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The controller for Asis Electronics, a subsidiary of a European-based corporation, was concerned that Asis might have overcharged the U.S. Ministry of Defense in a contract for transmitters. However, Asis’s chief financial officer did not address the matter when he learned of it. After being asked to sign an annual compliance document related to anti-corruption practices, the controller needed to decide whether or not to report the irregularities through established “protected communications channels” that ensured confidentiality.

Office romance has challenged sexual norms at work. Under the prevailing norms 40 years ago, a workplace affair meant a semi-clandestine liaison between a male executive (married or unmarried) and a female secretary or low-level assistant. Over the past few decades, sexual norms have become more flexible, and office romances are more likely to be out in the open. This case provides six real-life examples of office romance. In each case, students have an opportunity to consider how well the parties to the romance have conducted the relationship in a business context and what leaders could have done to manage the situation.

Between 2001 and 2011, iSoftStone Holdings Ltd. grew from a small information technology services firm operating out of Beijing with 40 employees into a global IT consulting and services company with 11,000 employees, effectively competing with established Indian outsourcing IT providers such as Tata and InfoSys. The case discusses the particular go-to-market and growth strategies of iSoftStone and its evolution as a global player. The focus of the case is on addressing how iSoftStone approached the management of its human capital and intellectual property as both the vehicle for its rapid and successful expansion and as a differentiating factor between the enterprise and its competitors. The iSoftStone story also demonstrates the importance of enterprise-wide measurement of performance and the use of lessons learned in refining internal business processes and in developing project and service delivery teams.

The vice president of operations for Acpana Business Systems Inc., a Canadian software development and backup-as-a-service provider located in Toronto, Canada, is concerned that the recent appreciation of the Canadian dollar is significantly affecting Acpana’s revenue and undermining the company’s organic growth. The case focuses on understanding and quantifying the risks associated with exchange rate fluctuation and its impact on a firm’s revenues and costs. The case introduces instruments available to hedge risk, including forward contracts and put and call options.

Impulsesoft Private Ltd (IS) was a Bangalore-based information technology that was engaged in developing Bluetooth (BT) middleware. The founders had wanted to build a software product out of India that targeted a global market. This desire was verbalized as an idea “to build a Sony or HP (Hewlett-Packard) out of India” and “build a world-class products company.” In its infancy, IS undertook different kinds of development projects for third parties and considered several other options until it discovered BT middleware as an area of focus. The company eventually became profitable, with 52 employees by 2005 and a branch office in Silicon Valley. Impulsesoft’s BT software was in 50 per cent of all BT stereo headphones being shipped at the time. The market for BT-embedded accessories grew rapidly, but chip manufacturers began to incorporate BT features in their chips and gave away the technology for free, and the long-term outlook for IS deteriorated. There were also doubts about the scalability of a technology licensing business model. At this juncture, the president and CEO of Impulsesoft received a proposal from the CEO of TEN Technology, a customer of IS and a $20 million company, suggesting a merger of the two companies. The CEO of Impulsesoft needed to make a decision.

The case is set in mid-2009, about six months before the scheduled worldwide launch of Microsoft Azure. The group director of cloud computing for Microsoft India was considering the pros and cons of launching Azure simultaneously in India with the rest of the world. Cloud computing was a paradigm shift in the information technology (IT) industry that fundamentally changed how software and services were delivered to an end-user’s desktop. Cloud computing enabled shared resources — software, hardware, and information — to be provided to consumers on demand, charging them based on usage. Azure was Microsoft’s offering in this space, providing software and infrastructure as a service, and was also a platform to develop new applications on a pay-per-use model. Microsoft had always made its products available to users in the traditional license model, and Azure would be a paradigm shift not only in terms of technology but also in terms of the business model.<br><br><br><br>The director had to decide whether the nascent Indian market was ready to adopt this new technology and business model, and which segments to target. There were many reasons why the Indian market looked very lucrative, including presence of a strong IT development community, increasing IT adoption across Indian industries, and presence of a very big potential customer base in terms of small and medium enterprises. Conversely, there were concerns such as poor current IT adoption, rampant piracy, low availability of infrastructure in India (such as electricity and broadband penetration), and the “do-it-for-me” attitude of Indian businesspeople, which meant significant initial costs in terms of time and effort required to increase awareness.

