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In 2018, the legacy business of Somedia AG (Somedia)—traditional media such as newspapers, radio, and TV—was in structural decline. While its business portfolio still delivered positive financial results, it became clear that this would only be the case for a few more years. Susanne Lebrument and Thomas Kundert, the two main figures in charge as this pivotal moment in the firm’s history emerged, tasked themselves with finding new business areas that would secure sustained profitable growth and, thus, compensate the declining legacy business. The firm had a rich history and was a well-respected institution in southeastern Switzerland; as such, Somedia’s existing resources and capabilities would provide points of departure for new business development and diversification. Lebrument and Kundert’s key strategic challenge was to change the current business trajectory toward sustained profitable growth that would compensate for the decline and eventual disappearance of Somedia’s legacy business.

In August 2021, the founders of We are Marlow Corporation (Marlow) were considering the company’s future. Marlow was a direct-to-consumer (D2C), subscription-based business that sold lubricated tampon kits. The company was about to receive full approval from Health Canada to sell its products and the founders needed to shift their focus to a marketing strategy for their upcoming launch. They needed to decide on their target market and pricing scheme and how they would allocate their promotional budget to sell as many units as possible. The founders wanted a plan that would contribute to Marlow’s long-term sustainability and growth.

In 2019, Paratent Event Rentals Ltd. was facing the possibility of year end net losses. The co-owners of this Canadian business had recently invested in premium inventory, but a lackluster first quarter showed that they were not forecasted to get return on their investments. A new method of cost allocation was proposed to get Paratent back on track. When choosing between three conflicting future contracts, both the old and new methods of cost allocation needed to be implemented and considered. Using qualitative and quantitative analyses, Paratent needed to decide which job would be the most profitable and which cost allocation method to use in the future.

In February 2016, the principal dealer of several European luxury automotive dealerships learned from Audi of America LLC (Audi) that he would have to relocate one of his dealerships to a new location. The relocation would be to a new market area and the dealer would most likely lose his current customer base. Instead, the dealer used the opportunity to create a new business model for auto retailing that could enable him to maintain his market share without having to comply with Audi’s relocation requirement. His new concept, named “Carcierge” and opened in 2016, was showing initial success, but the dealer wondered whether the boutique sales model he developed would be viable in the long run.

In July 2012, the French multinational company Michelin Group, one of the largest tire manufacturers in the world, was facing accusations of failing to respect human rights and environmental rights in its operations in Tamil Nadu, India. This complaint came at the surprise of managers at the company who had made efforts to create relationships with local communities. At Michelin Group’s headquarters in France, the senior member of the sustainability team had to decide how to respond to the complaint in a way that would satisfy both external stakeholders (e.g., local communities and civil society organizations) and internal stakeholders (e.g., employees and managers from other departments).

In July 2018, Amir Bell was heading the Operational Excellence (OpEx) team for the Light Duty Pickup Truck Seat Cost Reduction program at General Motors (GM). GM had decided to launch the new full-size truck program in 2019 at assembly plants in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Silao, Mexico. To increase profits, GM sought to decrease costs in the manufacturing process. At the time, GM enjoyed a long-term tier-1 supplier relationship with Skübi Automotive North America LLC (Skübi) for its truck seats. Skübi’s facility in Indiana could not fully support the seat assembly for the new truck program, but Skübi did have capacity at its plant in Ohio, and so it approached GM about moving all or some of the new truck seat production. However, GM had investigated some additional cost-saving opportunities. GM could contract directly with tier-2 suppliers (directed buy) for some parts and negotiate volume pricing, though these arrangements could harm relations with long-time supplier Skübi. Alternatively, GM could assume the risk of raw material cost fluctuations by entering material indexing contracts with its directed-buy suppliers. Bell needed to analyze these alternatives and their related risks, and choose the most cost-effective option for GM.

Tire manufacturer Linglong initiated its green supply chain management (GSCM) program in 2018. By extending the ongoing green practices from within the organization to external supply chain partners, Linglong developed a green concept based on the entire product life cycle, which involved materials suppliers, equipment suppliers, distributors, and other stakeholders. After a one-year trial, the company saw an opportunity to mitigate the environmental risks in the supply chain and to enhance both environmental and economic performance at the supply chain level. However, the company also encountered challenges, such as the supply chain partners’ limited understanding of the value of GSCM and a lack of senior leadership support among suppliers. Faced with these challenges, Linglong had to decide whether to extend its GSCM program and how to improve it.

