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Student Spreadsheet for product 9B18N021.

Supplement for product 9B18B013.

Spreadsheet to accompany product 9B18N023.

In December 2017, the managing director of Nipponply Distributors Private Limited (Nipponply) planned to expand his firm geographically. Nipponply provided plywood products to household consumers, architects, interior designers, and original equipment manufacturers. The company already operated in Gujarat, India, but the managing director had found an opportunity to expand into the western Indian states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, where there were large volume requirements in housing, corporate, and industrial projects. The managing director completed a market survey to determine cost- and market-related information. On the basis of his initial analysis, he decided to start an expansion project, but he first wanted to ascertain its feasibility using a cost–volume–profit analysis.

Naked Retreats, a hotel management company that adhered to a localized brand positioning strategy, made its debut in the Chinese hotel market in 2007. To allow customers to experience the restorative effects of closeness to nature, it launched Naked Stables, the first resort in China to have obtained a Leadership in Environmental Energy Design (LEED) Platinum certification. The founder of Naked Retreats, Grant Horsfield, was a South African who felt deeply connected to nature. Horsfield subsequently launched a series of explorative projects related to holistic living, including catering, education, and a co-working space. While the brand had success in some areas of its brand extension, it experienced failures in others. In 2018, Naked Retreats must decide whether to continue its horizontal extension or to focus on its most successful projects.

Several psychological theories can help explain organizational behaviour, but many students are not exposed to the benefits that these types of concepts can provide. This note discusses a brief overview of some of the most relevant theories, which may help employees and leaders to better understand organizational behaviour.

A common assumption is that if we just put good people together, they will automatically develop into a strong team. Conversely, we assume that if we put a lot of low-performing people together, they will perform poorly. However, research tells us that it is not that simple. Teams are different from the sum of their parts, and they develop as they go. Scholars have been able to develop a well-accepted model that can help managers and employees build team effectiveness in the workplace: the input-mediator-outcome (IMO) team effectiveness framework. This note provides an overview of the well-supported IMO model of team effectiveness.

An analyst at Vaux Gibson Inc., a fund that managed a portfolio of North American equities, was tasked with reviewing the fund’s holdings of Under Armour Inc. (Under Armour) and providing recommendations for the fund’s prospective investment strategy with the company. Under Armour had experienced significant revenues and bottom-line growth over the past three years, but this growth slowed significantly in 2017 and the company reported a net loss, resulting in the significant depreciation of its stock price. The analyst wondered if it was time to exit the investment, providing investors with an above-market return, or if there was still room for Under Armour to recover and grow.

Spreadsheet to accompany product 9B18N022.

In 2016, the managing director of innogy Consulting GmbH (iCon), an international strategic consulting firm based in Germany, had many reasons to be delighted. The company had risen to second place in an annual ranking of internal consultancies after successfully expanding into four new countries. He now pondered new challenges and directions for iCon, after having led RWE Consulting—the predecessor to iCon—since 2007. As an internal consulting department within the RWE Group (RWE) in Germany, the consulting unit mainly conducted information technology implementation and project management within RWE. Although the managing director had led the consultancy unit into new geographic markets and toward new external clients, iCon faced many challenges, including tough competition in the external management-consultancy market. How could iCon take steps to compete away from home?

In June 2015, a new president and chief executive officer, Sandip Lalli, was hired by the board of directors of Keystone Excavating Limited (Keystone) to turn the company around and increase its value. In its 35 years of operations, Keystone had failed to articulate a purpose, and for the past five years it had been in double-digit decline. The economic downturn in Alberta from 2014 to 2016 had made the situation dire, and by September 2016 Lalli was going to recommend closing the company. But how should she do this? How should she tell the shareholders of this family-owned business that things were unlikely to improve and that there would be another challenge ahead? How could Keystone cease operations while retaining its legacy?

In August 2017, the Canadian country leader of Red Hat Inc., an open source software company, was reviewing the progress made by the Canadian subsidiary of the American multinational in bridging the gender gap. The subsidiary had met its target of increasing the ratio of women in its sales team from 5 per cent in August 2014 to 40 per cent in July 2017. The country leader was examining ways to leverage the takeaways from the four-year experience in reducing the gender gap in an effort to not only sustain the momentum but also go beyond gender parity.

