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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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Sarah James in Mexico: Often Wrong but Never in Doubt
William A. AndrewsCase IVEY-9B09C006-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyA college student, Sarah James, attends a Mexican university (INI) for the summer to develop her language and cross-cultural capabilities. At the end of a successful semester, she e-mails the director of international recruitment for the Mexican UniversitStarting 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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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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La Vaca Independiente: Should a Social Enterprise Adopt a For-Profit Business Model
Chris Laszlo; Anya BriggsCase IVEY-9B13C033-EEntrepreneurship, Leadership and People Management, StrategyThis case presents a social enterprise considering whether a for-profit model might be an effective way to scale its impact. Mexico City-based La Vaca Independiente (The Independent Cow) was founded to bring art to underprivileged children. The founder observed that many global problems are caused by humanity’s increasing state of isolation, with individuals disconnected from the planet and from each other. She concluded that most benefit corpora...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
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Mexico's Economy, 2012
David W. Conklin; Danielle CadieuxCase IVEY-9B08M084-EStrategyMexico had a history of repeated financial crises, with high inflation leading to current account deficits with volatile capital inflows, culminating in significant devaluations. Concerns persisted that this pattern might repeat itself in the future. In the years prior to 1980, the government of Mexico had put in place a command and control economy with an extensive array of regulations through which it intervened in the economy on an ongoing bas...Starting at €8.20
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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