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Green-Tech Inc., a Canadian company founded in 2006, was dedicated to developing, manufacturing, and marketing portable and stationary systems for the production of bio-oils and bio-char from biomass residues and wastes. Green-Tech was a recent spinoff from a large university research centre with a very good reputation for providing bio-energy solutions. Although focused and well positioned, Green-Tech had to manage relationships with large companies such as Shell that controlled vast and complete supply chains of oil-related businesses, as well as small firms and clients that were unable to manage their waste effectively. Large firms could provide plenty of business opportunities for Green-Tech, but could also jeopardize the company’s autonomy. Small customers on their own might not bring in enough cash flow, but could give Green-Tech sufficient freedom to pursue its own strategic goals. Both relationships seemed to lead to a promising future for this entrepreneurial start-up company, but also created serious risks. At the time of the case in 2011, Fernando Bruteque, vice president and one of the principal engineers of Green-Tech, was seeking the appropriate growth approach for Green-Tech. Being in charge of business operations, Bruteque also had to maintain a balance between research and development (R&D), investor and client concerns, and business opportunities. What would be the appropriate growth strategies and business operation strategies for a resource-constrained firm such as Green-Tech? How should it proceed?

Dr. Mak Lap Ming, an obstetrician and gynecologist who operated two clinics in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, was contemplating retirement. Now that his own child was financially independent and thus relieved some of the pressure on Mak, he was wondering if it made financial sense to retire soon. He also wondered what the immediate consequences of retirement would be and if semi-retirement was a viable option. To that end, he could work with a partner and shift control to that partner at some point; he could work at his clinics part-time; or he might be able to close one clinic completely and practice out of the remaining one. Mak also thought of retiring completely at the end of the year. Evaluating his options brought Mak significant internal conflict: part of him longed to attain the freedom to travel, yet he experienced great emotional satisfaction when he attended a birth and saw the joy that birth gave to the parents. Mak wondered whether, in his particular case, the pros of retirement outweighed the cons.

A new faculty member is engaged in a decision-making process surrounding the development of a points-based system designed to allocate merit pay at a business school. The process is forcing her to evaluate how she is structuring the allocation of her work, which is directly affecting her motivation toward coaching a student case competition team. Edwards has historically used a judgment-based approach to the allocation of merit. The case outlines the rationale used in the design of the new points-based system, discusses the potential advantages and disadvantages, and highlights the perspectives of different stakeholders throughout the process, including the union, the faculty, and senior administration. The union is opposed to merit, so has outlined fairly stringent criteria for the awarding of merit in the new collective agreement. Faculty opinion is mixed surrounding merit more generally, and the implementation of a points-based system versus a judgment-based system in particular. Senior university administration is committed to the continuation of the merit system at the university as a tool to reward outstanding performance and to retain star faculty. The individual departments at Edwards are in the midst of finalizing the standards and procedures for allocation of merit-based pay. The protagonist is uncertain about how her department will proceed in the design and allocation of points, and how it will result in her re-allocating her work tasks.

DD Traders was the Asian branch of DEMDACO, a privately held company that wholesaled unique gift products that were marketed and distributed to the specialty retail channel in the United States and some international markets. Carolyn Glasow recognized an opportunity to leverage a quantitative approach to sourcing future allocations across vendors that would also improve the short-term demand transparency that was provided to the company’s key business partners, which could in turn lead to increased bargaining power for price negotiations and production lead times. This was a recurring issue for Glasow and her sourcing team: how should she allocate product purchases among the various manufacturers that bid for the opportunity to supply products to DD Traders?

In March 2010, a city in Southwestern Ontario received a costing proposal from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). The mayor and the other city councillors needed to decide whether to disband the city’s current municipally based Sarnia Police Services (SPS) and replace it with contract policing from the OPP. The city’s request for the proposal had created much discomfort for the SPS employees, and had polarized the entire community. After analyzing the OPP contract proposal, the city planned to make several adjustments to the OPP financial estimate so that it would more closely reflect the current level of service provided by the SPS.

