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Dr. Jack Perry, a sole practitioner dentist in a small town in Ontario, had a meeting with one of his employees who suggested that there were several problems in the office. These include: low morale, lack of motivation to grow the business, fill cancellations, follow up on collections, and engage in cross-sell procedures. He had noticed these problems previously but felt unsure about his personnel and business management skills. Using his notes from a presentation made by a business consultant at a dental conference, he must decide how to act in order to address these problems.

In the fall of 2002, the directors of process engineering at Rogers Cable had discovered that a significant portion of Rogers Cable's installations and service activities had been followed by repeat visits within the following 30 days. This meant that services were not properly completed the first time. If high numbers of repeat and rework problems continued, customers would readily take their business elsewhere in the highly competitive environment. Eliminating repeat visits is the focus and driving force behind the First Time Right initiative, aimed to satisfy customers on the first try. The directors must devise an action plan that will motivate and retain behavioral change among field service technicians.

Dr. Nicholas Burns, a sole practitioner dentist in a small town in Ontario, is considering the purchase of a new dental laser which allows dentists to perform certain dental treatments without anesthesia. He wondered if the benefits of the new dental laser would justify the expenditure. Dr. Burns knew he should consider whether the technological advantage offered by the new dental laser would improve his office's profitability and the possibility that a different technology may become the standard in the industry.

The founder and president of I-Love-Stickers.com (ILS), a web-based sticker subscription service, was wondering how she could best continue to market the firm to increase subscriptions for all the sticker packs. Her final MBA exams, countless deadlines, the birth of her baby, and the June summer rush period for the business were all approaching rapidly. In addition to these concerns, she also planned to open a sushi restaurant in London later in the spring. She wanted to solidify her plan of action for ILS for the remainder of the year without delay.

Six Sigma has become a popular management philosophy adopted by several large companies including Maple Leaf Foods as a means of reducing waste systematically. The plant manager at the Rivermede plant is preparing for a meeting with the senior manager to discuss the new initiative Six Sigma @ the Edge. Based on the success of Six Sigma at this plant, it was chosen as a pilot for this new initiative. Students will develop a deeper understanding of Six Sigma and the challenges associated with embedding it in the organization.

Two property developers disagree over whether to go ahead immediately with a housing development on land which they have just jointly purchased, which has draft approval for one development plan, or to resubmit a new application for a possibly more controversial but more profitable alternative development plan. The new plan could result in some delay to the development.

The manager of Mobile Media for adidas International is debating what to do, given the sparse amount of traffic to date at the adidas FIFA World Cup mobile portal. By February, there had been only 3,000 visits to the mobile site, compared to the one million visits predicted earlier based on the previous success of a Lucas Films Star Wars mobile campaign. Given that the World Cup is a global event viewed by millions of people in person and more than one billion TV viewers worldwide, it represents a global stage for adidas to promote its brand and communicate its continued involvement and leadership in the sport of football. The manager of Mobile Media is worried that the brand's mobile efforts for this major event could fail miserably.

The principal of St. Clement's School was considering a potential expansion to the school's facilities. There were many issues for the principal to consider including how to fund the expansion, the impact on the school's programs, and the impact on the school of increased enrollments. Most importantly, she had to consider the impact of an expansion on the distinct culture of the school. This case is an introductory capital budgeting example set in a non-profit organization rich in context.

Anupam Majumdar, relationship manager, and Aditya Mehta, regional head of Hindustan Neon General Insurance Limited, India, were meeting an important client. Mehta asked Majumdar to serve them tea. This really embarrassed and infuriated Majumdar. It was not the first time that Mehta, Majumdar's boss, had treated him like a peon. Majumdar was about to take a three-week leave of absence to attend his brother's wedding in New York so he was not sure if this was the right time, if ever, to do anything about the situation.

Prashant Lakhera, senior analyst at Credit Rating Agency Limited (CRA), has been working with Deepak Ghosh, project manager of the Construction Development Board, on a report that needs to be submitted within the next few days. Because Ghosh had been acting inappropriately in front of clients, Lakhera and Gagan Vedi, the other analyst working on the report, was concerned about how this might damage the image of CRA. Shortly before the report was due, Lakhera asked Ghosh for his contribution to the report. Ghosh indicated that he did not care and he walked away from the team. Now Lakhera had to decide what to do about the urgent deadline for the report.

Disney began internationalizing its theme park operations with the opening of Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, which is regarded as one of the most successful amusement parks in the world. Disney attempted to replicate this success in France, which is the largest consumer of Disney products outside of the United States. In 1992, they opened Disneyland Resort Paris, which is largely regarded to be much less successful than the park in Japan. This case explores Disney's efforts to open its third park outside the United States; Hong Kong Disneyland. It begins by discussing the experience of Tokyo and Paris Disneylands, and then discusses the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, including the structure of the deal, and how the operations, human resources management and marketing were tailored to fit the Chinese cultural environment. The case also discusses the tourism industry in Hong Kong and the particular problems that were encountered during the first year of operations. The stage is set for students to discuss whether Disney's strategic assets have a good semantic fit with Chinese culture.

