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The co-manager and partner at Escape Outdoors (EO), North Sydney, Nova Scotia had to decide if the adoption of Herschel Supply Co. (Herschel) products—as part of her outdoor store’s product mix—was a good decision for her company. Herschel had never been included in the traditional outdoor mix of brands, and EO’s market was an older clientele than Herschel’s. Marketing factors affecting her decision to adopt a new brand included buyer behaviour, marketing informatics, segmentation, differentiation, and positioning. However, Herschel was a post-millennial-focused brand, and the company’s representative believed the younger demographic was becoming more interested in outdoor recreation. EO’s co-manager and partner had concerns. Did Herschel fit EO’s values, current brand mix, and customer base? Should EO adopt the brand? Which specific lines or products would be the best fit? How much inventory should EO begin with?

The case discusses the opportunities and challenges faced by Lladró SA (Lladró), a Spanish luxury porcelain brand, when marketing itself in India in 2019. Lladró was known for its high quality, artistic, and handcrafted porcelain pieces created in its workshop in Valencia, Spain. In India, Lladró had gained popularity among high net-worth individuals and corporate executives through its “Spirit of India” series of sculptures featuring Hindu gods and goddesses in porcelain. However, with the changes in the luxury paradigm the company was striving to reorient the brand as a lifestyle luxury brand with a focus on functionality in its product offerings. The case raises questions about the future direction the brand should take in India without risking its prestige status. What strategies should Lladró adopt to target specific buyers in India? Would the company benefit from its expanding product portfolio or run the risk of diluting its exclusive luxury image with this growing product portfolio?

In mid-2019, the owner of Ireland Renovations was contemplating the future of his renovation and construction company that operated in London and Middlesex County in Ontario, Canada. The owner’s youngest son was interested in working for the business, but the owner wondered whether the company could afford to hire him. His son had previously worked for the company part-time and had shown an interest in helping his father grow the business. The owner decided to project and analyze cash budgets for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 to determine whether hiring his son would be a feasible option.

In 2018, Software development corporation iQmetrix Software Development Corp. (iQmetrix), headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, had experienced exponential growth and success over the past two decades. The company’s head of People and Culture, was interested in the debate over the ideal performance appraisal process. After reading a few articles in the Harvard Business Review, she was considering dropping traditional performance appraisals and replacing them with written feedback only. To make an informed decision, she conducted a quasi-experiment by assigning employees to different performance evaluation conditions and then examined employee perceptions six months later to determine which evaluation format she should adopt company-wide.

In December 2018, Boom Technology Inc., a start-up based in Colorado, United States, was hoping to enter the aviation market with a supersonic aircraft. The company’s founder and chief executive officer believed that customers would pay a premium for a flight that could get them to their destination in less than half the time compared to current options.<br><br>Developing meaningful relationships within this complex web of stakeholders, including large and powerful traditional aircraft makers, regulators, airlines, and end customers, was one of the biggest challenges. In addition, two other start-ups had similar aims and were also developing relationships and alliances with different businesses in the sector.<br><br>The company’s founder was contemplating several key business decisions. Was supersonic flight a technologically possible and economically viable form of transport? How could the company convince airlines to buy the supersonic aircraft? Was building a supersonic private business jet a safer bet?

Boston-based Project Have Hope was a non-profit social enterprise promoting financial stability for 100 women in Kampala, Uganda, who had been displaced as a result of Uganda’s civil war. Established in 2006, Project Have Hope used revenue from the sale of paper bead jewellery and other products made by the women to provide training, loans, and children’s tuition. The project faced many challenges over the years, including an unplanned expansion of its beneficiaries, staffing challenges, an oversaturated bead jewellery market, rising costs, and the founder’s unsustainable workload. In 2019, Project Have Hope was at a nexus: how could the founder sustain Project Have Hope into the future?

Blake Vince is a fifth-generation farmer who adheres to seemingly unconventional farming techniques. Most farmers in southwestern Ontario use conventional industrial farming methods such as tilling their fields, relying on pesticides and fertilizers, and monocropping (i.e., planting the same crops on the same plot of land year after year). Vince, however, embraces more regenerative agricultural practices (such as no-till farming, wherein the top layer of soil is left undisturbed), planting cover crops, and reducing his application of chemical inputs. He uses a variety of cover crops between seasons of soybean crops to help enhance soil quality. This method of farming has been demonstrated to be more ecologically aligned, sustainable, and less costly in the long run, both economically and environmentally. However, Vince estimates that the savings come at the expense of crop yields during the first four to five years. Debates over farming practices (e.g., till versus no-till) were strong in Ontario. Farmers cared passionately about their land, and they often held strong opinions of their preferred approach, passed down through generations. Vince faces the challenge of spreading the word about regenerative agricultural practices and convincing farmers of the importance of operating as long-term stewards to preserve the land for future generations. Vince wondered whether the arguments for regenerative agricultural practices would be strong enough to persuade (a) farmers to shift their practices, (b) consumers to shift their purchasing, and (c) political leaders to introduce policies to accelerate its adoption.