This case describes the organizational and strategic challenges of outsourcing research and development (R&D) activities from Denmark to China. Nokia Denmark was founded in 1996 as a subsidiary of the Nokia Corporation and contained the largest Nokia R&D unit, concentrating on the development of mobile phones, outside Finland. In 2007, Nokia Denmark received instructions from corporate headquarters to drastically increase the number of mobile phones developed. Motivated by the need to alleviate pressure on its in-house capacity, Nokia Denmark outsourced certain product development projects to the Taiwanese company Foxconn in a joint R&D (JRD) setup. Foxconn, one of the world’s largest electronic component manufacturers, which was also developing products for many of Nokia’s competitors, was given the responsibility of developing and testing selected standardized and less complex mobile phones. However, by 2010 Foxconn had become a central figure in Nokia Denmark’s product development process with responsibility for increasingly complex projects. <br><br>Given the growing importance of Foxconn for Nokia Denmark, the rising pressure from the corporate headquarters, and the competitive market environment, Nokia Demark thus faced the question of how to proceed with the JRD. Three alternatives were outlined for the future of Nokia Denmark’s JRD with Foxconn: the management could decide on scaling up, phasing out, or continuing the status quo.

Manager feedback sheet for product 9B11C024, 9B11C025, 9B11C026, 9B11C027, 9B11C028, 9B11C029 and 9B11C030.

With European nations approaching financial meltdown, conflicts multiplying in the Middle East, and the fiscal cliff looming in the United States, the world seems threatened by geopolitical crisis. This article identifies five factors that are contributing to global insecurity and delaying financial recovery. The first is economic uncertainty, marked by the global financial crisis and high unemployment — youth unemployment is 17 per cent in the United States and surpassing fifty per cent in Spain and Greece. The second factor is demographic shifts, with high projected population growth in Asia and Africa and shrinking projected populations in countries like Germany, Russia, and Japan. The third factor is political paralysis, as exemplified by partisanship in the U.S. Congress or the struggles of the fledgling Iraqi state. The fourth factor is war and terror, marked by an unresolved War on Terror, a rising Chinese military, and cyber warfare. The fifth is climate change and resources, particularly the increasing problems of global warming and resource scarcity. After outlining these five challenges to global security, this article stresses the importance of innovation and research and development as ways to avoid potential crises.

By the late 1980s, Japan was the second-largest economy in the world, in part due to its ability to produce high-quality products like automobiles. But the Japanese Miracle, which had begun with Japan’s quick economic recovery after the Second World War, ended abruptly in 1990. This article suggests that Japan, while excelling at reverse engineering and incremental product improvements, must boost innovation in order to thrive. It attributes Japan’s innovation deficit to its culture of harmony, which affects decision making. Japan’s “nemawashi-ringi” decision-making process involves preparing the groundwork for a new proposal, including talking with those affected by the proposal, getting their feedback, and modifying the proposal. Unfortunately, this process is slow, focuses on incremental improvements, and suppresses innovation. A better process should be compatible with Japan’s culture of consensus building, should foster knowledge creation, and should fit a centralized, hierarchical firm. Top management should encourage the formation of self-organized groups (the engines of innovation) and use a Rapid Evaluation of Ideas process. This includes a group formulating a proposal on a specific problem, identifying stakeholders, preparing a list of assumptions for each stakeholder, assessing these assumptions’ “Importance” and “Certainty,” plotting assumptions on a two-dimensional scale, analyzing the plot and identifying the next steps, collecting more information, meeting a week later after gathering information, and determining the next steps.

Although entrepreneurs commonly give advice, many of their most valuable lessons are left unsaid. This article lists and explains ten entrepreneurial “secrets.” 1. People are lazy and most innovations involve efficiency or reduced effort. 2. People are impatient and want instant gratification. 3. Starting a new business is a slow and deliberate process, but time is limited. 4. There is value in getting started and learning as you go. 5. Everything is a trade-off. 6. Unexpected things happen. 7. Take care of your body and you will make better decisions. 8. Know the intimate details of a venture. 9. Learn from everything. 10. Don’t be a jerk.

