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Although Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) was the leader in passenger vehicle sales in India in May 2015, it was having difficulties breaking into the high-end car segment. There were multiple strategies that MSIL could have used to deal with this problem, such as; changing its brand image from small automaker to high-end automaker; staying in the small car market; penetrating the market further by introducing new models and their variants in the same segment; or striking a balance between both of the other suggestions (i.e., a mixed strategy). <br><br>A sudden change in MSIL's image could harm the company's existing share of the small car segment. At the same time, remaining firmly in the small car market could be detrimental for MSIL's market leader position in the years following, as the small-car-dominated market was gradually moving towards segments such as mid-size and executive cars in India. Which strategy (or combination of strategies) should the company pursue?

Instructor Spreadsheet for product 8B17N023.

Student Spreadsheet for product 9B17N023.

For 30 years, Mazda Motor Corporation (Mazda) partnered with Ford Motor Company (Ford), helping Ford in small-car engineering and lean manufacturing in exchange for finance and marketing know-how; however, this alliance was terminated due to the global financial crisis in 2008. In 2015, Mazda entered into another long-term partnership to share technologies and cope with cost pressures—this time with Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota). According to its 2016 Structural Reform Plan, Mazda aimed to achieve a global sales volume of 1.65 million units, an operating income ratio of at least 7 per cent, an equity ratio of at least 45 per cent, and a dividend payout ratio of at least 20 per cent by 2019. Given the highly competitive domestic and global automotive markets, to what extent could the partnership with Toyota and the Structural Reform Plan allow Mazda to achieve these goals? Would Mazda need to make any changes to its competitive strategies to keep the company driving forward?

In September 2016, the leadership team at KritiKal Solutions Private Limited, a software product research and development company in Noida, India, was facing several challenges. The company provided product design and development services in computer vision and image processing, embedded systems, and the Internet of things, as well as web, software, and mobile applications. It was highly regarded by its clients and employees for its research orientation and technical competence. However, the leadership team was struggling with options for strategic growth and product mix. How much time and effort should go into services and how much into new product development? What kind of structure and funding would work for the company as it expanded? The chief executive officer needed answers to these questions in order to make the leap to high growth.

In 2015, the Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship (CSE), the largest business incubator in Denmark, was admitting 100–125 new start-ups each year and attracting external funding of US$33 million from both public and private sources—all with an annual budget of US$435,000, funded exclusively by the Copenhagen Business School. Like most business incubators, CSE worked to provide entrepreneurs with training, mentorship, and investors, and to enhance their visibility in the market. It required all admitted start-ups to participate in a screening/selection tool and a set of incubation activities over three specific stages. The school measured success in terms of the number of incubator participants who had both a business customer and a sustainable business model at the end of a nine-month incubation period. In 2015, CSE's success rate was 53 per cent. At this point, CSE's leaders recognized a need to question how they measured the benefits of the program. How should the 53 per cent success rate be compared to the Copenhagen Business School's investment? What changes could the CSE leadership make to create more value for Danish society?

Dilli Haat started in 1994 with the objective of providing infrastructure to craftspeople from across India to sell their traditional crafts in an urban marketplace and prevent their exploitation by intermediaries. The marketplace, set up in the heart of Delhi, the capital of India, was a one-stop shop for visitors seeking authentic India handicrafts and handloomed products. Dilli Haat provided a unique shopping experience in a well-laid-out area, where shopping was combined with cultural extravaganzas and food courts offering cuisine from all the states of India. It became a sought-after destination not only for shopping but also as a meeting place, where families and friends could spend time together. After rising to its glory, Dilli Haat witnessed a decrease in visits and was losing its spirit. In January 2016, the manager was faced with the challenge of restoring Dilli Haat to its former glory.

