個案總覽

Discusses the efforts of three Israeli software engineers' efforts to bring a network security software product to market. The firm needs an investment to complete programming and start marketing.

Discusses various valuation methodologies for analyzing entrepreneurial firms. Gives a description of the methodologies and describes when each method is appropriate.

Discusses the economics of the private equity market and recent efforts by the U.S. Small Business Administration to promote greater angel financing.

Presents a compilation of primary and secondary sources as well as a set of data exhibits on the German hyperinflation of 1923. The hyperinflation represented a defining moment in German history and certainly one of the two or three most important economic events of the 20th century. Memories of it continue to shape economic policy in Germany to this day. Equally important, the story of the world's most spectacular hyperinflation is rich in lessons about the many interconnections between money, prices, production, and politics in a modern capitalist economy.

In early 1998, William and Victor Fung had to review their business, the Li & Fung Group, to plan for the next three years. Examines strategic and organizational issues including company culture, international expansion, and venture capital projects. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

This note provides an overview of the current state of capital-structure theory. It is well suited to an advanced corporate-finance course, after students have been exposed to the basic theory. One perspective on capital-structure choice is to view it as posing trade-offs among five elements: (1) the tax benefits of financing, (2) the explicit costs of financial distress, (3) the agency costs of debt (including an array of indirect costs linked to financial distress), (4) the agency costs of equity, and (5) the signaling effect of security issuance. The first two elements reflect the "modern, traditional" balancing theory of capital structure. The third and fourth build on agency theory and imperfect information and emphasize the individual incentives of decision makers. The fifth element recognizes that the very act of issuing a security can convey new information to investors when there is imperfect information. While newer theories provide a rich array of insights into aspects of financial policy beyond how much debt the firm should undertake, the downside is that at present there is no overarching synthesis of these theories. As a result, practical application requires careful identification of how these particular theories are relevant to the business, the markets, and the situation at hand.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 298071

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 298082

Group Retirement Services (GRS) is a division of London Life Insurance Co. of London, Ontario. The vice president of GRS implemented the balanced scorecard in his division in 1994. Since that time, the industry and London Life have experienced significant change. Although the scorecard was not yet complete (after three years), the real issues here are whether the scorecard has been useful to GRS and whether the scorecard could be improved to assist the department in the future.

LG Group Chairman Bon Moo Koo has announced a corporate goal of increasing revenues from $38 billion to $380 billion between 1995 and 2005. Most of this increase is expected to come from new international sales. As a consequence, LG must add an estimated 1,400 new global leaders to its management ranks. Mr. Y.K. Kim and his team must determine what these new global leaders should look like and how to develop them.

The vice president and general manager of Mitel's semiconductor division is faced with a rapidly growing market for the company's business communication chips, but has limited capacity at the semiconductor plant. There is little industry capacity to outsource production. He must determine how to pursue the growing market and how to secure additional capacity. Options include modifications to the current facility, construction of a new facility, or the acquisition of a plant from another company.

Thousands of companies every year acquire other companies, or are acquired themselves. This event is usually painful and messy--and statistics show, it is frequently unsuccessful as well. Nearly half of all mergers fail. One company that has made a fine art of the acquisition integration process, however, is GE Capital, which has integrated hundreds of companies in the past decade. Consultants Ron Ashkenas and Suzanne Francis, and Lawrence DeMonaco of GE Capital, offer four lessons from the company's successful run.

Rare is the company that does not periodically review the performance of its staff, business units, and suppliers. But rare, as well, is the company that does such a review of one of its most important contributors--its board of directors. Done properly, appraisals can help boards become more effective by clarifying individual and collective responsibilities. They can help improve the working relationship between a company's board and its senior management. They can help ensure a healthy balance of power between the board and the CEO. And, once in place, an appraisal process is difficult to dismantle, making it harder for a new CEO to dominate a board or avoid being held accountable for poor performance. The authors, Jay Conger, David Finegold, and Edward E. Lawler, III, all of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California's School of Business Administration in Los Angeles, have drawn on the strengths of several different approaches to synthesize a best-practice process that is both rigorous and comprehensive.

