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Mariam Naficy (Minted CEO) and Melissa Kim (Minted COO) have grown the company to become a leader in the online printed cards, independent design and art market segments. As the business has continued to scale they wrestle with simultaneously growing their existing business while also looking at expanding into new markets, all the while keeping their existing customer base engaged. The case highlights the difficult decisions management faces in deciding where to pursue growth opportunities when choices might be overly abundant.

Tel Aviv-based Diskit Khartsan Ltd. sold sprays, traps, and netting to combat Blatta lateralis, the Israeli flying cockroach. The insect, slightly over one inch (2.54 cm) long and capable of flying short distances, was noisy, unsightly, and posed a risk of food contamination. Every heat wave brought more infestations, and consumers across the Mediterranean armed themselves with Diskit's HLHâ„¢ brand products. HLH products generated nearly two-thirds of Diskit's annual revenues. During periods of low demand, local retailers resisted devoting significant shelf space to the bulky products, which meant that during periods of high demand stockouts occurred frequently and Diskit lost sales. To address this problem, the company had implemented a trust receipts program that raised prices for retailers by 3 percent but allowed them to take Diskit products onto their balance sheets without payment until the products were sold.

In April 2014, the co-founder of lifestyle brand dpms., situated in London, Ontario, has a dilemma. Started as an opportunity to showcase her partner's graphic designs, dpms. first produced silk-screened t-shirts, then branched into jewelry and other locally produced products as the company succeeded. They maintain a booth at a weekly farmers' and artisans' market and travel to other festivals around the province but rely mainly on word-of-mouth promotion and their social media presence to advertise their wares. She was excited about an article that was to appear in a local newspaper, but when the article was published, it contained several inaccuracies. She is deciding how she should handle the situation and how the options to confront or not confront the reporter will reflect on her fledgling company.

In May 2013, the director of transitional and community programs at Women's Community House (WCH) must decide whether to renew the retail lease on WCH's used-clothing boutique, Mine101. This social enterprise was launched to generate income for WCH's children's programming, but lost money in its first two years of operations. The decision to renew the lease begs a larger question: Should Women's Community House continue to operate Mine101? The director must conduct an analysis of the performance of Mine101 and recommend whether or not to continue operating the social enterprise.

In 2012, Manish Enterprises, a leading coal supplier firm located in Ludhiana, India, was facing a decline in growth. A year later, a business graduate was appointed as the chief executive officer of the company. He managed to reduce the cash cycle from six months to three months by running the operations of the firm efficiently. Sales increased by 127 per cent, and the firm began financing its growth by taking advances from customers. The firm was thus able to reduce its investment in current assets. However, despite adopting best practices, the profitability of the business was declining. The challenges then faced by Manish Enterprises were to manage growth and liquidity while retaining profitability.

Neelkanth Drugs Pvt. Ltd. (NDPL), one of the leading pharmaceutical distributors in Delhi, was making plans for further expansion, and the dynamic nature of the business was leading this small- and medium-sized enterprise towards implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The company's head of information technology had prepared a complete report on the various ERP solutions available for NDPL and presented it to the chief executive officer (CEO). According to this analysis, cloud-based ERP was the best solution out of the various options available. The CEO was indecisive because of NDPL's past cloud experience, which had been disruptive and unsatisfactory, to say the least. The CEO pondered whether it would make sense to go for a cloud-based ERP solution, or whether it would make more sense to look for an alternative that may not be as cost-effective but that would entail less risk.

This two-part case revolves around a mandate given by Ganesh Purandare, head of the financial services business unit at SDL, a growing software development company, to Mohua Sen, head of recruitment for the division, whereby he asks her to reduce recruitment times. For SDL, each lateral hire is done against a billable opportunity. Hence, timely or early fulfilment is critical not only to ensuring project deliverables but also for addressing the immediate billability question. Part A: Mohua Sen examines the entire process timelines and considers the feasibility of reducing recruitment times. The principles of business process re-engineering are used to study the problem of process cycle time reduction. Students are asked to provide possible solutions.

The case evaluates the approach of BC Ferry Services Inc. (BC Ferries), a public marine transportation organization, to health, safety and environmental protection (HSE). With 35 vessels that provide year-round passenger and vehicle services to 47 West Coast terminals, BC Ferries is based in Victoria, British Columbia. On March 22, 2006, one of BC Ferries' vessels, the Queen of the North, struck Gil Island, killing two passengers and causing irreversible damage to sensitive coastal marine areas. On May 13, 2013, the navigation officer of the Queen of the North, Karl Lilgert, was charged with criminal negligence and sentenced to four years in prison. Even with the ending of the trial and years of investigations, questions still remain unanswered about what happened on the tragic night of the ship's sinking.

