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The Chinese fireworks industry thrived after China adopted the open-door policy in the late 1970s, and grew to make up 90 per cent of the world’s fireworks export sales. However, starting in the mid-1990s, safety concerns led governments both in China and abroad to set up stricter regulations. At the same time, there was rapid growth in the number of small family-run fireworks workshops, whose relentless price-cutting drove down profit margins. Students are asked to undertake an industry analysis, estimate the industry attractiveness, and propose possible ways to improve the industry attractiveness from an individual investor’s point of view. Jerry Yu is an American-born Chinese in New York who has been invited to buy a fireworks factory in Liuyang, Hunan.

A recent business graduate decided to contact her former classmates from her value investing course. She emailed them with a proposal to re-evaluate the company they had valued for their final project, National Presto Industries (Presto). Presto was a diversified company operating in three different industries: housewares/small appliances, absorbent products, and defense. The price had dropped about 25 per cent and perhaps it was time to take it off of the group’s “watch list,” as it might now be undervalued and worth purchasing. Presto was initially brought to the group’s attention through a screening process that identified Presto as having a low price to earning value, a high dividend yield, and a small market capitalization. It was unusual in that it was a company that was over 100 years old and operated in stable and unglamorous segments, yet was still considered a growth company. If it was determined that Presto was a good buy, the team also wanted to establish an exit price, but due to a tight concentration of shareholders and low average daily trading volume, the team wondered how this low liquidity would impact the stock’s share price.

Antony Ving had secured the highly coveted analyst position for the Western Investment Club (WIC), a student-controlled organization at the Richard Ivey School of Business that managed over $100,000 according to a disciplined value investing philosophy. He was preparing a presentation on Dun & Bradstreet (DNB) for the next WIC meeting. DNB was a leading provider of information, services, and solutions; it was in the business of selling accumulated information and research to customers interested in due diligence for risk management, expansion, and supply chain management purposes. While DNB had passed the investment committee’s screening, Antony had to delve into the drivers of value to distinguish whether DNB had sufficiently sustainable operating and financial advantages in a sustainable industry to qualify as undervalued. He had to present a comprehensive valuation and strategic analysis on whether DNB was a buy… or a bust.

In July 2008, the vice chairman of General Electric (GE) was considering whether GE should re-enter the wind power market in India. Financial incentives had been announced by the government of India for wind farm operators who generated power through wind energy. These incentives might encourage market development so that GE could leverage the technological strength of its wind-powered turbines. However, as recently as 2005, GE Energy had pulled out of the Indian market after a frustrating stint in the country. The vice chairman needed to weigh the pros and cons of re-entering India and make a decision. There was reason for caution, however, from GE’s perspective. India was a complex market in which to operate, and the wind energy market was still developing. To be successful, GE would need to build a local supply chain and compete with the speed of delivery of Suzlon, the formidable domestic competitor. Should GE re-enter India?

On the night of April 20, 2010, a series of explosions rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Gas in the Macondo well had surged upward unexpectedly, causing a mix of drilling mud and seawater to spew uncontrollably into the air, much like a volcanic eruption. Eleven crew members died during the explosion. The nation mourned their loss, and people watched as BP struggled to contain the environmental damage. Millions of barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico in the weeks that followed. The federal government relied on BP to manage the accident’s aftermath, in part because government officials lacked the expertise required to stop the spill. Meanwhile, BP downplayed its responsibility for the failure. As the firm failed repeatedly to stop the spill, the public became angry. This industrial disaster became the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.<br><br>The case provides a detailed description of the events leading up to this catastrophe. Readers examine the key decisions that BP and its partners made as they drilled this well. They discover the alternative choices that could have been made and learn about the disagreements that took place (as well as those that failed to surface). Moreover, the case provides an opportunity to examine how BP’s history and organizational culture shaped the way those decisions were made. The case describes how Tony Hayward and his predecessor, John Browne, led the firm and shaped the culture during the past two decades. In addition, the case explains how the regulatory environment and political forces shaped decision-making in the oil industry. The case concludes by examining the aftermath of the accident, particularly BP’s public relations miscues as it tried to manage the crisis.

This case describes how Cold Stone Creamery created a business model for a premium customized ice cream experience. It describes the company’s value proposition, growth strategy, and competitors, and poses the question of whether the company could continue to attract new franchisees.

This note is an introduction to simulation in Excel and VBA. The note uses examples to demonstrate different methods of doing simulation in Excel and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). Concepts explained in this note include random number generation, probability distributions, data tables, loops and arrays, histograms, and descriptive statistics.

