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The project manager of the Partnership for Lebanon (PFL) and Cisco Systems’s regional director of corporate affairs for the Middle East and Africa met in September 2009, three years after the PFL was first initiated. The meeting primarily revolved around the challenge of sustainability and what useful suggestions they could put forward to their partners to ensure that the projects initiated through the PFL were not dependent on the continuous investments of the partners.<br><br><br><br>The PFL, a major partnering initiative in a post-war context, was initiated in September 2006 after President George W. Bush called for the assistance of U.S. companies to help in the relief and reconstruction efforts in Lebanon after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. The five companies involved were Cisco Systems, Intel Corporation, Ghafari Inc., Occidental Petroleum, and Microsoft. They leveraged their core competence under five main work streams: emergency relief/response, job creation/private-sector revival, developing information and communication technology infrastructure, workforce training/education, and developing connected communities. Cisco took a leadership position within the PFL, establishing a management office in Beirut staffed by five senior full-time Cisco employees, and committed an investment of $10 million in the Lebanese private sector over a three-year period. The PFL’s corporate partners engaged closely with the Lebanese government as well as with various international and local NGOs to develop initiatives under the five work streams and yield a long-term sustainable impact.

The assistant site supervisor at Finemaster Projects Ltd. struggled with how to approach his boss for a raise. When hired, he had been told that regular annual reviews were held with employees and that good performance would be rewarded with corresponding pay increases. After one year with the company, the assistant site supervisor found that the owners rarely acted on this policy, leaving it up to staff to approach management about raises, promotions, and other performance-related issues. In his second year with the company, the assistant site supervisor experienced further disappointment with how his boss dealt with his compensation request, and his faith in the company’s pledge to reward employees for good performance was quickly fading. The (A) case covers the assistant site supervisor’s first meeting with his employer when offered a position with the company, as well as his conversation with a less experienced employee earning a higher wage. The supplements, Finemaster Projects Ltd. (B) and (C), describe his meetings with his boss after 12 months and two years, respectively.

The case explores the use and importance of corporate sponsorships — in this case, how these relationships are formed with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. The associate director of National Corporate Programs at the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation needs to determine the Foundation’s direction regarding its corporate sponsorship program. Due to the slowdown in the economic environment, a major sponsor of the Foundation, who has contributed more than $1 million to the charity over the past five years, has decided to pull two products from the shelf. The associate director needs to find a way to replace that support. Fortunately, the Foundation has been approached by three corporations who are interested in becoming corporate sponsors. The associate director and her team now need to evaluate the three corporate sponsorship proposals to determine whether they fit with the Foundation’s values and goals.

A new line of chilled ready meals has been developed after significant technological breakthroughs in food processing by Maple Leaf Consumer Foods. The chilled ready meals category in Canada is expected to exceed $200 million by 2011, and plans call for Maple Leaf to own more than half the category by that time. In the (A) case in this four-part series, the vice president of innovation and brand development is convening a group meeting to finalize ambitious launch plans for Maple Leaf Simply Fresh.

An entrepreneur and her father have purchased exclusive Canadian distribution rights to Nutrifusion, a new health supplement that provides servings of fruits and vegetables when added to a variety of foods. They are contemplating launching Healthy Life Group, a company to market and distribute Nutrifusion in Canada. They want to evaluate the product’s financial feasibility for the company’s first year of operations, ending December 31, 2011. If the financials look favourable and the business plan seems feasible, the father and daughter will proceed with the new venture.

The case narrates how A.P.V.N. Sarma, chairman and managing director of Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) since 1997, realized the need for change to rescue the company from impending bankruptcy. SCCL, a supplier of coal to the power and energy sectors, had been declared bankrupt by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction twice, in 1992 and 1996, and had accumulated losses of 12.19 billion rupees. As it provided direct and indirect employment to people residing in the region around SCCL, the health of the organization was critical not only to the massive workforce, but also to the state of Andhra Pradesh. The power generation units of the state relied significantly on the coal supplied by SCCL. <br><br>The case captures various initiatives undertaken by Sarma to bridge the trust deficit between management and blue-collar workers with low literacy and income levels. It discusses the novel communication strategies to connect with workers. The case describes how numerous strikes plaguing SCCL were curbed and order was restored to allow productivity to rise. Under Sarma’s leadership, SCCL achieved a net profit of 894 million rupees for the fourth consecutive year in 2001. Sarma had a fixed tenure of five years, ending in 2001. The task for the new leader was to build on the foundations laid by Sarma and take SCCL to new heights.

