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The North West Company cases allow students to take a cross-enterprise leadership approach in looking at the dilemma facing the president and chief executive officer of The North West Company (North West), a food and general merchandise retailer operating primarily in Northern Canada. In early 2003, North West had negotiated a master franchisor agreement with Giant Tiger Stores Limited (Giant Tiger) with the objective of opening stores west of Winnipeg. In contrast with North West's push system of product replenishment, Giant Tiger had developed a successful pull system that gave individual store managers tremendous leeway in ordering decisions. The president and CEO wonders whether there is an opportunity to drive better results by adopting Giant Tiger's pull system within its Northern stores. The upside potential may include higher sales and reduced inventory levels as merchandise is tailored for each community. On the other hand, North West may face logistics and human resources issues in attempting to adopt this new system. This supplement to The North West Company (A): Cross-enterprise Strategy, product 9B07M047, discusses the human resources issues.

The North West Company cases allow students to take a cross-enterprise leadership approach in looking at the dilemma facing the president and chief executive officer of The North West Company (North West), a food and general merchandise retailer operating primarily in Northern Canada. In early 2003, North West had negotiated a master franchisor agreement with Giant Tiger Stores Limited (Giant Tiger) with the objective of opening stores west of Winnipeg. In contrast with North West's push system of product replenishment, Giant Tiger had developed a successful pull system that gave individual store managers tremendous leeway in ordering decisions. The president and CEO wonders whether there is an opportunity to drive better results by adopting Giant Tiger's pull system within its Northern stores. The upside potential may include higher sales and reduced inventory levels as merchandise is tailored for each community. On the other hand, North West may face logistics and human resources issues in attempting to adopt this new system. This case provides detailed information about North West, its environment and Giant Tiger. The supplements The North West Company (B): Supply Chain Management, product 9B07D008, and The North West Company (C): Human Resources, product 9B07C024, look at the supply chain and human resources issues.

Murray Douglas is the new chief executive officer (CEO) of Douglas Fine Foods (DFF), a family-owned business in its 80th year. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, DFF has grown to become Canada's largest privately held food services company, doing $30 million worth of business annually. DFF provides business dining, residence and camp food services, catering, vending machine services, and food service equipment and design. The business serves clients in various industries including schools, sports arenas and concessions, warehouses, government offices and corporations. Douglas needs to make several key decisions concerning DFF, including how to pay for a buyout of his brother's shares; whether to renew a contract with an undesirable customer; whether to pursue an active acquisition strategy; and how to transform the business to become a world-class, professionally managed organization. Students must evaluate complexities and trade-offs in making a sequence of decisions; outline a clear strategy and vision for the company; prioritize strategic options; define elements of an acquisition strategy; determine financing options for cash-constrained firm; and manage internal culture transformation.

Coping with the complexity of today's business environment is not about predicting the future or reducing risk. It's about building the capacity, in yourself, your people, and the organization to adapt continuously and learn speedily, in order to maximize the chances of seizing fleeting opportunities. These authors' excellent suggestions will help today's leaders cope with complexity.

The Turkish financial sector has been developing rapidly and often unpredictably, offering an ideal backdrop to carry out an industry analysis in the dynamic environment of an emerging market. Akbank, one of the leading private Turkish banks, has been successful in taking advantage of the new opportunities that appeared in the credit card sector as a result of post-crisis restructuring of the financial services industry in the early 2000s. Launched in late 2001, Akbank's Axess credit card quickly gained a significant market share of 15 per cent and was popular with both customers and merchants. At the same time, the attractive margins in this sector have sparked many local and foreign competitor entries. Setting a sustainable strategy for the next few years is complicated by the change in the political, macro-economic and competitive environment. The new government leading the country since 2002 has improved overall stability in Turkey, which created both opportunities and threats for Akbank's business. The opportunities included an improved banking system and increasing customer disposable income, while the market for credit cards was not yet saturated. However, threats may come from unpredictable actions that banking authorities could implement and increasing competition from both local and international players. The dynamic nature of the banking industry in an emerging market provides a comprehensive case to anchor a discussion about developing flexible strategy in a changing environment. The purpose of the Akbank case is to help students develop environmental analysis skills. It is designed to be used in a strategy course (e.g. to accompany Chapters 4 and 5 of Crossan, Fry and Killing (2006) Strategic Analysis and Action) at an undergraduate or graduate level. Additionally, it may be used in a marketing course to illustrate issues related to loyalty programs or in an international business course to illustrate the impact of environmental uncertainty on managerial decision-making.

The Turkish financial sector has been developing rapidly and often unpredictably, offering an ideal backdrop to carry out an industry analysis in the dynamic environment of an emerging market. Akbank, one of the leading private Turkish banks, has been successful in taking advantage of the new opportunities that appeared in the credit card sector as a result of post-crisis restructuring of the financial services industry in the early 2000s. Launched in late 2001, Akbank's Axess credit card quickly gained a significant market share of 15 per cent and was popular with both customers and merchants. At the same time, the attractive margins in this sector have sparked many local and foreign competitor entries. Setting a sustainable strategy for the next few years is complicated by the change in the political, macro-economic and competitive environment. The new government leading the country since 2002 has improved overall stability in Turkey, which created both opportunities and threats for Akbank's business. The opportunities included an improved banking system and increasing customer disposable income, while the market for credit cards was not yet saturated. However, threats may come from unpredictable actions that banking authorities could implement and increasing competition from both local and international players. The dynamic nature of the banking industry in an emerging market provides a comprehensive case to anchor a discussion about developing flexible strategy in a changing environment. The purpose of the Akbank case is to help students develop environmental analysis skills. It is designed to be used in a strategy course at an undergraduate or graduate level. Additionally, it may be used in a marketing course to illustrate issues related to loyalty programs or in an international business course to illustrate the impact of environmental uncertainty on managerial decision-making.

