Ivey Decision Point

In this episode, we speak with Jury Gualandris, an associate professor of operations management and sustainability at Ivey Business School. Jury serves as the associate director of Ivey’s Centre for Building Sustainable Value, and leads the Network for Business Sustainability, a global network of over 35,000 business leaders and researchers that aim to mobilize more sustainable business strategies and practices worldwide.

Jury shares his definition of sustainability, discusses the importance of teaching sustainability in business schools, and explains how Ivey is uniquely equipped to meet the demand for sustainability education. Additionally, Jury talks about the new partnership between Ivey’s Centre for Building Sustainable Value and Ivey publishing, Ivey’s curated sustainability case collection, and the future of sustainability in business education. Enjoy!

Resources featured in this episode:

New Ivey initiative integrating SDGs into management educationHP Canada Co.: A Circular Supply Chain for Recycled PlasticA&W Canada: Serving Great Taste with Minimal WasteHuawei: Struggling to Develop a More Sustainable Supply NetworkCradle-to-Cradle Design at Herman Miller: Moving Toward Environmental SustainabilityPolyface: The Farm of Many FacesIvey, City of Guelph to unlock value of food ‘waste’

Nadine De Gannes, Assistant Professor, Managerial Accounting and Control & Sustainability at Ivey Business School, shares with us her experiences as an early-career academic and case author, the elements of a compelling case, linking research and practice, and using the teaching note to create a safe space for difficult conversations by sharing “promising practices.” We wrap up our discussion with the advice that Nadine wished she had received at the beginning of her case writing journey.

View Nadine’s cases below:

Barrick Gold: Integrating ESG into the (Post-Merger) Executive Performance Scorecard

Viet Nipa: A Young Entrepreneur’s Sweet Endeavour

Magna International and Dual Share Unification

Marilyn Anthony and Neha Mittal, professors at the Fox School of Business at Temple University discuss their case Tender Greens: Can They Keep the ‘Green’ Promise in Beef Sourcing? 

Marilyn and Neha share their approach to writing Tender Greens, an operations case that deals not only with supply chain issues, but sustainability, strategy, ethics, and managing stakeholder interests. In our conversation, we discuss the importance of storytelling, how to build trust with case subject organizations, and writing cases with online delivery in mind. We conclude our discussion with Marilyn and Neha’s experience as an Ivey Publishing co-brand partner and how Fox’s case writing initiatives support Temple’s overall strategy.

Review the case here

We speak with Robert D. Austin, Professor, Information Systems at Ivey Business School, and an affiliated faculty member at Harvard Medical School about his best-selling case, Digital Transformation at GE: What Went Wrong? This case examines the digital transformation that GE had been attempting and the challenges it encountered, and is especially timely as many organizations accelerate their digital transformation efforts as a result of COVID-19.

Our conversation also touches on such topics as: strategy disruption, looking for – and following – compelling case stories, translating and scaling complex issues into a readable and easily understandable case, and teaching cases in tandem. We conclude our discussion with Rob’s thoughts on the evolution of the case method and Rob’s advice for new case authors.

Review the case here 

Robert D. Austin is a professor of Information Systems at Ivey Business School, and an affiliated faculty member at Harvard Medical School.

Before his appointment at Ivey, he was a professor of Innovation and Digital Transformation at Copenhagen Business School, and, before that, a professor of Technology and Operations Management at the Harvard Business School. At Harvard, he chaired the executive program for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) for more than ten years.

Professor Austin has published widely, in both academic and professional venues, such as Harvard Business Review, Information Systems Research, MIT Sloan Management Review, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and the Wall Street Journal. He also is the author of nine books, more than 50 published cases and notes, three Harvard online products, and two popular Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) running on the Coursera platform. His “Cyberattack!" Simulation won the 2020 International Serious Play Gold Medal. His research on neurodiversity employment programs is funded by SSHRC.

