John Beck, CEO of LightSpeed Computers, is seeking $10 million in venture capital financing to get his company off the ground after its initial seed funding. In Parts A through C, John faces a number of challenging scenarios, starting with the request from a prestigious Silicon Valley VC to hold off on closing a deal for four weeks to give him time to conduct due diligence. John later receives term sheets from other, smaller VCs and must decide whether to move forward or stand by his original commitment. Later, he must choose between two attractive but economically different deals.
Established in 1945, MGT Group was headquartered in France. Its LSD factory was a well-known global engineering provider specializing in the design and manufacture of high-precision valves. At the end of 2007, MGT decided to close the LSD factory in France and relocate it to Fuzhou, China. Two people were put in charge of this project: Kevin Lurton, vice chief operations officer of MGT Control Systems Division, and Jian Li, the general manager of MGT Fuzhou Company. Lurton and Li faced a series of challenges, ranging from the need for strategic planning to the need for an implementation policy for supply chain reconstruction during the cross-border factory relocation.
The case describes the situation faced by the vice president of A-CAT Corp. The company was a mid-sized manufacturer and distributor of domestic electrical appliances, largely catering to the price-sensitive rural population. The firm operated two medium-sized facilities in a remote district in Vidarbha, India. A-CAT manufactured a wide range of electrical appliances including TV signal boosters, transformers, FM radio kits, electronic ballasts, battery chargers, and voltage regulators. The focus was on its flagship product, the VR500 voltage regulator. The team planned to identify potential suppliers/vendors with their attendant strengths and weaknesses and to do so in a well-documented and structured manner. Analytical hierarchy process was a technique that could be used to meet this challenge.
In July 2004, Bombardier Aerospace announced its intention to develop a new family of aircraft called CSeries. In May 2007, three years after the initial announcement, the final decision on whether to proceed with the initiative was still pending. Moreover, during this period, the company released several confusing announcements that raised concerns among investors and industry analysts regarding the sustainability of the company’s long-term strategy. In the meantime, Brazilian Embraer had invested heavily in research and development and had taken the leadership position in the regional aircraft segment from Bombardier. Consequently, Bombardier was faced with a serious dilemma of whether or not to launch the CSeries project. The decision was expected to have a major impact on the future market positioning of Bombardier.<br><br>Students may be asked to act as advisors to Pierre Beaudoin, president and chief executive officer of Bombardier Aerospace, and recommend whether the company should proceed with the CSeries initiative. More specifically, students should do a full analysis of the company’s external environment, identify the alternatives available to Beaudoin, assess these options based on internal and external environments, and recommend a course of action. For Beaudoin, the recommendation was due before the annual meeting of shareholders, scheduled on May 29, 2007.
Aurelia Dimas had been sent to investigate the various properties being offered by the State of California in the form of a sale-leaseback agreement. The opportunity was perfect for her firm, Orrington Financial Partners, which had recently expanded its fixed-income portfolio to include real estate. The wide range of offerings in the Golden State Portfolio provided both diversification and stability over a period of decades. She had spent the last week walking the halls of each and every building to see the offering first hand. Now the task of valuing the portfolio rested on her shoulders.
USAP faces extraordinary opportunities to change the way that automobiles are serviced in the US by selling parts at fair prices though online channels.
This case addresses corruption, reputation, and expropriation risks associated with a potential mining play in West Africa. Mine Master, a US-based multinational mining company, was considering investing in a zinc concession in a post-conflict West African country. Its potential partner, UK-based Megametals, had acquired the rights to the operation in question in 2005, at the end of the country's civil war and in circumstances that raised potential concerns. The case protagonist, Steven Fox, CEO of risk assessment and advisory firm Veracity Worldwide, had to evaluate the various risks at play and guide Mine Master's CEO on whether to proceed with the partnership. Should he advise that Mine Master go ahead with the deal with Megametals? What could be the potential downside to such a move?
CARD (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development) is a Philippines-based microfinance organization that began as an NGO and has since expanded into eight related entities providing services to the poor. Under Founding Director Dr. Aristotle Alip's leadership, CARD has become one of the top microfinance institutions in the world. More recently, larger commercial and financial institutions are seeking a slice of the microfinance market. The main dilemma Dr. Alip faces is: Should he partner with commercial institutions to reap benefits from their larger sources of capital and technology expertise? Would that mean compromising his original mission of elevating people from the base of the pyramid?
This case describes the experience of Anne Riley, a 28 year old private equity analyst, who was laid off in 2008. The case explores the emotions she felt throughout the process and how she handled the experience.
Trucost provided corporate environmental performance data and analysis to institutional investors and corporate managers, but after operating for a decade had yet to achieve profitability. Trucost was struggling to effectively differentiate its high quality products from its lower-cost competitors, and needed to develop a strategy to educate the marketplace and pursue new distribution channels. Increased investor interest in environmental issues-and an ever growing number of corporate environmental ranking-led to a proliferation of competitors to Trucost, and an industry shakeout were predicted. How should Trucost compete?
The case documents Unilever's journey to revitalize Lipton brand through sourcing all its tea from Rainforest Alliance Certified (TM) farms. It provides a framework for discussions around the challenges of aligning supply chains behind the re-positioning of a high-value brand as sustainable. It also explores the business case for sustainable sourcing of agricultural raw materials and raises questions on the potential to improve the economic health of the entire supply chain. Learning objectives: Understand the business case for major brands to convert to sustainable sourcing. Understand the challenges of aligning suppliers behind a major market transformation effort. Illustrate the dilemmas of adapting to a changing business context while staying on course with long-term objectives. Change the traditional perception of business responsibility in pushing forward the agenda for action on sustainable agriculture and other "mega-issues."
