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In early June 2020, the owner of BYKlyn, an exercise bike fitness studio in New York, was considering her response to the business disruption that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had caused the health and fitness industry. BYKlyn had recorded consistent annual growth since its launch in 2014. The fitness studio owner had been confirming her business expansion plans by moving into a larger space in the city when the pandemic struck in early 2019. Consequently, she was forced to shut down the business in mid-March 2019, in compliance with COVID-19 regulations. After a two-month lockdown, the New York state government announced phased-in reopening plans, and the fitness studio owner was considering three options for restarting her business: reopen at the existing premises; move to a virtual environment with a new business model; or set up an outdoor fitness club, which would offer fitness club members a completely new workout format.

The Hill & Levene Schools of Business (HLSB) Paul J. Hill Business School at the University of Regina, were considering widely divergent strategic alternatives, in what was expected to be a new and permanently altered post Covid-19 competitive environment, for business schools and higher education learning. The case considers three alternatives: 1. a return to the classic business model, with a new state-of-the-art building; 2. specialize as a virtual business school, for maximum national and international student access; or 3. Take advantage of the learning during the Covid-19 crisis and excel as an adaptive hybrid business school. Each alternative has strategic, marketing, operational and financial implications.

In 2020, the chief executive officer of Zhida Environmental Technology, a waste management company based in Nanjing, China, was considering adopting blockchain technology into the company’s work process. With the concept of Internet plus recycling, the company was committed to waste sorting and had introduced innovative household waste solutions. However, new challenges were emerging, including stagnant resident participation rates, low profit returns, competitor expansion, and limited support from the local government. Inherent blockchain technology functions such as digital token services, a transparent recycling chain, and collaborative governance mechanisms could potentially improve the company’s current operations and provide a first mover position in the market. However, the chief executive officer had to thoroughly consider the decision of adopting blockchain technology: What true value could it offer and what potential challenges could arise?

<p style="color: white; background-color: rgb(3, 70, 56); font-size: 16px; display: inline-block; border: 0px rgb(197, 183, 131); padding: 4px 4px;"><a href="https://www.iveypublishing.ca/s/product/vcayr-managing-sexual-harassment-digital-learning-experience/01t5c00000Cd0NUAAZ" style="color: inherit; text-decoration: inherit;">AVAILABLE AS A DIGITAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE</a></p><br> VCayr was a not-for-profit social service organization that connected individuals through its social media platforms and community events. In January 2019, an organizational member and an active project manager at VCayr reported to a friend and board director that she was sexually harassed by another board director at VCayr. The friend and director had to decide how to manage the situation. He was aware of the severity of sexual harassment and the significant harm that it could have on all VCayr members and on the overall organization. Another sexual harassment incident was reported to him one year later by another member of VCayr. The board director had a second chance to rethink his strategies and to weigh in other options in light of the emerging information.

In 2018, the owner of a Sasol Limited (Sasol) fuel retail franchise in Pretoria, South Africa, was facing the challenge of how to continue growing her business by retaining her existing customers and offering the products and services they expected. A woman entrepreneur in a male-dominated industry, the franchisee had worked her way up the corporate ladder in the financial services industry and, after being retrenched from her position at a bank, had purchased a fuelling station. She now wanted to gather information on her customers’ needs in order to make an informed decision about how to scale the service offerings at her site to increase revenue, but she was unsure as to how to go about gathering this information. Various brands in the service station industry had seen decreased customer visits, and in this competitive environment, it was important to increase her efforts in building loyalty among her service station’s customers.

In recent years, India had experienced a digital revolution, emerging as a forerunner in cashless payments and, in the process, dramatically raising the level of financial inclusion in the country. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), established in 2008 with the mandate to improve national payment systems, became a global gold standard for facilitating innovative financial technology (fintech) solutions. NPCI was created as a not-for-profit “coopetitive” organization, initiated by India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, but owned by a consortium of India’s leading banks and largely run independently. While NPCI’s success in devising an open innovation platform had led to a new competitive playing field, it had also raised the question of whether or not its original coopetitive organizational design was still suitable for sustaining the flow of fintech innovations.

