The COVID-19 pandemic changed many aspects of consumers’ lives and transformed the industries serving them. This note examines the impact of the pandemic on the fast-food industry and details four main ways in which the sector was affected. First, the pandemic led to an increased reliance on technology. Second, it pushed forward new restaurant designs. Third, it accelerated the rise of “ghost kitchens,” which prepared food for consumption off the .....more

Most managers in an international business are likely to be involved with international joint ventures (IJVs) during their career. IJVs have a greater chance of success if the businesses involved have good advisers on their teams. However, it can be a challenge to know what advisers to hire and how best to utilize their expertise. Drawing on their extensive career experience, the authors recommend best practices for hiring and working with international .....more

The note provides a qualitative and quantitative overview of the North American airline and airport industries with data covering 2016 to 2020. Specifically, the data covers five airlines—American Airlines Group Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., United Airlines Holdings Inc., Air Canada, and WestJet Airlines Ltd.—and five airports—New York’s LaGuardia, Los Angeles International, Chicago’s O’Hare International, Toronto Pearson International, .....more

This note introduces a leadership communication competencies framework as part of the embodying executive presence model. The model can be leveraged in the education and development of leaders seeking to improve their skills associated with having impact and influence, enhancing their persuasive capabilities, and their ability to inspire others.

The dematerialization and servitization of products being brought about by the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is making it imperative for platform businesses to look at consumers and suppliers from a lifetime value perspective. This technical note compares two fundamental strategic marketing perspectives: the push strategy and the pull strategy, using simple systems-dynamics and agent-based models. The models, developed using Vensim and .....more

The exercise directs students to watch specific scenes from the movie Hidden Figures, which is loosely based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly that tells the story of three African American women who were mathematicians working at the Langley Research Center in Virginia in the 1960s. The women encountered racism and sexism as they attempted to contribute to the Center’s work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its space .....more

This short note introduces all of the important and commonly used financial ratios, organized into five categories: (1) liquidity ratios, which measure a company’s ability to meet short-term debt obligations; (2) leverage ratios, which evaluate a company’s capital structure by measuring how a firm uses debt and equity to finance its operations; (3) efficiency ratios, which measure how efficiently a company is utilizing its assets and resources; (4) .....more

This short technical note offers a multi-step process for how to analyze a strategy case. The technical note makes reference to frameworks and tools found in the following strategy textbook: Mary M. Crossan, Cara C. Maurer, W. Glenn Rowe, and Michael J. Rouse, Strategic Analysis and Action, 10th ed. (Toronto, ON: Pearson Publishing, 2021) [forthcoming]. This note explains that cases have no single correct answer and that if the analysis has no tensions, .....more

If you can understand football scoring or read a recipe, you can understand an income statement, with the help of this note. It is important to understand an income statement because it tells investors or any stakeholder of a company whether or not the company is making money. An income statement also gives information to company managers to make better forecasts and decisions.

In 2019, the global airline industry generated revenues of over US$880 billion. One year later, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged, demand had fallen to half of its previous level and airlines faced tough challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic was a new and severe crisis. The responses of airlines and their alliances depended on the fundamental economics and structure of the industry. To devise new strategies for their futures, global airlines had to consider .....more