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In 2014, two friends have launched tentree (TT), a Canadian entrepreneurial venture that sells an environmentally sustainable and trendy brand of apparel. For every product sold, TT plants 10 trees in locations around the world. Although TT is still in its infancy, it is already experiencing huge growth. The entrepreneurial founders now face several challenges: how to keep pace with the growing demand; how to plant as many trees as they can while staying true to their sustainable, environmental philosophy; how to break into the U.S. and other markets; and where to source their product.

JOG Sports, a sports apparel and sports marketing business, has crossed the psychologically important threshold of $1 million in annual sales. Although the company was started as a hobby and side interest of the chief executive officer (CEO) and main founder, management of the company soon became his only occupation. The scale of the company increased quickly, with the sports apparel business growing in product lines, geographic scope of sales and diversity within products. Meanwhile, the sports marketing arm also grew as the CEO organized new and larger ice hockey tournaments. The CEO needs to make some important decisions regarding the future growth of the company, including issues of strategy formulation and strategy implementation, an explicit process within the rapidly growing company.

The founder of a bricks-and-mortar kitchen accessories retail store, Jill's Table, is considering the expansion of her existing information-based website to an e-commerce presence, but wonders whether the factors that have led to her current success can be replicated in the virtual world. Students are asked to make decisions related to translating brand values from the real world to the virtual world; overcoming technological hurdles; addressing design issues in terms of the user experience; developing a content marketing and digital promotions strategy, including social media and email marketing; determining a pricing strategy; planning for fulfillment and returns; handling customer service and measuring performance.

In 2013, the chief executive officer of a marmalade manufacturing company needs to update his accounting records for the fiscal year. In order to complete this task, he gathers the previous year's financial statements and a list of cash receipts and disbursements for the current year in order to perform a financial analysis.

An entrepreneur is reviewing her business plan for a proposed new venture that would provide billing services to emergency room physicians in a hospital setting. She has to make a final recommendation regarding the feasibility of the plan. The entrepreneur must ensure that her financial analysis provides a realistic projection of the revenue and profit. She also wants to consider all the pertinent factors that could potentially affect the viability of this business before she invests $20,000 of personal funds in the venture.

Business schools have done an admirable job of teaching competencies, and many business organizations have defined the framework of competencies that are required to be successful in the institution. However, much less attention has been spent on leadership character and the importance of commitment to the leadership role. There is no consistent understanding among executives about what character means, despite a concurrence that it is important. The movie Invictus portrays Nelson Mandela in his first year as the first black president of the newly desegregated South Africa as he persuades not only both black and white populations to support the national rugby team in its effort to win the World Cup but also the players themselves. It provides a truly brilliant illustration of not only the competencies required to lead but also the leadership character and commitment that are needed to lead during trying times.

Vice Media has gone from a startup in Canada to landing in New York City and assiduously building a global youth brand through unique and seemingly inimitable competitive advantages. While globalizing its operations, Vice Media appears to have developed expertise in standardizing certain aspects of its business, adapting others to local context and, increasingly, building a global chain. Given Vice Media’s explosive growth, how can its global value chain be structured to maintain the carefully cultivated emotional connection the company has created with its audience?

An early stage investment firm is ready to launch after receiving funding from its first investor. With $400,000 in capital and twice that amount forthcoming, venVelo needs a process so it can be exposed to those seeking funding, evaluate the opportunities, make investments and mentor its portfolio clients. The challenge for venVelo’s management team is to apply the same principles in managing venVelo that it looked for in other companies seeking investment: don’t focus on being perfect; focus on getting better every day.

In late 2006, the Rouge Valley Health System’s board of directors began to grasp the gravity of the leadership challenge set before them: rescue the amalgamated Scarborough Centenary Hospital and the Ajax and Pickering General Hospital, which was financially a “basket case,” or face an imposed government takeover. A recently completed independent peer review conducted from June through November 2007 came down hard on the former senior leadership team for poor performance and lack of accountability. To reverse the hospital’s grave prognosis, the board needed to perform triage: work with their new chief executive officer to stop the financial bleed, restore faith among the hospital’s senior management and work towards a new organizational culture.

Israel had experienced great change since its founding in 1948 to become arguably the most prosperous nation in the Middle East. With the exception of the United States and more recently China, Israel had more companies listed on the NASDAQ than any other. It spent a larger percentage of its budget on research and development than any other country in the world. Multinational companies like Intel, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Motorola, Mitsubishi, Hewlett Packard, Deutsche Telekom and eBay had set up significant operations there. Within 50 years of its establishment, Israel had experienced unprecedented economic growth. But despite its many successes, the country remained in a constant state of conflict. The Arab-Israeli conflict lingered, and Israel and its geographic neighbors had strained relationships. Could Israel market itself to tourists and businesses despite its constant state of conflict? How should it do so? Was it better to focus on a national narrative or pursue city or industry marketing and branding?

