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In 2008, International Automotive Company (IAC), a German manufacturer of automotive parts, acquired a plant in Reynosa, Mexico. This plant produced various types of motors for power windows, heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and wipers. At the time of acquisition, the plant was showing record losses. Because the acquisition was internally financed, it was crucial to make the plant profitable quickly. After conducting a deep analysis, the company discovered that a lack of proper management in the supply chain system was leading to a large amount of wasted resources. As a result, managers looked for opportunities to save money and facilitate improvements mainly in areas such as packaging, warehousing, and transportation. One of the greatest obstacles involved IAC’s employees, who were falling short in terms of knowledge and motivation.

The CFO of Artis REIT, a publicly traded real estate investment trust in Canada, must decide how to account for investment properties as the trust adopts international financial reporting standards (IFRS). While the CFO must choose between historical cost and fair value accounting, additional issues arise regarding how the standard should be implemented and the level of disclosure that the trust should issue. The CFO must consider all of the relevant stakeholders of the trust in order to decide the appropriate course of action.

A.P. Nichols, a distributor of parts in the maintenance, overhaul, and repair industry, is facing the need to realign its strategy to cope with a competitive environment. A key component of this realignment involves changes to the culture and compensation of its sales force while simultaneously building sufficient sales capacity to take advantage of opportunities in key markets. The case focuses on the newly hired vice president (VP) of sales, who is tasked with leading the change initiative. Immediate issues facing the VP include: 1) alignment of the client service representative (CSR) team to the strategy and new model; 2) infrastructure and the need to make a commitment to invest in bringing it up to a best-in-class level; and 3) building a critical mass in the CSR group.

The president and founder of the Taiwanese firm Shacom.com plans to set up an insurance scheme for low-income earners. A financial model for the operation has been created and students must assess the viability of the business, its adherence to financial regulations, and the risks that it entails.

Excel spreadsheet for students.

Antony Ving had secured the highly coveted analyst position for the Western Investment Club (WIC), a student-controlled organization at the Richard Ivey School of Business that managed over $100,000 according to a disciplined value investing philosophy. He was preparing a presentation on Dun & Bradstreet (DNB) for the next WIC meeting. DNB was a leading provider of information, services, and solutions; it was in the business of selling accumulated information and research to customers interested in due diligence for risk management, expansion, and supply chain management purposes. While DNB had passed the investment committee’s screening, Antony had to delve into the drivers of value to distinguish whether DNB had sufficiently sustainable operating and financial advantages in a sustainable industry to qualify as undervalued. He had to present a comprehensive valuation and strategic analysis on whether DNB was a buy… or a bust.

A recent business graduate decided to contact her former classmates from her value investing course. She emailed them with a proposal to re-evaluate the company they had valued for their final project, National Presto Industries (Presto). Presto was a diversified company operating in three different industries: housewares/small appliances, absorbent products, and defense. The price had dropped about 25 per cent and perhaps it was time to take it off of the group’s “watch list,” as it might now be undervalued and worth purchasing. Presto was initially brought to the group’s attention through a screening process that identified Presto as having a low price to earning value, a high dividend yield, and a small market capitalization. It was unusual in that it was a company that was over 100 years old and operated in stable and unglamorous segments, yet was still considered a growth company. If it was determined that Presto was a good buy, the team also wanted to establish an exit price, but due to a tight concentration of shareholders and low average daily trading volume, the team wondered how this low liquidity would impact the stock’s share price.

The case comprises an interview with Paul Cherry, who as chair of the Accounting Standards Board of Canada (the Canadian accounting standard setter) led a process that brought Canada to adopt international financial reporting standards (IFRS). The case provides a rich and in-depth examination of the real-world considerations that led Canada to adopt IFRS. It offers analysis of the competing alternatives such as the U.S. GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles), describes the consultation process, and sets out the thinking that led to Canada adopting IFRS. The case offers a unique opportunity for students to see a leader in the Canadian accounting profession set out what actually led to the adoption of IFRS.

