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The president, chief executive officer (CEO) and director of Sofame Technologies Inc. (Sofame) is trying to boost sales at his firm. Sofame is trying to figure out why, with proven environmentally friendly technology, it is unable to achieve rapid rates of growth. The purpose of the case is to exhibit the issues and challenges in selling new technology and to highlight key elements of entrepreneurship, such as sales strategy and managing the sales cycle.

In August 2009, a portfolio manager for Resolute Funds Inc. is considering adding WestJet Airlines to his fund’s holdings. WestJet, a fast-growing airline based in Calgary, Alberta, has grown rapidly from a start-up to the second-largest airline in Canada. Despite its recent successes, its share price has halved from its high in December 2007, due to the economic crisis. The portfolio manager is trying to determine whether WestJet’s shares are attractive. To support his analysis, he has asked his team to assemble comparative financial data on WestJet and its key competitors. The portfolio manager wants to know if he should buy, hold, or sell WestJet’s shares.

The president, chief executive officer (CEO) and director of Sofame Technologies Inc. (Sofame) is trying to boost sales at his firm. Sofame is trying to figure out why, with proven environmentally friendly technology, it is unable to achieve rapid rates of growth. The purpose of the case is to exhibit the issues and challenges in selling new technology and to highlight key elements of entrepreneurship, such as sales strategy and managing the sales cycle.

An analyst at an investment firm is considering an investment in Carmanah Technologies Corporation (Carmanah). Carmanah is a fast-growing player in the high-powered alternative energy products. Since 2007, when the new chief executive officer (CEO) took over, a turnaround effort has been in place at Carmanah. At $0.91 per share, Carmanah's shares were trading at just 23 per cent of their value in mid-2007. The analyst is scheduled to make a recommendation on Carmanah to his managing director in two days. He needs to get to work valuing the company on the basis of the information he has gathered.

A graduate of a business school must consider two options available to him with similar salary packages. The first is to accept an offer to start as an assistant marketing manager with a consumer packaged goods firm, the other is a consulting assignment with a small tool & die firm. The case provides students the opportunity to value different benefits based on their risk tolerance and career aspirations.

A group of four friends, all married men and in their late 20s, meet for coffee in a major city. One of the men has received a job application from a young woman he considers to be a stellar candidate for his job opening. The discussion turns into a debate about the feasibility of hiring young women for professional and managerial positions, given that they become pregnant and go on maternity leave.

Thirteen years after it began operations with three airplanes, WestJet is the second-largest airline in Canada. It has grown revenues at an annual rate of 37 per cent per year for the past 11 years, and is poised to become the country’s dominant airline in the future. As it has grown, WestJet seems to have made changes to its original strategy of low-cost, no-frills, point-to-point, single-class service. The case examines WestJet’s strategy over the years and focuses on the company’s latest decision point: whether to add smaller planes to its single-model Boeing fleet. The objective of the case is to examine changes in a company’s strategy over time, and to review the potential impact of these changes on a company’s future performance.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is asked to provide an opinion about the risk and return characteristics of an all-equity portfolio. The CPPIB is analyzing the potential of investing in other asset classes because of the potential for increased returns over the long-run. The Canada Pension Plan's assets currently completely comprise federal and provincial bonds and short-term securities.

In March 2005, the vice-president and chief operating officer of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), was thinking about how to best harness the business intelligence (BI) system that CATSA had implemented. From its creation in 2002, CATSA had developed an organizational structure with more than 200 managers overseeing 4,000 screening officers. In June 2003, a BI solution was developed and, in 2004, the solution was launched. The vice-president wanted to know whether his team could anticipate and manage the changes that the new BI system would trigger.

This case focuses on the issue of corporate governance in the Middle East. A senior official at the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) is looking at a recent transaction in which Qatar Telecom (Qtel) acquired National Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC (Wataniya). The KSE official wondered whether, at the company level, inadequate corporate governance measures had allowed this alleged unequal treatment to pass unchallenged. More importantly, at the exchange level, the KSE official wondered what actions - if any - could have been taken to enhance the rights of minority shareholders.

The case focuses on the turnaround situation facing the newly elected chief executive officer (CEO) of the Vancouver YMCA. The YMCA has suffered a long series of operating deficits ($9 million per year), has mounting debts to third parties, declining membership, and a maxed out $1 million operation line of credit. There are issues with its assets (old facilities with little renovations done over the past three decades), political infighting and union issues. The CEO has to work to turn the situation around before the organization goes bankrupt.

