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Unhaggle is a business model that uses a website to link up consumers with automobile dealers. The consumer describes the sort of vehicle they are looking for and the dealers compete to serve the consumer at the lowest possible price. The case illustrates how power in a negotiation comes from supply and demand. By bringing dealers to the consumer, Unhaggle helps drive down the cost of the vehicle to the consumer while reducing the dealer's marketing costs. The case thus illustrates how technology changes a business, and specifically what players hold the power in a market. This case can also be used to illustrate a multi-player prisoner's dilemma (game theory). Doing so involves arguing that dealers collectively would be better off if they refused to join Unhaggle's dealer network (all would gain higher margins), but any individual dealer has an incentive to defect and join, in order to gain access to Unhaggle's consumers.

Medupi, rising from the dry Limpopo Province bush veld, was the first baseload project built in South Africa in 20 years. It would be the largest dry-cooled coal-fired power station in the world and was developed by Eskom, which generated 90 per cent of Southern Africa's power, at an estimated cost of R125 billion. In spite of the worldwide concern about greener energy, coal remains the most popular power station fuel for South Africa, due to the country's vast resources of 224 million tonnes annually. The new capacity Medupi would offer was sorely needed. Regular and nationwide load shedding, due to a shortage of capacity, affected the entire country during 2007 and 2008 and all businesses were asked to turn off non-essential lighting and equipment, even during the day. It had been no mean feat to keep to a project schedule that involved various suppliers providing different packages at different dates and also required accommodating several interfaces during both the design and implementation of the work on site. Due to the massive scale of the project as well as the highly specialized civil engineering required for different sections of Medupi's construction, three companies joined forces to tackle the job, namely Murray & Roberts, Aveng and Concor. Murray & Roberts appointed Coenie Vermaak as project director at Medupi and at 34 the youngest project director in the group. The managers of the joint venture realized quickly that this would be "a project like no other." The three companies' different ways of working necessitated much more integrated coordination. For instance, employees from the different parent organizations had different job descriptions, were numerated differently, had different benefits, structures, processes and cultures.

Pak Elektron Limited was a prominent manufacturer of consumer home appliances, large distribution and power transformers, and switch gears for power companies in Pakistan. From 2007, the company had started the process of changing the information systems of the company. These systems had become outdated as Microsoft withdrew its support of Visual FoxPro, the platform on which all systems had been developed. The company decided that a Tier 1 ERP (enterprise resource planning) system with strength in manufacturing modules would be suitable. An ERP system was then selected and a firm was appointed as implementer in December 2009. The case describes the issues surrounding the implementation, including many unexpected events. It presents the situation as of the fourth quarter of 2011, after Phase 1 of the implementation had finished in December 2010 and the company had decided in March 2011 to dispense with the services of the consulting firm supporting the implementation. Pak Elektron Limited was facing a liquidity crisis and had to save costs even though there was insufficient corporate knowledge of ERP procedures. The staff was not comfortable with the ERP system and would not let go of the legacy systems and, as such, the project was in trouble.

This case features Bel-Brand's efforts to position its flagship brand The Laughing Cow in the United States. The challenges in this case are twofold. First, choose a viable position for a brand after a period of high growth following the South Beach Craze. The difficulty here is that the initial driver of the brand's position, the South Beach Craze, an environmental factor, is dwindling and is not sustainable. Second, the brand was receiving pressure from global stakeholders to try to unify the positioning in the United States with the global brand positioning. These are both challenges that were faced by the marketing team and raised in the case.

With a cross-disciplinary perspective, this field-based case series uses the purchase of a manufacturing company based in China to set the stage for an analysis of cost accounting, operational effectiveness, and cross-cultural communication. It offers a discussion about the strategy to purchase a Chinese firm to enter a promising business line for the Chinese market and provides an opportunity to introduce basic accounting, management communication, and operational terms that can be explored in following classes. The material includes an overview of a partnership between a Westerner and two Chinese executives, the issues they discovered through due diligence, plans to break into a new market, and their efforts to communicate lean manufacturing principles in another language and culture. If possible, inviting colleagues from accounting, communications, or operations to jointly teach the class enriches the discussion and provides an integrated learning experience. The A case opens with an overview of the capacitor factory in the province of Henan, China that Peer Nielsen, Baocheng Yang, and Zhihong Li are thinking about purchasing. They discovered several issues: workers' wages had gone unpaid for months, payroll taxes were years in arrears, one of the company's most profitable production lines had been "rented out." Not only were local competitors using its technology, some were producing the same capacitors under the China Star brand. Then there were the production lines that lacked raw materials and the huge unexplained power bill. But the political brass in the region was eager to see new owners purchase the factory with intent to manufacture and would provide the necessary permits and support to get started. Should the group buy it?

