The Vancouver plant manager of British Columbia Box Limited was about to make a half-million dollar decision. The plant required a new $500,000 machine, and the manager must decide which manufacturer will get the order. The case illustrates many concepts in industrial buying.

Teaching note for product 9B14A053.

Two business partners were considering adding product lines to their international custom software business in Toronto, Canada. From 2009, Myplanet had grown ever more focused, in turn yielding an increase in average project size to US$1 million and a staff that grew from six to 100. Until they created RelayRobin, a system that was similar in capability to Skype, the two partners had achieved their remarkable growth almost exclusively through custom .....more

The founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Teksavvy Solutions Inc. has achieved sales of $18 million in just more than 10 years as an Internet service provider (ISP) across Canada but he must decide whether to distribute his service via cable carriers, telecom carriers or both, or even integrate forward into laying fiber-optic cable in homes and businesses himself. If he invests in last mile connections to homes, he will need a great deal more .....more

Teaching note for product 9B10A028.

Teaching note for product 9B08A008.

In 2007, the marketing director for Cineplex Entertainment is trying to decide whether or not to proceed with a loyalty program that would provide incentives for customers to see more movies and events, and spend more on concessions. An important by-product would be the collection of detailed customer buying data. She has crafted four possible combinations of rewards and received proposals from three suppliers with experience in managing customer .....more

Shanghai COS Software Ltd. designs and develops smart card operating systems. The company's marketing manager must decide the best basis for segmenting the burgeoning market for smart cards for wireless devices in China. She has excellent data on this duopoly market, the segments and their buying criteria. In fact, she already has received significant orders for low-end cards from each of the two large customers. However, she and the senior management .....more

In February 2007, Loblaw Companies Limited (Loblaw) was far and away the dominant food retailer in Canada with a market share of 35 per cent across its various retailing formats. As part of its long term retailing strategy and in a bid to reduce the impact of Wal-Mart Canada's entry into food retailing, in 2004 Loblaw began to build new The Real Canadian Superstores in Ontario and position them as blockers that resembled Wal-Mart's U.S. combination .....more

Teaching note for product 9B07A012.