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Bear Stearns & Co burned through nearly all of its $18 billion in cash reserves during the week of March 10, 2008, and an unprecedented provision of liquidity support from the Federal Reserve on Friday March 13 was insufficient to reverse the decline in Bear's condition. Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and New York Fed President Timothy Geithner were intent on limiting the impact of Bear's problems on the wider financial system. James "Jamie" Dimon, Morgan's Chairman and CEO, was in frequent contact with these regulators over the weekend of March 14-16, negotiating possible scenarios for the rescue of Bear, without which would force it to seek bankruptcy protection when markets opened on Monday. Late on Sunday afternoon, March 16, Bear's board accepted Morgan's offer to purchase Bear for $2 per share, an offer that would not have been made without significant government assistance. There was hope that the Bear rescue would help avert the far-reaching spread of damage into the larger financial world that many policymakers viewed as likely to follow the failure of a major investment bank. This case examines a seminal event in the financial and economic crisis that began in the summer of 2007, and provides background for better understanding the full scope of the crisis as it was revealed during the summer and fall of 2008. It was written to address two sets of issues. First, it provides the opportunity to understand the corporate finance issues of capital and liquidity, and of firm valuation. Second, the case allows for the exploration of aspects of a firm's internal and external governance, as well as the challenges of navigating through a crisis when faced with compelling pressures from competing stakeholders.

Now into their third year at the helm of an Internet start-up in China, Ken Pao and Bill Li were managing a totally different company (with a new name) from the one they first founded in 2006. Having changed their business model from a social networking site to an online gaming business came with new challenges. They hired almost an entirely new staff, cultivated new partnerships, and most urgently sought new funding. However, with three years of experience, they were no longer a "start-up" and now faced the ramifications of mid-life. What would it take to remain a viable competitor in China in a new industry?

This case examines the strategy implementation and risk management decisions at Sydney IVF, a research-based in vitro fertilization and stem cell company based in Australia. Drs. Robert Jansen and Jock Anderson, who co-founded Sydney IVF in 1986, developed novel technologies which they leveraged to carve a leadership role in the inherently risky artificial fertilization business. As the company grew, its executives grappled with managing the political, ethical and business risks associated with the contentious lab-based fertility field, instituting sophisticated safeguards such as an independent ethics committee and a "whistle blower" system for employees concerned with the company's practices. In less than two decades, Sydney IVF grew from just four employees to over 200, expanded internationally, and broadened its services to include prenatal screening for genetic diseases and DNA tests to determine lineage and paternity. In addition, the company launched a wholly-owned subsidiary, the Stem Cell Company. CEO Robert Jansen hoped to grow the Stem Cell Company, but faced many challenges, including the significant ethical risks, challenging regulatory environment, and uncertain future of the stem cell field. The case describes how Jansen safeguards against risk without stifling the innovative spirit necessary to commercialize stem cells.

Nik Nesbitt is preparing a presentation of his Kenyan contact center startup to a group of angel investors visiting for the first time. The task has given him cause for some soul searching: has it been worth it to battle the impoverished infrastructure and inappropriate government regulations to launch this venture?

Pitney Bowes, a Fortune 500 mail and document management firm, offered its first health plans in the years following World War II. Over the ensuing decades, Pitney Bowes adapted its approach to employee health amid rising health care costs, shifting employer attitudes towards health benefits, and a rapidly changing policy environment. By 2008, the firm was widely regarded as an innovator in employee health, having dedicated substantial time and resources to its health benefits under the leadership of then CEO Michael Critelli and Corporate Medical Director Jack Mahoney. The case provides an overview of the history of employee health benefits in the U.S. and at Pitney Bowes. The range of health plans Pitney Bowes offered to employees in 2008, as well as the firm's contracting policies with commercial insurers and self-insured plan administrators, are examined in detail. Pitney Bowes health and wellness programs are also described, enabling an analysis of the firm's overall employee health strategy in 2008 and a discussion of where Pitney Bowes should focus its attention moving forward.

