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In the summer of 2012, the president of the leisure sector of John Keells Hotels needed to discuss marketing strategies with his senior management team. The company was a well-known brand that operated Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts and Chaaya Hotels and Resorts in Sri Lanka and Maldives. Each of the two hotel brands catered to a different set of customers and offered different value propositions. After the terrorist conflict that had plagued Sri Lanka for 26 years had come to a dramatic close in May 2009, an influx of tourists was expected from both Western and Asian countries. The company had a great opportunity to strengthen its two hotel brands and capitalize on the growing global tourism market. Of the two hotel chains, Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts was the portfolio's luxury brand, whereas Chaaya Hotels and Resorts was the economy brand. The senior management team needed to design a brand architecture for the company that would offer a sound business solution and help the company's hotel sector find its rightful place in the global arena.

A group of Canadian parents wanted the Canadian government to create a redress system related to Canada’s no-fly list, which affected some of their young children whenever they flew. The parents formed an advocacy group called the No Fly List Kids group in 2016, and the group undertook various campaigns—including innovative guerrilla marketing campaigns and uses of both digital and traditional marketing—to highlight the issue of Canadian children being identified as potential security risks before they boarded flights within Canada. Over a three-year period, the group worked to raise awareness of the issue and to pressure the Canadian government to create a redress system similar to that in the United States. Its efforts eventually resulted in the allocation in 2018 of CA$81.4 million dollars for a redress system. In November 2018, the group was scheduled to meet members of the Senate, and it had to decide what short-term and long-term activities to undertake to achieve its stated goal of having a functioning redress system that would help all those affected by the no-fly list—not only children of group members, but all people, young and old, from various backgrounds.

In 2018, Volkswagen Group’s newly appointed chief executive officer renewed the company’s commitment to Strategy 2025, an ongoing plan intended to radically transform the German automaker. Volkswagen was being challenged by tectonic changes in the automotive industry, including the phasing out of the long-standing internal combustion engine, ongoing digitization, the entry of new competition from technology companies, the introduction of electric vehicles, and the launch of ride-sharing applications. Strategy 2025 was designed to reshuffle the company’s existing formal and informal structures and restructure the automaker into a nimble, agile, and innovative corporation ready to face the realities of mobility in the digital age. The new chief executive officer faced huge expectations concerning the effectiveness and sustainability of Strategy 2025. Was the automaker doing enough to transform into a competitive mobility company?

On September 30, 2017, the general manager (GM) of Uber Technologies Inc. (Uber) for sub-Saharan Africa, arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, and paid for his Uber service with cash. This functionality of the Uber app represented a new business model for Uber. The GM had to convince global management of the business case for offering cash payment options in Africa; he did so by conducting experiments and showing data that indicated rider numbers had tripled with adoption of the cash payment option. Uber’s driver-partners were concerned about safety when they transported passengers who paid by cash, both because credit card payments offered Uber rider identification and because the driver-partners were concerned about driving around with large amounts of cash. In spite of their concerns, the rationale for introducing a cash payment option was relevant, and it had to be considered carefully in the context of African locations with high crime rates. The GM considered various initiatives for utilizing data from their technology platform to safeguard their riders and drivers. They needed to address local needs in Africa while adhering to global Uber standards.

AWARD-WINNING CASE - African Business Cases Category, 2019 European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition. In 2014, an entrepreneur in Cape Town, South Africa, started SweepSouth with her husband. Their mission was to enable dignified home cleaning work for the most vulnerable blue-collar workers, and they offered several services to empower them. When the company struggled to meet the demand for domestic services over the December holiday period, the founders realized the extent of the market’s need to connect domestic workers with potential clients. Given the entrepreneur’s business acumen and her husband’s skills and experience in software development, they created a digital platform that was often labelled the Uber of domestic services. SweepSouth employed 40 staff members and had 8,000 contractors (referred to as “SweepStars”) on the company’s platform. In 2018, the two founders wanted to scale up the business for greater social impact and had to choose among expanding the business to other African countries, expanding the service offering to office spaces, or remaining focused on serving the home and adding new services such as gardening and plumbing.

Presentation to accompany product 8B19C010.

Presentation to accompany product 8B19M019.

