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Infinity Life Insurance Company was a joint venture between two Indian public sector banks and a U.K.-based insurance firm. The company began its operations in November 2009, as the youngest entrant in the life insurance market in India. Within three years of launching operations, it ranked among the top 10 private firms for new business premiums. When the joint venture project started, the senior leadership group identified numerous challenges and various strategies to address those challenges (detailed in this case). The company connected its basic business strategies to a set of human resource strategies, which were then applied through various human resource processes (detailed in case B). With the Indian government focusing on further liberalization in the insurance sector, the joint venture needed to be ready for the next leap. Which processes should it continue, and which needed to be changed?

Supplement for product 9B16C036.

In October 2014, the chief executive officer (CEO) of a high-end, invite-only digital branding firm was contemplating which (if any) web analytics service the company should offer to its clients. The CEO knew that in order to justify the high price his firm charged its executive and celebrity clientele, all ancillary services like web analytics reporting would have to be just as extravagant and just as functional as the core product—branded website design. With three web analytics options on the table, all with relatively similar characteristics yet vastly different price points, the firm had to identify the differentiated advantages of each option.

Student spreadsheet for product 9B16N063.

After a year at AW Ltd., a family-owned Indian pharmaceutical company, a change management agent was disillusioned about her ability to add value to the organization or gain buy-in for her change initiative. Although she was adept at information collection, data analysis, and using tools for organizational intervention, she had failed to account for softer issues of change management in terms of people management, handling inertia, breaking power centres, and building influence. Management of group inclusion processes were crucial to build buy-in and a sense of urgency to enact change. Why exactly had her change management process gone so badly? Should she continue at the firm and, if so, what should she do differently?

In late 2010,the director general of the Industrial Sectors Directorate at Environment Canada, was reviewing a draft work plan for the Air Quality Management System (AQMS), a regulatory project to deal with Canada’s transboundary air pollution problems. Though some of the key elements of AQMS were in place and director general had the support of co-chairs from Alberta and Ontario, she had to develop a series of briefings on her strategy before the end of 2010 so that she could gain approval from her deputy minister and minister.

In 2016, the founder and chief executive officer of West Paw Design (WPD) was faced with a growth dilemma: how could he align WPD’s socially responsible ethos with his desire to expand business activities in the growing pet products market? Based in Bozeman, Montana, WPD developed, manufactured, and distributed pet products. The company was a certified “B Corporation,” meaning its social and environmental credentials had been verified by an external organization, B Lab. The founder had to consider his options very carefully, because some of them could undermine or negate WPD’s growth objectives, as well as its cherished B Corporation principles.

In 2013, the chief executive officer of Porter Airlines, a Toronto-based regional airline, announced an expansion project to expand the airline’s destinations. The project required that Porter Airlines expand its fleet of jets to accommodate longer distances, and that its transport hub, the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, be renovated. The airport was governed by a tripartite agreement between the federal government, the City of Toronto, and PortsToronto; any amendments to the agreement required a consensus of the three governing parties. Despite active petitioning, the federal government announced in 2015 it would not support an amendment to the agreement. Should Porter Airlines continue to petition? Or should it consider alternative options to achieve growth?

In 2014, the owner of a food truck based in Hamilton, Ontario, was looking over the first year of her operations. In addition to working in Hamilton, she had tried to maximize her revenues by driving to several other cities and charging various prices for each burger, depending partly on the fresh ingredients available in each city. Besides location, the owner had collected data on a few other factors—the weather, the day of the week, the city’s population, and whether a festival was going on—that had had an impact on the demand for her product. She wondered whether analytics could help her decide where to sell and how much to charge on a daily basis. The owner also wondered whether this decision-making and data-collection process could be automated since she would be using it every day.

Spreadsheet for instructors for product 8B16E033.

Data spreadsheet for students for product 9B16E033.

In November 2015, Westridge Cabinets (Westridge) was facing a sales decline of approximately 35 per cent. Westridge manufactured and sold kitchen cabinets for the new home market, the home renovation market, and both the low-rise and high-rise multi-unit markets. The company was based in Alberta, Canada, which had been hit hard by a 75 per cent drop in world oil prices in the last year. Westridge was re-evaluating its sales strategy and considering three alternative structures for the account management team: leave the existing system in place, but with a renewed focus on growth; off-load some of the order-management and customer-care responsibilities of the account managers to allow them to focus more attention on winning new contracts; or add new account managers to generate new business, and allow the existing team to focus on existing customers. The situation was urgent.

In 2016, the owner of Sarda Farms, a dairy farm in western India, was preparing for a meeting with the company’s senior management. Since the dairy’s launch in 2011, its production processes had stabilized; however, the daily demand for its milk was projected to increase substantially in six months, from 15,000 litres to 25,000 litres. Because the farm was already operating at near capacity, the output and efficiencies of all processes were under scrutiny. Sarda Farms needed to improve its efficiencies to meet the increase in demand, and the owner needed to finalize his strategy for improvements with senior management in one week’s time.

