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Randall Fojtasek, a partner at Brazos Private Equity Partners, must decide whether to invest more money in Cheddar's restaurant chain, which the firm invested in 10 months earlier. The incremental investment would fund a real estate subsidiary that would own the property on which Cheddar's built its stores, rather than its traditional approach of sale and leaseback. As he considers the issue, Fojtasek must decide how to price the new stock, how to structure the deal to limit his firm's dilution, and how to manage the personality issues involved.

Examines how a school district can differentiate its management of high-performing vs. high-need schools based on a variety of indicators, including performance and capacity at the school level.

After more than 40 years of focus on a single related technology platform, XYZ Corp. had begun trying to foster an entrepreneurial climate within the organization. Its goal? To develop vibrant new ventures through a program called "Growing Green Businesses." As XYZ's main product lines were becoming commoditized and several billion dollars in free cash flow became available, the timing seemed right for this new initiative. Yet efforts thus far have failed to create a robust portfolio of new businesses. How can management transform a highly successful, but large and somewhat reluctant Fortune 500 into a truly entrepreneurial firm?

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 806069

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 206023.

Tad O'Malley, a new associate at Empire Investment Group, a top-tier leveraged buyout firm, must evaluate three different deals and recommend which should receive additional resources for further investigation. He must consider the specifics of each company and each deal as well as the resources or restrictions of the firm's offices that would handle the project.

Morningstar, a publisher of data and ratings for mutual fund investors, is considering an auction-based approach to the company's upcoming IPO, with management weighing the risks and benefits of the auction approach vs. a traditional underwritten offering.

Examines forecasting earnings/performance for a commodity chemical firm during a period of high uncertainty, highlighting the combined effects of input process (natural gas), industry capacity/utilization, and cyclicality. Assuming the role of Kevin McCarthy (the top chemical industry analyst in 2004), students must analyze macro, industry, and firm-level data to determine the future performance of this firm.

Lianhua Supermarket Holdings Co., Ltd. was a modern-day legend in China. Starting with 41 stores in 1995 and reporting a loss of 5 million Renminbi, it had grown into the largest chain store conglomerate in China by the end of 2004. This success was attributed to its adoption of IT applications. However, with China's accession to the World Trade Organization and the subsequent entry of a large number of international players, the competitive landscape is changing. Compared with global leaders, Lianhua still lags behind in terms of profitability and management. Once more, IT applications are playing a critical role in helping Lianhua to meet the new challenges and retain its market leadership position in China.

In 2001, Libby Sartain, chief people officer, arrived at Yahoo! to find a demoralized Internet company without a well-defined culture, a coordinated method to communicate with employees, or developed processes, policies, and procedures. In Sartain's first year at Yahoo!, the company was sent reeling by the collapse of the dot-com bubble. For the first time in its history as a public company, Yahoo! was forced to lay off a substantial part of its workforce. Predictably, morale at Yahoo! was shaken. There was also uncertainty at the senior executive level. Many of the company's top officers departed during the turmoil, leaving the newly installed chairman and CEO, Terry Semel, with an incomplete executive team. Moreover, Semel had yet to articulate his vision and strategy for the company, and the economic landscape was deteriorating. Almost three years had passed since Sartain's arrival, and the company overcome some crucial challenges. For the moment at least, it seemed the worst was over. Sartain had been working hard at launching an internal branding campaign at Yahoo! to transform the company's start-up culture into a more traditional one.

The senior vice-president for corporate development for Charles River Laboratories must prepare a presentation to the company's board of directors requesting up to a $2 million investment in a Mexican joint venture with a family-owned animal health company. However, the CEO views the proposed joint venture as a potential distraction while his company continues to expand rapidly in the United States. He is also worried about the risks of investing in a country like Mexico and the plan to partner with a small, family-owned company. Moreover, the Mexican partner is unable to invest any cash in the joint venture, which would need to be fully funded by Charles River Laboratories.

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Introduces the venture leasing or lending industry by looking at pioneering in the industry: Western Technology investment. Asks students to walk in the shoes of a venture lender by outlining a term sheet of a "live" investment decision that Western Technology needs to make about Quinstreet, an emerging Internet start-up.

Gender in the workplace. Is it still an issue? While it is increasingly easier in the early 21st century for women to work, manage, and take positions of high responsibility in American business, some issues and difficulties still remain. This series of vignettes touches on some difficult situations-for both women and men-involving sexual and romantic relationships in the workplace, decisions on whether to start a family, dress codes, family obligations, and sexual harassment.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the artists who created The Gates in New York City in 2005, are trying to decide how best to finance their next project. Over the River, a project to drape sections of the Arkansas River with translucent fabric is a very different enterprise from The Gates. Bank Leu, the Swiss back that had provided a line of credit for The Gates, has declined the opportunity to participate in Over the River. As Christo and Jeanne-Claude review the Bank Leu vehicle, they must consider whether it is replicable to other projects and institutions or whether they should consider a different approach.

The founder and owner of Jill's Table, a specialty food and housewares store is thinking about the challenges ahead of her. As a small business operating in the same arena as the mass merchandising chains, she has to decide how to position her service offerings so as to survive and even thrive in a highly competitive environment. As a Retailer of the Year award winner (2004 Canadian Gift and Tableware Association, Housewares and Gourmet Division), she knows that her challenges go beyond competition and touch on areas such as customer service, associate training, buying and finance.

The founder and owner of Eden Creations debut line of hand-crafted specialty beaded jewelry had been well received by the local bridal industry, and several retailers throughout the region had placed orders. She now has to develop a formalized marketing plan to ensure the continued success of her company before returning to her postgraduate studies.

The partners of a furniture company manufacturing Muskoka chairs from hockey sticks must decide whether to expand the distribution of their current product offering, or to introduce new and complimentary products. Students are required to discuss strategy, calculate costs, and determine the long-term impact on the company when volume and additional products are added.

The technical director of Laboratorio de Analisis Argentina is responsible for ensuring that an average of 5,000 samples are processed daily. The samples have three sources: samples collected on-premises, samples sent from the organization's other 40 labs and samples sent from external labs. In one week the technical director has to give her boss a recommendation about dealing with the lab's capacity problems.

The senior staff accountant was conducting an audit for a bank client. As part of the audit, the senior staff accountant needed to verify the total interest expenses and revenues reported by the bank during the 2004 fiscal year. He had gathered data on total interest revenues and expenses as reported by the bank, as well as, the prime rate as reported by the Bank of Canada. The staff accountant intends to use linear regression to examine the relationships between revenue and interest rates and between expenses and interest rates as a way of identifying outliers that may require more detailed attention as part of the audit.