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CF Industries’ products nitrogen fertilizers are a crucial input to making agriculture productive enough to feed the world. However, its products are undifferentiated commodities. Throughout parts of its history, CF has struggled to be consistently profitable, yet over the last decade it has been very profitable. The case provides an opportunity to examine how CF manages to create value and capture it as profits despite being in a commodity business.

Information about Volkswagen’s human and animal testing was obtained from the secondary sources cited.

In 2014, Volkswagen (VW), BMW and Daimler funded an institute to conduct research to support their position that diesel engines are cleaner and safer than other fuel alternatives. One of the research studies conducted by the institute examined the effects of diesel fumes on humans and monkeys. Researchers put ten macaque monkeys in sealed rooms and pumped in exhaust fumes from a Volkswagen Beetle for four hours. For comparison, another group of monkeys was exposed to fumes from an older Ford pickup. The monkeys were later anesthetized and examined to see what the fumes did to their bodies. Other tests involved willing human subjects who were exposed to similar conditions.

This case is applicable to upper-level management or business ethics class.

Upon completion of this case study, students are expected to be able to reflect on strategic industry sectors and the formulation of long-view public policies; understand some of the main biases that affect making decisions in environments of high uncertainty; and build and apply judgment models to support decision-making processes.

Motivated by recent international events responsible for causing supply shock and great volatility in the price of imported fertilizers, Brazil, which in 2022 was responsible for producing only 15% of all the fertilizer consumed by its agribusiness, ran against time by launching a new national fertilizer plan (PNF). The plan proposed to boost Brazil’s national fertilizer industry to fulfil a long-term vision of reducing the country’s external dependence by 2050. While awaiting the first results of the PNF, this case study casts the student participants in the role of Breno Castelães, chief advisor of the special secretariat for strategic affairs of the presidency of the republic, whose role is to recommend the country’s position in the face of external pressures to adopt international embargoes of Russian fertilizers because of its war with Ukraine.

This case study is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students of business administration and public management courses who want to deal with topics such as public policy, judgment and decision-making.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 10: Public sector management.

East Texas Oxygen (ETOX) delivered high-pressure cylinders of gases such as oxygen and nitrogen to twelve wholly-owned branches scattered throughout East Texas and Louisiana. Employees loaded and unloaded individual high-pressure cylinders off of and onto trailers manually and the firm had never had a related accident. Robert Jenkins had been challenged to decrease the cost of supplying the branches with cylinders and other supplies. He was considering recommending the palletization of delivery operations which required numerous changes within the organization. This case required students to determine the best routing for the delivery truck(s) and to determine whether or not the number of trucks and drivers could be reduced under palletization. Students were then required to do a capital budgeting analysis and make a recommendation of whether or not to palletize.

This is a case of a crisis project management which showcases the unpredictable nature of the project and the role of management in handling the crisis. It is the case of a very severe cyclonic storm hitting the city of Visakhapatnam plant during October, 2014. The whole city was devastated and so was the situation in the Steel plant as it was under zero power conditions for around 10 days. This case gives need for managing an integrated steel plant in case of very severe cyclonic storm and documents the sequence of events and managing unforeseen uncertainty using NTCP concepts.

This case teaches participants to: identify evaluation feasibility criteria for project alternatives according to their typology (market, techniques, finances, environmental and social), starting from the analysis of the information available about them. Prepare a comparative project alternative evaluation table, applying good business analysis practices promoted by PMI® and other authors for selecting the most viable project option that will add the most value to the organization.

At the start of 2013, Acería Ecuatoriana, because of a million-dollar investment that had been started by its general manager, Pérez, increased its melting and steel production capacity from 100,000 tons per year to 220,000 tons per year. This implied a greater demand for industrial gases and require its main additional supplier to deliver. Demand increase caused Grupo Lindo Ecuador´s plant saturation, unit separation air 1. For this reason, Grupo Lindo Ecuador had to import considerable oxygen amounts and this increased its cost of production. This caused Cadena to seek the establishment of a strategic alliance with Acería Ecuatoriana, for the purpose of developing a project for gas production (oxygen, nitrogen and argon). In September of the same year, Nelson became interested but required to know the Grupo Lindo Ecuador project proposal before signing the strategic alliance.