Traeger Pellet Grills: Cooking up the Competition

Simon Greathead, Associate Professor, Global Business at Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Business discusses his award-winning Traeger Pellet Grills case. The case addresses the complexities associated with managing an international supply chain, cross-culture negotiation, meeting the needs of various stakeholders in a supply chain, and how to respond to unethical business partner behaviour. Additionally, Simon shares insights on the three elements contained in a great case, writing cases with multiple themes, allowing students to drive case discussion, building trusted relationships, and his approach to influencing students.

Review the case here

Traeger Pellet Grills: Cooking up the Competition won the 2020 EFMD case competition award in the supply chain management category.

Professor Simon P. Greathead is an international business and global supply chain professor at BYU’s Marriott School of Business. Simon earned an MBA from Henley Business School at the University of Reading in the UK and a BS in Business Management from Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. Simon’s current interests focus on process optimization, ERP implementation, change management, global negotiations, international business, supply chain innovation, and the global supply chain as a strategic concern. Simon began teaching at BYU in 2008 as an international business instructor and currently teaches global supply chain, operations, negotiations, and international business courses. Simon has published in Harvard Business Review as well as Ivey Publishing and other notable journals.

Authored by a team of five Ivey professors, “Michael McCain: Tweeting on the Maple Leaf Foods Account” is one of the shortest case in Ivey Publishing’s case collection, but also one of the most innovative. Uniquely written in the form of just seven tweets, this case addresses the potential repercussions within Maple Leaf Foods Inc. following CEO Michael McCain’s decision to tweet his personal political views from the company’s Twitter account – all from a cross-enterprise perspective.

In this episode, we’re joined by two of the case’s authors, Steve Foerster and Gerard Seijts to explore the genesis of the case, the innovative ways it can be taught, teaching from a cross-enterprise perspective, and disruption and innovation in the case writing process.

Gerard Seijts is a professor of organizational behaviour at Ivey Business School and is the executive director of the Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership.

Steve Foerster is a finance professor at Ivey Business School.

For more information on the case, please visit How I teach it: Michael McCain: Tweeting on the Maple Leaf Foods Account.

In this episode we talk to Cheryl Gladu, Researcher-in-Residence, Thompson Rivers University, and author of Dessa: Growing a Diverse and Inclusive Artificial Intelligence Company. This case follows Dessa’s founder and chief operating officer, Vince Wong, as he develops hiring practices to create a diverse workforce while fostering a culture supportive of diversity. Cheryl discusses the importance of having uncomfortable conversations in the classroom, co-creating ground rules with students to approach these difficult conversations, the difference between dialogue and debate, defining implicit bias, and the value of workshopping a case before submission.   Review the case here 

Alison Konrad, Professor, Organizational Behaviour, at Ivey Business School shares her approach to case writing and what she’s learned from publishing more than 50 research articles on topics such as inclusivity initiatives in organizations, employment equity programs, work-life balance initiatives, and more. Konrad reflects on her history as a case author, examines how the case method has evolved, and offers advice for educators looking to respectfully and effectively cover EDI issues in their own classes and cases. Review Professor Konrad’s cases here 

Frank Li, an associate professor of finance at Ivey Business School, walks us through his case, 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants . The case highlights just how crucial it is that we bring real world scenarios and narratives into the classroom – especially for a finance case. Li explains how diverse protagonists, added cultural context, and multimedia, have been key to crafting a top-notch classroom experience. Review the case here 

Kanina Blanchard, Assistant Professor of Management Communications and General Management at the Ivey Business School, discusses her Sophia Tannis case series. The case series offers students real world prompts to learn about women in leadership, gender, and cultural issues related to leadership, decision making during change and transition, and more. Professor Blanchard has extensive experience working with international business, the public service, non-profit, and consulting. Having lived and worked in four continents, she is recognized for her ability to adapt, lead teams and projects, and navigate complexities across various sectors, geographies, and cultures.   Review the case here Kanina Blanchard is an Assistant Professor, Management Communications and General Management at the Ivey Business School.