The general manager of environmental and engineering services in London, Ontario, is preparing a recommendation regarding the implementation of green bins to collect organic waste from city households. When making this decision, he must consider the costs to the taxpayer to implement this program along with other qualitative issues. The case is written for an engineering economics unit in a general business course for engineering students as an introduction to public-sector decision making.

A marketing manager at an RV park developer wants to update the company’s online presence in preparation for a new product launch. Lacking any website design skills himself, he must address various issues, such as where to find potential web design agencies, and how to select an agency. Soon after selecting an agency, the marketing manager begins to doubt his decision. The agency does not seem aligned with the marketing manager’s strategic vision for the website, and has wasted valuable time producing work that must be discarded. The marketing manager, now too close to the new product launch to hire a new agency, must determine how to ensure the agency’s work adheres to the project’s strategy, budget, and timeline.

This case is a supplement to Redesigning Sunny Meadows.ca (A).

Determining what employees want from their jobs has long been important to employers who wish to motivate them. This note explains the concepts of work values, organizational culture, and person-organization fit. Students will complete a personal values profile and an organizational culture profile to allow assessment of person-organization fit.

The Tim Hortons Brier is the annual Canadian men’s national curling championship. In the case, students will assume the role of Peter Inch, chair of the 2011 Brier Host Committee, to create and finalize the promotional plan for the 2011 Brier, to be held in London, Ontario. Inch’s objectives are two-fold: i) create interest for the event and the sport of curling and ii) execute a safe and profitable event.

At the University of Wyoming, home games played by the men’s basketball team generated significant revenues for the athletics department through ticket and concession sales. With the 2009-2010 season ending, it was time to forecast revenues for the upcoming season. Even though ticket prices were already set, providing a revenue forecast was difficult, as the schedule of home games for the 2010-2011 season was not yet known, and both ticket and concession sales for each game were uncertain. A director of business operations for the athletics department needed to review data from the four most recent seasons and determine the best way to forecast revenues for the upcoming season.

During the summer of 1998, Bob Aston and his partners, all bankers, spent many days discussing their plans to start a bank in southeastern Virginia, United States. Deregulation was transforming the banking industry. In Virginia, mergers and acquisitions in the industry had led to the emergence of large banks that had headquarters in other states. Aston felt that banking as he knew it was disappearing. However, before they could start a bank, Aston and his partners faced many questions and decisions: How would they raise the capital? Who would the bank serve? How would they compete with the larger banks that had emerged due to the deregulation? <br><br><br><br>The decisions they made at the founding had a lasting effect on TowneBank. This became evident a decade later as financial institutions around the country experienced a severe crisis that was triggered by exposure to risky mortgages, while TowneBank remained relatively unscathed. However, the management team had to consider several issues as the crisis unfolded. Should they accept the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds that the U.S. Treasury had offered to banks (even those that were unlikely to fail and were adequately capitalized)? How could they ensure TowneBank’s growth? Should they acquire distressed banks in the local market?

November 29, 2010, was “Cyber Monday,” one of the busiest online shopping days of the year, with the potential to approach $1 billion in online sales in North America. The chief designer of fashion company Donna Karan New York (DKNY) was facing a difficult situation. On this particular Cyber Monday, activists for the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had posted simultaneous messages on DKNY’s Facebook page. Anyone viewing the page could not fail to discern the “DK Bunny Butcher” message. This action by PETA was the culmination of several years, beginning in 2005, of attempting to convince DKNY to stop using fur in its collections. This November 29 message was a sharp reminder to both DKNY and its Cyber Monday customers that, up to this point, the company had refused to stop using fur. It was available to be viewed by DKNY’s over 200,000 Facebook fans as well as millions of online Cyber Monday shoppers. The chief designer was unsure how to respond: on one hand was the desire to clearly explain the use of fur, but on the other was the desire to avoid escalating the publicity surrounding the matter. She needed an immediate strategy that would retain her brand’s image and protect future sales.

