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Tolaram is a Singaporean company that began operations selling textiles in Nigeria in the 1970s. Executives and brothers, Haresh and Sajesh Aswani, however saw an opportunity to create an instant noodle market in the country. In 1988, they began importing Indomie noodles. But in order to truly target the local market, Tolaram decided to build manufacturing and distribution capabilities in Nigeria at time when conventional wisdom advised against it. After a very difficult journey, Tolaram has grown to almost $1 billion in turnover, built and operates 13 manufacturing plants in Nigeria, and runs a 1,000+ plus truck logistics company. This case gives an overview of how Tolaram built Indomie noodles from obscurity to become one of the most recognized brands in Nigeria.

A leading family-owned Lebanese bakery-convenience store chain, Wooden Bakery, was in the process of deciding the company’s next options for growth in Lebanon and in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The owner was pondering the use of aggressive growth strategies such as franchising and area-development franchising. Additionally, the founder of the company and its board members were facing the biggest decision in the company’s history as they prepared to vote on whether to enter the U.S. market. What competitive and functional-level strategies would be required to implement such an ambitious growth strategy in a very challenging and unfamiliar market environment?

Which sales candidate is a startup's ideal first hire? What marketing channels are best to invest in? How aggressively should an executive team align sales with customer success? Early stage founders, sales leaders, and marketing executives often face one, and sometimes all, of the above scenarios as they grow their ventures. This case presents three short vignettes, with three fictitious organizations, to facilitate a discussion around these important decisions.

In 2014, Transcend Coffee—an independent coffee shop and coffee bean roaster with several locations in Edmonton, Alberta—was selling premium coffee to a loyal base of customers. While it had taken several years to establish its presence in a marketplace that was filled with coffee retailers, Transcend Coffee's success was in part due to its direct trade supply chain strategy. By working closely with its coffee bean farmers, Transcend Coffee was able to assist in improving both the growing process of the beans and the quality of the coffee. When one of its farmers experienced a disastrous coffee bean season, the company was faced with several challenges that could have an impact on not just its profits but also the livelihood of its farmers. With demand for its coffee at an all-time high, Transcend Coffee had to consider how to mitigate a supply shortage without sacrificing quality. The founder was unsure if the current supply chain could guarantee a steady supply of high-quality coffee, or whether he could maintain transparency with consumers and suppliers if there was variability with the product. He had to quickly decide what to do about the poor harvest and his relationship with the supplier and also figure out how to meet customer demand.

Teracom Limited was a medium-sized engineering manufacturing firm in India whose product portfolio included modems. The company catered to the various telecom service providers across India, including Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited , a major state-owned telecommunications company. Teracom’s customers were primarily business-to-business entities such as government organizations and telecom operators. However, it was considering selling its modems to retail customers. After seeking applications for new distributors of Teracom modems, the company narrowed the list down to four candidate firms. In December 2014, Teracom’s president of corporate business had to use a distributor selection model and undertake a distributor performance appraisal. What were the main criteria for evaluating the four applicants, and which firm was the best fit?

In 2015, jane’s short & sweet, a United States-based for-profit business, regularly dedicated 25 per cent of its revenue to charities supporting its mission of improving the education and healthcare of marginalized women. The company also engaged in some environmental practices with respect to its use of resources. jane's short & sweet’s owner understood that she would have to make some trade-offs between people and profit while still attempting to remain consistent with her company’s social purpose and contribute to the resolution of its current problem—finding a way to fill a customer order that exceeded the company's production capacity. While addressing the company’s new labour needs, the owner needed to evaluate how the trade-off between mission and money would affect the company's labour source, hourly wages, pricing strategy, product price, and organizational goals. To do so, the owner had to identify and evaluate the options that would enable her to better fulfil her company’s role as a social sustainable enterprise.

SmoothPay, a 14-people start-up in Canada that offered mobile payment and loyalty solutions, enjoyed initial achievements after its launch in 2014. In less than two years, through industry partnerships and community engagement, SmoothPay grew to have over 100 merchants in its system, with over 5,000 users. However, the future was full of risks and uncertainty: businesses and consumers in Canada were both slow in adopting mobile payments, and, as a small firm, SmoothPay had not yet established brand awareness. SmoothPay’s management needed to address several key challenges. How could SmoothPay differentiate itself from its many competitors? What strategic direction should the company take? What market should SmoothPay target to enable sustainable growth?