Sumeru Software Solutions was a software development consultancy firm headquartered in Bangalore, India, with offices in Washington, D.C., Dubai, and London. It began operations in July 2001 as a single project with two employees, and grew over 10 years into an organization with approximately 200 employees. The founding objective of Sumeru Software Solutions was to support Art of Living’s social development initiatives through profits earned from delivering high-quality services. Art of Living (AOL) was founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji as a not-for-profit, educational, humanitarian non-governmental organization engaged in stress-management programs, including yoga and meditation. Sumeru had developed a unique culture that combined corporate culture with the Art of Living principles of Seva, Satsang, Sadhana, and positivity even in the face of adversity. In line with the AOL principles, the four pillars of Sumeru culture were ethics, caring, sharing and trust. It purported to follow a peaceful yet aggressive way of doing business called “Serene Dynamism.” Harish Ramachandran, CEO of Sumeru Software Solutions, had created an enterprise that was different from other IT organizations. He was wondering how he would sustain the culture of the organization and make Sumeru a high-performing company over the next 10 years as it expanded its business and hired new employees.

The chief credit officer (CCO) at Seoul National Bank has recently faced numerous defaults on its corporate loans. To address this problem, the CCO must re-evaluate how the bank responds to defaults and determine a default strategy. The CCO must evaluate the payouts and risk profiles of 1) collecting on collateral, 2) partially settling, and 3) waiting and seeing. Further, the CCO must determine a systematic way to approve loans from companies. Analyzing both qualitative and quantities factors, the CCO must determine which companies to approve for loans given a certain size of its loan portfolio. Also, the CCO must determine whether or not to increase or shrink the size of the bank’s loan portfolio based on the expected outcomes and/or simulated results.

Grocery Checkout Inc., an online grocery delivery service, had experienced dramatic growth since its founding in 2005, but investors were pressuring the chief executive officer (CEO) for even faster growth. An improved distribution network and order fulfillment system meant that GCO could handle a greater volume of customers. The CEO considered a number of growth options, including a sell option, and needed to decide which would best fit GCO and how his role might change within the company.

After a two-year absence from the financial industry, Tom Henne evaluated his options and determined that he could exploit his knowledge of the inner workings of the pension fund business and start a new firm, Equinox Asset Management. Despite claims that many pension funds provided returns that did no more than mirror the average index, Henne believed his fund could beat the market or achieve alpha. He proposed that this success could be had by differentiating the Equinox fund in several ways from the typically large and well-branded funds of banks and insurance companies. Thinking he still had significant time to consider the details, Henne was surprised to receive a phone call from a local company wanting him to do a presentation on Equinox at its offices. Henne had only one week to decide the size of his fund, finalize his fee structure, identify his positioning and marketing strategy, and evaluate an appropriate client base. But most of all, he wondered whether the idea for his fund was even plausible.

The general manager of Horseshoe Resort is finalizing the proposal for a new adventure park with his management team. Horseshoe is a recently purchased all-season resort, and new ownership wants to increase Horseshoe’s attractions to entice visitors to the resort in the summer months. The general manager wants to determine how best to use the land and investment money to cater to Horseshoe’s target market and add to its portfolio of activities.

Vlaad and Company, a recruiting firm specializing in the Canadian capital markets, has embarked upon an initiative to recruit more women to capital markets jobs. The case describes the early stages of this initiative and provides six examples of capital markets job candidates — four women and two men. The director of the women in capital markets initiative must decide which of these six candidates, if any, to present to client firms. She must also think about the design of the women in capital markets initiative.

The case examines the issues faced by a hotel management and development company as it tries to increase the return to its shareholders. The firm’s major shareholders have commented that they believe the firm is currently under-valued, so management is considering several means of unlocking extra value. Due to difficult economic conditions resulting from the global economic crisis, there are many opportunities as well as many risks to the alternatives the company is considering. The case provides the opportunity to use several different valuation methods to determine if the company is, in fact, undervalued. It also leads to a discussion of several alternatives for unlocking value, including starting an active acquisition strategy or re-organizing the corporate structure with either an updated capital structure or conversion to a real estate income trust.

