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In early 2006, it was apparent that PFM Devices was experiencing a significant downturn in consolidated earning among its three international divisions. To address this issue, the newly hired chief information officer was asked by the executive team to evaluate the two options of implementing a customer relationship management solution to improve revenue or a corporate data warehouse to cut costs. This case illustrates the importance of aligning information technology (IT) and business strategy and of the complex issues IT executives face in prioritizing IT investment alternatives.

Disney began internationalizing its theme park operations with the opening of Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, which is regarded as one of the most successful amusement parks in the world. Disney attempted to replicate this success in France, which is the largest consumer of Disney products outside of the United States. In 1992, they opened Disneyland Resort Paris, which is largely regarded to be much less successful than the park in Japan. This case explores Disney's efforts to open its third park outside the United States; Hong Kong Disneyland. It begins by discussing the experience of Tokyo and Paris Disneylands, and then discusses the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, including the structure of the deal, and how the operations, human resources management and marketing were tailored to fit the Chinese cultural environment. The case also discusses the tourism industry in Hong Kong and the particular problems that were encountered during the first year of operations. The stage is set for students to discuss whether Disney's strategic assets have a good semantic fit with Chinese culture.

Zimmer Holdings, an orthopedic devices company in the United States, is suddenly faced with the prospect of its British competitor acquiring one of the Swiss companies, which would have been an ideal target for its own acquisition. With the announcement of the merger already in the news, Zimmer Holdings has a narrow time window to decide its response. Students are asked to take the position of an advisor to senior management and provide a recommendation to management on actions to pursue. The case provides an ideal platform to discuss global competition and the imperatives of a global marketplace, evaluation of a target and assessing the uncertainties in the process, discussing negotiating strategies and post-acquisition processes.

The founding executive director of the African Institute for Corporate Citizenship (AICC), felt very tense as he typed the last revisions to the speech he would be giving to a Llongwe merchants' association later in the week. He really enjoyed proudly describing his initiative, "Business Action Against Corruption", and the Business Code of Conduct for Combating Corruption in Malawi, to potential new partners. However, the founding executive director was beginning to feel concerned about its slow pace of adoption. He was particularly worried about how to manage the delicate relationship with the government.

An entrepreneur and chief executive officer (CEO) of Sensible Life Products has developed a revolutionary botanical disinfectant called Benefect, the flagship product of his company. This new product is unique among disinfectant products in that it is non-toxic, unlike the majority of conventional disinfectants containing harmful chemicals, such as ammonia, alcohol and chlorine. As a result of the unique properties of the product, the CEO has received numerous offers to purchase or license the technology and is faced with the decision regarding which offer, if any, he should accept. The purpose of this case is to expose students to entrepreneurial exit situations as well as social entrepreneurship issues associated with disruptive technologies. A follow-up supplemental case, Sensible Life Products (B), product #9B07M058, introduces a fifth opportunity to the students in the form of a joint venture with a major product development firm. The deal involves Sensible Life Products cooperating in further developing the Benefect product into a consumer focused hand sanitizer product.

This supplement to Sensible Life Products (A), product #9B07M057, introduces a fifth opportunity in the form of a joint venture with a major product development firm. The deal involves Sensible Life Products cooperating in further developing the Benefect product into a consumer focused hand sanitizer product.

Undergroundhiphop.com (UGHH) was the leading source of independent hip-hop on the Internet. Although company revenues remained small compared to major online music retailers, the opening of a storefront in 2005 helped create new opportunities within the music industry, but also proved to be a drain on company resources. As the founder tried to expand the company, he faced a number of choices. However, his conservative financial strategy was limiting the company's potential. UGHH desperately needed to hire programmers, designers and managers to keep up with new technological developments and social trends, such as music downloads, blogs and online social networking. Yet the cost of running a bricks and mortar retail store left little to invest in other areas of the business. The case provides a classic example of entrepreneurship that can be used in introductory and intermediate level entrepreneurship classes. It can be used as a platform to illustrate an entrepreneur who fails to make the transition to a manager. The discussion will provide an opportunity to introduce or review the concept of franchising.

