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An entrepreneur has received additional information on the Cartridge World franchising concept - a store focused on the refilling of printer cartridges. The idea for Cartridge World began in Australia in 1988 and has grown to almost 200 locations in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The entrepreneur must look at the market opportunity in Canada and decide whether he should apply for the country's master franchise, a single franchise, or abandon the concept altogether. Students will evaluate a franchise concept based on market opportunity and the franchise contract.

Set in November 2005, the case examines a company that has been extremely successful in several product categories in its own domestic market and is defending its market position against intense competition from powerful multinational corporations, emerging domestic rivals and newer low-cost alternatives. The multinational corporations include some of the world's most sophisticated marketing companies. The case may be used independently or with the supplement Splash Corporation (B): International Expansion, product 9B06A015.

For many years two entrepreneurs have run a successful chefs school in combination with Ontario's apprenticeship program, their two private restaurants and the support of a few generous patrons. However, as they approached eventual retirement, they had no successors in sight and no teaching building apart from their restaurants. A professional fund-raising firm said that the various interested parties might raise $600,000 to help fund a teaching building but the total need of $2 million would be out of reach. The entrepreneurs were looking for a marketing and fund raising campaign to raise $2 million.

The owner/operator of a tanning salon is reviewing recommendations from a tanning distribution consultant regarding the business he had recently purchased. The owner knew that the salon needed improvements when he purchased it, but he was unsure how he wanted to proceed in doing so. The tanning consultant had presented the owner with a number of options. The owner must decide if he wants to simply upgrade the current tanning equipment or purchase new units. Students will be introduced to operational issues in service business, and will understand the importance of considering customer needs when purchasing new equipment in a service business. They will also perform a trade-off analysis based on qualitative and quantitive factors.

Managers at Norway's Hydro are wondering whether or not an economically viable business case can be made to commercialize a wind-hydrogen solution. The company has successfully installed a wind-hydrogen renewable energy system as a research and development project on the 200 person remote island of Utsira. Now, they are considering two early markets to which to sell the idea: remote island communities or grid power balancing for grid operators with high reliance on wind power. Students will be introduced to current trends in renewable energy and will look at the threats and opportunities and business drivers in launching a new project. Students will analyse the priorities of the company by looking at economic, social and environmental objectives.

Theatre Calgary was a non-profit performing arts organization in Calgary, Canada. In its 2002/03 season, it faced a financial crisis that nearly ended in bankruptcy. It survived the crisis and made many changes to its budgeting and control systems to solve some of the deficiencies that had led to the financial difficulties. As the president prepares for a board meeting, the board of directors want to know if the current budgeting and control systems will ensure long-term stability. This case details Theatre Calgary's budgeting system and paints an accurate picture of the organization, and provides students the opportunity to recommend changes to control systems.

St. Michael's Hospital examines the merger of two hospitals, their medical staff and more importantly the merger of the boards of directors of the former Wellesley Hospital (a secular hospital) with St. Michael's Hospital (a religious hospital owned by the Sisters of St. Joseph). Key integration questions include: the purpose of board member selection, accountability, responsiveness to competing stakeholder groups and leadership.

Alberta Theatre Projects (ATP) was a performing arts non-profit organization. It enjoyed a strong brand recognition as a socially liberal organization in a community with strong conservative values. With funding from the Alberta Performing Arts Stabilization Fund, ATP had paid down its accumulated deficit and expected to emerge from debt in 1999. However, in the 1998/99 season it lost over $400,000. By later 1999, ATP's accumulated deficit reached $600,000, including $300,000 owed to Canada's tax collection authority, Revenue Canada. Cash flow statements showed that ATP would be bankrupt by the spring of 2000 unless it could raise $1 million. There were concerns that ATP may not even meet its payroll obligations in the meantime.

A social entrepreneur undertakes to launch a bank with charitable status itself that could provide financial services to up to 161,000 charities. He has quietly arranged support from major for-profit banks and government officials. The day before his press conference to tell all stakeholders about this new bank, he is still struggling with the key words to describe the bank so that it conveys it purposes, but offends as few stakeholders as possible. Students must evaluate his proposed three key words and propose other descriptors.

A real estate appraiser has been hired to provide an alternate assessment on a set of office buildings in London, Ontario. Real estate assessments are often based on comparisons versus similar properties. However, because the set of comparison properties is small he cannot rely on standard quantitative techniques like linear regression. Instead he uses a technique called quality point in which the property valuation problem can be formulated as a quadratic program.

Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) is beginning to disrupt plain old telephone service (POTS). Ron Close has been offered the job of heading Bell Canada's nascent VoIP business. Bell is Canada's largest telco and supplier of POTS. The case provides a platform for discussing a disruptive innovation (VoIP) and its implications for an incumbent player. Ron Close explains how Bell addressed the technology challenge, and its managerial and organizational consequences in an available video, product 7B06M009.

