個案總覽

The chief executive officer of the jewellery division at Titan Company Ltd. withdrew two successive advertising campaigns for jewellery brand Tanishq during its high selling festive season in 2020 due to intense social media trolling. These adverse social media reactions, shaped by religious beliefs and ideology, challenged the well-entrenched “progressive and bold” positioning of the brand. With multiple stakeholders and shifting societal ideologies, should the company continue promoting its progressive image and bold creative executions irrespective of the recent setbacks, continue with the current positioning with significantly toned-down executions, or reposition the brand and its creative execution completely?

It was 2019, and the senior manager of strategy and business operations at Lyft Inc. (Lyft), headquartered in San Francisco, had been tasked with helping the company expand its existing vehicle services infrastructure to include individual riders, also known as end users, in addition to drivers. She had information about the competitive landscape within the industry, along with valuable insights from interviews Lyft had facilitated with potential customers. She was aware that in order for Lyft to grow and ultimately scale in as frictionless a manner as possible, the company might have to re-evaluate its value proposition and figure out how to build trust with consumers.

Presentation to accompany product W25384.

Like the society of which it is a part, the work world has not been immune to the plight of intolerance. Recognizing that while systemic changes are necessary, this case offers a powerful way to combat bias by empowering employees to speak up in order to share their concerns, discomfort, and frustrations with intolerance and bias in real time, as they see it happening. An organization is more than the sum of its policies, procedures, and other initiatives. A company is made up of many thousands of personal interactions, and much of the intolerance that marginalized employees experience occur within these moments. Learning to break the silence in these moments is key.

Supplement for product W25584.

By June 2020, the entrepreneurial, client-focused funeral home company Families First Funeral Homes & Tribute Centre (Families First) had expanded to four branches in the Windsor-Essex region of Ontario, Canada. Families First had served families across the region for nearly 25 years as it manoeuvred through the information era and dealt with changing dynamics in the funeral services industry; changing regional demographics; cultural elements; and the needs of its different stakeholders, including people planning their own future funerals and bereaved family and friends planning final goodbyes for their loved ones. Now, recognizing the need to enhance its technology—particularly in light of the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had heightened the need for greater technological features in the funeral services industry—Families First had to consider how to continue providing value to customers and develop a strong customer management and communication plan with the use of technology, incorporating advanced technological features into its customer relationship and growth strategy.

Moderna, Inc. (Moderna), a US biotech start-up, was a contender in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. On November 23, 2020, Moderna announced success in the third-stage clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine, soon after larger rival Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer), partnering with BioNTech SE, had reported the successful clinical trial results of its own vaccine. However, large-scale vaccine production was a challenge for Moderna, and its chief executive officer acknowledged that scaling production would not be easy. The two other leading vaccine developers, Pfizer and AstraZeneca plc (AstraZeneca), had fewer challenges with manufacturing capacity; however, Pfizer’s vaccine required extreme cold storage, and AstraZeneca’s vaccine faced issues with its third-stage clinical trial results. On the consumer front, many Americans were unwilling to be vaccinated for COVID-19, leading to anti-vaccination protests on social media and in public. In November 2020, Moderna was planning to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccine manufacturers were racing to see whose vaccine was best. Could Moderna produce the most effective COVID-19 vaccine? Given the uncertainty in consumer demand for the vaccine, should Moderna plan its manufacturing capability based on end-consumer demand or focus instead on seeking government contracts?

The Sunshine Foundation of Canada (Sunshine) was a national, Canadian-focused, self-funded charity established in 1987 and headquartered in London, Ontario. In the second half of 2020, the chief executive officer (CEO) and president was deciding how to create an effective email template that would serve the larger organization as the first point of contact for potential donors. Sunshine’s relationships and donor pipeline were the organization’s lifeline, and with strong competition in the non-profit milieu, the CEO knew securing funds in the individual-giving category would be difficult. How could she outline Sunshine’s differences and highlight why the prospective client would be interested in becoming a donor? How could she convert these prospects into new Sunshine donors?

