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On many levels and from serval perspectives, an entrepreneur's challenges are different. One of the most acute challenges may be managing in a credt cruch, specifically, finding cash when traditional sources of funding have all but stopped extending credit. This author, who has worked with many highly visible and successful entrepreneurs, offers helpful suggestions.

Visualize a leader with virtues such as courage and integrity, as well as five key types of intelligence, and you've got a clear picture of the cross-enterprise leader. So equipped, such a leader has what it takes to adopt the enterprise-wide perspective that is necessary to make the right decisions for creating and delivering value to all stakeholders. These Ivey professors describe how an organization develops the type of leader to succeed in today's dynamic and complex business environment.

It may not be negotiator’s remorse but at certain times you may feel sorry that – or at least wonder why – you ever closed a deal. In such a case, you’ll probably discover that you did the deal for the sake of doing a deal – not to build a sustainable, positive and productive relationship. These authors describe how to make sure that every deal delivers value.

It's a competitor's notion of the perfect storm - low-cost and value-added provider. These authors have valuable advice to help managers weather the storm.

Adaptability is a must have for a leader. At different points and for different reasons he or she must change behavior to succeed. This author shares the advice she's given to business leaders.

Shortly after the acquisition of Corus in 2007, Tata Steel Limited entered the international markets with a convertible bond offering (CARS) that had distinct features. The offering of US$875 million was the first of its kind from India. The successful issuance reflected investor confidence in the country and the company. This case covers a full analysis of the CARS with a scope that spans valuation, structuring of the financing instrument to suit the issuer's strategic imperatives and investment analysis.

This note demonstrates how a forward price, or equivalently, futures price, is determined and considers forward and futures contracts written on financial assets and on commodities. The note introduces the concept of a convenience yield and calculates the convenience yields on four commodities, crude oil, natural gas, copper and gold. Examples in the note use actual market prices.

The product planning manager for BMW Group Canada (BMW) wondered how to revive the once-promising BMW Individual program. Despite a strong start when the BMW Individual Collection (IC) was launched in 2002, and significant growth in total BMW sales over the past three years, IC sales had declined substantially. At the corporate level, no specific measures had been taken to ensure a constant focus on the Individual program. At the customer level, BMW retailers were putting forth little effort, likely because they had no additional incentive to push a program that appealed only to a very small portion of their customer base. The product planning manager wondered how he could revive the BMW Individual program in Canada and give it the attention it deserved.

In 2007, the marketing director for Cineplex Entertainment is trying to decide whether or not to proceed with a loyalty program that would provide incentives for customers to see more movies and events, and spend more on concessions. An important by-product would be the collection of detailed customer buying data. She has crafted four possible combinations of rewards and received proposals from three suppliers with experience in managing customer data banks. She must decide the structure and richness of the program, the supplier, the likely response rate to determine financial feasibility, and whether to launch regionally or nationally.

A newly appointed operations manager was expected to provide his expertise in the planning, launch and ongoing operations for three corporately-owned Part King stores, the first of which was scheduled to open in December 2005. The operations manager wondered if moving to a corporate model made sense at all or whether it was better to retain the franchise structure that was already in place. He was particularly concerned about how best to motivate the managers of a corporate-owned store given that they did not share in its ownership. Were there some components of the control system that was currently in place in the franchise store model that would also be appropriate for the corporate-owned store model that was in the works? Were there some components of the existing control system that needed improvements as well?

The case explains the ordeal of the newly appointed manager of planning and reporting at Connectco, an outbound call centre in Ontario, Canada, who suspected wrong-doing early on at work. After his fears were confirmed, he was very uncomfortable with the situation he found himself in. However, he had to make a choice about how he would respond. This case also portrays, among other things, how young professionals find themselves in situations that create moral distress when they are aware of unethical conduct but feel constrained from taking action to correct it.

