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After three years of rapid growth in a relatively young industry, the affiliate and payment-processing company RevenueWire.com found itself operating in a very different environment. Sales growth in the company’s affiliate network service had leveled off, and orders for Q1 2010 looked just like those for Q1 2009. New competitors, low entry barriers, and a plateau in the affiliate market meant few opportunities for growth across the industry. Despite these conditions, the company’s owners had set aggressive revenue targets for 2010 to 2012. The general manager needed to evaluate options for growth, including new markets and new products, to determine how to meet her targets. Because RevenueWire.com’s competitors were privately held, there was little public data on the state of their finances or the size of various markets. The general manager had learned how to use surrogate data to gauge the market and make strategic decisions, and the students must do the same to develop an effective three-year plan that will hit or exceed the owners’ expectations.<br><br>The case exposes students to decision making in a global industry dominated by privately held companies. It also exposes students to the affiliate marketing industry from the viewpoint of an entrepreneurial company that serves as an intermediary between merchants and affiliates. It describes many of the challenges facing an intermediary in an industry that includes not only legitimate merchants but a vast array of scam artists and phony products.

Bakari Burns, CEO of the Health Care Center for the Homeless (HCCH) in Orlando, Florida, was faced with the daunting task of rebranding the organization. He knew that the organization experienced difficulty with recognition and marketplace distinction, primarily due to the public’s misconceptions about the relationship between HCCH and the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida. An external consulting team offered several recommendations for change, including an amended name and redesigning all marketing materials. This advice and changes in the external environment made it an excellent time to reposition and refocus the organization. Recognizing the need for a new strategy and implementing that strategy were not the same; Burns was not sure how to lead the organization through the change process.

This is a graphic novel version of Ivey case Binnj on the Apple iPad (#9B10E024).<br><br><br><br>In this dialogue-styled case, Binnj’s CEO has assembled a team of people for a 100-day science experiment to determine whether a new high-tech business venture is worth pursuing. He is focused on an untapped market — a new kind of restaurant menu service built on the Apple iPad platform. Members of the team are excited and have been working furiously on the project while retaining their full-time jobs. They have developed a prototype of the technology and business offering, pitched the idea to several clients, and generated significant interest. The case is set at the end of the first 100 days, when the CEO must decide on the next steps.

Kiai Marketing Group is a start-up advertising company providing innovative marketing solutions to businesses in London, Ontario. The company’s first undertaking is aimed at reaching the post-secondary student demographic by attaching a business’s advertising to laptop computers by means of a laptop skin. The proprietor needs an overall strategic marketing plan to secure his first client. The proprietor must decide what clients to target, how to reach the student market, what to charge clients, and what to pay the team of students displaying the laptop skins.

The newly appointed manager of commercial accounts considers a loan request from the owner of a recreational motorsport dealership in the amount of a $60,000 long-term loan for renovations and the addition of a tattoo parlor. The owner has also requested a $450,000 working capital loan for operations and to help manage seasonal fluctuations in sales. This is a comprehensive case in which students assess qualitative issues affecting the recreational motorsport industry during a weak economic climate. Students learn the basics of commercial lending and the risks involved in lending to a company that has no bank loan history and that is seeking credit for sustainability.

A summer intern student at 3M Health Care must analyze the health care division’s logistics systems and report her findings to the vice president of 3M Health Care Markets. The vice president is most interested in the recommendations for the proposed changes to the existing method of distributing products to Canadian hospitals. This case provides sufficient information for students to assess the quantitative and qualitative issues relating to direct distribution versus maintaining a current supply chain structure of using value-added resellers.

India’s largest domestic retail group, the Future Group, is pursuing a novel private-label strategy. In a country dominated by small-scale retailers, it is using its scale to launch private-label brands in several product categories. It is planning to delink these new offerings from the store brand and make them available through other retailers. Future Group hopes to derive most of its growth over the next few years from this initiative.<br><br><br><br>The case enables students to take on the role of the group’s brand advisor, and deal with some important questions: Will private-label brands erode customer loyalty or build it? Will they increase traffic to stores or cannibalize it? Will they add to the complexity of retailing or simplify it? More fundamentally, is the private-label brand strategy sustainable in the long run in the highly competitive Indian retail market?

