A Hong Kong start-up, Senior Deli develops a wide variety of soft meal products targeted at mostly elderly patients suffering from dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing and chewing. Its patented technologies help supply softened food that retains the original taste and appearance and appeals to local palates. There is significant market potential for soft meal products amid the aging populations in Hong Kong, mainland China, and other developed countries. Yet the team has found that some patients and care homes have hesitated to adopt the products. In general, soft meal products are still new to many people and suppliers in Hong Kong. The stakeholders seem to hold up in adoption of the products. This market chasm is too costly for Senior Deli or any single start-up to overcome. Therefore, Senior Deli’s major issues are educating target customers, legitimizing soft meals, and promoting its products amid such uncertainty. At the end of 2022, a localized guideline for care foods was announced in Hong Kong, but will it create an opportunity for Senior Deli to overcome the issues it has been facing?
Huemen was a new men’s cosmetics start-up founded in mid-2018 by two business students. In 2018, the market for men’s makeup was in its infancy. Stigmas and stereotypes dominated ideas about men investing in their appearance, but the founders believed that cosmetics created for male-type skin could improve the confidence of those who chose to use it. Huemen’s go-to-market strategy and positioning would be pivotal to success. The founders and their team scheduled a meeting with an entrepreneur-in-residence at the business school, a seasoned marketing expert with strong corporate and entrepreneurial experience to consider how to position Huemen in a novel market.
In late May 2018, Grant Sparling, chief development officer at Cowbell Brewing Co. (Cowbell), a high-growth destination brewery located in rural Blyth, Ontario, was considering the company’s long-term growth strategy. Whereas most craft breweries started in leased commercial space, Cowbell opened its doors in the summer of 2017 with a state-of-the-art brewing facility, packaging operation, bar, and restaurant, all housed in an iconic barn-style building on land owned by the Sparling family. Sparling was considering a range of expansion projects, including increasing Cowbell’s brewing capacity, launching a working farm concept, building a 15,000-capacity event venue, offering a bus shuttle service to and from London, constructing an on-premises hotel or inn, and opening a second restaurant location, possibly in Toronto. But how should he decide on the next offering to fuel Cowbell’s growth and expansion?
Yuser Inc. (Yuser) was a new social networking start-up based in London, Ontario. Well-established social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube had begun to restrict social media influencers’ monetization of their user base, and this had opened an opportunity for a new social media network to make three-way interactions among users, social media influencers (SMIs), and corporate sponsors completely stable and transparent. Yuser granted SMIs freedom in terms of the content they posted, allowing companies to identify influencers who helped their marketing efforts and to financially reward them using Yuser’s cryptocurrency. Rather than facilitating two-way relationships, as most platforms did, Yuser would help build triangular relationships among companies, target markets, and SMIs. However, Yuser’s business concept was complex, making it difficult for the company’s chief operations officer to pitch Yuser’s value proposition to external investors. In June 2018, she needed to find a delicate balance that would allow her to inform investors of the venture’s potential without overwhelming them in a sea of confusing details.
In February 2018, the co-owners of Trafalgar Ales, Meads & Distillery, based in Oakville, Ontario, were eager to take on a wide range of new opportunities. In the 18 months since their purchase of the brewery, the two co-owners had devoted great efforts to transforming the company, creating and launching several new and successful beer brands. Contract brewing was de-emphasized, and the layout of the brewery was reset. The owners became involved in the industry at the brewers association level. What they needed, it seemed, was a better understanding of the opportunities in front of them. The co-owners had to decide where they should focus their attention and their resources. Their challenge was how to grow the brewery—do more of the same, or launch products in other categories?
In late 2016, the entrepreneurial founder of Mental and Natural Company, a digital multimedia company in China, wanted to have ready access to China’s best multimedia talent and expertise, but without burdening the company with an excessive number of employees. The entrepreneur and his team were developing a cloud-based multimedia crowdsourcing and collaboration platform, which would allow the company to quickly and easily crowdsource the needed freelance talent from around China. Yet, even before the platform was fully up and running, a new growth opportunity presented three possible options for the company to pursue. The entrepreneur and his team had just three weeks to decide on which option best fit the company’s existing business model, made best use of its resources, and was the best choice to secure the company’s future.
In July 2014, the president and co-owner of Sunshine Fresh Inc. (Sunshine), a food service manufacturing company in Totowa, New Jersey, needed to make a decision about the best location for the company’s new West Coast expansion. Sunshine had built a strong reputation on the U.S. East Coast for high-quality refrigerated kosher pickles. Among Sunshine’s most valued clients were several casinos located in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. Recently, a food purchaser for one these casinos casually mentioned to Sunshine’s vice-president that his casino’s customers in Las Vegas would love to have Sunshine’s pickles too. This brief exchange led to an expansion plan that required Sunshine to choose a location for its West Coast operation. The company’s managers had visited several cities in the Western United States to explore their options, and had carefully weighed the pros and cons of the two main contenders—Los Angeles, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada—against five essential criteria. Now, they needed a firm decision: Which metropolitan area was the best location for Sunshine’s new pickle plant?
On January 4, 2016, the co-founders of Forked River Brewing Company (Forked River), a small brewery in London, Ontario, revisited the company’s original business plan from 2012. Over the course of only four years, the founders went from home brewing enthusiasts to owners of a striving, award-winning craft brewery. Forked River beers were now offered in pubs, restaurants, and retail stores across the province of Ontario. In the past year alone, Forked River had expanded its production capacity by 50 per cent, hired an additional full-time brewmaster, and added a retail outlet to the brewing facility. However, business had recently become more complicated due to changes to Ontario retail liquor laws, increasing non-brewing administrative work, and looming decisions about the product portfolio and distribution strategy. Now, the three founders wondered whether Forked River was still on the right track or if a new strategic plan was needed to ensure its long-term success in the fast-changing craft beer industry.