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In late 2019, the chief people officer at World Vision Canada was feeling overwhelmed. Eighteen months earlier, she had exited her intense and successful career in the private sector to join World Vision Canada, a leading international development charity. While she embraced the organization’s mission-driven ethos of collaboration and collegiality, it had led to an excess of meetings. In just the past week, she had attended more than 100 meetings. Was it time to resurrect the organization’s previous attempts to address its meeting culture? What roadblocks had prevented the success of those previous attempts? How could the chief people officer continue to be an advocate for a culture of collaboration and inclusivity while also ensuring a change to the meeting culture?

The two co-founders of PharmEasy, an online medical store and pharmacy website launched in 2015, faced a new challenge in December 2018. Recent judgments by the Madras and Delhi High Courts had suspended the operations of India’s more than 250 online pharmacies until new industry regulations could be drafted. Only a few months earlier, in August 2018, the Indian government had released proposed draft regulations for the online sale of medicine. However, an organization representing more than 850,000 pharmacists in India had staged a one-day strike to protest the government’s proposal. Should PharmEasy take a cautious approach with its ambitious expansion plans until the government introduces regulations? Or would its competitors seize the opportunity to move forward aggressively to gain market share? The co-founders recognized that the regulatory uncertainty was creating confusion. They needed to decide on their next steps quickly—and communicate their intentions to all stakeholders.

In late 2018, the founder and owner of Pupadise, Inc., a pet care business in Canada, was nearing her graduation from university and needed to decide what to do with the business she had built in her undergraduate years. Pupadise cared for clients’ pets when the pet owners could not; its services primarily consisted of live-in and drop-in pet care. The owner was considering selling the business, but was concerned that the sale price would be low because her business had no traditional assets. Inspired by a guest speaker in her pricing class, she realized that her client list of 300 pet owners had value, but wondered how to price it. She had a meeting scheduled with a prospective buyer and wanted to prepare. Should she sell her business, and if so, for how much?

The owner of Manipal Power Laundry asked his nephew, an MBA student, for advice on the business. The company’s operational inefficiencies had led to high operating costs over time. Coupled with regulatory price caps, the situation made the business unsustainable. The owner asked his nephew to provide a solution that would benefit the company both in the short term and over the long term. After observing the various processes, collecting data, and interviewing employees, the nephew decided to use process flow analysis to help the company optimize its operations.

Nashwork was founded in July 2013 in Beijing and developed into the largest co-working space company in China by focusing on rapid expansion and internal growth. Nashwork received A-round financing, which was followed by B-round financing one year later, before a series of problems surfaced in the basic operations of the company. By 2017, after three rough years building its customer base and occupancy, the main problem facing Nashwork was its dated and incompatible internal operations system. The company had to resolve issues with the company’s organizational structure, staff, and skill sets to support the company’s strategic transformation.

In May 2017, the recently appointed chief executive officer of Sobeys, the second-largest grocer in Canada, was considering the company’s financial difficulties. He was tasked with saving Sobeys from near insolvency and planning strategically for the company’s core grocery business. Sobeys had posted a loss of CA$2.1 billion for the fiscal year ending May 2016, compared to a profit of $419 million just a year earlier, partially due to a high-profile acquisition that had gone sour. In addition, a ratings agency had downgraded Sobeys’s debt to junk level, citing underperformance and lost market share as the reasons. The new chief executive officer devised an interim three-year growth plan called Project Sunrise, which had two main objectives: quickly relieve Sobeys of its troubled financial situation, and prepare for the long-term industry disruption that was becoming prevalent, both locally and globally.

In 2017, the chief information officer (CIO) of Midwest Health System (Midwest), a major health care provider in a central town in the United States, noticed that incorrect billing, data theft, waste, fraud, and abuse in the health care industry had increased over the years. Compliance requirements related to various rules and regulations had also posed increasing challenges. The CIO wanted to meet with his colleagues in the information systems and audit groups to review risks related to information technology and the billing and collection process—the most critical process in terms of its impact on Midwest’s operations and financial statements. His plan was to modify and strengthen existing controls and to institute new ones to mitigate the significant risks identified. The CIO believed that better controls would enable Midwest to improve patient satisfaction and reduce loss of revenues due to incorrect billing, fraud, and other factors by ensuring better security processes while complying with various rules and regulations.

