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Gorenje D.D. is a kitchen appliance manufacturer located in the small town of Velenje, in Slovenia, a newly independent country that separated from Yugoslavia in 1991. Simultaneous with gaining independence, Slovenia also underwent a change from the unique market socialism that had characterized socialist Yugoslavia, to free enterprise capitalism. Furthermore, manufacturing firms in Slovenia had produced largely for the Yugoslav market, while after independence they were forced to compete in the wider European market. The company faces new challenges and key decisions in corporate culture, human resources and competitive strategy to face a turbulent environment.

ALI Technologies Inc. is a medical information technology company that develops filmless diagnostic equipment for hospitals and clinics and is world leader in this field. An offer to acquire the company has been presented and the chief executive officer and the board of directors must determine if the offer is fair to the company shareholders and in the best interests of the company.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is one of Canada's foremost orchestras with considerable international exposure. The orchestra has just celebrated its 80th birthday but was in a situation that could result in its downfall. The relationship with the landlord was less than ideal and the renegotiation of the musician's' contract could put a strain on the organization's finances. The orchestra's board of directors brought in a consultant to provide recommendations on how to address these issues. The board, pleased with the recommendations and the outcome, is offering the consultant the position of chair of the board. The consultant must decide whether to accept this role or to continue with his consultant's position.

The director of Lubricants business for Pennzoil-Quaker State Canada is faced with a significant challenge - overcoming the apathy that many consumers had about changing their motor oil. Increasing the frequency of oil changes and improving retention of its customers was critical for the financial success of the company. In response to this challenge, the director had to make a recommendation on adoption and implementation of a major new promotional program. The program, called One-to-One, was designed to create closer relationships among consumers, retailers and Pennzoil-Quaker State. Making the program work required active cooperation from the retail installers who actually performed the oil changes. The supplement Pennzoil-Quaker State Canada: The One-To-One Decision (B), product 9B04A011, focuses on the 240-day field trial of the program.

Fluid Analyzers Inc. is a small manufacturer and distributor of hydraulic fittings and has recently developed a new product, the SV pushbutton. The president must decide on a number of issues relating to the product, including target market, manufacturing process, and product features. Using managerial and financial analysis methods he must develop an overall business strategy, incorporating company goals and capabilities with industry trends.

Chip Tec Industries Inc. repairs chips and scuffs on vehicles. A current employee has an opportunity to purchase the business. He must analyse the financial statements to determine the financial status of the company and evaluate the asking price for the business.

The president of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust had just returned to his office after meeting with Britain's Prince Charles, who was on an official visit to Mumbai. The Trust was the managing organization of the dabbawallah meal delivery network. The dabbawallah's service was cited internationally by management scholars and industry executives as an exemplar in supply chain and service management. The service had acquired a reputation for its delivery reliability in Mumbai. International interest in the dabbawallahs was largely due to a 1998 article published by Forbes. However, many observers now expressed concerns over the future viability of the dabbawallahs' service given the difficulty in duplicating its delivery network elsewhere, the emergence of other lunch competitors in Mumbai, and an array of environmental changes affecting both its customers and the workforce. The case allows a discussion of service and supply chain management issues related to operational excellence.

BriLux develops early-stage high-speed data networking equipment. In recent month, BriLux customers have hinted that combining ARTRAN, the company's flagship optical data service platform, with a new fiber optic transportation product (tentatively referred to as FOT-320) would increase the market appeal of the company's portfolio. The research and development director must decide whether to support the development of this new product. Excel files are available upon request, products 7B04E018A, 7B04E018B and 7B04E018C.

Eli Lilly and Company is a leading U.S. pharmaceutical company. The new president of intercontinental operations is re-evaluating all of the company's divisions, including the joint venture with Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, one of India's largest pharmaceutical companies. This joint venture has run smoothly for a number of years despite their differences in focus, but recently Ranbaxy was experiencing cash flow difficulties due to its network of international sales. In addition, the Indian government was changing regulations for businesses in India, and joining the World Trade Organization would have an effect on India's chemical and drug regulations. The president must determine if this international joint venture still fits Eli Lilly's strategic objectives.

Bombardier Transportation, one of the world's largest manufacturers of passenger rail cars, has successfully negotiated the purchase of Adtranz, a large European manufacturer of rail equipment. The newly appointed chief executive officer has been brought in to manage the acquisition. The new CEO faces many challenges including decisions about the pace of integration, location of headquarters, organization structure, personnel retention and personal management style. Students may use this case to discuss post-acquisition strategy and how fast companies should move to integrate acquisitions.

