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In March 2020, as COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, Atish Banerjea, the chief information officer of Meta Platforms Inc. (Meta) was tasked during a high-stakes senior management meeting with moving the company online. Banerjea knew that the future growth of Meta was dependent on talent and digitally enabling workers. He wondered how he was going to digitize Meta’s office-centric culture, in which almost all recruitment, onboarding, and workforce management activities relied on in-person engagement and processes. Until that point, all of Meta’s focus—and Banerjea’s mandate—had been to enhance in-person work. Banerjea assembled a team to rewire Meta’s onboarding and employee experience processes. They would have to quickly lead Meta’s pivot to remote onboarding and remote work around the world at scale.

Over two decades old, Effet Boomerang is an advertising agency based in Quebec, Canada. In recent years, it has found it harder to win client contracts, which has been partially due to changes in the industry. This has left its co-founder and president examining her options for repositioning the agency. This case provides an interesting opportunity to introduce students to internal and external analyses by having them examine how a small firm may leverage its strengths to effectively adapt to a changing industry.

ZOLOZ, a biometrics platform within the Chinese technology provider Ant Group, served more than one hundred million overseas users with its advanced biometrics identification technology. In 2018, ZOLOZ’s general manager was appointed to promote the company’s facial recognition technology overseas, extending the company’s global ambitions. ZOLOZ aimed to not only increase its user base but also promote the growth of electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) processes. The company successfully expanded to the Philippines and planned to enter other Southeast Asian countries, helping users open accounts remotely. ZOLOZ’s general manager needed to decide how it could continue to expand the use of facial recognition technology to the rest of Southeast Asia.

In March 2020, the Government of India announced a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Only organizations deemed to be working in essential services were allowed to continue operating. This lockdown lasted until May 2020, during which time companies faced transportation restrictions, supply chain issues, and staffing challenges, among others. Despite this, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) managed to achieve crude oil production and profits similar to the previous year. However, the company battled crises both onshore and offshore as it fought to care for its employees and their families amid lockdown conditions.<br><br>Two years later, the organizational stress and personal toll exacted by the nation’s lockdown still haunted the group. However, while the events had been traumatic and arduous, they also offered potential lessons for the company, something that the management team was interested in. What capabilities had aided the company during the lockdowns? ONGC’s Human Resources Director, Dr. Alka Mittal, wanted to understand how employees had coped and managed during the lockdowns so she could formulate a future-oriented “People Strategy Plan” to combat potential similar future crises. However, she was also worried that revisiting such intense experiences could bring strong negative emotions to the forefront and increase employee stress, thereby decreasing morale and job satisfaction. ONGC’s management needed to determine how best to handle the situation so that it could prepare for future crises without damaging its existing relationship with employees.

The managing director of Leosb Private Limited has to select a distribution channel for his factory-produced roti (a flat bread popular in India) in the city of Hyderabad, a large metropolitan city in India. In July 2022, he considered the best distribution channel, which would offer access to retail consumers, and be cost effective, easy to scale, and expandable to related product categories. His options were using one or more distributors, selling to modern trade outlets, developing a sales team to sell directly to retail outlets, or selling directly to the consumer through Leosb’s website and mobile app. He was running out of funds, so his time was limited.

<p align="justify">In late January 2020, the chief executive officer and third-generation successor of BEZNOSKA s.r.o., a traditional Czech manufacturer of joint implants, was preparing for an annual shareholders’ meeting with the family business owners. The annual report indicated that the company had experienced its worst financial year in its 30-year history. The company was also facing challenges from new competitors in the market and the need to comply with a new legislation. The chief executive officer was planning to stop issuing dividend payments from the company’s profits to the three owners of the family business, who were his family members. The chief executive officer knew that his decision would be contentious, especially for his aunt who was not active in the company but had criticized his performance in the past. The chief executive officer decided that the best solution to the ongoing problems was for his aunt to sell her stake in the family business, which she would likely reject. But even if she were to agree, how should the ownership shares be restructured?