Rohit Gupta, the oldest third generation member of a family business, has to decide whether to continue working for the business, towards which he has a strong sense of loyalty and responsibility, or follow his dreams and venture out on his own. Both alternatives have strong positive and negative implications. Rohit jointly headed the Western India unit of his family business, Ketan Logistics Limited (KLL). His grandfather had set up KLL, a logistics provider, in 1986. Over the years, the company expanded its fleet, acquired a license to operate freight trains, and diversified into ocean freight services and the transportation of large industrial equipment and food products. By 2014, it had become an integrated, multimodal logistics provider to business customers. KLL's operations were divided into four geographic zones, each headed by one of the second generation family members, i.e., Rohit's father and uncles. KLL took several measures to professionalize operations, such as deploying enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, adopting a code of conduct and organizing employee training and workshops. After graduating from college, all the third generation members of the family, except one, joined KLL. Some of them, like Rohit, had high aspirations and wanted to make changes at KLL, but their attempts invariably met with strong resistance. This led to frustration among some next generation members who had considered venturing out on their own at different points in time. Rohit also had a business idea, which he shared with his old friend Amit Goyal who also belonged to a business family. Goyal liked the idea instantly and offered to invest in the new venture. Rohit was emotionally attached to his father and other family members and did not want KLL to suffer as a result of his exit. He also had to consider his own hopes and future. He would not easily get an opportunity again to launch his own venture. Rohit was facing a tough decision dilemma.

In March 2016, eEquity, a small firm providing online training and software to corporate human resource professionals, faced a dilemma. A year after new ownership and management took over, the channel sales strategy that was expected to support the growth of the promising Software as a Service division failed, and cash was running out. Management had devised a new sales and marketing strategy that it believed would be successful, but lacked the funds to implement the strategy. This same management team identified four options to acquire the necessary funds, each of which had inherent strengths and weaknesses. The firm’s success depended on making a good choice under conditions of incomplete information and a short time frame.

The president of Cloud Syzygy Technologies (CST) had recently returned from the Pacific Telecommunications Council conference, where he discussed ways in which cloud computing had transformed industries. He knew that in the future, the real opportunities lay in the cloud and not in traditional internal IT solutions. As the executive in charge of CST, he wished to develop a plan to grow the business, which would include a clear message to his customers about the merits of cloud computing. He recognized that cloud computing provided many opportunities and risks for corporations seeking to take advantage of new and innovative technologies. He was tasked with presenting a ranking and assessment of CST’s new products to the board at the next meeting.

Yoyo Wallet, a technology start-up headquartered in London, United Kingdom, developed a mobile application for smartphones to facilitate in-store payments and loyalty data collection. Inspired by the success of Starbucks’ loyalty-integrated mobile application, Yoyo Wallet strove to become the ultimate tool for retailers in enhancing customer experience. The company planned to enter the mobile payment industry in the United States; however, Yoyo had to compete with existing wallets (like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Android Pay), navigate through the uncertainty of the industry’s future, and adapt their strategy to the competitive environment in the United States.

Amazon was the biggest Internet-based retailer in the United States and had frequently been featured on lists of the most admired companies. In 2015, The New York Times published an article that portrayed Amazon as a ruthless employer with brutal human resource management practices and a toxic work atmosphere. Employees were divided in their opinions: some found the culture invigorating and others found it hard to survive in. Leaders in the industry came to Amazon’s defence, while employees at other organizations began to disclose their own experiences of toxic work environments. Could Amazon continue to grow, thrive, and retain employees if it maintained its current employee management strategy? Did stress foster innovation, and, if so, at what point did that stress become destructive?

ISlide is the story of a nascent entrepreneur, Justin Kittredge, who used his experience and knowledge of the athletic footwear market to start his own footwear company, a manufacturer/distributor of customizable athletic sandals known as "slides." The case illustrates many of the concepts of Entrepreneurial Thought and Action-where an entrepreneur starts with the concepts of Who am I, What do I know, and Whom do I know. The founder, Justin, a former Reebok executive and college basketball player, is passionate about basketball and coaching young people. The case illustrates how Justin builds a company in a niche that has not yet been exploited by the big footwear companies.