Zimmer Holdings, an orthopedic devices company in the United States, is suddenly faced with the prospect of its British competitor acquiring one of the Swiss companies, which would have been an ideal target for its own acquisition. With the announcement of the merger already in the news, Zimmer Holdings has a narrow time window to decide its response. Students are asked to take the position of an advisor to senior management and provide a recommendation to management on actions to pursue. The case provides an ideal platform to discuss global competition and the imperatives of a global marketplace, evaluation of a target and assessing the uncertainties in the process, discussing negotiating strategies and post-acquisition processes.

The founding executive director of the African Institute for Corporate Citizenship (AICC), felt very tense as he typed the last revisions to the speech he would be giving to a Llongwe merchants' association later in the week. He really enjoyed proudly describing his initiative, "Business Action Against Corruption", and the Business Code of Conduct for Combating Corruption in Malawi, to potential new partners. However, the founding executive director was beginning to feel concerned about its slow pace of adoption. He was particularly worried about how to manage the delicate relationship with the government.

An entrepreneur and chief executive officer (CEO) of Sensible Life Products has developed a revolutionary botanical disinfectant called Benefect, the flagship product of his company. This new product is unique among disinfectant products in that it is non-toxic, unlike the majority of conventional disinfectants containing harmful chemicals, such as ammonia, alcohol and chlorine. As a result of the unique properties of the product, the CEO has received numerous offers to purchase or license the technology and is faced with the decision regarding which offer, if any, he should accept. The purpose of this case is to expose students to entrepreneurial exit situations as well as social entrepreneurship issues associated with disruptive technologies. A follow-up supplemental case, Sensible Life Products (B), product #9B07M058, introduces a fifth opportunity to the students in the form of a joint venture with a major product development firm. The deal involves Sensible Life Products cooperating in further developing the Benefect product into a consumer focused hand sanitizer product.

Undergroundhiphop.com (UGHH) was the leading source of independent hip-hop on the Internet. Although company revenues remained small compared to major online music retailers, the opening of a storefront in 2005 helped create new opportunities within the music industry, but also proved to be a drain on company resources. As the founder tried to expand the company, he faced a number of choices. However, his conservative financial strategy was limiting the company's potential. UGHH desperately needed to hire programmers, designers and managers to keep up with new technological developments and social trends, such as music downloads, blogs and online social networking. Yet the cost of running a bricks and mortar retail store left little to invest in other areas of the business. The case provides a classic example of entrepreneurship that can be used in introductory and intermediate level entrepreneurship classes. It can be used as a platform to illustrate an entrepreneur who fails to make the transition to a manager. The discussion will provide an opportunity to introduce or review the concept of franchising.

The president of a metal products manufacturer and distributor is informed that the company controller is having an affair with another employee who is married to the general manager of production. The president is in the process of selling the company and wonders what affect the affair, if true, will have. Three short supplementary cases are also available: 9B07C021, 9B07C022 and 9B07C023.

This case examines the life, career and leadership style of John Meredith, the group managing director of Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH). Meredith established the company in 1972 based on his vision for more efficient global trade. Under his leadership, the company grew to become the world's largest container port operator. The company grew from owning and managing a single container port to owning and managing 45 container ports by May 2007. This case also examines the importance of leadership at all levels of organizations. When a company grows quickly and sets up operations around the world, it must constantly train new leaders. However, HPH had difficulty finding and training enough leaders who were willing to lead the company's new port operations in far-off destinations. The case examines HPH's actions thus far and asks what other measures may be appropriate in the future.

The operations manager at Halton Recycling was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the inefficiency caused by its three-streamed recycling system. City Hall aimed to increase the current 35 per cent waste diversion rate to the provincial goal of 60 per cent within three years. The operations manager wondered if the single-stream operation would contribute to a cost reduction and an efficiency improvement, providing the company with significant competitive advantages by the time of the contract renewal later that year.

The president and founder of a premier luxury car rental agency located throughout Europe must decide on the composition of the fleet of cars for the upcoming summer season. She has to balance a desire for high utilization versus the possibility of having to turn away clients if they request a car that is not in stock. The case can be used to introduce or reinforce a number of concepts including break-even analysis, basic descriptive statistics and the news vendor model.

KTM is a small motorcycle manufacturing company located in Austria. As a result of difficult economic conditions in 1999, KTM went private with the help of the venture capital firm BC European Capital (BC). Following a couple of years of strong growth, BC is looking to liquidate its position and move on. KTM is faced with the decision of determining the best means to repurchase BC's equity position in the firm and leave the firm with enough financial flexibility to continue to pursue its rapid expansion plans.