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The Blue Bulls rugby team enjoyed a fanatical fan base and had been performing well in local and international competitions recently. As a leading South African rugby franchise, the Blue Bulls faced a social and political environment that emphasized racial transformation. An up-and-coming Afrikaans musician had become best-seller with his De La Rey song, which was about a Boer soldier who calls on General De La Rey to lead the Afrikaner people to victory in the second South Africa War between the Boer Republic and colonial Britain. Given the emotive theme of the song and the response by some to view it as a reassertion of Afrikaner nationalism, the song had attracted significant media coverage and controversy. As part of the entertainment at the Vodacom Super 14 rugby game between Western Force and the Vodacom Blue Bulls, De La Rey was played over the stadium loudspeakers. This delighted most of the mainly White Afrikaans spectators. As the evening progressed, the acting head of the Blue Bulls Company, the organization that managed the Blue Bulls rugby team and the Loftus Versveld stadium, received a number of complaints from supporters about the playing of the De La Rey song and thus decided to remove the song from the official stadium playlist. By Monday morning, a media frenzy had erupted about this decision and the acting head was faced with a number of options of how to respond. The case is written for a first-year MBA module and is designed to explore the following themes: 1) race, identity and language as consumer behaviour variables 2) spectator, supporter and consumer processes within sports marketing 3) sports brand development and sponsorship relationships.

The vice-president of marketing at Arts & Crafts was reflecting on the company's extremely successful year in the music business. New artists had been added to the company's roster, experiments with digital releases and marketing campaigns had been successful, and plenty of international licensing opportunities were emerging. In addition, one of the company's artists, Leslie Feist, had received multiple music awards. On the other hand, the music industry was facing some difficulties and most analysts predicted nothing but doom and gloom. The vice-president of marketing had to consider the future strategy of Arts & Crafts while considering the overall health of the industry.

On their return to Croatia following a six-year visit to the United States, a couple has decided to open their own coffee house, one that is new to Croatia — a California-style coffee house that offers the quality, service, product assortment, ambiance, and efficiency found in sophisticated coffee shops in developed markets, and all for a locally affordable price. The major challenge faced by the couple is how to grow. Specifically, should they consider franchising over organic growth? If so, how should they go about franchising in a country where the market is developing and where franchising is under-regulated, underdeveloped, and misunderstood?

The Minister of Justice for the Republic of Iceland is contemplating how to work with the various stakeholders to implement the recommendations for the structure of policing. The main issue to address is how to consolidate the number of region-based police forces. The minister's views on restructuring the police force are shared by the police association; however, a number of municipalities and police commissioners are not as enthusiastic about the proposed changes to the structure of the police organization. He understands that change is never a pain-free process. Formal reports have been submitted and now is the time to make some decisions.

The owner of Cenabal, faced an important decision. She had received an offer from two investors on the television show The Dragon's Den. She wondered if it would be wise to give up 50 per cent control of her organic salad dressing and bread dipping business in return for their $200,000 investment. Would losing a considerable amount of control over the business be worth gaining access to capital and their notable business experience? The supplements Cenabal (B) and (C) look at subsequent events.

The owner of Cenabal, an organic salad dressing and bread dipping company, had received an offer from two investors on the television show The Dragon's Den. The show's premise of all or nothing did not leave room for negotiating terms. Now as she carefully read the contract, she considered whether she was willing to sign it. This supplement follows Cenabal (A). The supplement Cenabal (C) looks at subsequent events.

The owner of Cenabal, an organic salad dressing and bread dipping company, had obtained the funds her company required. Now, she faced the decision of how to spend the money. Some of the possibilities included expanding the product line, entering the U.S. market, or improving the distribution channels. Naturally, each of these choices had advantages and disadvantages that she must consider. This is the last supplement that follows Cenabal (A) and (B).

The chief executive officer (CEO) of Fortune Motors, the largest Mitsubishi dealership in Taiwan, has to consider his vision for the survival of the company. Fortune Motors' sales in 2003 had fallen below 50,000 units for the first time in 10 years, and market share had been falling for several years. The CEO had a plan to enter the business of financing used-car purchases. He thought that the balanced scorecard would be a useful tool to help him implement this change. The first step was to construct a corporate scorecard.

On November 30, 2007, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Goodwin Wealth Management (Goodwin), decided to hire a consultant to make an assessment of his current situation. Recently, several firms had expressed interest in acquiring Goodwin. The CEO knew he would have to decide whether to consider these offers or not very soon in order to avoid a hostile bidding situation. If the CEO did decide to consider an acquisition, he would have to act quickly in order to take advantage of the current stock's high price. Further complicating the decision was the fact that Goodwin had been built by the CEO's father, George, who would try to influence the decision-making process. The CEO wanted to do what was best for the company while protecting his family's reputation. He awaited the advice from the consultant.

In March 2006, the divisional vice-president of enterprise information technology for Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) noted that the Business Intelligence (BI) system had not yet been implemented. Slow but steady steps were taken by his team but the implementation was one year behind. It was becoming evident that BI was not just about technology; the right people and processes had to be in place. The divisional vice-president wondered what his priorities should be in order to implement the BI system as soon as possible.

