個案總覽

Mint Tax was founded in Vienna in 1960. By 2019, the company had approximately 80 employees and a broad client base in the areas of taxation, accounting, and payroll services. Over the previous decade, the company had experienced many successes and failures, including mergers, acquisitions, separations, firm structure changes, and financial losses. However, it had always managed to recover. Mint Tax was considering an expansion of its digital products, services, and internal processes and practices. The founder's daughter and current chief executive officer was motivated and had innovative ideas, but faced various challenges that prevented implementation of many of the company's ideas. To overcome these challenges, what steps should the chief executive officer and her team take to understand the company's strategic management patterns, identify and evaluate the company's capabilities, and develop solutions?

By late 2018, a Singapore-based non-profit organization, billionBricks, had completed seven projects, rehabilitating more than a thousand homeless and disaster-stricken people in Asia. Its tent product was widely accepted and could, it was projected, meet the needs of millions of homeless people. Despite these achievements, the co-founder and chief executive officer felt that the company’s performance had not met his expectations. A key challenge was communicating with those who needed homes: the company’s traditional methods of communication were ineffective in reaching out to a marginalized population challenged by illiteracy and access to information. However, the prime minister of India had just announced his ambitious plan to end India’s homelessness and sought entrepreneurs for idea generation and execution. Should billionBricks participate in the government housing project to grow its Indian customer base, even if doing so included the risk of potential failure? Or should the company focus instead on other projects and risk being locked out of future housing projects in India?

Tetra Bio-Pharma (Tetra) was a new firm operating in a murky but promising industry—cannabinoid-derived pharmaceutical products. But, the firm had been so involved in navigating drug development and approval processes that it had lost track of its identity. The firm did not define itself initially, and with its rapid growth, shifting strategies, evolving competencies, and plethora of alliances, Tetra needed a stronger focus. Adding to the turmoil, the firm was operating within the rapidly changing global marijuana industry—essentially, uncharted waters. Given that the firm’s new drugs were about to receive government approval, the firm had to determine how to build its brand.

Saankhya Labs Private Limited (Saankhya), was a fabless semiconductor company formed in 2006 in Bengaluru, India. It provided innovative products and solutions used in consumer electronics, wireless communication, and broadcasting applications. Similar to other domestic telecommunications manufacturing companies in India, Saankhya found it difficult to penetrate the domestic equipment market. While its fluctuating fortunes had stabilized to some degree after 2016, the company continued to struggle in the face of regulatory uncertainty and competition from multinational giants, and the expected advantages of government initiatives intended to support the domestic industry had not yet materialized. In 2018, Saankhya's chief executive officer and co-founder wondered how long the company could survive under such competitive circumstances. Should it compete or collaborate with other stakeholders in the industry?

HCL Technologies Ltd. (HCL) was one of the big four information technology (IT) companies in India. The infrastructure services division (the company’s flagship revenue generator), had phenomenal growth over the years. However, by fiscal year 2015–16, the division was facing growth challenges. Market dynamics, including competition size and capability, client expectations, and the technology landscape, were all changing. The company was trying to build its corporate entrepreneurship function to prepare itself for adapting to these emerging challenges. The HCL enterprise technology office (ETO) exploration team had been chartered by the company to bring new technologies and breakthrough solutions into the organization. The company was looking forward to shifting away from its dependence on its traditional IT infrastructure outsourcing business and toward new technology domains.

On July 3, 2018, the president of AIESEC in Lebanon was pacing around the lobby of the conference venue before the morning plenary session. As one of the world’s largest youth-run organizations, AIESEC developed the youth of the world by sending them on cross-cultural exchange programs. The Lebanon chapter of AIESEC was established in 2011 and grew steadily in its early stages, until it began struggling with commitment and motivation problems at the leadership level, which spilled over to its members. Members who were once attracted by the promise of personal and professional development were leaving the inactive organization, which was no longer contributing to their growth. Lack of motivation and volunteer turnover were also causing a shortage of leadership candidates in the organization’s pipeline, which was having a serious impact on the long-term sustainability of AIESEC in Lebanon. From this conference session, the president of AIESEC in Lebanon hoped to address two main questions: How could member’s commitment be improved at AIESEC in Lebanon? What processes could be put in place to track the volunteer management changes?

