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The human resources manager of the Toronto office of RSM Richter LLP, reflected upon the company's efforts and outcomes in relation to recruiting junior accountants from the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario. Although Richter had similar salary and benefits to those of the Big Four accounting firms, it offered a unique environment in which employees were able to get to know one another personally and junior accountants were likely to become exposed to different aspects of auditing that they would not encounter in larger firms. Yet, Ivey students seemed more likely to accept offers from one of the Big Four. The human resources manager considered various alternatives.

The owner and founder of Boman Communications, was proud of the company's business concept which utilized technology to allow flexibility and efficiency in the production of marketing materials. However, despite this strategic advantage, the company had been unable to attract more than one large client. More importantly, recent events had led the owner to believe that many of his own employees did not understand the company's business concept. If they did not understand the company's business concept, how could they sell it to customers? Bowman knew he had to address these issues soon but was unsure how to do so.

The co-founder of NEWAD, a media company, is considering expanding his scope of operations from washroom advertising to include distributing free postcards. On one hand, offering an extra advertising vehicle to his clients would boost his topline results and would match the postcard offering planned by his larger competitor. On the other hand, launching a new line of business could distract his small firm from pursuing growth in its core business; procuring advertising sites and selling advertising space on washroom ads to advertisers.

The owner of Arrow Printing and Publishing, and his accountant were reviewing the company's fiscal performance. After nearly 45 years in the printing industry and with an increasing interest in other fields, such as municipal politics, the owner was considering if the time had come to leave printing and move on to new challenges. The options included keeping Arrow Printing and expanding into a potentially lucrative market or selling the business and move on.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Best Case Award at the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) Case Competition</strong></p><br>In 2002, both the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic faced financial crises that threatened their existence. Both organizations provided similar programming, had approximately the same revenues and were well rooted in their communities, which were of similar populations. However, the turnaround approaches taken by the boards of the two organizations were starkly different. The Calgary Philharmonic sought bankruptcy protection, dismissed the CEO, hired consultants, sought emergency funding from government, and suspended operations for four months during a restructuring period. In the end, it emerged successfully from bankruptcy. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra scraped through the crisis, continuing to pay its musicians for ongoing performances, while negotiating new contracts, retaining its CEO, and not soliciting emergency funding from the government. Three years after the crisis both organizations were flourishing, with new music directors, balanced budgets and growing endowment funds. This is a descriptive case that outlines the stories of the two orchestras and their turnarounds. The case is powerful because it allows students to clearly contrast the two organizational turnaround approaches and to draw conclusions on their respective strengths and weaknesses.

Ocean Park was the only amusement park in Hong Kong until 2005 when Hong Kong Disney exploded onto the entertainment scene. This case outlines Ocean Park's history and its response to Disney's encroachment into its market. Ocean Park acted swiftly and decisively to capitalize on the excitement generated by Disney, thus turning what could have been a threat into an opportunity. In terms of business-level strategy, the park moved to accentuate the differences with Disney rather than compete with Disney head-on. As the CEO stated We have no intention of trying to out-Disney Disney. The park focused on its aquarium, animals and thrill-rides as opposed to the fantasy and animated characters that make up Disney's core competence. By following such a strategy, the park was able to capture a large portion of Disney visitors that came from Mainland China. The case also discusses a recent restructuring, as well as, human resources management issues and other challenges that the park faced in 2006.

Eat2Eat.com was an Internet-based restaurant reservation service covering a dozen cities in the Asia Pacific region. It was the principal business of Singapore-based Eat2Eat Pte Ltd. It was launched in 2000 by an entrepreneur and former investment banker with US$1 million of his own capital. He quickly established the capabilities and business model, but after five years, the registered user base remained relatively small at about 12,000. He thought the next step for the company was to expand that user base and hoped that the company could change the way people made plans to eat out. Resources - specifically, time and money - were limited, so any promotional efforts would have to be innovative and efficient. The case focuses on entrepreneurial marketing with sub-themes of financing and small enterprise management. It is a story of an entrepreneur who had an idea and enough money to launch it, but then struggles to achieve adequate scale.

Lulu.com is an e-commerce company that distributes content for book authors, video producers, calendar designers and other intellectual property creators that can be captured in digital formats. At this time, Lulu.com has developed a successful niche market in print-on-demand books within the United States. However, the vision of its founder is much larger. The president is faced with the strategic dilemma of whether to expand Lulu.com's product offerings or to focus on internal operations for the next six to 12 months.

The newly promoted inventory manager wonders if there is an easier, more reliable means of forecasting the sales demand. Currently forecasts are based on the plant manager, sales/marketing manager and inventory manager's knowledge of industry trends, competitive strategies and sales history. He must decide if using statistical forecasting methods would ease the forecasting process and make the forecast more reliable. Students are exposed to different forecasting techniques, including executive opinion, linear regression and time series. The data characteristics include seasonality, trend and random fluctuations.