Vithal Kamat, chairman and managing director of Kamat Hotels India Ltd., was a second-generation entrepreneur who has taken the Kamat Hotels brand to new heights. Kamat Hotels included five major verticals, from five-star luxury hotels (The Orchid Ecotels) to economy restaurants (Kamat Restaurants) catering to different customer segments. Kamat had ambitious plans for the expansion of every vertical using alternative growth strategies. However, the recent economic slump had caused a sudden setback due to the fall in average room occupancy and competing room-tariff rates offered by other hotels. In such a tumultuous situation, Kamat planned to use the core competency of The Orchid as an “ecotel,” that is, an environmentally friendly hotel, to go in for corporate branding and leverage its position in the market.<br><br>The case illustrates the challenges faced by Kamat in extending the core competency of The Orchid to its other verticals. The Orchid had performed better than the industry average until 2008, but in 2009 its performance dipped, partly because of the economic recession. This prompted the company board members to decide on extending the core competency of the ecologically sustainable hotel into other verticals. However, this decision had to be considered carefully in light of its impact on The Orchid as well as on the other verticals. What were the challenges that would be faced while extending the core competency of “ecoteling” to the other verticals?

Most family businesses do not last long. Only one-third are able to survive the transition from the first to second generation. A critical issue in the survival of family businesses is the management of succession. Most successions fail because first-generation founders find it difficult to disengage from their business as they approach the age of retirement. As a result, they fail to prepare the next generation of successors for the leadership role. A founder’s failure to plan for succession is due to various reasons, such as a lack of non-work interests, psychological identity with a firm, and fears of aging or death. Due to these reasons, the founder’s retirement is frequently portrayed as a negative event. Succession, in turn, is often seen as a phase of crisis and upheaval, which a business must overcome. However, this need not necessarily be the case. Retirement can be a new and exciting phase of life, while succession can be viewed as a strategic opportunity to revive a business.<br><br>This case involves an accomplished business leader, B.K. Jhawar, founder of Usha Martin Group, who successfully managed the twin challenges of retirement and succession. By the time he reached the age of retirement, Jhawar had built up a social venture (KGVK) as his second career. Before completely disengaging from the business and transitioning to his new role full-time, Jhawar prepared the second generation for business leadership and effectively passed on the baton.

In March 2005, the president of Digital Extremes in London, Ontario, had just received the latest industry data. The new Xbox 360 was a success and the president knew that Digital Extremes would have to add significant resources and fundamentally change its operations in order to focus on the growing console market rather than on PC gaming. However, given only three months before game development would begin for the next new console, the Playstation 3, the president was unsure of what changes would be possible.

The year 2006 marked the beginning of 2b Design, a social business in Lebanon that specialized in creating handmade furniture and decorative pieces. Raja Moubarak and his wife, Benedicte de Blavous, created their business venture around a focused social mission to preserve disappearing art, architecture, and heritage through artistic creations and employing marginalized people, particularly the handicapped and unemployable. By collecting and using wrought-iron and wooden pieces found in scrap yards from old Lebanese homes dating back to the Ottoman Empire, 2b Design managed to preserve a heritage that was increasingly at risk of extinction while both improving lives and maximizing positive environmental impacts through recycling scrap material. 2b Design’s mission was articulated as to “restore the unseen beauty of the broken.” “The broken” referred to the Middle East’s disappearing traditional heritage and to those people whose socioeconomic status or disabilities hindered them from leading a good life. 2b Design’s vision was to replicate the same concept in different countries beyond Lebanon. The founders were keen on exploring various channels that would gradually improve the impact of their business while meeting the dual challenge of long-term sustainability and the transformation of lives.