Tianlala is a Chinese new-style tea drink brand that has been developing, producing, and selling fresh ice cream, tea, and coffee since 2015. By 2021, the brand covered twenty-eight provinces, 105 cities, and three municipalities across China. It had opened more than one hundred directly operated stores and more than six thousand franchised stores nationwide, served more than two hundred million customers, and sold an average of 1.5 million cups of milk tea every day.<br><br>It had taken only six years for Tianlala, a small, unknown milk-tea brand, to become one of the representative brands in the low-tier city market, going from being unknown to being accepted and appreciated by consumers, especially young ones. Despite this quick growth, the question for Wang Wei, the founder of Tianlala, was, How should the company reinforce its brand to grow further?

In October 2022, Priyanka Bhat, the project manager leading a project for Fintech Solutions, was contemplating her options to handle issues plaguing the project. Foremost among them was to find an effective solution to the many conflicts between the team’s business analyst, Jada Goodwin, and the other team members. Although Goodwin was a competent employee and liked by the client, she had been accused by several team members of creating a hostile work environment. Bhat needed to quickly devise a plan that restored a collegial team environment and ensured on-time delivery of the project to the client.

Sandie Beauchamp, was the chief experience officer at the social enterprise and Certified B Corporation hybrid organization Clean the World (CTW), located in Orlando, Florida. Beauchamp finds herself in survival mode as she struggles to keep the organization from closings its doors while simultaneously keeping herself, employees, and volunteers safe during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Through a focus on CTW’s mission as well as trial and error, Beauchamp and her team innovate a product and process to meet the hygiene needs of CTW beneficiaries while generating income.

Tourism, the fulcrum of the livelihoods for residents of Jaisalmer, India, was significantly affected during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that occurred in January 2021. The situation worsened when SpiceJet, the only airline operator of Jaisalmer, announced the suspension of its operations, citing low passenger load and high operating costs. With the support of Ashish Modi, their district administrator, the Jaisalmer community tackled the issue using a first-of-its-kind initiative called “the citizen-airline partnership model.” The interplay between the Jaisalmer community and SpiceJet management unveiled finer aspects of negotiation during a crisis. Would the model succeed in a win-win negotiation?

NutriNest, founded by Le Danh Hoang, was the first company to introduce farmed bird's nest products in Vietnam. In January 2018, the company launched a sustainable product line under a new brand called the Green Bird. The Green Bird product line was positioned to meet consumers’ sustainability and health concerns, and quickly became the company’s best-selling products. To continue to grow NutriNest, Hoang was facing a crucial decision. Should he focus on the current portfolio of the Green Bird line or add new products? If he chooses to introduce new products, how should he ensure that these products will attract new segments of customers and increase sales?

In December 2022, Jack Munroe, president of Munroe Homes Ltd. (Munroe), is trying to determine if his firm should take on a new development called Creekside Estates near Caledon Village, Ontario. Munroe began as a builder of modest homes on a large scale; the Creekside Estates opportunity involved developing high-end custom homes. Jack’s decision will have a significant effect on Munroe’s future strategy. Munroe can stay within its comfort zone and continue building large numbers of entry-level or mid-level homes or the company can choose to move into the high-end custom home segment. Jack needs to consider what changes will be necessary to position the Creekside Estates opportunity for success.

After importing three hundred bags of ground sacha inchi, a seed with promising nutritional benefits, from Peru, Kayla Gray has important decisions to make. Her new venture, Sachi Superfoods, is ready to launch; however, she does not have a clear plan on how to best market her product. Gray must decide on the best market segment to pursue in addition to the most effective marketing channel for her product.

In March 2021, the wholesale distributor of home décor products SBO Distributors Ltd. (or SWISSBO), based in Vancouver, Canada, was considering an opportunity for strategic analysis. The firm was at a crossroads in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic had led to a setback in the company’s revenues and margins—seemingly, a temporary setback. The wholesaler was now facing a make-or-break dilemma that involved a new growth opportunity to move up the value chain toward retailing.

