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The general manager at the Islington Golf Club (Islington) was facing a challenging context. This private equity club in the west end of Toronto, Ontario, had been in existence since 1923. Membership waiting lists had been the norm and the finances had been in good shape. However, the context was changing. The economy was working against the relatively high-cost and time-consuming game of golf. Green fee revenue was down and club food and beverage revenues were down. Capital to update the clubhouse and course was required. Older members had different ideas as to what the club should become than younger members. Competition was heating up with new clubs being built. Islington was being forced to ask some fundamental questions. What was the general manager to recommend to the member board to sustain the club into the future? The case can be used as a general management or general marketing case as it forces students to think through not just what the manager should do, but the process or framework(s) that would be helpful in getting to the decisions.

The franchise owner of a Marble Slab Creamery (Marble Slab) in Ontario must submit a grand opening proposal to franchise headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, in two weeks' time. This proposal is to include her chosen target market, the franchise location and decisions made regarding product variety and pricing. The franchise owner also has to decide how best to allocate her $10,000 promotional budget to gain exposure and bring customers into her store.

In April, 2009, the director of media strategy at henderson bas, a Toronto-based online advertising agency, was evaluating the current campaign for Primus Telecommunications (Primus). It had been two months since the Primus home phone bundle banner advertisement campaign had been launched, and initial results were not as expected. While there were a lot of visitors attracted to the Primus website, those visitors were not converted into paying customers at a high enough rate. This poor conversion rate had pushed the cost per acquisition of new Primus customers to uncomfortably high levels, threatening the campaign's future. By gathering form usage data from the website and subsequently implementing visitor-tracking software, the director focused her attention to analyze the results to determine why visitors to Primus' website were not converting into paying customers.

In late 2006, the four partners of Oncidium Business Consulting disagree on a number of questions, such as the firm's future direction, the responsibilities of each partner and how profits are to be divided. The A1 case, 9B09D015, takes the viewpoint of the founding partner and majority holder of the firm's shares. The A2 case, 9B09D016, looks at the situation from the position of one of the minority partners.

In late 2006, the four partners of Oncidium Business Consulting disagree on a number of questions, such as the firm's future direction, the responsibilities of each partner and how profits are to be divided. The A1 case, 9B09D015, takes the viewpoint of the founding partner and majority holder of the firm's shares. The A2 case, 9B09D016, looks at the situation from the position of one of the minority partners.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER -INFORMS Case and Teaching Materials Competition, 3rd place</strong></p><br>A freelance geologist was asked for advice regarding two mining claims to property on Sturgeon Lake, near Thunder Bay, Ontario. Specifically, he was asked if there was enough gold on the property to pursue an economically feasible mining opportunity. The geologist determined that an analytical approach would best aid the analysis of the multiple factors he would need to consider in arriving at a decision about whether or not to proceed with the mining operation. The first stage in ore extraction involved building an access road, and the second stage was to implement a drilling program. There was considerable uncertainty surrounding the costs and actual feasibility of completion of these stages; yet only when these stages were completed could actual mining of the property begin. If mining proceeded, it was assumed it would take 10 years to extract all the gold from the site, and the total amount of gold in the mine would be extracted at an even rate over the 10-year period. Mining costs were assumed to be $30 an ounce, and the geologist used a discount rate of 20 per cent before taxes when evaluating projects.

This case considers the process of organizational transformation undertaken by Partners Healthcare System (PHS) since the 1990s as their hospital and affiliated ambulatory medical practices have adopted both EMR and CPOE systems. Encompassing a strategic investment in information technologies, wide-spread process change, and the pervasive use of institutional clinical decision support and knowledge management systems, this story has been 15 years in the making, culminating in 2009 with the network-wide use of EMR and CPOE by all PHS doctors. These developments in turn opened the door to the redefinition of services delivery and to the replacement of established therapies through the leveraging of the knowledge residing in 4.6 million now-digitized PHS patient records. As such, the PHS experience serves as a window into how one organization strove to address the daunting challenges of 21st century health care services information management, as a template for success in the implementation of large-scale information systems among research-based hospitals across the United States, and more broadly as a learning platform for industry executives in their efforts to transform health care delivery through data and knowledge management.

