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In early June 2013, the executive director of Art Feeds, which provided therapeutic art and creative education to school children to help them achieve mental and emotional well-being, needed to make a recommendation to her board about whether to expand the current operations in Joplin, Missouri, to Moore, Oklahoma, after a devastating tornado in Moore. She needed to determine whether the organization had the resources required to expand successfully. If the executive director recommended expansion, she also needed to recommend the method that Art Feeds should use, i.e., disseminating the Art Feeds concept, using an affiliation model, or branching.

In September 2014, the co-founder and director of Treks `n Rapids, a leading adventure sports tourism company in New Delhi, India, needs to re-evaluate the company strategy. The adventure sports tourism industry has tremendous potential for growth in India, largely due to the number of young professionals with disposable incomes and a desire for new experiences, and is witnessing increased demand from a variety of profitable customer segments, both domestic and foreign, corporate and individual. However, the industry suffers from various problems such as poor infrastructure, the country’s negative image in the minds of customers (especially with regard to safety and quality) and a string of natural disasters. Should the company focus on its currently profitable local corporate sector or diversify into other areas and other types of tourism?

In March 2015, the managing director of VariCut Electronics Component Company in Shanghai, China, was contemplating whether the company should shift its business focus from label printing to label printers. Because of fierce competition and a slowdown in the company's 12-year-old label manufacturing business, the company was finding its competitive advantage hard to sustain. In contrast, the company's emerging business of producing label printers had been doing well, with 30 per cent annual growth. Although the label manufacturing business had begun to struggle, it was still the main source of company revenue (80 per cent). It was uncertain whether the company's survival and growth could be sustained if it decided to give up the label manufacturing business in order to focus on label printers. Should the company give up the label manufacturing business to make way for the label printer business? Or should it consolidate the two businesses and transition to the label printer business gradually?

The president of Bankinter, a Spanish bank, decided that the time was right to expand. At the time, the Spanish economy was experiencing a severe downturn and the banking system was going through major reforms. He believed that growth could occur either organically or through acquisitions — as long as the target business complemented Bankinter’s present operations and preserved the company’s values and organizational culture. His goal was to choose one option, while determining the price that should be paid if an acquisition offer was made. In this case, the purchase would be funded entirely through the issue of additional shares. The offer price would have to be justified to existing shareholders, who would only agree if the acquisition created value for them. At the same time, the success of the merger depended on the offer being accepted, so the price had to be attractive to the target company’s shareholders.

In the dynamic online travel industry, the founders of mygola.com (mygola) needed to decide on the company’s future growth trajectory. The online travel industry was booming, but online travel planning was at a relatively nascent stage. In the travel-planning space, mygola’s initial service offering had been well received but the need to scale up was pressing. The existing product leveraged technological efficiencies and human judgment to provide customized answers for users’ travel queries. The new product, on the other hand, could change mygola’s way of doing business going forward. Though it was untested, it had the potential to put mygola on a higher growth path. The choice of product would mean that mygola would have to make a host of other decisions regarding the business. The decisions that the co-founders had to make could very well turn out to be the most important in mygola’s growth story.

The patient affairs coordinator is concerned about the rising number of complaints regarding the level of services offered by the transportation teams in the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). The center's management team is determined to create an exemplary patient transportation service at AUBMC and consequently launches an investigation supported by a full-scale study to determine better ways of re-engineering these processes. The coordinator must consider the factors that contribute to patient and staff complaints as well as the types of data and tests required to provide evidence-based solutions for patient transportation in the hospital.

The managing partner of Proto3000, a 10-year-old 3D Printing services and supply firm, was both gratified by the recent explosion of popular media coverage of 3D Printing that was certain to bring his firm additional opportunities, and concerned as to how his company could maintain their broad leadership position as new competitors began to join the fray. As the managing partner began thinking about what to do next, he wondered whether he should stick with his biggest market segments or diversify into new markets that seemed to hold a lot of promise. In addition, he wondered which challenges associated with the disruptive technology that his industry revolved around he needed to consider as he plotted a course forward for Proto3000.

Several experts had drawn attention to a peculiar problem existing in public-sector banks in India. There seemed to be two distinct generations: experienced employees who would be superannuated in the next four to five years; and newer employees who had come on board in the last four to five years. Though these young employees were academically sound, they lacked competence acquired through experience and thus were hesitant in taking on responsibilities. The older generation was slowly withdrawing. Management at Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) knew that in order to improve motivation and encourage higher productivity, the company had to trigger change and transform the mindsets of its employees.<br><br>Harnessing the energies of young members of the marketing team, IOB ran a unique campaign involving all employees called Rang De Basanti. Initial results were encouraging. However, two problems continued to arise: the underperformance of one particular region and the problem of keeping up the momentum and sustaining the change.

In April 2013, Kassatly Chtaura, a family-owned producer of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages headquartered in Chtaura, Lebanon, faces a dilemma. It is doing very well in terms of revenues and market share and has succeeded in building a strong cash flow. However, the past year’s figures show little growth, and the family is concerned that sales of its syrups, juices, ready-to-drink beverages and wines have reached a plateau. Should the company expand its distribution network or build a new factory and move some operations to Saudi Arabia or Angola? These are promising markets, but they are in distant locations with different cultures. Or should it stay put and expand its operations by introducing a new product, beer? Adding to its successful portfolio will complement its business strengths in Lebanon, especially when bolstered by one of its highly successful advertising campaigns, and accomplish a family dream. Given the uncertain political situation in Lebanon, is it time to invest in international markets?

