October 2012

		Coursepack Builder
		New Cases in Marketing
		Best Selling Cases for 2011-2012
		Free Resources and Tips for Learning & Teaching with Cases

The Coursepack Builder was officially launched in September and has proven to be a popular tool with numerous customized coursepacks being created and downloaded daily!

Log In to create your own custom resource that can be downloaded instantly from the Ivey Publishing website. With enough content to create an entire course, you can use the Coursepack Builder tool to assemble cases, articles & technical notes from the Ivey collection, or any of the other collections available through Ivey Publishing.

Need help? View any of the instructional videos below or email for assistance.

Part 1 - Creating Coursepacks

Part 2 - Building Your Coursepack

Part 3 - Finding & Adding Products to a Coursepack

Part 4 - Changing the Order of Items, Editing & Previewing Your Coursepack

Part 5 - Activating & Purchasing the Coursepack

Part 6 - Managing the Coursepacks: Deleting, Re-Using & Archiving

Part 7 - Adding Delegates

The newest cases from the Ivey case collection are available for review. View New Cases for more details on cases registered in your discipline.

I-Star: Expanding in North America
The president of I-Star America, Inc. and vice-president of I-Star Corporation reflected on the success of I-Star in the Chinese and Japanese IT markets and the challenges of increasing market share in North America, one of the largest markets in the world. I-Star was expected to grow about 30 per cent in the next few years, and the president considered whether the strategy used in Japan could be applied to North America. Students will learn to:

• Analyze the best options for I-Star (or other Chinese IT firms) interested in expanding into North American markets.
• Examine considerations for businesses choosing to expand internationally.
• Identify strategies for Chinese IT firms competing with Indian IT firms in the North American market.

American Apparel: Unwrapping Ethics
American Apparel, a popular clothing manufacturer, has socially progressive labour policies and uses significant environmental advances in its manufacturing process. In addition, it has a well-established philanthropic arm. Set against these socially responsible policies is the highly sexualized nature of the company’s advertising. This element of the marketing mix seems, at least to some consumers, very much at odds with the other aims and policies of the company. The question facing students is whether this disconnect can be maintained or whether the brand’s advertising should change.

This case is intended for an introductory marketing course and for use as supplementary material to stimulate discussion on marketing ethics. The case presents a company that does well in some areas of social responsibility (labour, environment) but is seen to do far less well in other domains (advertising). The case engages students to discuss marketing ethics and the link between ethics and strategy.

Northern Drilling Inc.: The Mond Nickel Contract Decision — A Tactical Dilemma in a Growth Strategy
Northern Drilling Inc., an exploration diamond-drilling contractor, has been asked to tender a bid for a lucrative, highly complex contract with Mond Nickel. Northern has no drills or crew currently available to work on the contract, which requires experienced drillers. Compounding the issue is a shortage of skilled labour in the industry. At the same time, Northern’s biggest client, Noranda Nickel, is seeing poor geological results on a job in the same area. Northern’s management needs to decide whether to incur additional costs and leave a capacity cushion in an effort to maintain its excellent relationship with its current client, or whether it should instead utilize the drills on the new job. The primary issue facing Northern’s management is whether Northern can handle the new contract, both financially and technically, without compromising the current job.

The case provides sufficient information for students to analyze the following:

• The financial implications of the various options.
• The customer relationship sensitivities.
• The operational constraints of fulfilling the contract.
• The strategic implications of not bidding, not winning, or winning and delivering poor performance.
• The strategic initiatives that might be put in place to mitigate risk.

Did you know that over 1.6 million copies of Ivey cases are used at thousands of business schools around the world? With cases written by leading Ivey faculty and by authors from around the world, the Ivey case collection represents a wide range of business issues from a truly global perspective.  We would like to thank all of our authors for their contribution to the Ivey case collection and highlight some of our best selling cases for 2011-2012. 

Molson Canada: Social Media Marketing by Deborah Compeau, Israr Qureshi

FIJI Water and Corporate Social Responsibility - Green Makeover or Greenwashing? by James McMaster, Jan Nowak

Entrepreneurs at Twitter: Building a Brand, a Social Tool or a Tech Powerhouse? by Simon Parker, Ken Mark

Visit our website to view our entire Best Selling Case Collection which includes a variety of case studies across all major business disciplines.

If teaching with cases is new to you, or if you are looking for a way to improve your current methodology, check out these free resources available from Ivey Publishing.

Learning with Cases, 4th Edition
A complementary copy is available upon request. This soft cover book is a concise handbook written specifically for students to enhance their learning with cases. Numerous and helpful suggestions cover the complete case learning process including individual reading and preparation, small group discussion, large group (classroom) discussion, making case presentations and writing case exams and reports ... More

The Business Plan Presentation
This complementary case has been written to help students understand the importance of class management and illustrate the challenges associated with English as a Second Language (ESL) students and how to best approach these students to ensure their language difficulties do not limit their learning. It also emphasizes the need for instructors to be clear about course objectives and class requirements. The case can be used in a course on teaching, ideally in a section on class management, teaching ESL students or teaching in a cross-cultural context. It can also be used as preparation for participants in student-run initiatives in developing countries. Registered academics can Log In to download the accompanying teaching note.

Plagiarism and Discipline
When a professor finds out that one of the groups in her Management Information Systems (MIS) MBA class had plagiarized part of their assignment from other sources, she did not know what to do. Plagiarism was not an unusual situation to her; in the past, she had always reported it. Her university also took plagiarism seriously; students who were caught were expelled from the university. But this situation seemed a little different, and she wondered whether reporting the students and having them expelled was the sensible approach this time.

This complementary case is designed to support workshops and teaching on the subject of teaching and learning with cases. This case emphasizes issues of dealing with student plagiarism on a case analysis assignment.

Read the case teaching tips Christopher Williams, Assistant Professor of International Business at the Richard Ivey School of Business recently shared with the Global Business School Network.