Founded in 1984, United Safety & Survivability Corporation (USSC) was an American company headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania, that began in a garage with just a few products and a dream to develop better and safer transportation solutions. Like most firms, as COVID-19 started to spread in the United States and around the globe, USSC found itself in uncharted waters. The transportation sector, in which USSC operated, was among the most affected .....more

Teaching note for product W27278.

On January 4, 2021, Mike Patriquin was contemplating the tumultuous year of 2020 and the impact it had had on operations at Hell’s Basement Brewery (HBB), the first brewery to open in Medicine Hat, Alberta, since the early 1900s. Recent events both within and outside the brewery had affected his business. Management had recently restructured financially after buying out some of the original partners, and the remaining owners and management were still .....more

Teaching note for product W25849.

Teaching note for product W24938.

Swedish technology start-up Primateria AB (Primateria) was founded in November of 2004 with the main idea to provide science-backed consulting services for cutting-tool producers and end-users. What had started as a consulting service without the need for assets turned quickly into a production-driven service to support the cutting tool supply chain. The company had managed to consistently grow without external capital, had automated processes, opened .....more

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is a skilled actor, but that’s not what makes him an invaluable leadership role model for his people and the rest of our troubled world.

ShakeeBee Honey Inc. was a relatively small producer of pure honey and beeswax and provider of pollination services located in central Newfoundland, Canada. The company needed to consider further expansion beyond the facility modernization it undertook in 2018; this expansion would involve acquiring additional land and attracting key personnel. In March 2020, the owner reached out to his accountant for assistance with a variety of accounting-related .....more

Teaching note for product W24490.

HSBC Commercial Banking was a key business for HSBC Holdings plc, contributing one-third of the bank’s profit in 2019. In 2016, the regional head of Commercial Banking, Asia Pacific, began initiating a series of open innovation programs in Hong Kong. The programs aimed to embrace collaboration in the innovation and technology ecosystem to co-create value for Commercial Banking’s small and medium-sized customers.Now, in 2020, the regional head of Commercial .....more