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ASIMCO International Casting Company, a joint venture between ASIMCO and Caterpillar, had recently finished several major projects designed to upgrade the manufacturing capabilities in its foundry. The plant was now under significant pressure to increase revenue, and had received an invitation to bid on a new customer order. While this order might provide the ideal opportunity to further upgrade its process technology and capabilities, significant challenges were presented by several critical product characteristics. Alternatively, the plant's limited resources could focus on meeting the internal needs of one of its partners. Caterpillar was expected to authorize test runs of two new products soon; however, the annual production volumes were very uncertain.

Two experienced venture capitalists have decided to create a new venture capital fund. They have requested $70 million as a lead order from National Bank Financial Inc. and are looking to raise $110 million in capital to form the fund. However, there were several unresolved issues: a main issue was the strategy for deployment of the fund, as well as type of investment, average size of investment, number of concurrent investments, geographic and industry focus, timing and fund management issues such as staffing and governance structure. The partners must develop the investment strategy in order to prepare the equity fund offer memorandum to present to potential investors.

Fidelis is a large Canadian bank with several e-mail systems. The director of E-messaging must decide if it should standardize on one or more systems. He must analyze the various systems with costs for potential solutions ranging from $18 million to $100 million, and consider system complexity, technological nuances, and tradeoffs with technology standardization.

Hill & Knowlton is a division of one of the world's largest communication services group. Tagging e-mail communications to support knowledge management codification and connection strategies is an important issue for managers. Issues related to privacy and performance need to be considered. The worldwide director of knowledge management at Hill & Knowlton needs to assess the degree to which tagging should be enforced in a communication services organization that supports numerous clients around the world.

Computer School is a large post-secondary, career-focused education firm. The chief executive officer of the school has determined that the IT department is in a state of disarray. The IT department was not identified as part of the core business strategy but is deemed as fundamental to the operation of the organization. Before proceeding with growth strategy, the CEO knew that gaining control of this department and establishing procedures for managing these resources more effectively would be an important aspect of laying the foundation for growth.

Palliser is Canada's second-largest furniture company. The company has production facilities in Canada, Mexico and Indonesia, and has experimented with cutting and sewing leather in China. The company is looking at further expanding the relationship with China. Ever since Palliser set up a plant in Mexico, the company has faced increasing competitive pressure from Asia, especially from China. The president of Palliser must decide what form this relationship should follow. Should it be an investment, either wholly or partly owned, or should it be through subcontracting?

Kobe Steel Ltd. started as a large manufacturer of steel products and has diversified into other sectors including iron, aluminum and copper products, engineering, machinery and electronic information. Headquartered in Japan, it established overseas laboratories that were given technology-based missions to assist with the diversification away from the company's core business. One such laboratory, the Electronic Materials Center (EMC) located in North Carolina, evolved from a research oriented focus to a product development focus. The center's major products were expected to launch EMC in a profitable business venture and help spear head Kobe Steel's diversification effort. However, the organization context and economic environment in which Kobe Steel was attempting this were extremely complex. This included multicultural issues, emerging markets, technologies new to the company and even natural disaster. The supplement Kobe Steel USA, Electronic Materials Center: The Commercialization of New Technologies (B), product 9B04M018 looks at the issues faced in a consulting situation.

Audible Inc. is one of the largest providers of audio content, such as books, magazines and newspapers. The company has a large library of hours of content, strong alliances with partners including Microsoft, Amazon and Random House, and a growing customer base, but the company has lost money since it began. The chief executive officer and chief financial officer must decide how to raise funds to keep the company going, while maintaining its partner and customer relationships.

Income Trust units are publicly traded equities with unique financial and structural attributes that differentiates them from common shares. Since the mid-1990s, income trusts have experienced substantial growth in popularity among both retail and institutional investors and have become a significant fixture in Canadian capital markets. They provide an option for issuers seeking capital and investors seeking attractive returns during otherwise turbulent market conditions. This note provides a description of how income trusts are structured and priced.