On July 6, 2011, the communication director for the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) in Toronto, Ontario, was faced with a challenging situation. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) had just released an online article that focused on the 2011 CCS budget and how the CCS allocated millions of dollars each year. The article provided details on how the proportion of donation money that the CCS spent on cancer research each year had decreased from 40 per cent in 2000 to under 22 per cent in 2011. With the CBC report circulating in both television and online media, public speculation into the CCS’s financial management of public donations was starting to grow. It was clear that the CCS communication team would need to respond. A communication strategy would need to be developed for the CCS to follow, along with a press release to be posted the next day on the CCS website.

Kinross Gold is considering changing the stock-based compensation plans that it uses for medium- to long-term executive incentives. A human resources consultant has been retained to make recommendations. The consultant must determine whether the current split between stock options and restricted share units should be altered. In addition, she must consider whether to recommend that Kinross Gold adopt restricted performance-vesting share units. If so, appropriate performance benchmarks must be established. Finally, the consultant must quantify the impact of her recommendations on stock-based compensation expense.

Palm Inc. was the “founder” of an entire industry. In the mid-1990s, the firm developed the first successful hand-held on the market. It became the uncontested leader within the young and extremely dynamic industry within a short time, both with regard to hardware as well as software. By 2010, however, Palm was not in good shape. The new product, a top-notch smart phone, was not very successful and there were signs of Palm’s bankruptcy on the horizon. Palm had been the leader in the market of hand-held computers with high market share and profitability, and a brand name recognition level of which many other firms could only dream. What had happened to Palm?

Rogers Communications’ new president and chief executive officer (CEO) contemplated the future growth opportunities of the company. The CEO was taking control of Rogers at a high point — it was a powerful player in all areas of the telecommunications sector including wireless, television, Internet telephone, and landline telephone. However, competition in the industry was also at an all-time high and innovations were abounding. The CEO knew that to successfully develop Rogers’ strategic direction for the future, he would have to make tradeoffs that would require a strong understanding of the competitive landscape and the future of the industry. Could Rogers afford to be a leader in all four product areas: wireless, television, Internet, and landline telephone? Where should it be willing to lead and where should it be willing to lag behind competitors? Should it think about its future as four (or less) distinct businesses or as one company? Should it think about entering markets in which it did not currently have a strong presence? How much financial flexibility did Rogers have for enacting any future strategies? In making tradeoffs, Rogers would have to explore its resource strengths and weaknesses: this would allow it to gain an in-depth understanding of its competitive advantage. Understanding its competitive advantage would help it make decisions concerning future resource investments that would allow it to lead the industry. No matter which tradeoffs Rogers considered making, the results needed to help it continue to outperform its competitors by maintaining net margins of at least 20 per cent.

A junior investment analyst at Maple Toronto Fund (the Fund), a “deep-value shop” whose main strategy was to invest in deeply undervalued businesses, was screening hundreds of small-cap stocks and came across HQ Sustainable Maritime Industries Inc. (HQS), an aquaculture and aquatic product processing company that operated in two product segments in China. A quick look at HQS’s financials suggested to the junior investment analyst that he had found the “holy grail” of value investing: a net-net stock. The junior investment analyst knew he had to perform in-depth due diligence to estimate the stock’s intrinsic value and determine whether the stock was truly undervalued. He wondered how to tackle the valuation; in addition to developing a deep understanding of the industry and the company’s business model and numbers, he considered the value-investing-based valuation approach. The junior investment analyst knew that demonstration of thorough analysis and accurate valuation of HQS might convince senior management of the Fund to acquire a substantial stake in HQS. If this investment was profitable, it could boost his career and prospects of advancement within the Fund. The junior investment analyst had one week to put his presentation together.

Driven by the 2009 global economic crisis, Dacia Romania designed and built the Dacia Duster sport utility vehicle (SUV) to be the ideal SUV at an affordable price. After a successful introduction of the cheapest modern sedan on the international market in 2004, and one of the cheapest modern seven-seaters in 2006, Dacia planned to introduce what it hoped would become the cheapest modern SUV on the international market. The main challenge it was facing in 2009 was not only how to sell the car to existing customers, but also to conduct an extensive public communication campaign in order to convince other drivers to change their cars for the cheaper, more efficient Dacia SUV that was going to be available in spring 2010.

An investor was reviewing his investment in Air Canada to decide whether or not to sell his shares in the company. Recent weakness in the airline industry and a three-day strike by service staff had caused the investor to reevaluate Air Canada’s long-term prospects. In particular, the investor wanted to consider the company’s pension plans in his analysis. A proposal to move new hires to defined contribution from defined benefit pension plans was a key point of contention between the company and striking workers. The investor knew the company’s pension plans were underfunded and he wanted to assess what impact the underfunding would have on the company’s future. Finally, the investor wanted to understand the impact that the change to International Financial Reporting Standards would have on Air Canada’s pension accounting.

