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Set in 2013, this case describes the expansion of car2go, a popular car sharing service developed by Daimler AG. The case addresses the changing commuting preferences among urban residents, the evolution of urban transportation and new service developments in the automotive products market. Unlike traditional models of car sharing or renting, which required advance bookings, hourly billing and returns to the originating location, car2go’s business model offered minute-based rates and a free-floating selection of cars that allowed customers to pick up or leave vehicles wherever they liked.

The director of Planning and Development Services for the City of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, is evaluating various models of regional economic development. He needs to recommend to the Economic Development Committee whether an in-house, arm’s-length or blended model would be best for the City of Prince Albert and its surrounding region. He also needs to provide direction on the strategic planning process that should follow the formation of a new regional body. Although the director is optimistic about the possibilities, he knows that some stakeholders perceive the City of Prince Albert as fostering an attitude counter to inclusiveness. Gaining buy-in from these stakeholders is critical to success, regardless of the model he proposes.

The CEO of Gran Tierra Energy (GTE) had to prepare for an upcoming strategy session with senior executives. GTE’s investments in Peru looked promising, as recent exploration well tests indicated large oil reserves with significant production potential that could transform the company. However, the company’s Brazil operations continued to encounter challenges, such as setbacks in applying new technologies. The CEO had had high hopes when GTE entered Brazil in 2009 and thought that he and his team had carefully considered the risks. Given the increasingly positive developments in Peru, was dedicating the resources of GTE — a somewhat small energy firm by global standards — to Brazil operations still worth the risk? Could GTE turn the situation around or should the CEO recommend a divestment of the Brazilian assets?

On a visit to her ancestral village in India, an entrepreneur found that maintaining the sanctity of traditional Madhubani paintings was no longer something that artists considered worthwhile. In the name of contemporary art, the traditional style of this world-famous Indian art was being distorted. However, artists were willing to switch back to traditional techniques of creating art as long as their livelihood needs were met. In late 2010, Mithilasmita was set up as a folk art gallery from where artists’ works could be marketed and they could earn decent money. In 2012, the organization registered as a private limited firm. This was a start, but a question remained: How could Mithilasmita capitalize on the pro-artisan initiative of the All India Handicrafts Board and geographical indication rights of Madhubani paintings in building up a sustainable business, preserving traditional art and achieving social objectives?

End-of-month account closure at many firms often requires long work hours, which may lead to staff fatigue and attrition that will affect productivity and quality of work. This is true for GlaxoSmithKline’s Record to Report Finance team in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in August 2014. The company is a science-led global business that researches and develops a broad range of innovative products in three primary areas: pharmaceuticals, vaccines and consumer health care. The team in Malaysia has 40 employees who provide services including month-end accounts closure, financial reporting and analytics to business units operating in the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. At the end of every month, the team must perform within five days a sequence of 17 activities requiring varying man-hours. The activities must follow a specific flow according to information availability and must, for internal efficiency and quality control reasons, start and end on the same day. Is there a method by which management can help the team achieve work balance or minimize the number of work hours per day?

Sidhi was a cooperative society aimed at rehabilitating destitute tribal women living in one of the poorest states in India. Most of these women were illiterate or had only primary education. A professionally educated non-tribal social entrepreneur has helped these women to set up cottage industries and earn a decent living. Because of her own health concerns, this social entrepreneur needs to resign. Her successor needs to be a woman who can arrange for funding, coordinate the funding and training, and liaise with both the government authorities and the vendors. The challenge is to either identify such a leader among the illiterate women or to recruit an outsider, who will understand Sidhi’s needs and be accepted by the Sidhi membership.

In 2005, Victorinox, the original producer of the Swiss Army Knife, acquired Wenger, including the fragrance label “Swiss Army Fragrance.” The acquisition of Wenger allowed Victorinox to become the only producer of the famous Swiss Army Knife as well as the key player in Swiss Army watches. Victorinox’s head of marketing was asked to design a business strategy that would successfully allow the company to enter the fragrance industry. How should Victorinox diversify into the fragrance business? Should it aim to transfer its existing brand attributes to fragrance products? Or should it adopt a strategy that would include the use of another brand to market the perfumes? The head of marketing had to present a plan to the CEO of Victorinox on how best to brand and position the product, and how to compete in the fragrance industry.

