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Palm Inc. was the "founder" of an entire industry. In the mid nineties, the firm had developed the first hand-held which could be marketed successfully. They became the uncontested leaders within the young and extremely dynamic industry within short time - both with regard to hardware as well as software. By 2010, however, Palm was not in a good shape. The new product, a top-notch smartphone was not very successful and there were even signs of Palm's bankruptcy on the horizon. But how could it have come this far? Palm had been the leader in the market of handheld computers with high market share and profitability, and a brand name recognition level many other firms could only dream of. So what had happened to Palm?

First Class Trading Corporation, a Montreal based company, had two partners: Jeff Morahan, the founder of the company, and David Sciacca. After evaluating the school supplies industry, Jeff had identified an opportunity that involved marketing a fully stocked school bag to schools and parents. The bag was filled with various items that a child needed as determined by a given teacher's requirements. The strategy of the company was to target elementary and secondary private schools in the greater Montreal area with elementary schools as their initial target. To date, the partners had generated only a disappointing level of sales through cold calls and sales visits to schools. The two partners had drawn up a strategic plan with objectives, positioning and a marketing mix and were now wondering if they were on the right track. Had they missed something? Should they seek additional advice? Should they move ahead? The situation is complicated because of the various stakeholders (school directors, teachers, parents and students) who are involved in the marketing process.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 was the largest bankruptcy in US history. The case examines the economics of the off-balance sheet transactions Lehman undertook prior to the collapse, and highlights the corporate governance challenges in situations where firms face capital market pressure and market downturns. In particular, the case examines the financial accounting, auditing and internal management control practices around the Repo 105 transactions, which had a significant effect on the leverage position of the company. Based on the findings of the bankruptcy examiner's report, the case focuses on the role that management, external auditors, and the audit committee played in what amounted to a significant control failure.

Using the financing history and exit choices of a German clean-tech startup as a lens, this case explores the reasons why venture-backed entrepreneurship is much lower in Germany that the US, despite a robust SME sector and large-corporate innovation in Germany. It also shows the tight link between investor incentives and a startup's product market strategy, including differences between "pure-play" VCs and corporate venture capital investors.

In March 2011, CSN Stores is a collection of nearly 200 Internet retail websites, including Cookware.com, Strollers.com, and Luggage.com. Co-founders Niraj Shah and Steve Conine were considering making a major investment to build brand equity at the corporate level.

Eloise Bune successfully turned an idea into a product, but could she persuade angel investors that she had a business worth investing in? The case details her interactions with the angel investors and explores the role of angel investors in providing financial capital, business experience, and other assistance to start-ups.

Having received an extensive critique of her business plan but only a small amount of financing from an angel group she pitched in 2010, Eloise Bune responds to the angels' concerns, refines her presentation, and pitches her company again.

President Obama signs a major fiscal stimulus package and then must debate whether to extend the Bush tax cuts.

ATR KimEng is a Philippino asset management business. It is making an important decision on its own strategy going forward: should it stay independent, or be taken over by a large bank in the region. Through this case, we disuss the financial service industry in South East Asia, and study the opportunities and challenges presented by the changing global market dynamics.

Brinda Patel, director of oral care products for the India division of a consumer home-care product company, develops a data-driven marketing plan for toothbrushes. She believes her plan can support a 20% increase in unit sales based on rising demand for modern oral-care products in India. Her boss, the VP of Marketing, believes her forecast is too conservative and suggests spending more money on promotions to boost sales by 30%. Patel must develop a new plan to meet this higher growth rate by increasing the advertising budget and revising the distribution of the budget across three targeted advertising messages. She must also consider the regional challenges within India between rural and urban consumers and their willingness to adopt a modern approach to dental care. Students must build a projected income statement and consider the effects of increasing the advertising budget and changing the product mix in favor of higher margin toothbrushes.

Student Spreadsheet for 4350.