綠藤生機不但在台灣的永續企業領域享有盛名，也多次獲得國際上B型企業相關獎項的最高榮譽，實踐在理想與現實間達到平衡的永續商業模式。

Brewing Peace was a company based in the Philippines that sold coffee beans. Despite having a base of 80 customers, 70 per cent of its business depended on 9 key accounts; this included its biggest buyer, Concepcion Coffee Enterprises Limited (CCEL), which accounted for 20 per cent of Brewing Peace’s revenues. After a ₱30 million order from CCEL with a profit margin of less than 20 per cent, a payment period of 90 days, and a short delivery time, the co-founder of Brewing Peace was forced to review its relationship with its biggest client. The dilemma facing Brewing Peace was that it could not accept this order on CCEL’s terms without jeopardizing the company’s payment terms with its vendors and affecting the supply for orders, worth ₱25 million, to its other customers.

In 2018, the Singapore-based real estate agency OrangeTee launched a new, online platform in response to disruptive innovation in the real estate sector. Property Agents Review allowed clients to rate and review OrangeTee’s agents upon the completion of a real estate transaction. After a hard-fought campaign to overcome initial resistance to the idea, agents credited the new platform with an increase in referrals. OrangeTee proudly championed Property Agents Review as an example of embracing technology and a future-focused outlook. Nevertheless, the management team understood that there was more work to be done. For example, the platform’s technology could be easily copied by competitors. What could they do to stay at the forefront of technology?

Based in the Canadian Prairies, Promotions Manufacturing had been manufacturing promotional items for over 40 years. The organizational structure consisted of four manufacturing units and the administration department, each with its own distinctive staffing needs and cost structure; consequently, profitability calculations and operations management had become increasingly difficult. In June 2018, the question of how to allocate the overhead and administration costs to each manufacturing unit became a pressing concern. The different cost allocation methods resulted in diverse profitability levels. Subsequently, decision-making with regard to production priorities, operation scheduling, and staffing needs had become unsystematic, often resulting in missed deadlines and disappointed customers. The general manager had to make a decision: which cost allocation method would offer the most accurate profit centre profitability, provide guidelines in reorganizing operations, and result in higher efficiencies?

Haboydem was a second hand clothing store in Jerusalem that operated as a social enterprise by hiring and training individuals who were living with mental illness. The two store locations had successfully trained workers, and 70 per cent were able to find employment in mainstream businesses; however, in mid-2017, the co founders faced new issues. How should they deal with emerging competition from other second hand clothing retailers? How should they address the possibility of partnerships with other organizations? Should the company expand to additional locations or into additional activities? How should the co-founders measure Haboydem’s success? They needed to reflect on how to best address these challenges, and how their social enterprise could best move forward toward a long term future.

Over a 10-year period, from 2008 to 2018, Indian tire production increased from 80 to 180 million units. Indian tire companies were thriving and investing heavily abroad. Four Indian tire companies were among the top 30 tire makers in the world. Although India was expected to experience high or hyper-growth in tire manufacturing, growth at such a fast pace brought uncertainties and risks. In addition to competition from low-cost tires imported to India, the industry was challenged by volatile pricing for the raw materials used in tire production, government initiatives that were having unintended consequences on tire sales, environmental considerations, and protectionism in India’s largest export markets. What strategies did the industry need to reach profitability despite the ups and downs of the supply market, its dependence on large customers, changes in government policies, and environmental protection initiatives?

In January 2015, the founder and chairman of Sunyuki Agricultural Co., Ltd. (Sunyuki), was considering a major change to his company. Founded in 2010, Sunyuki was one of the first online fresh-food retailers in southwest China, providing safe, fresh, organic foods to high-end consumers who had a strong preference for high dietary quality. Since its launch, Sunyuki had achieved soaring average annual growth rates of almost 100 per cent. However, it was becoming difficult to attract new customers through online channels alone. Therefore, the founder was considering the option of opening physical stores as an off-line channel to complement the company's successful online sales and distribution channel. Because of rapid growth in the fresh-food industry and intensifying competition, the founder needed to carefully consider the company’s next steps. If Sunyuki opted to expand off-line, how should it proceed? Specifically, how should the company manage a new online and offline strategy in an omnichannel sales and distribution environment?