The Bob Franklin case series portrays four critical incidents in the life of Bob Franklin, allowing students to explore both the role and development of the lead character throughout his career. Although there are choice points, attention is directed at who you are and why you are and who you are becoming as revealed in the choices made.

A recent law-school graduate is delighted to land a job as a junior associate at an up-and-coming legal firm in New Delhi, India. In spite of his initial enthusiasm for the job, after just three months, the young man is on the brink of quitting. The firm has failed to meet its promises with respect to compensation and the nature of the work assigned. After many fruitless attempts to rectify the situation, the young associate is left feeling powerless, cheated and angry. A series of futile arguments with his immediate superior have left him all the more bitter, as he believes that his boss holds some sort of personal grudge against him. He now wonders whether he should quit this job he so desperately wanted, or tough it out and wait for things to get better.

The investment manager for Norfund, a Norwegian development finance institution, is seeking additional investors for a private equity fund focused on the African nation of Angola. After several large development banks reject the investment opportunity, the European Investment Bank agrees to conduct due diligence before making a potentially significant investment in the fund. The investment manager sees Angola as an investment area with high potential, but faces skepticism by investors who worry about potential risks after previous failed attempts to invest in the country.

More than a decade after its launch, DonorsChoose.org is a successful, well-known and well-regarded charitable organization that supports U.S. public schools. Yet in the years since the organization’s inception, the charity environment has changed, leading the organization’s chief marketing officer to investigate how to further clarify the brand in a shifting space. The case centres on findings delivered by a branding agency regarding a possible change to the organization’s tagline. Faced with a lengthy report on the branding agency’s findings, the chief marketing officer needs to decide on the organization’s next steps.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER -Bringing Technology to Market Award, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>This case describes how General Electric has developed its China Technology Center over the past decade. The case also elaborates on the changing role of the China Technology Center in General Electric’s global research and development strategy. In 2000, General Electric set up its China Technology Center in Shanghai after bringing its technologies and products to China. In the first few years, the focus of the China Technology Center was to build local engineering teams, learn about customer needs, determine successful marketing strategies, and to develop relationships with local suppliers in order to reduce costs. Over time, the China Technology Center developed its “In China for China” strategy by adjusting its own products and designs to adapt to the local market, while still developing innovative technologies and products to address China’s toughest challenges — such as those encountered in the healthcare industry. This strategy was very successful; some innovations from the China Technology Center were used in other emerging markets as well as in U.S. and European markets — a process that is known as reverse innovation.

A burgeoning mobile application entrepreneur has developed an interesting potential product with her friends. However, when she encounters an investment opportunity, she decides to seek legal advice for the first time in her business life. As a result of her initial meeting with a lawyer, she realizes how unprepared she is and some of the tough questions that she will need to answer.

The chief executive officer of TCL Multimedia, a global TV manufacturer based in China, looked at the company’s first-half financial results with some concern. The results did not meet his expectations, and the company had lost market shares, both in China and internationally. Although he was confident that the new, recently adopted corporate strategy would enable a better future positioning of the company, he knew that without the appropriate supply chain design, the effectiveness of the new corporate strategy could suffer.

本個案主要討論案主費鴻鈞如何看見私人飛機之藍海以及總經理之養成，個案特別著重費總在華航歐洲分公司的歷練、在澳門航空公司的成就、與成立台灣第一家私人商務航空公司 - 華捷的歷程。費總開創的性格總能突破困境，將危機變成轉機，繳出傲人的成果。費鴻鈞總經理的經歷使得他看見藍海契機並成為拓展藍海的重要根源。

On November 25, 2012, the head of Revenue Recognition at ESol Limited (ESol) India was preparing for a meeting with the company’s sales team at the head office in Bangalore. ESol Limited was a large, U.S.-based multinational information technology corporation, which had moved into India in 2000. Since then, its management had insisted on the need for close monitoring of accounting procedures in strict adherence to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Although the sales team had negotiated the Request for Proposal with MoveForward, a large research firm in India handling and processing high volumes of sensitive data, in good faith, the revenue recognition team felt that clauses dealing with penalties, liquidated damages and termination put their company at risk and wished to defer all of the revenue proposed for the contract until these issues were resolved. The friction between the two teams put the entire deal in jeopardy.

In June 2007, the chief executive officer of Telesat Canada, headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, was considering his strategy following a decision by Industry Canada to reject four out of six of its applications for satellite slots. His largest concern was the decision to award the two most important licences for the Extended Ku-band network — which the company’s largest clients, Bell Canada Inc. and Shaw Communications, were both seeking — to a subsidiary of a non-Canadian company, Ciel Satellite Limited Partnership, which was owned by SES S.A., a global corporation based in Luxembourg. The regulator’s decision had the potential to severely limit Telesat’s future revenues as well as destabilize its valuation in the midst of a sale process. The company needed a plan of action to propose a reconsideration of the allocation of licences while also maintaining its working relationship with Industry Canada.

In 2014, Shooting & Outdoor Distributor (SOD) was a Puerto Rican family-owned wholesale business selling sporting goods for hunting and fishing. After a year of working for the company, the operations manager was confronted with the arrival of a U.S. retail chain, Sports Authority (SA), to the Puerto Rican market. SA carried many sporting goods sold by SOD, as well as a number of brands under exclusive distribution agreements between SOD and its U.S. manufacturers. Even though SA was a retailer, due to its size, it had the power to negotiate better prices with manufacturers than SOD and pass those deals on to the final customer. SOD’s operations manager was considering three options for combating this competition: 1) Develop private branding for a new rifle product; 2) Open SOD retail stores not operating close to SA or to its retail clients; and/or 3) Expand SOD to other Latin American and Caribbean markets where no competition was present.