Bella Healthcare India was originally established in Bangalore as a low-cost manufacturing facility for a U.S.-based cardiology equipment developer. Under country manager Joseph Cherian it evolved considerably, developing its own research and development capabilities. Strengthened by investment in technical training and a shift in culture and mindset, the India team developed and launched its first successful product in 2005 under the guidance of Cherian and American Jeremy Manning, the Bella India director of R&D. Their success led them to a joint product development venture with the parent company, but organizational, technical, and cultural issues resulted in its cancellation. After this disappointing failure, is Bella India ready to lead a new product development project? If so, is the new project proposed by Cherian the right one to recover with?

This case illustrates the implications of using stringent performance measurement systems to create performance pressure, motivate employee achievement, and sharpen a firm's competitiveness. It opens by describing the downsides of the ruthlessly competitive culture at Zynga, a young, successful online gaming company. A similar data-driven performance measurement system is employed at Dovernet, a Vancouver-based provider of enterprise communications and social-networking technologies. Dovernet's founder and CEO sees performance measurement systems as vital for cultivating the competitive, innovative workforce necessary for Dovernet to win in a fiercely competitive industry. Dovernet uses quarterly top-down reviews and stack ranking (with major implications for bonuses), as well as bottom-up reviews, to reward top achievers and put low performers on notice. The practical challenges of applying this system are illustrated in three brief vignettes. In the first two, students can assume the role of a manager charged with interpreting and acting on the negative reviews given to two employees with unique (but are they mitigating?) personal circumstances. The third vignette puts students in the role of an employee conducting a bottom-up review, as he struggles to balance honesty with the potential repercussions of giving his manager less-than-perfect feedback. The case allows students to consider the benefits and risks of different performance evaluation strategies and their implications for a firm's performance, culture, and employee morale. Are there certain types of firms or industries for which such systems are more appropriate? Do the integrity and effectiveness of a performance measurement system depend on managers' applying cold objectivity, or is there room for flexibility? In highly competitive industries, can firms lacking a strong performance emphasis beat competitors like Dovernet and Zynga?

This case is about an ambitious "technopreneur" with ideas that were at the forefront of technology, such as in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Compassion Web had been successful initially, then swamped with challenges, and the original business model needed major changes in order to work in the fast-changing environment. At the same time, the company was facing a lawsuit with a major client, which could threaten its survival. To make matters even worse, the company lacked the strong and unified leadership necessary to pull it out of its difficulties.

The case describes a critical external incident which will have fundamental consequences for a small but very successful family business. At the beginning of 2010, Konnopke's Imbiss was considered to be one of the, if not the most famous snack bars in Berlin. This family-owned business was especially famous for the legendary "Currywurst", a Berlin invention that consists of a sausage fried in hot oil and served with ketchup, chili sauce, curry-powder and French fries. The Konnopke Imbiss main branch was located in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg, which was considered to be one of the "coolest" districts of Berlin. Konnopke's had become a Berlin fast food icon, winning critical acclaim in almost all major Berlin travel guides. But at the same time, the snack bar did not any longer seem to fit to its environment which had changed from a working class district, to a posh neighborhood mainly consisting of young freelancers and tourists.

Paul Rice knew that Fair Trade could do more, much more. While the model had benefited approximately 10 million people in developing countries, they were a small percentage of the 2 billion people worldwide who lived on less than $2 day. Fair Trade was not charity. It was a certification model that had started around coffee and ensured that money flowed back to the people who grew the coffee, giving them a "Fair Trade" price. As president and CEO of Fair Trade USA (FT USA), the leading third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States, Rice had reason to be proud. Since its founding in 1998, the nonprofit had grown Fair Trade CertifiedTM coffee from 0 to 5 percent of the U.S. coffee market. Fair Trade coffee had made tremendous inroads with large roasters such as Starbucks and Green Mountain as well as mainstream brands like Dunkin' Donuts. Rice, however, was not satisfied with 5 percent of the U.S. coffee market. He wanted to take Fair Trade to scale-widespread adoption in terms of volume, market share, consumer awareness, and impact for farmers. And Rice was confident that he knew how to get there. This case explores FT USA's market based approach and philosophy for increasing the reach and impact of Fair Trade. It reviews the concept of Fair Trade and the three pillars of the "Fair Trade for All" strategy: expand Fair Trade to include certification for large coffee growing estates and independent smaller farmers, invest in cooperatives to make them more competitive, and increase consumer awareness. The case highlights the controversy that ensued from FT USA's 2012 split from the international certifying body and why Rice believes that this was the right decision.