Tom Ewart had been recently promoted to associate vice-president (VP) of Sustainability at The Co-operators Group Limited (Co-operators), a Canadian financial services company focused on insurance. Ewart and his team were in the process of publishing the company’s annual integrated report to inform stakeholders of the firm’s current environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives and commitments. With sustainability trends rapidly growing, Ewart wanted to ensure Co-operators was well positioned to address upcoming changes and to continue to be a catalyst for a sustainable society. Ewart was excited about the growing industry, but he also wanted to find ways to improve Co-operators’ current sustainability strategies and ensure the company was on track towards its ESG commitments. One option Ewart was considering was to hire more individuals to join his Sustainability team, which currently had 3.5 employees. Given the lack of clear career structure in the industry, he was unsure of the types of candidates he should be looking for and what sort of experience they should have. Ewart reflected on his own career journey and the path he had taken to reach his current role as a sustainability executive. He also thought about the experiences and traits of his employees and how they brought value to the team.

Changing socio-economic trends led to the emergence of the men’s grooming segment in India. With the rise of e-commerce, the progression of social media, and growing awareness among men towards their personal grooming, a number of start-ups emerged in a category once dominated only by established players like Gillette. One such start-up was LetsShave, which was founded by Sidharth Oberoi in 2015 and catered to men’s shaving and grooming needs by offering products online only.<br><br/>Since its inception, LetsShave had maintained a product-centric approach to growth with a focus on high-quality products at affordable prices. This helped LetsShave gain a strong foothold in the market, growing at a sustained rate of 40 per cent per year with a loyal clientele and healthy rate of repeat sales. Other start-ups had adopted aggressive advertising and promotion strategies and were growing at a much faster pace than LetsShave. By continuing with its existing product-centric strategy, LetsShave might not be able to achieve its stated revenue target of US$10 million by the end of 2023. Oberoi had to quickly decide whether to continue with the company’s current approach or change course towards pursuing an aggressive marketing strategy to boost its top line.

The recycling system was in desperate need of innovation in North America in 2020. The average person was generating 12 times their body weight in landfilled trash annually, and the equivalent to a dump truck full of plastic waste was entering the world's oceans every minute. This crisis prompted Ainslie Simmonds and Mark Manley to develop MeCycle, an innovative, technology-enabled platform to help change consumer behaviour and increase recycling rates. This case examines consumer behaviour with regards to recycling, explores barriers to recycling, describes MeCycle’s business model, and estimates the potential environmental and economic gains from hypothetically implementing the MeCycle platform in London, Ontario, Canada.

In 2021, the head of cold storage for North America at A. P. Moller–Maersk (Maersk) was assigned the challenging task of meeting cold-storage requirements for a key client. Increasing demand for frozen food, coupled with many consumers adopting “hoarding” behaviour after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, heightened pressure on already-strained cold-storage facilities across the United States. To show the value of adopting Maersk’s end-to-end logistics services, the head of cold storage and his team had to develop a flexible operational plan for the client. The task was especially difficult in such a hot market, but gaining the trust of this client was critical for Maersk’s goal of establishing a strong hold in the US cold-storage market.

Operation Walk Canada (Operation Walks) was a private not-for-profit orthopaedic surgical mission organization based in London, Ontario. Its purpose was to provide total hip and knee replacement surgeries to patients in low- and middle-income countries, such as Guatemala. who had little or no access to orthopaedic care due to social, political, and economic factors. For two years, the COVID-19 pandemic had forced the mission to temporarily pause its work, leaving behind an ever-growing waiting list of patients who needed life-changing surgical care. However, the tremendous burden of the pandemic, coupled with existing gaps in the health care services in Canada, resulted in an overwhelming need for support that went beyond the organization’s capacity. For the organization to meet this demand, the team members needed an effective and sustainable strategy that would maximize its ability to meet the orthopaedic health care needs of the population. Operation Walk must now consider key challenges before returning to Antigua, Guatemala, in the spring of 2022.

The state of Uttar Pradesh was India’s leading producer state of mentha. The state’s small and medium-sized enterprises and trade entities were involved in the processing, distillation, crystal manufacture, and export of mentha. After 2017, there had been a deep decline in mentha oil futures trading, which wiped out liquidity and led to several market participants withdrawing from the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX). The MCX had long been a market leader in commodities, supporting futures trading in precious metals and bullion, energy, and a few agricultural commodities—notably, mentha oil. The senior vice-president and head of business development and marketing at the MCX was exploring ways to promote liquidity and raise the volume and turnover of mentha oil futures trading. Having contributed to a brainstorming session with the product development team based on the findings of a 2020–21 stakeholder study of the mentha market, he now had to integrate his domain knowledge and trading expertise with the insights gleaned from the stakeholder’s report to devise a strategy for resurrecting the slumping mentha oil futures.

