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AlarmForce Industries Inc. is a developer and sales provider of home security systems with offices throughout Canada. Since the company's inception, it had become one of the leaders in the Canadian home security market and had established a reputation for being a technological innovator in the industry. The president and chief executive officer of the company must decide whether or not to launch their new product, AlarmFog, which the president believed represented the future of the home security market. The case focuses on past strategic decisions made by the company in differentiating itself in a mature market. The potential folly of making tactical product launch decisions without a solid analysis of underlying strategic issues can be discussed.

A policy advisor in the Ministry of Industry, working on a summer job, has received an offer from the Minister of Industry to stay in his current position for another year, and to pay for his MBA degree at the end of it. He must decide whether to accept this offer, or leave as planned to continue his studies. He must consider whether short-term financial gain outweighs long-term career objectives.

North American Motors is a large automobile manufacturer. The facility engineer for a particular assembly plant has to decide what to recommend concerning a new oven. The current oven, used to remove excess paint from various materials handling equipment in the plant's painting operations, did not clean the equipment adequately. The engineer, who has been in the position for only a short time, must analyse the situation both quantitatively and qualitatively before reporting to the plant engineering manager.

The health and fitness trend that started in the 1980s and became a staple of American lifestyle in the 1990s created numerous opportunities for new firms to introduce niche products. The founder of No Pudge! Brownies worked with a consultant to develop a fat-free brownie mix. She then designed a lean organization where production, distribution and Internet orders were all outsourced. Immediately she is faced with her Achilles heel, the slotting fees required by supermarkets to obtain shelf space. After two years of negotiating with supermarkets, an important grocery chain finally agrees to carry her product without any slotting fees. By 1997 sales totaled a meager $250,000. Aggressive lobbying with the National Food Distributors Association and a multi-pronged strategy for dealing with slotting eventually pushed sales above the $2 million mark. No Pudge! is at a major decision point. New growth opportunities, such as muffin mix and fast-food distribution of pre-made brownies are abundant. Slotting continues to be a source of frustration for the firm, and No Pudge! is now on the radar screen as a possible acquisition target by major food purveyors.

The vice-president of a venture capital fund is reviewing the due diligence package on a deal that involved financing the merger of two operating companies. He must assess the merits of the deal and prepare a term sheet outlining a proposed financing package for one of the potential investors.

General Motors Defense, a division of General Motors, one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers, designs and manufactures light armored vehicles. The company is approached by General Dynamics to jointly pursue the U.S. Army's Brigade Combat Team program. However, General Dynamic made it clear that they would also submit a bid on their own. Contrary to past practices, the chief of staff of the U.S. Army planned to award the multi-billion dollar contract within only 11 months. The executive director of General Motors Defense has to decide whether the company should bid-it-alone or submit a joint venture bid with General Dynamics.

The Canada Summer Games is a national, premier amateur sports event held biannually. The 2001 Summer Games in London, Ontario faced a challenge in generating revenue by selling spectator tickets to various events. Early sales did not meet expectations and the marketing strategy was revised halfway through the advertising campaign. The marketing manager must determine the impact revising the marketing campaign had on sales and prepare a report with recommendations that could be used by future host cities.

Brookfield Properties is a publicly held, North American commercial real estate company focused on the ownership, management and development of premier office properties located in the downtown core of selected North American markets. Most of Brookfield's assets are in the United States with headquarters in New York and an executive office in Toronto. Four of the properties that Brookfield owns are adjacent to the World Trade Center site and on September 11, 2001 the terrorist attacks had an immediate impact on Brookfield employees, tenants and physical property. With little reliable information and in the face of chaos and human tragedy, the president and chief executive officer must develop an action plan that will ensure the safety of all employees and tenants, deal with grief and suffering, assess the damage, enable the company to return to 'business as usual' and reassure investors and the media of the company's commitment to restore Brookfield's position of market strength.

Pollock & Thacker is a multinational consulting firm. A partner in the firm is reviewing the consultants that are available for an upcoming project. The partner has to consider who is best qualified, consultant development and the wishes of the client - the client requested that the consulting team consist exclusively of Canadians. Although this could be accomplished, there are two problems with the client's request. First, to form the best team possible, the group would have to include some consultants from the United States. Second, the client would have to wait several weeks before the project could begin for a Canadian analyst to become available. This delay would prevent the project from being immediately staffed, with the risk that those already selected for the team might be unavailable for staffing later.

