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Malkam Cross-Cultural Training is a provider of language and cultural diversity training. A development associate must prepare recommendations for the firm's latest marketing campaign. The company was anxious to develop its company brand as distinct from the reputation of its founder and president. The development associate had narrowed the promotional choices to two: develop a direct mail campaign or a print advertising campaign. He must be able to gauge and monitor the success of either or both campaigns.

Two engineers formed Teqswitch Inc. to design and produce faster networking equipment. Five years after they began, the company has 120 employees in Canada, England and Australia and sales in the tens of millions. The company decided to expand into Latin America and has worked out a $15 million joint venture with Unitas in Argentina to sell components. Teqswitch establishes an office in Buenos Aires and works with Unitas to develop sales personnel and business processes. As the company is about to launch its next generation of products, the vice-president international of Teqswitch receives information from the joint venture partner about terminating the agreement. He must determine what has gone wrong.

Innomedia Logic Inc. produces and distributes voice over Internet protocol hardware. An increasing demand for this technology and the entry of other companies into the sector have created a highly competitive market. Despite these challenges, Innomedia Logic has grown to a successful operation in just a few years and has projected substantial revenue increases for the next two years. The president, and major shareholder, has received an unsolicited offer for 100 per cent of the company's equity. He must consider how an exit strategy will affect the other seven shareholders and determine whether he would receive greater value if he sells now or if he should continue to grow the company and contemplate a sale in the future.

A biotechnology and drug research company has an anti-cancer compound that is ready for further development. The company faces two options. It can form a licensing agreement with a large pharmaceutical partner that would fund the necessary clinical studies and bear much of the risk. The pharmaceutical company would assume an equity position within the drug research company and would also receive licensing rights to any compounds that successfully result from the research. The other option is to create a spin-off company with venture capitalists. The stand-alone company would be able to focus on realizing the potential of the new compound, but the drug research company would lose majority control. The vice-president of business development must decide how to proceed in order to maximize value to his company and to the investors.

As a general manager and partner in a chain of restaurants, Graham Stewart is faced with a serious problem. His restaurants have been struggling to stay afloat for some time, and he has been concerned as to the reasons for cash flow problems. An innocuous question from the company bookkeeper set off an alarm bell in Stewart's head, and investigation reveals several problems in his partner's financial activities, both personally and professionally. At the time of this discovery, Stewart's partner is on vacation. The general manager must concern himself with the ethical and legal implications of his discovery, trying to assess what he might do and how and when he should do it. The A case outlines the history of the restaurant chain and the details of its current issues. Supplements Graham Stewart - General Manger (B), product 9B02C029 and Graham Stewart - General Manager (C), product 9B02C030 discuss Stewart's investigation of the problems and the meeting between the partners.

As a manufacturer and distributor of agriculture equipment, as well as a broad range of construction and forestry equipment, Deere & Company had a lot riding on the smooth flow of its logistics function. FedEx Logistics provided out-sourced transportation services to 11 Deere facilities across North America. But with each of Deer's individual business units responsible for its own logistics activities, and with each unit negotiating a separate service agreement with the FedEx facility, costs and services tended to differ across the units. Deere's manager of logistics design asked a summer intern student to evaluate the company's logistics agreement with FedEx, with a view to identifying opportunities for standardizing costs and services across the business units. The logistics manager is expecting a report containing details of each operation's work flow and cost information, as well as some recommendations for updating Deere's out-sourcing arrangements with FedEx Logistics.

McNutt Service Group, a heating, ventilating and air conditioning business, has grown to the stage where the president is considering moving the service division to a new location, to provide increased space, a greater degree of autonomy and more efficient access to the division's customer base. He must analyse the financial feasibility and evaluate the team dynamics, motivation and the morale advantages and disadvantages of a physical move.

Meyers Norris Penny is one of the leading chartered accountancy and business advisory firms in Canada. The vice-president of technology must decide whether to replace the company's practice management system or continue to upgrade the system as needs arise. The system has performed well, has stable hardware and software and staff are familiar and satisfied with using the system, however, he must consider the company's need to be innovative and proactive to maintain the firm's competitive advantage.

ZS Associates is a consulting company with offices in the United States, Europe and plans to establish an office in Canada. The manager of scheduling realizes that the company's scheduling system would not be able to keep up with the needs of the firm. The current system tracks the consultant's skills and their assignments to various projects. An MBA student working as an intern with the firm must provide a recommendation whether to develop software in-house, have new software custom built externally or purchase off-the-shelf software. He must analyse the options while considering the growth needs of the firm, features required in the software and cost.