On July 2022, Signify Health, a health care services company that was disrupting the US health care market with its value-based care provision, announced the opening of a new technology centre outside the United States. This was a significant first step for the company beyond its home country. The company had an ambitious plan to develop an international centre of excellence for innovation that it expected would grow to employ more than 125 people by the end of 2023. The new technology centre was seen as a critical step to develop new solutions and provide technologies that would enable the platform to scale up its business. However, the company had to make some important and urgent decisions, including where to locate the international technology centre and how to integrate the new centre into the wider domestic organization.

Opened in January 2021, the medical centre of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), CUHK Medical Centre (CUMC), was a non-profit teaching hospital wholly owned by the university. In December 2022, Professor Hong Fung, the executive director and chief executive officer, knew that the CUMC board of directors would soon be asking how he was going to ensure that the privately operated CUMC would remain financially sustainable while still achieving its mission and vision—offering quality healthcare services at affordable and transparent package prices—and returning all surpluses from healthcare services to the hospital to support its future development and the CUHK Faculty of Medicine’s research and teaching.

It was June 2021 and the international tourism industry was beginning to show signs of revival after the COVID-19 global pandemic. Small business owner Tony Byarugaba was surveying the scenic grounds surrounding his tourist lodge in Uganda. Byarugaba had built his enterprise by offering international clients a superior African vacation that included Uganda and the neighbouring countries of Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. From his beginnings as a self-taught tour operator, Byarugaba had diversified into the hotel business. His two early-stage companies, Mamaland Safaris and Woodland Lodges, had already survived very tough times—a global recession, the outbreak of Ebola, and, most recently, the pandemic.<br><br>Byarugaba now had to weigh the potential risks and rewards of a number of options for ensuring the growth and stability of his businesses. As a small entrepreneur with limited access to capital and labour, he could only afford to choose one direction to pursue. The future of his company depended on making the right choice.<br><br><p><p align="center"><b>This case was the first prize winner of the 2022 John Molson Business Ownership Case Writing Competition.<b/><p/>

Captain Fresh, a tech-enabled business-to-business (B2B) seafood marketplace based out of Bengaluru, India, had been enjoying phenomenal success. Founder Utham Gowda set out to simplify the seafood supply chain in a fragmented, unstructured, and complex market. He was sure that going forward, technology would play a major role in building high-quality distribution infrastructure that would take fish from sea to plate. In January 2022, having achieved revenue growth of more than 700 per cent from September 2020 to September 2021, Gowda was faced with three equally compelling options for growth. In January 2022, he was faced with three equally compelling options for growth. The first was to set up Captain Fresh’s own business-to-consumer brand; the second was to add mutton and chicken to his product offerings; and the third option was a bold proposal to go international by expanding to the United States. Another exciting strategy was expanding Fishgram, the unique proprietary marine supply-chain technology platform Gowda had built to help fishers connect directly to buyers across various geographies. There was an opportunity to monetize the platform by offering it to non-competing fishers as a software as a service. Which of three options should he choose while maintaining his original goal of easing problems in the country’s fish and seafood supply chain? Should he offer Fishgram to fishers and other businesses?

Since its beginning in 2021, Stitchwheel LLC (Stitchwheel), a needlepoint canvas painting service, had seen immediate success. From the company’s inception, the co-founder of Stitchwheel had been assessing the advantages and disadvantages of an expansion strategy and wondered what barriers she might encounter. She was also assessing the viability to expand beyond painted needlepoint canvases to achieve substantial growth. Within a short time frame, the company had enjoyed strong brand recognition and offered a meaningful unique selling proposition, but there were still many questions about the company’s next steps, including which growth strategy would be most suitable. Did the company have the necessary resources and skilled management team to adequately monitor and support growth? What marketing and operational issues was the company likely to encounter with expansion?

In February 2020, Peter Maxwell received his share from the sale of the Australian property development company he had co-founded in 2002: US$115 million. He began organizing his reflections on four of the most significant company decisions that had occurred at the company in recent years and how they had impacted the business. They focused on installing effective board governance; rejecting a move into resort development; maintaining ownership and control; and considering the personal health of the senior executives. Having been invited to speak at his alma mater, Maxwell was planning to ask the students to rank these decisions in terms of importance.