In February 2024, Château des Charmes, a winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, was planning the introduction of a new product offering. Beautiful Brunch would be a breakfast-themed wine and food pairing that would be offered earlier in the day. Director of hospitality, Martin Lindqvist, was aiming to generate CA$45,000 in sales from Beautiful Brunch in its first three months and needed to create a comprehensive marketing plan, including decisions on price, promotion, target market, and tie-in product offerings.
In May 2024, Vernon Burke, owner and chief operating officer of Burke Family Farms, was deciding which of three options would be best for his cash crop operations when his existing combine harvester lease came to an end in two months. He could buy out his lease, buy a used combine, or outsource the work and pay another farmer to harvest his crops.
Jerry Pilon, owner and sole operator of S.K.I.L Dojo, was evaluating strategic options he believed would assist in growing his business in 2023. Pilon taught his students both Okinawan karate and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, with many students dedicating years to their craft. He wanted to increase student retention rates and increase profits, both of which had been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although those effects were subsiding, the cost of living in Canada was now increasing. Pilon struggled to decide which strategy would best suit his business. He would need to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze his strategic choices and create a suitable implementation strategy for the choices he made.
In September 2015, Erika Cheung, a former employee at the private biotechnology company Theranos, must decide if she will blow the whistle on the company’s unethical practices, including inconsistent test results, data manipulation, and mishandling of patient blood samples. She must decide whether to contact the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, an American federal health regulator, with this information. However, she could also face significant legal consequences due to the non-disclosure agreements she signed with Theranos. Personally, Cheung is wrestling with how to act in accordance with her commitment to improving the quality and affordability of health care and working in service of others.
Rillea Technologies (Rillea) was a software-as-a-service provider for the chemical safety and compliance industry whose main product was SDS RiskAssist, a software package for managing electronic versions of the safety data sheets required by companies and organizations whose employees need to handle potentially dangerous chemicals. In January 2022, Lisa and Rob Hallsworth, Rillea’s co-founders, set themselves the goal of maximizing their company’s revenue growth over the coming years. To accomplish this, they considered implementing a marketing plan consisting of promotional strategies such as purchasing advertising on Google Ads and/or LinkedIn and participating in trade shows. They also considered expanding their product mix to include a premium version of an existing product. Given Rillea’s limited human capital and the increasingly competitive market that was forming in the chemical safety and compliance industry, the co-founders knew they had to make a decision as quickly as possible.
In March 2024, Olivia Hicks, clinical manager of the cancer centre at Blackburn Regional Hospital (Blackburn), was working to resolve arising issues surrounding the amalgamation of Blackburn’s cancer centre with the Lakeview Hospital (Lakeview) cancer centre. Nursing staff members and patients were taking issue with numerous aspects of the merger and were voicing their displeasure. Hicks understood that in her new role she would need to be proactive in her management of the situation. The two cancer centres would be merged in six months, and Hicks needed a focused staff to ensure patient care was not sacrificed.
In December 2023, Ryan Mitchell, account manager at Prosperity Bank, was reviewing a request for an $80,000 long-term loan for the Château Lafayette (“The Laff”), the oldest tavern in Ottawa, Ontario. Jill Scott, president and CEO of The Laff, was seeking the funds to finance three investments that she believed would help the tavern increase its revenue from food sales during lunch hour: a kitchen update, a patio renovation, and point-of-sale (POS) software.<br><br>Mitchell knew The Laff had demonstrated strong financial performance and cash management historically, but she had reservations about this new strategic shift toward food sales and understood that the restaurant and bar industry was subject to significant risks.
Bryan Gilvesy, CEO of ALUS, must create a proposal to spend ALUS’ $100,000 marketing budget for their brand “New Acre Project”. The brand had experienced good growth in previous years, but sales had stagnated for the past two, creating concerns about the survival of New Acre Project. Gilvesy must invigorate growth and reach sales of $6 million by choosing a target market, whether he should offer carbon credits or not, and at what price. He also had to choose a promotional channel and the messaging New Acre Project would use going forward.
The accounts manager at the Commercial Bank of Canada, was reviewing a loan application from Pasquale’s Pizzeria, located in Sarnia, Ontario. The business owner was ready to expand his family’s business to London, Ontario, having requested a $300,000 long-term loan to finance the renovations and equipment to begin operations in London. They also requested a $20,000 line of credit to help fund the day-to-day operations of the business. The restaurant had never requested a loan of such magnitude, nor had the business undergone an expansion in its lifetime. With COVID-19 changing the food delivery landscape, the accounts manager was confident in his ability assess whether or not Pasquale’s was ready to take on this expansion plan.
In August 2022, two interns at Miravo Healthcare (Miravo) needed to present a comprehensive marketing plan for Miravo’s over-the-counter (OTC) head lice treatment product, Resultz, to two vice-presidents of the company. Resultz had not been actively advertised in recent years, and the company identified an opportunity to capitalize on an increasing need for head lice products as a result of children returning to school after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Owner and general manager of Hunter Steel, is struggling to decide what to do about Ontario’s labour shortage as a result of COVID-19. The steel company is categorized as Tier 2, and requires general labourers and saw mechanics within each warehouse in order to efficiently run operations. Currently, each of his 5 warehouses are short 2 general labourers. This is unsustainable and poses a threat to meeting demand, Hunter must decide a course of action. He can either invest into partial automation eliminating the need for as much labour to be employed, pursue a labour government assistance program, continue status quo and hope, or pursue a marketing campaign that markets to consumers and potential hires.
