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James and Laura Wiggins had some decisions to make. Last year, James’s father had died of a stroke. Death was not instantaneous, however, and the man had lingered in hospital for several weeks in a coma. During this time, no one had been able to access James’s father’s bank accounts (which were registered in the father’s name only). This inability to access the accounts had caused James’s mother considerable economic hardship, which impressed upon James the value of a power of attorney (POA). To that end, James asked his lawyer to prepare a power of attorney for him and Laura. James wanted Laura to sign the documents that night.<br><br>Before signing, Laura had some reservations and a few questions she wanted James to answer. She didn’t understand how a POA worked. Was it the same as a will? She and James didn’t have a will. Would the POA satisfy both needs?

B&W Systems designs and distributes a variety of management software products through the Internet and retail outlets such as Best Buy. The company is considering the development of an Internet-based forecasting system designed specifically for new start-up and small business owners. The company’s primary concern with the product is timing and the possibility of new market entrants. The director of operations has been tasked with reviewing the timely implementation of the new product, including estimated completion times and costs, and presenting his findings to the board.

A sophisticated technology company located in Mississauga, Ontario, began operations on February 1, 2011. Initially, the company raised funds through the issuance of common stock. In mid-2011, new software development was put on hold due to increased concerns over patent protections. In June 2011, the company sought appropriate investment vehicles for its excess cash, which would provide investment income over a set period of time.

Rob Hantziano, president and founder of Duffinbear Inc., must review the various financing and investing transactions that have taken place over the fiscal year 2011.

The sole shareholder of a national supplier of evergreen trees is expanding its product line. This expansion requires a $6.5 million investment. The company decides to finance this expansion through the issuance of bonds and must record the accounting entries involved with this issuance, along with the related interest payments and amortization of the bonds.

The accountant of a cargo shipping company must update the financial position of the company. He has a list of the company’s cash receipts and disbursements, the statement of financial position, and the bookkeeper’s detailed notes pertaining to transactions for the current year.

Jaime has been looking for several weeks to buy his first car. After narrowing his choices down to two, he can’t decide which to purchase. Option A is to buy the Honda CRV, which meets many of Jaime’s functional criteria (e.g. all-wheel drive, large trunk space, plenty of seats). This Honda is quite appealing to Jaime because he could use the car for his work and road trips with his siblings, and could easily handle the Wyoming climate. Option B is to buy the Ford Mustang, a car that he has been in love with ever since he was a teenager. Even though the Mustang does not necessarily meet any of his functional criteria, Jaime loves the idea of driving his dream car. Given these two options, Jaime is struggling to make a decision. Should he go with the car that meets his functional needs or should he go with the car that meets his affective needs? That is, should he go with his mind or his heart? Jaime wants to buy his car tomorrow. Help him.

The case focuses on succession planning for a successful family business that has reached a crossroads in which different family members have different stakes in the outcome of the business. The president of Goodwin Sporting Goods is 66 years old, has health concerns, and is concerned about how to finance his retirement. He also has three children who rely on the business for financial support. He must make some tough decisions that will affect both the business and his family.

Looking back on the disastrous vacation of an American couple in Indonesia, this case shows how a globally branded North American hotel chain disregarded the basic tenets of maintaining their global brand promise, ignored generally accepted customer service standards, failed to instigate delivery failure recovery, and leveraged firm-specific capabilities to maximize shareholder wealth. The reaction of the local manager at the Indonesian hotel and adaptation of the value proposition are told from the perspective of the vacationing couple that experienced the diluted brand firsthand.

In 2006, the Japanese subsidiary of Tommasi Motorcycles, an Italian manufacturer of high-end motorcycles, was implementing a new customer data application to help its motorcycle dealerships increase the effectiveness of their sales and marketing activities. Horizon LLP, a consulting firm, was Tommasi’s global implementation partner for the application. To identify any dealer concerns regarding the new system, Tommasi Japan had brought in additional consultants from Horizon to conduct interviews with the dealers. As the consultants soon discovered, the dealers’ concerns with Tomassi went far beyond the new application. An unannounced visit by an influential dealer set all the players on a collision course, and soon exposed their widely differing views and a number of fundamental problems in the relationship between Tommasi Motorcycles Japan and its dealer network.<br><br><br><br>The case begins with a series of separate dialogues involving the director of sales and marketing; the expatriate president of Tommasi Motorcycles Japan; an influential owner of multiple dealerships; and two non-Japanese consultants from Horizon. When they meet in the board room of Tommasi Motorcycles Japan, the ensuing conversation reveals a number of issues: opportunistic behaviour by the bilingual director of sales and marketing, who limits and shapes communications between the dealers and Tommasi’s Japanese National Office; a limited understanding of local market conditions by expatriate Tommasi management; frustration on the part of business-savvy dealers; and naiveté on the part of the consultants, who do not see the social hierarchies at work, nor realize that their cultural and language fluency, which has in past projects always been an asset, could also be a threat.

Yara Branco has just joined Tarbes S.A., one of Brazil’s best-known technology firms, as its new CEO. She sees a crisis on the horizon and needs to find a way to communicate that change is necessary at the company. She must overcome several issues, including the fact that she is an outsider and that many insiders will not support the change effort. Branco needs to develop an appropriate communications strategy to begin her term as CEO. This requires determining Tarbes’s predicament, devising a list of stakeholders and barriers to change, and identifying the stakeholders’ interests and what might be necessary to change their positions.