The senior portfolio manager at National Securities Inc. (National) is concerned about the recent decline in shares of Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd (AEM), a Canadian gold producer with several years of precious metals mining experience that was considered one of the portfolio's strongest performers. The senior portfolio manager and his team recently spent time at one of AEM's mines and believed in the operational potential of the company. National's research department had prepared free cash flow forecasts for AEM, which the senior portfolio manager reviewed and modified, following their visit with the company. He knew that despite his team's belief in the future prospects of AEM, the stock may have become overvalued from a fundamental view point. The senior portfolio manager asked his team to perform a fundamental valuation of the equity of AEM. As normally, this meant the team would use the discounted cash flow (DCF) methodology, with financial assumptions that had been carefully examined. However, he knew that DCF valuation would likely undervalue resource companies, such as AEM, as the DCF valuation tended to overlook the flexibility provided at decision nodes during the life of the company with regards to extracting commodities from the ground. As a result, the senior portfolio manager reminded the team that the DCF method, when applied to a mining company, had to be expanded to explicitly include the value of the un-mined metals. The underground un-mined gold would need to be valued as a real option, using an adjusted Black-Scholes model.

Two property developers disagree over whether to go ahead immediately with a housing development on land which they have just jointly purchased, which has draft approval for one development plan, or to resubmit a new application for a possibly more controversial but more profitable alternative development plan. The new plan could result in some delay to the development.

The manager of Mobile Media for adidas International is debating what to do, given the sparse amount of traffic to date at the adidas FIFA World Cup mobile portal. By February, there had been only 3,000 visits to the mobile site, compared to the one million visits predicted earlier based on the previous success of a Lucas Films Star Wars mobile campaign. Given that the World Cup is a global event viewed by millions of people in person and more than one billion TV viewers worldwide, it represents a global stage for adidas to promote its brand and communicate its continued involvement and leadership in the sport of football. The manager of Mobile Media is worried that the brand's mobile efforts for this major event could fail miserably.

The manager of Mobile Media for adidas International is debating what to do, given the sparse amount of traffic to date at the adidas FIFA World Cup mobile portal. The (B) case describes the results of a new effort to use a popular portal to advertise the adidas World Cup mobile site. The case can be used to discuss the impact of using different media channels to deliver marketing communications.

The principal of St. Clement's School was considering a potential expansion to the school's facilities. There were many issues for the principal to consider including how to fund the expansion, the impact on the school's programs, and the impact on the school of increased enrollments. Most importantly, she had to consider the impact of an expansion on the distinct culture of the school. This case is an introductory capital budgeting example set in a non-profit organization rich in context.

Trans Global Corporation is a multinational company facing a complex set of inter-related problems including: international financial reporting standards, impact of a country's EU status, functional currency decisions, currency translation methods, exchange rates and impact of using derivatives to hedge currency changes.

A professor is shopping for a diamond engagement ring. He finds one with certain specifications for a certain price, and wishes to determine if the price of the diamond is fair. He collects data on the prices and characteristics (cut, colour, clarity and carats) of several hundred diamonds from three Internet wholesalers. This case can be used for linear regression analysis with categorical variables as well as other statistical techniques.

A brief exercise to reinforce elements of manufacturing accounting and depreciation.

The president of a metal products manufacturer and distributor is informed that the company controller is having an affair with another employee who is married to the general manager of production. The president is in the process of selling the company and wonders what affect the affair, if true, will have. Three short supplementary cases are also available: 9B07C021, 9B07C022 and 9B07C023.

This case examines the life, career and leadership style of John Meredith, the group managing director of Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH). Meredith established the company in 1972 based on his vision for more efficient global trade. Under his leadership, the company grew to become the world's largest container port operator. The company grew from owning and managing a single container port to owning and managing 45 container ports by May 2007. This case also examines the importance of leadership at all levels of organizations. When a company grows quickly and sets up operations around the world, it must constantly train new leaders. However, HPH had difficulty finding and training enough leaders who were willing to lead the company's new port operations in far-off destinations. The case examines HPH's actions thus far and asks what other measures may be appropriate in the future.

The operations manager at Halton Recycling was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the inefficiency caused by its three-streamed recycling system. City Hall aimed to increase the current 35 per cent waste diversion rate to the provincial goal of 60 per cent within three years. The operations manager wondered if the single-stream operation would contribute to a cost reduction and an efficiency improvement, providing the company with significant competitive advantages by the time of the contract renewal later that year.

The president and founder of a premier luxury car rental agency located throughout Europe must decide on the composition of the fleet of cars for the upcoming summer season. She has to balance a desire for high utilization versus the possibility of having to turn away clients if they request a car that is not in stock. The case can be used to introduce or reinforce a number of concepts including break-even analysis, basic descriptive statistics and the news vendor model.

KTM is a small motorcycle manufacturing company located in Austria. As a result of difficult economic conditions in 1999, KTM went private with the help of the venture capital firm BC European Capital (BC). Following a couple of years of strong growth, BC is looking to liquidate its position and move on. KTM is faced with the decision of determining the best means to repurchase BC's equity position in the firm and leave the firm with enough financial flexibility to continue to pursue its rapid expansion plans.