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This is a chronological series of two cases. The (A) case is about the fall from grace of a revered, high-performing Australian company that had gone international in its quest for growth. The (B) case is about the turnaround that followed. The (A) case covers the period 2000 to 2004. It includes the National Australia Bank (NAB) 2000 corporate/business strategy, the MLC acquisition, the sale of Michigan National, the HomeSide financial disaster and consequent sale, and the 2003 foreign exchange trading disaster that ultimately led to recognition that NAB was truly in trouble. The (B) case is about the turnaround that followed. It covers the period 2004 to 2006, at which point the new chief executive officer (CEO) declares that the three year turnaround is almost over and the new NAB is back in business. It covers the investigation of the foreign exchange trading scandal disaster, the changes in personnel in the top management team and the board, the introduction of new external people to support the new CEO and many other detailed events that took place as part of the turnover. The (A) case is primarily about implementation of strategy and the (B) case is primarily about implementation of strategy for a turnaround. Both cases are mainly corporate strategy cases, though they could be used in the business strategy section of a strategic management course, since the corporation is narrowly diversified and centrally controlled, so it acts like a business.

This is a chronological series of two cases. The (A) case is about the fall from grace of a revered, high-performing Australian company that had gone international in its quest for growth. The (B) case is about the turnaround that followed. The (A) case covers the period 2000 to 2004. It includes the National Australia Bank (NAB) 2000 corporate/business strategy, the MLC acquisition, the sale of Michigan National, the HomeSide financial disaster and consequent sale, and the 2003 foreign exchange trading disaster that ultimately led to recognition that NAB was truly in trouble. The (B) case is about the turnaround that followed. It covers the period 2004 to 2006, at which point the new chief executive office (CEO) declares that the three year turnaround is almost over and the new NAB is back in business. It covers the investigation of the foreign exchange trading scandal disaster, the changes in personnel in the top management team and the board, the introduction of new external people to support the new CEO and many other detailed events that took place as part of the turnover. The (A) case is primarily about implementation of strategy and the (B) case is primarily about implementation of strategy for a turnaround. Both cases are mainly corporate strategy cases, though they could be used in the business strategy section of a strategic management course, since the corporation is narrowly diversified and centrally controlled, so it acts like a business.

The Minister of Justice for the Republic of Iceland is contemplating how to work with the various stakeholders to implement the recommendations for the structure of policing. The main issue to address is how to consolidate the number of region-based police forces. The minister's views on restructuring the police force are shared by the police association; however, a number of municipalities and police commissioners are not as enthusiastic about the proposed changes to the structure of the police organization. He understands that change is never a pain-free process. Formal reports have been submitted and now is the time to make some decisions.

An entrepreneur is looking for business opportunities since she immigrated to London, Ontario. She has come across a franchising opportunity with Williams Coffee Pub (WCP). The promotional material for WCP indicates that annual sales for a typical restaurant can be up to $1,700,000 with a profit margin of 17.5 per cent. This business opportunity seems very attractive, however, she must do some additional investigation. The purpose of this case is for students to build a spreadsheet-based cash flow model and to use the model to perform basic sensitivity or What if? analysis.

The year 2007 had to have been one of the worst in the history of British Petroleum plc (BP). In the span of four months, two separate independent reports (the first one commissioned by BP itself) had identified a deeply rooted culture of risk within BP where money and profits were valued above worker and environmental safety. These reports were in response to an explosion in 2005 at an oil refinery in Texas City, in the United States, which killed 15 people and injured more than 180, but the reports also referred to pipeline leaks in Alaska as well as other serious safety lapses throughout BP's global operations. The Texas City explosion was the worst but not the first major incident at a BP facility, and the revelations in the reports severely damaged the credibility the so-called super-major oil company had earned over the last decade. The job of restoring investor and stakeholder confidence as well as the firm's reputation fell to the BP board and its star group chief executive, Lord John Browne. The B case, product 9B08M003, examines the role played by the board with respect to the personal integrity of Lord Browne. The teaching objectives are to introduce students to examining the role of the board with respect to risk management as well as its social responsibilities to various stakeholders.

A service delivery failure in the Mount Rundle Hotel escalates into a full-fledged confrontation between hotel management and the customer. The hotel general manager has an inward focus and is more intent on managing internal company systems and processes than catering to customer needs. The delay in responding effectively to the service failure leads to the involvement of the Better Business Bureau of Alberta, the Banff Lake Louise Tourism Development Board and the Banff mayor's office.

