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The case was developed from two 2-h interviews with the Chief Operating Officer of A-Basin, Alan Henceroth; there is no CEO of A-Basin. The second interview was recorded on a Zoom call to provide accuracy of quotations and information. A variety of secondary sources were used in terms of better understanding the current state of the ski industry, as well as its history.

Arapahoe Basin (A-Basin) is a historic, moderately sized, ski area with proximity to metropolitan Denver, Colorado. For over 20 years A-Basin partnered with Vail, allowing skiers to use the Vail Epic Pass, for which A-Basin received some revenue from Vail for each skier visit. The Epic Pass allowed pass holders unlimited days of skiing at A-Basin. More and more skiers were buying the Epic Pass, thus increasing the customer traffic to A-Basin. However, the skier experience was compromised due inadequate parking, long lift lines and crowded restaurants. The renewal of the contract with Vail was coming due, and A-Basin had to consider whether to renew the contract with Vail. The case is framed primarily as a strategic marketing case. The authors use Porter’s five forces model to assess the external environment of A-Basin, and the authors use the resource-based view and the VRIO tool to assess A-Basin’s internal strengths. Both frameworks provide useful analysis in terms of deciding whether to continue A-Basin’s arrangement with Vail or end the contract and pursue a different strategy. In 2019, after consultation with the Canadian parent company Dream, A-Basin made the decision to disassociate itself from the Epic Pass and Vail to restore a quality ski experience for A-Basin’s customers. No other partner had ever left its relationship with Vail. An epilogue details some of A-Basin’s actions, as well as the outcomes for the ski area. Generally A-Basin’s decision produced positive results and solidified its competitive position among competitors. Other ski areas have since adopted a similar strategy as A-Basin. A-Basin’s success is reflected in a pending offer from Alterra, Inc., to purchase the ski area.

The A-Basin case can be used in both undergraduate and graduate strategic (or marketing) management courses. It is probably best considered during the middle of an academic term, as the case requires students to apply many of the theoretical concepts of strategy. One of the best books to enable students to use Porter’s five forces is Understanding Michael Porter by Joan Magretta (Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012). Magretta was a colleague of Porter for many years and was an Editor of the Harvard Business Review. For a discussion of the VRIN/VRIO concept, see Chapter 4 of Essentials of Strategic Management by Gamble, Peteraf and Thompson (New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2019).

The following is a complete list of World's Records as officially homologated by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale up to December 31, 1929

A PROGRESSIVE increase in the standard of living is now widely accepted as both possible and desirable, even if the notion that it can be doubled within the next 25 years is dismissed as an optimistic flight of Butlerian fancy. The prerequisite is a substantial upsurge in the country's production. This was expressed succinctly by Mr. Victor Feather four years ago when, as Assistant Secretary to the Trades Union Congress, he told the Institute of Directors that ‘what can be done by any Government by way of social improvement depends on what Industry can produce and sell. About half the strikes that take place have nothing to do with hours or wages or conditions, but have a great deal to do with human relations. That field is one in which there must be patience, tolerance, concentration and great endeavour, but the rate of progress can and should be accelerated.’

Reviewing the Food Standards Report on Misdescriptions contained in this issue—the terms, names, phrases widespread in the field of agriculture and food—one cannot fail to notice the impressive role that words generally play in everyday use of language, especially in those areas where widespread common usage imports regional differences. The modern tendency is to give to words new meanings and nowhere is this so apparent as in the food industry; the Food Standards Committee considered a number of these. The FSC see the pictorial device as making a deeper impression than mere words in relation to consumer preference, which is undoubtedly true. Even Memory can be compartmentalized and especially with the increasing years, the memory tends to become photographic, retaining visual impressions more strongly than the written word. Auditory impressions depend largely on their accompaniments; if words are spoken with the showing of a picture or sung to a catchy tune, these will be more strongly retained than mere words on a printed label. At best, pictorial devices give rise to transient impressions, depending on the needs and interests of the viewer. Many look but do not see, and as for spoken words, these may “go in one ear and out of the other!”.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the carbon intensity of “last mile” deliveries (i.e. deliveries of goods from local depots to the home) and personal shopping trips.

Several last mile scenarios are constructed for the purchase of small, non‐food items, such as books, CDs, clothing, cameras and household items. Official government data, operational data from a large logistics service provider, face‐to‐face and telephone interviews with company managers and realistic assumptions derived from the literature form the basis of the calculations. Allowance has been made for home delivery failures, “browsing” trips to the shops and the return of unwanted goods.

Overall, the research suggests that, while neither home delivery nor conventional shopping has an absolute CO₂ advantage, on average, the home delivery operation is likely to generate less CO₂ than the typical shopping trip. Nevertheless, CO₂ emissions per item for intensive/infrequent shopping trips by bus could match online shopping/home delivery.

The number of items purchased per shopping trip, the choice of travel mode and the willingness to combine shopping with other activities and to group purchases into as few shopping trips or online transactions as possible are shown to be critical factors. Online retailers and home delivery companies could also apply measures (e.g. maximising drop densities and increasing the use of electric vehicles) to enhance the CO₂ efficiency of their logistical operations and gain a clearer environmental advantage.