In late 2016, the entrepreneurial founder of Mental and Natural Company, a digital multimedia company in China, wanted to have ready access to China’s best multimedia talent and expertise, but without burdening the company with an excessive number of employees. The entrepreneur and his team were developing a cloud-based multimedia crowdsourcing and collaboration platform, which would allow the company to quickly and easily crowdsource the needed freelance talent from around China. Yet, even before the platform was fully up and running, a new growth opportunity presented three possible options for the company to pursue. The entrepreneur and his team had just three weeks to decide on which option best fit the company’s existing business model, made best use of its resources, and was the best choice to secure the company’s future.

In March 2017, Airbnb needed to make some important decisions regarding its strategy for the Airbnb Business Travel Vertical (ABTV) in Asia. Despite a short history of less than three years since the formal announcement of its launch, the ABTV had exhibited promising performance. The business travel market offered many attractive characteristics, including its large size. Despite the attractiveness of the business travel segment, two issues related to the choice of countries and the choice of segments were of concern. Another key issue related to identifying the specific corporate clients to approach—whether to leverage existing relationships with multinational customers or to approach Asian corporate clients directly.

In 2013, L’Oréal SA had become the largest cosmetics manufacturer in the world by understanding different markets and offering products to those consumers that met needs they may not have realized they even had. In India, L’Oréal spent more than 20 years studying its target consumers and developing products to cater to their specific needs. However, developing localized products was not the only criterion for success in a new market. L’Oréal needed to also localize every aspect of its operations, from research and development to marketing and outreach. As well, the company needed to deal with intensifying competition as global and local players challenged L’Oréal’s efforts to penetrate and dominate the hair-care, skincare, makeup, and professional hair-care segments in the value-conscious and largely unorganized but fast-growing beauty market in India. What localization and market development strategies should L'Oréal implement?

In early summer 2012, Brookfield Residential Properties Inc. (Brookfield), a Calgary-based residential property developer with holdings throughout North America, had an opportunity to develop a vacant site in the inner-city community of Scarboro, in the southwest quadrant of Calgary. Brookfield did not own the site but was working with the landowner to request that the city of Calgary rezone the site from single family to Direct Control to allow a proposed 52-unit project. Brookfield’s proposed housing development project was planned by following the policies set out in Calgary’s Municipal Development Plan. The plan was focused on the densification of Calgary’s population, particularly in the inner city and along established public transportation routes. The question was, how could Brookfield proceed to get buy-in for its project from Scarboro and the surrounding communities?

In 2016, Bossard AG was a leading wholesaler and supply chain service provider for fasteners. Its business model aimed to improve the efficiency of clients’ manufacturing operations by applying Industry 4.0 technologies to integrate the delivery of the highest quality screws, nuts, and bolts with logistics solutions for supply chains, and technical solutions for product designs using fasteners. Bossard’s key selling point was its ability to enhance its clients’ consumable parts management, thus reducing their total costs of ownership. Bossard had been successful in Europe, but found the Chinese market difficult to penetrate. The company was looking for better ways to deliver value to Chinese industrial customers.

In February 2016, the owner of a wool and yarn products retail business in the Enterprise Arcade, a not-for-profit retail business incubator in Stockton-on-Tees, United Kingdom, needed to meet with the manager of the arcade. Based in a central and prominent position in a struggling Northeast England town, the Enterprise Arcade was opened by the local council as a part of a large renovation project. It was intended to regenerate the area and support enterprise and employment by providing small, indoor, market-sized retail spaces for self-employed retail start-ups to test their markets. After 14 months with the incubator, the owner of the wool and yarn business was expected to be ready to move out, but her business models were still unproven, and she wanted to stay longer. The manager had to balance the overall success of the Enterprise Arcade with the turnover and successful graduations of the businesses therein. How should the business owner organize her priorities and prepare to negotiate with the manager? What should the manager advise her to do?

