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Perched on a cliff, the ninth-century Tatev Monastery is one of the most important monasteries in Armenia. A prominent Moscow-based businessman has decided to make it into an accessible and attractive tourist destination. Complicating matters is the region’s significant poverty and inaccessibility due to harsh weather conditions and a lack of proper infrastructure. In addition, shortcomings in hospitality management and training mean that tourist numbers remain low. One of the greatest challenges of the project is the management of eight stakeholders, including the Armenian Church, the local community, investors and UNESCO. How can the founder of the revival project devise a commercially successful strategy that will address all stakeholders’ interests without compromising his own principles and ethical values?

In January 2013, the executive director of Brazos Valley Food Bank, Incorporated, situated in central Texas, is faced with several issues endemic to the non-profit sector: inconsistency in the amount and quality of unsolicited food donations, restrictions on the use of cash donations, disjunction between limited supply and high demand for food in the summer, and the unsustainability of operations. Partnering with vetted agencies, such as churches, schools and other organizations, the food bank aims to reduce and eradicate hunger in the area it serves. Being driven by volunteers and non-supply chain and non-logistics professionals, the organization struggles to achieve the efficiency of a for-profit facility due to budgetary restrictions, including the need to reduce overhead costs while striving to increase deliverables. Management has three choices: to educate its staff, partner agencies and people receiving aid on better methods of donating and better use of donated items; to stratify and increase donations; and to improve efficiency. Although anticipating the opening of a new warehouse with up-to-date technology, a vital question remains: of what benefit is a state-of-the-art warehouse and much-needed additional space if burdensome operational inefficiencies are unresolved?

Though only a minority of the world’s population works in sea-related occupations today, seaborne trade and naval capacities are at historic levels in human history. Meanwhile, beneath the sea, a vast amount of digital commerce hums invisibly through a global network of sunken fibre-optic cables. Climate change is revolutionizing trade routes while opening the door to more national conflicts, particularly in the Arctic, which represents an estimated 13 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 per cent of the world’s undiscovered gas. Superpowers and coastal states are making aggressive new claims on island chains and seaways and investing heavily in the latest generation of naval power in order to be able to back up these claims militarily. This article explains how all of these factors will have a significant impact on how businesses run. Now is the time to plan for disruptions to any part of the maritime ecosystem, which could create a big, unexpected shock to national economies while imposing serious damage on private-sector operations.

On October 9, 2013, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc., a large U.S. retailer of men's tailored and casual clothing, footwear and accessories, made a hostile offer to buy its larger rival Men’s Wearhouse. The latter made a counter-offer on January 6, 2014 in what is known as a Pac-man defence — the prey turned predator. Jos. A. Bank responded by adopting a poison pill, announcing the planned acquisition of Eddie Bauer, an outdoor apparel retailer. What started out as a simple offer had turned into a contest with multiple counter-offers and the deployment of several takeover defences. How should Eminence Capital, a New York-based hedge fund and the largest shareholder in both firms, react? How should each firm respond to the latest offer on their respective tables?

Based in Delhi, India, Sherry’s Bakery (Sherry's) faced a host of challenges at the four-year point in its operations, with issues related to business expansion and management, cost management and fund procurement. The business had gradually grown from a hobby based on a love of baking into a home-based business that showed lots of potential for growth. The owner needed to devise a marketing and communication plan for her business since she wanted to turn Sherry’s into a full-fledged bakery rather than simply operating from her kitchen.

The president and CEO of a commercial group must assess his options after his company’s recent acquisition of a small hauling company. This new company transported construction materials and aggregates from one location to another. After a few successful years of growth in the hauling business, the CEO wondered whether the new company should expand into the excavating business. He needed to evaluate the health of the current operations from a profitability and cash-flow standpoint. If the expansion into excavating were to be pursued, he needed to decide how it would be financed, while still remaining self-sufficient.

Vietnam has made impressive economic gains over a period of three decades, following the Doi Moi reforms of 1986. Before reform, the country’s socialist economy had been unable to displace the poverty that had plagued the country in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. After reform, Vietnam has experienced many years of sustained growth, as evidenced by its advances on several economic performance rankings. By 2014, Vietnam's rankings compared favourably with those of many of its Asian neighbours. A major feature of the country’s strategy for economic development was its emphasis on information and computing technologies. Students will analyze Vietnam's past successes to extract lessons that can lead to additional future success.

On September 6, 2014, a young investor is trying to find a trading strategy to use to make money on Cisco’s stock. He wants to know whether the stock is increasing or decreasing in value. He decides to use the moving average strategy to avoid the fluctuations in the stock price caused by different short-term phenomena. When should he buy, sell or do nothing?