Yueting Network Technology Company Ltd. (Airparking) was founded in Guangzhou in 2015 by a pair of former managers from a large, state-owned real estate company to solve a common problem in Chinese metropolitan cities: a severe lack of parking space. Airparking's business model, based on the sharing economy concept, allowed the company not only to optimize the distribution of parking spaces but also to increase the operational efficiency of parking lots through digital technologies and solutions. As the company grew, the founders pivoted their business model by spinning off an asset-management branch focused on financializing their digital technologies and parking facility management capabilities. By 2019, Airparking was a relatively mature regional start-up, and the co-founders were looking forward to future growth and looking for ways to scale both the Airparking platform and the related asset operation platform. Their dream was a ¥10 billion valuation for each.

In 2016, the general manager of Stone Rock Golf & Country Club (SRGCC) in Ainslie, Ontario, was considering an opportunity to grow the club’s weddings and special events business. SRGCC, a popular 18-hole golf course in a small town, was owned and operated by four local families, who ran the business according to their family values and their sense of loyalty and pride in their community. Since the golf industry had recently experienced a significant decline, the manager believed that increased investment in the weddings and special events business would help to strengthen and diversify SRGCC’s revenues. He was considering three different options, from modest to quite substantial: (1) focus on the immediate capital need of renovating the outdated maintenance facility; (2) make a large investment that included adding a new space for weddings and special events, expanded parking, and a new maintenance facility; or (3) do nothing and maintain the status quo. To complete the entire renovation, the club would require an investment of close to $1 million as well as approval from the four families. How could he build a case to increase SRGCC’s revenues and convince both his banker and the board of directors to accept his choice?

The sole owner of the Gusto 54 Restaurant Group (Gusto 54), which owned and operated nine restaurant concepts in Toronto and Los Angeles, had grown the restaurant group into a huge success story. In a competitive, low-margin industry, Gusto 54 outperformed its peers and consistently achieved its desired profit margins. Gusto 54's strategy was grounded in innovative growth, the use of technology, and empowerment of all employees to take an entrepreneurial approach to their roles. The owner had grown the company strategically, making business decisions based on her belief that her most valuable resource was having the right employees. She focused on building culture, hiring employees who fit the culture, and investing in the employee experience to retain them. She also made efforts to keep the leadership team lean and to include all members in decision-making. While Gusto 54's strategy had fuelled its present growth, in 2020, the owner was concerned about the impacts of rapid expansion. She wondered how to balance growth plans with the need to hire and retain top talent and maintain an engaged, motivated workforce. How could she scale up without losing the family-style culture her employees valued?

IDL Innovation Hong Kong Co. Ltd. (IDL) was a well-known interior design company specializing in commercial retail centres. The design company’s goal was to help its partners create more value by presenting effective interior design. However, with the rise of e-commerce, the financial performance of the conventional retail industry had dropped significantly. To help the industry regain customers, the design company developed a new business framework that combined online components with traditional consumer social spaces, based on the common interests, wants, and needs of consumers. In September 2018, the design company transformed a shopping centre in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China, that had been losing sales for some time. The shopping mall soon saw a substantial and consistent increase in foot traffic, sales, and revenue. The project was a great success for both the mall and IDL, but could this concept be also effective when applied to other projects?

ExtraCarbon was a company focused on the sorting stage of India’s unorganized waste management industry. The company was founded in 2013 with owners’ capital and some investments from friends and family. In October 2018, one of these friend investors expressed a desire to exit the venture. Although ExtraCarbon had made steady progress since its founding, the company did not have enough money to buy out the investor’s stake, and the company’s valuation was too low for the investor to benefit from leaving the venture. The investor complained that the founders had never taken his advice to scale up the venture more quickly, which would have benefitted all stakeholders by providing a better valuation and attracting more investors to the company. The incident led the founders to review their current scale of operations and make more ambitious growth plans for the company, including setting an ambitious revenue target of US$6 million by 2021. The challenge was to identify resources and ways to achieve this target. What strategy would help the company reach its target in a largely unorganized industry?

The Academy, a local CrossFit gym in Kitchener, Ontario, was determining how best to expand its business in order to continue its growth trajectory in a highly competitive industry. The gym’s co-owner and head coach needed to decide whether to invest in upgrading The Academy’s existing facility or open a second location. He wanted to complete a qualitative industry size-up, competitive analysis, consumer analysis, and corporate capabilities size-up, in addition to a quantitative size-up, including statement of cash flows and ratios analyses. He required the chosen growth strategy to meet a hurdle rate of 20 per cent.