Since the early days of skateboarding in Southern California, Volcom, through its founders, has been intrinsically associated with the sport. Its motto, "youth against establishment," has stood strong through three decades. The company has been truly in touch with its customers and has learned to evolve with them-styles, tastes, activities, music, and behavior. Skateboarding, from a marketing perspective, has transcended the U.S. borders and has become a global phenomenon with its own unique culture, rules, and values. However, as the brand lands on foreign shores, it must establish local roots and develop/adapt its personality. Possibly, influence marketing solely via American riders may need a strong face lift in view of the different roles that skateboarding may play in other cultures. Millennials like brands that are open source and embrace participation. They are sensitive to diversity, value global community, and care about the environment. They spend almost six hours a day online and use social media daily. Besides, skateboarding (and all action sports) is increasingly connected with music and popular culture. Volcom's CMO faces several challenges: balance revenue growth and brand authenticity, balance the localization of marketing and sales with the standardization of functional processes, and balance the need to meet profit targets while protecting market share.

In the spring of 2003, the World Health Organization identified a worldwide epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that had started in China and spread to the rest of the world, with early cases reported in Toronto and Vancouver. Little was known about the disease, which meant that symptoms were often misdiagnosed as simple flu, and the infection spread rapidly. After the third SARS-related death occurred in Ontario in mid-March, the provincial premier declared a state of emergency, which was finally lifted on May 17 when it appeared the outbreak had ended. A week later, on May 23, four new cases were reported at Toronto's North York General Hospital. The lack of public health infrastructure in Ontario combined with its hospitals' noncompliance with following existing policies concerning infection control and especially the lack of communication between hospitals, health organizations and levels of governments, with numerous spokespersons making uncoordinated and sometimes contradictory announcements, all led to the public perception that the government and health care authorities did not know what they were doing or were lying about the severity of the outbreak. Before the next provincial election, the premier must examine and address what could have been prevented, how public health interventions were managed and the differences between public health responses in Toronto and Vancouver.

A university student is working on a group project for a case-based business ethics course. Just over a week before the project deadline, one of her fellow group members reveals that he has found part (B) of the assigned case on the Internet. He has read this document, which specifies exactly what the company has done to address the challenge in the case they are working on. It is clear to the protagonist that her group cannot use this information, but she is unsure of how to handle the situation.

In 2014, Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) were quickly gaining popularity as an investment vehicle which joined together private investors and nonprofits to tackle social issues. Although numerous SIB projects and proposals had cropped up across the U.S. following the launch of the first SIB in the UK in 2010, none were explicitly focused on healthcare. Fresno, California announced the first healthcare SIB in 2013 to fund home-based programs to reduce asthma attacks. If successful, the Fresno SIB model would help solve the challenge of delivering preventative care efficiently in at-risk communities.

OpenTable considers adjustments to increase its benefits to merchants, including a novel payments service that lets customers skip the multi-step process of using a credit card.

Reed Hastings founded Netflix to provide a home movie service that would do a better job satisfying customers than the traditional retail rental model. But as it encountered challenges it underwent several major strategy shifts, ultimately developing a business model and an operational strategy that were highly disruptive to retail video rental chains. The combination of a large national inventory, a recommendation system that drove viewership across a broad catalog, and a large customer base made Netflix a force to be reckoned with, especially as a distribution channel for lower-profile and independent films. Blockbuster, the nation's largest retail video rental firm, was initially slow to respond, but ultimately rolled out a hybrid retail/online response in the form of Blockbuster Online. Aggressive pricing pulled in subscribers, but at a price to both it and Netflix. But a new challenge was on the horizon - the rapid growth of the company's online streaming service, which had a very different business model. Hastings' efforts to separate the activity into two separate companies met with strong pushback from consumers and the press. What was the best path forward?

An entrepreneur in Atlantic Canada believes he has a five to six year window to capitalize on the growth of his newest venture, Maritime Bus, a passenger transportation and parcel delivery service, before his retirement. Having turned around a business that lost $12 million over the previous eight years in less than six months, he believes he has the opportunity to continue this success. However, he is unsure what strategies to follow to achieve growth: expand the parcel service, partner with other transportation operators to attract more riders, increase marketing efforts or move into Newfoundland and Labrador. He is also unsure about the value of the business and how he can smoothly and profitably transfer his ownership shares to his partner, one or more of his children or an external investor. Any decision needs to be made in consultation with his family.