In 2016, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Feihe International Inc. (Feihe), the manufacturer of a leading infant formula brand in China, was considering whether his company should enter Canada. Although the company would be challenged by the Canadian dairy industry’s unique supply management system, Canada was eager to attract foreign investment and the CEO needed to overcome the intense domestic competition in China’s infant formula market. The CEO needed to decide on an integrated strategy to enter Canada. Should he pursue a greenfield strategy, an acquisition, or a joint venture?

As the Age of Disruption heats up, corporate boards can expect to face ever-increasing pressure to become more strategic. The problem remains that boards have neither a template nor a common vocabulary for assessing a proposed transformation strategy. The authors’ research—based on a four-year study of 62 corporate transformations—provides boards with a tool to diagnose gaps or misalignments in strategy. The authors identified a three-layered architecture that characterizes winning transformation efforts, consisting of two imperatives and a choice. Using a sandwich as a metaphor, the choice is like the sandwich filling that provides the special flavour or focus of the transformation effort. The two imperatives are the outer layers of the sandwich. The first imperative states that the pursuit of value is the trigger for any transformation, while the second imperative states that the pursuit of leadership development is what makes the change stick. The choice dictates that the compelling journey is at the heart of any corporate transformation. Ongoing transformation efforts are either derivatives or combinations of quests for the following five qualities: global presence, customer focus, nimbleness, co-innovation, and sustainability. Board members can verify that the executive team has properly debated its priorities by asking three questions: 1) Which of the five themes are you pursuing? 2) Can you explain what drives value? 3) How are you retooling people to support the transformation?

Although evolutionary notions about business often lack direct grounding in Darwin’s work, evolutionary theory can still help us understand how organizations, institutions, and markets change. Unfortunately, when used to illuminate business strategy, many evolutionary concepts are misapplied. This paper strives to address the garbled strategic advice created by misinterpretations of evolutionary theory, which have led to incorrect assessments of markets and market participants. We examine three widely held beliefs that are based on misapplications of evolutionary theory: 1) profit-maximization strategies inevitably lead to the best outcomes, 2) business is survival of the fittest, and 3) specialization makes you stronger. Applying four standard games (Prisoners’ Dilemma, Chicken, Battle of the Sexes, and the Stag Hunt) to the business world, we created models of competition to track interactions between market entities and demonstrate why many business ideas are based on garbled interpretations of the evolutionary concepts of selection, frequency dependence, and adaptation. The key takeaways from our research are: 1) selection on outcomes does not dictate that aiming for profit maximization will always lead to the best outcomes, 2) frequency dependence means there can be no unidimensional fitness to aspire towards, and 3) it is not survival of the fittest, but best fitted for any particular contest. Simply put, adaptation (both proactive and reactive), not specialization, is the key to success. Recognizing this requires a fundamental shift, inverting the normal strategy sequence by suggesting firms change themselves, rather than seeking to change their world.

As bank executives for over 30 years, Kevin Clark and Troy Wright witnessed countless opportunities to support small businesses being missed. That is what attracted them to the fintech revolution now transforming banking and financial services around the world. In this Ivey Business Journal interview, Ivey Professor Michael King sat down with Clark to discuss his transformation from old-school banker to fintech entrepreneur, not to mention his company’s evolution from industry disruptor to industry partner. Clark considers his firm, Lendified, to be a lending technology company that is taking the pain points out of borrowing for small businesses. Lendified provides a frictionless customer experience through the online application process, the speed of making decisions, and rapid access to capital. Lendified, he says, has effectively built two operating companies, but it did not start that way. Clark and Wright thought they were creating a highly effective lending business, but the credit technology turned out to be a successful software-as-a-service (SaaS) business unto itself. Furthermore, they thought their product would be sold on the basis of its efficiency, and yet what has sold the software is the customer experience.

Canada’s SNC-Lavalin affair has been compared to the U.S. Nixon Administration’s Watergate scandal, but the comparison is misguided. This article seeks to separate fact from misinformation in order to enable more constructive public discourse about the scandal. The second goal is to make the case for embracing negotiated settlements as a legitimate corruption-fighting tool based on the author’s experience as a financial-sector whistleblower during the dotcom era (which led to a long career as an investigative journalist covering white-collar crime). Finally, this article identifies key takeaways for managers and directors who are expected to drive growth and profit without breaking the law. In the SNC-Lavalin affair, an opportunity to improve how Canada fights corporate corruption appears to have been lost in the commotion. When fighting corruption, it is important to remember that organizations like SNC-Lavalin can also be victims, and that corporations do not decide to be corrupt—people do. Many corporate boards still rely heavily on senior management to report cultural issues, which is ridiculous, and not just because unethical executives rarely rat themselves out. It is time for more boards to proactively investigate the health of the corporate cultures they govern and doing this requires direct contact with lower-level employees, especially ones in specialist functions such as internal audit, compliance, and risk management.