Drop Technologies Inc. was a major success in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada technology community. Having raised its initial pre-seed funding with only a slide deck, it grew to become a popular loyalty mobile application across North America. In 2017, the company was featured in LinkedIn’s top 25 start-ups in Canada, and it closed CA$58 million in a series B funding round. In 2018, the marketing manager had to decide which marketing channel was most effective based on the goals of the company. Traditionally, Drop Technologies Inc. used paid social advertising and referrals to generate user growth. However, the rise of influencer marketing was on the marketing manager’s radar, who had previously tested this channel, but had yet to decide whether or not to allocate more of the marketing budget to it. While this channel had many potential benefits, it was still a new concept and held many potential risks.

In 2019, after completing her postgraduate work in dentistry in Mangalore, India, an entrepreneur decided to set up a chain of clinics in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. She was not considering any partnerships for her venture, which she planned to fund with personal capital and a bank loan. The entrepreneur consulted her long-time friend, an independent business consultant, who introduced her to the manager of the Indian government-owned Syndicate Bank. The bank agreed to review her detailed financial and marketing plans, and consider funding the venture. The independent business consultant offered to help with the task of financial forecasting for the development of a marketing plan to increase foot traffic to the proposed clinics.

In the summer of 2019, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Canada’s largest mental health teaching hospital, found itself at the centre of a high-profile media crisis after three patients absconded from care at its forensic mental health unit. The events had led to public concern from the community, the media, and the government, putting CAMH’s reputation at risk. Much of the concern manifested through stigmatizing statements due to a common misunderstanding and ignorance towards mental health, especially in the forensic area. CAMH’s chief executive officer, Dr. Catherine Zahn, and her team had to decide how they would address the crisis both externally with the public and internally in their own organization.

In mid-2020, the co-founder of online and brick-and-mortar womenswear boutique Shop Thursdays in Toronto, was considering how to best position her business for growth when the COVID-19 global pandemic was resolved. The boutique, which had two brick-and-mortar locations in addition to its online presence, provided its customers with the latest and trendiest styles. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced all non-essential business to close their doors, the co-founder pivoted to sell all merchandise through the shop’s online platform. The success realized during this time led her to wonder how to continue to boost this segment of the business. The co-founder had tried influencer marketing in the past and was aware of its potential to grow online sales; however, to devote her time and resources to influencer marketing, she would need to close the store’s second location. Given the uncertainty surrounding consumer shopping behaviour after COVID-19 was resolved, which strategy would be beneficial moving forward?

In 2020, the chief executive officer of Tella Oy, a small Finnish hat-making firm, wanted to achieve €2 million in turnover. She had been pursuing a regional growth strategy with some success since 2016, when she had founded the business after acquiring the long-established family firm. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the firm had abandoned its internationalization plans and began fabricating personal protective clothing. When the chief executive officer met with consultants, several expansion options were raised: remaining regionally focused, entering into exclusive supply arrangements, pursuing opportunities in Asia, licensing her designs, or becoming a fully online retailer. As a small firm with no permanent employees, which of these various options could Tella Oy realistically pursue? More importantly, was this chief executive officer ready to give up her role as chief designer to take on the role of managing director?

In 2012, Mountain Equipment Co-op, a members-only Canadian consumers’ co-operative that sold outdoor recreational gear and clothing, underwent a major revamp of its strategic focus, which involved a change of its logo. The shift was away from the co-operative's core, outdoors-focused customer base to a wider target group that included urban and rural customers who were new to outdoor sports. The change was significant and the co-operative realized that many of its core customers—all of whom were shareholders—were upset by the shift in strategy and logo change. Mountain Equipment Co-op needed a communications plan to ease the transition.