In 2011, the vice-president of Craig Manufacturing (CM)was preparing a presentation for the company’s advisory board and senior management. Craig Manufacturing, based in New Brunswick, Canada, was a privately held, third-generation family business that manufactured attachments for heavy equipment used in large construction projects in Canada and the United States. The company had achieved a strong reputation by pursuing a differentiation strategy based on product quality, leading technology, and exceptional customer service. However, the company needed new revenue streams, as it was experiencing less demand for its customized heavy equipment attachments. The vice-president was about to suggest launching a new product line by producing attachments for mini, or compact, construction equipment and growing the company with a cost leadership strategy. However, entering this market would mean focusing on standardized products, in contrast to the company’s traditional focus on customized attachments. Would the new product line and its cost leadership strategy help propel the company to be the leading manufacturer of industrial attachments in Canada and the United States?

In early 2015, the chief executive officer of Bumbox Logistics Private Limited (Bumbox) faced a challenge. The company, launched in Singapore, provided smart lockers for use by delivery companies and consumers to ensure the safe and timely receipt of online purchases. The lockers offered an attractive opportunity, given their ability to resolve last-mile delivery problems that plagued both logistics companies and online consumers. Despite the promising business concept, 18 months after launching, the business had not gained much traction—or revenue. The chief executive officer was fully aware of the company’s multiple challenges: because parcel lockers were a new concept in Singapore, consumers needed to be educated on their use; the company faced competition from other companies, including the nation’s post office; and while increasing the number of smart lockers would help the company succeed, expanding the network could only be justified once the lockers were being widely used. The company had tried to target three segments—online shoppers/consumers, logistics companies, and e-tailers—but because of limited resources, it needed to focus on one segment only. What strategy should the chief executive officer follow to take Bumbox to the next level?

In May 2018, Philippe Boisclair, business owner and president of McGill St Laurent (MSL), sought to grow the firm and increase annual profitability by CA$35 million by 2020. MSL was a medium-sized commodities trading firm with interests in wood, grain, and energy. Founded in 2009 by two business school graduates and veterans of the lumber industry, MSL had enjoyed significant growth. The company had not only expanded into grain and energy trading but had also diversified its wood business to encompass architectural design and manufacturing as well as industrial lumber products. Boisclair, a serial entrepreneur, had to decide on a corporate growth strategy, which he had to present at the upcoming advisory board meeting.

In June 2019, the founder and chairman of Shandong Moris Chemical Co. Ltd. (Moris), a leading chemical production group, had to decide whether Moris should diversify into an unrelated industry. Moris’s main business had been the production and processing of brine chemicals. With several of its chemical products dominating worldwide markets, Moris had become a hidden champion in these industry segments. Through the company’s most recent diversification move into water treatment and land improvement, the founder had stretched Moris’s corporate umbrella beyond purely chemical businesses, hoping to transform the negative corporate image associated with chemical industries. Now, he had to determine whether the cultural and creative industries would fit with this strategic aspiration, especially since a move into this area would be the first unrelated diversification for the company.

In October 2001, the co-founder and vice-president of Veritas Investment Research Corporation (Veritas), was considering his next steps as he prepared to issue a highly critical report on Bombardier Inc. (Bombardier). The vice-president believed that Bombardier had relied upon accounting innovations rather than operating innovations in order to report accounting profits. While numerous issues concerned the vice-president, one of the most critical was the way the company had managed the relationships between its various operating segments. These issues had developed over recent years and threatened to increase following the business decisions in the wake of September 11, 2001, which had dramatically affected the sale of aircraft. The vice-president’s investment report would have significant consequences for numerous stakeholders and would affect both his own and Veritas’s reputations. How should Veritas interpret the various issues related to Bombardier’s accounting and reporting choices?

Tea Connect, a chain of five tea cafés in India, had ended 2019 with sales revenues of ₹48.1 million. The co-founder of Tea Connect had the ambitious target of opening 20 cafés and achieving sales revenues of ₹200 million by 2020. The co-founder planned the renovation of the cafés to improve the speed of service, but he also wanted to launch Tea Connect–branded consumer packaged products. Three franchising offers for stores in Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Mount Abu were also under consideration. He was wondering whether renovation would help to enhance the customer experience and whether this was the right time to launch consumer packaged goods. Also, was it the right time to explore the franchise route of expansion?