Coping with the complexity of today's business environment is not about predicting the future or reducing risk. It's about building the capacity, in yourself, your people, and the organization to adapt continuously and learn speedily, in order to maximize the chances of seizing fleeting opportunities. These authors' excellent suggestions will help today's leaders cope with complexity.

Late on a Friday afternoon, an investment advisor at the Toronto, Ontario branch of Reese, Gordon, and Company must decide whether to process an order made by a client's husband. This was the fifth time that the husband, who had no trading authority over the account, had made such a request since the account was opened nearly two months previously. The primary objective of this case series is to explore the issue of dealing with a regulator investigating .....more

An investment advisor at the Toronto, Ontario branch of Reese, Gordon, and Company received a call from a seasoned investigator with the Special Investigations Unit (SPU) of the Investment Dealers Association. She was calling to inform him that the SPU had been called in to investigate the alleged mishandling of a client's account. The regulator becomes involved in the transaction described in Peter Farber (A) case, 9A98N033, once the investment .....more

The senior vice-president and managing director at a branch of National Securities has to decide what to do about a series of seemingly irregular transactions by a vice-president, one of the top producers at the branch. When questioned regarding these transactions, the vice-president, at first calmly and then angrily, made assurances that they were completed in the best interest of the clients and were handled in his usual professional manner. The .....more

The administrative assistant at the Edmonton, Alberta branch of Vandelay Securities was faced with a dilemma. Her superior had requested a purchase of shares in a firm whose securities were restricted to residents of Alberta for one of her clients who resided in British Columbia. On the purchase request form, the client's province of residence was listed as Alberta, and a post office box address was given. This transaction was the latest in a .....more

An investment advisor has received an order to buy 1,000 coffee contracts for her client. The client, a senior weather analyst at Environmex, a private weather forecasting service, told her that he had just seen the latest long-range satellite weather data for Brazil that indicated a strong likelihood of frost in the coffee-producing regions. Frost would kill the coffee plants, seriously reducing the supply of coffee, which in turn would lead to an .....more

The president of Pathway Communications Inc. (Pathway), a regional Internet service provider (ISP), had to decide the best course of action to transform Pathway into a national information technology firm that offered end-to-end technology support for a variety of consumer and business needs. At the same time, a regional telecommunications firm wanted to buy Pathway. He wondered if he should pursue this offer or one of the following options: franchise .....more

Teaching note for product 9B00M030.

Teaching note for product 9A98N037.

The administrative assistant at the Edmonton, Alberta branch of Vandelay Securities was faced with a dilemma. Her superior had requested a purchase of shares in a firm whose securities were restricted to residents of Alberta for one of her clients who resided in British Columbia. On the purchase request form, the client's province of residence was listed as Alberta, and a post office box address was given. This transaction was the latest in a .....more