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Montreal International (MI), a not-for-profit organization funded by the public and private sectors, is mandated to drive the Greater Montreal economy by attracting talent and sustainable wealth from abroad. In 2019, following the Quebec government's announcement of an ambitious plan to double foreign direct investment (FDI) in five years, MI would have to prioritize industries and geographic areas while taking into account its organizational constraints and how to position itself relative to competing cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver.

This case is about a fictional French-born golfer (Philip Lévy) who first achieved success on the European Tour. After qualifying to join the PGA Tour, the world’s most prestigious golf circuit, for the 2018 season, Philip migrated to the U.S. After a series of setbacks on and off the course, some of which were related to adaptation and discrimination issues, Philip had to decide whether to play in the second division of the PGA Tour or return to the European Tour. To complicate matters, Philip was contemplating filing a formal complaint with the governing bodies of the PGA Tour about what he considered to be the discriminatory treatment of foreign players. If such a complaint were leaked to the press, it could seriously damage both Philip’s reputation and that of the PGA Tour, which relies on the participation of foreign athletes and international corporate sponsors.

Appointed to his position in 2015, Christophe Weber, a French national and president and CEO of Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceuticals, had begun transforming the company into a global player. He knew that, if the business was to survive, he would have to accelerate its transformation and globalization, and he believed the solution was the acquisition of Shire, an Irish pharmaceutical company and a similar-sized firm. If successful, this would be the largest cross-border acquisition ever negotiated by a Japanese company. Weber had known that the acquisition would be costly – and controversial among the company’s shareholders, who could challenge his leadership. Although he was confident in his proposal, his bid did not go as planned. Despite his best efforts to keep the deal secret, using Japanese whisky-inspired code names for Shire and Takeda, the details had leaked before he had had a chance to inform Shire’s board of his attempt and discuss it with them. On April 8, 2018, Shire’s board rejected his offer. At the time, many questions remained as to how Takeda should proceed.

In 2020, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the cornerstone of the multilateral rules-based global trading system, faced the biggest crisis of its existence. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe, two of the organization’s main functions – providing a negotiation forum to establish new trade rules and resolving disputes between its 164 members – had faced challenges. The crisis facing the WTO had been largely created by the growing geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump was convinced that the WTO could not handle the problems created by China’s economic ascent. It believed, first of all, that China’s status as a developing country at the WTO gave it an unfair advantage in the international trade arena. Second, it believed the WTO’s rules could not address the challenges presented by China with regard to state-owned enterprises and industrial subsidies. Third, it claimed that the Appellate Body had consistently committed judicial overreach in a way that hurt U.S. interests.

Based entirely on public information, this case gives students an opportunity to reflect on the WTO’s role in today’s global economy and how the strategic rivalry between the U.S. and China was challenging the multilateral trading system.

In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) faced the largest existential crisis since its founding in 1948. The directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system, WHO had been severely criticized for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic by several member countries – especially the U.S. The organization had been accused of being too China-centric, not doing enough to quickly obtain accurate information from China about the new airborne illness, failing to press China for the speedy admittance of a WHO team of international experts, and only declaring the spread of COVID-19 to be a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) at a time and in a manner that was deferential to the Chinese government. Dissatisfied with WHO’s actions, U.S. President Donald Trump decided in April 2020 to suspend funding to the international organization and, three months later, formally withdrew the U.S. from WHO.

Based entirely on public information, this case gives students an opportunity to reflect on WHO’s role in dealing with global health crises, why it was criticized during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, whether that criticism was warranted, and how the organization could be reformed to prepare for future PHEICs.

In 2019, Michael Whan, commissioner of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), a non-profit organization that ran the world’s most prestigious women’s golf circuit, was preparing for the tour’s 70th anniversary. Throughout its history, the LPGA had broken many social barriers, from the inclusion of African American players in the 1960s to the acceptance of transgender players in 2010. It had also reached important economic and athletic milestones. For example, the LPGA had the largest purses of any women’s sports association, a wide range of international sponsors, tournaments broadcast in over 170 countries, and the highest concentration of international professional women golf stars. These achievements were due largely to the internationalization process launched in the late 1990s that had helped transform the LPGA from a U.S.-based to an international tour. But the internationalization of the LPGA had come with challenges.

Tim Hortons built a successful business in Canada by creating a vertically integrated company working with small-scale franchisees and incorporating its “Canadian identity” in its marketing strategy. The company’s internationalization efforts were much less fruitful, however, with 80% of outlets located in Canada, and just 18% in the United States. In 2014, 3G Capital – a Brazilian-American private-equity firm – acquired Tim Hortons with plans to speed up the company’s internationalization process. The new owner’s attempts to implement cost-cutting measures were quickly met with strong resistance from both franchisees and Canadian consumers and, in 2019, it faced two major challenges: at home, it had to restore the confidence of franchisees and consumers and, abroad, it faced stiff competition from chains that enjoyed a significant head start in new international markets. On top of everything else, it appeared that Tim Hortons’s business model might not lend itself to internationalization.