CNS is a small biotech company. The founder of the company is deciding if it's worth applying for phase I approval that will allow the company to continue its research. He must determine the value of the research. Using the traditional DCF valuation method, he is not sure if this captures all of the value of the research and must decide if either the Black-Scholes or binomial model would more accurately determine the value.

This technical note explains the functioning of the venture capital industry in Canada in 2004. Venture capital, is a segment of the invesment community called private equity. Firms in this industry deal primarily with debt and equity investments in private, non-publicly listed companies. The note defines industry terminology and explains the investment process.

Solver model for product 9B02E012.

Data for product 9B02E012.

Enron enjoyed a reputation as one of the best managed and highest performing companies of the new economy. In addition to the popular press, a number of leading academics joined in the parade of admirers. Author Gary Hamel featured Enron as one of the leading revolutionaries in his popular book on radical innovation. Another article cited the company's remarkable ability to embrace uncertainty in a highly dynamic competitive environment. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling recognized that in order to support the evolution from asset-heavy energy provider to a knowledge-dependent trading company, they would have to align Enron's human resources management policies and practices with their strategy.

Excel spreadsheet for product 9B04D015.

Canada's tobacco manufacturers all faced similar marketing challenges: a decrease in the proportion of population who smoke, a growing list of government restrictions on promotional opportunities and increases in taxation on tobacco products. Despite the variety of packaging formats, the 10 most popular brands, produced by the three leading manufacturers, had been priced identically. When the number two manufacturer re-introduced one of its products as a discounted brand, the marketing executives at the rival companies needed to decide on their response. The supplement to this case, Cigarette Wars (B), product 9B04M010 discusses the response of the other two leading tobacco manufacturers.

A merchant bank is considering the financing of a leveraged buyout of a private jewelry manufacturer. A representative from the bank must determine what risks are associated with this investment and if the financing fits the banks investment criteria. If he decides to invest in the jewelry manufacturer, he would need to structure an appropriate deal to be competitive with other merchant banks. An Excel spreadsheet with the financial model is available, product 7B04N003.

Colt Companies provides engineering design, procurement and construction services to the oil and gas industry. The company president knew that, to continue to grow, the company needed to expand its service offerings or its geographic base. He was considering expansion into the United States, which had a lot of prospective benefits, but also some drawbacks; among others, the company perceived the engineering contractor market was mature and highly competitive. The company had several expansion options: build its business slowly on its own; tender an initial public offering and provide existing partners with shares in the new public company, and use the cash to acquire other firms; go forward with an acquisition based on debt rather than equity; or merge with a private competitor. The president was expected to choose a strategy and champion his case to the board of directors.

Toyota is a large, international automobile manufacturer headquartered in Japan, with plans to become the largest worldwide automaker, striving for 15 per cent of global sales. Toyota is committing itself to be the leader of the hybrid-electric automotive industry, and is relying on changes in the industry and customer perceptions to bring its plan to fruition. Toyota's challenge is to develop consumer attitude and purchase intent, from an early adopter, niche market model into universal mainstream acceptance.

In 2002, approximately 1,000 Arthur Andersen employees joined Deloitte & Touche, effectively creating the largest professional services organization in Canada. The combined entity employed 6,600 people and represented annual billings of over $1 billion. A co-chair for the national integration team was faced with a huge challenge: to develop a company-wide plan to create support materials to aid the Deloitte staff in integrating the Andersen staff in the organization. The integration process was monitored through a monthly survey and would be used by the team to benchmark unit to unit over time, and to take remedial action at specific stages if the integration goals were not attained. The most recent survey indicated that Deloitte employees felt that in the company's haste to finalize the deal with Andersen, it was forgetting about its own employees. Some within the Deloitte organization did not understand the amount of attention given to Andersen employees, whom they viewed as damaged goods. The co-chair and integration team must determine the best way to deal with the feedback and the cultural differences that are surfacing.