Ivey Business School (Canada)
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Kombi Sports Inc.: Staying Ahead of the Curve
Heather Calvert; Raymond L. Paquin; Rajshree PrakashCase IVEY-9B21M063-EMarketing, StrategyIn January 2020, Kombi Sports Inc. was at a strategic crossroads in a changing industry. The Montreal-based firm had evolved from a niche provider of alpine performance gloves to a premium Canadian winter apparel brand. Its success could be attributed, at least in part, to its strong collaborative stance and interesting partnerships. However, increasing competition in the industry, particularly among brick-and-mortar retailers, raised questions f...Starting at €8.20
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Carefirst: the INTEGRATE Care Model
Linying Dong; Alice MuiCase IVEY-9B20E005-EInformation TechnologiesIn 2019, the chief executive officer of Carefirst Seniors & Community Services Association (Carefirst) was sitting in her modest office near Toronto, Ontario, Canada, looking back on 22 years of providing health care services to seniors and other clients in the Toronto area. Demand for its services had been growing steadily, as Canada’s aging population continued to increase in numbers. The 2016 census reported that seniors outnumbered children f...Starting at €8.20
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Blacbiblio: Hold Steady or Change Course
Raymond L. Paquin; Bharathram Sivasubramanian; Rajshree PrakashCase IVEY-9B20M050-EEntrepreneurship, StrategyBlacbiblio.com, Inc., an educational materials start-up in Montreal, Canada, launched its first and only product, the ABCs of Canadian Black History Kit, in 2016. The product received strong positive reviews at the time of its launch, but its initial price of CA$2,500 per kit left it out of reach for most of its intended customers. The company founder, a historian and educational content creator, shifted to a flexible pricing strategy, offering t...Starting at €8.20
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SmoothPay: Growing a Mobile Payment User Base
Jacob Halliday; Linying DongCase IVEY-9B16E032-EEntrepreneurship, Information TechnologiesSmoothPay, a 14-people start-up in Canada that offered mobile payment and loyalty solutions, enjoyed initial achievements after its launch in 2014. In less than two years, through industry partnerships and community engagement, SmoothPay grew to have over 100 merchants in its system, with over 5,000 users. However, the future was full of risks and uncertainty: businesses and consumers in Canada were both slow in adopting mobile payments, and, as ...Starting at €8.20