Pepsi Canada has developed and launched the Refresh Project, a campaign to fund socially beneficial ideas developed by individuals, businesses, and non-profit organizations. Each cycle — approximately two months in duration — will see interested parties submit ideas. Pepsi Canada relies on visitors to its website, www.refreshingeverything.ca, to vote on the best ideas. During every cycle, approximately $1 million is available for distribution. While Pepsi Canada’s management has been very supportive of the initial cycle, an analyst is wondering how this corporate social responsibility initiative will have an effect on the bottom line.

In July 2004, Bombardier Aerospace announced its intention to develop a new family of aircraft called CSeries. In May 2007, three years after the initial announcement, the final decision on whether to proceed with the initiative was still pending. Moreover, during this period, the company released several confusing announcements that raised concerns among investors and industry analysts regarding the sustainability of the company’s long-term strategy. In the meantime, Brazilian Embraer had invested heavily in research and development and had taken the leadership position in the regional aircraft segment from Bombardier. Consequently, Bombardier was faced with a serious dilemma of whether or not to launch the CSeries project. The decision was expected to have a major impact on the future market positioning of Bombardier.<br><br>Students may be asked to act as advisors to Pierre Beaudoin, president and chief executive officer of Bombardier Aerospace, and recommend whether the company should proceed with the CSeries initiative. More specifically, students should do a full analysis of the company’s external environment, identify the alternatives available to Beaudoin, assess these options based on internal and external environments, and recommend a course of action. For Beaudoin, the recommendation was due before the annual meeting of shareholders, scheduled on May 29, 2007.

The world famous toymaker, The LEGO Group, assembled an internal management team to create a strategic report on LEGO’s different product lines and business operations. In recent years, numerous threats to LEGO had emerged in the toy industry. The acquisition of Marvel Entertainment by The Walt Disney Company created major implications for valuable toy license agreements. LEGO had also recently lost a long legal battle with major competitor MEGA Brands, makers of MEGA Bloks, with a European Union court decision that removed the LEGO brick trademark. Furthermore, the second-largest toymaker in the world, Hasbro, was preparing to launch a new rival product line called Kre-O. It was critical for the management team to identify where to expand LEGO’s product lines and business operations, in order to develop a competitive strategy to continue the organization’s recent years of financial success and dominance in the building toy market.

The vice president of communications of Domino’s Pizza International faced a significant threat to his company’s reputation due to negative social media exposure. A video had been posted on YouTube two days earlier by a Domino’s employee that showed two Domino’s employees at a North Carolina franchise tampering with customers’ pizza and sandwich orders. The employee stuck cheese up his nose, sneezed on the food prior to boxing it up, and could be overheard in the video admitting that the orders would soon be delivered to unsuspecting customers. The video went viral; it had been reposted to Twitter and Facebook, and received almost a million views and many comments on YouTube. It was also receiving attention from both local and national media channels. The senior executive team of Domino’s was meeting with the vice president in a matter of hours, and Domino’s social media team would need to devise a plan to respond to the video to protect Domino’s strong brand image before it was too late.<p>You might also like: Abercrombie & #Fitchthehomeless, Abercrombie and Fitch, Mountain Dew: The Most Racist Soft-drink Commercial in History?

British Airways took a strictly secular approach to religion in the workplace, banning any outward symbols of faith. This policy extended to the wearing of jewellery with religious symbolism. One employee who originally complied with the ban protested after she found out that the company had made accommodations to other faiths, such as allowing Sikhs to wear turbans. She then decided to wear a cross pendant in protest of the company’s perceived discriminatory policies. When British Airways disciplined the employee, it caused a public backlash by religious leaders and public supporters of the employee. The backlash against British Airways meant that even a favourable ruling by the employment tribunal would have negative consequences for the company’s public image.

In the fall of 1996, Bestseller became one of the first international fashion companies to enter the Chinese retail market. Earlier that year, Allan Warburg and Dan Friis had made contact with the CEO of Bestseller A/S, Troels Holch Povlsen, regarding the prospect of selling Bestseller brands in China, where they felt there were many business opportunities. Holch Povlsen found himself convinced by the two entrepreneurs’ enthusiasm for the Chinese market.<br><br>They quickly proved that they had been right about China. A decade after the first store opened, Bestseller China had almost 2,000 stores, and accounted for more than one-third of the total turnover of Bestseller A/S. The secret to Bestseller China’s extraordinary success was its ability to sell price-competitive European designs with a Chinese touch, which was achieved by locating all production in China and modifying Bestseller A/S’s designs to suit the size and tastes of Chinese middle-class consumers. With a 10-year headstart over potential competitors, Bestseller China had by the end of 2007 managed to establish a strong presence in China. However, high economic growth and the growing middle class were making the Chinese market highly attractive for other companies. Although global giants, such as Zara and H&M, were devoting big chunks of their budgets to entering China and capturing market share, these aggressive new entrants were not Bestseller China’s biggest concern. In fact, the competition from local companies was seen as the real threat.