Hunley, Inc. manufactures rods for the niche sport of fly fishing. It specializes in freshwater rods that are perceived as ""middle-market"" products, targeted at ""avid"" fly fishers, In the face of declining revenue and a decreasing price per unit sold, the company''s president is considering several growth options, including introducing a rod made from state-of-the-art materials (moving up-market) .....more

The Caesan Cheese Cooperative is considering introducing a new high-quality, high-margin artisan whiskey cheddar cheese. Deidra Kelly, vice president of marketing and product development at Caesan, must recommend to the Board of Directors whether to launch the product using Jameson whiskey as a branded ingredient or using a generically branded whiskey. Use of the branded ingredient would involve a licensing agreement with a leading spirits and wine .....more

In 2017, Chinese clothing manufacturer Qingdao Kutesmart Co. Ltd. (Kutesmart) had been transformed into a customer-to-manufacturer platform company, where customers could order individualized products directly from the makers over the Internet. Since 2000, Kutesmart had been upgrading its information system as its business strategy evolved, and the company had become a widely known, successful case study of mass-customization-based manufacturing in .....more

In mid-2018 Sri Sri Tattva (SST), an Indian fast-moving consumer goods company (FMCG) company was planning to launch 1,000 exclusive stores across the country. Some 600 of these stores were expected to be operational by March 2019. The company had also announced its intention to enter 30 new countries, with a particular focus on Latin America, including Brazil and Argentina. The company leveraged, to a certain extent, the popularity and mass influence .....more

Shelby Diaz, country manager for Cepuros Foods International - Malaysia (CFI-M), must decide a growth strategy for the expansion of CFI-M''s line of salsas, particularly regarding whom to target and how to allocate marketing investments. CFI-M could expand aggressively by mass marketing to the general population. A more conservative approach would use targeted communications and promotions. Diaz needs to build an argument for a specific growth .....more

When employees are disengaged and underperforming, the reaction of many managers is to try new incentives and ratchet up oversight and control. Yet often nothing improves. Why? Because the assumption behind such conventional approaches is that work is fundamentally contractual and that employees are self-interested agents who will seek to minimize personal effort. And that assumption becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: Employees do just what is needed .....more

The Forta Furniture case highlights the need to consider new market expansion to grow a firm. It demonstrates that simply doing what has always been done is not sustainable when other competitors enter the market with differentiated or potentially superior offerings. In addition, the case suggests there are many routes to global expansion; a firm could look to build a brand in these new markets or compete as a private label. Further, the case addresses .....more

Kate Moran, CEO and cofounder of Sagacity Tea, a small, Vermont-based ready-to-drink tea brand, is considering a consumer-product group (CPG) broker''s proposal for the product''s launch in several cities along the East Coast of the United States. The commitments in the proposal include various forms of trade promotion, including discounts, coupons, and slotting fees (SFs), the latter being upfront payments to retailers in the form .....more

This case describes DTE Energy CEO Gerry Anderson''s transformation from a hard-nosed, "old school" leader to an authentic, purpose-driven leader implementing positive change. Students follow along as Anderson begins re-thinking his approach to leadership from a cost-focus to a more holistic view that employees are not "simply factors of production" and that management by edict was not sustainable. But just as Anderson .....more

This case depicts how DTE Energy expanded its internal momentum as a positive organization to encompass improving the broader community as well. The case opens at the end of 2015, with DTE''s stock price having tripled since 2008 and the company having won Gallup''s Great Work Place awards. DTE Energy CEO Gerry Anderson has articulated the vision of DTE as being a "force for growth and prosperity in the communities where we .....more