Toybox is the visual effects division of Command Post, Canada's largest full service postproduction company and industry leader in technical and creative services for film, television, video and digital audio productions. Toybox's visual special effects manager believes that an improved information system for managing digital projects is required to cope with future growth. For example, during recent production work on a feature film, difficulties in workload, signoffs and rework reached an unsustainable level. The visual special effects manager must choose between an off-the-shelf product and a custom in-house solution. However, his decision is complicated by the creative work environment and the number of systems to which the new system must be integrated.

Compania Minera Antamina S.A. is a consortium of three large multinational Canadian mining companies set up to exploit a very large copper-zinc deposit north central Peru. The project requires about US$2 billion of financing for the development and exploitation of the deposit. The finance committee needs to determine the best means to raise the necessary funds: loans guaranteed by the sponsors or project finance. The costs and benefits are different across alternatives because the project involves both business and political risks to which the exposure for all of the stakeholders is different.

The assistant portfolio manager for an asset management firm is asked to review the attractiveness of a Japanese telecom sector. The performance of this particular sector has been declining. He must analyse one of the leading companies within the sector to determine its value and if further analysis of the entire sector should be done. Students are exposed to industry analysis and are shown how to incorporate conclusions from this analysis into the discounted cash flow model.

Logitech is an international company that designs and manufactures computer peripheral products. The retail pointing devices unit director is thinking about the development of the next generation of his device, the Logitech io Digital Pen. The digital pen is about to be launched in less than two months, and he is still unsure which features were valuable to potential users, who these potential users were and for which applications the digital pen could be used.

Dupont Canada manufactures and sells the raw materials that are used to produce brand name home renovation and home decorating products, including fabrics, carpets, countertops and paints. In order to develop relationships with consumers and acquire information on their purchasing needs and purchasing patterns, the company launched a Web site that offered decorating idea and product information through a Virtual Home. After 12 months, the company's project team must decide whether the project was a worthwhile investment and whether they should invest in the second phase. In making their decision, they need to identify the performance metrics to use in estimating the return on investments. They also need to determine whether to pursue revenue generation through the sale of advertising space or online sales through the Web site. Finally, the project team needs to assess whether their value chain partners would be willing to invest in the second phase of the project.

At WestJet, a regional airline service, the director of public relations and communications is wondering how best to manage journalist inquiries in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. In the past, journalists were used to candid communication from WestJet and are expecting the same treatment this time around. Should the extraordinary circumstances presented necessitate a change in communications strategy?

Foster Technologies Inc. is a wholly owned research and development subsidiary of LB Foster that focuses on wheel counter research and development for traffic control and the railway industry. The failed test of the railway wheel counting prototype was jeopardizing the company's promised delivery of the devices to a customer by the end of the month. With the company's and the vice-president of operations reputations at stake, he must decide what the next move is: Can his team resolve the problems with the prototype? Should he ask to have the chief design engineer removed or should he resign?

Vytec Corporation is a subsidiary of Owens Corning, and manufactures extruded vinyl residential siding. In order to maximize the quantity and quality of the product, the operations analyst had to decide how best to use the available silos and extruder. He must determine the best way to configure the extruders to their respective material silos in order to ensure that each silo faced a similar demand for material. An Excel spreadsheet containing data and solver solutions is available (product 5B03E10).

Vytec Corporation is a subsidiary of Owens Corning and is a leading manufacturer of vinyl siding. The operations analyst wanted to determine if there was a more efficient way to organize the company's warehouse. After finding some high demand products being stored a long distance from the shipping dock, his first reaction was to move the product closer to the shipping area, reducing the time and distance required to retrieve the product for shipping. Doing so, however, would displace another product that should also be near the docks. Further research into the problem revealed many other issues. Two files are available - the case data file, product 7B03E013 and the solver model 5B03E13.

Harlequin Enterprises is a well-known publisher of series romantic fiction and is facing threats to its leading position as the world's largest romance publisher. This threat comes from the growing popularity of single title women's fiction novels. While Harlequin was the dominant and very profitable producer of series of romance novels, research indicated that many customers were reading as many single-title romance and women's fiction books as series romances. Facing a steady loss of share in a growing total women's fiction market, Harlequin convened a task force to study the possibility of re-launching a single title women's fiction program. (A video is available, product 7B03M007, that features four senior managers discussing the challenges the company faced.)

Research in Motion is an integrated wireless solutions provider. The director of strategic alliances is excited about completing his first major acquisition for the company. His presentation to senior managers was a success and the company has agreed to go ahead with the acquisition. He must meet with the chief executive officer to have the letter of intent signed and present the offer to Slangsoft. The supplement Research in Motion: Slangsoft in the Jerusalem Post (B), product 9B03M010 highlights a change of events that could affect the acquisition. A video is also available, product 7B03M009.