In March 2008, the vice-president of governance, architecture, and corporate and diversified businesses for Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) felt confident that the Business Intelligence (BI) system that had been scheduled to be implemented in 2005 was now ready for implementation. The right people and processes were now in place. With the right people involved at different levels in the organization and several process-related initiatives, CTC's annual report announced that several technology projects would be implemented this year.

Lauren McDonald, a recently promoted manager at the public accounting firm Ernst & Young in London, Ontario, has an appointment with one of her senior staff accountants. McDonald had met with the staff accountant two months earlier as part of the staff accountant's mid-year performance review. The meeting had also included an informal discussion as to whether the staff accountant was on track for a promotion to manager, which would be decided later in the year. The staff accountant had asked McDonald for another meeting to discuss the responsibilities of becoming a manager in more detail. McDonald had faced many challenges in her three months as a manager and had not had time to reflect on her own performance. However, she wanted to share her experiences with the staff accountant to better prepare her for the challenges she might face in the coming year.

An entrepreneur is looking for business opportunities since she immigrated to London, Ontario. She has come across a franchising opportunity with Williams Coffee Pub (WCP). The promotional material for WCP indicates that annual sales for a typical restaurant can be up to $1,700,000 with a profit margin of 17.5 per cent. This business opportunity seems very attractive, however, she must do some additional investigation. The purpose of this case is for students to build a spreadsheet-based cash flow model and to use the model to perform basic sensitivity or What if? analysis.

Excel spreadsheet for instructors.

The year 2007 had to have been one of the worst in the history of British Petroleum plc (BP). In the span of four months, two separate independent reports (the first one commissioned by BP itself) had identified a deeply rooted culture of risk within BP where money and profits were valued above worker and environmental safety. These reports were in response to an explosion in 2005 at an oil refinery in Texas City, in the United States, which killed 15 people and injured more than 180, but the reports also referred to pipeline leaks in Alaska as well as other serious safety lapses throughout BP's global operations. The Texas City explosion was the worst but not the first major incident at a BP facility, and the revelations in the reports severely damaged the credibility the so-called super-major oil company had earned over the last decade. The job of restoring investor and stakeholder confidence as well as the firm's reputation fell to the BP board and its star group chief executive, Lord John Browne. The B case, product 9B08M003, examines the role played by the board with respect to the personal integrity of Lord Browne. The teaching objectives are to introduce students to examining the role of the board with respect to risk management as well as its social responsibilities to various stakeholders.

This supplement to product 9B08M002 examines the role played by the board with respect to the personal integrity of Lord Browne, who had been several times identified as the chief executive officer of the year by the Financial Times.

Alex Sharpe's Portfolio provides an introduction to the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), portfolio diversification and risk management. Sharpe currently holds the Vanguard 500 Index Fund, but is considering a more active management strategy. Students must assess the risk of the two stocks she is considering adding to her portfolio. Students are provided with monthly stock returns and must calculate the standard deviations of the individual stocks and of the portfolios when one of the stocks is added to it. Students must calculate the stock's beta using regression and will learn that beta is the appropriate measure of risk to use in decision making since risk-averse investors do not hold stocks in isolation.

Coloplast's future global manufacturing strategy was based on relocation of volume production of mature product lines to low cost countries like Hungary and China, whereas most creative and innovative activities (pilot production, ramp-up and range care) were retained in Denmark. The large scale project of offshoring, first volume production and later perhaps other activities, to Tatabanya, Hungary constituted a major shift in the operational strategy for Coloplast, which resulted in a series of organizational and managerial challenges. An important feature of the case is the surprise to the management team of how challenging it was to globalize the operations despite Coloplast's international experience operating a network of subsidiaries in more than 26 countries. The management team learned how important it is to have the structure, the organization and the mindset in place when offshoring production. Sourcing internationally is very different from selling internationally as it involves the entire organization. The learning process of the management team and the challenges they faced is unfolded in this case.

The experienced entrepreneurial chief executive officer (CEO) of Jadelink International Limited was striving to create a modern jewelry brand representing a new perception in jade. The CEO has achieved early success by growing sales rapidly and bringing Jadelink products to Shanghai, the trendiest city in China. But the company wanted to expand business to the Asian and international luxury goods markets. This requires intensive capital to continue to build up the company scale. This case examines the establishment of a new business in China, managing business growth and acquiring venture capital. It also allows discussion of factors leading to successful entrepreneurship and dealing with business highly associated with industry tradition, people connection, and product design and innovation.

A service delivery failure in the Mount Rundle Hotel escalates into a full-fledged confrontation between hotel management and the customer. The hotel general manager has an inward focus and is more intent on managing internal company systems and processes than catering to customer needs. The delay in responding effectively to the service failure leads to the involvement of the Better Business Bureau of Alberta, the Banff Lake Louise Tourism Development Board and the Banff mayor's office.