Ivey Business School (Canada)
-
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
-
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
-
Merging Esso Iceland and Bilanaust (C)
Gerard Seijts; Ken MarkCase IVEY-9B10C018-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyBy December 2006, Hermann Gudmundsson (the chief executive officer of both Esso Iceland and Bilanaust) had spent the past 10 months evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of both organizations, and determined that the best approach going forward would be to, "consider creating a new organization with a new structure and a new brand name." He weighed the advantages, disadvantages and costs of either retaining two separate companies and their asso...Starting at €5.74
-
PLT Consulting: Navigating Inclusion as a Linguistic Minority
Rebecca Piekkari; Hilla BackCase IVEY-W32298-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyIn 2021, Robert, a highly qualified immigrant from the United Kingdom, had recently joined PLT Consulting (PLT), a multinational management consulting company, as a junior consultant in the Tallinn, Estonia, office. This professional services firm had a strong international brand. However, Robert soon realized that the organization catered both internally and externally to more local demands. In particular, his lack of local language proficiency ...Starting at €8.20
-
Iceland's Landsbanki Islands hf: Where to From Here
Murray J. Bryant; Gerard Seijts; Michael R. KingCase IVEY-9B14C015-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyThe CEO of a failed bank in Iceland must address what went wrong and how he should go about restoring trust in the bank by customers, debt holders, fellow Icelanders, politicians and regulators. Crippled by the global financial crisis, not only did Iceland’s banks default but the country itself was in danger of dissolution. This case examines the myriad reasons for the bank failure and subsequent nationalization, and provides an understanding of ...Starting at €8.20
-
LEGO Group: Building Strategy
Darren Meister; Paul BigusCase IVEY-9B11M086-EMarketing, StrategyThe world famous toymaker, The LEGO Group, assembled an internal management team to create a strategic report on LEGO’s different product lines and business operations. In recent years, numerous threats to LEGO had emerged in the toy industry. The acquisition of Marvel Entertainment by The Walt Disney Company created major implications for valuable toy license agreements. LEGO had also recently lost a long legal battle with major competitor MEGA ...Starting at €8.20
-
Merging Esso Iceland and Bilanaust (B)
Gerard Seijts; Ken MarkCase IVEY-9B10C017-ELeadership and People ManagementHermann Gudmundsson, the new chief executive officer (CEO) of both Esso Iceland (provider of fuel and lubricants) and Bilanaust (an automotive spare parts retailer) was starting to develop an organizational strategy to carry the two firms forward for the next few years. His overriding concern was to create value for themselves and the customers they served, and Gudmundsson considered several methods to achieve that goal: should each company be le...Starting at €5.74
-
Merging Esso Iceland and Bilanaust (F)
Gerard Seijts; Ken MarkCase IVEY-9B10C021-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyBy October 2008, the merger of Esso Iceland and Bilanaust into the new company N1 was considered a success. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was on its way to doubling in three years, and cross-selling was gaining traction. But N1's plans were under threat of derailing due to a looming currency crisis. In October 2008, the Icelandic banking sector collapsed. Gudmundsson called upon his team to determine what...Starting at €5.74
-
Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership
Jannifer David; Ahmed MaamounCase IVEY-9B08C019-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyThe growing globalization of many industries has led many U.S.-based companies to open facilities overseas. In the process, researchers have counselled U.S. companies to adopt many local customs and policies to increase their probability of success in these new locations. During this same time period, many foreign-owned companies have moved into the United States and either purchased existing facilities or started new operations. The purpose of t...Starting at €8.20
-
Better World Fashion: Circular Economy and Competitive Advantage
Reimer Ivang; Mohammad Bakhtiar RanaCase IVEY-9B19A021-EEntrepreneurship, Marketing, StrategyIn 2015, in Aalborg, Denmark, the two co-founders of Better World Fashion formed their company as a social enterprise, aiming to highlight all that was wrong with the fashion industry and offer a cleaner and more ethical solution. The business was designed to focus not only on profit but also on minimizing the environmental impact of the supply chain. The founders chose to specialize in garments made from re-purposed leather, as leather had a lon...Starting at €8.20