The Grupo SALA case focuses on entrepreneur Humberto Rodriguez's venture based in Bogota, Colombia. Rodriguez saw an opportunity in the environmental-solutions space when the Colombian government decided to privatize public services. Rodriguez started his venture in 1997 in a 62-square-meter office with an investment of $100,000 by a U.S.-based investor. By June 2015, the time of the case, Grupo SALA operated in three areas-solid waste, dangerous residues, and water and sewer-and had grown at an average rate of 21.3% over the 2002-2014 period. The group drew on three foundations-entrepreneurship, technology innovation and regulatory management, and successful environmental management-and, with 3,270 employees working in eighteen companies, recorded Colombian pesos 256 billion in revenue in 2014 (US$128 million at 2014 conversion rate of 1 Colombian Peso = US$0.0005). After a quick introduction, the case takes the reader through the following six sections: (1) Rodriguez's personal background and approach to risk-taking and entrepreneurship; (2) a window into Grupo SALA's businesses, organizational structure, and ownership; (3) the group's opportunities transforming Colombian attitudes and behavior toward waste, the introduction of containerization, the incineration of hazardous waste, water treatment, and the eventual end game around sustainability and improved lives, spaces, and the environment; (4) Rodriguez's and Grupo SALA's approach to management; (5) the staging of a first "shark tank" to encourage ideas to fuel Grupo SALA's future growth; and (6) Rodriguez's questions for his group regarding the road ahead.

In 2015, many people in southwest Sri Lanka were experiencing severe health problems as a result of poor water sanitation, decaying pumps and pipes, and the resultant unsanitary water. With Sri Lanka’s dubious credit record and extremely poor economy, the country's government was unsure of how to raise the US$70 million that was required to build new sanitation plants and replace many aging pipes throughout the region. Would it have to accept the first offer of support or would its long-time allies from other foreign governments come to the rescue? There was little doubt that Sri Lanka would be faced with a number of caveats and conditions as part of any agreement to secure the necessary funding. Furthermore, even if the country could find the funds, would the designated officials use them appropriately without falling prey to corruption? As in any developing country, there were many concerns that needed to be addressed, and very few resources with which to address them.

In 2011, China-based Wensli Group’s newly appointed chairwoman was preparing to transform the company’s silk business into a global luxury brand. It was a lofty goal for a company that started out as a township silk factory before growing into the largest silk-producing company in China. Tapping into the luxury market, however, presented a challenge because Chinese companies were better known for producing cost-conscious products. That meant Wensli, a family-owned business, was facing a huge hurdle in building a brand in a marketplace where it simply had no experience. What steps are needed for the company to gain a foothold in the high-end luxury segment currently dominated by European players? Should the company seek talent expertise from beyond its borders to build an international luxury brand?

The Vibrance Kegel Device (VKD) was an intra-vaginal device that helped women correctly identify and strengthen their pelvic floor muscles to prevent and improve health issues related to urinary incontinence, back pain, and sexual dysfunction. The VKD was owned and marketed by Bioinfinity, a three-person, start-up company based in Malaysia. Despite being an innovative and award-winning product, its marketing strategy was challenging as its target market was Malaysian women, the majority of whom were conservative and uncomfortable with discussing these types of medical issues. As a result, educating women and developing product awareness had been a struggle. Bioinfinity’s market development director needed to think of ways to grow the business. He was also contemplating whether the VKD was ready to compete in established markets such as Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

In 1959, Unilever was one of the world's most internationally established companies, and its products had gained substantial market share in the consumer goods segment. Unilever was prepared to make a capital investment outside its home market of Europe, and considered entering one of two developing economies (disguised in these documents). The (A) case relates to the decision in 1959, whereas the (B) case revisits the same decision in 1969. Balonia and Banchuria were two of the world's poorest areas, and both had begun to emerge from their post-colonial ties to adopt policies and establish institutions in an effort to spur economic growth. Unilever's strategic planning group needed to weigh the data on these economies and make an entry recommendation as to which location provided the better investment environment.

At the end of 2014, the owner of India-based Thakur Engineering Works (TEW) was at a crossroads in determining his company’s future. After more than two decades of solidly building the family business’s reputation at home, the producer and supplier of auto parts was poised for expansion either domestically or globally. TEW already produced parts that were shipped overseas via domestic exporters. The owner could not help but wonder about the possibility of simply shipping the parts directly to foreign clients. While that decision would require changes to its logistics and operations and would incur costs related to exports, the owner could not ignore the pay-off in profits. In India, the auto parts market was experiencing a slowdown, resulting in fierce competition, price reductions, and pressure to deliver parts faster. Despite these challenges, the Indian market was one he understood, so expansion there carried little risk. Should TEW continue to focus on increasing its market position domestically or was the time right for TEW to target the more profitable global market?

In 2015, Burger King France operated 26 Burger King restaurants in France and had ambitious plans for growth. In a press release, Burger King France shareholders announced the projected acquisition of Quick, a chain of 509 fast-food restaurants operating in France and a few other countries. Burger King France intended to gradually convert the Quick restaurants into Burger King restaurants—a move that would turn Burger King into the second-largest fast-food chain in France. While this acquisition provided a significant growth option for the Burger King chain, it also posed several challenges in the form of brand image, company culture, and the many issues that could come with the process of converting and internationalizing a chain within its home country.