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Derrick and Rebecca Pearson, the unlikely owners of KNTK 93.7 The Ticket, hoped to revitalize the traditional sports radio station in Lincoln, Nebraska, since purchasing it in September 2021. To accomplish their goal, they expanded The Ticket’s programming and incorporated a community-focused approach. But the Pearsons needed to decide how to balance their efforts between traditional terrestrial radio and digital platforms. They also needed to decide whether to focus on popular sports or explore niche sports to drive future growth and community engagement.

In January 2023, Ajit Padmanabh, founder of Who VR (virtual reality), and his team worked tirelessly on product, price, distribution, and promotion to create an overall marketing strategy for Who VR, a virtual and augmented reality brand. Who VR offered content focused on Indian history, arts, and culture through multi-sensory immersive experiences. The company created a buzz in the marketplace by winning a few large and impactful projects, and its initial success was remarkable. Its presence in various industrial exhibitions had attracted widespread attention. And its Bengaluru office was inundated with inquiry calls. But Padmanabh knew that the initial momentum had to continue for long-term success. With each day, pressure was building among the team to release deliverables.

This case concerns a young MBA from India, Yashovardhan Agarwal (Yash), who, in 2024, contemplated the growth strategy of SVG Fashions Pvt. Ltd. (SVG), his family’s textile business. The company’s vision was to be a one-stop textile solution provider converting “fibre to fashion.” However, changes in the market and competition required significant investments in developing competencies that could make the company future-ready and more profitable. Yash deliberated on whether to expand the current business, build a business-to-business athleisure brand by selling through offline retail channels, or build a direct-to-consumer online athleisure apparel brand. Yash needed to be sure that the choices he made not only offered profitable growth but also built relevant core competencies to sustain SVG’s competitive advantage in the future.

In 2022, Australia-based property and home development company Douglas Family Group was full of internal conflict. The co-owned family business had recently decided that changes were needed in order to grow and secure a stable family income for the future. To that end, the company brought in non-family advisers and board members, and eventually hired a non-family chief executive officer (CEO). However, the organizational changes did not go smoothly, due to the myriad challenges of introducing external employees to a family business. Soon, family members and top management alike started to complain that the changes did not work and demanded that the previous CEO, a second-generation Douglas family member, come back to fix things. As revenue decreased and conflict spread, the family knew it only had one chance to fix things and save the company. What was the best course of action to get back on track?

<b>All royalties from the adoption of this case will be donated to Birchway Niagara. </b><br><br>In March 2023, Women’s Place of South Niagara (Canada), an organization focused on ending abuse and intimate partner violence, rebranded as Birchway Niagara, to better represent what Birchway offered: it was not only a place for women. However, Jennifer Gauthier, its executive director, found herself in the fall of 2023 reflecting on the mixed success of the rebrand. The problem, according to Gauthier, was that “our communication was not as bold as it needed to be to really get the message out there.” Should she back away from the new brand and focus on the organization's core mission or go all-in on the new brand? Was a solution using both goals within one marketing campaign the right way forward? <br><br>

In 2019, Shannondale Developments looked at purchasing the former industrial factory at 152 Shanley Street in Kitchener, Ontario. Nic Tyers, one of the co-owners of Shannondale and Ian Pinchin, the development manager, saw an opportunity and developed an Agreement of Purchase and Sale (APS), working through many challenges to ultimately secure the purchase. The case outlines the situation leading up to the decision to acquire the property and the many challenges they faced as they went through the potential acquisition process. The case challenges students to try to understand the numbers behind the purchase of this environmentally challenged site and to use them to make the decision whether to purchase it.

Honeygrow, a healthy food chain, has seen steady growth since opening its first location in Philadelphia in 2012. Justin Rosenberg, founder and chief executive officer of honeygrow, is assessing the advantages and disadvantages of an expansion strategy and wondering how he should lean into social media more to aid and develop his brand story further.

As Chief Executive Officer Maya Kambeitz sat in her Calgary office preparing for the upcoming mid-2018 board meeting, she considered a potential growth strategy for Norfolk Housing Association (Norfolk Housing) that would align with its core values: to offer inclusive and affordable housing, and to maintain financial stability in 2019 and beyond. Norfolk Housing was a social enterprise registered as a non-profit corporation in Calgary, Alberta, offering rentals of affordable and priced-to-market apartments in shared buildings. Kambeitz wanted the board to consider whether or not to acquire another building, ideally near the current locations, to expand their operations. The increased number of units would improve operational efficiency through economies of scale and serve more people, aligning with the social enterprise’s dedication to both long-term financial sustainability and social purpose. However, expansion would require financing and support to acquire and manage the new building, which could put Norfolk Housing’s financial sustainability at risk.<br><br>The challenge was to achieve Norfolk Housing’s purpose to expand and provide affordable housing to more Calgarians while also maintaining long-term financial stability, which ensured that current tenants would not lose their homes if the association failed. Kambeitz had learned about Riley Park Place, a property with 24 units that was for sale. The location was close to their current properties and its acquisition had potential. However, there were some questions about whether the opportunity aligned with Norfolk Housing’s purpose and financial sustainability.

