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This case examines the business options for implementing a company-wide product take-back program. It focuses on PerkinElmer, a $1.9 billion global technology company developing diagnostics and biomedical products for the environmental and human health sectors. The company, which operates in more than 150 countries, is committed to community engagement, sustainable and ethical business practices and eco-innovative products, including a commitment to continuously reducing the environmental and health impacts of its products throughout their useful lives. As of 2012, PerkinElmer was required to comply with two European Union regulations restricting hazardous substances and monitoring the disposal of electronic waste, but there were no similar broad-based federal U.S. regulations at that time. One of the European Union directives required the company to practise end-of-life management, that is, to take back and responsibly manage its products at the end of their useful lives. PerkinElmer used a study group at Boston College to examine the different options for handling old products and to discover if there was a profitable or at least profit neutral business model for doing so, in light of what its competitors were doing in this area. If the benefits outweigh the risks, how should the company roll out a corporate-wide product take-back strategy?

Books for Change (BfC), a small publisher, produces books that focus on the social sector. The company’s purpose is to raise awareness about specific development issues among academia, researchers and policy makers. BfC was started in 1998 by ActionAid, an international non-governmental organization working in the field of social development. Like other small publishers, BfC faces various challenges, including a lower demand for its books and difficulty in distribution and marketing. ActionAid has provided financial support to BfC by covering its operating losses; however, it now needs to allocate greater funds to its own development activities and, therefore, has asked BfC to become financially independent. BfC needs to prepare the strategy and plan for making BfC profitable.

In 2010, a recent business graduate tries to resolve a constant bottleneck in the printing department of the family business. The two-part case discusses the issues of identifying the need for relevant information and then discusses the staff’s resistance to change and how these objections were handled and overcome. <br><br>This pair of cases seeks to identify the pressures faced by small businesses, along with the task of managing the various stakeholders, including the father-owner and the personnel on the factory shop floor.

This is a supplement to product no. 9B12E014.

In mid-March 2011, the vice-chairman of National Bank Financial had to decide what price to recommend to his Maple consortium partners for the TMX Group Inc. (TMX). The TMX was the owner and operator of Canada’s leading cash and derivatives exchanges. The vice-chairman was leading a consortium of Canadian banks that was planning an unsolicited bid in response to merger talks between the TMX and the London Stock Exchange Group. The case allows for a discussion of mergers and acquisitions and the factors behind merger waves, the mechanics of a hostile bid for a publicly listed company, the changing landscape for stock and derivative exchanges, the valuation of a target company, and the distinction between strategic and financial buyers. An Excel spreadsheet for students is available.

The Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (WRHI), a South African non-government organization, played a crucial role in turning the tide in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. The organization significantly influenced the national response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic through its credibility, research output and multiple stakeholder engagement. The collaborative multiparty relationships between WRHI's stakeholders were a key component of the organization's success. However, WRHI’s sustainability faced serious challenges in the rapidly changing operating environment, particularly since the organization was totally dependent on funders. What strategic initiatives should WRHI pursue?

KSOIL has a project that bills customers on units of documents delivered. The productivity of employees is evaluated on the same basis. The output of the home-based team has increased two to three times compared to its previous office-based performance. As a result, the rewards and compensation for the home-based team have doubled compared to office-based employees. The head of HR is convinced home-based workers are using unfair means to achieve such high output. She is against the decision of the project manager to increase the size of the home-based team. She believes this will only increase the unrest among office-based workers. The general manager needs to make a decision soon, while keeping in mind the profitability, employee welfare and ethics of the firm.

Garry Halper Menswear Limited (GHM) is a medium-sized manufacturer of superior-quality men’s suits and jackets that up to now have largely been distributed in Canada. The firm has landed a very large order for men’s suits with Sutton’s in the United States. To meet the order, the firm has decided to import partly completed suits from China. The treasurer of GHM must assess the financing needs and related risks that result from this large increase in sales. At the same time, he believes that the company’s present bank is timid in its response to the firm’s needs, and he would like to consider another banking relationship.

The founder and CEO of a management company needs to address the future of its joint venture in Iran with a U.S. developer of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The joint venture partners need to decide whether to pursue a potential client’s request for a custom version of the ERP system that the joint venture sells. The two partners disagree regarding the strategic direction forward, but must make a decision.

