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In 2016, the chair of McMaster Family Health Team faced challenges related to differences in operational culture that had emerged at its two clinic sites—Stonechurch Family Health Centre and McMaster Family Practice. The two sites, which had operated independently with relative autonomy for over 30 years, were merged in 2015, in response to a government initiative, a new funding model intended to increase access to primary health care for all Ontarians. The original goal was to operate the two sites under one model, one set of standard operating procedures, and one common governance framework. Over time, however, two distinct team operating cultures evolved organically at the two sites. The identity of both sites was consistent, but they differed in functionality. The chair's goal was to continue growing the clinics, but he needed to decide how best to proceed. Should he allow the two sites to continue operating with different functional cultures, and possibly allow other future sites to also organically develop their own identities and cultures? Or should he proactively influence a standardization plan?

In August 2019, Fair Trade Jewellery Co., a mid-size jewellery retailer based in Toronto, Canada, was wondering how to ensure that its customers received responsibly sourced gold and diamond jewellery. The company had already devoted considerable amounts of time, energy, and expense to develop a responsible supply chain. Its activities toward that goal had included various initiatives beyond jewellery retail, such as providing inventory financing for artisanal miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After discovering that a key US partner along the supply chain may have not been following a clear chain-of-custody system in its refinery, the company was unsure how to proceed. Responsibly sourced gold was potentially being contaminated by other gold at the refinery, which led Fair Trade Jewellery Co. to consider opening its own local small-scale refinery. However, that initiative could mean considerable strategic risk and financial burden for the company. It could also have potential effects on its employees, who relied on the company for their livelihood. Did the company’s ethical mission require vertically integrating to such a considerable extent?

In 2019, the director of strategy at US-based First Financial Group (FFG) needed to decide which alternative incentive program the mid-sized bank should use to replace its current short-term incentive plan (STIP) for branch employees. The scorecard-driven STIP was found to have motivated branch sales staff to set up unauthorized accounts in order to obtain bonuses. These actions could potentially bring negative publicity and regulatory penalties to the bank in an industry fraught with such problems. Further, the current STIP had led to conflicts between the branch managers, who were compensated based on dollar sales, and the employees, who were compensated based on units of accounts sold. However, the path forward was not clear. The strategy director could revise the current scorecard or introduce a team-based incentive based on a new scorecard. Regardless of which option was chosen, the bank would have to implement additional management controls to motivate its employees while reducing the risk of fraud.

In August 2018, many regions in the state of Kerala, India, were experiencing rising flood waters, and people were being evacuated from flood-prone areas to relief camps. Various relief camp supplies in the state were being distributed through the distribution centre at Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi. XSEED, a student community-driven organization of the Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, was being coordinated by faculty member Dr. Mercia Justin. Justin, entrusted with the responsibility of managing the operations at the distribution centre, was carefully considering how to manage the throughput of the relief camp supplies and streamline operations at the distribution centre as the volume of shipments rapidly expanded and the rain and flooding situation worsened.

In September 2018, Marisol Labrecque, president of Technologies Ecofixe Inc. (Technologies Ecofixe), was heading to Ain Taoujdate, Morocco, in order to supervise the installation of the company’s second ECOFIXE system in Africa. Technologies Ecofixe was a small, socially responsible Québécois company that had developed and commercialized a cost-effective system for the treatment of wastewaters in aerated ponds. With her eye on Africa’s ever-expanding market, Labrecque considered entering the French-speaking countries of Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso. However, given her limited resources, Labrecque knew that she would have to choose. Which country should Technologies Ecofixe enter next?

On October 25, 2018, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Dr. Jonathan Broomberg (CEO Discovery Health) and Dr. Craig Nossel (Head of Vitality Wellness) consider their dilemma of how to make Vitality Move more attractive to the lower-income market and increase the programme’s uptake. Vitality Move is a wellness programme for the lower-income market, launched in 2017. It has a low membership uptake by the KeyCare benefit scheme members. The two leaders are faced with a challenge to devise ways to strategically target the lower-income group to improve employee productivity, decrease the burden of non-communicable diseases and influence positive lifestyle decisions. The case features the initiatives undertaken towards creating shared value.

Bird Electric Vehicle Sharing (Bird)’s value proposition seems to be to offer inexpensive, on-demand transportation that can deliver riders directly to their destination in metropolitan areas. Electric scooters can be unlocked with a smartphone and left anywhere after use, minimizing the burden on consumersbut also causing tremendous traffic problems for city administrators. The disruption created by Bird not only drew the attention of urban commuters but also resulted in its product being banned in cities like San Francisco and Denver.<br><br>This case explores these issues in depth and sets up the challenge that Bird faces in extending its initial success. Bird must contemplate not only the individual components of its value chain but possibly also the business model itself, in evaluating the best course of action to ensure its future success.