On February 20, 2020, the executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Input Capital Corporation, the first agricultural commodity streaming company in Canada, was reviewing a capital stream contract that one of his associates had prepared for Sustainable Farms Inc. and submitted for his approval. One important consideration was the rate of return expected from the contract and the risks involved. The executive called a co-op student to his office and assigned her the task of calculating the internal rate of return, or effective yield, on this capital stream contract. He also hinted at an alternative way to assess the profitability of the contract, which was to estimate the contract’s mark-to-market value.

Fitzie, a sports and fitness brand that manufactured, marketed, and sold sports and lifestyle footwear and apparel, had been doing relatively well in its Eastern Europe, Middle East, South Asia, and Africa (EMESAA) region, with double-digit growth for the past two years. However, the business had been affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, with the business forecast for 2020 reduced by 39 per cent. As a result, Fitzie’s global team had reduced the EMESAA region’s marketing allocation for 2020 by the same ratio. Archana Roy, the marketing head of Fitzie’s EMESAA region, had to present her marketing plan for 2021 to Fitzie’s global team at the end of September 2020. What had worked in the past might not yield results for 2021, as significant shifts in consumer behaviour had occurred and different markets moved asymmetrically. It was important to prioritize and align all local stakeholders for strong execution and to ensure that the global team allocated the required marketing budget. Was there a need to reconsider the well-established marketing budget allocation process and, if there was, what should the criteria be for reallocation?

In May 2019, the founder of SaladStop!, a Singapore-headquartered healthy salad chain with locations across Asia, was looking for innovative ways to improve the customer experience at SaladStop! stores worldwide. In six months, the founder was planning to renovate one of his branches in Singapore. This renovation would set a precedent for future outlets in terms of layout and design. The founder was aware of rising customer dissatisfaction caused by some service quality issues. As such, there was an urgent need to find a way to maintain customer interactions at SaladStop! while paying attention to customers’ expectations. Should SaladStop! embrace new technologies in the restaurant business, or should it continue to focus on offering a truly authentic customer experience by relying on traditional human touchpoints?

康聯訊公司在發展新事業時，面對組織因而發生的內部衝突，以及如何判斷新事業是否應拆分的抉擇。

Alicia Soulier, owner of Capelli Salon Studio, a hair salon in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has developed an application (app) that can help save hair salons thousands of dollars per month in hair colour costs. However, she is struggling to recruit enough subscribers to her new software as a service (SaaS) company, SalonScale. With the diversion of her attention from her hair salon to the app threatening her core business, Soulier must soon decide on a customer acquisition strategy.

In April 2020, the interim president of the 3D printing and digital manufacturing business of HP Inc. was weighing his options in resolving three managerial dilemmas: (1) How should HP promote technology awareness among industrial customers? (2) How should HP scale up its production of 3D printers? (3) How could HP promote shorter technology adoption cycles among industrial customers?

The Pratham Institute for Literacy, Education & Vocational Training (Pratham Institute) in India, ran vocational education and training (VET) centres that were engaged in skilling the rural youth of India to prepare them for vocational careers. In April 2020, the organization’s centre in Pilani, Rajasthan, along with several other chapters, had noted that a significant share of the institute’s trainees were failing to sustain their employment for a long period and were returning home to their native villages instead. Though the VET centres had seen several success stories, they were somewhat perplexed about why so many of their trainees were not staying in their careers, despite the promise of greater financial benefits and job security compared to farming-based livelihoods. Some of the common concerns of trainees included urban culture shock, family pressures to return home, sustenance worries, career ambiguity, and a lack of psychological readiness to cope with harsh city life. The head of the Pilani centre was left pondering how to tackle such psychological issues among the Pratham Institute’s trainees and thereby reduce the dropout rate and fully realize the positive impact of the training programs.

