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This case study is based on a high-profile issue facing the Canadian federal government that began in 2008 and was still ongoing as of December 2010. Industry Canada, working from a set of policy objectives crafted over a period of three years, had decided that in the auction sale of wireless spectrum licenses in 2008, it would set aside 40 per cent of the licenses for new entrants. This decision had come about because research indicated that Canadian usage of wireless services had lagged behind that of other developed countries, mainly due to the high relative cost of wireless services. <br><br>One of the new entrants was Globalive Communications Corporation (Globalive), a start-up which was funded by Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E., an Egyptian company. Despite the fact that Canada had well-defined foreign ownership restrictions for the telecommunications sector, Globalive was allowed to bid. It won, and paid $442 million for its spectrum, began to hire hundreds of staff, and committed another $300 million to investing in wireless infrastructure. From the time Globalive applied to participate in the spectrum auction to the period prior to its official launch, the firm met several times with Industry Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to ensure that its ownership was structured so as to fit within the foreign ownership restrictions.<br><br>Pressure had been put on the CRTC by carriers such as Rogers and Bell to conduct a formal review of Globalive, and this review had determined that Globalive did not fit within foreign ownership restrictions. However, the government had overturned this decision, revealing a conflict between regulation and policy.

The Royal Group Technologies case provides information on insider trading and other allegations faced by the former executive officer and the company’s management team. The executive officer founded the firm after immigrating to Canada from Italy, and built it up into a large conglomerate by the 1990s. However, by the early 2000s, stakeholders were starting to question some of management’s practices, including awarding themselves high levels of compensation and engaging in related party transactions. The allegations led to charges being laid by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2008. An Ontario Superior Court justice acquitted the management team in late 2009, providing a soon-to-graduate MBA student the chance to review the company’s successes and challenges in the hope that some general lessons about corporate governance could be distilled.

Late in August 2004, Chris Higgins was forced into the unenviable position of determining the future of Ring-A-Wing, a London, Ontario-based fast food producer of premium chicken wings for home delivery. After making a personal loan to a friend wishing to invest in the business, the situation devolved in less than nine months from Higgins being a passive lender to being a significant investor to sitting in a bankruptcy meeting trying to determine the future of the business. The issue in the (A) case is whether the Higgins group should reopen Ring-A-Wing.

This case is a supplement to Ring-A-Wing (A).

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This technical note uses information from the Canadian Bankruptcy Act, the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act, and the Personal Property Security Act to explain the way in which collateral security is obtained and to describe the rights of security holders in the event of bankruptcy or reorganization. The note includes the ranking of secured creditors and the most commonly recognized types of security interests.

Infusion had grown over the 10 years between 2000 and 2010 to become a $50 million per year international software services business with 350 employees. The president was wondering how he could move the company towards becoming a $100 million per year international business through a mix of organic growth and initiatives with partners. The entrepreneurial vision of its original founders lived on in many ways, but the company had found it necessary to install an administrative structure with a professional management layer to underpin delivery in both domestic and international markets. It had not been an easy ride. The company had encountered problems in India, and there had been periods of staff attrition and challenging deliveries to clients. Clients were beginning to pull the company in new directions. The pace of technology change appeared to be relentless. While entrepreneurship was still encouraged in the form of an idea incubator called Infusion Angels, the CEO was faced with some critical decisions.

In this dialogue-styled case, Binnj’s CEO has assembled a team of people for a 100-day science experiment to determine whether a new high-tech business venture is worth pursuing. He is focused on an untapped market — a new kind of restaurant menu service built on the Apple iPad platform. Members of the team are excited and have been working furiously on the project while retaining their full-time jobs. They have developed a prototype of the technology and business offering, pitched the idea to several clients, and generated significant interest. The case is set at the end of the first 100 days, when the CEO must decide on the next steps.

Keda, a manufacturer of large-scale machinery in China, had successfully deployed an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that was paying for itself through more efficient inventory management. This was significant because despite China’s increasing demand for ERP systems, an estimated 80 per cent of ERP implementation efforts failed in the country. The vice general manager of Keda had a large backlog of other information technology projects, and he wanted to carefully evaluate the ERP project to determine what had gone right, what had gone wrong, and what Keda had achieved through simple luck.

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This case addresses the theme of crisis leadership in a multinational enterprise in order to help students internalize the critical challenges of a multinational company in an emerging market. In August 2007, a routine product feedback and defect analysis process identified a defective batch of batteries supplied by a Japanese vendor. India happened to be the recipient of the largest proportion of the defective batch. Nokia’s corporate communications team, based in Finland, in cooperation with the Indian team, responded with a customary global product advisory. Instructions were made available on the Internet for customers to diagnose a defective battery and get a free replacement. Nokia was shocked to see the antagonistic response from the Indian press to the product advisory and the ensuing mayhem that spread quickly through the country. The head of Nokia India and his team had to act swiftly to preserve the company’s hard-earned reputation and market share. Case (A) is set as a midnight strategy session at Nokia’s Indian headquarters to chart out the way forward. A Bomb in Your Pocket? Crisis Leadership at Nokia India (B) is a short version of what actually happened: how Nokia and the team responded to the crisis and and used the situation to create new organizational capabilities.