Syntonix Pharmaceuticals, a Boston biopharmaceutical startup company, was seeking additional financing for growth. The company had developed and patented an improved delivery platform for long-acting biopharmaceuticals and then utilized that technology to develop new therapies to treat chronic diseases. The Transceptor® technology utilized a unique biological pathway to allow efficient delivery of SynFusion™ drug therapies. Several companies licensed the technologies in joint development deals to address several different conditions: Hemophilia B, autoimmune disorders, and infertility, as well as for use in enhanced peptide inhalation. The company had used up Angel money and Rounds A and B of venture capital financing and was looking for an additional $80 - $100 million for growth. In September 2006, Syntonix was in negotiations with a VC syndicate to gain a 'C' Round of funding. One member of the proposed syndicate, Biogen Idec, indicated interest in buying Syntonix outright. The founders needed to make a decision about the offer.

VOSS is a Norwegian bottled water company that produces one of the world's purest drinking waters, sold at an ultra-premium price in a sleek cylindrical glass bottle of minimalist design. In the U.S. (the company's primary market), VOSS' high-end brand presence is strongest in on-premise locations -specifically, top-of-the-line restaurants, hotels, and clubs. The brand has only recently begun penetrating the off-premise channel. In June 2007, Ole Christian Sandberg, VOSS' founder and Head of U.S. Operations is considering how to grow the brand. The key question is whether VOSS should increase its distribution in the off-premise channel: Will this diminish VOSS' high-end brand cachet? A related question is whether VOSS should begin expanding its portfolio by offering, for example, flavored water for the rapidly-evolving U.S. bottled water market.

The vice-president of the Bank of London was stunned to hear that the union representing clerical workers was initiating a complaint of gender discrimination in starting salaries. The vice-president had believed the Bank of London was actively promoting diversity and inclusion as a natural part of its culture; additionally, the senior leadership team understood how vital diversity and inclusion were to organizational effectiveness and growth. The vice-president was wondering what the accusation of discrimination was costing the Bank of London, and how to manage perceptions both inside and outside of the organization. To determine this, he wanted to understand if discrimination had in fact occurred and analyzed the following factors between male and female job-holders: beginning salary, time at current job, education and experience.

Michel Portal, a French executive with Auchan, has been appointed to lead a newly acquired subsidiary in the imaginary country of Syldavia. This case is based on a real situation that has been disguised for confidentiality reasons. The setting, Syldavia, is depicted as a transition economy and therefore fits in with the eastern and central European countries, although the case that inspired this situation is not situated in this part of the world but in Southern Europe. Auchan Syldavia is typical of a "taking charge" case study, where participants are expected to help Michel Portal, the new CEO, develop a strategy for his new assignment in a company that he is expected by upper management to turn around in a relatively short time span.

When Chris Chen founded VanceInfo Technologies in Beijing in 1995, the firm had 25 employees and one low-end IT services outsourcing project for a U.S. multinational. By August 2008, through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, VanceInfo employed more than 4,800 people, had numerous Fortune 100 clients, and enjoyed revenues exceeding $80 million over the preceding 12 months. Although small compared to more sophisticated Indian rivals, VanceInfo was well placed to capture an expected explosion in demand for China-based offshore IT services. At the same time, rapid growth was straining the firm's management personnel, systems, and resources. Headcount was slated to quintuple to 20,000 in four to five years' time to keep pace with aggressive revenue targets. Old ad-hoc ways no longer could accommodate current or future needs. To succeed, management had to implement new financial, operational, and internal management systems, especially in the critical area of human resources where VanceInfo faced some of its greatest challenges. These included introducing effective processes for rapidly expanding, training, managing, and retaining its workforce. Moreover, in its quest to grow its workforce to 20,000 within five years, move into higher-margin business lines requiring new expertise, and beat out domestic and international rivals, management had to strike a balance between quick gains via acquisitions and potentially slower growth through organic expansion. The case helps students think through the complexities involved in managing a fast growing company. Specifically, it asks students to analyze whether VanceInfo's current strategy of growing organically and through selective strategic acquisitions will allow it to achieve its goals. It also asks them to analyze the company's human resource challenges and its efforts to meet them.