General management integrates all of the functional areas of a business with a view to making decisions that are coherent and beneficial to the entire firm. This note begins with a strategy model that provides an overview of the key elements the general manager needs to consider when making strategic decisions. Each area of the strategy is then discussed. Types of strategic choices are then presented, followed by a section on valuation. The note concludes with an overview of a strategic decision-making process.

The Water Cooler case is support to a DVD (Windows Media Player) depicting Geoff Mueller's first day at work at the fictitious company called Ginko. The first part of the DVD details the day through the eyes of the many employees at Ginko and how they view Geoff. The second part shows how Geoff Mueller personally experienced that day. The two perspectives are entirely different. The Water Cooler DVD is available, product # 7B08M024.

This is a follow-up to the Starbucks case, product 9A98M006, describing the aftermath of strategic decisions taken in 1999. The case describes the crisis of confidence of investors in the strategic choices made by Starbucks. It poses the issues facing Starbucks in attempting to regain focus.

PowerPoint presentation supporting material for product 8B08M24.

The Water Cooler case is support to a DVD (Windows Media Player) depicting Geoff Mueller's first day at work at the fictitious company called Ginko. The first part of the DVD details the day through the eyes of the many employees at Ginko and how they view Geoff. The second part shows how Geoff Mueller personally experienced that day. The two perspectives are entirely different. The Water Cooler DVD is available, product # 7B08M024. Please contact Ivey Publishing for the DVD.

This is a follow-up to the Starbucks case, product 98M006, describing the aftermath of strategic decisions taken in 1999. The case describes the crisis of confidence of investors in the strategic choices made by Starbucks. It poses the issues facing Starbucks in attempting to regain focus.

Leadership theories abound, but few have provided a means to integrate the depth and breadth of the vast literature available. Building on the research of Crossan, Vera, and Nanjad (who propose Transcendent Leadership as an integrative framework), we describe the key leadership challenges of leading across the levels of self, others, organization, and society. We argue that much of the leadership discourse has focused almost exclusively on leadership of others and occasionally on the leadership of the organization as a whole, yet little has focused specifically on the integral component of leadership of self. We provide evidence of the necessity of multiple levels of leadership, as well as some practical guidance, by drawing from in-depth interviews of six leaders in various contexts.

Visualize a leader with virtues such as courage and integrity, as well as five key types of intelligence, and you've got a clear picture of the cross-enterprise leader. So equipped, such a leader has what it takes to adopt the enterprise-wide perspective that is necessary to make the right decisions for creating and delivering value to all stakeholders. These Ivey professors describe how an organization develops the type of leader to succeed in today's dynamic and complex business environment.

In late November 2002, halfway through the vital Christmas selling season, William E. Aziz, hired to turn around White Rose Crafts and Nursery Sales Limited (White Rose), has to decide what to do. White Rose is under Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) protection, having breached its debt covenants. The company's upper and middle management is frustrated that their efforts since 1999 have not turned the firm around. The remaining employees blame the firms' situation on the change in strategy that occurred in 1999. The changes led many of White Rose's original employees to leave. At least partly due to an attempt to compete head-on with new U.S. entrants into the garden and crafts industry, the company endured three straight years of losses. In November 2002, White Rose launched a strategic review of its operations and asked its chief executive officer of three years, Dave Symons, to resign.

Shift the focus from business functions to business issues and transform the static, hierarchical organization into the dynamic, responsive enterprise and you're on the leading edge of management thinking today.

Harlequin Enterprises is a well-known publisher of series romantic fiction. The company is facing threats to its leading position as the world's largest romance publisher. While Harlequin was the dominant and very profitable producer of series of romance novels, research indicated that many customers were reading as many single-title romance and women's fiction as series romances. Facing a steady loss of share, Harlequin convened a task force to study the possibility of re-launching a single title women's fiction program. Students must analyze the organization's capabilities and resources as it considers the launch of this new business line.

Harlequin Enterprises is a well-known publisher of series romantic fiction. The company is facing threats to its leading position as the world's largest romance publisher. While Harlequin was the dominant and very profitable producer of series of romance novels, research indicated that many customers were reading as many single-title romance and women's fiction as series romances. Facing a steady loss of share, Harlequin convened a task force to study the possibility of re-launching a single title women's fiction program. Students must analyze the organization's capabilities and resources as it considers the launch of this new business line.

Digital Economy was founded in 1994 as a private think tank focused on researching the effects of emerging technologies on competitive strategies and high performance organizations. By the late 1990s, clients demanded consulting services to compliment previously purchased research services. The company's business model and offerings flourished in the technology boom. In the first quarter of 2001, the technology boom began to deflate. Digital Economy's decision makers were confident that the changes in the environment would be short lived and that the company's business model and offerings were infallible. Unfortunately, this assessment and subsequent decisions lead to substantial losses in the next two years. The parent firm pressured Digital Economy to realize a profit by the following fiscal year or be completely shut down or consolidated. Digital Economy was in a state of crisis yet the management team did not see the need for change. This case illustrates how biased environmental analysis and personal beliefs can affect decision making and lead to and sustain organizational crisis.