The global nuclear industry is at a pivotal point, as risk is weighed against opportunity. The debate is fuelled by the recent disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, the global focus on a secure energy supply, climate change, and political instability in oil-producing regions. This article, co-authored by the communications director of the Canadian Nuclear Association, describes what steps the Association is taking to communicate its strategy to stakeholders and increase their understanding of nuclear. <br><br>True to its scientific focus, the Association built its 2010-2015 strategic plan and communications on mental models research, which helps in identifying deeply held expert and stakeholder beliefs about an issue. With insights from mental models research, the Association developed a communications strategy built on sociology and psychology, insights from social science-based research, a dialogue orientation, and an understanding of network effects. What the association learned about successful communications strategy was to a) create impactful, consistent branding; b) enrich your web site and social and mainstream media to energize dialogue; c) hold milestone events for continuity, connection, and consensus; d) educate, inform, and engage; e) build strategic partnerships for inclusiveness and transparency; f) advertise key information and issues; g) engage with all levels of government; and h) engage and support members and employees. The Association measures communications efficacy using a variety of techniques, including updated mental models research, social media assessments of participation, web metrics, stakeholder surveys, and advertising reach.

Business growth, though one of the most discussed topics in the entrepreneurial world, is the subject of many faulty assumptions and erroneous beliefs. In detailing the science of business growth, this article starts by debunking the common myth that growth is always good. Growth can create value, but mismanaged growth can destroy value. A growth risk assessment tool is provided so that entrepreneurs can assess whether or not their firm is prepared to grow. Growth requires much more than strategy, and the author shares lessons such as that growth requires constant improvement, that hiring for cultural fit is essential, that a choice must be made between a team culture and a star culture, and that when a firm believes it “has it all right,” it has started to decline. The article discusses business upgrading and the growth plateau, and describes the four ways to grow — through improvements, innovations, scaling, and strategic acquisitions. It ends with a nine-part strategic growth checklist that includes geographic expansion, introduction of complementary products to existing customers, and expansion to new customer segments with existing products.

Little is known about the growing phenomenon of the “reluctant entrepreneur,” or individuals who start new ventures because they have no other choice. Often, these individuals would prefer to work as salaried employees but find themselves jobless; their motivation is less the entrepreneurial spirit than economic necessity. This article, based on an empirical study of 287 reluctant entrepreneurs, examines the personality issues that may drive them and provides evidence that they can achieve impressive results despite their less-than-perfect motivation. The study seeks to find out whether reluctant entrepreneurs possess the “Big Five” characteristics of entrepreneurs — risk-taking, need for achievement, need for autonomy, self-efficacy, and internal locus of control. The authors find that reluctant entrepreneurs are generally older than opportunity entrepreneurs when they start their business, and so have more managerial experience. A higher level of managerial experience predicts a higher level of success, and a higher level of the Big Five characteristics predicts a lower level of reluctance to become and remain an entrepreneur. Although it is encouraging that reluctant entrepreneurs are often successful, it is less encouraging that many are unhappy and want to return to their positions as salaried employees.

Many entrepreneurs believe that simply filling a niche will result in business success, but they fail to see the crucial role of effective media relations. Media coverage is essential in order to raise capital, generate demand, and gain credibility, yet it is difficult to attain. The direct method to attract media coverage is to issue a press release, yet this rarely garners attention unless delivered by a large firm. The indirect method, however, is to cater to the media’s needs — in effect, asking not what a reporter can do for you, but what you can do for a reporter. The author, a Manhattan-based public relations expert, describes how decades ago he earned limited coverage in The Wall Street Journal for a client’s medical product. But rather than focusing on simply promoting the product, he could have leveraged the inventor’s medical credentials and knowledge — this way, the media could have interviewed him as an expert who had made a scientific discovery and then gained familiarity with the product. In another case, a facial recognition product failed to gain publicity until after the World Trade Center attacks, when the inventor was widely interviewed as an authority on how to increase border security. This article suggests that if an entrepreneur can become positioned as a source of information on the broader field encompassing or related to their product, then the media can in turn become the entrepreneur’s "customer."

The Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Steve Coll is interviewed on the topic of ExxonMobil, the American multinational oil and gas corporation that is often considered both a corporate bully and a paragon of prudent management practices. In describing his research on ExxonMobil, Coll details its extreme degree of discipline and tightness of information released on the energy industry. He describes the former CEO Lee Raymond as sophisticated, concrete, and reform-minded, albeit intimidating to colleagues and ardent in his philosophy of anti-government regulation and climate change skepticism. Raymond focused on metrics for measuring company health, forced employees to follow the same script on operating performance, improved safety records, and bolstered financial discipline. He also had a close relationship with Dick Cheney, the U.S. vice president under George W. Bush. Besides his complex views on ExxonMobil, Coll shares his thoughts on “resource nationalism,” particularly the fraught relationship between oil and nationalism. He attributes opposition to building oil pipelines to environmentalist forces, and finishes the interview with his outlook on the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Companies must strike a balance between competing effectively in their current market while strategically innovating to capitalize on future opportunities. This article begins by examining the concepts of “competitive strategy” and “strategic innovation.” It details the Competitive Strategy Framework (5 C’s) of customers, competitors, channel configurations, cost structure, and core capabilities. It also unpacks the four archetypes of strategic innovation: attacking the mass market by designing a new value configuration; opening a new market by maximizing economies of scope through horizontal integration, value bundles, and enhanced customer experience; opening a new market by maximizing economies of scale through vertical and virtual integration; and pursuing the unserved, under-served, or non-consumers by tailoring products and business models to them. Managers should consider an organizational design that can both manage stability and handle change. The ability to continually adapt strategic moves as a function of strategic ambitions and new consumer behaviour will inspire new business models and innovations, which is the ultimate sustainable competitive advantage.

A recent MBA graduate has just received a one-year business assignment as a business development and marketing advisor to work with the Vietnam Handicraft Initiative (VHI), a vocational training and employment center for people with disabilities, located in Central Vietnam. Her job is to assist the VHI to increase its productivity, become sustainable and strengthen the capacity of the organization through improved business and marketing plans. Within the first four weeks of her arrival, she needs to detail her assessment of the VHI and provide key recommendations and focused work objectives for the remaining 11 months of her placement. She expects that the many cultural differences encountered along the way will provide a real challenge in accurately assessing the VHI and developing a detailed work plan.

Previous decades were characterized by relative stability and predictable economic growth. But in the new climate of volatility, unpredictability, complexity, and ambiguity, leaders must accept imperfection and uncertainty. Rather than respond to new situations according to scripts, expectations, and external standards, leaders should exercise self-awareness, creativity, and improvisation. Leadership is defined not by creating perfect plans, but by responding to unscheduled events and learning from them. As this article suggests, leaders must prepare themselves by accurately perceiving their unique mix of talents and flaws. Only then can they effectively leverage their ability to lead and move past conformity and the projection of superficial strength.

Nations across the world are commonly said to be facing leadership crises in sectors such as government, business, religion, and education. One phenomenon in the context of leadership decline is the rise of followers. Partly, this rise stems from long-term historical shifts away from dominance and hierarchy and towards democracy and increased rights. But recent technological changes also account for it, with social media and the Internet placing more power in the hands of common people. Paradoxically, during the last thirty years while leadership has been in decline, the leadership industry has flourished, and there is a proliferation of leadership centres, programs, workshops, books, and consultants claiming to teach people how to lead. After describing the current leadership crisis, this article uses the examples of political opposition to Vladimir Putin and more cooperative, restrained CEOs to illustrate the decline in traditional norms of leadership.

In recent years, professional service firms have seen considerable senior talent (often women with children) leave work. Many of these individuals leave their career due to the unwillingness of their employer to provide them with the flexibility to achieve a work-life balance. Virtual teams — often the answer to this problem — are those in which not all members are physically assembled; they share complementary skills and are enabled by technology such as the Internet and telephone. This format, which is especially suitable for individual, knowledge-based work, is on the rise due to employee demand. The lifestyle-driven virtual team model allows practitioners to be selective about their hours and projects, increasing employee satisfaction. Employers benefit due to virtual teams leveraging the best talent more easily and workers facing fewer office-related distractions. Unique challenges, however, include the absence of non-verbal communication, working across time zones, difficulty of building rapport, overreliance on e-mail and telephone communication, and managing conflict at arm’s length. After describing the paradigm of lifestyle-driven virtual teams, this article outlines the best practices: institute strong leadership, choose the right team members, set expectations from the start, implement strict protocols, use proven processes, manage timelines and budgets carefully, establish meaningful project milestones, encourage interaction, communicate more efficiently, and minimize team conflict.