Christian (Chris) Viatte, head of service experience and innovation at Swisscom, market leader in Switzerland's telecommunications industry, strode into his office and dropped into his chair. Some of Swisscom's top executives would soon be holding a meeting to discuss the company's partnership with Mila, an on-demand home service marketplace start-up. Under Chris's leadership, Swisscom and Mila had created Swisscom Friends, a service solution connecting Swisscom customers with vetted, tech-savvy people in their neighbourhood who could help them with small service requests. By 2015, Mila and Swisscom had built up a service crowd of more than 1,500 active "Friends" throughout Switzerland, and Swisscom now had to consider the future of what was still a purely contractual relationship. Should Swisscom partially or even fully acquire Mila? Should it withdraw from the partnership and offer the service on its own? Should it become more involved in Mila's management? This two-part case discusses the development and management of the partnership between Swisscom and Mila, particularly how Mila grew from being a contractual partner to a fully owned subsidiary of Swisscom.

Christian (Chris) Viatte, head of service experience and innovation at Swisscom, market leader in Switzerland's telecommunications industry, strode into his office and dropped into his chair. Some of Swisscom's top executives would soon be holding a meeting to discuss the company's partnership with Mila, an on-demand home service marketplace start-up. Under Chris's leadership, Swisscom and Mila had created Swisscom Friends, a service solution connecting Swisscom customers with vetted, tech-savvy people in their neighbourhood who could help them with small service requests. By 2015, Mila and Swisscom had built up a service crowd of more than 1,500 active "Friends" throughout Switzerland, and Swisscom now had to consider the future of what was still a purely contractual relationship. Should Swisscom partially or even fully acquire Mila? Should it withdraw from the partnership and offer the service on its own? Should it become more involved in Mila's management? This two-part case discusses the development and management of the partnership between Swisscom and Mila, particularly how Mila grew from being a contractual partner to a fully owned subsidiary of Swisscom.

In March 2016, Ontario-based Cara Operations, a company that operates several restaurant chains, including Swiss Chalet (present throughout Canada, except in Quebec) - acquired Groupe St-Hubert, one of Quebec's largest restaurant chains. With the acquisition of St-Hubert, Cara became the proud owner not only of its restaurants but also of its manufacturing plants and distribution centres. The purchase of Quebec's iconic rotisserie chicken chain thus opened many doors for Cara. The case describes the situation immediately following the acquisition, when CEO Bill Gregson is wondering how to optimize its impact on his company. It ends with the five options that Gregson plans to present to his board of directors: 1) allow St-Hubert to operate as an independent division at the national level, 2) use St-Hubert to introduce Cara-branded products to Quebec, 3) have Cara and St-Hubert combine locations, 4) adopt St-Hubert's procurement process for Cara brands, or 5) simply cut costs by implementing Cara's best practices and know-how.