The executive director of Meals on Wheels London (MOWL) was struggling with a lack of volunteers to deliver meals to the not-for-profit organization’s customers. MOWL provided nutritional support for adults with disabilities and older people who required short-term or long-term assistance. Several options were under consideration to mitigate the volunteer issue. These included using new, state-of-the-art computer software to allocate volunteers more efficiently; running a volunteer recruitment campaign; and hiring paid delivery drivers to supplement MOWL’s volunteers. The executive director needed to make a quick decision to present at a fast-approaching board meeting where any necessary funding would need to be approved.
Tony Rao, co-founder and director of Thorne Valley Meats (Thorne Valley), must decide whether to continue working with the family-run butcher shop that has been producing his high-quality grass-fed beef jerky, or to move to a new, but untested, facility. The butcher shop has been working with Thorne Valley for years and has produced jerky that is satisfactory, but recently it has been struggling to manage its own growth, employee turnover, and pandemic restrictions. These outside forces are causing a sharp decline in the quality of Thorne Valley’s jerky. The butcher shop has asked Rao if he would be willing to purchase a new piece of equipment on its behalf to help resolve the quality issues. The new processing plant, meanwhile, is located in a long-standing butcher shop recently acquired by entrepreneur Julie Martin. While Martin is passionate and ambitious, it is unclear how successful the new venture will be. She has no entrepreneurial experience and is looking to make significant changes to her product offering.
In April 2021, Jo Santiago, account manager of the London, Ontario, branch of Goliath National Bank (GNB) was reviewing a request for a $400,000 long-term loan and a $50,000 working capital loan for Atlohsa Gifts (AG). AG’s general manager, April White, had made the request. AG was a subsidiary of Atlohsa Family Healing Services (AFHS) and its mandate was to use its net earnings to fund initiatives for the betterment of Indigenous people. White was planning to use the long-term loan to open a stand-alone location in downtown London on Richmond Street to expand operations outside of AFHS headquarters and accommodate a surge in AG’s retail and wholesale growth due to recent events. Santiago felt good about AG’s successful sales and aligned with the organization’s mission and vision; however, he felt unsure about White’s ability to manage this level of debt.
In January 2023, Adam Pierce, co-owner and operations manager of Lambton Custom Flooring (LCF), eased back in his home-office chair in Sarnia, Ontario, after another day installing flooring. He looked at his calendar: In one week he would meet with his business partner, Marlin Jervis, to discuss the coming year’s strategic vision for LCF. Last year’s decreased profits concerned Pierce. He questioned whether a change was necessary to offset this trend, and, with the ever-present economic turmoil, he wondered if lower profits were here to stay. Pierce was uncertain if investing in advertisements would be enough, or if he should take more drastic measures, such as expanding the business’s installation services or even buying out his partner. Whatever his decision, Pierce would have to lay the groundwork for the following week’s meeting.
Hairstrong sold hair scrunchies, and the business’s founder had experienced significant success since selling her first products in September 2019. Sales had reached CA$90,000, and media coverage came from outlets such as Good Morning America, Chatelaine, and Global News. However, the founder wanted to expand on the early success to double current total annual revenue and consider making Hairstrong her full-time occupation. This meant significantly expanding Hairstrong’s exposure geographically and building an efficient and targeted marketing plan. This would not be an easy task given the myriad opportunities the founder had to consider.
In October 2022, Priyanka Bhat, the project manager leading a project for Fintech Solutions, was contemplating her options to handle issues plaguing the project. Foremost among them was to find an effective solution to the many conflicts between the team’s business analyst, Jada Goodwin, and the other team members. Although Goodwin was a competent employee and liked by the client, she had been accused by several team members of creating a hostile work environment. Bhat needed to quickly devise a plan that restored a collegial team environment and ensured on-time delivery of the project to the client.
The turnaround coordinator at Chem-ARC Industries (Chem-ARC) had to solve a dispute involving multiple stakeholders within the Turnaround Scheduling and Planning Department. Chem-ARC had been only two days into a company-wide shutdown when a delay on the plant floor sent the outage schedule into disarray. Members of the department started to blame one another for the issues Chem-ARC was facing. With a group of disgruntled employees, a costly problem that urgently needed fixing, and a senior management team pressing for answers, the coordinator had to find a way to improve teamwork within her department while conveying to upper management that she was capable of her position as leader.
In June of 2022, Jada Abimbola, chief executive officer and owner of Workplace Safety Trainers (WST), needed to develop a strategy for the business after experiencing stagnating profits during the coronavirus pandemic. WST was one of Ontario’s foremost private occupational health and safety companies, providing training for businesses that needed to comply with the standards of the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training, and Skills Development. Abimbola was considering several alternatives to revive the business while remaining committed to its new employee-centred focus: maintain the status quo, offer first aid training, or develop and sell a new line of physical goods. Abimbola was also considering cashing in on her investment by selling the business and moving on. This case will also serve as a talking point for the importance of occupational health and safety in various industries.
It was July 2022, and Isaac Morgado, one of the founders of MVMT Strength Inc., wanted to create a comprehensive marketing plan for the fall season. The gym had recently moved to a new location and Morgado wanted to continue growth through promotional campaigns.