A group of Canadian parents wanted the Canadian government to create a redress system related to Canada’s no-fly list, which affected some of their young children whenever they flew. The parents formed an advocacy group called the No Fly List Kids group in 2016, and the group undertook various campaigns—including innovative guerrilla marketing campaigns and uses of both digital and traditional marketing—to highlight the issue of Canadian children being identified as potential security risks before they boarded flights within Canada. Over a three-year period, the group worked to raise awareness of the issue and to pressure the Canadian government to create a redress system similar to that in the United States. Its efforts eventually resulted in the allocation in 2018 of CA$81.4 million dollars for a redress system. In November 2018, the group was scheduled to meet members of the Senate, and it had to decide what short-term and long-term activities to undertake to achieve its stated goal of having a functioning redress system that would help all those affected by the no-fly list—not only children of group members, but all people, young and old, from various backgrounds.

Jugnoo started its journey in 2014 as an autorickshaw aggregator providing ride-hailing services in India. Since then, the brand had grown and expanded to include hyperlocal services and business solutions. By May 2018, Jugnoo had five services under its umbrella that were offered primarily through applications and covered both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets. Jugnoo found itself in a very different market space from where it had started. A company co-founder wondered how Jugnoo would continue to sustain its strategy of disrupting traditional markets, given the fast-paced growth it was experiencing. How would it manage to build consumers' trust with such diverse business verticals and so much reliance on technology? With the company's growing numbers and opportunities, the co-founder wondered whether Jugnoo's use of word-of-mouth communication would continue to be possible, especially considering the aggressive communication tactics adopted by other players in the market.

Since its founding in 2011, Art With Impact (AWI) had one precise goal—to enable young people in Canada and the United States to talk about mental health issues through art and media. The foundation enjoyed great success. However, like many other charities and non-profit organizations, AWI was struggling with the challenge of raising adequate funding. In 2017, AWI was looking ahead and wanted to design a sophisticated social media to attract numerous smaller donors. Was there an ideal strategy to achieve high levels of funding and high numbers of donors? Or would it be best to focus solely on raising the number of donors to build a database, collect data, and refine a strategy to collect more funding from AWI’s donors in the future?

In 2015, nine black Americans were killed in a racially motivated shooting spree. The incident fuelled ongoing racial tensions in the United States and launched a conflict over the presence of Confederate memorials in public spaces. When the push to remove Confederate memorials began, the task for Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, was to deal with the city's notable Confederate monuments and the conflict they engendered in a city divided along racial lines demographically, economically, and historically. On May 19, 2017, Landrieu addressed the public. Students have the opportunity to evaluate the speech, consider why Landrieu chose this occasion to address the public, and determine what the speech reveals about his leadership character.

AWARD-WINNING CASE - Women in Business Category, 2019 European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition. In August 2017, a memo written by an engineer at Google LLC (Google) was leaked to the public, revealing fractured communication and leadership at Google. Labelled an “anti-diversity manifesto” by its detractors, the memo set off a public controversy over the causes of gender disparities in tech and the limits of free speech within organizations. With ideological divisions across the company, open disdain expressed between colleagues, and the credibility of leaders at a low, the new vice-president of diversity needed to establish trust and candour among the employees and move the company forward.

In 2017, Gemini Edibles and Fats India Private Limited (GEF India), a Hyderabad-based company, was in the business of trading, manufacturing, and marketing edible oils and fats. In the eight years since it was founded, GEF India had become the top-selling edible oil company across South India with a 40 per cent market share. The company wanted to double its current revenues by 2021, which would place it in competition with national producers. Consumption of edible oil in India was increasing, and domestic production was not meeting demand. GEF India wanted to capitalize on the opportunity, but the revenue targets indicated no ordinary increase. What should its growth strategy be? Was there a need to revisit its marketing communication strategy in order to strengthen its brand amid increasing competition? From an organizational perspective, did the growth challenge require a shift in the company’s culture or internal communication strategy?