Hope Blooms was a social enterprise based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, that grew its own garden produce and manufactured and sold a line of herb dressings. For a small social enterprise, it was remarkably successful. Hope Blooms had appeared on CBC’s Dragons’ Den and was constantly selling out of its products in local markets. In addition, it had secured placement in a national grocery retailer and was continuing to fulfill its social mission of empowering marginalized youth by providing education on food, sustainability, and entrepreneurship issues. These successes started to create a series of problems associated with production and capacity shortfalls associated with using a youth volunteer workforce, stock outs, and potential mission drift. As the executive director of Hope Blooms prepared for the final board of directors’ meeting in 2015, she wondered how to solve two of the organization’s fundamental problems: How could the retail operations provide stable employment for its youth members? How could Hope Blooms increase its profits to continue to expand its activities?

Spring cleaning season 2015 was about to begin in a small community north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and a prospective business owner was deciding whether to launch a new business. Totally Tidy by Tilly would provide cleaning services, professional organizing services, or both. Before moving forward, this new entrepreneur first needed to understand the environment for her new venture. Based on that understanding, she needed to decide what services to offer and at what prices, and how best to promote her new business. To determine financial feasibility, she projected the company's financial performance for the first three years of operations. Should the entrepreneur stay close to home, within her community, or would a viable and profitable business plan involve a larger area? Would the business provide a reasonable income, or would this significant change in her lifestyle only prevent her from enjoying the flexibility of being a stay-at-home parent?

To improve its profitability, NKT Photonics A/S (NKT), a small Danish company operating in the global photonics industry, was getting ready to undertake the commercialization process of its highly advanced optical fibre technology. NKT’s chief executive officer (CEO) was considering two options for accomplishing this goal: (1) establishing strategic partnerships with system integrators in order to gain access to commercial customers, or (2) repositioning NKT as a system integrator by embarking on an acquisition strategy. Turning the company into a more commercial entity would mean a complete change of culture. It might also result in the loss of some top engineering and scientific minds and perhaps even the company's reputation. The CEO wondered if there a way to effectively introduce a business mindset to the organization while still preserving its innovation-based DNA.

In May 2014, Julie Hallman was about to assume the presidency of the struggling non-profit arts organization, the Falaise Foundation, which offered a residence for small groups of artists and scholars from around the world to work on creative endeavours at its extensive property in the South of France. The foundation was suffering financially due to a combination of weak fundraising, high operating costs, an ineffective board of trustees, and a murky relationship between the founding family and the foundation. Complicating matters was Hallman’s personal situation: she was the daughter of the foundation’s founder, who had run the organization his own way for decades until health issues forced him to step down. As a documentary filmmaker with a degree in Fine Arts, Julie Hallman had no business background. She had to develop an understanding of the root causes of the foundation’s problems and identify a set of strategies and actions to effect a successful turnaround.

Online social network service provider Five One Network Development Co. Ltd. (51.com) was founded in August 2005 and entered the online game industry in 2011, when browser games became popular in China. Although it continuously invested in developing online games, it had failed to reach its goal of becoming one of the top 10 companies in China. The online game industry had seen fierce competition and was finding it difficult to retain talented employees, who were leaving to start their own businesses. This problem, referred to as a “brain drain,” was also increasing the number of emerging profitable start-ups, especially in the mobile game segment. To overcome these internal and external challenges, 51.com decided to apply a new strategic approach: launching a series of new spin-off businesses from within the company. However, competition between the spin-offs seemed unavoidable. How would 51.com manage the relationships between the new spin-off businesses?

Founded in 2006, Pacific Drilling was a fast-growing offshore drilling company. From the beginning, the company’s chief executive officer was determined to create a unique drilling company by focusing exclusively on ultra-deepwater drilling and technological innovation. By the end of 2014, the company had more than 1,600 employees and was generating US$1 billion in annual revenues. However, the company also faced several challenges, such as being overly reliant on one key customer (Chevron) and the high costs of differentiation. With oil prices plummeting, the company was struggling to acquire new customers. To what extent could the company rely on what it had successfully accomplished in the past, and to what extent would it need to create and adapt to a new strategy?

In 2011, the chief executive officer of Singh Security Systems Limited, an Indian company that designed and manufactured security systems, wanted to expand the scale of operations. He located a partner, the business leader of a construction company that specialized in security systems, in Doha, Qatar. Together, they drew a lucrative plan to execute turnkey projects in security systems in Qatar. However, the best candidate to lead the partnership in Qatar was a woman, who was keen to pursue the position, but would be the only woman in a position of authority in a 180-member organization, in a male-dominated country. The business leader of the Qatari firm was hesitant to hire a woman to run the project. Should the company reconsider assigning a woman project manager to Qatar?