In June 2017, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Kindred Home Care, a home care company in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, bordering the United States, was grappling with three options for scaling up operations—take the familiar acquisition route, move toward the untested franchising route, or cross the border to the larger US market. The company has limited physical assets, and therefore the CEO cannot tap external capital to finance growth; however, he could access internally accrued funds of CA$2 million.

In 2018, the owner of Northwest Fitness, a fitness business in London, Ontario, Canada, was analyzing the business's past year of operations and planning for the future. The company focused on “functional fitness” training to help clients improve aspects of their everyday life. The owner had launched the fitness studio with the help of a bank loan and a line of credit; after three years of success, he wondered if the company was finally in a financial position that would allow him to expand operations. He needed to analyze the past financial performance and project a statement of earnings and a statement of position assuming an expansion was pursued.

By mid-2019, more than the 18 years since its inception, mjunction had grown to become India's largest e-commerce player and the world's largest e-marketplace for steel. The company had extended its presence to multiple business units, such as coaljunction, teajunction, and straightline.in, all of which operated under the corporate name of mjunction. Some of the business units enjoyed a strong brand identity, while others did not. The chief executive officer was worried about the implications of the diverse brand names being used. Should the organization use a common corporate name for all of its businesses, or follow an individual brand name strategy? And if mjunction chose to transition to a single brand name, how could it minimize the loss of brand assets and other issues?

In 2014, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had just taken over operations of the Delhi Airport Metro (DAM), which connected the Indira Gandhi International Airport to the New Delhi railway station. However, high capital expenditures, excess operational expenditures, and low ridership meant that the concessionaire, which had been operating since 2011 on a public–private partnership model, was continuously reporting losses and therefore decided to quit the project in June 2013. When project operations were transferred to the DMRC, the metro’s overall capacity utilization was a very low 5 per cent and the line had few riders and operational losses. The DMRC’s director of operations had the challenging task of making the DAM operationally viable. There were several available options. Should he consider rationalizing the fares; increasing ridership by connecting the Delhi Metro Airport Express Line to passenger hubs; improving the amenities or attractions at the metro stations; or offering hassle-free travel for different groups of customers?

Six years after its inception, Montréal-based social media marketing agency OVRGRND started a sister company, 66Agency, to tackle the growing need for brands to use Instagram influencers for their marketing needs. The new 66Agency acted as a facilitator between brands and influencers. However, the demands of managing people—the brands on one side and the influencers on the other—had become a burden that was distracting the agency from its original intention, which was be a social media marketing company. In May 2018, the company was looking for a creative business plan that would allow it to facilitate interactions between brands and high-quality influencers quickly and efficiently, while still ensuring that all parties were happy.

Two entrepreneur brothers purchased Trafalgar Ales, Meads and Distillery, a brewery with 19 active individual beer brands, each generating a small amount of sales. The brothers' purchase came at a time when they were transitioning from a contract brewer—a brand that outsources the actual production to another firm—to a production brewer. The challenge for the entrepreneurs was to determine how to manage their stable of brands for the future. Trafalgar Ales, Meads and Distillery seemed to be pursuing a strategy of releasing small batches of unique beers, and managing its portfolio as if it were a constellation of brands. However, the two brothers were wondering if it made more sense to focus on a handful of brands and create a distinctive identity for each brand.

The president and chief executive officer of Romet Limited, was preparing for a project team meeting that would start at 1:00 p.m. that afternoon. It was Friday April 27, 2018, and he had just finalized the architectural design and layout for the company’s new plant. The lease for the current plant would expire at the end of that year, and he was reviewing the activities required to complete the facility relocation project. The plant relocation was named “Project Destiny.” Recognizing that extending the completion beyond the end of the lease was impossible, he was concerned about being able to complete the project on schedule without increasing costs.

In 2012, Mountain Equipment Co-op, a members-only Canadian consumers’ co-operative that sold outdoor recreational gear and clothing, underwent a major revamp of its strategic focus, which involved a change of its logo. The shift was away from the co-operative's core, outdoors-focused customer base to a wider target group that included urban and rural customers who were new to outdoor sports. The change was significant and the co-operative realized that many of its core customers—all of whom were shareholders—were upset by the shift in strategy and logo change. Mountain Equipment Co-op needed a communications plan to ease the transition.