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In 2011, the sole proprietor of wetlandPOOLS, a specialist installer of non-chemical swimming pools based in Johannesburg, South Africa, was looking at the design of his latest creation. He was satisfied with the work he had done, yet frustrated that it had taken so long to complete the project. His company had been in existence for 10 years. During that time, wetlandPOOLS had grown organically by taking on new projects as they arose. This approach allowed wetlandPOOLS to remain distinct from traditional pool builders and true to its original principles; however, its opportunities for growth appeared to be somewhat limited. The owner wondered how he could have the best of both worlds—owning a company that would operate efficiently and grow at a reasonable, sustainable pace, while also maintaining its unique nature.

Moshi, a fusion restaurant in an upmarket area of Dubai, had carved out a niche for itself with its unique menu, high-quality food, and excellent service—all offered at a reasonable price. As the young owner planned to launch another outlet, he pondered his options for growth. Was it time to create a chain, or should he give the new outlet a completely different feel and target a specific customer segment? Should he increase his product range or stick with his unique offerings? Because of its fusion theme (Nepalese cuisine and Japanese sushi), Moshi did not have a clear positioning in terms of its menu. Would Moshi’s unique offerings be enough to sustain its continued existence in Dubai’s competitive restaurant industry? Would this business be scalable? The owner had relied on word-of-mouth publicity thus far; however, was this method adequate? What sort of marketing strategy should he adopt?

Bank of Baroda was the second-largest commercial bank in India, but it was struggling with a decline in profits and an increase in non-performing assets. Only a week before the new chief executive officer's term commenced, Bank of Baroda was in the news due to reports of fraud occurring at the bank’s Ahmedabad and New Delhi operations. The frauds involved bill discounting schemes and money laundering. The bank’s violations of its know your client and anti-money laundering standards raised concerns about its risk management practices—or lack of such practices. The new chief executive officer was only the second executive from the private sector to head a public sector bank. He needed to prove his value in the world of public sector banking by managing the crisis, implementing a strategy to stabilize the bank’s financial health, and preventing a recurrence of the problems.

Following the surprise Brexit vote, business leaders need to stop worrying about the occasional Black Swan and understand that dealing with unexpected world-changing events is the new normal. Despite some opinions that Britain’s exit from the European Union could be good for Canadian business, nobody knows yet whether the Brexit vote will be good over the long term for Canadian exports, not to mention the loonie. Heightened uncertainty is where the lessons from the Brexit vote can be found for both the public and private sectors. For corporate leaders, the lessons of Brexit are about planning for unexpected events—a prevailing characteristic of the “new normal” caused by more robust mega-trends created by social, economic and political forces. Brexit should drive business leaders to review existing strategy in this much larger context. Winning firms will pay extra attention to agility when planning overall business models, including a portfolio approach to asset configurations and the particular locations of value creation and value extraction. The rise of socio-economic and political mega-trends will trigger the growth of “no-equity” corporations—businesses that are extremely agile and capable in managing across existing and emerging networks and boundaries, thanks to reduced reliance on equity-based business models. Instead of developing contingencies, leading firms will disrupt themselves to come up with new business models that allow them to stay ahead of the competition.

During the Holi festival in March 2012, the managing director of Ramcides, a family-run agrochemical business, was considering the path of the company that his eldest brother had started in 1973. Ramcides had a goal to achieve US$50 million in revenues by March 2014 and $130 million in the following five years. The managing director reflected on whether the company was on the right path towards achieving that objective. Much had changed since an infusion of private equity from a venture capital firm in 2008, but there was still much to be done. There was also the matter of the venture capital firm’s planned exit, and where the company would then secure additional funding. All the stakeholders were clear on promoting the future growth and success of Ramcides, but the next three to five years were a critical time of transition. What needed to be done to ensure continued success? The current manager viewed himself as the managing director in transition—the bridge between Ramcides’s history as a family-run firm and its future as a professionalized agrochemical company.

There is no question that coaching has accelerated leadership development at companies big and small, including some of the most successful members of the Fortune 500 club. But what exactly is coaching, and why is its importance growing significantly in the corporate world? Despite all the ambiguity that surrounds coaching, there are three fundamental principles associated with the process of helping people identify the blind spots that derail them from progress and effectiveness as well as the sweet spots that accelerate their journey through the realization of potential. These are: 1. Coaching leads the coachee to revisit his/her assumptions — the core engine of belief systems. 2. Coaching triggers the coachee to review his/her image in the light of feedback from his/her surroundings. 3. Coaching enables the coachee to update his/her portrait. Executive coaches help coachees stress-test ideas, viewpoints, and perspectives before they are vocalized. They do so by addressing executive isolation, providing strategic sound-boarding, and creating a safe and motivating feedback loop for change. Accomplished coaches systematically lead their coachees to see their resistance to change, examine the root causes of this resistance, and understand how resistance limits personal growth and transformation.