This case depicts how executives who are holding power in an organization can create chaos due to interpersonal conflict. Rao and Naik, two senior executives at TKC Consulting in India, scapegoated an innocent subordinate during the course of their rivalry. Their actions, not befitting the positions they held, created confusion and misunderstanding in the organization. The chairman of the company understood that their selfish, power-hungry actions could not be explicitly pointed out, as this would merely result in a cycle of blame. Yet he also knew that if the conflict was not addressed immediately, it would cause more discord within the organization.

The Liang family, experienced family hoteliers in China, had to leave the mainland under the pressure of the forces of Chairman Mao and the Communist Party of China in 1949. They resettled in Taiwan, resumed their hospitality business and now, two generations later, have returned to Nanjing to find that their family’s old guest house has been allowed to run down and deteriorate as a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SoE). They repurchase the old guest house with the intention to redevelop it. How will they deal with this privatization and the inevitable bureaucracy of purchasing, demolishing, and rebuilding the old guest house? How will they convert the existing SoE human resources (trained under planned-economy conditions) into dynamic employees operating in the market economy, while being sensitive to the cultural characteristics and challenges of this mainland Chinese workplace? With more than 6,000 Chinese SoEs still being targeted for privatization, this case is very relevant and provides a real-world opportunity for students to exercise their research, analytical, international management, entrepreneurial, and cross-cultural management skills.

AWARD-WINNING CASE: Adjudged third-best case at the ISB Case Competition 2010 held in partnership with the Richard Ivey School of Business and the Association of Indian Management Schools and sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.<br><br>ABC Energy Limited (ABCEL) was created in March 2007 by ABC Infra Private Limited and XYG Private Limited. In September 2007, MNP Finance Limited joined ABCEL as an equity partner. In 2010, ABCEL operated in power generation and had plans to diversify into transmission and distribution. It aspired to be a world-class energy company with operations in India and neighbouring countries. ABCEL had grown by investing in greenfield projects and acquiring existing operations. The promoters of ABCEL had set a target of achieving a project portfolio of 30,000 megawatts by 2015, up from the current portfolio of 8,655 megawatts. The chief executive officer of ABCEL wanted to discuss the following issues at the board meeting on July 31, 2010, with regard to the opportunities and challenges in the growing market: 1) the key organizational needs that ABCEL might have in achieving its target by 2015, 2) the present culture of ABCEL, 3) the relationship between the culture and extent of formalization and hence the ramp-up of formalization that ABCEL might require, and 4) the method of introducing this formalization.

Risking becoming the target of a hostile takeover or being cornered as a small regional player in the global beer industry, the Danish brewery Carlsberg decided in the early 2000s to expand into rapidly growing emerging markets to pursue new arenas of growth. By 2008, this strategy had paid off, and Carlsberg was positioned among the five largest breweries in the world. In the Russian market — one of the fastest-growing markets in the world — Carlsberg had become the market leader. In China — the world’s largest beer market in terms of size and population — the company had achieved a 55 per cent market share in Western China, and operated 20 brewery plants with approximately 5,000 employees. The ambitious acquisition strategy applied in emerging markets had become essential to Carlsberg’s business in relation to future growth and profits. Accordingly, the case focuses on Carlsberg’s entry into China, which started as a commercial failure in the eastern part of the country, but subsequently developed successfully in the west.

A critical question for entrepreneurs starting a business, particularly in a foreign country, is choosing whether or not franchising is the appropriate mode of entry. Franchising offers the entrepreneur instant brand recognition, established business processes and supply chains, regulatory and tax guidance, and a ready supply of assistance in the early months. However, it deprives the entrepreneur of what many of them crave - the ability to create and grow a business from one’s imagination. The two entrepreneurs in this case had regular salaries, but wanted to try opening a coffee shop - or a chain of coffee shops - in South Korea, which already had many brands with multiple outlets.

This case describes AskTheDoctor.com, a web site that allows users to ask medical doctors questions for free, and the challenges facing its founders in 2010. While AskTheDoctor.com has exhibited steady growth since its inception in 2005, the owners are uncertain about the future of the site and where to take it next. One partner is keen on selling the company, while the other wants to develop a partnership with a technology firm. Students can evaluate these options from a variety of perspectives. The case also addresses the distinct differences between the actions underlying entrepreneurial discovery and entrepreneurial creation.