In December 2015, the new government in Argentina lifted capital controls, leading to a sudden drop in the value of the Argentine peso. This depreciation of the peso had the potential to significantly affect companies that exported goods to Argentina. One such company was Bajaj Auto Limited (Bajaj Auto), an Indian exporter of motorcycles to Argentina. On December 18, 2015, Bajaj Auto’s shares dropped 2.43 per cent and lost over US$212 million in market capitalization. The market was reacting to concerns that exports from the world’s fourth-largest manufacturer of two-wheelers, Bajaj Auto, might be hurt in Argentina, where it was the market leader with over 30 per cent of the market share.<br>Following the 30 per cent decline of the peso on December 16, 2015, there was uncertainty about the future of the currency. What caused Argentina to lift currency controls and float the peso? Why had the Argentine peso depreciated so sharply, and what was its future course? Moreover, how would this affect Bajaj Auto and how could it handle such a crisis?

In 2014, Song Weiping, the founder, chair, and major shareholder of the high-end residential property developer Greentown China Holdings Limited (Greentown), based in Hangzhou, China, had started to consider decreasing his involvement in his company. Without any family to provide an obvious successor, Song had to evaluate different ways to leave the business he founded. The alternatives ranged from selling all or part of his holdings to keeping his shares but having someone else manage the company. If he chose to resign his position as chair and remain as a financial investor, he would have to find a suitable successor to act as chief executive officer. If he chose to sell his interest in the company, what criteria should he use to determine the best buyer or buyers? How much should he sell, and how could he determine a fair price?

In late September 2017, the country manager of Garrard Japan was reviewing an interim strategy to deal with emerging, negative views on the ongoing globalization of industry and commerce. Garrard Japan was a wholly owned subsidiary of Garrard S.A., a leading packaged foods company. The European-based multinational enterprise had been a major contributor to globalizing trade and commerce, and the survey results had highlighted a Japanese view that global companies were concerned more with profits than with meeting the needs of local communities. The country manager wondered whether the strategy developed by his team to change these perceptions was adequate. He was also considering how to execute the strategy and who should pay for it: Garrard Japan or Garrard S.A.?

Case A describes a leadership crisis affecting the managing director of the German construction company SÄBU Holzbau GmbH. In 2013, severe organizational problems, such as deficiencies in internal communication, indecisiveness, and a lack of clarity in the distribution of tasks and responsibilities, led to frustrations for both customers and employees. The crisis culminated with three key employees leaving the company because they were no longer willing to cope with what they described as “chaos.”

Case B describes how management at SÄBU Holzbau GmbH was able to overcome the crisis with the help of a team of consultants who supported the company through a change process that significantly altered the its culture.

At the end of 2017, the human resources director at Yuanbo Education Group, a fast-growing educational service enterprise located in Shanghai, China, was struggling to calm down the managers, who were complaining about their salaries. Managers of the established business units were paid a relatively lower base salary but often with a sizable bonus tied to a revenue target. In contrast, the new hires for the recently established business units were paid a much higher base pay but with little or no bonus available. Both veteran and new managers were dissatisfied with their pay structure. The human resources director knew that he needed to take action soon. But what should he do and where should he start?

AWARD-WINNING CASE - Continuous Improvement: the Journey to Excellence Category, 2019 European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition. In 2016, the supply chain manager at Northwestern Memorial Hospital recognized that many problems occurring throughout the hospital originated at the hospital receiving area. Some problems had reached epic proportions: overstocking at par locations, stocking at temporary locations, misplaced items, expired items, and inaccurate inventory records. Most of the problems could be traced to the receiving area’s procedures and average three-day dock-to-stock lead time. A value-stream mapping kaizen event revealed that a big contributor to the long lead time was the receiving area’s reliance on batch-oriented processing. The supply chain manager recognized the severity of the situation and urgent need to do something to improve operations in the receiving area and shorten the lead time from package arrival to final delivery. He felt that reducing the lead time from three days to one day would reduce or eliminate many of the problems, and it seemed a reachable goal. The supply chain manager intended to approach this challenge using the lean production practices he had successfully employed elsewhere.

Student Spreadsheet for product 9B17C016.