The president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Holey Soles - a developer, manufacturer and distributor of injected-molded footwear - was optimistic and upbeat. Sales had grown at 300 per cent in each of the past two years, it ranked number four in a leading publication's 2006 Canada's Emerging Growth Companies, and the CEO herself was a finalist for the 2007 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Sustaining the momentum that had been building since the company had been bought in 2004 was proving to be a challenge. Fast growth was stretching the capabilities of Holey Soles in all areas: securing financing, sourcing, developing new markets, maintaining high quality, expanding the product portfolio and management talent. The CEO wondered what the available options, priorities and next steps would be to continue to build a strong foundation for growth, and to reach her aggressive target of $40 million in sales by 2009.

This case presents the management challenges of a high-growth manufacturing company based in India that is contemplating a major international acquisition. Its decision will involve both geographic and product diversification. Students have to grapple with the trade-offs of an exciting growth opportunity that can bring the company to new heights against significant risks and challenges that such an acquisition would entail. The case also provides an excellent context for studying the evolution of international strategy in a firm, as it shows Havells growing from an entrepreneurial start-up trading company to a successful manufacturing firm and then a global company.

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) is an innovator of strategic environmental management in the airline industry. Being a first-mover can have both its advantages and disadvantages. This case looks at the airline's decision of whether they should invest in the best available environmental technology for a fleet of new aircraft that would serve them for the next 25 years. While the technology for these low-emission engines had been around since the 1970s, it had never really been commercialized. SAS was feeling pressure from the regulatory authorities with regards to potential new charges and taxes that could affect the future operating costs of the fleet. Despite these anticipated future costs, at the time of the decision, the director of aircraft and engine analysis for SAS could not make an economic case for the more expensive engines. The challenge was for the fleet development team to try to convince the SAS management team to spend the extra kr5 million (Swedish Kronor) per aircraft for the dual combustor engine. Given that corporations are faced with increasing pressure with regards to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, this case study presents an opportunity for discussion and analysis of various environmental concepts including strategic environmental management, adoption of best available environmental technologies, the role of internal environmental leadership in a large corporation and the effect of market-based mechanisms to improve a sector's environmental performance. The case illustrates the complexities of environmental decisions in striking a balance between meeting ambitious commitments and dealing with real capabilities of companies and external pressures.

In early 2009, the executive director of the Habitat for Humanity London (HFHL), located in London, Ontario, was faced with the responsibility of determining how to increase revenue for the non-profit organization. The organization provided safe, decent and affordable housing to those in need, and the board of directors had pledged to build 12 units in 2012. Funding generally came from the organization's ReStore; however, revenues had begun to level off in the preceding years. The executive director was evaluating several options of generating additional revenue. After examining HFHL's statement of cash flows and 10 years of ReStore earnings, the executive director had identified three options to increase revenues: relocation of the ReStore to increase efficiencies and increase inventory; increasing their salvage operation; and/or launching an automobile sale program. Or was there a better way to generate revenue that she hadn't yet considered?

A retired scientist and her partner want to start a company near London, Ontario, specializing in training horses for dressage competitions. The partners must ascertain whether the $100,000 they plan to invest will be sufficient to cover cash requirements, or whether a loan is required. Neither partner has had any business training, and they are unsure how to prepare proper financial statements. The partners wondered whether any further information was needed and what steps they would take to start the venture.

Babeeze in Arms Doula Centre, a small London, Ontario-based business, offers services to women during pregnancy, labour and after childbirth. As a certified doula, the sole proprietor provides emotional and physical support to mother and complements the medical care provided by doctors and midwives. Along with two other doulas and an instructor, the proprietor offers labour services, postpartum services and childbirth education classes. She has a solid reputation in the community for providing excellent care. The proprietor is heavily involved as an active doula, but she would like to step back from practice to focus on improving community awareness of doulas and advocating for more options and better care for mothers and babies. She is interested in opening a private birth centre, which would be an alternative venue for women to give birth and a new facility from which to offer Babeeze's services and classes.