WestJet Airlines had achieved a lot. The airline had taken to the skies only 13 years earlier, with three airplanes flying to five destinations. Now, with a market value at more than $2 billion, the carrier had more than 70 Boeing Next Generation 737s, employed 7,000 people and had played host to more than 12 million guests. WestJet's ambition was to become the dominant airline in Canada by 2013 and one of the five most successful international airlines in the world by 2016. Achieving these goals would mean continued expansion in the WestJet organization. How could WestJet continue to build a high engagement culture as it experienced high rates of growth? In April 2009, in light of the company's rosy predictions of further growth and success, WestJet's pilots seemed dissatisfied with elements of the new contract offer. The leadership team had met a crossroad.

An analyst at an investment firm is considering an investment in Carmanah Technologies Corporation (Carmanah). Carmanah is a fast-growing player in the high-powered alternative energy products. Since 2007, when the new chief executive officer (CEO) took over, a turnaround effort has been in place at Carmanah. At $0.91 per share, Carmanah's shares were trading at just 23 per cent of their value in mid-2007. The analyst is scheduled to make a recommendation on Carmanah to his managing director in two days. He needs to get to work valuing the company on the basis of the information he has gathered.

This case describes the efforts of the management team at Tomasso Corporation, located in Montreal, Quebec, to manage various economic and personnel issues during the economic downturn of 2001. As the situation at Tomasso worsened, the president wondered how to turn the company around. The management team wondered if there was a way to balance the human and economic issues by adhering to a theory that the chief executive officer had developed over 10 years.

The co-founder and chief investment officer (CIO) of Red River Asset Management is trying to improve the way he communicates his firm's key benefits to clients. The CIO's central challenge is that his firm's investment philosophy focuses on quantitative analysis while most clients are only familiar with - and trust - qualitative analysis. In addition, his presentation skills are not as polished as he would like. This case allows an instructor to discuss the importance of message development and delivery in the financial context. The supplement (B) case, product # 909C14, highlights the CIO's decision and outcome.

Supplement to case 909C13

The Stitch It Group (Stitch It) is a mall-based clothing alteration service. Having previously sold Stitch It to its current owners in 1990 (retaining the chief executive officer (CEO) position), the founder and CEO was presented with an opportunity in 2003 to repurchase the company. Having originally sold the business because he was too cash-strapped to grow it himself, Stitch It had since grown from three store locations to 84 stores under three brand names spread throughout Canada and the United States. In determining whether to buy back the firm he founded, the founder and CEO also needed to consider his daughter Jennifer's expressed interest in becoming an executive in the firm. How would he provide Jennifer with the proper technical training to become familiar with all aspects of the firm's business, and improve her business acumen and leadership skills? The founder and CEO had one week to inform the owners of his intent to purchase and he felt it was a good deal, considering the opportunity for growth. Even if the founder and CEO resolved to buy back his company, he wondered how to train Jennifer to take over the business one day.

Dr. Michael Lehman was the newly appointed external chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology (the department) at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. He had been brought in specifically to address the consistent underperformance of the department. Department members had divided into two camps - clinical teaching and research - and open conflict existed between members with the result that the clinical anatomy division was considering leaving the faculty. Another area of concern involved the declining research output by the cell biology division; many research programs had stalled, resulting in the loss of external funding. Lehman wondered how to balance competing interests and incentives with his five-year plan. His overall strategy was three-fold: keep the department together; enable faculty to generate scholarly research; and rejuvenate research activities. From a change-management perspective, Lehman wanted to identify his key challenges and develop a plan of action for each issue. He thought about how to implement change in his new department.

This case describes the efforts of the management team at Tomasso Corporation, located in Montreal, Quebec, to manage various economic and personnel issues during the economic downturn of 2001. As the situation at Tomasso worsened, the president wondered how to turn the company around. The management team wondered if there was a way to balance the human and economic issues by adhering to a theory that the chief executive officer had developed over 10 years.

The Stitch It Group (Stitch It) is a mall-based clothing alteration service. Having previously sold Stitch It to its current owners in 1990 (retaining the chief executive officer (CEO) position), the founder and CEO was presented with an opportunity in 2003 to repurchase the company. Having originally sold the business because he was too cash-strapped to grow it himself, Stitch It had since grown from three store locations to 84 stores under three brand names spread throughout Canada and the United States. In determining whether to buy back the firm he founded, the founder and CEO also needed to consider his daughter Jennifer's expressed interest in becoming an executive in the firm. How would he provide Jennifer with the proper technical training to become familiar with all aspects of the firm's business, and improve her business acumen and leadership skills? The founder and CEO had one week to inform the owners of his intent to purchase and he felt it was a good deal, considering the opportunity for growth. Even if the founder and CEO resolved to buy back his company, he wondered how to train Jennifer to take over the business one day.