Jinjian Garment Factory is a large clothing manufacturer based in Shenzhen with distribution to Hong Kong and overseas. Although Shenzhen had become one of the most advanced garment manufacturing centres in the world, managers in this industry still had few effective ways of dealing with the collective and deliberate slow pace of work by the employees, of motivating workers, and of resolving the problem between seasonal production requirements and retention of skilled workers. However, the owner and managing director of the company must determine the reasons behind the deliberately slow pace of the workers, the pros and cons of the piecework system and the methods he could adopt to motivate the workers effectively.

In less than six months, a telecommunications company has faced two incidents of alleged violations of the Canadian Human Rights Act. The general manager spent considerable time interviewing employees about the first incident. He then reported his findings, and the Canadian Human Rights Commission confirmed that no discrimination had occurred. Just a few months later, an employee approached her supervisor, alleging sexual harassment by a colleague. The company's general manager must not only deal with the second incident, he wonders whether he needs to draft a human resources policy to outline employee rights and responsibilities under the Canadian Human Rights Act.

A newspaper editor must decide how to deal with negative public reaction to items printed in the paper. He was concerned about the hurt to those involved, and about potential loss of readership and advertising dollars. He wondered what could be done to prevent future incidents.

The president of Wheels Group and the founder and major shareholder of the company, are evaluating alternatives with respect to pursuing the goal of doubling the company's revenues over the next five years. However, the alternatives presented to them reveal a tension between two competing growth strategies: 1) an asset based growth strategy and, 2) a non-asset based growth strategy. A decision is required with respect to which opportunity to pursue, recognizing that both strategies cannot be pursued simultaneously. Complicating the decision is the fact that approximately 75 per cent of the company's revenues are currently derived from non-asset-based activity. The opportunity is provided to explore issues associated with developing, evaluating and implementing business strategy within the third-party logistics industry.

During the summer, a popular hotel and restaurant must turn away customers whenever it offers its once a week family pizza buffet. With summer season fast approaching, the managers and owners of Bala Bay Inn must evaluate the process and capacity of the restaurant and identify bottlenecks in the process to determine what can be done to accommodate the demand.

ASIMCO International Casting Company, a joint venture between ASIMCO and Caterpillar, had recently finished several major projects designed to upgrade the manufacturing capabilities in its foundry. The plant was now under significant pressure to increase revenue, and had received an invitation to bid on a new customer order. While this order might provide the ideal opportunity to further upgrade its process technology and capabilities, significant challenges were presented by several critical product characteristics. Alternatively, the plant's limited resources could focus on meeting the internal needs of one of its partners. Caterpillar was expected to authorize test runs of two new products soon; however, the annual production volumes were very uncertain.

Cambridge Laboratories is essentially a fee-for-service provider of laboratory tests. It spends less than 0.5 per cent of revenues on research and development and holds relatively few patents for a biotech company. It now has an opportunity to invest $5 million to establish a joint venture with an Australian proteomics company that operates on a drug discovery (royalty) model. The founder of this company believed that his technology could eventually result in the discovery of new drugs that would generate significant royalties. While the proteomics firm has superb technology, some of the intellectual leaders in the field on its staff, and partnerships with some impressive companies, its technology is yet unproven. Cambridge Labs is also concerned that its existing relationships with big pharmaceutical companies could be jeopardized if it begins to take an intellectual property position in proteomics. In addition, the Australian company consists primarily of PhDs in molecular biology, while Cambridge Labs is dominated by business executives whose primary focus is generating strong financial returns for shareholders. The cultural differences between an Australian science-oriented laboratory and a publicly traded American outsourcing company become apparent during the negotiation phase of the joint venture proposal. Students are asked to evaluate the joint venture and consider whether the cultural and strategic differences can be reconciled.

Vancity Credit Union is one of the largest credit unions in Canada with $9 billion in assets and 300,000 members. The company's success was based on three key elements: member experience, employee experience and community leadership. With the pressure of increased competition from financial institutions and changing market characteristics, the chief executive officer must review the corporate strategy and resources to determine how the company can stay competitive and further increase its members and services.

Two experienced venture capitalists have decided to create a new venture capital fund. They have requested $70 million as a lead order from National Bank Financial Inc. and are looking to raise $110 million in capital to form the fund. However, there were several unresolved issues: a main issue was the strategy for deployment of the fund, as well as type of investment, average size of investment, number of concurrent investments, geographic and industry focus, timing and fund management issues such as staffing and governance structure. The partners must develop the investment strategy in order to prepare the equity fund offer memorandum to present to potential investors.

Fidelis is a large Canadian bank with several e-mail systems. The director of E-messaging must decide if it should standardize on one or more systems. He must analyze the various systems with costs for potential solutions ranging from $18 million to $100 million, and consider system complexity, technological nuances, and tradeoffs with technology standardization.