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In 2022, Mazatlán was enjoying a reputation as a popular seaside town on the Mexican Pacific Coast, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa. Protected by a bay and three islands, it offered sandy beaches and favourable weather year-round, making it an attractive destination for Mexican, American, and Canadian vacationers. It was a popular stop for Pacific Ocean cruises, where tourists could enjoy beaches, sunshine, Mexican cuisine and culture, and various sporting activities including baseball, marathons, triathlons, sport fishing, and soccer. However, Mazatlán’s image was being tainted by unfavourable events, which presented unique challenges for the city’s marketers and threatened to endanger the city’s highly successful tourism industry. Mazatlán’s tourism authorities were wondering how to keep the city’s tourism brand and image strong, despite these new and significant challenges.

Nord Stream 2 was an offshore pipeline project of the Russian energy company Gazprom to transport natural gas to Europe. The US government was skeptical about this project as it believed that Russia would use the pipeline to increase its influence in Europe. The Russian annexation of Crimea and reported Russian support to the secessionist groups in Eastern Ukraine further complicated the situation. The events in Ukraine resulted in the United States and European Union imposing economic sanctions on the Russian government, institutions, and specific individuals. The pipeline construction was completed amid continued hostilities, repeatedly imposed sanctions, and political transitions in the US and Germany.<br><br>Nord Stream 2 AG, the Swiss-based subsidiary of Gazprom which was created to operate the pipeline, applied to the German national energy regulator for pipeline certification but was refused until Gazprom created a German subsidiary to operate the pipeline. Such a condition would require Gazprom to dilute its stake and control over its critical asset; however, not meeting the regulator’s conditions would ensure that the pipeline remained inoperative and that the company’s US$11 billion investment to complete the project would be held up until Gazprom could mount a legal, diplomatic, and geopolitical campaign to overturn the regulator’s decision.

Founded in 2017, the canned-water company Liquid Death had raised about US$125 million in venture capital funding and created a strong following within the punk and heavy metal communities. However, the brand was seeking to expand and needed to choose the best growth strategy, which involved deciding which customers to target, whether to develop new products or line extensions, how to continue to use promotions and communications to defend the brand’s “cool” and eco-friendly image while appealing to a broader range of consumers, and how to stave off competitive threats.

The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) was facing a proxy attack from Trian Fund Management, L.P. (Trian) after Trian declared a US$3.5 billion position in P&G, equivalent to a 1.5 per cent shareholding, in February 2017. The fund manager called for a reorganization of the company to improve its performance and for a seat on P&G’s board of directors for Trian’s co-founder Nelson Peltz. Over the next few months, both parties discussed Trian’s proposals, but the negotiations broke down in July 2017, and the conflict became public. Trian announced it would put its demands to a vote during the annual shareholder meeting in October. A month before the meeting, P&G CEO David Taylor had to make a recommendation to the board: should the company accept or rebuff Trian’s attempt at gaining influence?

In 2021, Rogers Communications Inc. (Rogers), one of the largest telecommunications companies in Canada, suffered a leadership crisis amid conflict between members of the Rogers family controlling the company. A decision by board chair Edward Rogers to oust chief executive officer Joe Natale triggered a chain of events that pitted Edward Rogers against his mother and two sisters (all board members). The company’s complex governance model, which consisted of a dual-class share structure and the Rogers Control Trust representing the majority shareholders on the company’s board, made it unclear who had effective decision-making power. In the light of this uncertainty, investors owning Rogers Class B non-voting shares had to decide whether to hold on to, sell, or purchase more shares.

Major League Baseball (MLB) had been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With a shortened season without fans in attendance, revenue-generating opportunities decreased dramatically from previous years. This case examines issues that MLB teams dealt with during the 2020 season, including the loss of revenue during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. How would MLB move forward into the 2021 season, having lost a significant amount of money in the previous year? How should its teams invest their resources to maximize earning potential—despite the ongoing pandemic—for this upcoming season and possibly years to come?

