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This is a supplement to The Popcorn Predicament: Competition, Conflict and Buying Behaviour.

This is a supplement to The Popcorn Predicament: Competition, Conflict and Buying Behaviour.

This is a supplement to The Popcorn Predicament: Competition, Conflict and Buying Behaviour.

This is a supplement to The Popcorn Predicament: Competition, Conflict and Buying Behaviour.

This is a supplement to The Popcorn Predicament: Competition, Conflict and Buying Behaviour.

It was April 10, 2011, when the head of Whirlpool’s Asia International Procurement Office in Shanghai was informed by his colleagues that the company was about to launch a new energy-efficient refrigerator model in just six months. For the new refrigerator model, the basic difference was in the motor; the current AC motor would need to be replaced with a DC motor, which was more efficient but also more expensive. He would have to find a suitable supplier of DC motors in a very short time. Delayed sourcing of components would cause delays in the production of a new refrigerator and result in a later launch of new products. Within the home-appliance industry, the fierce level of competition meant that any delays in launching new products would result in a loss of sales. How should Whirlpool go about the process of finding a suitable supplier for the required DC motor parts? Should the company explore the possibility of developing its current supplier, or should it quickly engage an existing supplier of DC motors?

This case deals with a dilemma faced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. Following the elimination of India from the knock-out phase of the World Cup 2007 championship, the BCCI and team sponsors found themselves at a crossroads. Others were vying with cricket for the advertising budgets of companies, and spectator interest for cricket was on the wane. The vice president of the BCCI had to perform a situation analysis after the backlash from fans and assess the way forward for the sport after the team’s poor performance in the World Cup. The case facilitates an analysis of the environment for cricket in India in 2007 and an assessment of the need for next steps for the game to regain its preeminent status among sports fans in the country.

Annapurna Mahila Mandal (AMM), Mumbai, is a trust that provides micro credit and other services to poor working women. It was established in 1975 by a veteran Goa freedom fighter and social entrepreneur and her late husband, a union leader, in the wake of a decade-long millworkers’ strike in Mumbai. Though AMM was a pioneer in the field of urban microfinance, by 1982 it slowly started losing its focus on microfinance and diverted to other social activities, which were difficult to scale up and thus started to turn unviable. In 1993, when AMM’s chairperson began looking after the operations, she realized that the external environment was evolving quickly with changes in regulations, rising competition, rising aspirations of microfinance clients, etc. If not tackled on time, these potential threats could jeopardize the survival of the organization. AMM needed to develop a very clear vision as to which direction it should grow in in order to become sustainable without losing its focus on the core objective — the empowerment of poor women.

PowerPoint presentation for product #8B12M059.

In April 2012, the director of marketing for Pepsi Beverages Canada assessed the launch plans for the year's version of what had traditionally been called the Pepsi Challenge. Now called the Pepsi Ultimate Taste Challenge, the goals of the campaign were very aggressive and, of course, a Coke versus Pepsi battle was always difficult. The novelty for summer 2012 was the emphasis on social media, and the interaction between social media and the Ultimate Taste Challenge. In addition, the marketing director was targeting the Millenials as a target market segment. These consumers were a notoriously difficult group to market to. The marketing director assessed the proposal he received and needed to make a decision as to whether to approve it, or whether changes were necessary to achieve his market share goals.

Excel spreadsheet for instructors.

This case depicts the start-up and business development challenges faced by a streetwise entrepreneur who has invented a unique fishing rod. The capabilities necessary to invent, prototype, and bring to market a limited quantity of product versus the challenges of larger-scale commercialization and management of a growing business are illustrated. The case primarily addresses why some entrepreneurial ventures succeed and grow while others stay insignificant, and why a majority of entrepreneurial initiatives eventually fail. Indigenous constructs such as entrepreneur- and organization-specific factors and exogenous constructs such as industry, location, and time-specific factors that may predetermine the outcome of an entrepreneurial venture are illustrated. A business plan, which has attracted angel investment, is presented for critical assessment. The case’s background story shows that all businesses face resource constraints and trade-offs and that managers must continuously adapt and upgrade their business models, competencies, and management styles to match evolving market standards.

The newly-promoted international operations director for ReedTrek Manufacturing, is trying to diagnose the issues at his company's under-performing China plant. While the operations director originally believed the loss-making operations suffered from technical issues, his visit to the plant suggests to him that there are leadership and management issues.

This is a supplement to ReedTrek Manufacturing (A) 9B12C051.

This is a supplement to ReedTrek Manufacturing (A) 9B12C051.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Emerging Chinese Global Competitors Category at European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>7 Days Inn, a leading hotel group in China, was established in 2005 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2009. It now operates more than 1,000 hotels in 168 major Chinese cities and has enrolled more than 30 million customers in its membership club. Its success is largely due to its innovative business model and operations strategy, which includes designing product services with the vertical cutting approach, enhancing customer loyalty through a membership system and direct sales, managing a hotel chain with different governance structures and expanding a hotel chain with an innovative franchised-and-managed model. In particular, the case introduces the company’s shepherd management philosophy. However, as the company expands, it has become difficult for headquarters to manage and supervise all the hotels. In addition, the resignation rate of hotel managers has gone up to 30 per cent in the past few years. What should 7 Days Inn do to deal with these challenges? Does the company need to break the rules again and innovate its business model, operations strategy or operating model — or all of them?

UrbanBaby is a newly developed smartphone application (app) that allows users to address the difficult task of finding activities, restaurants and other forms of entertainment for newborns to young teens. A number of issues must be addressed if it is going to be profitable. First, the app’s creators, Alex and Pavel, are unsure how to characterize the large potential target market, parents, or if there are other target markets that might be interested. This is critical, as the success of the app depends on the cultivation of a strong online community that will contribute content. Second, they have to find a reliable source of data to populate the app. Third, they must decide whether to focus on Apple's operating system, which is popular in North America, or put more of their energy into competing operating systems that are much more popular in the rest of the world. Finally, they have a number of strategic marketing choices to make and to prioritize, including whether to keep the UrbanBaby brand name and risk the ire of similarly named competitors, how to price the app, how to position and promote the app and how to time the rollout. How these initial choices will affect subsequent strategic and tactical decisions is also a matter of concern.

This is a supplement to Struggling to Make the Best Buy (A), product # 9B10A010.

Capitec Bank was a new bank established at the end of apartheid to offer banking services and loans to the large numbers of low-income potential customers newly opened to economic progress and aspiration by the end of the discriminatory system. The banking context was dominated by four major and long-established banks characterized by conservative legacy practices. Capitec planned to create an innovative offering to serve the low-income market and to migrate this offering into higher income groups. At the same time, the competitive context began to change, as other banks sought to attract lower-income clients as well. The case examines Capitec’s strategic options for survival and expansion in this context.

In 2012, the Ontario provincial government announced that after 41 years in operation, the iconic Toronto tourist attraction Ontario Place would be shut down. The immediate closing would save the province and tax payers an estimated $20 million a year and eliminate at least 48 full-time jobs and 600 summer positions in the process. Ontario Place attendance had dropped sharply from an average of three million visitors during the early 1980's, to just over 327,000 in 2010. The Ontario government planned to keep the park closed until 2017 and spend the five years following closure to redevelop the majority of the site. It established an advisory panel empowered with the task of evaluating how to once again make Ontario Place a popular city venue and tourist destination. The advisory panel was expected to submit a full report outlining the best ideas for the Ontario Place revitalization to the provincial government by the end of the summer.