This case is a supplement to A Bomb in Your Pocket? Crisis Leadership at Nokia India (A).

This note discusses the appropriate accounting treatment for contingencies under International Financial Reporting Standards and identifies key differences relative to Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises. Accounting for contingencies covers provisions, contingent liabilities, and contingent assets. The note discusses both how to decide whether a provision should be recorded and how to measure a provision. Further, the note clarifies the differences between provisions and contingent liabilities, discusses when contingent assets should be recorded, and identifies specific guidance for restructuring provisions. Finally, disclosure requirements are identified.

West Ham United was an English football (soccer) team that competed to win the right to move its games to the stadium being constructed for the 2012 London Olympics. It secured financial support from the local government and the backing of U.K. athletics. West Ham’s rival bidder, Tottenham Hotspurs, presented a strong business case for the move and required no public support. West Ham, despite this, won the right to move. The case focuses on ensuring acceptance of the move by fans who have an emotional attachment to the old stadium and are displeased that the new stadium’s athletic track adds distance between fans and the field.

This case examines how Samsung has grown to become one of the world’s leading companies. It presents a detailed description of Samsung’s “top priority to the people” philosophy and its strong cultural values, both of which have been instrumental in ensuring its continued success in recent decades. Since 1982, the Samsung Human Resource Development Center (SHRDC) has played a critical role in supporting Samsung’s corporate strategy of achieving global competitiveness through programs that focus on maintaining Samsung values and developing a cadre of effective next-generation leaders. New Employee Orientation (NEO), an intensive four-week in-house program for all Samsung employees, is one example of an SHRD program. NEO aligns employees across Samsung affiliates to its strategic direction, thereby fostering a stronger “Single Samsung” culture.<br><br>In recent years, however, NEO has been faced with new challenges. First, Samsung’s pool of new employees has become more diverse, with the recruitment of more experienced and foreign (non-Korean) employees in addition to the fresh college graduates whom Samsung has always relied upon. Second, Samsung has become aware of stark value differences between the older employees, who are obedient and easily follow rules, and the younger “digital native” employees, who are more individualistic and prefer egalitarian and open policies. Managers at SHRDC are concerned that the “Single Samsung” spirit, which forms the core of Samsung culture, is being threatened from within.<br><br>Students must address issues related to the need for maintaining a unified organizational culture among diverse groups of employees with conflicting values, and propose ways for Samsung to effectively employ and utilize all of its employees.

The case is set immediately following a catastrophic fire that destroyed the Triumph Motorcycle Company’s manufacturing facility in England. After having gone out of business in the 1980s, the company was resurrected by British entrepreneur John Bloor and, at the time of the fire, was in its tenth year of renewed operations. The decision facing Bloor and his team after the fire was to either rebuild and resume their strategy as before or consider whether another course of action might be worthwhile. <br><br>Students are challenged to identify and articulate Triumph’s strategy during its renaissance and evaluate whether other alternatives might be more appropriate. This mirrors the assignment given to McKinsey and Company when it was engaged to help Triumph during its post-fire recovery. The case provides information about Triumph’s history, as well as a current picture of the motorcycle industry.

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AWARD-WINNING CASE: Adjudged winner of the ISB Case Competition 2010 held in partnership with the Richard Ivey School of Business and the Association of Indian Management Schools and sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.<br><br><br><br>BASIX was a microfinance company with livelihood promotion as its key agenda. It had a strong presence in the poverty-ridden state of Jharkhand, India, where farmers were struggling to make ends meet. In 2005, PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd (Pepsi) entered into an agreement with BASIX for promoting contract farming of potatoes in Jharkhand. As per the agreement, Pepsi was to supply seeds and get an assured supply of quality potatoes. BASIX was to provide microfinance to the farmers and render training and consultancy for package of practices (POP). Farmers were to get assured buyback of the produce and also an opportunity to learn modern farming practices. The collaboration was successful in the first year and the project witnessed very high growth in the second year. The second-year results, however, were not as encouraging. The case is set at this juncture, where the project manager has to present his view on how to move ahead with the agreement.

This case explores value-driven strategy formulation and implementation by bringing to the fore issues of ethics, responsible leadership, social intiatives in emerging markets, and the global-local tensions in corporate social responsibility. It examines how Bayer CropScience addressed the issue of child labor in its cotton seed supply chain in rural India between 2002 and 2008. Bayer had been operating in India for more than a century. In December 2002, the Bayer Group completed the acquisition of India-based Aventis CropScience. Bayer CropScience first learned about the occurrence and prevalence of child labor in its newly acquired India-based cotton seed operations a few months post-acquisition, in April 2003. The Aventis acquisition had brought onboard a well-known Indian company, Proagro, which already had operations in the cotton seed production and marketing - a new segment of the supply chain for Bayer. Child labor was widespread in cotton seed production — a traditional practice taken for granted not only by Indian farmers but also by several hundred Indian companies then accounting for approximately 90 per cent of the market share. The (A) case focuses on Bayer’s decision whether, when, and how to launch a self-run program that would take direct responsibility for tracking and eradicating child labor in rural India.