This case describes AskTheDoctor.com, a web site that allows users to ask medical doctors questions for free, and the challenges facing its founders in 2010. While AskTheDoctor.com has exhibited steady growth since its inception in 2005, the owners are uncertain about the future of the site and where to take it next. One partner is keen on selling the company, while the other wants to develop a partnership with a technology firm. Students can evaluate these options from a variety of perspectives. The case also addresses the distinct differences between the actions underlying entrepreneurial discovery and entrepreneurial creation.

This case describes the strategic internationalization options of a Taiwan-based digital music service provider, KKBOX.com. KKBOX was the first independent profitable digital music service provider in the world, with several factors having contributed to its profitability. While KKBOX looked for growth, service internationalization made it increase its involvement in international operations through adapting its strategy, resources, and structure. The CEO of KKBOX needed to decide between global growth through a content-based path, a technology platform path, or a new service path. Though there were good reasons to pursue each, it was vital to prioritize them to understand what was negotiable and what was core when going across borders to build a sustainable and strong KKBOX brand.

The development coordinator for Just Us! Development Education Society (JUDES) was reviewing the preliminary agenda for the JUDES Annual General Meeting (AGM). The meeting would take place some time between May 1 and May 14, 2010, during Canada’s National Fair Trade Weeks. The coordinator was preparing her to-do list for the event. Just Us!, a Nova Scotia-based cooperative that offered fair trade products, had a very loyal regional following, and the coordinator wanted to communicate how the premium paid for fair trade products actually helped producer communities. She was planning several events for the AGM, most importantly presentations and discussions of the Community-based Tourism (CBT) trip that JUDES personnel had taken to Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2009, and planned to take again in 2010. For the AGM presentation, she wanted to organize the trip guidelines and the budget information into a triple bottom line format.

Birzeit Pharmaceutical Company (BPC), established in 1974, had successfully completed a number of mergers and had overcome challenges and development phases in order to secure a strong position in its local market, Palestine, as well as introduce a wide range of products in the export market. BPC’s continuous success, despite political instability and continuous restrictions on its growth and expansion, led the company to focus beyond its local presence. Despite the growth of BPC and its financial solidity, it was very similar to other Arab businesses, which were reluctant to invest significantly and take big risks in growing outside their areas. BPC did not wish to risk large amounts of money, and instead chose to expand to new markets or introduce new niche products on a conservative basis. BPC invested in an Algerian packaging company in 2006 and aimed to meet its vision of growth by entering new markets and introducing new products. It wanted the packaging company to later grow to a manufacturing company, and accordingly to an export location. In a business environment that was characterized by quick decisions and high competition, the company needed to make faster decisions, invest more money, and choose a new path to secure its business development and growth. Competition in pharmaceutical manufacturing, especially among generics, was increasing greatly, and the faster BPC moved, the more competitive it would be.

A partner and owner of the Sunset Grill at Blue Mountain in the ski village at Blue Mountain, Ontario, had very mixed emotions. The restaurant had just finished its first year of operation and had broken even, and had been named as the Business of the Year in the counties of Simcoe and Grey. Yet the owner knew that operations were still far from perfect. Queues of waiting customers were very long, food orders were delivered slowly, and tensions were rising. What could be done to improve the situation?

The Canadian Pillsbury ready-baked goods cookie line is experiencing disappointing performance, and the marketing manager at General Mills Canada Corporation is under pressure to make strategic decisions that will help turn around the segment. The marketing manager has engaged the help of the consumer insight team to conduct market research studies that will shed light on consumers and their attitudes, behaviours, and preferences towards the product. The results from the market research studies have arrived, and the students, assuming the role of the marketing manager, must filter through them to determine how this information can be used to improve the performance of the cookie segment. More specifically, students will need to determine where the greatest opportunities lie, who the team should target, what brand messaging is the most relevant, and what type of communication plan would be most effective.

The chief executive officer of Maple Leaf Foods, Inc., a food processing company employing 23,000 people in more than 50 locations, has just been advised that a deadly outbreak of Listeriosis has been linked to products shipped from a Maple Leaf Foods plant and that there have been several fatalities and many more severe illnesses linked to this contamination. He must decide what to do immediately, within the next few days, and in the longer term to deal with the problem and the effect that the negative publicity will almost certainly have on the company.