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York River is a Canadian pulp and paper company whose major product is container material, used for making cardboard boxes. The company has three major customers. A small competitor has made a takeover bid for one of these customers. If successful, York will lose 25% of its volume. Should York make a $50 million counterbid to keep the customer? Assessment of the reaction of other customers relative to impending consolidation is critical.

The export director for Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, of Monterrey, Mexico, must develop a sophisticated marketing strategy in order to earn a permanent place for the brewery's SOL brand in the UK brewing market, considered to be one of the world's most dynamic and competitive beer markets. Specifically, he must decide how to position the brand; what brand characteristics, if any, should be modified; what new distribution channels, if any, should be pursued; and finally, what type of advertising and promotional campaign is necessary.

The setting for the case is a rate hearing to determine the cost of capital for a gas utility. The case provides an opportunity for a full discussion of the issues in estimating the cost of capital for both regulated and unregulated firms. The situation has an added twist in that the company just became a wholly owned subsidiary of British Gas.

The Independent Committee of the Board of Directors of Goodyear Canada Inc. must assess the fairness of the proposed Going Private amalgamation received from Goodyear Canada's parent, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company offered to buy all the common shares of Goodyear Canada not already owned by them (11.2% of the shares issued were in public hands) for $48.00 (CDN) in cash per share. This represented a 22% premium over the closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange on the previous afternoon.

The bank has to decide if and how it will help Columbia Pine Pulp Company (CRP). The bank must evaluate CRP's projections, capital structure, security, proposed design of the financing, interest rate hedging, and other financial decisions. The company is proposing a greenfield pulp mill on the site of a sister pulp mill and an affiliated paper mill. Students are required to develop a financial strategy. (Two related cases bearing the same name examine recapitalization and interest rate hedging - cases 9A90B036 and 9A90B037.)

The president of a software development company was contemplating how to reward its investors. Since the company's inception 10 years previously, the company had not paid full dividends to shareholders. The president was anxious to provide some return for the investments made, but he was convinced that he could maximize shareholder return if he could position the company to take advantage of the tremendous industry growth. He also wonders how much capital he will need, and where to obtain it.

James and Serena Udderlie were preparing a loan application to the Confederation Bank of Canada. They were requesting a $160,000 term loan, in addition to an operating loan, for the potential opening of a Cow's ice cream and clothing franchise. They needed to develop proforma income statements and balance sheets for the store's first two years of operation. They also wondered what collateral, if any, they would be able to provide the bank to secure against a loan, and what other terms the bank might deem necessary.

The manager of Service and Business Development for Trizec, a large property management company, was trying to decide how to implement a new initiative, the Trizec Advantage Program. This program called for Trizec to negotiate services management agreements with business services companies to become preferred service providers for Trizec's tenants. Although Trizec, its tenants and potential service providers were very positive, some of Trizec's critical staff members were skeptical. Students have to analyze how the Trizec Advantage Program fits into Trizec's service concept, how it will affect the company's competitive position, and how to make sure the staff support it.

Chemfree has the rights to distribute a line of environmentally friendly pest control products in Canada and abroad. Under the leadership of the president and controlling shareholder, the firm has experienced significant growth since its formation a few years ago and is poised for even more rapid growth in the future. The firm requires a substantial amount of money to finance this growth as well as its seasonal funding needs. Four alternative means of financing are being considered including two venture capital firms and two corporations. All of the alternatives involve a dilution in the president's equity interest and he must choose which alternative is most appropriate.

The manager of equity derivatives at ScotiaMcLeod is deciding whether to replace a software system that enables investment dealers to trade electronically on Canada's major stock exchanges. The new system allows access to institutional clients, which presents opportunities as well as threats to the traditional role of investment dealers. The case's primary objective is to introduce students to the concepts of financial markets and trading and to show the importance of information technology in the evolution of stock trading.