Based on their extensive consulting and advisory experience in large-scale consulting transformations for various large enterprises, Ramesh Srinivas and his colleagues at Worxogo Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (Worxogo) in Bengaluru, India, had launched an artificial intelligence (AI)–based nudge platform called Nudge Coach in 2017 to change employees’ behaviour positively and voluntarily so as to bolster team performance. The platform’s self-learning AI engine had been designed based on insights from behavioural sciences and popular motivation theories. It featured deep-learning algorithms that understood individual motivations and provided personalized coaching tips, appropriate challenges, and rewards. The platform was presented as a coach that could help employees manage their performance.<br><br>By 2023, Worxogo had garnered numerous clients and accolades for its platform’s novelty and efficacy in improving employee performance and organizational outcomes. However, Worxogo had implemented its platform predominantly for a limited set of functions, such as sales and data-centre operations, characterized by well-defined lead and lag performance metrics. Clients, buoyed by the platform’s success, began encouraging the Worxogo team to extend the nudge-based performance-improvement system to other functions and domains.<br><br>Thus, Srinivas, Worxogo’s chief executive officer, faced a dilemma in August 2023of whether to continue to focus on Nudge Coach’s limited existing functions or to explore appropriate nudge-based outcomes for tasks without clear lead and lag performance indicators. His other challenge was to determine how organizations and individuals could measure the effectiveness of nudges in improving performance without clear short-term outcomes. Which approach would Srinivas take to respond to these challenges?

HelpSeeker Technologies, a Calgary-based technology startup, employed technological innovations such as digitization and artificial intelligence (AI) to address social welfare solutions, facilitating swift access by its users to crucial resources like psychological aid, medical services, and housing. HelpSeeker confronted a significant challenge: reconciling its identity as a technology firm with its commitment to societal betterment. In October 2023, facing the need to expand and monetize its services, the company grappled with the delicate task of scaling without compromising its core mission of addressing pressing social issues.

<p align="justify">By early 2022, Zhongguang Yiyun Supply Chain Management Co. Ltd. had spent six years developing its supply chain management (SCM) and supply chain finance (SCF) platform, ToTrade. The platform collaborated with multiple banks and focal companies to provide integrated SCF services to over 1,000 upstream and downstream small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in China’s Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai Provinces. But the site of competition in the Chinese SCF market had shifted from a single company’s SCF capability to its integrated SCF network. Therefore, it was crucial for ToTrade to establish a robust financial supply network in order to enhance the implementation and development of its SCF services. As the volume of ToTrade’s SCF service increased, the company faced key questions: How could ToTrade develop its network to further support its SCF development? And how could the platform effectively evaluate its SCF service performance to better guide this development?

Christina Stembel, the founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers Inc., has always emphasized quality, speed, and efficiency in her San Francisco–based online flower delivery company. Her teams have operated like assembly lines, shipping 10,000 bouquets daily during peak periods, which has ensured competitive pricing. Before the pandemic, Stembel expands Farmgirl Flowers Inc. to Ecuador, and when it is forced to close its San Francisco facility, she shifts all production to Ecuador.<br><br>Valentine’s Day 2023 poses a challenge, as shipping the flowers from South America takes three days, while South American prices are higher due to pandemic-related supply chain issues, ultimately resulting in customer dissatisfaction. Stembel aims to regain competitiveness by bringing operations back to North America. But the questions remain: how and where should this happen?

Soma Solutions was a small consulting firm based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Soma Solutions had provided face-to-face, on-site information and communications technology (ICT) training on SAP and ERP to state-owned enterprises. However, due to the nationwide lockdown and the need to curb the spread of the virus, the company could no longer conduct on-site training. The state-owned enterprises, its main clients, also had to close temporarily and shift to remote work. The economic upheaval left Soma Solutions facing uncertainty and instability. Despite having operated for only four years, it grappled with the decision to pivot or preserve its existing approach. The challenge was to remain relevant and competitive while navigating evolving norms and limited resources. How prepared was the company to transition to virtual training? What would pivoting look like for the company, and would it help sustain the business post-pandemic?