This case examines the business strategies available to an Indian company, Indraprastha Cold Storage Ltd. (IPCSL). It has made substantial investments in upgrading its existing cold storage to differentiate itself from the competition based on the premise that by providing superior product quality, it could charge a premium for its value added cold storage service. However, competitors lowered their rates in an attempt to capture even more customers, and IPCSL was concerned about the long-term viability of the business. It must decide on a course of action, taking into consideration the constraints of growing, transporting, storing and selling fruit in India; the asymmetry in price information available to growers and commission agents in the market, coupled with the old-fashioned way of doing business through open and closed auctions; and the costs and benefits of vertical integration between grower and IPCSL.<br><br>This case also includes a two-part video which instructors may share with the class. The first part shows the buzz of daily activities in New Subzi Mandi, Azadpur - including market exchanges by open and closed auctions. The second is an interview with Sanjay Aggarwal about the challenges IPCSL faced and his immediate reaction to the crisis. Please refer to the teaching note for details.

Based on the automobile sale model in the mainland of China, this business case describes Xiamen Honda 4S Shop’s current sales situation, marketing strategy and management. It emphasizes the dilemma faced by the company CEO — whether or not he will implement the plan proposed by the sales department to offer lifetime car care for customers who bought car insurance from the company. Deeper marketing management problems are also raised, such as how to distribute marketing resources, how to evaluate the marketing plan and its performance and how to raise company value when it supplies better value to the customers. This case can be used in marketing management for MBA students and senior undergraduates. It provides an opportunity to discuss the subjects of customer lifetime value and marketing budget management.

Bio-Vert is a leading Canadian brand of eco-cleaning products manufactured by Quebec-based Savons Prolav. Run by a brother and sister team, Savons Prolav bases its products on their vision, which includes eco-friendliness, affordability and effectiveness. Demand for Bio-Vert’s phosphate-free detergents has increased dramatically since the 2007 blue-green algae bloom outbreaks in Quebec’s waterways and subsequent legislation restricting phosphate use in cleaning products. However, now that “green” cleaning products have become more mainstream, Savons Prolav faces the issue of how to adapt and grow in an increasingly crowded marketplace. This discussion considers how Savons Prolav can remain competitive in this difficult industry segment while maintaining its environmental focus.<br><br><br><br>This case highlights the pressures that an SME with strong environmental values faces in a competitive market. It includes a portrait of the cleaning products industry, consumer patterns with regards to eco-friendly products, and a background of the provincial socio-environmental event that triggered increased demand for green cleaning products in Quebec. Savons Prolav’s history, business model and core values are discussed along with potential growth options. Details on related industry, societal and marketing perspectives are provided to guide the reader through the advantages and disadvantages inherent to each opportunity.

The director of the Infection Prevention and Control Unit at the University Health Network (UHN), in Toronto, Canada, is working to reduce healthcare acquired infections (HAIs) by using a different way to communicate with hospital staff. Through positive deviance (PD), participants are gaining new perspectives to help identify the changes that are needed to reduce HAIs. The initiative has been successful at UHN. Now the director needs to figure out how to spread the success of positive deviance to more health care regions and facilities in Canada and the United States to improve patient lives and the quality of health care.

The Roaring Dragon Hotel (RDH), a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE), was under pressure to become a profit generating 5-star hotel due to the continued development of the Chinese market economy. As for many SOEs, the RDH was overstaffed, filled with archaic work practices, internal cliques, unsystematic production systems and a dysfunctional motivation system unrelated to performance. During modernization, a number of human resource management problems became increasingly evident; solving these problems had become a priority. In 2000, the RDH’s provincial government and stakeholders made their first attempt at modernizing the hotel by hiring a globally renowned company to undertake the upgrade. The disastrous outcome caused the provincial government and stakeholders to lose heart, momentum and motivation until six years later. A new joint venture owner and the RDH board recovered enough confidence to attempt modernization for a second time. They contracted Premium Hotel Services (PHS) to undertake the second attempt at improving operations. The PHS found the quality of older employees, increasing turnover of new staff and policies emerging from the continuing evolution of the Chinese economy were now presenting problems never confronted before at the RDH. How could the stakeholders solve these problems and have the RDH emerge as an internationally recognized five star, commercially viable hotel?