Ramesh Kumar was curious to determine whether consumers were loyal to toothpaste brands. Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste had herbal offerings in the retail and prescription segments, affording him the opportunity to conduct research. Were consumers loyal to a particular brand of toothpaste? Did they remember the functional brand benefits? Were consumers buying brands due to the social benefits reflected in ads? Did consumers continue to buy particular brands without switching? Were consumers interested in herbal toothpastes? How should Himalaya be perceived by consumers? This series of issues presented an opportunity to conceptualize consumer behaviour in the Indian context. <br><br>The concept of product involvement differentiates consumer segments based on the degrees of personal interest expressed by consumers with regard to products and services. High-involvement categories require consumers to be involved in extensive buying behaviour that leads to one or more of the following: risk reduction, enhancement of self-image, and gratification in having achieved an optimal choice after examining the alternatives. Low-involvement categories are those that are bought in a routine manner by consumers, with a lower degree of personal interest. Marketers always face competitive challenges in enhancing the degree of involvement even in low-involvement categories through appropriate branding initiatives, including in the toothpaste category.

In market-leading firms, software development is often undertaken by in-house teams to address specific information systems (IS) needs — in part because nothing that fits specific needs is commercially available. These projects often end up taking longer than planned and exceeding ever-growing budgets.<br><br>In this case, in-house software development of an information system for Canadian Shield Insurance was finally nearing completion (over budget and behind schedule), and the beta-testing phase and some initial training sessions had begun. Not all the first impressions were positive, so when the director became aware of a recently introduced commercial offering that seemed like a very attractive alternative, he faced a dilemma: should he abandon the developed project, which amounted to five years of work and over $1 million, for a different system that might be a better option? The protagonist in the case had done a preliminary functional comparison of the in-house information system and the commercial offering, and he recognized that the new alternative might hold some significant advantages for the firm. The potential negative implications for his career and the careers of the people he worked alongside during the development project caused him to think about whether or not he should be informing others within the firm about the commercial alternative and, if he did, what position he should take.

Excel spreadsheet for students.

This case series outlines the strategic choices facing Jean-Michel Gires, Total E&P France’s (TEPF) vice president of sustainable development, in designing and implementing a community engagement strategy. Case (A) begins with the approval of a pilot carbon capture and storage (CCS) system at TEPF’s Lacq facility in France, and outlines the strategic context for the community engagement process. Case (B) is positioned three years later.<br><br>The case includes a range of issues impacting the decision-making context, including the role of CCS in mitigating climate change; an outline of CCS technology; TEPF’s climate change strategy; the history of TEPF’s operations in the Lacq gas field, and interactions with local communities; the E.U. climate change regulatory environment (including carbon pricing and CCS); and CCS regulatory uncertainty in France.

This case is a supplement to Total’s Carbon Capture and Storage Project at LACQ (A).

On December 22, 2010, the chief executive officer of Al Hilal Bank in the United Arab Emirates was preparing to address a group of international banking executives who were interested in understanding what decisions had contributed to Al Hilal’s success thus far, and what challenges the bank would face in 2011 and beyond. In two and a half years, Al Hilal had developed a respected and fast-growing Islamic bank. The Al Hilal team had combined a foundation of strong corporate governance practices, a strong risk management framework, and an innovative customer service culture. As proof of its success, it had become profitable in the third quarter of 2009, and profits were rising rapidly.

This note was prepared as a practical guide for strategic analysis and action. The intent is to introduce students to the breadth of material in strategic management and to enable students to apply strategic analysis in a decision-making process. This note uses the perspective of a general manager in approaching strategic issues.

In July 2008, the vice chairman of General Electric (GE) was considering whether GE should re-enter the wind power market in India. Financial incentives had been announced by the government of India for wind farm operators who generated power through wind energy. These incentives might encourage market development so that GE could leverage the technological strength of its wind-powered turbines. However, as recently as 2005, GE Energy had pulled out of the Indian market after a frustrating stint in the country. The vice chairman needed to weigh the pros and cons of re-entering India and make a decision. There was reason for caution, however, from GE’s perspective. India was a complex market in which to operate, and the wind energy market was still developing. To be successful, GE would need to build a local supply chain and compete with the speed of delivery of Suzlon, the formidable domestic competitor. Should GE re-enter India?