A recently hired co-ordinator of a cross-docking facility has been assigned the task of designing an efficient layout for the facility, assessing the equipment requirements and workflows, and training and supervising the floor staff. Since this is his first managerial position, he is eager to prove himself. He wants to show senior management that they were correct in their decision to hire him, despite his young age. A long-term employee seems determined to thwart the co-ordinator's efforts at every turn. The much-older man never misses a chance to point out that the old company's system was superior to the one the co-ordinator is trying to implement. When a costly shipping error occurs twice in two days, the co-ordinator and the employee have a heated exchange the forces the co-ordinator to do some serious thinking about what his next move should be. Should he fire the employee? Should he rethink his system? Or should he simply try a more diplomatic approach to managing the employee?

N.K. Builders and Contractors was a construction company newly formed by an experienced contractor and a young project manager. The project manager was very knowledgeable of the construction industry but not familiar with the bidding process for contracts; for this he relied heavily on the experience of his partner. The company's first project was a government contract that required the partners to go to the divisional office to apply for the tender, where they found out they were one of 15 interested in the highway project. The bidding process was similar to an auction, the highest bid won. Money generated from the highest bid was shared equally among the remaining contractors, and the higher the bid the more commission government officials received. Winning the contract is only the beginning. Once a company receives the project, they are expected to begin work within a month; however, many things can happen between winning and the completing of the contract and he would discover there would be a number of times when it would be necessary to pay various officials to proceed with the project. The project manager was disappointed in the way the company was awarded the project and now must decide if he should quit and lose the money he invested in the company or remain with the business.

SW Construction (Holding) Limited is a construction company that develops and manages properties. After a number of successful years in exclusively developing its own properties, the company has suffered a loss in revenue. The executive director is concerned that they have not been able to obtain a government contract. He must determine how the company can win more government contracts by collecting and analysing data from the last 20 auctions.

Visteon Inc. is a manufacturer of integrated systems for the automotive and electronic equipment industries. An engineer was asked to examine the manufacturing process of one of its products to recommend changes that would reduce the failure rate at the final assembly pressure test. He conducted experiments to collect data, and now must analyse the data to determine what changes will improve plant throughput.

Helped the Aged Canada, a non-profit organization, has hired Kate Archer to manage their prosthetic clinic in Haiti. After her arrival in Haiti she learns that its key employee does not meet her performance expectations. Communicating with the employee, a deaf-mute, however, was very difficult and required the use of another employee as translator. She must communicate her performance expectations to the employee. The supplement to this case, Kate Archer In Haiti (B), product number 9B01C036 describes how Kate develops a contract and finalizes the agreement with the employee.

Gino SA was a major European-based manufacturer of burner units that are sold in China through exclusive contracts with three distributors. As a result, the three Chinese distributors have significant bargaining power with Gino. A leading boiler manufacturer, who is currently purchasing through a distributor, has approached Gino to receive OEM treatment (a further discount by purchasing the burners direct from the manufacturer, in return for a commitment to purchase a percentage of their burners from Gino). In deciding whether or not to pursue the company's first direct OEM relationship, the marketing manager must consider the impact of his decision on the distributors, the competition and the company's corporate management.

A university student has taken a summer job as the manager of a house painting franchise. He is determined to offer customers quality work and to hire painters who can work long hours to help him achieve his high production goals. Six employees were hired and trained by the end of May. By mid-June, however, he is faced with a crisis situation: three of the employees have resigned and another has had a job-related accident. The manager must deal with the injured employee and the owner of the home where the accident occurred. He also needs to hire new employees and to consider whether his management played a role in the number of resignations.

In the early 2000s, a university graduate working as a project manager for a small Chinese consulting firm is in the middle of a very important project when he receives a call from a former colleague offering him an attractive package to move to a new company. His decision would affect many stakeholders and he wonders what might happen to the project he is working on. He has only three days to decide whether to stay with the firm or accept the offer.

The president and chief executive officer of a large food manufacturer is preparing his company's strategic agenda for the next five years. One of the top five food manufacturers in Canada, the company went public and restructured its management team six years ago. The efforts were successful, resulting in an increase in the company's market share. Recent food industry trends, however, added box stores and private label brands to the domestic competition. At the same time, the terms of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement are expected to abolish food-related tariffs within two years, opening up competition from across the border. While the company has experienced success in the past five years, the president and chief executive officer needs a strategic plan that will take the company to the next level.

A respected dentist wants to expand his office space to accommodate his growing business and has approached his bank for funding of the project. The newly appointed manager of commercial accounts considers the loan request. He wants to ensure his assumptions are reasonable to minimize the risk. He must analyse the financial performance and financial statements, determine the type of loan required and evaluate alternatives.

Hemosol is a small biotech company that is under pressure to meet its research and development targets. The company is anticipating the completion of the second phase of testing of one of its products within the next year. Before the company can move on to the next phase of testing, Hemosol must obtain more capital. The company will need to rely on the investment community for funding, however, they have been struggling with developing relationships with investors. Hemosol's president has approached the executive vice-president of the Equicom Group Inc., an investor relations firms, for assistance in putting a strategic plan together to improve the company's performance and reputation.