The case presents the sequence of events that occurred when a global leader in automated information management technology had to compete fiercely to retain one of its key customers. It presents the environment for B2B sales and the challenges facing the company in a fiercely competitive scenario. The case describes in detail the politics and personalities involved and the importance of relationships and optimism in making sales. It is intended to stimulate readers to explore situation restoration strategies for an existing technology provider that faces the emergence of a capable competitor. Discussion of such strategies involves ethical considerations and highlights the thin divide between ethics and diplomacy in selling efforts.

This case describes in rich detail the change challenge the director of pharmacy services at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) faces in September 2011. She is responsible for implementing project HUGO, an acronym for Health Care UnderGoing Optimization. HUGO is a computerized system that requires a switch from paper and pencil to fully electronic patient records. This project is the most complex and comprehensive one that London area hospitals have ever undergone: the project includes a total of 11 healthcare organizations in London and surrounding region, with expected project costs in excess of $25 million. Implementing HUGO has the potential to save lives in the hospital, where critical errors are often linked to manual processes that involve multiple steps and people. Despite the strong reasons for implementing this project, the director expects significant resistance from nurses, doctors and staff who are used to their way of operating. It is clear that this change challenge involves not just the adoption of new technology but a significant cultural change.

The Himalaya Drug Company is interested in obtaining insights into how the lifestyle of consumers is associated with the use of face washes, especially of its own brand. As the population of India, which is primarily under the age of 35, becomes more affluent and self-conscious, personal grooming has become more important. Several brands have positioned themselves in the market according to various attributes and benefits. Himalaya wants to understand the impact of values and lifestyles both on the category of face washes and on the brands in this category. The case makes use of a consumer survey conducted in December 2011 that investigated the lifestyle of consumers and connected it to various face wash brands through the concept of laddering. Were the attributes and benefits of the brands associated with the lifestyles of the consumers? How were values associated with brand association? Himalaya hopes to obtain insights through these questions to discover how it can effectively compete with its competitors through branding association.

Damien Duff was worried. When he graduated from business school five years ago, Damien had had a plan — a good one. The problem, of course, was that plans rarely unfold as expected. Damien and his wife, Katrina, were now expecting their first child. As Damien wrestled with the reality of this news, he took a quick look at his financial plans. Damien knew his career was on track, but his debt load was much higher than anticipated and he hadn’t started his retirement portfolio as planned. With a baby on the way, he knew the expenses would only accelerate. What to do — pay off the debt, start a registered education savings plan, or postpone the retirement savings plan still further?

Material requirements planning (MRP) systems have been widely used by manufacturing firms to maintain an optimum flow of inputs for the best production results. By using an MRP system, a firm can prepare a production plan that specifies the number of sub-assemblies that go into a final product along with the exact timeline of an order, from placement to completion. <br><br>In the case, an A-CAT employee is assigned the task of preparing an operating plan for the next eight weeks for a product. She has to decide how much to produce to be able to meet the requirements economically, taking into account the forecasted demand. The case examines the intricacies of procurement, warehousing, and processing costs of various material components by critically evaluating different techniques in practice. Using situational scenarios, the case presents lot-sizing techniques — including lot for lot, economic order quantity, least total cost and least unit cost — for balancing costs such as set-up costs, ordering costs, and inventory-holding costs.

The director of Lands and Economic Development in the Ministry of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) must make recommendations on how to handle challenges around a large farming company that leases land from First Nations communities in Western Canada. New Horizon Farms (NHF) has already leased over 180,000 acres from First Nations communities and plans to grow to one million acres. An immediate challenge is the leasing process whereby INAC must review and sign leases and receive lease payments, which are later turned over to the First Nations. The process slows the partnering process and the speed of cash flow to First Nations and many First Nations object to government control over their land on principle. However, without INAC involved, the leases are not legally enforceable, an essential factor for NHF and its public parent company. NHF provides leasing revenue but also training, employment, and shares in the company to the First Nations it partners with. On the surface it looks like a good opportunity, but it raises several questions for policy makers. Will NHF’s control of one million acres of First Nations land be seen as a form of economic colonialism? How does this kind of initiative fit with INAC’s and First Nations’ mandates to improve economic and social conditions among First Nations communities? How will the provinces and neighbouring communities perceive and react to the situation?<br><br>New Horizon Farms also needs to consider its long-term strategy. Will the operation meet its target of one million acres? What are the risks for the company? How should it approach the training issue now that funding has finished?