Arcadia Medical Center's newly appointed medical director of operations for the department of emergency medicine has noticed a gradual increase in the length of time it take for patients to be seen and their care completed. He frequently examines patients who are waiting in their stretchers in hallways in an effort to expedite patient care. It is becoming increasingly difficult to maneuver through the overcrowded emergency department to perform routine patient care activities. Having considered how to improve the crowding issue, the medical director of operations has created a team to analyze the situation and make recommendations to implement change.

In November 2011, the State Fair of Virginia, Inc. (SFVA) was facing a dire financial situation. While SFVA was officially founded in 1906, the fair had been operating since 1854. SFVA was a privately held, not-for-profit organization that operated the state fair independent of the state government, and received no operating support from state or local governments. In 2003, the organization had borrowed $83 million against a $47 million investment portfolio in order to develop its new fairgrounds which opened in 2009. The new site had been attractive because it included The Meadow Farm, a horse farm famous for being the birthplace of the Secretariat, winner of the 1973 Triple Crown. The unprecedented collapse of the financial markets in the United States in 2008 combined with a poor economy and terrible weather for the fair's first two years, resulted in a situation where in late 2011, the organization did not bring in enough in income and donations to cover the loan payments. Creditors were demanding an immediate solution. The board of directors of SFVA realized that they had no choice but to consider strategic options including applying for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which would give them time to try to restructure their debt, or shutting down immediately.

It was late January 2011, and although Rachel De Marchi had gotten used to the long days of physical labour, she knew it was bothering her, and today brought her to a reality that she knew she would have to face. Since having founded her dog-walking service six years ago in Oakville, Ontario, this was the first time she had asked for help. She made a very embarrassing phone call to her father when she could not wrestle a dog into her car. What made the day even more frustrating was that she received three phone calls from potential clients, none of whom she could fit into her schedule. De Marchi knew that she was running out of capacity, both in terms of time and energy, and that something would have to change, but she wondered where to begin.

Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of Research in Motion (RIM), faced a situation of truly disastrous proportion. Earlier that week, service outages started occurring on RIM's popular BlackBerry smartphone devices, affecting over 30 million BlackBerry users globally. For a total of three days, RIM engineers worked around the clock to fix the widespread technical problems. However, with the company providing only brief comments to the public, many consumers and industry officials became increasingly frustrated. With the worldwide release of the new Apple iPhone 4S just days away, Lazaridis was presented with the additional challenge of how and if RIM should respond publically to help restore consumer and market confidence.

On the morning of September 19, 2011, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the online movie provider Netflix Incorporated (Netflix) became witness to growing public discontent and media criticism. The previous evening the CEO had announced on the company blog that Netflix would be splitting into two separate entities. With the proposed change, the Netflix DVD-by-mail service would be spun-out and renamed Qwikster. The move would leave the Netflix brand to focus on offering online streamed entertainment. This was not the first time Netflix had caused large scale consumer frustration, as a few months earlier in July 2011, the company had announced it would be increasing rates as much as 60 per cent. The result was a loss of over one million Netflix subscribers by September 2011, representing the first time the company had ever lost subscribers from one quarter to the next. Although the split into two separate entities could be seen as a good business strategy, Netflix did not follow through with a well-developed communication plan. Moving forward, both Netflix and Qwikster had become symbolic of a bad two-headed monster movie, with Netflix management in desperate need to develop better communications with disgruntled consumers, or risk losing additional subscribers and lucrative profits to a number of growing competitors.

Pret A Manger, a London-based chain of sandwich shops, was known for its fast, genuine service and pre-packaged sandwiches prepared on-site daily. Instructed by its board to grow at 15 percent per year, Pret considered opening "twin" shops in locations too small to contain kitchens; these shops would receive sandwich deliveries throughout the day from a nearby "parent" shop. Would Pret's employees and customers accept twin shops or view them as counter to the Pret culture? Through this decision point, the case frames a discussion about how companies build service models to reliably deliver customer service excellence. The case also helps students understand the role of employee management systems in creating consistent service experiences and introduces a set of innovative employee management practices.

Merck is known for its commitment to investing in basic R&D. Are Merck's long-term investments justifiable when the firm faces extreme earnings pressure?

Huntington University was a distinguished not-for-profit academic institution in the United States whose endowment grew from $7 billion to nearly $20 billion over the course of a decade. The funds prompted a variety of development projects. New funds, new buildings, and new programs brought with them new people, and Huntington was in a period of growth and change on all fronts. As administrative headcount grew dramatically from 6,800 to over 10,000, Singletary launched a major initiative to develop the University's most promising managers through effective instruction and feedback. Among the attendees were Rita Torres, Dieter Kopp, and Marilyn Malkin. They were excited to be among the select group of Singletary Management Program participants, and were eager to receive expert teaching and peer guidance on how they could improve as managers.