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Based in southern Germany, Richard Henkel GmbH was a manufacturing firm focused on its triple-bottom line rather than on its sales turnover. Driven by its sustainability ethos in both its products and its manufacturing processes, it saw itself as a champion of a post-growth, sustainable economy. The case pivots on co-managing director Susanne Henkel’s decision concerning a lucrative sales order: the order would place significant stress on its existing steady-state manufacturing operations and potentially compromise its sustainability performance. In deciding whether to accept the order, Henkel had to confront a pivotal question: How much growth was necessary and sustainable, and how much was too much?

Based in southern Germany, Richard Henkel GmbH was a manufacturing firm focused on its triple-bottom line rather than on its sales turnover. Driven by its sustainability ethos in both its products and its manufacturing processes, it saw itself as a champion of a post-growth, sustainable economy. The case pivots on co-managing director Susanne Henkel's decision concerning a lucrative sales order: the order would place significant stress on its existing steady-state manufacturing operations and potentially compromise its sustainability performance. In deciding whether to accept the order, Henkel had to confront a pivotal question: How much growth was necessary and sustainable, and how much was too much?

The Spanish Riding School (SRS) was an icon of Austrian national identity, the oldest riding school in the world and the primary exponent of the art of classical dressage (a "ballet" with horses). In 2012, 447 years after its founding, the School confronted a serious threat: how to survive its so-called "privatization" by the Austrian government. Elisabeth Gürtler, recently reappointed to a five-year term as Managing Director needed to address three interrelated challenges: how to counter the critics of the SRS and its leadership and the avalanche of bad press they had generated, how to consolidate the significant organizational changes she had implemented during her first five years as Managing Director, and how to generate additional revenue so that the SRS would continue to breakeven financially - and in the long run, achieving financial sustainability for the SRS and preserving both its exalted status as the world's foremost institution of classical dressage and its responsibility to preserve and improve the breed of Lipizzaner horses. Since her appointment (on a 5-year contract) in December, 2007, Gürtler had acted quickly to implement a series of initiatives aimed at reducing costs, increasing revenue, and improving organizational capabilities. While these changes appeared to be successful at staunching the SRS's financial losses, they were not without cost. Internally, a number of experienced riders had strongly resisted the changes and had been subsequently dismissed; externally, critics had initiated a media campaign claiming that the quality of the SRS's performances had declined and been "debased" as a consequence of the changes. As Gürtler looks to her second term as Managing Director, students are asked to evaluate her organizational change efforts, and consider her strategic options going forward.

This is the "David and Goliath" story of Cooley Distillery, the world's only independent, Irish-owned distiller of Irish whiskey. Against long odds, it survived twenty-five years of brutal competition in the oligopolistic Irish whiskey category of the global spirits industry. Along the way, it began to turn a modest profit and achieved a stellar reputation for quality and innovation in its product offerings. Yet it remained only a niche player. Cooley, a non-listed public company with 290 shareholders, had never paid a dividend, nor seemed in a position to do so for years to come. As 2011 drew to a close, founder and chairman John Teeling, whose family controlled 36% of the outstanding stock in the company, was evaluating a variety of strategic options, which included selling out to a larger multinational player, taking the company private in a management buy-out, partnering in a joint venture with another firm, or continuing to go it alone. Each option had particular challenges. Students must put themselves in Teeling's shoes and decide on the optimal strategy

This case narrates a complex, long-running, and emotional controversy between Shell Exploration & Production Ireland (SEPIL) and opponents of its planned natural gas pipeline and gas processing facility in County Mayo, Ireland. The Corrib Gas Project is years behind schedule and over budget. SEPIL must not only complete the project, but must do so in a manner consistent with its own principles of corporate social responsibility. This case provides an opportunity to explore the challenges implicit in utilizing stakeholder management approaches. Students must evaluate various options available to SEPIL such as: Should the gas be processed at sea, as the more strident protestors demand? Should the processing facility be relocated to an area of no habitation, as other protestors wish, which would mean writing off a significant investment? For that matter, is this project worth completing at any cost? Finally, despite having all the required statutory approvals, final implementation would probably require utilizing the Garda Siochána (the Irish national police force) and other resources of the Irish State, as well as Shell's own contract security force, to keep protestors at bay. But what are the possible effects of such action on Shell's corporate reputation, and what if something, anything, goes wrong? It is not only which course of action SEPIL chooses to undertake, but how the action is implemented, that matters. This case is most appropriate for use in MBA and upper-level undergraduate courses in Business Ethics, Business and Society, International Business, and Business and the Natural Environment.