During the summer of 1998, Bob Aston and his partners, all bankers, spent many days discussing their plans to start a bank in the south-eastern region of Virginia, USA. Deregulation was transforming the banking industry. In Virginia, mergers and acquisitions in the industry had led to the emergence of large banks that had headquarters in other states. Aston felt that banking as he knew it was disappearing. However, before they could start a bank, Aston and partners faced many questions and decisions: How would they raise the capital? Who would the bank serve? How would they compete with the larger banks that had emerged due to the deregulation? The decisions they made at the founding had a lasting imprint on TowneBank. This became evident a decade later as financial institutions around the country experienced a severe crisis that was sparked by exposure to risky mortgages, while TowneBank remained relatively unscathed. However, the management team had to consider several issues as the crisis unfolded. Should they accept the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds that the U.S. Treasury had offered to even banks that were unlikely to fail and were adequately capitalized? How could they ensure TowneBank's growth? Should they acquire distressed banks in the local market?

In early 2008, Campbell's Soup Company (Campbell's), a global foods and beverages enterprise, is experimenting with a new way of understanding the mind of its consumer. The trigger is provided by the stagnation in the sales of its soup products in the United States, its home market, where the soups category has become mature. For decades, the company's focus in marketing research (MR) has been on tracking how the end users, having bought its soup products at the store, consume them at home. But now, it is keen on tracking the shoppers while they are cruising along the retail aisles. The company is planning to deploy the techniques of consumer neuroscience, a relatively new discipline, in the regard.

The operations of BHP Billiton Limited (BHP), the world's largest natural-resources company, spanned the globe with the heaviest concentrations in Asia and Europe. BHP launched a $130 per-share bid for Potash Corporation Inc. (POT) of Saskatchewan, Canada, the world's largest integrated fertilizer and related industrial and feed products company and the largest producer of potash worldwide by capacity. The acquisition was aimed at meeting BHP's corporate strategy of becoming a leading global miner of potash. But the offer was d flatly refused by the board and management of POT. Rejection of the initial offer did not dissuade BHP management from commencing the offer through newspaper advertisements beginning on August 20, 2010 and the offer remained open for acceptance until 11:59 p.m. on October 19, 2010. The offer, however, was not subject to how the deal would be financed by BHP. Student can learn how BHP planned to finance the takeover.

Husk Power Systems (HPS) provides technologies that generate and distribute electrical power to rural villages in India. Since 2007, HPS has installed 60 mini power plants that power 25,000 households in more than 250 villages, impacting the lives of approximately 150,000 people in rural India. This case details the operational and strategic challenges associated with scaling up HPS, and provides details related to technology development, suppliers, operational capabilities, costs, and market adoption.

A product manager at Apple examines the past, present, and future of the PC industry in September 2011 in the wake of Steve Jobs's resignation and HP's announcement that it was exiting the PC industry in favor of enterprise software solutions and consulting. The protagonist thinks through current forces in the PC industry, including market share trends, mobile computing, ultrabooks, and cloud computing services-as well as the position of the Mac in Apple's product portfolio-and is faced with making a decision about the future of the Mac.

Kazuo Hirai, president and group CEO of the Sony division charged with manufacturing the PlayStation, is faced with a strategic crossroads as he decides which functional elements and target demographics to focus on with the PS4. He reviews the history and dynamics of the video gaming industry-including the importance of first-mover advantage when it comes to new technology-in an effort to predict its future. What's next-both for gaming in general and for home game consoles in particular-and what place should Sony be vying for in the minds and pocketbooks of the gaming public?

A couple wants to start a small flight charter company to serve the mining, oil, scientific, and wilderness adventure clients of northern Canada but worry that their thin financial base necessitates a sizable scale of flight operations during their first year. If a substantial revenue stream was slow to develop, or expenses were too high, their first year might be their last year-they had no financial slack. The fundamental question is, given their preliminary budget figures for the coming year, what level of revenue-generating flight miles did they need to just break even?

In this note, the author discusses how research shows that consistent growth companies engage in growth experiments or tests to gather better data to be used in determining which growth ideas are worth investing in. A Learning Launch is described as a process that can be used to do those growth experiments. Students will be shown that by doing Learning Launches, a business can evaluate many growth ideas quickly and cheaply, allowing it to gain better evidence to winnow down a multitude of ideas into a smaller group of ideas that appear to be more viable based on information learned.

This technical note is the fourth in a series focusing on business growth. It addresses how to create a diversified Growth Portfolio based on the Learning Launch experiments. The note covers how growth requires several key elements-the right individuals and organizational mindsets, the right internal enabling system, and the right processes, which include experimental learning and creating and managing Growth Portfolios.