When the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020 affected commercial circulation in various regions around the world, Heilongjiang Feihe Dairy Co. Ltd. (Feihe), a leading Chinese dairy company, had been facing difficulties for a while. The company’s enterprise strategy was actively adjusted, and various measures were taken to protect the company’s supply of raw materials and the business operations of its production, distribution logistics, sales, and other departments from adverse effects of the pandemic in the first quarter of 2020. Feihe announced that its revenue growth rate in the first quarter of 2020 would not be less than 30 per cent. However, due to the impact of COVID-19, the pattern of competition among milk powder brands had quietly changed. Although Feihe had successfully gained a share of the high-end market, which had previously been dominated by foreign brands, its proportion of this market was still not high. At the same time, the rapid rise of other domestic brands had disturbed Feihe’s brand appeal of being “more suitable for Chinese babies” and its claim that its sales were far ahead in China. How should Feihe further adjust its strategy to properly deal with its competitive relationship with other brands?

In 1989, Tracy Edwards, at age 26, led the first all-female crew in the prestigious and grueling 59,264-kilometre (32,000 nautical mile) Whitbread Round the World Race. Edwards had developed a deep love for sailing in general and for the Whitbread Round the World Race in particular. However, she soon found that it was impossible, as a woman, to participate as a fully integrated member of a crew. Hence, she sought to organize an all-female team to compete in the race. She located, bought, and restored an old racing yacht, which eventually was christened Maiden. The idea of a team of women racing in the Whitbread Round the World Race was unthinkable to many men in and around the world of yacht racing, so the backlash was predictable and intense, and the hurdles to successfully complete the race seemed insurmountable. This six-part case series chronicles the myriad challenges faced by Edwards and her colleagues before and during the race, including rampant sexism and misogyny. Each of the six cases sets the stage for the next challenge Edwards has to overcome.

In February 2020, Pan-China Consulting Services Co. Ltd. (Pan-China) was entering its third decade in operation. Pan-China’s founder was reviewing the firm’s evolution and discussing several key opportunities with his team. Over the previous two decades, the company had shown solid performance in providing financial and capital markets advice to over 200 companies. It had generated strong returns for its key investors, who ensured that every deal was financially secured by the company’s auditing, financial, and consulting expertise. However, the founder and his two senior advisers had to make some decisions. Should Pan-China participate in a new round of private placement investment? Should it consider investing in a second opportunity? Which fund issuance would be the best fit for Pan-China? Was its consulting and investment business model sustainable?

In January 2020, Kombi Sports Inc. was at a strategic crossroads in a changing industry. The Montreal-based firm had evolved from a niche provider of alpine performance gloves to a premium Canadian winter apparel brand. Its success could be attributed, at least in part, to its strong collaborative stance and interesting partnerships. However, increasing competition in the industry, particularly among brick-and-mortar retailers, raised questions for Kombi about how and where it should focus its efforts for future growth.

Based in Bengaluru, India, Invento Robotics (Invento) was a start-up that manufactured humanoid robots. In October 2017, Invento received a mandate to develop a humanoid robot to welcome India’s prime minister and the US president’s senior adviser at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit that year in Hyderabad. It was a high-stakes event for Invento; a positive reception to the robots would mean many leads for the company, while a negative response could mar Invento’s reputation. While Invento’s time had hitherto been spent on research and development, there was pressure for it to now determine an overall marketing strategy. It was imperative that Invento quickly crystallize ideas about its customers, product positioning, branding, pricing, distribution channels, and promotions.

At the November 2019 Open Day conference, the vice-president of JD.com shared his understanding of the role that supplier collaboration played in an uncertain environment. Through 15 years of fast growth, JD.com had become the largest business-to-consumer platform in China with more than 30,000 suppliers. Using a boundless retail strategy, JD.com had to build a seamless channel from supplier to customer, which required a close look at how to collaborate with the suppliers through digital technology. However, working with people from different companies raised many challenges. Without a proper solution, the effectiveness of the supplier collaboration would suffer.

Jay Bharat Spices Pvt. Ltd., a company located in Cuttack, India, was involved in the manufacturing and distribution of spices across India under the brand name Bharat Masala. The company specialized in producing basic spices such as turmeric powder, cumin powder, and chili powder. The senior management team had recently noticed a rise in demand for the spice garam masala in the East India market and asked the company’s vice-president of East India operations to oversee the launch of this new product over the next six months. The vice-president was now struggling with multiple constraints related to the launch, including storage capacity in the warehouse and various financial constraints that were forcing him to look for a more economical and efficient solution.