This case describes the history of Desko, a Canadian manufacturer of wood office furniture, as it faced a crisis that threatened its own existence. The president and CEO needed to decide which actions to take to improve the effectiveness of the value chain activities of the firm and the information technology (IT) supporting it. He was considering outsourcing parts of certain value chain activities, including manufacturing, to specialized partners. The case also depicts the main characteristics of the Canadian wood office furniture industry and the external factors that played an important role in the development of Desko.

This case, a supplement to Value Chain and IT Transformation at Desko (A), describes Desko’s customer order process.

Fortis Inc., a company with interests in various North American electric utilities, is proposing to build the Chalillo dam on the Macal River in Belize, Central America. The dam would contribute to the economic development of the country by meeting the increasing demand from industry and consumers for electricity. The company believes that the dam is the most feasible, reliable, and cheap supply of electricity. Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) oppose the project because of the destruction of wild animal and plant life and the adverse downstream impact, and allege that there are more viable and cost-effective sources. The case reviews the company’s presence in Belize, the environmental impact studies, and the activities of the ENGOs during 2001. At the beginning of 2002, management is faced with a decision of whether or not to go ahead with the project.

Electric motorcycles’ features of zero emissions, light weight, high efficiency, low energy costs, and almost no pollution contribute to the increasing popularity of and substantial growth potential for the worldwide electric motorcycle industry. However, Zero was facing competition from Brammo, which, though positioning its products differently from Zero, adopted a similar international growth strategy. How could the chief executive officer of Zero position its products so that Zero would be able to offer a unique value proposition and establish clear dominance in the electric motorcycle industry?

After working together on a university business plan, two entrepreneurs worked for three years to develop their venture: Shutout Solutions Inc. Their start-up venture was established in response to an issue familiar to most hockey players: notoriously smelly equipment. While their familiarity with hockey equipment helped them identify a specific problem, subsequent research revealed a much broader issue: the need to clean products made of micro-fibre. Utilizing a technology that addressed the micro-fibre odour issue, they believed they had a five-year opportunity window to develop and profit from the business before it was imitated or superseded. As they considered their options, they realized that they might have to choose to focus their resources on a single product line rather than continue to develop their current portfolio of a detergent, body wash, and spray. They also questioned whether they were using the right channel - gyms and sporting goods stores - to reach customers. The opportunity to pursue bulk institutional sales was also intriguing, though it would require a different sales, pricing, and distribution strategy. Also, they considered how they might respond to an offer to sell the company in its current form.

This case describes how significant debt was built up in Pakistan among the private- and public-sector energy and power-generation companies, which were some of the country’s largest organizations. An unexpected slowdown in recovery of payments created debt that affected corporate business operations and the Pakistani economy as a whole. The case discusses the energy and power sectors, along with the reasons for the circular debt. The Pakistani government was heavily involved in regulating the energy and power sectors; to respond to high oil prices, a subsidy was provided in 2008 to keep the price of diesel low. The government, however, had not created an effective plan to recover these funds, and when large public-sector enterprises such as Pakistan International Airlines did not pay their bills, no action was taken. The focus of this case is on resolving the very large amounts of debt that had accumulated in various energy companies. A secondary analysis can explore the impact of regulation on the operations of oil companies.

The price of pharmaceuticals in the Philippines is second only to Japan within Asia and is among the highest in the world, despite the Philippines being a less developed country with nearly half of its population living on US$2 a day. The case illustrates how The Generics Pharmacy, a local pharmaceutical company, challenged the existing industry business model and became the largest pharmaceutical retailer in the country within a period of only three years. Under the strategic leadership of CEO Benjamin Liuson, The Generics Pharmacy succeeded in formulating a superior value proposal by focusing on the supply- and demand-side constructs at the bottom of the pyramid and bringing affordable high-quality medicines within reach of low-income individuals. Superior leadership, management, and strategic initiatives succeeded in integrating and balancing tenets of corporate social responsibility, entrepreneurial foresight, and resource-based strategy to catapult the company into a leadership position.