The strategy of Citibank (China) Co. Ltd ("Citi") in China has evolved as the business environment has changed. Since the start of its operations in China in 1902, the global banking giant has preferred opening offices as branches (when allowed by the government) rather than subsidiaries. In 2001, China announced that it would join the World Trade Organization and would undertake a series of measures to open up its banking sector. By this time, Citi had realized that the pace of its growth in China had been very slow. Consequently, the bank reviewed its strategy and decided to enter the market as an embedded, or genuinely local, bank. Citi's July 2008 agreement with China Unionpay ("CUP"), China's only national bankcard association, allows Citi's debit cardholders to enjoy the convenience of access to CUP's vast network in China. The agreement is the latest milestone in the bank's strategy to establish its presence in the emerging and rapidly growing China market through a series of strategic alliances. Why has CitiUnionpay changed its strategy and started entering such co-operative alliances? What are the risks and advantages associated with using such co-operative strategies?

John Dean and Danny Lui began raising their first fund as Startup Capital Ventures (SCV), a small venture capital firm in 2005. They made a soft commitment to invest 15-20% of their first $25MM fund in China. They made their first Chinese investment in 2005 in Zero2IPO, a Beijing-based market research firm that tracked Mainland china private equity and venture capital markets. The investment has gone well so far, but the venture capital market is changing rapidly. Dean and Lui need to decide whether to continue investing in China, and if so, they must develop a new strategy. This case examines the challenges of venture capital investment in China, given increased competition for deals, significant regulation changes and a rising preference for local teams versus foreign VCs.

After going public in 1992, Starbucks' strong balance sheet and double-digit growth made it a hot growth stock. The Starbucks vision was coffee culture as community, the Third Place between work and home, where friends shared the experience and exotic language of gourmet coffee. Its growth was fueled by rapid expansion in the number of stores both in the United States and in foreign markets, the addition of drive-through service, its own music label that promoted and sold CDs in stores and other add-on sales, including pastries and sandwiches. In an amazingly short time, Starbucks became a wildly successful global brand. But in 2007, Starbucks' performance slipped; the company reported its first-ever decline in customer visits to U.S. stores, which led to a 50 per cent drop in its share price. In January 2008, the board ousted CEO Jim Donald and brought back Howard Schultz - Starbucks' visionary leader and CEO from 1987 to 2000 and current chairman and chief global strategist - to re-take the helm. Starbucks' growth strategies have been widely reported and analyzed, but rarely with an eye to their impact on the brand. This case offers a compelling example of how "non-brand" managerial decisions - such as store locations, licensing arrangements and drive-through service - can make sense on financial criteria at one point in time, yet erode brand positioning and equity in the longer term. Examining the growth decisions made in the United States provides a rich context in which to examine both the promise and drawback of further foreign expansion.

How can a biotechnology start-up navigate a complex regulatory and stakeholder terrain to bring to market an innovative product with potentially significant public health benefits? This case focuses on the challenges facing Ventria Bioscience, a small biotechnology firm based in California. The company had developed an innovative technology for "growing" medical proteins useful in the treatment of childhood diarrhea in genetically modified rice. The company's efforts to obtain regulatory approval in California to commercialize its invention met with a firestorm of opposition from a wide range of stakeholders, including environmentalists, food safety activists, consumer advocates and rice farmers. The case presents the hurdles faced by Ventria as it has attempted to commercialize its invention in the context of the broader debate over the ethics of plant-based medicines. This case is suitable for an upper-division undergraduate or graduate course in entrepreneurship, small business, the management of technology or biotechnology. In such a course, it is best positioned in a discussion of the regulatory environment and stakeholder relations. Alternatively, the case may be used in a segment on technology or stakeholder relationships in a course in business and society.

The president and chief operating officer of Cadim, the real estate arm of the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, Canada's largest pension fund management firm, was considering whether Cadim should enter India, China or both on a long-term basis to diversify its global real estate holdings and take advantage of the growth these two countries were experiencing. The fund's investment would potentially amount to hundreds of millions of dollars and could lead to substantial returns; however, these investments carried considerable risks. The case introduces many of the issues involved with managing an international portfolio of real estate and provides a detailed overview of the business environment and culture of both China and India. In doing so, the case exposes students to the complicated nature of regional risk assessment and the challenges of doing business in developing countries. Students must assess whether the complexity and risk levels involved with entering a new developing country are worth the potential returns.