<p align="justify">In 1978, Jaipur Rugs was founded in a small village in Rajasthan, India. Over the next 40 years, Jaipur Rugs developed into a global business with strong social responsibility. Right from the start, the founder looked beyond profits to provide a source of livelihood and dignity of life to thousands of women in rural villages without formal education and no opportunities outside their homes. Over time, Jaipur Rugs grew into an empire that empowered 40,000 women weavers from some of the most economically disadvantaged areas of India. In 2022, Jaipur Rugs was planning to expand internationally, with high acclaim and demand for its products. However, traditional weavers and their families were losing their original motivation. Younger family members of veteran weavers were opting instead for more lucrative opportunities in India’s urban centres. With an evolving socio-economic environment across India, how would Jaipur Rugs retain its weavers and attract new artisans?

<p align="justify">Natalie Jung, amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, transformed her newfound passion for handcrafted jewelry into Radiant Sun Shop (RSS), a thriving Etsy business with 3,100 transactions as of February 2023. Initially launched during her virtual undergraduate studies, RSS flourished with her dedicated time. As Jung approached the end of her master’s degree and subsequent graduation in April 2023, uncertainty loomed regarding the future trajectory of her business. Contemplating the role of RSS in her post-graduation life, Jung grappled with pivotal entrepreneurial questions, unsure of where to commence her introspection. Balancing academic milestones and entrepreneurial aspirations, Jung embarked on a critical self-examination to navigate the evolving dynamics of Radiant Sun Shop in her life ahead.

BC Cancer was a provincial government–funded treatment and research organization that provided cancer care in British Columbia (BC), Canada. During 2021–2022, BC Cancer developed a connected chatbot to improve patient access to information and reduce demands on the telephone nursing lines. A project manager oversaw the chatbot’s development and ran a proof of concept in Victoria, BC, from March to June 2022. While this allowed her working group to obtain feedback from nurses, other user data regarding the value of the connected chatbot was limited and inconclusive. Following the completion of the proof of concept, the project manager had to decide whether BC Cancer should continue to roll out the connected chatbot, and if so, how.

In mid-2023 Akash Gupta, CEO of GreyOrange Ltd (GO), an Atlanta-based robotics firm, had to decide whether GO still needed its exclusive technology partnership with LOGI, a leading US-based contract logistics firm. Since 2018 the partnership had been instrumental in establishing GO as a major provider of robotic solutions in the warehouse automation space. With new management at LOGI, a renegotiation had become inevitable. Numerous options were possible. These ranged from complete discontinuation of exclusivity, to continuation of exclusivity with revised pricing terms, to continuation with an expanded scope of products provided by GO.

The president of the West Coast Cycling Association (WCCA) believed that a lot was riding on finding the best way to secure the future of the Newfoundland and Labrador non-profit organization. He had to consider how to effectively fulfill what he saw as the WCCA’s mission, better promote mountain biking throughout the region, and build a sustainable financial future for the association. While there were several viable options that could meet those challenges, the president knew that he needed to carefully consider the pros and cons of each alternative. This was especially important given the absence of any permanent paid staff in the WCCA, the voluntary nature of his own position as its president, and the other entities interested in the WCCA’s work.

In the sunny afternoon of October 5, 2023, in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada), the co-founders of TRAE Group contemplated the challenge of growing their business while maintaining a delicate balance between commercial activities and their social mission of addressing global food security. In view of the changes in the global markets due to COVID-19 and geo-political tensions, they needed to evaluate the potential impacts of inflation, supply chain disruptions, and other global events on their ability to generate income and continue their social initiatives. The dilemma was whether to reassess their business strategies, explore alternative suppliers, or diversify their product offerings.

Nick worked as the weekend shift leader at the fulfillment center of Lee Valley Tools. in Ottawa. The company operated three shifts—a day and night shift on weekdays and a weekend shift on Saturday and Sunday. Reviewing performance statistics, Nick noted that members of the night shifts in the warehouse seemed to be achieving higher performance in order fulfillment and line item fulfillment. On the other hand, the members of the weekend shifts were more aligned with the performance of members of the day shift, which had to deal with deliveries of incoming items and placing these items in the warehouse. Nick wondered why the weekend shift seemed to lag behind. He also wondered whether these differences were significant and meaningful. Nick found that there appeared to be a lag in the picking and packing processes.