The president of the Engineering and Research and Development Services (ERS) division at HCL Technologies Ltd. (HCL) congratulated the Boeing Company (Boeing) on the maiden flight of its 787 Dreamliner jet airliner on December 15, 2009. Out of the many companies working on the 787 Dreamliner project, HCL was the only Indian information technology services firm to be selected for the project. As part of the project, HCL worked closely with Boeing, and some of Boeing’s tier-one suppliers, in developing various onboard mission-critical software systems, such as the electrical power generation and distribution system and the pilot controls. The multi-million dollar deal had important implications for HCL and its future in the US$644.3 billion aerospace and defence industry. HCL ERS had to make a crucial strategic choice: should the division continue to offer great value to its customers by helping them optimize costs and improve delivery time, or should it move up the value chain by investing more in research and development capabilities, thereby emerging as a leader rather than a follower in this highly complex and technology-driven industry?

Presentation for product 8B17M150.

In October 2016, the founder of Summer Swim Academy—a provider of swimming lessons and lifeguarding services to families in Burlington, Ontario—was reflecting on the organization’s second full season of operations. The founder had been providing services in Burlington for the past six years and had been operating the business formally under the Summer Swim Academy brand for the past two years. She wanted to evaluate the possibility of expanding her business, either geographically or to a year-round operation, in order to achieve a profit goal of $50,000. To determine whether this goal was attainable, she needed to assess geographic and service-delivery expansion options for Summer Swim Academy.

In September 2011, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) celebrated its 122nd anniversary. Its chairman had just turned 76. Two years earlier, he had travelled to the United States to receive a cardiac ablation to correct an irregular heart rhythm. Succession-related questions were on his mind. SMC needed a clear plan for the leadership transition. The charismatic chairman spent his life successfully exploiting business opportunities, growing SMC from a small brewery company into a giant business group. By 2011, SMC was the largest corporation in the Philippines in terms of revenue—accounting for about 6 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product and employing about 17,000 people. The group engaged in a wide range of businesses including mining, oil refining and distribution, power, telecommunications, airlines, airports, and infrastructure. How could the company continue to thrive without its remarkable leader? Finding a path towards a smooth leadership succession would be a difficult task.

The Regina Auto Racing Club (RARC) had been operating the Kings Park Speedway since 1967. In 2016, the race track and facilities were beginning to show their age and were in need of costly upgrading. Unfortunately, the club had also been suffering from declining attendance over the past five years, and the associated decline in ticket revenue had led to a shrinking race schedule. At the end of the race season in 2016, the club managed to break even financially and had a modest bank account balance. Although RARC was a non-profit organization, the continued financial viability of the club was at risk, and action was required to increase revenue. The club needed to decide among four non-mutually exclusive business strategies. Should it repair and rebuild the facilities to renew the appeal of the venue and attract more spectators? Should it increase its advertising and promotion activities to improve awareness of the club and events? Should it increase the number of race classes and special racing events, or should it introduce non-racing events to the facility to take advantage of other revenue-generating opportunities?

Safe Boat Trip Private Limited (Safe Boat Trip) of Kerala, India, is planning to launch a hydrofoil ferry service connecting the Port of Kochi, India, with two other ports in the state of Kerala by August 2016, to benefit from the tourism potential of the season in Kerala. The managing director has asked the principal superintendent of Safe Boat Trip to prepare a project plan for the boats to be commissioned into service, following approval from the Indian Register of Shipping (IRS). The principal superintendent must also carry out a break-even analysis of the project investment. With these challenges before him, the superintendent must set out to devise a solid plan of action before the company’s next meeting.

In July 2015, the founder of YourStory Media Private Limited (YourStory) needed to make key strategic decisions to scale up her business. YourStory was a top-ranked online media platform that focused on developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India by publishing news stories about entrepreneurs and start-ups and by organizing entrepreneurial conferences and events. Since its inception in 2008, the company had grown slowly and steadily using its own funds. However, it needed to expand rapidly in order to attract venture capital funding. YourStory’s founder knew that potential investors would translate their initial interest into actual investments only if she was able to demonstrate that YourStory had a coherent, comprehensive, and consistent story of its own. She had identified various strategic growth alternatives: given the evolving online media marketplace, which should she pursue to meet her expansion goal?