An entrepreneur has a venture idea that he believes can be successful. After his family’s farm was sold to a company, the entrepreneur was contacted by the new owners and asked for help finding farmers to rent the land. This request formed the seed of his idea that a website could be used to link farmers with landowners for the purpose of land rental. Following an invitation to submit an application to a local business pitch competition, the entrepreneur faces many questions about what steps he should take to launch the business, specifically what he should do, how he should do it and when and why he should take these actions. The entrepreneur is also challenged to act entrepreneurial in the face of uncertainty.

In late 2005, Risk Control Strategies, a canine training security company in Islamabad, Pakistan was formed. To ensure that the company was a class apart in security provision, the company founder designed an induction procedure based on employee referrals followed by a thorough two-month training program that encompassed both pure theory and practical dog-handling sessions. The extensive training increased employees’ market value, and they often left for higher salaries in other companies, without considering the added compensations Risk Control Strategies offered, such as medical benefits, free accommodation and basic health and education coverage for their families. The hiring process also contributed to the turnover; many of the friends and relatives who were given references by current employees came from villages and often returned to help their families with harvests. The founder needed to address the problem of employee retention before considering the future expansion of the company.

LifeNet International was a social conversion franchise concept aiming to provide basic, quality and sustainable healthcare to poor and underserved populations in sub-Saharan Africa. The founder and president had relied on the assistance of others to help bring about his idea of affordable healthcare. In 2012, the executive director for LifeNet International’s operations in Burundi, began focussing on developing the company in Burundi. She was excited to see LifeNet International’s presence expanding into Uganda. Her vision for LifeNet International, however, was much bigger. She envisioned LifeNet International as a sustainable organization that could provide quality healthcare and medicine to millions of people around the world.<br><br>If it planned to expand internationally and bring healthcare to more of the world’s population, LifeNet International needed a solution to tie its services together to further scale, replicate and measure its social impact. How could LifeNet International bring its social conversion franchising model to other African nations and internationally? Would LifeNet International’s model work logistically, financially and culturally? What adaptations would LifeNet need to make and what legal challenges would it face in the process of expansion? Furthermore, what structures would LifeNet need to put in place to manage the complexity of its growing network of partner clinics and operations?

Mid-India Construction Private Company Limited (MICC) was awarded a refurbishing project for INR30 million from the National Institute of Management. The project had to be completed in eight months. MICC’s project manager observed the dismal pace of work execution and the limited resource deployment on-site in the first monthly review meeting for the project. This situation warranted the manager’s immediate attention to acquire more resources and to find ways to fast-track the project. Given the nature of the project site and the project work, MICC began to explore the possibility of running parallel work-fronts to expedite the project while considering various financial and operational implications.

Nypro, Inc., a global leader in manufactured precision plastic products headquartered in Clinton, Massachusetts, had one of the largest employee stock ownership plans in the United States and was often held up as an example of best practices in that area. However, in early 2012, its president and chief executive officer became increasingly concerned that a market downturn might turn into a liquidity crisis. During the 2008 recession, a small percentage of the company’s employee shareholders had decided to cash in their shares, which the company was required to repurchase. Although the stock redemptions were draining the company of the funds needed to pursue valuable market opportunities, it somehow still managed to outperform many of its competitors. However, some believed that the company’s current trajectory was unsustainable. Its visionary leader had vowed never to sell the company or take it public, but when an offer was made to buy the company, many felt it was time to make this move. See supplements 9B14N029, 9B14N030 and student spreadsheet 7B14N028.

An immigrant entrepreneur created Hi-Bridge Consulting Corporation, a company that imported and distributed alcoholic products in Canada, among other activities. In 2009, the entrepreneur brought Yanjing beer to Canada from China, even though the Chinese brewery did not have an articulated international expansion strategy in Canada at the time. Despite numerous challenges in the Canadian beer market, the entrepreneur made significant headway. However, six years after the product’s introduction, she understood that many Canadian consumers were still not aware of Yanjing beer and that she needed to find an effective way to increase its market share.

