Describes a set of financing issues confronting a rapidly growing company that uses "Word of Mouth" marketing techniques in promoting research, new products, or services. The company proposes to set the terms for a new round of venture capital it needs and to have venture capitalists bid for the right to invest on those terms by proving that they can add value to BzzAgent, Inc.
GE believes its ability to develop management talent is a core competency that represents a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Traces the development of a 25-year-old MBA named Jeff Immelt, who 18 years later is named as CEO of GE, arguably the biggest and most complex corporate leadership job in the world, and how he frames and implements his priorities for GE. Describes the processes that guided Immelt's own developments and the strategic changes Immelt adopts in his first year as CEO, when he pulls hard on the sophisticated human resource levers his predecessors left him. Immelt questions whether the changes in place will foster the development of the next generation of GE growth leaders.
Describes the company's year-long efforts to transition from a medical device company selling products to physicians for use with patients suffering chronic end-stage disease, to a medical technology company providing life-long solutions for people with chronic diseases. With the new vision setting direction, the CEO calls for business plans to implement that vision. Enables readers to analyze the business plan and make recommendations for funding.
In 2002, Population Services International (PSI) was committed to curbing the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in India. Sanjay Chaganti, program director of HIV/AIDS at PSI India, has to decide on the best communication strategy to achieve this goal. Up to this date most efforts consisted of on-the-ground efforts by PSI personnel, but Chaganti was considering shifting a significant portion of funds to a provocative mass media advertising campaign. The campaign would feature a fictional character-Balbir Pasha. At one extreme the campaign would impact that target population and lift barriers to safe sex practices. At the other extreme the campaign could be controversial, ineffective, and squander precious resources.
Involves the copyright issues associated with Bram Cohen's revolutionary program BitTorrent, which makes it possible to transfer very large files, such as movies, at a high speed over the Internet. The program, which is available for free over the Internet, is used for peer-to-peer sharing of movies and music and for the legitimate distribution of licensed software, including games. Discusses Warner Bros.' online distribution strategy as well as the negotiations between BitTorrent and the Movie Picture Association of America and Warner Bros. that ultimately led to Warner Bros.' agreement to make BitTorrent its first authorized peer-to-peer film distributor.
Provides a brief background on the history of credit agencies in the United States. Focuses on the mature process of data collection on an American consumer and how credit agencies share the information to determine proper credit risk and worthiness of a consumer. The American system as defined in this note can be contrasted against the lack of developed systems in burgeoning economies and help to better understand the capital markets of society.
Patrimonio Hoy, a program targeting the housing needs of low-income families launched by CEMEX, a major Mexican corporation and a leading global cement company, has gone from a market research project to a highly visible initiative in 22 cities and has earned public recognition. The president of Cemex North America must decide whether it is corporate social responsibility or a new business line. In the process, it allows analysis of the Patrimonio Hoy program versus the traditional alternatives from the perspectives of both the end-user and of the corporation.
In 2003, the $654 million American Heart Association (AHA) approached Cone, Inc. (a brand and communications agency) to develop a corporate sponsorship strategy that would raise $75 million over three years. Within 12 months, the AHA launched the highly successful Go Red For Women campaign to help women understand their risk for heart disease. But Go Red became more than a fundraising vehicle. It energized the AHA and its 22 million volunteers, and potentially sparked a long-term movement focused on women and their prevention of heart disease. Traces the development of the relationship between Cone and the AHA and the development of the Go Red For Women campaign. Challenges students to assess the success of Go Red and its impact on the AHA and its goals. Concludes by summarizing three of the AHA's other health initiatives and questions the appropriate role for the AHA and cause marketing.
This case illustrates the process and challenges of designing a new product and then making it a reality. It examines a myriad of product development, manufacturing and launch challenges confronting entrepreneurs with resource constraints. It does this from two perspectives: that of a product designer and that of an entrepreneur and business owner. Thus, the issues are both creative and practical.
Studies an entrepreneurial venture in Mexico City. The protagonists, two MBAs from HBS, started a pawn shop chain funded from their private equity office after finishing business school. This is timed at a point where the protagonists have to decide how to grow the pawn shop chain in order to compete with other Mexican and U.S. pawn shop chains that are growing aggressively in the country. Central is the decision of how to finance growth. Different growth alternatives are explored, each entailing different funding needs and exit strategies. The setting in Mexico illustrates the differences in entrepreneurship in Latin America or other developing regions compared to the United States. The difference lies in the difficulty of finding institutional funding. As a result, most of the funding has to come from "angel investors".
Since 2004, Philip Yea, the first outsider ever to lead 3i Group, one of Europe's largest publicly listed private equity firms, has been trying to help the far flung organization become more of a streamlined partnership even as it functions around the globe. As he considers 3i's performance through the first quarter of 2006 (3i's fiscal year 2006), he must balance his satisfaction at the firm's results and progress in the recent buoyant market with the question of whether the firm's people, strategy, and goals are sufficiently aligned that it can survive and prosper in the coming market correction.
On October 3, 2005, Washington Mutual acquired Providian Financial Corporation, the ninth-largest credit card issuer in the U.S., for $6.5 billion. At the time, Providian had approximately 10 million customer relationships and a balance of $18.6 billion. For some observers, the transaction was merely the end of another chapter in the history of the fast consolidating credit card market. For Providian CEO Joseph Saunders, it was vindication of four years' hard work in turning around a company that many thought was close to bankruptcy.
Looks at the development of the competitive actions between Airbus and Boeing from 1992 to 2006. Begins with the question of whether Airbus and Boeing should collaborate on the development of a VLCT (Very Large Commercial Transport) or whether Airbus should develop their own. The case series moves through to the events thereafter of Airbus' decision to pursue the A380 and Boeing's decision relating to developing a stretch 747.