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An iconic American brand must determine how to maximize net profit by increasing the sales of its highest-margin items in the face of constant retailer pushback including reduced shelf space and promotional support of those same products. This case is suitable for required MBA marketing courses as well as pricing and brand management electives at both the undergraduate and MBA levels. The analytics of the case assume that students can calculate both dollar and percentage margins.

Middleby Corporation was a designer and manufacturer of commercial food processing and food service equipment for fast food as well as high-end restaurants. During the latter half of the 1990s, Middleby became increasingly unfocused as its number of product lines increased dramatically. Margins and sales slipped. At the same time, some of the company's high-profile product development initiatives ended in failure. Although Middleby's top management recognized some of these apparent warning signs, rather than take action, they seemed eager to blame the disappointing results solely on the company's overseas operations. This inaction caused Middleby's financial performance to deteriorate further, resulting in violations of its loan covenants. To finally correct the situation, Selim Bassoul was moved from his role as general manager of Middleby's Southbend plant up to chief operating officer for the entire corporation. Bassoul had taken the underperforming Southbend plant and turned it into a star performer, correcting and improving customer service, operations, and finances and establishing a clear strategic direction. Bassoul had to craft a turnaround plan for the entire company in the areas of strategy, operations, and finance. He cut the number of products substantially, fired some key customers after a customer profitability analysis, and focused product development on innovative products that saved Middleby's customers time and money. Following these changes and others, the company returned to profitability and Bassoul was named CEO. Bassoul then decided to present a major acquisition opportunity to the board of directors.

New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association has been pursuing its social enterprise initiative since 1994 to create employment and training opportunities for former mental patients in Hong Kong. As of mid-2008, 18 social enterprises have been launched, including a supply chain of organic foods with a farm, two restaurants and five retail shops. Despite success in its social mission, the social enterprises are only partially self-sustaining. The management also faces the challenges of increasing business complexities, keen market competition and more stringent government regulations on food safety. The ability of New Life to tackle these issues is constrained by the fact that the majority of its management staff come from social work or other non-business backgrounds. To scale up its business and to achieve self-sustainability, it is imperative for the organization to revisit its management and human resources strategies, and find ways to improve the financial performance of its social enterprises.

Vineland Research and Innovation Center, a not-for-profit organization looking to work with the Ontario local food industry, has requested two researchers to analyze the local food business landscape and propose a technology-driven solution that connects farmers in the Niagara region with buyers in Toronto. The case illustrates the challenges faced by each stakeholder in the local food supply chain, and allows students to analyze the farming and restaurant industries, assess the current Canadian market, and investigate technological advances that could enable improving the current local supply chain procurement and distribution model. This case allows students to identify competencies and gaps within the current environment, challenges facing the farming and restaurant communities, as well as opportunities to drive growth in a new market.

The case entitled 'Lessons from Breakthrough Strategic Moves Over the Last Century' illustrates how businesses over the last 100 years have periodically broken away from the competition to create and capture new market space - often giving rise to entirely new industries. Yet, to date, there is very little understanding of the underlying strategic logic behind these breakthrough strategic moves. This case and its accompanying video examines whether there is a shared pattern across these strategic moves by examining three representative industries that touch peoples' everyday lives: autos - how people get to work; computers - what people use at work; and movie theaters - where people go after work for entertainment.

The case entitled 'How to Implement Blue Ocean Strategy' challenges participants to apply key concepts of blue ocean strategy implementation to overcome key organizational and management hurdles while leading a strategic shift. The case lays out how Braynesbridge Industries (BI), a fictional conglomerate involved in the steel industry, recently launched a new strategy to break out of the red ocean of bloody competition in the industry. The new strategy, however, represented a significant departure from the status quo, which led to steep cognitive, resource, motivational, and political hurdles in the organization. Hence, to implement the new strategy, BI executives had to overcome these four key hurdles. Despite this challenge, the case reveals that BI's management team successfully implemented the strategy fast and at low cost using tipping point leadership and fair process. BI's Board of Directors, very impressed with the new strategy and its successful implementation, is curious to learn the principles of tipping point leadership and fair process and how these apply to organizations.

The case entitled 'How a US Consumer Products Company Unlocked the Three Tiers of Noncustomers' illustrates how new demand is created by looking to noncustomers instead of just competing for a share of the existing customers of an industry. The case prompts the students to consider how new demand was created in the cell phone, computer and air travel industries by unlocking the three tiers of noncustomers.