The managing director of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) must oversee the most significant transformation in the company's 29-year history, from a lumbering bureaucracy-laden state enterprise to the most technologically sophisticated oil marketing company in Pakistan. The company had recently embarked on a New Vision marketing program, which included loyalty cards, a 24 hour toll-free customer relations line, and renovated state-of-the-art service stations replete with convenience stores and Internet kiosks. However, at the time of the case, only about one in four service stations had been renovated under the New Vision program. A more recent proposal involved automating the company's retail outlets by linking online tracking of fuel deliveries to retail outlets, where specially designed sensors could monitor gasoline inventory and automatically place orders when stocks were low. Retail automation would allow PSO to know its exact inventory at any given time and thereby more efficiently manage its supply chain and logistics. To keep capital expenditure costs within limits, the managing director must decide whether or not to invest in retail automation or expand the company's New Vision program. At the same time, deregulation of Pakistan's oil industry was expected to result in increased levels of competition.

The Festival by the Sea (FBTS) has been successful by all accounts except financially. As the General Manager reviews the recent performance of the festival, she also noted several challenges lied ahead. The events industry needs better educated professionals, ethical issues need to be addressed, temporary employees and volunteers need to be successfully hired and retained, and sponsors need to be attracted in order to cover the costs of the New Brunswick festival. The General Manager must determine how to ensure the viability of the FBTS.

The chief executive officer of Calgary-based Guest-Tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd., a leading provider of high-speed Internet access to the hotel industry, must consider whether and how his company should grow its business overseas. Ninety-seven per cent of Guest-Tek's fiscal year 2003 revenue was derived from North American hotels - a market he knew would eventually become saturated. Guest-Tek had listed publicly in January 2004. Both internal and external investors now demanded results. Other geographic markets held the promise of new growth and competitors were already pursuing those opportunities.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Corporate Social Responsibility Award, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>In early 2005, Nestle is in the midst of a decision: whether or not the Fairtrade mark should be applied on Partners' Blend, a new instant coffee product to be marketed in the growing UK 'ethical' coffee segment. Application of the Fairtrade mark on the Partners Blend product means that Nestle must go against its historical position of not offering minimum guaranteed prices to coffee farmers. As part of their deliberations, Nestle executives must consider their coffee sourcing program at large, their corporate social responsibility framework, Nescafe and corporate Nestle branding, the UK market and the potential consumer benefits or backlash that could result from releasing such a product.

The vice-president of operations must submit a valuation and recommendation to expand his plant to handle a doubling of sales over the next three years. Students will have to understand the process review for capital allocation in this large corporation in order to make their recommendation, as well as complete a discounted cash flow.

The owner of a restaurant serving Middle Eastern cuisine realizes the need for a bigger location due to extreme customer congestion. He is contemplating moving the restaurant to a new location that would require $255,000 of renovations in order to keep pace with his growing consumer base. Students are asked to: 1) identify those items relevant to the decision and categorize them as either recurring or one-time flows; 2) understand that recurring flows consist of both fixed and variable costs; 3) identify investments, including working capital accounts; 4) calculate return on investment and 5) make a decision based on both qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Asian Paints, recognized as one of the best managed companies in India, has recently embarked on a significant push to internationalize its activities. The president of the international division is faced with the challenge of simultaneously meeting sales volumes expected, and to contribute to the company's goal of becoming one of the top five decorative paint companies in the world.

The founder of Skadurz Pro, a skateboard, snowboard and clothing store has a tough decision to make regarding the future of his business and its two retail stores. His mother is ready to retire from her position as his business partner, and a large national competitor is about to open a franchise in direct competition with one of his outlets. It appears that the new competition will have severe impact on the company, and he must decide how he will face the challenge. Should he turn his attention to other ventures that spur his imagination, or try to maintain the unique position his business has carved for itself.

An entrepreneur must decide if he should bid to acquire a commercial bakery, Cake Masters, given his objectives in his search and his investors' expected returns of 20-30 per cent. If he bids, he must decide how much to bid and in what form of consideration. Students are introduced to valuation methodologies and will evaluate an acquisition or opportunity, understand the process of acquiring a small company, learn how preceding transactions are considered and learn about discounted cash flow analysis.

The owner and sole proprietor of a small clothing company has to plan a future marketing strategy. The company has not yet generated a profit from the seasonal store operation in Sauble Beach or from annual sales in two London, Ontario fitness clubs. This case will expose students to major marketing decisions involving product, price, promotion and place (distribution). It will also emphasize the importance of a thorough market analysis and corporate capabilities analysis before evaluating marketing alternatives and making decision. The case gives students practice calculating contribution and contribution margin rates and encourages students to develop a promotional strategy around a new method of distribution. Students also learn how to illustrate the use of a projected income statement, which will crystallize the student's marketing decisions.

Activplant is a software firm specializing in monitoring, measuring and analysing the performance of factory automation systems in London, Ontario, Canada. It is a pioneer of the industry, and has installations in most of the largest automobile manufacturing firms in North America as well as some clients in consumer goods. Activplant is considering the opportunity of expanding their business to include a much more aggressive sales and service approach in Europe. An entrance into Europe involves how both sales and service will be delivered to clients, which could be done through a number of different channels including: consulting partners, value-added resellers, a joint venture or fulltime Activplant staff. The case allows students to evaluate both the dollar costs and benefits of each choice as well as qualitative concerns like product quality and maintaining contact with customers.