On March 25, 2019, the head of business growth for SmartMoney, owned by the Indian conglomerate Smart Industries Limited, was expected by his company’s management team to propose a strategy for capturing 10 per cent of India’s digital payments market in financial year 2019–20. He knew that the market was vast and fragmented and that he was working with a platform business, where fast mobilization was a key factor. SmartMoney already had market presence, resources, and the required expertise to be competitive on the merchant side of the industry over the long term. Therefore, the immediate and considerable challenge was how to mobilize the consumer side, where the company faced various well-established and aggressive incumbents. To thoroughly asses the market, the head of business growth had to integrate a great deal of available information. He would need to select the right entry strategy and target a consumer segment, offering appropriate incentive schemes to attract business. His challenge was to devise a strategy and build a stable, substantial customer base that would deliver the desired results to sustain long-term growth for both SmartMoney and its parent company.

Ballard Power Systems Inc. (Ballard), a Canadian disruptor in the clean energy sector, developed and produced hydrogen-powered fuel cells. The company had been revolutionary, but after many years in business the company was still research-oriented and doing more demonstration projects than selling fuel cells to customers. Revenues and stocks were sagging and employees, many of whom had been with the company for years, were disaffected. The energy company with a proud history of being a disruptor was, itself, at risk of being disrupted. The job of the new chief executive officer (CEO) was to motivate the staff and create in them a disruptive mindset that would carry the company forward into a new customer-focused future. There was an entrenched belief that Ballard was skilled at developing good ideas and that new technology needed to give way to the new ethos of being a customer-centred, disruptive, problem-solving organization. How could the CEO embed the changes and ensure the new values drove Ballard’s growth?

P. N. Gadgil Jewellers Private Limited, based in India, was formed from the most recent separation of the original Gadgil family business, whose origins dated back to the 18th century. The company's gold, silver, and diamond jewellery were all sold under the P. N. Gadgil (PNG) brand. The company expanded from six stores and revenue of ₹13 billion in 2012 to 26 stores and revenue of ₹21 billion in 2016. Although the company focused on professionalizing the business operations by recruiting professionals and adopting new systems and processes, more work was needed to fully achieve a separate identity. Repeated instances of unsatisfactory customer experiences, which had occurred at the other Gadgil family businesses, were having a negative impact on the company's brand image. What strategy could the company follow to differentiate its own PNG brand from the other Gadgil businesses? Should it pursue an expensive brand valuation and hold the other family business to a contractual agreement that disallowed the use of the PNG brand name? Would the other businesses consent to such an agreement?

In May 2016, three scientists from Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology were preparing for a meeting with several managers from the institute's technology transfer department. The three scientists were planning to commercialize a new technology they had created, and hoped to use their invention to launch a new company as a spinoff from their work at the institute. However, because the scientists had created the technology while working at the institute, the technology was legally owned by the institute. The focus of their meeting with the institute's management was (1) to plan for the protection of their invention by registering relevant patents and (2) to discuss the terms for a suitable agreement between both parties. The scientists wanted to clarify how they might be able to use the technology to launch their spinoff company. Specifically, they were eager to determine their rights to the patents that would be registered for their intellectual property. They hoped the meeting would clarify any conflicts between the interests of the scientists and those of the university, and would determine the party responsible for costs related to protecting the intellectual property.

The chief commissioner of the New South Wales branch of the Scout Association of Australia (Scouts NSW) was appointed in mid-2016, and the last couple of years had presented many challenges. The strategic plan inherited from the last chief commissioner had effected some positive changes across the organization, but the membership numbers were still in a declining trend. While the organization was not in dire financial straits, current operations were not only unsustainable but also affecting the organization’s ability to deliver the quality values-based programs that Scouts had once been well known for. For the next three years (2019–2021), Scouts NSW would need an innovative strategic plan that addressed marketing, revenue generation, and capital repositioning while respecting the organization’s not-for-profit, youth-focused, and values-based structure.

Based in Mwanza, Tanzania, family-owned and operated Exotic Expeditions Tanzania Ltd. was a leading tour operator in East Africa. The company was purchased in December 2014 and experienced considerable success the following year. The owners felt that there was an opportunity for growth within the company and believed that the best way to realize this growth was to improve their marketing efforts and service offerings. The family wanted to remain profitable and reach the company’s goal of offering the best service in the industry while increasing revenue by 25 per cent within the next three years. To do this, the owners had to reach a consensus on the best marketing plan to help them differentiate against numerous competitors and continue to deliver optimal service offerings.