Both consumers and suppliers need to be made more aware of the environmental implications of their respective purchasing behaviour and distribution methods so that potential CO₂ savings can be made.

The paper offers insights into the carbon footprints of conventional and online retailing from a “last mile” perspective.

The following is a complete list of World's Records as officially homologated by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale up to June 30, 1929

The popular view of the lorry is that it is frequently frustrating to car drivers, an agent of exhaust pollution, and an affront to the environment. Yet our system of communications is such that its continued use is unavoidable, if essential supplies are to be maintained. Legislation, however, by attempting to control the size of lorries is adding to already growing distribution costs. At the recent National Conference of the Centre for PDM, Alan West of RHM Foods Ltd described how his company is meeting the problem.

This chapter explores how resilience in the face of difficult and crisis-ridden circumstances influences innovation. By examining Qantas and the critical role played by the CEO and Managing Director Alan Joyce, we discuss how innovation leadership amid a crisis requires resilience with a balanced approach. With a lens of self-level innovation leadership, we showcase Alan Joyce’s resilience and how that flowed onto his team and the organisation to action required changes in a creative and novel way to revitalise. The chapter contributes to the literature by further detailing about how resilience from a business leadership perspective influences the organisation’s ability to encourage innovation in a difficult and crisis-ridden environment. We believe that the lessons learned from the Qantas case can inspire companies and industries that face similar challenges to understand what it means to demonstrate resilience as a leader.

The following paper details a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky, Associate Editor of Industrial Robot Journal, to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry engineer-turned successful business leader, regarding the commercialization and challenges of bringing technological inventions to the market while overseeing a company. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The interviewee is Dr William “Red” Whittaker, Fredkin Research Professor of Robotics, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU); CEO of Astrobotic Technology; and President of Workhorse Technologies. Dr Whittaker provides answers to questions regarding the pioneering experiences of some of his technological wonders in land, sea, air, underwater, underground and space.

As a child, Dr Whittaker built things and made them work and dreamed about space and robots. He has since then turned his dreams, and those of the world, into realities. Dr Whittaker’s formal education includes a BS degree in civil engineering from Princeton and MS and PhD degrees in civil engineering from CMU. In response to designing a robot to cleanup radioactive material at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, Dr Whittaker established the Field Robotics Center (FRC) in 1983. He is also the founder of the National Robotics Engineering Center, an operating unit within CMU’s Robotics Institute (RI), the world’s largest robotics research and development organization. Dr Whittaker has developed more than 60 robots, breaking new ground in autonomous vehicles, field robotics, space exploration, mining and agriculture. Dr Whittaker’s research addresses computer architectures for robots, modeling and planning for non-repetitive tasks, complex problems of objective sensing in random and dynamic environments and integration of complete robot systems. His current focus is Astrobotic Technology, a CMU spin-off firm that is developing space robotics technology to support planetary missions. Dr Whittaker is competing for the US$20m Google Lunar XPRIZE for privately landing a robot on the Moon.

Dr Whittaker coined the term “field robotics” to describe his research that centers on robots in unconstrained, uncontrived settings, typically outdoors and in the full range of operational and environmental conditions: robotics in the “natural” world. The Field Robotics Center has been one of the most successful initiatives within the entire robotics industry. As the Father of Field Robotics, Dr Whittaker has pioneered locomotion technologies, navigation and route-planning methods and advanced sensing systems. He has directed over US$100m worth of research programs and spearheaded several world-class robotic explorations and operations with significant outreach, education and technology commercializations. His ground vehicles have driven thousands of autonomous miles. Dr Whittaker won DARPA’s US$2m Urban Challenge. His Humvees finished second and third in the 2005 DARPA’s Grand race Challenge desert race. Other robot projects have included: Dante II, a walking robot that explored an active volcano; Nomad, which searched for meteorites in Antarctica; and Tugbot, which surveyed a 1,800-acre area of Nevada for buried hazards. Dr Whittaker is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and served on the National Academy of Sciences Space Studies Board. Dr Whittaker received the Alan Newell Medal for Research Excellence. He received Carnegie Mellon’s Teare Award for Teaching Excellence. He received the Joseph Engelberger Award for Outstanding Achievement in Robotics, the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence’s inaugural Feigenbaum Prize for his contributions to machine intelligence, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Simon Ramo Medal, the American Society of Civil Engineers Columbia Medal, the Antarctic Service Medal and the American Spirit Honor Medal. Science Digest named Dr Whittaker one of the top 100 US innovators for his work in robotics. He has been recognized by Aviation Week & Space Technology and Design News magazines for outstanding achievement. Fortune named him a “Hero of US Manufacturing”. Dr Whittaker has advised 26 PhD students, has 16 patents and has authored over 200 publications. Dr Whittaker’s vision is to drive nanobiologics technology to fulfillment and create nanorobotic agents for enterprise on Earth and beyond (Figure 1).