In October 2012, the executive vice-president (EVP) at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Canada's leading bank, faced managerial dilemmas with regard to the launch of a mobile wallet. RBC had developed a cloud-based application that differed from industry standard SIM card–based payment methods. The EVP was evaluating areas of contrast between the two models as part of arriving at a decision. There was likelihood that the cloud solution was disruptive. But would it become the dominant solution? Would it give RBC a first-mover advantage among its peers?

The case, set in 2012 and 2013, follows two students enrolled in a business accelerator program who experience the uncertainty of creating an idea from an interesting sandbox, or broad problem space, (in this case, the construction industry) and then developing it into an innovative idea for a new business. The two students elicit a broad range of feedback from individuals in the construction industry and use that feedback to develop their venture idea. The case is process-focused in that there is not one right answer in terms of how the students should proceed with developing their idea. Instead, the case provides an opportunity to practise making decisions based on external feedback.

In 2012, an entrepreneur and his business partner have created ServiceBox, a web-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) work order management system for use in plumbing and heating businesses. The product was developed in response to a request from a friend, who owns a plumbing business. The entrepreneur is now ready to sell this product, relying on a subscription-based SaaS business model for revenue. He has scheduled a meeting with a heating contractor and is ready to sell. This case presents an exercise in sales negotiation, in which the entrepreneur (whose perspective is provided in Case A) works to sell a subscription to the heating contractor (whose perspective in provided in Case B). Students have an opportunity to practise sales promotion and selling for an entrepreneurial venture. Use with 9B16M016.

Supplement case to be used with 9B16M015.

In 2014, a newcomer to Canada has the opportunity to start a Chinese restaurant in a small Canadian city. The entrepreneur needs to decide whether to invest in the project, and if so, how to finance it: using debt or equity financing. She has to evaluate the impact of the financing options on the viability of the business, her investment returns, and the financial and business risks. The case provides an opportunity for a comprehensive FRICTO analysis of capital structure, and creates tension by putting the students in a small business owner’s shoes.

Rewarding top advertising talent with a supervisory position can seriously backfire, especially in today’s market. It’s understandable to want to reward exceptional workers, but managers often believe that the only way they can do so is by promoting them to supervisory roles. This thinking is not only untrue, it is dangerous. Leadership requires a completely different skill set than most people use in performance positions. Employees who perform exceptionally aren’t necessarily good at training or supervising others. <br><br> Today’s marketing environment makes it treacherous to move ad agency employees around without planning. The rise of tech- and data-driven strategies only adds new levels of complexity and heightens expectations from clients, who want seasoned professionals with a deep understanding of their industry. So when you finally have an employee firing on all cylinders for your agency, it can be a big mistake putting them in new roles. Before you promote top performers, have a candid conversation with them. But first determine possible options for moving forward. Besides a promotion to a supervisory role, reward options could include an arrangement to split time between the employee’s current role and training others, or an agreement to develop new skills for a higher pay cheque. You can also consider options like more vacation time or a seat at the leadership table. Sometimes the best reward for hard work is helping people prosper — right where they are.

Urban Plus Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd. was a real estate brokerage company started in 2009 in Gurgaon, India, by a young MBA professional. In February 2010, he was considering the various issues he was faced with in day-to-day business activities. The company provided both resale and new bookings services, with a focus on the residential sector. The resale business was needed for immediate and substantial cash inflows to sustain the company’s growth. The new bookings business was also crucial to capture more market share and achieve aggressive growth. However, confronted with multiple hurdles, the company had slow business growth in its initial year. It appeared that handling both types of businesses was becoming a challenge. A recent incident involving one employee’s unethical behaviour in a resale transaction had forced the company to carefully consider its strategic plan. What strategy would the company need to compete in its sector and achieve its long term goals?

In 2013, after almost three years of making organizational changes, the chief executive officer of Federated Co-Operatives Limited (FCL) wondered if he was pushing his unique company through a transformation too quickly or if he was not pushing hard enough to modernize the company. FCL was a co-operative, a remnant of a farmers’ purchasing association that had grown to become one of the 50 largest companies in Canada. However, the company’s financial success and democratic governance structure had lulled FCL into a situation characterized by outdated processes and systems. Information technology, branding, leadership, and talent management processes needed to be transformed, and a culture change was necessary to move forward. But some employees were resisting, possibly as a result of burnout due to the magnitude of change or the co-operative governance structure that complicated the process of change. The chief executive officer needed to address his employees at a questions and answers session about the progress of the transformation. What should he tell them?