The president of a small mining company is faced with an opportunity to purchase a mining refinery to complement its existing mining operations. It has the potential to bring the company into a situation of positive cashflow, but the small size of the company and high risk of the mining industry has left the president with few alternatives to raise the capital. The case focuses on the issuing of a Euro-denominated bond to finance this purchase and provide funds for future acquisitions. The case discusses the alternatives available in such a situation as well as the risks associated with changes in the price of metals and the value of the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar and the Euro on the ability to make regular payments on the Euro-denominated bond and other financing alternatives.

The director and chair of the governance committee at MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (MDA) considered how to advise the company's chief executive officer (CEO). As a company in the space industry, MDA relied on its exports to the United States. Joint ventures were helpful in securing contracts from the U.S. government but they were not always advantageous in other ways because these ventures required partnerships with competitors. At this time, MDA had no long term strategy to address this issue. The supplements MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (B) and (C) look at subsequent events that were unforeseen at this particular time.

This case provides students with a deeper understanding of commodity futures markets in general and natural gas markets in particular. It also provides an introduction to hedge funds and insight into the largest hedge fund collapse in history. Third, it introduces such concepts as liquidity risk, value-at-risk, spread trades and the use of derivatives. As of the case date, Amaranth had not publicly disclosed the positions that led to $6 billion in losses during the month of September 2006. The case was written using public information and provides key pieces of data to allow students to reverse engineer possible positions Amaranth may have held.

The financial system is the heart of free market economies. The 2007-2008 financial crisis raised concerns that the global financial and economic system might experience a truly substantial collapse. New financial instruments had proliferated to the degree that it had become impossible to calculate the market value of many of them, and so it had become impossible to know the market value of institutions that held them or that guaranteed them. The initial disaster occurred with the U.S. subprime residential mortgage market, but it quickly spread globally to institutions that held new financial instruments related to these mortgages. Firms that had guaranteed these financial instruments found that their net worth was disappearing, leading to concerns about the institutions that had relied on their guarantees. Meanwhile, new kinds of hedge funds introduced the risk of greater volatility, and they exposed investors to sudden shocks. Many banks were caught in this web and suddenly had to obtain additional equity capital in order to meet regulatory requirements and maintain the confidence of depositors. As a result of these developments, liquidity disappeared from the financial system. It seemed that recession in the United States was inevitable. Previous expectations that other economies had become decoupled for the United States were being replaced by fears that economies throughout the world would follow the United States into recession. Central banks reacted dramatically with attempts to reduce interest rates and to increase financial liquidity, and the U.S. government cut personal taxes through a tax refund program. It was not clear whether monetary and fiscal policies could prevent a long and deep recession. Debate arose concerning the advisability of a wide variety of new regulations that might be able to prevent future recurrence of such a financial crisis.

In June 1997, the Bank of Thailand must decide whether to continue or to abandon the peg of the baht to the U.S dollar. Recent economic performance in Thailand has caused speculation that the central bank will abandon the currency peg, but the bank's stated policy for many years has been that it will maintain the peg. Background about the Thai economy is presented in the core case, product 9B01M025. Other cases enable students to play roles of importer, exporter, investor, lender, currency speculator, the International Monetary Fund, Japan's Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Thailand. The teaching purpose is to provide students with an understanding of the forces influencing a decision about the appropriate policy relating to exchange rates.

In September of 2001, 24 Calgary firefighters ended up in hospital with throat and eye irritations, severe breathing problems and headaches after fighting a fire at a battery plant. The blaze looked like a routine fire; the industrial fire was seen as just another assignment that needed to be taken care of. The working atmosphere at the fire hall was impacted. Some firefighters commented that they had expected to be better looked after, that they did not have enough information about what was inside the burning plant. Where had things gone wrong? What specific lessons should be carried forward?

This case describes the leadership initiatives of two of General Electric’s (GE) chief executive officers: Jack Welch and Jeffrey Immelt. Under Jack Welch’s leadership, GE, one of the most admired firms in the world, began its transformation from a manufacturing conglomerate to one that focused on services. Welch’s stature as a management leader grew as GE’s stock price increased. Many of Welch’s management practices were adopted by U.S. and global organizations. While his changes resulted in excellent financial performance sustained over a long period of time, not everyone in GE agreed with his methods. Welch’s departure in 2001 triggered a steep decline in GE’s stock price. His successor, Jeffrey Immelt, took over the company days before the terrorist attacks in September 2001 and spent the following years preparing the firm for its next stage of growth.