The case entitled 'Crafting Winning Strategies in a Mature Market: The US Wine Industry in 2001' examines the competitive environment of the US wine industry in 2001, prior to [yellow tail]'s launch. The case demonstrates how the industry was overcrowded, highly competitive, and increasingly squeezed at the distribution and retail stages of the supply chain. Even though the industry was intensely competitive, wine manufacturers have systematically competed along the same set of factors that have hardly changed over the last few centuries. In July 2001, Australia's Casella Winery introduced [yellow tail] into this highly competitive US market. Small and unknown, they had expected to sell 25,000 cases in their first year. In fact, they had sold nine times that amount. By the end of 2005, [yellow tail]'s cumulative sales were tracking at 25 million cases. [yellow tail] soon emerged as the overall best selling 750ml red wine, outstripping Californian, French and Italian brands. This case examines the strategic move executed by [yellow tail] that made it the number one imported wine and the fastest growing brand in the history of the US and Australian wine industries.

Argentine confectionery manufacturer, Arcor Group, seeks to implement an international strategy but in 2003, while recovering from the Argentine financial crisis, globalization plans are thwarted. Already Latin America's leading candy producer and an exporter to over 100 countries, Arcor analyzes how it can become truly global with production facilities and distribution networks in various regions, such as North America, Europe, and Asia. First, however, Arcor must stabilize its operations at home, where a devalued peso, economic uncertainty, and political instability still linger from the devastating financial crisis.

An employee union is threatening Detonation Media with a strike. What should the company do? Three experts comment on this fictional case study in R0907B and R0907Z: Richard L. Trumka, Richard B. Freeman, and Jeffrey Anderson.

An employee union is threatening Detonation Media with a strike. What should the company do? Three experts comment on this fictional case study in R0907B and R0907Z: Richard L. Trumka, Richard B. Freeman, and Jeffrey Anderson.

An employee union is threatening Detonation Media with a strike. What should the company do? Three experts comment on this fictional case study in R0907B and R0907Z: Richard L. Trumka, Richard B. Freeman, and Jeffrey Anderson.

Pharmaceutical company Genzyme has created a new drug, Renvela, which is a phosphate binder designed to be used primarily by patients with kidney failure. Renvela is a slightly different version of Genzyme's highly successful Renagel. Company executives must now decide how best to launch Renvela. Should it replace Renagel? Should it be a premium version of Renagel? Is it worth launching the product at all? The case appears rather simple on the surface, but the questions are challenging to work through.

The case describes the launch, growth and current challenges of two innovative ventures in the nascent social lending market. It shows how these organisations are using the concept of online micro lending to eradicate poverty. While operating in the same market space, the two companies have fundamentally different business models: Kiva is based on good-will while MYC4 is based on market incentives. Which model is more likely to succeed?

The case is set in the financial services industry during the financial crisis of 2008/09 and discusses issues when deciding on "fair" compensation packages for both senior management as well as risk managers. How can banks justify multimillion dollar bonuses to top management, when the institution is showing a loss/accepting government money to survive? Can compensation packages be competitive and please both employees and shareholders at different stages of the cycle? The case highlights the industry's soul-searching and attempts to appease an outraged public and manage possible future stress situations better.

Wipro had set a goal to be among the 'Big 5' global IT players within the next five years. However, despite its tremendous business successes in the recent past, a Brand Perception Survey conducted in 2006 among prospective clients showed that awareness of Wipro was much lower than for its main Indian rival. On the other hand, between 2005-2006 its 'favourability' scores had increased dramatically, that is, those who knew about Wipro now had a far more favourable impression about the company. Thus the key challenge facing Wipro was to develop a distinct positioning to help increase awareness levels in target geographies and audiences.

Mrs. Ebtissam Algosaibi has created the leading high end jewelry company in the Middle East, Erum Jewelry, based in her home town of Alkhobar, Saudi Arabia. She believes Erum has the potential to be a world player similar to Cartier and Chopard. How should she expand Erum beyond the Saudi market? The case also deals with the new opportunities and old challenges for women entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.

Carl Bistany is struggling with how the global educational management company, SABIS, can grow 100-fold in the coming twelve years. Founded in 1886 in Lebanon, SABIS is the world's largest and only global education management organization (EMO), with schools in the US, Europe, and Middle East.

This case profiles President Barack Hussein Obama's rise to the presidency as an "improbable candidate." The case illustrates the ways in which he overcame criticism from those who questioned his credibility and his values and skepticism from those who were unsure of whether America was ready to elect its first African American President. It also explores how President Obama was able to gain support from the American people despite lagging behind Senator Hillary Clinton, the presumed Democratic frontrunner, throughout much of the pre-primary period.

This case describes the efforts of the management team at Tomasso Corporation, located in Montreal, Quebec, to manage various economic and personnel issues during the economic downturn of 2001. As the situation at Tomasso worsened, the president wondered how to turn the company around. The management team wondered if there was a way to balance the human and economic issues by adhering to a theory that the chief executive officer had developed over 10 years.