The US organic cereal business is fascinating: while most brands of organic breakfast cereals were founded by hippies who wanted to make a difference in the world in the 70s and 80s, many have been taken over by large "traditional' food companies. Attune Foods and its brands Uncle Sam and Erewohn is an exception: it is a small, independent player. Its ambition is to become a leading digestive health brand in the country: not exactly a popular conversation topic at most family dinner tables. Attune faced two challenges: - Develop a way to communicate about digestive health in a consumer-friendly way. - Communicate its differentiation with food giants like General Mills and Kellogg in a compelling way, with way less financial resources. Attune decided to base its strategy on authenticity: a less costly strategy that the company believed would allow it to clearly communicate its message and to differentiate it from the big boys. It applied the concept of authenticity in all aspects of its business (e.g., product definition, production and sourcing, communication). The case describes the company and its competition. The challenge facing Attune at the time of the case was to double the size of the company within four years.
The manager of Visitor Services with Saskatchewan Park Services (Park Services) was thinking ahead to next year, even though 2011 was still four months away. Park Services had experienced a number of turbulent years around the provincial park campground reservation system. While the problems experienced were largely invisible to the public placing reservations for campgrounds, over the years the behind the scenes machinations required to process campground reservations has placed an onerous burden on Park Services staff, both in Regina and the local provincial parks. Additionally, the present system severely limited the type of services that could be developed for tourists and campers due to the lack of quality data on campers. While steps had been taken in 2009 and 2010 to address some of the major problems surrounding the campground reservation system, serious issues remained that required action. This was particularly true when the system in place in Saskatchewan was compared to new campground reservation systems recently employed in Alberta, Manitoba and the federal national park system. The manager reflected on the turbulent 2008 season, the relative calm in 2009 due to the success of the temporary fixes and the new issues that had arisen in 2010. She was feeling the need to move forward and decide on a more permanent solution that resolved the operational problems of the present reservation system while also laying the foundation for improved services for campers.
The case is set immediately following a catastrophic fire that destroyed the Triumph Motorcycle Company's manufacturing facility in England. After having gone out of business in the 1980s, the company was resurrected by a British entrepreneur, John Bloor and, at the time of the fire, was in its tenth year of renewed operations. The decision facing Bloor and his team after the fire was whether to rebuild and resume their strategy as before or if another course of action might be worthwhile. Students are challenged to identify and articulate Triumph's strategy during its renaissance and evaluate whether other alternatives might be more appropriate. This mirrors the assignment given to McKinsey and Company when they were engaged to help Triumph during their recovery. The case provides information about Triumph's history as well as a current picture of the motorcycle industry.
These exercises, designed for use in a spreadsheet modeling pre-matriculation course, provide a baseline education in spreadsheet modeling and Microsoft Excel to incoming MBA students who have not had extensive modeling experience or exposure to Excel.
The manager of Visitor Services with Saskatchewan Park Services was thinking ahead to next year, even though 2011 was still four months away. Park Services had experienced a number of turbulent years around the provincial park campground reservation system. While the problems experienced were largely invisible to the public, over the years the behind-the-scenes actions required to process campground reservations had placed an onerous burden on Park Services staff, both in Regina (in Saskatchewan, Canada) and in the local provincial parks. Additionally, the present system severely limited the type of services that could be developed for tourists and campers due to the lack of quality data on campers. <br><br>While steps had been taken in 2009 and 2010 to address some of the major problems surrounding the campground reservation system, serious issues remained that required action. This was particularly true when the system in place in Saskatchewan was compared to new campground reservation systems recently employed in Alberta, Manitoba, and the federal national park system. The manager reflected on the turbulent 2008 season, the relative calm in 2009 due to the success of temporary fixes, and the new issues that had arisen in 2010. She needed to decide on a more permanent solution that resolved the operational problems of the present reservation system while also laying the foundation for improved services for campers.
Managers and stakeholders are increasingly aware of the importance of the environmental impact of a firm's operations when assessing risk and attempting to determine future profitability. Unfortunately, financial accounting systems often fail to fully disclose these environmentally-related costs. The reasons underlying this incomplete disclosure are myriad, ranging from measurement issues to the structure of the firm's chart of accounts. In many ways, the issues facing managers and stakeholders who are attempting to assess environmental costs arising from business operations resemble the issues faced when attempting to determine the costs of producing poor quality products. The negative impact on the environment from business operations can be viewed as a failure in the same way that the negative impact of producing a defective product can be seen as a production control failure. Similarly, costs are incurred to prevent and detect environmental failures, and the cost of failure-particularly if not addressed within the firm-can be huge and unknowable. Drawing on the experiences of firms employing quality measures and reporting, this article presents an environmental cost reporting model to provide greater transparency on environmental impact of business operations to managers and firm stakeholders.
Recent economic, social-political, and natural disasters have all served to highlight the fragility of the global marketplace. As such, it is no longer questioned as to whether or not companies should be good corporate citizens; that is a given. Rather, concern in the 21st century centers on how businesses can become better global corporate citizens. Unfortunately, without clear guidance regarding how this may be accomplished, global corporate citizenship will remain a fringe activity and not become a critical component of an organization's core business strategy. The integrated framework presented herein identifies key elements and tips for implementing a business-based approach to global corporate citizenship.