Ivey Business School (Canada)
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SMR: United against a Global Media Giant
Sanghyeak Yoon; Hyungjin Kim; Young-Gul KimCase IVEY-9B18M090-EEntrepreneurship, StrategyIn 2014, recognizing that their leadership in the online media market was weakening, eight Korean television broadcasters severed their ties with YouTube and formed Smart Media Representative Co. Ltd. (SMR), an alliance to collectively distribute online television content and advertising on behalf of the broadcasters. SMR changed the nature of the online video market in Korea. The rights to advertising sales, programming, and distribution that we...Starting at €8.20
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Korean Air: The Nut Rage Incident
Thompson S.H. Teo; Mei Jie ZhaoCase IVEY-9B15D017-EService and Operations Management, StrategyIn December 2014, after receiving poor service on a flight, a senior vice president at Korean Air lashed out at the flight attendants and delayed the flight’s departure until the chief attendant was returned to the gate. Following a tepid apology from her father, Korean Air’s chief executive officer, her actions drew a public backlash because they exposed the sense of entitlement prevalent among rich family conglomerates in South Korea. How shoul...Starting at €8.20
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Quilts of Denmark: Managing Open Innovation
Wim VanhaverbekeCase IVEY-9B16M213-EEntrepreneurship, StrategyQuilts of Denmark was a Danish start-up company founded in 2000 with the goal of producing high-quality, functional quilts and pillows that contributed to healthy sleep. The company’s open innovation with a space agency and technology company resulted in an “intelligent” quilt that regulated body heat, providing users with an elusive but much-desired experience: a good night’s sleep. Selling a premium product in a commodity market was a challenge...Starting at €8.20
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Marimekko
Alison Konrad; Jordan MitchellCase IVEY-9B06C014-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyKirsti Paakkanen has achieved a celebrity status in Finland for her enigmatic leadership of the Finnish design company Marimekko. Purchasing the company in a state of near bankruptcy in 1991, Paakkanen took several actions to restore profitability and realize growth. As of 2006, the company has sales of $64 million (of which 80 per cent are from Finland) and net profits of $8.4 million. Over the last few years, Paakkanen and her team have focused...Starting at €8.20
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Merging Esso Iceland and Bilanaust (A)
Gerard Seijts; Ken MarkCase IVEY-9B10C015-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyIn 2006, Hermann Gudmundsson (the chief executive officer [CEO] of Bilanaust, an Icelandic automotive spare parts retailer) was part of a group of partners that had purchased Esso Iceland. He had subsequently been appointed to the CEO position at Esso Iceland. The two companies were quite different: Bilanaust dealt with real-time customer needs, carried a wide range of products, and enjoyed a rising market share and profits. Esso Iceland was 12 t...Starting at €8.20
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Lenhage AG: Ethical Dilemma
Daniel Galindau; Won-Yong OhCase IVEY-9B14M037-EStrategyIn 2012, the general manager at the Seoul location of a European manufacturing company faces an ethical dilemma involving bribery and “facilitation” payments. A key decision maker in a local construction company’s purchasing department has asked for a “facilitation” payment as a necessary condition for securing an order. If the expatriate manager decides to pay the money, he will secure an order that will lift his company to a new level of succes...Starting at €8.20
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Cembrit Holding A/S: At a Crossroads
Romeo TurcanCase IVEY-9B17M008-EStrategyCembrit Holding A/S (Cembrit), the second-largest producer of fibre cement products in Europe, had experienced a period of restructuring, acquisitions, and consolidation as a result of having acquired fibre cement companies involved in production, sales, and distribution throughout Europe and closing down its own production in Denmark. After years of restructuring and struggling, growth had finally picked up, with turnover reaching an average of ...Starting at €8.20
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Cconma.com in South Korea: An Innovative E-Commerce Platform
Jin-Su Kang; Stephen DowningCase IVEY-9B15M020-EEntrepreneurship, StrategyIn August 2012, the chief executive officer of Cconma.con, an online shopping mall based in Chung-Ju, South Korea, is considering his company’s future. The company has grown substantially since it was founded in 2005 and is now preparing to further expand into Hong Kong, China or to a second location in the United States. The company’s vision, rooted in an ethic of corporate social responsibility, is to build a happy and healthy community, includ...Starting at €8.20
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NKT Photonics A/S: Doing Business at the Technological Frontiers
Torben Pedersen; Githa KurdahlCase IVEY-9B16M055-EEntrepreneurship, StrategyTo improve its profitability, NKT Photonics A/S (NKT), a small Danish company operating in the global photonics industry, was getting ready to undertake the commercialization process of its highly advanced optical fibre technology. NKT’s chief executive officer (CEO) was considering two options for accomplishing this goal: (1) establishing strategic partnerships with system integrators in order to gain access to commercial customers, or (2) repos...Starting at €8.20
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Carlsberg in Emerging Markets
Michael W. Hansen; Torben Pedersen; Marcus Moller LarsenCase IVEY-9B11M009-EService and Operations Management, StrategyRisking becoming the target of a hostile takeover or being cornered as a small regional player in the global beer industry, the Danish brewery Carlsberg decided in the early 2000s to expand into rapidly growing emerging markets to pursue new arenas of growth. By 2008, this strategy had paid off, and Carlsberg was positioned among the five largest breweries in the world. In the Russian market — one of the fastest-growing markets in the world — Car...Starting at €8.20