The case is addressed to an audience made up of graduate students (graduation and Master’s Degree) who have managerial experience and would like to improve their project management empirical practices.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

BHP, an Australian mining company, threatens to enter the potash mining industry through a hostile takeover of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. Complicating matters is the fact that the Canadian potash industry has operated as a legal cartel in which the provincial government has a stake. This case enables students to assess BHP's strategy in terms of value creation and value capture, how it relates to its existing investments in the industry, and the risks and rewards of alternatives to BHP's strategy

-How cartels help firms capture value in an industry and how the threat of entry can limit the cartel members' ability to do so -How firms outside a cartel can capture value though a competitive threat -The range of strategies available to incumbents and

New product development (NPD), entrepreneurship and strategic management.

Advanced undergraduate, MBA/MSc in Marketing and Management course that cover the topics on NPD.

This case illustrates that commercialization of a new product requires a proper strategic direction to make it a reality. The case fact is positioned in livestock feed industry centered on commercialization of a newly developed urea-molasses mineral block (UMMB) or called Nutriblock. Dr Wan, a Senior Principal Research Officer of Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), developed food supplement for ruminants which contained urea, molasses, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Dr Wan believed that the UMMB was a better quality food supplement compared to products in the markets because it contained 12 raw feed ingredients and an anthelmintic medication. After almost 10 years of research, in 2003, Dr Wan completed his research and, thus, wanted to get a suitable way to commercialize this product. He had two options: commercializing the technology through licensing of intellectual property right (IPR), or to transfer it as a public domain. The Business Development Unit(BDU) was responsible for the former option, whereas Centre for Promotion and Technology Transfer (CPPT) was in charge for the latter. At the beginning of2006, MARDI decided to commercialize the Nutriblock through licensing the IPR to March Avenue Technology Sendirian Berhad (March Avenue), a newly formed company. March Avenue was formed byKarthiir, a lawyer and Ma Irwan, an electrical engineer. The operation was going smoothly for the first two years. However, problem started in 2008 when Karthiir left the company due to some disagreement with Ma Irwan. Since then, March Avenue failed to achieve its sales target that seriously affected its profit level. Moreover, it suffered from internal management problem. The company finally closed down at the end of 2009. By this four year of operation, March Avenue failed to pay any royalty to MARDI. This circumstance forced Dr Wan to think seriously about his next move regarding choosing the right way of commercializing his Nutriblock. MARDI requested him to give his opinion by January 15, 2010 about whether to give another chance to BDU to commercialize this technology through IPR or to go for public domain under CPPT?

Using this case, students can learn that new product development and its commercialization requires proper strategic directions. It illustrates the importance of managing the commercialization of a new product effectively. NPD involves many stages, and it is important to manage every stage properly. This is because a “high-quality product” and/or a “new to the market” product are not enough to succeed in the market. In other words, producing a “product that meets market needs” must be combined with appropriate strategies.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

This case on “Corporate governance: a farce at Volkswagen (VW)” is set in September of 2015. The precipitating events, which started with the Emissions scandal and tampering of the technology, unfold a history of threatening organizational culture, deliberate cheating, and failure of good governance. The case presents that though the outgoing CEO took the responsibility for the event but said that he was shocked by the event and stunned that the misconduct of such a scale could occur in the VW Group. Given the roles and responsibilities of board of management and the supervisory board, how could the scandal of such magnitude go unnoticed? Were robust corporate governance practices being not followed at VW?

The case is based on the material available in the public domain, records, press reports, published books, interviews published by key board members of Volkswagen and the company website.

This case can be used for undergraduate senior classes or graduate and executive education level courses in corporate governance and ethical practices. This case will sync best with the topics around Board Composition and size, Board Independence, fiduciary duties of supervisory board, board duality and leadership and its impact on organizational culture.

The case should be introduced after students have been exposed to the following topics: the practice of entrepreneurship, opportunity recognition, market segmentation and minority business enterprise.

The names of the companies and individuals in this descriptive case have not been disguised, with the exception of the solar company representative and his company affiliation. Information was obtained from interviews (i.e. first-hand accounts) with Nikita Floyd, President and Owner of Green Forever Landscaping and Design, Inc., and secondary sources cited.

Nikita, a 50-year old, African American male, had grown his business from a one-person seasonal landscaping business to a year-round landscaping and design business with full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees and an array of services and customer segments. To his delight, he was able to unite his avocation with his vocation. With over 30 years of experience in landscaping and landscape design Nikita was always scanning the landscape for new business opportunities that would align with his company’s mission statement and help sustain Green Forever’s core business.

This case is most appropriate for introductory undergraduate and graduate level courses in entrepreneurship.