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In February 2021, the managing director of The Shakti Plastics Industries (Shakti) was facing challenges related to the Indian government’s announcement of a complete ban by 2022 on single-use plastic—a key item that Shakti had been recycling through technological innovations over the previous few decades. The company was eager to support the government’s vision of enabling a circular plastics economy. However, changes in the regulatory landscape were likely to impact millions of people who were directly or indirectly employed in the unorganized Indian plastic waste sector. The time frame for plastic waste processors and manufacturers to adapt to the changes was short, particularly during the pandemic-induced resurgence of single-use plastic in the form of medical waste. Moreover, there were several other challenges, including price volatility of plastic waste, influenced by disruptive intermediaries in the supply chain; low awareness levels among consumers about waste segregation at the source; and a lack of eco-friendly alternatives to single-use plastic. Shakti needed to make decisions to maintain and advance its competitiveness in the plastic waste recycling sector, in line with the government’s proposed vision for a circular plastic economy.

In April 2021, the giant US automaker Ford Motor Company was facing a decision regarding its Indian operations, which were struggling. It had brought in a new global chief executive officer—its fourth in the past decade—who was tasked with making this choice. The company could remain invested in India, either operating on its own or in a joint venture. It could also decide to manufacture for export or choose to exit the Indian market entirely. Ford Motor Company had to decide on an international corporate-level strategy, all while considering the factors influencing the changing Indian market and the rise of new technology. What would be the best path forward for the automaker?

Circulr was a start-up that provided a solution for consumer waste by collecting used packaging, washing it, and selling it back to the original brand and product manufacturer so that the packaging could be reused. Instead of building its own washing facility, Circulr rented spare washing capacity from industrial kitchens. The company’s co-founders had ambitious goals for Circulr, but in order to achieve them, there were two essential issues that needed to be resolved. The first issue was that of incentivizing brands, manufacturers, and end-users to reuse their packaging. Disposable packaging remained extremely convenient for consumers, and Circulr needed to develop a collection system that made it easy and rewarding for consumers to place their used packaging in Circulr’s collection bins instead of in the garbage can. The second issue was that of operational scale and configuration. If Circulr were to successfully grow demand and supply over time, how would its operational system evolve to achieve the necessary capacity and capabilities? Could the use of third-party washing facilities continue to be sustainable at scale? How would processes and policies evolve to gain competitiveness?

Spreadsheet to accompany product W28382.

Shareholder primacy has been a widely accepted norm in the business community for decades, leading executives and directors to focus on maximizing profits along with the value of the corporation’s shares. Nevertheless, critics have long questioned whether public companies should prioritize the interests of investors over the interests of other stakeholders. The most recent analysis of the legal standard that dictates the fiduciary duty of directors in Canadian corporate law was issued in 2008 when the Supreme Court of Canada released the BCE v 1976 Debentureholders decision. Some scholars theorized that this decision signalled a shift toward a more stakeholder-friendly model of corporate governance by calling on directors to act in the “best interests of the corporation.” This article provides an overview of the framework governing the fiduciary duty of directors with an analysis of the historical and economic context that has underpinned this area of corporate law since the Great Depression. It then examines what director duties within Canada might look like in the future while offering insights from the landmark BCE decision to help manage the director’s dilemma. The BCE decision suggests that when competing interests arise, the overriding principle for corporate directors should be to act in the best interests of the corporation by making decisions that aim to drive long-term success, as opposed to immediate profits and increased share value.

In August 2017, Concentrix Corporation (CNX) partnered with Photon Life Insurance Company (PLI), a leading insurance provider in India, to support PLI's customer management service. On February 1, 2018, Mohit Khanna, global operations manager at CNX, undertook a promising task to improve PLI’S customer persistency at minimal operational cost. If all policyholders with an approaching due date were to be called, then the number of service agents required would be very high, leading to significant operational cost increases. Khanna’s challenge was to design a contact prioritization strategy that could be implemented at minimal cost and improve persistency.

Student Spreadsheet to accompany product W25821.

Instructor Spreadsheet to accompany product W25822.

The case highlights the challenges encountered by Laura Williams, founder and owner of Williams HR Law, a firm based in Toronto, Ontario, providing a full range of legal services on labour, employment law, and human resources (HR) matters. Demand for the firm’s services grew exponentially in 2020 following the tragic death of George Floyd and due to the ongoing workplace challenges encountered during the global pandemic. Williams faced decisions regarding the best and most sustainable ways to address increasing demand. She had solidified her reputation in the marketplace as an “advocate-of-choice” and was mindful of ensuring that her growth decisions did not negatively affect her brand or impact the organizational culture she had proudly developed. She was committed to ensuring that her growth aligned with her purpose—to provide best-in-class legal support that enabled clients to make informed decision-making and diffuse workplace issues before they escalated.

In 2019, an entrepreneur and Ivey Business School graduate was facing a critical decision regarding how best to maximize the growth of his new product, The Chosen One card game. The entrepreneur had recently created and launched his Jewish-themed satirical card game in Los Angeles, California, after playing the adult-themed and highly popular Cards Against Humanity. Buoyed by initial small-batch sales, he secured deals to sell his product through various online and traditional retailers, but he had to decide how to grow sales and revenue. He had a limited marketing budget and was facing uncertainty regarding production quantities. There were various potential digital and physical distribution options for his product to maximize growth and long-term profitability. Each option had both benefits and drawbacks in terms of profitability, required marketing support, alignment with the target segment, access to consumer data, and production demands. The entrepreneur had to evaluate all options and choose the most suitable channels to distribute The Chosen One card game.