This case series, set in June 2018, follows a student in a master's degree program in Environment and Sustainability who was invited to lead a waste audit for Innovation Works London, a non-profit organization. Case (A) introduces Innovation Works London and its need for the audits. Case (B) refers to an unforeseen event that arose just a few hours before the actual audit—the bulk of organic waste collected for the audit had been unintentionally picked up by the third-party waste hauler. In Case (C), the waste audit team considers the results of the waste audit. The team has to calculate the waste diversion rate and prepare its recommendations for improvement.

Case (B) follows Case (A), product 9B18D024, in the case series. Case (B) refers to an unforeseen event that arose just a few hours before the actual audit.

Case (C) follows Case (B), product 9B18D025, in the case series. In Case (C), the waste audit team considers the results of the waste audit.

In March 2018, Cricket Australia (formerly the Australian Cricket Board) banned the Australian cricket captain from the sport for a year due to his involvement in a premeditated attempt at ball tampering in a test match against South Africa. He was also banned from any leadership positions in the sport for at least a year thereafter and faced financial losses on account of these bans. Australian fans and political leaders were outraged at the ball-tampering scandal and the captain's involvement. Other cricketers felt that the penalties were severe and disproportionate. What led the captain to engage in “premeditated” foul play? Could he have played the game differently? Will he be able to lead the Australian cricket team again?

Jugnoo started its journey in 2014 as an autorickshaw aggregator providing ride-hailing services in India. Since then, the brand had grown and expanded to include hyperlocal services and business solutions. By May 2018, Jugnoo had five services under its umbrella that were offered primarily through applications and covered both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets. Jugnoo found itself in a very different market space from where it had started. A company co-founder wondered how Jugnoo would continue to sustain its strategy of disrupting traditional markets, given the fast-paced growth it was experiencing. How would it manage to build consumers' trust with such diverse business verticals and so much reliance on technology? With the company's growing numbers and opportunities, the co-founder wondered whether Jugnoo's use of word-of-mouth communication would continue to be possible, especially considering the aggressive communication tactics adopted by other players in the market.

In January 2018, the Philippine cement industry changed forever with the entry of the 100-per-cent Filipino-owned cement manufacturing company Big Boss Cement Inc. (BBCI). When the company decided to set up shop with a cheaper, eco-friendly manufacturing process that promised less carbon emission, competition became fierce. BBCI planned to expand its capacity to take advantage of a growth in both infrastructure projects and local demand for cement, but it had to analyze the macro-environmental and competitive forces relevant in the context of its entry in the cement industry. It had to ascertain whether it could differentiate its product based solely on ecological appeal. BBCI also had to ensure that its environmentally-friendly brand promise would work, and anticipate potential obstacles to its success and determine how to counter these hurdles.

The University Club at the University of Regina was in financial distress. The club had been losing money for several years and was being subsidized by the University of Regina. However, due to budget cuts by the Saskatchewan government, the university was no longer in a position to subsidize the operations of the club. The board of the club had to make some tough decisions at this time. Could the club exist without university subsidy? Should the board increase membership fees, increase the number of members, or simply close the club? To make an informed decision they needed to perform a detailed analysis of the financial statements. An accounting professor, who had recently joined the club’s board, suggested performing ratio analysis to assess the problem areas.

As the world continues its digital evolution, more aspects of our lives are dependent on data and digital devices. This shift has required technology manufacturers to emphasize encryption and robust security in their evolving designs. While this pursuit of security is necessary to keep users' critical personal information safe, criminals and terrorist organizations are using these same security technologies to make it difficult or even impossible for authorities to access that data. Law enforcement agencies claim that they need the technical ability to lawfully access digital data, while many technology and privacy advocates hold that authorities should never, under any circumstances, force companies to weaken or circumvent security.<br><br>The conflict between privacy and security is examined in this case, starting with the 2016 legal challenge when, after a mass shooting, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation sought a court order directing Apple, Inc. to create software that would unlock the suspect's iPhone. Although that legal challenge was dismissed, the issues remain live and pressing.