The founding partners of this small company must decide whether to use a distributor to sell their products or continue to be their own sales representatives. The company sold a variety of environmentally friendly pens made from recycled paper, often used for fundraising efforts or company promotions. The partners had little access to capital, so they needed to consider the profitability and cash requirement of the alternatives and financing options.

In 2005, the police service in London, Ontario is faced with growing complaints about street-level prostitution in a neighbourhood trying to make an economic recovery. At the time, all Canadians are following the shocking case of Robert Pickton, a serial killer charged with the murder of over 20 prostitutes in Vancouver. The deputy chief asks the superintendent of Operations to devise a plan to deal with the local issue, including current news reports about the failure to solve a 10-year-old murder of a street worker. The latter recommends assigning an officer to begin a proactive approach to prostitution by monitoring and helping women to get free of the drug addictions that have led them into the business instead of arresting them. Is the superintendent overreacting to public pressure and sensational reports of events in Vancouver? Is this really a job for police? Can they sell this plan to their chief?

A novice entrepreneur and a strong believer in ethical business practice has tried to build a family-oriented culture in his business process outsourcing company. However, although he created a friendly atmosphere, he still faced performance and attrition issues. The company grew in size and financial worth but the entrepreneur persisted in looking for better opportunities for a new business venture. He developed the idea of a new e-commerce venture that would sell Chinese products online. Juggling human capital risks and entrepreneurial exit, he had to consider the merits of his decision and determine whether to leverage the same team or hire a dedicated team for his new venture.

In February 2011, the senior associate deputy minister of Industry Canada was appointed as the Canadian prime minister’s personal representative to the bi-national team charged with developing the “Beyond the Border Action Plan” to both improve security and streamline cross-border commerce and travel between Canada and the United States. He was immediately faced with a range of decisions on how to proceed — whom to consult, which Canadian team members to hire, which of many possible priorities to pursue in discussions with his U.S. counterparts and which steps to take to manage a complex process involving a multiplicity of large and powerful Canadian government departments and agencies as well as private sector interests. While he didn’t yet have strategies to address these issues, he knew that he would have to formulate them rapidly. Both the prime minister and the U.S. president had made clear their desire to move quickly — ideally, an action plan was to be in place within six months.

In late December 2003, the new acting CEO of Ontario Power Generation, the provincial Crown corporation responsible for the bulk of the province’s electrical power generation, was deeply worried. Three major events had led to a decline in the company’s revenues in 2003: a massive power failure that affected large portions of Ontario and the U.S. eastern seaboard in August, the maintenance-related planned outage at the Darlington Nuclear Station and the new provincial Liberal government’s mandated future phasing out of air polluting coal-fired electricity stations. In addition, in reaction to a damning report on cost overruns at the Pickering Nuclear Station, the Liberal government had dismissed the board and CEO and ordered a comprehensive audit. The acting CEO knew that he needed to respond quickly to the crisis of confidence facing the firm.

In 2012, a highly controversial bill was passed that called for major reform and restructuring of Britain’s government healthcare system, the National Health Service. Public opinion of the reform was both highly polarized and volatile. The Secretary of State for Health faces two tasks: addressing key issues to ensure successful implementation of the reforms and developing a plan to ensure both long-term and short-term success.

Since its inception as an organization dedicated to promoting women’s entrepreneurship through coordinated activities, the Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of Andhra Pradesh (ALEAP) has gone through different phases, acquiring distinct competencies and resources to offer an integrated approach to helping women entrepreneurs. In the two decades of its operations, ALEAP had established two industrial estates. There was scope to establish more industrial estates for women but ALEAP was contending with severe financial and manpower constraints that would make it difficult to pursue the manufacturing route to develop women entrepreneurs. ALEAP’s president believed that it was time to scale up operations and explore new opportunities. However, several questions had to be addressed: What growth strategy should ALEAP adopt? Was it time to look for a new model? Should ALEAP look beyond manufacturing for its growth? Should ALEAP look for innovative approaches to set up incubation centres? Whose support should it seek?