The executive director of a daycare is trying to figure out how to address legal, financial, and safety issues stemming from an incident that occurred two months before, when a two-year-old boy broke his leg. Despite having no formal training in public relations or crisis management, the executive director felt she had handled the incident reasonably well: it seemed as though everything at the daycare had returned to normal. Still, the executive director couldn’t stop worrying that the daycare might experience further fallout from the incident.

The CEO of Strong Tie received the draft 2008 financial statements for the company, which was a manufacturer of structural connectors used in the building industry. He began to question the company’s performance when he compared the statements to those of previous years. How were profits holding up given the intense price competition in the industry? Were attempts to lower costs through more automation paying off? Were the current problems in the U.S. housing market going to continue to reduce demand for connectors? How would lenders react to this poor performance? Was the company’s financing in danger?<br><br><br><br>After discussing the matter extensively with Strong Tie’s CFO, it was decided that an outside consultant should be hired to provide an independent analysis of the company’s recent performance and to provide suggestions for future action.

Accountant Sarah McIvor, a junior partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, has been selected to conduct a financial review of Gemini Electronics Ltd. Gemini is an up-start American electronics company that recently went public and now wants to expand its business to rival the major Korean and Japanese producers. Before the company finalizes any expansion plans, Dr. Wang, the founder, feels it is prudent to conduct an independent evaluation of Gemini’s financial condition.

This B2B case describes a common situation that arises when channel partners gain success and the perceived balance of power shifts from the supplier to the channel. The manager for Bolster Electronics, one of the largest suppliers in Canada of state-of-the-art industrial video equipment for harsh environments, must consider a request from Vickers Industrial Supplies, a regional dealer, to be upgraded from a dealership to a distributor. Vickers was generating a growing business volume for Bolster in an important market segment, the Canadian oil sands in northern Alberta. Approving Vickers’ request will generate slimmer margins for the manufacturer, which may be made up with higher projected volume, if the projections are reasonable. The potential reaction of the company's national distributors is causing concern. Although Bolster sells to regional dealerships in the United States, its policy is to distribute its products in Canada through two national distributors, and it fears that increasing Vickers’ role will alienate these distributors. Each alternative has benefits and risks.

Riverside District Memorial Hospital is a small rural hospital that must work within an operational budget that is determined by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. This case identifies the emergence of concerns for patient safety related to medication administration, and the challenges of ensuring that professional services are maintained by the pharmacy department to serve patients admitted to hospital. The chief nursing executive must decide what steps should be taken to reduce medication errors, in the context of the complex relationships at Riverside.

In 2008, a senior associate at Richard, Wood and Hulme LLP (RWH) was amazed at the speed with which the audit team for an important client of the firm was rapidly falling apart. Two members had just been fired presumably because they did not pass their chartered accounting qualification examinations; team morale had grown non-existent; there were difficulties in completing the engagement due to lack of preparation from both RWH and the client; there were doubts about the commitment of particular individuals; and with the audit falling behind schedule, the senior associate perceived an absence of strong leadership from the partners of the firm. He did not understand why the team had been so unfocused from the start of the engagement, as prior years’ engagements had been quite successful. He was unsure how to proceed. What would he tell the client? What should he do to keep this audit on track and keep the team together?

A recent MBA graduate has just received a one-year business assignment as a business development and marketing advisor to work with the Vietnam Handicraft Initiative (VHI), a vocational training and employment center for people with disabilities, located in Central Vietnam. Her job is to assist the VHI to increase its productivity, become sustainable and strengthen the capacity of the organization through improved business and marketing plans. Within the first four weeks of her arrival, she needs to detail her assessment of the VHI and provide key recommendations and focused work objectives for the remaining 11 months of her placement. She expects that the many cultural differences encountered along the way will provide a real challenge in accurately assessing the VHI and developing a detailed work plan.

Anjali Kumar receives her first job offer after graduation at an organization she admires, with interesting work and good benefits, but the salary is low. Also, she is unsure whether the position offers any advancement opportunities. At the end of the (A) case, Anjali has to decide whether to accept the offer, decline it, or try to negotiate a better offer, even though she has received no other offers at the time.

This role-play case involves a series of sessions in which the student (and each member of his or her team) will play the role of Benjamin Cheung, the vice president of HCM Asia Private Limited, a financial services firm based in Hong Kong. Cheung has an open-door policy where any manager can drop by to see him, on their own initiative, to ask for ideas, guidance, or a decision on an issue. He has only six minutes to see each manager in this informal coaching session since he has to leave for another important meeting at head office. Cheung knows the key details of each manager’s background and development needs, but does not know in advance what the manager’s specific concerns are. It will be necessary for Cheung to explore the manager’s concerns through active listening, asking questions, and summarizing. Each of the manager roles is typical of those you might meet in an Asian organization, such as a highly skilled, technically focused leader who defaults to top-down management, an associate who lacks self-confidence and avoids confrontation at all cost, an ambitious associate who wants an international assignment but struggles with his current workload, and a detail-oriented leader who focuses on processes while losing sight of the big picture.