Scott Hall, vice-president of finance and chief financial officer of Champion Road Machinery Limited, was preparing a presentation on the company's proposed dividend policy for a board of directors' meeting scheduled for the middle of August. It had been only three months since the company completed its initial public offering, at which time the prospectus stated that: The company does not anticipate paying cash dividends on the common shares in the foreseeable future, but intends to retain future earnings for reinvestment in the business. However, earnings were well ahead of those projected in the prospectus and the company had succeeded in managing cash better than anticipated.

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.

An extremely successful consultant is having difficulty balancing his career and family needs. He is mid-career in a demanding job requiring increasing amounts of time and commitment. The pressures to produce from his boss and clients are becoming more difficult to manage and his family life is suffering.

This case describes the visioning process at Xerox Canada. The chairman, CEO and president of Xerox Canada has been meeting with her leadership team since eight o'clock in the morning to craft the organization's new vision statement. Three and a half hours into the meeting the team hits a road block. With 30 minutes left in the session, the CEO must decide whether and how to proceed. (A three-minute video can be purchased with the case, video 7A95M015.

The new editor of the London Free Press (LFP) was appointed in November, 1987, with a mandate to make changes. Like most other North American daily newspapers, the LFP had been gradually losing readership, and its share of advertising revenues in the community was shrinking. Despite its ability to remain profitable, the new editor thought that it was not living up to its potential, especially since it was the only daily newspaper in London. He feared that there were ominous signs of continuing decline in market share, which could only mean still lower profits in the future. He had been hired from the Toronto Star and put in charge of LFP's newsroom and editorial department to do whatever was necessary to reverse this trend. Now, in 1991, he wondered if it would be possible to stop the slow decline of the newspaper, or if its shrinkage was an inevitable consequence of broader trends in the information industry and Canadian society. A follow-up case (9A95M017) is available.

The general manager and director of training are becoming frustrated with the significant obstacles they must face. The challenge they face is converting an unfinished building into a Western-style hotel. Achieving this standard of quality and service did not come easily and the hotel required twice as many employees to operate than comparable hotels in the West. There were 20 expatriates managing the hotel when it opened. This number was to be reduced to 10 but it increased to 22. The number of employees and expatriate managers had a major impact on the budget. The inability to interest the staff in a career in the hotel or to want to become supervisors are significant obstacles facing management.

The president of a national computer sales and installation company wants to develop a plan to improve morale and reduce turnover. The company has grown rapidly is experiencing high employee turnover and low morale. In addition, a report, prepared by the controller, indicates a link between the increasing turnover and reducing customer retention (sales) data.

Managers at Chicago Research and Trading, are at a final point in the negotiation and faced with a decision to sign the statement of intent to form a Russian-US Joint Venture. The pending decision highlights the importance of being willing to give up obtaining some additional information about the joint venture that would make MPI surer of their investment in favor of gaining the trust of their Russian partners. It also demonstrates the importance of intuition in decision making. JV Dialogue has gone on to be one of the most successful Russian-foreign joint ventures by most accounts. (A nine-minute video of the CEO answering students' key concerns about starting the joint venture can be purchased with the case, video 7A95G006.)

About 15 operators work in a simple hybrid batch-flow environment to produce the Earth Buddy novelty product. The case introduces the topic of process analysis. Sufficient information is presented to introduce and discuss the following concepts in an 80-minute class: capacity, throughput time, cycle time, bottleneck identification and resolution, and work-in-process inventory accumulation and draw-down. Issues that can be explored during the discussion include: shift scheduling, the impact of cross-training, batch versus flow production, rush orders, and the impact of defects on capacity. (An Extend simulation file is available for this case, Earth Buddy - Extend Simulation file.)

The management team at Electrohome's projection systems division must decide what to do in response to a surprise new product introduction by Sony Projection Systems. The new product threatens Electrohome's position at the high end of the market. The case focuses on competitive analysis as three players from three different regions of the world vie for profitable positions in the industrial projection system market. This case presents Electrohome's perspective of the same event documented in the Barco Projection Systems (A) case (HBS 9-591-133). Two follow-up cases Electrohome (B): The Phoenix Project and Electrohome (C): The Marquee Launch are available.