ARK Investment Management LLC (ARK)’s Next Generation Internet ETF (exchange traded fund) accumulated over 5 per cent of the outstanding shares of DraftKings Inc. (DraftKings), which held 24 per cent of the emerging US online sports betting market. Following the legalization of sports betting in May 2018, DraftKings faced escalating competition as competitors spent heavily on advertising and promotions to attract customers. This spending led to increasing quarterly operating losses, and DraftKings’ stock fell about 75 per cent below its fifty-two-week high. ARK needed to re-evaluate its investment to understand whether the stock market’s recent revaluation was a warning sign regarding DraftKings’ ability to weather the competition or just a new opportunity to buy more of an undervalued stock.

London Hydro, Inc. (London Hydro) must forecast the electricity demand of the firm’s clients. The Ontario Energy Board had just announced the results of a pilot program to introduce a new pricing scheme to residential energy consumers in Ontario. This was the origin of tiered pricing, which was based on overall monthly energy usage. In the past, consumers had all been on a time-of-use plan where energy was more expensive during peak hours and cheaper in lower-demand hours. Thus, London Hydro had to anticipate the potential change in client behaviour and predict the effects of the pricing shift.Using data it had gathered on individual household energy consumption, London Hydro hoped that by forecasting which consumers might shift to the new tiered pricing plan it could gain key insights that would help the firm understand what effects the plan might have on its revenues and on its clients’ consumption behaviours.

In February 2022, an indigenous studies professor was considering applying for a position on Roche Canada’s Soaring with Roche program’s advisory Board. The program was looking for an individual to represent Canada’s indigenous population, as it pursued an open innovation strategy within Canada. In considering her decision, the professor examines the pharmaceutical industry as whole (and within Canada), the pros and cons of open innovation, and the fit between her, an open innovation program, and Roche Canada.

After a year filled with the highs of entrepreneurial success and the lows of personal hardships, Whitney Wolfe was considering starting a new venture—a social media platform aimed at creating positivity for women online. Wolfe was meeting with Andrey Andreev, the founder of Badoo, one of the world’s most popular dating services, to discuss her new venture idea. However, Andreev was disinterested in starting a social media platform and dismissed her new venture idea. But he had wanted to work with Wolfe for some time, so he instead suggested starting a new online dating service focused on women. Wolfe had to make a decision. Should she turn down Andreev’s suggestion and start her own business, or should she pursue his idea of creating a new online dating service focused on the needs of women? If so, how should this new service differ from the numerous current products flooding the market?

By October 2021, the US social media giant Facebook Inc. had been dominating the social media market globally with the highest number of active users. It owned four of the biggest social media platforms—Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. However, the company’s history was marked by controversies ranging from ethical matters to social issues. The various crises it had faced to date included thousands of internal documents leaked by whistle-blower Frances Haugen, public criticism by former director Tim Kandell, and data breaches by Cambridge Analytica. These crises were symbolic of the anguish that various stakeholders were feeling. In the aftermath of these events, Facebook Inc. had to contemplate various key questions. Were the controversies destructive to the company, or were they adding value to its growth? Had the company taken the right actions to address its issues, or could it do more to make amends? How could the company prevent the recurrence of such situations in the future?

On March 26, 2020, Singapore Airlines was reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. To raise badly needed capital, it announced that its shareholders would be offered S$5.3 billion worth of rights shares and S$3.5 billion of rights mandatory convertible bonds, both of which would be reflected as equity on its balance sheet. Should shareholders take advantage of this offer or not? To make this decision, investors had to analyze the airline’s reasons for choosing this form of equity financing, the impact of this capital-raising exercise, Singapore Airline’s valuation, and the role of sovereign wealth funds in equity financing. Investors would have to decide the appropriate response to the rights issuances.

USV Private Limited (USV), an Indian pharmaceutical company, launched three comparative advertising campaigns for its Sebamed cleansing bar in January 2021, targeting the soap bars of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) based on the bars’ pH values. Without delay, HUL filed a lawsuit against USV on grounds of disparaging its brands, infringing upon its trademarks, and misleading of consumers. The Bombay High Court restrained USV from continuing with the campaigns, but later vacated that order and delivered another order that permitted USV to continue with one of the three campaigns, directed modifications for the other two, and restrained the company from categorizing soaps as “safe” and “not safe” based on their pH values. HUL eventually began a campaign to refute the pH rationale used in USV’s advertisements. USV now had questions to consider: Would consumers buy its Sebamed cleansing bar for the bar’s “ideal” pH level as communicated in the ads, or was it time to change its advertising strategy?