This case chronicles three major challenges faced by the Niagara Health System, a seven-hospital network in the Niagara region in the province of Ontario, Canada. An interim chief communications officer has joined the Niagara Health System team on secondment to help with communications issues during a C. difficile outbreak. He soon realizes that the public communication issues were not isolated to this outbreak, but rather continued a trend of poor relationships with local media and the public. The case examines the field of hospital communications in Ontario, including trends and best practices, a history of communications struggles at the Niagara Health System, strategy options and considerations to manage the C. difficile outbreak and strategies to improve trust and reputation. See supplement 9B15M023.

Supplement to 9B15M022.

Excel spreadsheet for instructors.

Excel spreadsheet for students.

Airtel mCommerce Services Limited was waiting for news from the Reserve Bank of India related to mobile banking regulations, as it was eager to unleash the massive potential and untapped opportunity in India regarding mobile commerce. Its service, Airtel Money, was struggling in India, but it had experienced a huge success in Africa. Though it had some initial success in India, it still had a long way to go to capture the Indian mobile market.

It took 19 years to build Knight Capital Americas LLC into the largest market maker on the New York Stock Exchange, but on August 1, 2012, it took only 45 minutes for the firm to be wiped out by an information technology (IT) problem: a change in the company's software caused it to lose more than $450 million dollars in less than an hour. Although it was ultimately saved from bankruptcy when it was acquired two days later, the terms of acquisition were very unfavourable to the company’s shareholders. How did this happen? Could it have been prevented? What should the staff, the chief executive officer, other managers and the board of directors have done differently? What lessons does this story hold for how firms should be managed and governed? And what does it say about our ability to manage risk in large modern corporations operating in increasingly fast-moving and complex global markets?

An activist shareholder who invested a significant amount in Apple’s stock proposed a share repurchase program. If this proposal were approved at the annual shareholder’s meeting, Apple would be in a position to buy back a significant number of its shares on the stock market, which would drive up the stock price. However, the executives and board of directors opposed the proposal and recommended that the shareholders vote against it. Apple’s subsequent annual meeting of shareholders was scheduled to be held on Friday, February 28, 2014. Shareholders could either vote for the proposal or follow the recommendation of Apple’s board.

Case A describes the difficult situation facing the recently appointed plant manager of Shanghai Michelin Warrior Tire, a joint venture between a poorly performing Chinese state-owned enterprise and a France-based private company, Michelin Corporation. Michelin headquarters was pressing the plant manager to implement the Management System of Daily Production to improve the factory’s performance, but the plant manager sensed that the plant’s employees were not yet ready. He contemplates what changes to make in this factory and how best to do so. Case B, 9B14C013, reports on the plant manager’s actions to improve the joint venture’s performance.

This is a supplement to 9B14C012.

In April 2013, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Forus Health Private Limited sat in his office in Bangalore, India contemplating the future direction of his company. He was under pressure by his venture capital partner to rapidly penetrate the market for 3nethra — an innovative, multi-functional and low-cost ophthalmology device — before imitators stepped in. Given its features and advantages over expensive imported specialized tools, 3nethra could help address the huge challenge of preventable blindness in India, but after three years since inception, only 100 devices had been sold. Although the market opportunity was large, acceptance by the ophthalmology profession was key to gaining momentum. He had two choices: to maximize sales numbers through the scattergun tactic of going all out and all over the market or to build a sufficient base of positive word of mouth to gain the momentum necessary to pole-vault from the early to the mainstream market. How should he direct his sales team to take the company forward?

In 2011, Sudarshan Chemical Industries Limited, a global pigment company with sales in over 40 countries, was poised to become one of the top four pigment producers in the world. The vice-chairman was about to meet with an external consultant whom he had hired when he assumed leadership of the family business in 2003 following the demise of both the founders — his father and eldest uncle. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the various initiatives that had been undertaken at Sudarshan since 2003 to systematically professionalize the group. The vice-chairman could not help wondering whether the company was heading in the right direction. Should a family member always be the head of the business? What if the family member being prepared for the leadership role did not gain the acceptance of the family and non-family professionals to lead the business?

In August 2013, an intern at Slatestone Group, an Arizona-based boutique investment bank, was working on a targeted sell-side deal. Paterson Publishing, a Fortune 200 company, had expressed interest in acquiring Slatestone’s client Bluntly Media Holdings, a private direct marketing agency. The intern was assigned to help prepare the deal marketing material and assist with the valuation assessment of Bluntly Media. He needed to use a variety of valuation methods and propose a strategy that could assist Bluntly Media in attaining a higher price.