The founders of Beleza Natural, a Brazilian chain of beauty institutes which specialized in products and services for women with curly and wavy hair, were at a key juncture for their venture; they had to decide how to consolidate their business model and growth. This case explores potential capacity investments in Beleza Natural's environment and the associated issues of workforce management. Students are asked to determine how these measures might improve Beleza Natural's operations and how the management team should prioritize the issues they face. Students learn the importance of selecting a process matching business strategy and marketing plans.
Bill Casey had a suspicion the sporting goods chain he managed was losing sales because of inconsistent customer service. To quantify customer engagement issues, Casey decided to work with a start-up that analyzed interactions between customers and employees based on security video footage. While Casey realized that statistical process control is used in manufacturing and engineering to identify variation in a process, he wondered if the method would work for a retail business. In this case students learn how statistical process control studies are built and applied, and consider Casey's analysis to determine how his business might improve its customer engagement, as well as the risks in implementing the methodology.