When it was founded in Hefei, China, in 2001, Jiujiu Xiyanghong Group (JX) started as a single private nursing home with fifty beds. Over its eighteen-year history, JX had maintained rapid growth; as of 2019 the company had 1,531 elderly people living in its facilities, and Xie Qiong estimated that elders residing at JX represented 36 per cent of all 4,205 people living in Hefei eldercare institutions. However, the Hefei eldercare market was witnessing rapid expansion from the entry of Chinese and foreign companies, state-owned enterprises, and investment funds. The founder wondered how JX should manage this situation.

此個案透過直播平台A公司的數據分析案例，介紹數位轉型的「數位化」與「數位優化」歷程。透過本個案的討論與資料分析，學生將能對數位轉型的相關議題及如何應用商業數據分析規劃歷程有所了解。此外，透過資料分析，使同學了解資料ETL流程、思考如何將公司既有資料庫的文字或數據資料轉換成可進行統計分析的資料、選擇合適統計分析、解讀統計分析結果、並且提出未來分析的建議。

In January 2020, two social entrepreneurs were looking back at the first five years of operation of their venture JioVio Healthcare. The entrpreneurs had designed, developed, and implemented their cloud-based Internet of Things software Savemom. Using feedback from key stakeholders, Savemom assisted in the early detection of preventable complications during pregnancy and safe delivery, especially for expectant mothers in rural India, with a goal to reduce India’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR). Using an iterative process, Senthilkumar collaborated with various stakeholders in central and southern parts of rural India to enhance and implement the Savemom software. To achieve the socially-conscious goal behind the Savemom software, the team developed a wearable device for use by each expectant mother, as well as a medical measurement device and an online platform for healthcare providers to access the health information of patients. After several iterations of prototypes based on process outcomes and feedback from stakeholders, the Savemom software, devices, and process seemed to have achieved its ultimate goal. But when one of the entrepreneurs visited doctors to get their feedback, they expressed great dissatisfaction with the vast amount of patient information to check each day on the portal, which was increasing their workload almost ten times. The two social entrepreneurs had to find a way to address the genuine issues the doctors had raised.

Patrice Mousseau was an Indigenous woman in Canada who founded an organic skin care company, Satya. From Satya’s modest beginnings and early challenges, the company had several subsequent successes before Mousseau faced significant challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mousseau’ s Indigenous values and influences shaped her approach to launching and developing Satya. Additionally, Mousseau’s collaboration with a women-only network of investors (SheEO) and the support they offered not only aligned with her desire to achieve social change and impact through Satya, but also proved to be a vital virtual lifeline during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June 2020, the vice-president of Ginjalrein India Corporation was meeting with three members from the client organization Nierejia Care. The meeting was to discuss the deteriorating relationship between the two companies. The relationship between the two companies had been difficult for most of 2019, something which had threatened the contract between the two partners. These initial issues had been resolved in March 2020 following high-level interventions and collaborations between key members from both organizations. <br><br/>Unfortunately, the subsequent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 threatened to derail the partnership once again. Both organizations faced significant challenges as a result the pandemic; lockdowns and pandemic measures forced escalated costs, increased uncertainties on various fronts, and threatened the survival of both organizations. Ginjalrein India Corporation was required to make manufacturing operations decisions that Nierejia Care viewed as a breach of contract. The upcoming round of negotiations in June 2020, as these companies sought to find middle ground and yet support their own interests, would be critical for both parties.

In January 2022, Maha Research Labs Private Limited (MRL) needed to boost its sales force effectiveness (SFE). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MRL experienced losses in sales revenue and saw dwindling profits through 2020 and 2021. The pandemic had changed the sales ecosystem of the pharmaceutical industry, with many physicians and retailers now preferring online sales presentations. MRL’s managing director was concerned about the increased marketing and selling expenses that were affecting the company’s profitability, and he had identified gaps in the company’s sales process, performance, and SFE. The managing director proposed investing ₹40 million for the implementation of an SFE program, and he had one week to convince his team that this investment would create a smarter, more efficient sales force, restrain operating costs, and generate much-needed profitability for MRL.

Integrated Centre for Consultancy Private Limited (ICCPL) was a small company operating in India’s public relations (PR) industry. ICCPL was a successful and established company in this industry, with a focus on a niche segment of the market—real estate firms that offered affordable housing and operated on thin margins. ICCPL’s strong client relationships had resulted in an excellent track record for executive brand building and a client retention rate of above 75 per cent, which the company boasted as the highest in the market. In December 2018, one of ICCPL’s clients requested that the company lower its pricing or risk losing the contract to either a new in-house PR department or a small competitor that was offering a similar service at half the price. ICCPL refused to lower its price and, in June 2019, the client announced its plan to cancel the contract. ICCPL was analyzing all data for client satisfaction and loyalty to determine what went wrong. Should the company attempt to retain this important client? If so, what strategy can the company use?