The general manager of a not-for-profit Ultimate Frisbee club seeks a marketing strategy to increase membership. For-profit clubs had claimed an ever-growing portion of the market, and the general manager has been asked to review current offerings in the marketplace and to develop a formal marketing plan that would ensure the club's viability in the coming years.

Due to continued budget shortfalls the project manager for the Spinal Cord Rehabilitation Program at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute needed to provide proposals for immediate cost-saving measures. One of these measures included how to schedule the nursing staff. The problem involved meeting certain occupancy target levels while ensuring a minimum number and correct mix of available nurses.

The newly appointed chair of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology (department) at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry was thinking about how she would approach the next five years in her new role. The chair thought about two of the important issues she would face: building a cohesive department and nurturing a high performance culture. She became chair at a time when direction was needed. The department had formed in June 2002 as a result of the merger between the Department of Physiology and the small Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology. While the merger had gone well, the chair still sensed that some faculty members in Pharmacology felt as if their department had been taken over by Physiology. At present, it was sometimes difficult to assess performance between faculty members due to differences in workload composition and a lack of documentation. The current thinking was that the department had to move towards adopting best practices in their processes. The chair wanted to look at the issue from a broader perspective. She wondered how the issue could be best framed and what a potential solution might look like.

In the decade that the chairman, president and chief operating officer of Linens 'N Things (LNT) had been leading the firm, there had been significant changes to the industry. Specifically, its main competitor was experiencing higher sales and profits with the result of increased market share. External advice was sought to identify strategies available to LNT to catch up to its competitor and a successful Guest Oriented, Locally-Driven (GOLD) pilot was launched. Due to dwindling interests and internal resistance to the initiative, however, the chairman was left to decide what to do with the roll-out. He had several options to consider: Should he maintain the current pilot, or simply shut it down? Could it be changed or altered to encourage participation? Should it be district-specific? Or perhaps issuing an executive mandate would generate involvement. The chairman knew any decision would have to consider these and other cultural and strategic issues.

A young entrepreneur with a passion for filmmaking moved to Los Angeles and set up his own film production. The film, entitled Movin 'In, had many of the ingredients of a successful motion picture. It had an international cast, talented and well-known stars, top rate production value, and a likeable story. However, he soon learned that these were not the only factors required for a successful movie. After years of hard work and an investment of nearly $1 million, the entrepreneur could not find anyone to distribute his film. At the time of the case, it was difficult to get distribution because there were more films on the market than ever before. Historically, it took more effort to make an independent film, and distribution was easier to secure. When the digital revolution began, the market was flooded with more independent films than distributors could handle. By 2001, independent films were a commodity and DVD distribution deals were plentiful, but theatrical distribution was almost impossible to get because there were more independent films than screens to put them on. The case considers the many challenges faced by all entrepreneurs, such as leadership, management and personality conflicts, as well as those unique to the film industry.

In September 2007, the marketing manager for London Life Insurance Company's (London Life) Freedom Funds was preoccupied by thoughts of his upcoming meeting with London Life's vice-president of Marketing, Individual Retirement and Investment Services. The vice-president was concerned with the past summer's appreciation of the Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar. Since March of 2007, the Canadian dollar had appreciated over 10 per cent against its U.S. counterpart with the result of eroding returns on London Life's U.S. funds. The marketing manager had been asked to research the drivers behind the sudden change in currency and whether it was a sustainable trend; if so, he was to advise the steps London Life should take to protect its investment returns on its U.S. funds. Complicating the analysis was the knowledge that his advice needed to incorporate and respect London Life's investment philosophies, be easily understood by its almost 3,000 financial advisors and their clients, and acknowledge the complexities surrounding the implementation of currency-hedging strategies.

The founder of Trichromatic West Inc. (TCW) has decided that he would like to explore the possibility of selling the business he has spent the last 20 years building. The founder has asked a group of students from the Richard Ivey School of Business to help establish a benchmark valuation for TCW against which future offers can be evaluated. In addition, the founder is interested in the team's recommendation for positioning TCW for a potential sale.