In September 2015, Pooja Viswanathan, a post-doctoral research scientist, emerged perplexed after a meeting with her post-doc supervisor. The purpose of the meeting had been to debrief on Viswanathan’s progress in response to the unexpected multi-stakeholder feedback received on the outcome of her six years of research: a prototype of an anti-collision system that enhanced wheelchair users’ mobility. To her considerable surprise and confusion, there seemed to be no consensus on the commercial viability of her prototype. Viswanathan stood in the corridor outside the meeting room and pondered her next steps. One option was to return to the post-doc bench and continue to develop her academic work and publish her findings. Alternatively, she could try to address the feedback she had received and start up her own venture, whereby she could commercialize a solution with stronger market potential. Viswanathan knew she had reached a fork in the road and now had to make a decisive career choice.

In January 2022, a partner in Homeland Foods was identifying Canadian distribution channels through which to launch dried fruit products from his company based in Armenia. He needed to identify the most appropriate initial target market, select the most effective distribution channel(s), and develop an effective marketing strategy. Distribution channels under consideration included general grocery stores, ethnic food stores, natural food stores, gourmet food stores, and online distribution. Promotions concerns included finding a plan that would reach an appropriate customer segment on a limited budget. He was also concerned about how well the Armenian branding would transfer to a Canadian audience.

In 1965, Smithtown, Arkansas, had virtually no natural resources, core competencies, human capital advantages, or infrastructure advantages. The local river was impassable and not suitable for transport, and the town had no rail line and no airport. Smithtown’s young population (about 18,000 scattered across two counties) was pretty much stagnant and comparatively less educated than the rest of the United States. Although Smithtown had low-cost land and labour, which was ideal for tourism, it lacked anything that tourists typically looked for and had just a few natural attractions, although nothing spectacular. The town’s leaders wondered what the future would hold and whether there was anything they could do to steer the town’s future direction and avoid its ruin.

In August 2021, uTrade Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (uTrade) was considering various options for its future. The financial technologies (fintech) company was founded in 2011 and based in Mohali, India. By 2021, uTrade had become a trusted state-of-the-art technology solutions provider to India’s major stockbrokerage firms. However, the changing market landscape, declining brokerage margins, and market disruption by discount brokers were creating challenges for uTrade’s business model, forcing the company to consider alternative growth strategies that were more aligned with the new market requirements. Although vertical integration could help uTrade capture a larger share of the value chain, it could also create a potential conflict of interest with existing clients. Horizontal expansion through a new banking, insurance, or digital payment venture could also have benefits and potential challenges in terms of resource deployment and compatibility with the existing business model. Another issue was a push from uTrade stakeholders to sell the company and enter another segment of the fintech industry. The founder had to make a decision.

This annually updated exercise assesses one’s exposure to the rest of the world’s peoples. A series of worksheets require respondents to check off the number and names of countries they have visited and the corresponding percentage of world population that each country represents. The summary of a group’s collective exposure to the world’s people will inevitably be the recognition that together they have seen much, even if individually some have seen little. The teaching note provides discussion questions that consider why there is such a high variability in individual profiles, the implications of each profile for one’s business career, and what it would take for respondents to change their profile.

A 24-year-old female employee landed her first career job at Exeter Group only a few months after graduating from university. The employee worked as an assistant to the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer. A few months after the employee began her new job, her boss began making work requests that seemed personal and then began making repeated sexual advances, which made the employee feel increasingly uncomfortable. The employee tried to curb the boss’s behaviour on several occasions, but she felt caught between dealing with harassment from her boss and trying to develop her career.<br><br>One late evening during a business trip, the boss drunkenly and forcibly disrupted the employee in her hotel room and attempted to coerce her into having sex with him. The employee evaded the advance by locking herself in the bathroom of her hotel room. As she sat on the floor of the bathroom, she wondered how she had found herself in this extremely difficult situation and how she would get out of it.

The dematerialization and servitization of products being brought about by the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is making it imperative for platform businesses to look at consumers and suppliers from a lifetime value perspective. This technical note compares two fundamental strategic marketing perspectives: the push strategy and the pull strategy, using simple systems-dynamics and agent-based models. The models, developed using Vensim and NetLogo software, illustrate the efficacies of push and pull marketing strategies at the individual customer level. Specifically, they demonstrate the possibilities of market failure due to excessive pushing and consumer community formation.

Supplement for product W25455.

Headquartered in Botswana, Wilderness Safaris was an ecotourism operator that organized several camps and mobile safaris in Africa. Recently, Wilderness Safaris, and the industry in which it operated, had suffered from significant revenue loss because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Wilderness Safaris had managed to remain operable, the pandemic had changed the industry’s long-term landscape. The vice-president of Wilderness Safaris was interested in applying for an award designed to financially support organizations in solving wildlife conservation problems through technologies. She needed to assess and prioritize several technology innovations and communicate a clear strategy for balancing business profitability with social impact.

This article focuses on the use of IT systems to meet rapidly changing customer needs. It places particular emphasis on the building of IT “systems strength.” This is defined at Accenture as a measure of a company’s ability to innovate at scale. It is calculated by assessing three factors: tech adoption, tech depth, and organizational culture. The article builds on multiple large sample surveys, as well as in-depth interviewing with large organizations. The second part of the paper considers what to do if your company is not a market leader. Here, the authors explain how “middle-of-the-pack” organizations can leapfrog other firms to accelerate their innovation-led growth. The key here is to change the IT budget allocation from an emphasis on operations to an increased emphasis on innovation.