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - John Molson MBA Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>When Etsy proceeded with an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2015, it was the second U.S. company to go public as a certified B Corporation. Etsy’s status as a B Corporation meant that social responsibility was ingrained in its mission. However, as an online marketplace for artisanal goods, Etsy faced a number of challenges. Principal among them was the launch of the new online store Handmade at Amazon, a direct attack on Etsy. Etsy had a core base of merchants and buyers, but Amazon had significantly more as well as a greater level of financial security than Etsy. Etsy’s fast growth had also put pressure on its merchants’ ability to offer larger quantities of handmade goods. Many merchants were pressing the company to allow sales from large-scale manufacturing, a path the company had eschewed since its start. Could Etsy find a way to successfully confront these challenges while maintaining its B Corporation ethos?

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Best Teaching Case Studies Award at the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI)</strong></p><br>In 2014, as one of the most well-known Taiwanese cuisine brands, Din Tai Fung operated more than 100 restaurants around the world. Attracted by its signature xialongbao (soup dumpling), long queues of customers at Din Tai Fung’s storefront were a common sight. Requests for partnerships for global expansion were constantly arriving. Customer feedback from overseas, however, suggested a notable gap in service quality between the overseas and Taiwanese branches. The demand for support by overseas branches had also surged significantly due to the fast pace of growth in recent years. The company’s chief executive officer had deferred his plan to open the 10th branch in Taiwan. Nevertheless, plans to open new branches in overseas markets were enthusiastically evaluated by existing partners. Two new potential partnership offers from Dubai and the Philippines were being aggressively pursued. What was the best way to cope with the increasing number of requests for support from overseas branches and to ensure high quality? Should Din Tai Fung approve the two overseas offers for partnership that seemed promising? What was the best overseas expansion strategy?

As of April 2012, TerraCycle had witnessed exponential growth over the past few years due to its unique value proposition of creating a line of consumer products out of trash. With continued global expansion, the firm’s biggest challenge was how to move forward while staying true to its mission to eliminate as much waste as possible from landfills, make fun products that consumers liked, and turn a profit. Operationally, TerraCycle was losing money on every domestically manufactured product and was regularly late on delivering its shipments to a major retail customer. All signs indicated that the company should move some of its manufacturing to an offshore location; however, TerraCycle had built its reputation on its strict adherence to the principles of sustainability, and such a move could cause a significant public-relations problem. There was little time to act, as orders from Walmart and Target were piling up. Should the CEO move some of TerraCycle’s production to China?

In February 2016, Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer, challenged a U.S. Federal Court order for Apple to assist the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a case involving suspected international terrorism. The government wanted Apple to provide the FBI with access to encrypted data on an Apple product, the iPhone. Cook's refusal to acquiesce to the government's demands drew strong public debate, pitting the proponents of national security against those in favour of customers’ digital privacy and security. The case invoked an ethical dilemma faced by management in issues involving right-versus-right decisions. Which right should Cook choose? What are the ethical dilemmas involved in making this decision? How should Cook resolve the dilemma?

In 2012, Li-Ning Co. Ltd. (LNCL) was the third-largest sportswear company in China in terms of revenue, after international brands Nike and Adidas. Following its highly successful founding in 1990 by China’s Olympic champion and company namesake, Li Ning, the firm attempted to formalize its organizational structure and establish a professionally managed organization, while dealing with the rise of well-established international sportswear brands in China like Nike and Adidas. By 2013, however, the company’s performance had started to decline. LNCL found itself caught in a tough spot, with profit margins falling as the company was squeezed between international and local sportswear brands. Furthermore, its aggressive past expansion had resulted in heavy expenditures in market promotion, large unsold inventories, and low operational efficiency. What should the new leadership team do to turn around the company’s performance?

In late 2014, Diamond Developers was building Dubai’s first large sustainable city, which was a mixed-use community designed to set new standards in environmental sustainability in the Middle East and beyond. As the project neared completion, the company’s co-founders needed to decide how to measure the development’s sustainability performance. Existing sustainability rating schemes had faced heavy criticism and were not easily applicable in Dubai’s desert climate. The co-founders therefore needed to determine whether the company should adapt one of the existing measurement systems or design its own sustainability performance measures. Regardless of the measurement system the company chose, the co-founders needed to decide how to define, measure, and manage sustainability as part of a unique real estate development project.