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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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Shrimp Farming in Ecuador
David W. ConklinCase IVEY-9A97H005-EStrategyThe primary decision maker operated an extensive shrimp farming business in Ecuador. The shrimp value chain consisted of many activities that culminated in the preparation of a wide variety of frozen appetizers and dinners. In order to increase profitability, the company faced the challenges of moving up the value chain. Meanwhile, global consumption of shrimp value-added products was increasing rapidly. Foreign food processors and retailers had ...Starting at €8.20
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Agoda: People Analytics and Business Culture (A)
Kenneth Goh; Ken MarkCase IVEY-9B17C024-EEntrepreneurship, Leadership and People Management, StrategyIn the spring of 2016, the chief executive officer of Agoda Company Pte. Ltd. (Agoda), a subsidiary of The Priceline Group, Inc., wanted to transform the firm’s human resource practices using data analytics. The idea was not just to get more data, but to use this data to help managers gain insights to make better decisions. The three main focal areas of this exercise were recruitment, performance evaluation, and compensation. As key executives wo...Starting at €8.20
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Bancolombia: Talent, Culture and Value Creation Management in Mergers
Juanita Cajiao SaenzCase IVEY-9B11C040-ELeadership and People Management, StrategyThe case reviews the main facts related to the merger process of three financial institutions — Bancolombia, Conavi, and Corfinsura — in Colombia in 2005 and 2006. The merger decision emerges from directors and senior executives foreseeing a major upcoming market transformation, including adjustment in industry regulation, improvement in international competence, and consolidation of main players, and their response in order to adapt to the new e...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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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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Black Canyon Coffee
Brian K. BoydCase IVEY-9B11M074-EEntrepreneurship, Leadership and People Management, StrategyThis case focuses on Black Canyon Coffee, as it begins to develop its strategy for the firm’s second decade. Founded in 1993, Black Canyon had grown to become the largest chain of coffee houses in Thailand in 2003. Over its first decade, it grew from a single location to 78 retail outlets, serving a mix of hot and cold coffee beverages, as well as Asian cuisine. Thus far, the company had been profitable, and had managed the threat posed by local ...Starting at €8.20
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Biomed Co., Ltd.: Designing a New Sales Compensation Plan
Donald W. Barclay; Ponlerd ChiemchanyaCase IVEY-9B06A037-EMarketing, StrategyA recent MBA graduate was about to return to the family business, Biomed Co., Ltd. as its general manager. Biomed's parent company, Thai Drugs Co., Ltd. has just revised Biomed's market strategy, a change that created the need to align the sales compensation system to fit with the new strategy. The new general manager was charged with this responsibility. Students will work through the path from strategy to a powerful sales compensation plan that...Starting at €8.20