In May, 2020, Rio Tinto PLC, a global mining company, blasted a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site in the Juukan Gorge, an area in Western Australia. While Rio Tinto’s actions were legal, the company was nonetheless widely criticized for its blasting of the sacred site, which contained remains and artefacts dating back tens of thousands of years. Furthermore, investigations revealed that Rio Tinto had knowledge of the sacred nature of the site. Internal investigations also revealed that the company had earmarked the site as being important to the Aboriginal peoples. The reaction to the blast was swift and unforgiving.

Doodlage Retail LLP (Doodlage), a sustainable fashion brand based in India, was based on an idea that had come to the co-founder while she was interning with export houses. There, she witnessed large-scale discarding of fabric waste, which found its way to landfills and became a major source of pollution. Doodlage utilized the practices of circularity—repairing, reusing, refurbishing, and recycling—to transform industrial waste into women’s apparel. With time, the company came to collaborate with numerous players and extended into categories like home furnishings, accessories, and men’s apparel. Relying primarily on social media and e-commerce sites to market its wares, Doodlage slowly built a niche for itself. After nearly a decade, awareness of sustainable fashion, ethical fashion, and slow fashion had risen, and a number of competitors had emerged, heating up the competitive landscape. Doodlage thus faced multiple future challenges and needed to decide whether to continue to focus on the niche it had created for itself or to go mainstream. What was the optimal way forward?

Vimeo, Inc. (Vimeo), led by Anjali Sud, was a New York City-based listed company that operated across the entirety of the video creation and distribution value chain. When the company was spun off from its corporate parent in a May 2021 initial public offering, Vimeo was growing but not yet profitable. As the country and the world was recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, Vimeo and a fast-growing set of competitors were facing the end of a nearly two-year tailwind that had helped them grow very quickly. Sud and her team had to respond to growth and profitability challenges to help Vimeo maintain its industry leadership position.

On December 29, 2021, the independent shareholder advisory firm InGovern Research Services (InGovern) published a report accusing Asian Paints Limited (APL) of corporate governance lapses. Nearly 53 per cent of the shares of APL, which was based in Mumbai, India, were owned by its promoters and their families. InGovern had followed up on a whistle-blower’s report claiming that APL had engaged in several related-party transactions but had failed to adequately disclose them in its annual report. InGovern demanded large-scale changes in APL’s board of directors, and APL’s share price fell by approximately fourteen per cent after the charges were made public. The seven independent members on the company’s board had to respond to the accusations.

Intolerance and discrimination against LGBTQ+ identifying individuals are widespread in the workplace and in academic institutions. This case explores the consequences of intolerance and offers participants an opportunity to consider and practice how individuals can use inclusive language and mindful communication strategies to deal with episodes of intolerance. Learning how to break the silence when faced with taboo or challenging topics enables people to understand other individuals’ perspectives and draw them into a shared conversation, thereby fostering understanding. <br><br>The case focuses on the prevalence of common types of microaggressions and discrimination in the workplace and in academic institutions and enables participants to consider and role-play multiple mini cases connected to queer and trans experiences based on real-life events.

In late 2019, LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE (LVMH) , a luxury goods empire, made an aggressive bid to acquire Tiffany & Co. (Tiffany), in an attempt to expand LVMH’s product portfolio and customer base. This move was consistent with the specialty of LVMH's chief executive officer—making hostile acquisition offers. The chief executive officer of Tiffany needed to consider whether the acquisition was in the best interest of Tiffany's existing shareholders and whether the terms of the current offer maximized the value of Tiffany.

Jeff Henry, owner of and creative visionary behind Schlitterbahn Waterparks & Resorts, created one of the most sought-after water park companies in the United States. He was confident in his ability to create the best attractions and dominate the industry with his unique inventions. Then, at his facility in Kansas City, Kansas, a fatal accident took place after the construction and design of the Verrückt, a waterslide Henry hoped would set new world records. How should Henry have responded to the tragedy?