Mapleleaf Corporation is a mid-size player in the paper products industry. The firm has recently become aware that growing demand will soon outstrip its present production capacity. The primary objective of this case is to introduce students to the world of capacity planning and optimization.

Robert's Center of Performing Arts (RCPA), founded and owned by Robert Gernburd, was a music school. In addition to individual instrument lessons and group lessons in music theory and music history, the RCPA sold second-hand pianos. It was difficult to find a supplier of used pianos but after a great deal of research, Gernburd found a supplier in Japan. Recently, an invoice containing supplier information had been temporarily misplaced. Since then, Gernburd had learned that his in-house piano tuner had been selling pianos without his knowledge. Gernburd was unsure how to proceed.

Excel spreadsheet for students to perform analysis.

Many managers indicate that their organizations are very good at starting projects, but not so good at finishing them. According to this author, the reason most often cited is that marching orders change when other priorities are recognized. Employees find this extremely frustrating and wasteful, as it is difficult to make positive gains when managing on a sea of shifting priorities. The author suggests that there is a better way.

From the ephemeral to the measurable describes one way Corporate Social Responsibility has evolved. This article describes metrics and criteria that can help companies adopt best practices.

Most managers consider global expansion to be an imperative, and cross-border expansion commands wider support than cross-business expansion. This article not only counteracts such a bias, but provides a framework for valuing cross-border moves, called the ADDING Value Scorecard. There are two broad approaches to evaluating strategies: in terms of principles and in terms of analyzing their implications for value. While principles may help guide routine decisions, they should be seen in the context of important decisions as ways of complementing analysis of value rather than substituting for it. The ADDING Value Scorecard’s first component is Adding volume, and is followed by three levers for improving margins: Decreasing costs, Differentiating, and Improving industry attractiveness. The last two components, Normalizing risks and Generating knowledge (and other resources), are add-ons that reflect large discontinuities that can arise at national borders. As an example, the scorecard is applied to a cross-border move that clearly failed the ADDING Value test — the merger, recently dissolved, of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler.

The chief of the Waterloo Regional Police Service was again faced with a crisis in the ongoing development of the CIMS project. It was early 2005 and he found himself again debating the future of this increasingly time-consuming and expensive project. Complicating matters now, however, was the fact that several of his partner organizations in CIMS wanted to go live with those portions of the software which had been delivered from the vendor. These organizations had been struggling with antiquated systems, and wanted to push forward with implementing the new system, despite the continuing presence of system problems. What should he do? Should he encourage those regions to wait and rethink the project or was it best to continue moving forward with those elements.

The chief of the Waterloo Regional Police Services (WRPS) found himself preparing for an important board meeting to discuss the fate of the CIMS project. Earlier that year he had recommended that the contract with ITG be cancelled and negotiations toward this end were proceeding. Now the chief was faced with the task of recommending an alternative vendor and approach for completing this important project. WRPS needed to install a suitable computer-automated dispatch and record management system - key CIMS components - prior to December 31, 2005 as 2006 was the federally mandated deadline for implementing this functionality within police agencies. The chief knew that WRPS resources would be heavily tasked to meet the December 31, 2005 deadline, even if a vendor was chosen as soon as possible. The chief was well aware that a decision needed to be made regarding the best vendor to manage the next phase of the CIMS project as quickly as possible to allow WRPS and the vendor project team time to implement the required solution. The chief believed that the first step was to select the best vendor and then present the recommended solution to the board.

It had been four years since the chief of the Waterloo Regional Police Services (WRPS) met with the board to discuss critical next steps regarding vendor management for the Common Information Management System (CIMS) project. CIMS was an information systems project originally involving the WRPS and seven other police organizations. Since then, considerably more resources had been invested into the CIMS project by all stakeholders involved. The relationship with the current vendor, ITG, was growing less productive and the chief knew it was time to reassess the project to determine the best next steps toward successful project implementation. It was September 2005 and the chief found himself preparing for an important board meeting to discuss the fate of the CIMS project.