In addition to Google, LLC (Google) facing multiple litigations around the globe, India’s antitrust watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), had recently launched its own investigation into the company. This was not the first occasion of an antitrust probe being initiated against Google in international markets. The company had already paid an astonishing US$ 9 billion in fines for abusing Android’s dominant position in the smartphone market to boost its dominance in other areas, such as web searching, browsing, and mobile apps. In 2019, Google was in trouble in India, again, for similar reasons. The CCI alleged that Google forced smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and the Google Chrome browser on their devices, thus misusing its dominant position by stopping smartphone manufacturers from opting for alternative versions of its mobile operating system (OS). However, Google strongly denied these allegations, arguing that it had not indulged in anti-competitive practices; rather, it claimed it had promoted relevant market competition.<br><br> Which marketing practices of Google invited the antitrust probe and allegations of abuse of their dominant position in India? Why were competition watchdogs concerned about the growing dominance of Google in the Indian mobile operating software (OS) market? In an oligopolistic market comprising multiple players, why did the CCI consider Google to be a dominant player in the Indian mobile OS market? Could Google do something to avoid antitrust lawsuits and allegations of abuse of dominance in the future?

Beyond Meat Inc. (Beyond Meat), a manufacturer of plant-based protein products founded in 2009 and based in Los Angeles, California, had become a success, despite supply chain and manufacturing issues. However, as competition flooded the market, the firm’s founder and chief executive officer (CEO) faced a number of challenges: Beyond Meat was investing more and more in differentiation and innovation, and even refining the recipe of its bestselling Beyond Burger—something the CEO himself considered risky. Beyond Meat filed for an initial public offering in May 2019, and by the end of July 2019, the company’s share price had increased by over 800 per cent, but analysts considered Beyond Meat stocks to be overvalued given that the company’s increasing revenues and high-priced products had not prevented increasing losses. Still, Beyond Meat was expected to disrupt the animal-based protein industry. What should the CEO do to justify the valuation of Beyond Meat? How should he handle competitive forces? Did his venture hold any potential to disrupt the animal protein industry?

In April 2018, the owner of Express Bike Works (EBW), an Indian start-up that provided automated motorcycle washing, among other services, was planning to expand his business to various locations in South India, such as Udupi, Chennai, and Bangalore. He needed to decide whether to expand through self-owned stores or franchise stores and wondered how to select appropriate store locations. His objective was to come up with an expansion strategy that would maximize his payoff.

Pamela Jeffery, founder and chief executive officer of The Pamela Jeffery Group and the Canadian Board Diversity Council (CBDC), had worked diligently for nine years to improve diversity at the board level. While the CBDC aimed at improving diversity in general at the board level, its key focus was to improve the representation of women on corporate boards in Canada. Jeffery and the CBDC methodically carried out plans to involve stakeholders, establish processes, and deliver progress on their goals. Yet they faced a new set of challenges in 2019: while Canadian boards now included more women overall, and most board directors felt that their boards were diverse enough, men and women were still not equally represented at the board level. Jeffery’s challenge was to determine what the next steps could be in what seemed like a long journey of transformation at the board level.

In mid-2018, the president and chief executive officer of Siemens Canada was examining his options in executing Vision 2020+, a growth plan developed by the company's headquarters in Germany. One of the cornerstones of the plan was digitalization, both internally, among the company's sprawling manufacturing operations, and externally, among the company's industrial customers. How could Siemens Canada, as a North American subsidiary of a large multinational enterprise, add value to the global plan? And to do so, what skills and competencies would Siemens Canada need to acquire locally?

Windmill Microlending, was established in 2004 by a group of community activists who saw the need to help Canadian newcomers restart their careers. The organization offered microloans to help pay the costs of reaccreditation and training. The organization’s first chief executive officer was hired in February 2017, and by September 2017, she had formulated a new vision for the organization that would address three goals: growing the number of clients and the number of loans, increasing clients’ success and their job placements, and maintaining the loan repayment rate. She also needed to address whether Windmill Microlending should expand into other cities and provinces and how to diversify the organization’s funding sources and revenue streams to generate more operating revenue and loan capital to support the required growth. She needed to present her vision and strategy at the next board meeting and ensure the board was onside.