In 2012, the manager of commercial accounts at the central Montreal, Quebec, branch of the Dominion Bank of Canada considers a loan request from the founder and chief executive officer of a growing wholesaler of housewares and textiles to independent and multi-national retailers across Canada. The owner is requesting a $4 million long-term loan to purchase and equip a building in an industrial area of Montreal into which the company could move from its present location.

In late 2013, the founder of Aztek Chocolate, a candy manufacturer, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is confronted with making an accounting system selection decision. He has two traditional options — outsourcing to an accounting or bookkeeping firm versus using an internally developed spreadsheet or commercial software package — as well as a third “hybrid” option — using an accounting cloud, or Software-as-a-Service, service provider. Sales are starting to flow in, and chocolates are shipping out, but he realizes he must now attend to setting up financial control and reporting systems before he loses control of the new firm’s financial performance. Should he hire an accountant, manage the finances himself with a commercial accounting software package or use an accounting cloud service provider?

The owner and founder of a small, independent car-detailing service considers several opportunities for his upcoming busy season. These opportunities include expanding the company’s services, purchasing a truck and becoming a mobile auto detailer, franchising the business or selling the business to pursue other work for the summer. With his undergraduate studies beginning in September, the owner’s top priority is to earn enough money to pay for tuition and to sustain himself during his first year at university.

In late October 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent panel of primary care experts, was preparing to release their updated guidelines for the use of screening mammograms, which were given to women in an attempt to detect evidence of breast cancer at a treatable stage. The new guidelines, based on rigorous scientific research and tests, now recommended routine screening starting at age 50 rather than at age 40. The challenge the USPSTF faced was that this shift in the recommended starting age was likely to spark significant debate among medical professionals and in the press. Also available is the supplement 9B14M021.

In late October 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent panel of primary care experts, was preparing to release their updated guidelines for the use of screening mammograms, which were given to women in an attempt to detect evidence of breast cancer at a treatable stage. The new guidelines, based on rigorous scientific research and tests, now recommended routine screening starting at age 50 rather than at age 40. The challenge the USPSTF faced was that this shift in the recommended starting age was likely to spark significant debate among medical professionals and in the press. Use with 9B14M020.

Since 1996, Indigo Books and Music had grown to become essentially a book retail monopoly in Canada. But the global recession had hit the company hard, and the chief executive officer (CEO) was focused on creating innovation at every level of the national operation. The hope was that Indigo would eventually be able to compete internationally with giants such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Nobles. How to stabilize the company's financials while at the same time creating and promoting creative product lines that customers would crave was the critical question that the CEO had to answer if her company was to thrive in the future.

Alliance Design Concepts provided audio system solutions, which involved installing high-quality sound systems in customer facilities (such as large churches). A major cost component (60–80 per cent) for these systems was the equipment (speakers, amplifiers, etc.), which was sourced from the United States and paid for in U.S. dollars (USD). Alliance quoted prices to customers in Canadian dollars (CAD) by converting equipment costs from USD to CAD based on the exchange rate on the day of the quotation. Since it was often months later that Alliance actually converted cash and paid the supplier in USD, it found that a change in the exchange rate during that time could directly reduce the margin on the sale. The operations manager had to devise a risk mitigation strategy and/or business process change.

Spreadsheet (A) for product 9B11M117.

Spreadsheet (B) for product 9B11M117.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Responsible Leadership category, 2014 European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>In February 2014, a McKinsey Global Institute report proposed tracking an empowerment line that could enable India’s citizens to get out of poverty by providing the resources they needed to build better lives. This prompted Ela Bhatt, founder of the India-based Self-Employed Women’s Association, to take stock of her initiative to empower women working in India's informal sector. Since 1972, her organization has been widely acclaimed as a global first mover and active champion of grassroots development. Quickly approaching two million members in India and six neighbouring countries, and inspiring similar efforts in South Africa, Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso, it exemplifies a unique form of positively deviant organizing by speaking to the centrality of human beings at work. Given resources, support and encouragement, its many members have used their own human agency even in the direst of circumstances to better their lives in ways most meaningful to them, for instance, by creating childcare, health care, banking, farming and education cooperatives. However, as she reaches retirement and contemplates the future, Bhatt wonders if the new generation of Indian leaders will take up the Gandhian socially minded path or follow the commercial careers opening up in the country’s multinational sector. Also see B case 9B14C019.