Yieldex Founder, Doug Cosman, is faced with the decision to sell his young software start-up for $4 million or to hire a CEO (Tom Shields) and pursue Series A venture capital financing. His angel investors and CEO candidate Tom Shields believe he should reject the offer and focus on building the company into a bigger enterprise. Cosman is attracted to the financial rewards offered by the potential acquirer.

Yieldex CEO Tom Shields was hired by the company's technical founder, Doug Cosman, in October 2007. One of Shields' top priorities is finding a vice president of engineering to manage the company's software development efforts. Shields and Costman disagree about the ideal profile of the new hire. Shields found a candidate that he likes, and he wonders about the implications of hiring the person against Cosman's wishes.

Bear Stearns & Co. burned through nearly all of its $18 billion in cash reserves during the week of March 10, 2008, and an unprecedented provision of liquidity support from the Federal Reserve on Friday March 13 was insufficient to reverse the decline in Bear's condition. Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and New York Fed President Timothy Geithner were intent on limiting the impact of Bear's problems on the wider financial system. James "Jamie" Dimon, Morgan's Chairman and CEO, was in frequent contact with these regulators over the weekend of March 14-16, negotiating possible scenarios for the rescue of Bear, without which Bear would be forced it to seek bankruptcy protection when markets opened on Monday. Late on Sunday afternoon, March 16, Bear's board accepted Morgan's offer to purchase Bear for $2 per share, an offer that would not have been made without significant government assistance. There was hope that the Bear rescue would help avert the far-reaching spread of damage into the larger financial world that many policymakers viewed as likely to follow the failure of a major investment bank. This case examines a seminal event in the financial and economic crisis that began in the summer of 2007, and provides background for better understanding the full scope of the crisis as it was revealed during the summer and fall of 2008. It was written to address two sets of issues. First, it provides the opportunity to understand the corporate finance issues of capital and liquidity, and of firm valuation. Second, the case allows for the exploration of aspects of a firm's internal and external governance, as well as the challenges of navigating through a crisis when faced with compelling pressures from competing stakeholders.

Bear Stearns & Co burned through nearly all of its $18 billion in cash reserves during the week of March 10, 2008, and an unprecedented provision of liquidity support from the Federal Reserve on Friday March 13 was insufficient to reverse the decline in Bear's condition. Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and New York Fed President Timothy Geithner were intent on limiting the impact of Bear's problems on the wider financial system. James "Jamie" Dimon, Morgan's Chairman and CEO, was in frequent contact with these regulators over the weekend of March 14-16, negotiating possible scenarios for the rescue of Bear, without which would force it to seek bankruptcy protection when markets opened on Monday. Late on Sunday afternoon, March 16, Bear's board accepted Morgan's offer to purchase Bear for $2 per share, an offer that would not have been made without significant government assistance. There was hope that the Bear rescue would help avert the far-reaching spread of damage into the larger financial world that many policymakers viewed as likely to follow the failure of a major investment bank. This case examines a seminal event in the financial and economic crisis that began in the summer of 2007, and provides background for better understanding the full scope of the crisis as it was revealed during the summer and fall of 2008. It was written to address two sets of issues. First, it provides the opportunity to understand the corporate finance issues of capital and liquidity, and of firm valuation. Second, the case allows for the exploration of aspects of a firm's internal and external governance, as well as the challenges of navigating through a crisis when faced with compelling pressures from competing stakeholders.

Marcel Lorent, head of International Mobility at Brussels-based Solvay Group, faces decisions on the expatriation status of four of his firm's talented executives. Each decision will impact the candidate's professional and personal life, and will have implications for effective management and growth in Solvay's global markets. The case explores these issues, with a close look at Solvay's attempts to develop talent management and mobility processes that allow the firm to align its strategic needs with the complexities of its individual employees' needs and lives.