The IDIEM, through its Energy and Sustainability Department, has launched a new line of consultancy services for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) in Chile. A central component of this initiative is the online Catalogo Verde, a portal for the environmental rating of construction materials. The site is designed to provide technical specifications and detailed materials testing results for architects designing buildings to be certified as LEED compliant. The LEED certification constitutes a third-party validation of the energy and environmental performance of buildings. An LEED certification is seen by the general public as an indicator of corporate social responsibility and good citizenship for the owners and users. The IDIEM-Catalogo Verde was designed as a knowledge instrument for the engineering and architecture markets, but also as a tool to build relationships and open doors for other IDIEM services. Besides, it is a tool to build the IDIEM brand among key influencers in the construction industry, government agencies, real estate investors, and materials suppliers. Catalogo Verde has been very well received. The backing of IDIEM is an umbrella that guarantees its excellence and competence. Management has launched a series of initiatives to build up online traffic and accelerate the adoption of LEED by architects in Chile.

The CEO of University Hospital expressed concern about the financial viability of the hospital's trauma care operations. On the one hand, trauma care was an important part of the hospital's community service mission and, as a teaching hospital, also part of its educational mission. On the other hand, trauma care had been a money-losing proposition for many years, and also had caused disruptions to the hospital's other care-delivery services. The CEO and the chief trauma surgeon (who served as the hospital's director of trauma services) collaborated to rethink physical arrangements and processes to make trauma care more effective at a lower cost. A natural solution, growing out of concepts from organization design and process architecture, would be to reorganize resources and create an area dedicated to trauma care. For those familiar with operations management terminology, potential solutions can be drawn from cellular manufacturing concepts that have been effectively moved into the service sector. The case discussion helps to illustrate that changes in physical configuration cannot, by themselves, ensure success. Students are challenged to consider complementary factors that will support the configuration change, as well as the challenges the hospital might face in implementing and sustaining the reconfigured work unit.

April 2013, Leuven (Belgium). Sitting behind his desk at the Headquarters of Materialise, the company he founded and still led as CEO, Wilfried Vancraen reminisced about the exciting last few years. It had taken 20 years to lead the company from pioneer in 3D printing technology to the ultimate industry accolade, the receipt in 2011 of the RTAM Industry Achievement Award for the extensive contributions the firm had made to additive manufacturing. Revenues reached the $90 million mark in 2013, with 1,000+ employees. The company was broadly diversified, catering to different markets in both B2B and B2C sectors and was a clear market leader in applications such as software for additive manufacturing and biomedical engineering, as well as in biomedical 3D printing activities. But the competitive landscape was evolving quickly. Many new service bureaus were opening up. Hype about 3D printing was growing in the media. The barriers to entry (technological and financial) were, but becoming steeper in machine and material manufacturing. Vertical integration was starting to appear with big 3D printing machine manufacturers starting to acquire service providers, software developers and material manufacturers. It was a bit early to judge the effectiveness and long-term effects of this emerging trend. Further consolidation was clearly in sight. For Materialise, the options were numerous. It could become the consolidator, acquiring and merging into other players. But with its unique portfolio of competencies and activities, it could as easily become a seller in the process. It could also continue to grow independently. There was also the issue of whether it should seek further financing from the public in an IPO. Being an established prized player in the industry opened up many opportunities...

This relatively short case describes the development of Rolls-Royce's (RR) Seletar plant in Singapore, and in particular how the plant moved very quickly from a factory receiving information and innovation from its sister facility in the United Kingdom to a node in RR's manufacturing network. The Seletar plant in Singapore is RR's first overseas plant to assemble aircraft engines, as well as to produce some high tech components. The case is divided into three main parts, each discussing a key question: Why did RR decide to set up a plant in Singapore? How did RR develop in the early days of the plant (e.g. talent development, transfer of knowledge, etc.)? How did the RR Seletar plant evolve from a receiver of knowledge to a partner in the network? The case ends by asking the question how to maintain the good network interactions after the plant has matured, and the initial attention paid to the new plant by the UK management has subsided. The case pays particular attention to the transfer of knowledge from the UK to Singapore and the development of a capable local workforce and management.

In November 2013, GoldieBlox was accused of copyright infringement. It used the Beastie Boys song "Girls" in one of its advertisements promoting new toys for girls without permission. The company's reaction to file a lawsuit against the band was not well received and perhaps a little hasty.<br><br>In the wake of the crisis, the chief executive officer of GoldieBlox Toy Company and her team had some decisions to make regarding how to handle the lawsuit they filed against the Beastie Boys that then backfired. The hostile environment was not conducive to the image of the company and the negative media was of concern to GoldieBox and its employees.