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The company's CEO, president, and a consultant took on the task of designing an organization to support the company's growth. They were to develop a structure and set of administrative systems (policies, performance appraisal, compensation and partnering program) that would ensure the achievement of the company's key success factors (see S-S Technologies (A) - Introduction, case 9A94C005), the maintenance of the existing culture and the attraction of the kind of people they wanted working for them.

A managing partner of a leading management consulting firm did not receive an anticipated promotion and is considering leaving the firm. The seven partners of the firm had recently held a Partners' meeting to discuss professional staff performance and to finalize salaries and promotions. The managing partner had been with the firm for six months and had joined the firm after working for five years in the telecommunications sector. His direct superior thought highly of him and his performance and agreed to support him at the partners' year-end meeting. However, most of the other partners did not feel that he met all of the expectations of a senior consultant. They specifically felt that he did not satisfy the total firm and RDMC participation category on the firm's performance matrix which listed the criteria for promotions within the firm.

John Meek, general manager of the Ontario Dairy Herd Improvement Corporation (Ontario DHI), has to decide what measures should be taken to reduce the membership decline of Ontario DHI. He must evaluate company information and marketing research to determine what might be the best course of action.

A manager at the Bell Institute for Professional Development, has just finished developing the Profit Orientation Seminar and is about to train individuals to deliver it to over 50,000 Bell employees. She must consider the issuers of training and development, managing change and evaluating the success of the training program.

The director of marketing of a recently acquired trust company is faced with preparing a marketing plan for the upcoming fiscal year. Historically, the trust company has not had a marketing or sales function. The director faces some major challenges: establishing marketing's role in the trust company; helping the trust company be more accepted by the bank that acquired the company; helping the trust company move from its unprofitable start-up mode to a profitable operation. She wondered how to begin.

Over seven years, the owner of a highly successful drive-through, take-out hamburger chain has built his business and knew that there was a tremendous potential for the idea. He was unsure whether to expand by opening additional company-operated stores (using retained earnings), or by establishing a franchise system. Two Excel spreadsheets are available; one for the student, product 7A94B008 and one for the instructor, product 5A94B08.

An entrepreneurial university student found himself contemplating several decisions that could drastically alter the operations of his summer business distributing household paper products and cleaning supplies in Montreal. These decisions included three ways to expand (enlarge the salesforce, target a new market and pursue a franchise program), and three ways to change the nature of the venture (launch an environmental line, distribute non-perishable foods and reduce delivery quantities). Underlying all of these was the possibility of selling the business and pursuing an opportunity with a multi-national corporation. Students have to evaluate the current strategy and operations and assess the viability of the proposed alternatives.

Fil Metaillique de Briteque Limitee (FMBL), a small Montreal company, had to decide whether or not to offer a discounted price on their most widely-sold product in order to recapture a large ex-customer. After doing a qualitative size-up of the firm and the industry, students are expected to compare the new lower price to FMBL's costs to determine if accepting the offer is in the best interest of the company. A consideration of pricing policy, strategy and profitability are central to the decision.

This business game allows participants to make 12 scheduling decisions under conditions of demand uncertainty. It is played with groups of 3-5 participants and does not require a computer.

The vice-president of manufacturing for a company that produces pumps and electrical controls, must consider potential opportunities in the pumps market. The pump division is not living up to its potential and a reorganization of the division is being considered. Management opinion varies, and many conflicts and misconceptions must be dealt with.

Management accounting techniques, such as cost-price relationships and the evaluation of sub-units, are discussed in this introductory note. Readers are exposed to various costing methods (direct costing, absorption costing and full costing) and their appropriate uses. As well, some of the problems of cost allocations are discussed.

A co-operative involves many unique business features, and these are illustrated by Mountain Equipment Co-op. Of particular interest is the way in which customers are shareholders, and so the firm faces customer empowerment that both strengthens its market presence and also influences its product mix and pricing structure. Management faces a unique set of success criteria. Apart from its co-op nature, Mountain Equipment demonstrates the creative ways that a service sector retailer participates today in the manufacturing sector. Its proactive role involves ongoing contributions to the design of products, and even participation in the ownership of manufacturing facilities.

A medium-sized Canadian packaging firm is facing the potential recall of 90,000 individual products by one of its major pharmaceutical clients. The defects are packaging-related and were traced to a lot of customer-finished boxes that Jones, Box and Label had recently delivered. The immediate issue is to determine the problem causing defective packaging materials and how to solve it. Other business basics include: quality assurance, what type of relationship between buyer and supplier is most effective for problem-solving and whether the anticipated level of uncertainty dictates the nature of buyer-supplier relationships. The case introduces students to Kepner-Tregoe problem solving and offers an opportunity to compare and contrast this problem resolution methodology with Ishikawa (or fishbone) diagrams and other problem-solving techniques.

This technical note shows how to structure a financing deal which meets the needs of the owners of a firm, existing suppliers of capital and proposed new suppliers of capital.

This is the first case in a two-part series about decisions relating to the introduction of a new product, Johnson's face powder, to the Philippines market. This case provides information about the Philippine market and the development of the introductory strategy for the product. The student is asked to assess the merit of the strategy, both in terms of market acceptance and their calculations as to projected contributions. (A two-minute video can also be purchased for this case, J & J (Philippines) Inc. - Johnson's Face Powder - Video.)

The newly appointed president of the Philippines' largest advertising firm arrives at her office to find a fax from New York. The fax says that Colgate-Palmolive is realigning its accounts worldwide. The effect of this move is that Basic/Black Zale Youngman Advertising will lose about 90% of its billings from its Philippines Colgate-Palmolive account. There are two very different discussion issues. The first issue is the decision(s) on what actions to take. The second issue is the handling of worldwide advertising in an environment which varies greatly from country to country.

The senior vice president and head of Mutual Life's group division, was trying to decide whether to proceed with a plan to guarantee his division's services as a task force had recommended. If the division decided to proceed, he would have to decide whether to accept the task force's suggestions on the design of the guarantee and answer a number of questions that they have left unanswered. Students have to assess whether Mutual Life would benefit from a guarantee and the performance of the division and the task force so far, as well as address the design issues. A sequel to this case Mutual Life of Canada - The Group Client Service Guarantee (B), describes the guarantee and an issue that has arisen.

The regional group marketing director, was trying to decide what to do about Consolidated, a client who had made a claim for $9,500 under the company's new group client service guarantee. The problem was that, although she believed Consolidated's claim was completely without basis, the guarantee prominently said: If you have a problem, we will pay, no questions asked. Students have to assess Mutual Life's guarantee and decide what to do about both the Consolidated incident and the guarantee. This case can be used either alone, or in conjunction with Mutual Life of Canada - The Group Client Service Guarantee (A), which addresses several issues in the design of the guarantee.

The plant manager of Hammond Manufacturing's Guelph, Ontario transformer plant was concerned about problems with the delivery of enclosures from a sister plant ten kilometres away. These problems reduced the company's ability to compete for business by delaying production and shipments to customers. Both plant managers wanted to reduce not only the frequency of late deliveries, stockouts, and backorders, but also the level of frustration between their two plants. Students have to identify the source of these problems and propose a reasonable course of action to deal with them.

The manager of information and technology at a flower auction house must decide on the pace at which information technology changes should be introduced. The issues raised in the case pertain to the formulation and implementation of information technology strategies, and illustrate the potentially integrative role of information technology, different levels of information technology strategy, online bidding, and the establishment and maintenance of information systems for clearing channels.