming crisis. As financial losses mounted, would she be able to save the company she had led for two and a half years? Lott was a non-profit organization in Toledo, Ohio, that employed over 1200 adults with developmental disabilities when Browne took over in April 2007. The case traces Browne's steps as she tried to replace the loss of over 85 percent of the organization's revenues, build a management team and create new, innovative products. As Browne and her management team pursued a business model of diversification and business growth, they viewed the Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities, which hired the Lott staff and controlled Lott's financial resources, as an obstacle to implementing changes. The critical decision was which strategy was most likely to be successful in assuring the survival of Lott Industries: to keep doing what Lott had traditionally done, finding contracts geared to their current employee-consumers' skill levels as well as innovating, or to focus on securing long-term, higher margin contracts that require the flexibility to hire employees who do not have developmental disabilities, but who can do the jobs. The all-out effort to save Lott Industries through 2009 included restructuring the organization, searching for any and all kinds of contracts, and developing in-house innovations, including green cleaning products and gourmet dog treats. Browne pushed ahead, but she found that the crucial support from her most important stakeholder, the Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities, was weakening. As the frustrations of managing the changes necessary for survival in an increasingly poor economy accumulated, the case begins and ends with the CEO contemplating the next steps she needs to take, and the likelihood they will be successful.

As chair of the accounting department at Southern Regional University (SRU), Professor David Evans recently hired a seemingly promising young assistant professor of accounting. Evans has now received some very disturbing information regarding this faculty member. The information was that this new hire does not possess the academic nor professional credentials he claimed. As a result, Evans was in a near panic as to what action he should recommend. He contemplated his options, which were: denounce this fraud and fire him immediately; quietly terminate him and make a vague announcement about his unexpected departure; or allow this individual to finish the term and not renew his contract. Evans weighed the reaction of the university community, the public, and the results for himself. In case B in the Instructor's Manual the recommendation Evans made to the academic vice president was accepted and acted upon. This decision in turn had second order consequences for organizations outside of SRU. In case C there were third order consequences of a serious and personal nature for another member of the accounting department.

American Solar was a small Virginia start up, providing firms with solar thermal energy though new roofing installations. The firm's owners, John Archibald and Kathryn McGeehan, wanted to sell their solar thermal roofing as cost effective systems, not dependent on tax credits to make them economical as was the case with solar photovoltaic electric (PV electric) generation. Kathryn and John competed for a small niche in an already niche market and were working to prove that their system could stand alone as an energy efficient, cost effective heating system. They were battling the high upfront cost of a solar roof and working to sell the long term energy efficiency that solar thermal roofs provided. Kathryn and John knew that a hotel chain-Hannover Inns-was going out asking for bids from roofing companies to replace their roofs. If they could land this contract, it would be their largest commercial contract to date. They wanted to prepare a quote for replacing the roofs along with a presentation, based on cost savings, that could help take their firm to a higher sales level.

Matt Decker, the former president of Malkinson Printing Company, a family-owned private printing company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, needed to decide whether to return to the company after quitting more than two years earlier. Matt had been one of the three family members in the fourth generation of Malkinson Printing ownership, along with Brad Malkinson and Ron Malkinson. Matt's exit from Malkinson Printing came during a period when the business had begun to struggle for the first time in its history. The company had always been a successful one, growing with each of its previous generations of ownership, but the printing industry had changed dramatically by the beginning of the twenty-first century. The advent of computer graphics and desktop publishing placed companies like Malkinson at a competitive disadvantage and its owners faced the challenge of sustaining its market. The dynamics of the technological changes that were taking place dovetailed with a fracturing of the family dynamics at Malkinson Printing. Whereas their predecessors had generally agreed on company strategy, the three members of the fourth generation of Malkinson ownership did not get along. Matt had walked out when Brad secretly sold his stake in the business, which left Ron with a 75 percent share of the ownership. Matt was working as a salesman for another printing firm in October 2003 when Ron asked if he would come back. Matt had been critical to the success of Malkinson Printing Company, and Ron said he needed him to help save the business. This case is suitable for courses in family business management or for courses in small business management where family business issues are addressed. It can be especially useful as an introductory case or a second case on family business.