A consumer goods analyst has been asked to understand the governance structure and various risks facing Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA (Richemont), a Swiss-based luxury goods conglomerate. Richemont has emerged as one of the premier luxury brand houses in the world and is controlled by a single person, Johann Rupert. The case describes the development of Richemont and provides information on various aspects of the firm, including its many luxury .....more

The Royal Group Technologies case provides information on the insider trading and other allegations faced by the former executive officer and the company's management team. The executive officer founded the firm after immigrating to Canada from Italy, and built it up into a large conglomerate by the 1990s. However, by the early 2000s, stakeholders were starting to question some of managements' practices, including awarding themselves high .....more

The founder of organicKidz is trying to create a plan to grow her start-up manufacturing firm. Calgary-based organicKidz is a manufacturer of stainless steel baby bottles and is sold in more than five countries. The founder's challenge is how to convey the superior benefits of her product and manage her retail channels given her limited resources. The setting of the case is at the September 2009 juvenile products tradeshow in the United States .....more

L'Oreal S.A. is in the process of implementing a global diversity strategy. The firm's Europe diversity director is working with various country units to roll out the strategy. The director faces obstacles such as cultural differences between countries and, generally, low awareness of the benefits a diversity strategy can bring.

This case considers attempts by a Turkish manufacturer of cosmetics packaging to trade off quality for cost, in order to compete with the influx of low-cost products from China. It describes the challenges faced by SomPack management in their effort to survive in the face of low-cost Chinese competition as well as the credit crisis. The company had grown because of its focus on quality and customer relations, but had to slash costs first in response .....more

The city of McAllen, Texas and its partners have worked on attracting an automotive assembly plant to the region for over fifteen years. Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provision, this region enjoys the advantages offered by both sides of the Mexican-U.S. border. Even during the economic downturn of 2007 to 2008, McAllen experienced a lower unemployment rate compared to other cities in the United States. One of the primary reasons .....more

Against all odds, the founder of Mk II Corporation (Mk II) has started an American watch company. The founder, a former investment banker and a Wharton MBA graduate, began his venture in 2002 with no prior experience in the watchmaking trade. He started his company to produce watches in the United States during an era when U.S. manufacturing was in decline and the country had no indigenous watchmaking firms to speak of. In addition, the economy .....more

In 2005, the Qianjiang Group (QJ), a large-scale Chinese state-owned group, acquired the Italian company Benelli to expand its business in Western markets beyond Italy. Benelli’s brand advantage was intended to provide the core competency for QJ to compete in the global motorbike markets; in addition, Benelli’s capabilities and know-how in motorbike and scooter engineering also helped QJ complete its product portfolio. After a successful start, .....more

This note explains the need and importance of quality function deployment (QFD), a customer-driven quality-planning tool that translates customers' needs into appropriate technical requirements of the product or service. The note addresses methodology and implementation as applied to a certain product or service, the product in this situation being credit cards.

The president, chief executive officer (CEO) and director of Sofame Technologies Inc. (Sofame) is trying to boost sales at his firm. Sofame is trying to figure out why, with proven environmentally friendly technology, it is unable to achieve rapid rates of growth. The purpose of the case is to exhibit the issues and challenges in selling new technology and to highlight key elements of entrepreneurship, such as sales strategy and managing the sales .....more