In December 2016, two years after the founding of Medicloud, a Singapore-based start-up that offered a medical appointment-booking application, the founder and chief executive officer recognized that the start-up had yet to monetize. A decision regarding a pivot was imminent. He also recognized that there were new opportunities in the areas of employee benefits and insurance for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). He needed to answer two pressing questions before the company’s initial funding ran out: Should the start-up pivot to serve SMEs? If so, what kind of products and services should it offer to the SMEs?

此個案聚焦於身處電子專業製造服務 (Electronic Manufacturing Service, EMS) 的A公司，如何應用數據分析，回應變動快速的訂單需求，以及旺季作業員離職率高的人力資源規劃挑戰。透過本個案的討論與資料分析，學生將能對電子專業製造服務人力資源規劃、招募與甄選之流程有所了解。此外，透過資料分析，使同學思考進行數據分析時，如何將公司既有資料庫的文字或數據資料，轉換成可以進行統計分析的資料，並且進行統計分析。

A medium-sized Canadian provider of specialized educational products and services, Canada Specialization Providers, had a subsidiary, CS Publishing Inc. (CSPub), which sold specialty learning materials around the world. Although the company's costs and revenues were almost exclusively in Canadian dollars and its subsidiary, CSPub, had most of its costs in Canadian dollars, this subsidiary also had a large and growing revenue base in other currencies. Upon consolidation, the parent company was exposed to different currencies through CSPub. The foreign currency values were currently relatively minor, but in March 2019, CSPub was in the process of a large global expansion that would expose both the subsidiary and the parent to new sources of currency risk. The director of CSPub needed to clarify the company's current and expected future exposures to currency risk and determine how these exposures might affect the parent company. She also needed to identify the processes that could help manage these future risks and decide which of these processes to implement, if any.

In January 2019, the sole proprietor and the general manager of Farm Electronics met to discuss critical options for the possible growth path of their company. Farm Electronics was a 42-year-old, small-scale electrical and electronic industrial equipment manufacturer based in Indore, India. The company’s product portfolio consisted of various transformers, relay coils, power supplies, and direct-current motors, which were designed according to its customers’ specifications. Farm Electronics’ customers consisted of small-, medium-, and large-scale businesses from both the organized and unorganized sectors. Significant aspects of the company’s value proposition included quality, timely delivery, and after-sales service. However, most of Farm Electronics’ revenue came from only a few big accounts. The proprietor and the general manager wanted to expand their company’s reach and were thus contemplating targeting a new set of customers.

This case examines the business decisions around managing the community impact of a mining development in the Gobi Desert region of Mongolia at Oyu Tolgoi—one of the larger copper and gold deposits in the world, and a flagship project of Rio Tinto. In 2009, a mining development agreement was reached with the Government of Mongolia on the national level, but negotiations were just ramping up at the local level. New legislation mandated the creation of a local-level agreement, but the exact requirements were vague, leaving a great deal of ambiguity about the obligations of the company. Hoping to establish its so-called social licence to operate, Rio Tinto committed to discussions with local authorities, but the many stakeholders involved have competing interests.

Swadhaar FinServe Private Limited (Swadhaar), a non-banking financial company–microfinance institution (NBFC-MFI), was set up in Mumbai, India in 2008 with the objective of providing the urban poor with increased access to financial services. Swadhaar was a leading provider of financial services to clients in several major states of India. Between 2009 and 2013, there were major changes in the regulatory environment; some of these restricted the scope of MFIs and others opened new business opportunities. Although Swadhaar was able to reach financial sustainability with its existing business model, its founder was always looking at growth strategies to achieve her mission. In late 2014, RBL Bank Ltd. offered to become a strategic investor in Swadhaar. In early 2015, Swadhaar’s founder needed to decide whether or not to accept RBL Bank Ltd.’s proposal.

The chief human resources (HR) officer at National Pharmaceuticals (National), established in 1937 in Bihar, India, had been with the organization since 2007. The organization had been facing high employee attrition rates since 2013. Although the organization had reduced its employee attrition rate from 44 per cent in financial year (FY) 2014–15 to 25 per cent in FY 2017–18, the organization was yet to reach the industry benchmark rate of 12–13 per cent. This issue needed to be urgently resolved, as the organization would soon launch a new product range for which it required additional employees. A meeting was called with all the functional heads within HR. As the group discussed what had gone wrong and what had helped National in the past, they identified several factors that had led to the company’s high employee attrition rate and noted various human linked HR policies. The group had two weeks to create an effective action plan to meet the benchmark attrition rate of 12 per cent. This plan would be presented to the board of directors. Should the company change its recruitment, selection, performance management, and training policies to create the organizational culture the leaders aspire to? Should it invest in more training and development?