Serge Belamant was the founder and chief executive officer of Net1 UEPS Technologies (Net1), a US$600-million company that had a contract with the South Africa government to pay social grants to the poor. The contract was controversial from the start and was under scrutiny through multiple legal challenges and three different investigations, including by the US Securities Exchange Commission and the US Department of Justice. When Belamant discovered a paper describing a conspiracy theory alleging that he and Net1 were involved in a form of corruption known as state capture, he believed he could be the victim of a disinformation campaign and wondered what to do.

Pacari was the flagship brand of SKS Farms, a small agricultural products company in Ecuador that specialized in high quality chocolate. Carla Barbotó and Santiago Peralta were the co proprietors of this family owned and operated company, which was originally created in order to promote Ecuadorean fine aroma chocolate, while also promoting social development, and preserving biodiversity. In 2018, Carla Barbotó read through the report from her company’s recent successful bid to become a certified ‘B’ (benefits) company. While the company had easily surpassed the minimum score for certification, the report contained suggestions that were new, and in a few cases somewhat unexpected. Now Barbotó wondered how to use the thorough and very detailed feedback to prioritize initiatives in order to ensure Pacari brought even greater benefits to its many stakeholders.

On June 30, 2018, the founders of Mkhiwa Trust, Johannesburg, South Africa, considered their dilemma of deepening their impact in South Africa, using education as a key vehicle to bring about systemic change. The case highlights the evolution of their mutual support throughout their careers. The tragic death of their young son had far-reaching implications for the couple and their business interests, their career aspirations and the focus of many of their future business and philanthropic initiatives. It also defined a number of choices taken by the couple since then. The story of these individual leaders, who support each other in their businesses, illustrates the power of a couple as servant leaders.

In late 2018, a social entrepreneur in Iceland realized he needed to make changes to his enterprise working with socially-isolated children and youth. His operating model was to host bicycle rides with children and youth, and to encourage them to engage fully as young people. Most of these children had not previously engaged in physical activity, and many experienced not only social difficulties, but also physical challenges as a result of being overweight or obese. The social entrepreneur was spending much of his time negotiating sponsorship and service agreements and as a result, he spent less time engaging with the focus of his initiative—at-risk children and youth. He was also funding some of the initiative himself, putting his personal financial circumstances at risk. How could this social entrepreneur develop a robust, sustainable business model that would enable him to develop financial independence, support the youths' involvement in an annual cycling ride that circumnavigated Iceland, and enable the business to expand so that it no longer relied totally on one person?

In July 2018 Sherry Schaefer, the Director, Foundation & Community Engagement at the CapitalCare Foundation (the Foundation) was facing an organizational branding/positioning problem. The Foundation, based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, was responsible for raising donations to support equipment and enrichment programs in long-term care facilities that provide long-term housing and medical care for sick and elderly people. The Foundation was competing with many large and well-organized charities and was losing visibility in the crowded charity market. Schaefer had just found out that the Foundation would have to double annual donations, and she needed to decide how to overcome the market visibility problems to make that happen.

Asha Handicrafts Association (Asha) was a fair trade marketing organization, headquartered in Mumbai, India. The organization primarily marketed and sold handicrafts sourced from artisans across India to three main customer segments. The first segment consisted of fair trade importers outside of India, where Asha was a leading player. The second segment consisted of commercial importers who sold products through commercial retail stores abroad. Asha had done reasonably well in this segment in a pilot project. The third segment was the domestic retail market, where Asha ran its own retail store chain in India with the brand name of Karigar. In January 2017, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Asha deliberated the all-important decision of whether to continue with or shut down Asha’s retail business, Karigar. The CEO also examined how Asha could redefine its value proposition and determine which customer segment (or segments) to focus on while building its strategic road map for the future.

In 2019, the co-founders of Praxis—a toothpaste that aimed to improve the health and wellness of its users by incorporating vitamins, minerals, and supplements into the toothpaste—were contemplating whether to launch their business. The mission of Praxis was to facilitate a health-conscious lifestyle and empower individuals to improve their productivity and well-being. The duo wanted to assess the business environment, evaluate their product and marketing strategy, project the venture’s financial performance for the first three years of operations, and ultimately determine whether they should pursue the idea. They had specific goals in mind since they had won a case competition at their university, been approached by many investors, and been shortlisted to star on Dragons’ Den. Could they successfully launch Praxis, differentiate Praxis from other industry players, and continue managing their existing workload in their studies at Western University?