The owner of a large hardware, furniture, and building centre faced a dilemma regarding how to manage the upcoming wage review process. After two consecutive years of frozen wages, employees were impatient for financial progress, but there was no extra money in the budget. It was possible to pump savings from upcoming process improvement initiatives into wage increases. However, the owner had limited motivation to channel hard-won funds to underperforming employees. On the other hand, he was eager to reward the people who added value. Yet a plan that rewarded only some employees could result in an angry backlash. He had to decide if he wanted to divert the savings into compensation and, if so, he needed an effective distribution plan.

Margaret Linnane had just arrived home from a funders’ meeting where she had been asked questions that nearly challenged the very purpose of her nonprofit organization, Rollins College Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership Center (PNLC). She had been unprepared for the tough questions the funders had asked and she knew that she would need to be much better prepared for the next meeting in one month. She needed answers to the funders’ questions in four short weeks, so Linnane and the PNLC staff put other efforts on hold while they worked intensely to prepare. They gathered all the documents on the PNLC’s mission, vision, and strategic plan. They needed to determine what information to compile to convince the funders that the PNLC’s services (such as networking among established chief executive officers and foundation directors, and introducing newcomers to the nonprofit community) contributed to the professionalization of nonprofit leaders and organizations while addressing critical community issues — even if such services had not yet generated any revenue. What outcome measures were appropriate for assessing the success of non-income-generating activities such as networking? To start to search for answers to such questions, Linnane decided to review PNLC’s performance from the last two years and build a strategy for 2011-2012. Time was of the essence because without the support of funders, PNLC would be hard-pressed to continue offering its well-established networking activities.

Marco Polo Marine (MPM) Ltd was a medium-sized Singaporean shipping company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange that was involved in regional shipping and shipbuilding. The company was part of a larger Indonesian family business group, and had been built from scratch by the CEO. MPM had started off providing barges to transport sand and mining products, initially for the group’s mining operations, but increasingly for third parties. It subsequently entered the shipbuilding industry by establishing a shipyard in Batam, Indonesia, an island near Singapore. As a next step to grow the company, the CEO intended to become an international player in the much more sophisticated offshore marine services sector, but he had yet to decide what strategy to take to achieve it. The case allows students to analyze a global industry and present recommendations to the CEO for positioning the company within this industry. MPM is an example of an aspiring emerging market multinational, and the case discusses the challenges such companies face in catching up with more advanced incumbents in global industries. In order to penetrate the offshore marine services sector, decisions were required as to what types of vessels to build or buy, which countries to target, and how to enter this market given financial constraints and limited technical expertise.

El Mawardy Jewelry was an Egyptian jewelry company located in Cairo, Egypt. The company was able to attract many customers due to its variety of designs, high-quality products, and competitive prices. The friendly atmosphere and customized services provided by the salespeople helped the company gain a competitive advantage. The Mawardy family was able to build on its success and open different stores across Egypt. In 2009, the financial crisis hit Egypt and many businesses were negatively affected. Faced with this challenge and a goal to go international, the Mawardy family considered different possibilities. The company had many options, but decided to focus on Qatar and the United Kingdom. It needed to decide whether it was better to expand now or later. It also needed to consider where to expand first — Qatar or the United Kingdom.

Barrick Gold, the largest gold producer in the world, has taken steps to eliminate its longstanding gold hedging program. In its early years, Barrick’s hedging program was a key factor allowing the firm to grow amid falling gold prices. But Barrick’s management team faced questions about its hedging program when gold prices started to rise in the 2000s. The case allows students to review Barrick’s hedging program and consider the impact of its decision not to hedge going forward.

A consumer goods analyst has been asked to understand the governance structure and various risks facing Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA, a Swiss-based luxury goods conglomerate. Richemont has emerged as one of the premier luxury brand houses in the world and is controlled by a single person, Johann Rupert. The case describes the development of Richemont and provides information on various aspects of the firm, including its many luxury brand houses, management’s preferences, and competitor information with which to conduct a comparator analysis.