Muhtar Kent had just been promoted to the CEO position in Coca-Cola. He was reflecting upon the past leadership of the company, in particular the success that Coca-Cola enjoyed during Robert Goizueta's leadership. The CEOs that had followed Goizueta were not able to have as positive an impact on the stock value. When his promotion was announced, Kent mentioned that he did not have immediate plans to change any management roles but that some fine-tuning might be necessary.

The president of Industrial Accessories Ltd. (IAL) was preparing for a meeting to consider a management buyout of IAL. IAL was a privately owned maker of attachments for construction vehicles based in British Columbia, Canada. IAL was founded in 1970 by Gerald Stone, now chairman and CEO of IAL. Stone had decided to sell IAL because of health problems. Because he had no suitable heirs to take on leadership of the company, the president and three other senior managers were considering a buyout strategy. Students must size up the acquisition, a place value on the company and propose a financing plan for the acquisition.

Wall Street's darling, Google Inc., offered more than a pretty financial picture. Poverty, communicable diseases and climate change - some of the world's largest problems - were also key interests of Google's cofounders. By applying innovation and significant resources, Google's cofounders hoped that their efforts in these areas would one day eclipse Google itself in worldwide impact. On February 22, 2006, Google Inc. announced the appointment of an executive director of the newly created Google.org. With one per cent of Google Inc.'s equity and profit as seed money, Google.org's mandate was to address climate change, global public health, economic development and poverty. Although charity by successful entrepreneurs was not unusual, this press release signaled a new organizational form, a for-profit philanthropic company. The new executive director's task ahead was unprecedented. How could he leverage the company's for-profit status to make the biggest impact possible with the resources trusted to Google.org? What decision-making criteria should be used for strategic investments? How would he measure Google.org's success?

At the time of the Mekong Corporation (Mekong) and the Vietnam Motor Vehicle Industry (A) case, product 9A96H002, some analysts felt that the Vietnamese automotive market was about to expand substantially. By 2007, the industry's capacity had increased enormously to nearly 150,000. However, the domestic sales had only expanded to approximately 40,000, and exports were negligible. This (B) case examines the government's interventionist policies that stimulated the expansion of production capacity while restraining vehicle sales. A key element was the continuation of very high import tariffs and other taxes that maintained a protected market for domestic manufacturers. In this context, Mekong continued to operate successfully. This case encourages students to consider the appropriate role of government in stimulating economic development, as well as appropriate corporate strategy in a protected market.

This case, which outlines the product recall, is a supplement to Mattel and the Toy Recalls (A).

On July 30, 2007 the senior executive team of Mattel under the leadership of Bob Eckert, chief executive officer, received reports that the surface paint on the Sarge Cars, made in China, contained lead in excess of U.S. federal regulations. It was certainly not good news for Mattel, which was about to recall 967,000 other Chinese-made children's character toys because of excess lead in the paint. Not surprisingly, the decision ahead was not only about whether to recall the Sarge Cars and other toys that might be unsafe, but also how to deal with the recall situation. The (A) case details the events leading up to the recall and highlights the difficulties a multinational enterprise faces in managing global operations. Use with Ivey case 9B08M011, Mattel and the Toy Recalls (B).

On November 8, 2001, the entrepreneurial owner of Flex Industries, a leading Indian firm in the flexible packaging industry, was accused of bribing the central excise commissioner in a case of evasion of excise duties. Excise duty is levied under the federal structure of the Indian taxation system on the production and manufacture of goods. Excise duty liability arises immediately on the movement of goods from the plant gate. Evasion of excise duty is a cognizable offence and carries severe penalties that can adversely affect the management of the company. The owner of Flex Industries, was an experienced professional recognized for his important contribution in revolutionizing the flexible packaging industry in India. However, the incident dented his long-standing record. Meanwhile, other controversies surfaced while the case was under disposition in the courts. The ensuing period gave an impression that there were other suspect events related to its governance that Flex Industries could have done without. However, the final verdict announced by the courts found the owner not guilty. The events were significant in the evolution of Flex Industries, which was strongly positioned in the flexible packaging industry. However, the market reaction to the news of the arrest of Flex Industries' owner was very different from the news of his exoneration. This case demonstrates the impact of market disciplining forces and the premium stockholder's place on good governance.