The senior vice-president for corporate development for Charles River Laboratories must prepare a presentation to the company's board of directors requesting up to a $2 million investment in a Mexican joint venture with a family-owned animal health company. However, the chief executive officer views the proposed joint venture as a potential distraction while his company continues to expand rapidly in the United States. He is also worried about the risks of investing in a country like Mexico and the plan to partner with a small, family-owned company. Moreover, the Mexican partner is unable to invest any cash in the joint venture, which would need to be fully funded by Charles River Laboratories. The supplement Alpes S.A.: A Joint Venture Proposal (B) looks at what happened.

The national manager for technical training at Mercedes-Benz USA, is considering using streaming media and distance learning as a supplement to class-room based education, but is concerned that this innovative and risky IT investment could have a negative affect on the company's quality reputation. He needs to evaluate the viability of the e-learning option, including selecting between two vendors, Microsoft and Real Networks. This case provides students with an opportunity to develop a methodology based on capital budgeting analysis for evaluating and executing IT investments. The case is particularly valuable for helping students to consider the risks related to the execution of IT investments, even when an investment has a high ROI. Supplement material, Implications of Streaming Media: A Technical Note, product 9B06E002 is available.

The chief executive officer of Western Union had just begun implementing a new organization structure. Changing the structure set out a clear message of Gold's desire to change the company's mindset to a new more global culture. Already the CEO was finding that leaders in the United States were reluctant to give up control of product lines. At the regional level, she had keen leaders in place who wanted to push out the responsibility within their own regions and move towards a decentralized plan. While the CEO supported this notion in principle, she wanted to ensure that the right leaders could be placed in decentralized offices in order to execute on the six strategic pillars that she had laid out for the organization. One thing was certain - the CEO had made it clear that no revenue decreases would be forgiven amidst the change. Many considerations had arisen: What pace of change should she take? How would she deal with resistance to change? How could she ensure that the new structure would support Western Union's global expansion?

The chief financial officer of VF Outdoor Americas - a division of the world's largest apparel company, VF Corporation, must decide on the financial viability of purchasing the skateboard VANS lifestyle brand. In his decision, the chief financial officer needs to develop an offer of what VF should pay for VANS and prove to the parent company that the acquisition will be accretive to earnings per share.

The president of the University of Western Ontario was contemplating how to best handle a potentially explosive issue: the planned award of an honorary degree to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, a prominent abortion-rights activist and operator of six abortion clinics in Canada. The pressure from various interest groups opposing the award continued to grow and attracted considerable local and national media attention. The chair of the university's board of governors went on record stating his disagreement with award decision. With university's reputation at stake, the president knew that he had to plan for the worst, yet hope for the best. The supplement Weathering the Storm: The Fallout of the Decision to Award an Honorary Degree to Canada's Pioneer Abortion Doctor (B), product 9B05C034, looks at the events on the day of convocation.

Mote Aquaculture Park is raising sturgeon for the production of caviar. With eggs imported from Eastern Europe, the park is engaging in a unique venture, bringing Russian caviar harvesting to the United States. The project manager is faced with evaluating a number of issues such as political-legal forces, local and international economics, production technologies and socio-cultural forces. Further, industry factors also played a key role. As he considers Mote Aquacultural Park's current situation, he knows that a thorough review of these environmental factors are necessary. The case offers students the opportunity to determine what forces pose critical threats as well as potential opportunities for future growth. However, since sturgeon farming and caviar production in the United States is a new industry, the application of traditional models of evaluation may not universally apply.

The general manager of ABS Global-Canada, was given the task of turning around the Canadian division after several years of declining sales in its principal product, bovine semen used to artificially inseminate cows. On taking charge, he made organizational changes, and then introduced a marketing approach that was successful in the United States. In May 2003, a dairy cow in northern Alberta was discovered with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). In the next several months sales of beef and dairy bull semen dropped to 50 and 30 per cent respectively. He now had to decide whether he should maintain the priorities of his turnaround program.

TPV Technology Limited is a worldwide computer monitor manufacturer. In this case, the general manager is reviewing the annual performance result. During the past year, sales of original equipment manufacturer monitors and self-branded monitors dominated the market but the profit margin had decreased sharply, and flat-panel TVs were becoming more popular. The general manager must determine if TPV Technology should enter the flat-panel TV market.

A venture fund has approached an entrepreneur to sell one of its poorly performing holdings, or if there is no reasonable sale opportunity, turn the company around. He finds no acceptable offers for the company. He searches to find more information on how buyers purchase and use the product, which is a software system for police and courts to lay charges and manage them across the court process. The case illustrates the leverage available from understanding customer budgeting and buying processes, and fitting the service to meet the mind of the customer.