Kevin Coyne and Renee Dye, consultants at McKinsey, show how customers use networks in different ways and explain how companies can adjust their strategies according to the usage patterns in their networks. Managers of network-based businesses--defined here as those that move people, goods, or information from many points to many others--need to know the underlying economic framework of their network, because this can differ substantially from what works for traditional, stand-alone businesses. Managers have long assumed that customers valued all links in these networks equally. Intuitively, managers thought that many of their customers' needs were, in reality, narrower, but they had no way of knowing which links were most important. New computing power and robust mapping software now make it possible to understand network customers better. In applying this technology, the authors have uncovered three distinct usage patterns: one in which all links are, indeed, valued equally; another in which customers concentrate their use in particular zones; and a third in which customers value only individual links. Those managers who don't spot the patterns or understand their strategic implications will find themselves on the losing end of the network battle.

What ever happened to Japan? In the early 1990s, it lost its status as an economic juggernaut and found itself a beleaguered nation in its worst recession since World War II. Two new books help explain why the country has been struggling: Japan: A Reinterpretation, by Patrick Smith, and Inside the Kaisha: Demystifying Japanese Business Behavior, by Noboru Yoshimura and Philip Anderson. The books demonstrate that Japan achieved its prominence by playing follow the leader. In other words, Japanese companies, or kaisha, copied the West's high-growth industries and caught up with the United States more through competitiveness and efficiency than through innovation. How can Japan rebound? It may be that effective change can be led only by Japan's younger generation. Japanese students are likely to demand a higher standard of living than their parents had. The growth of a consumer culture, Crawford says, could encourage individuals to develop a healthier sense of self--which, in turn, could help the country spawn the innovative culture needed to succeed in a fast changing global economy.

Because they face rising costs, more competition for fewer donations and grants, and increased rivalry from for-profit companies entering the social sector, many nonprofit organizations are looking for commercial ways to raise more funds. For example, San Francisco's Delaney Street program for addicts has opened a restaurant staffed by clients, which helps pay the bills while providing on-the-job training. There are many such opportunities but also many pitfalls in this approach. Professor J. Gregory Dees of the Harvard Business School offers a framework to help nonprofit leaders figure out when commercial activities will or will not work.

As companies develop more and better ways to understand and respond to their customers' needs, relationship marketing has become the talk of the marketing community. Executives, academics, and consultants alike have the same goal in mind--creating meaningful relationships with consumers that will yield both the cost-saving benefits of customer retention economics and the revenue-generating rewards of customer loyalty. Unfortunately, a close look at consumers suggests that these relationships are troubled ones at best. The things that marketers are doing to build relationships with customers, are, in fact, subverting them. Relationship marketing--what is supposed to be the acme of customer orientation--is falling far short of its mark. Susan Fournier, assistant professor at the Harvard Business School, Susan Dobscha of Bentley College in Waltham, MA, and David Glen Mick, a professor at the University of Wisconsin offer a way to get this concept back on track.

The CEO of one of Europe's pre-eminent family-owned companies discusses how he lead the Ahlstrom Corp. as well as his own family through a major transformation. In order to reposition the company for global competition, Krister Ahlstrom discovered that he had to lead the owning family (of 200 people) to a new understanding of its relationship to the company. In this interview with HBR editor-at-large Joan Magretta, Krister Ahlstrom describes the changes that now allow the family to interact effectively with the company as enlightened--not passive--owners. And the family developed several governance and communication mechanisms to support that role: a Family Council, a Family Assembly, formal training for the family's next generation, and a written document of values and policies that functions like a constitution.

How do family businesses handle succession? What happens when siblings compete for the position of CEO? Can nonfamily board members navigate successfully through conflicts among family members? Should they even try? This fictitious case study examines a host of issues with which family businesses regularly grapple. It describes the situation that faces the board of directors of Benson Electric, a rapidly growing family enterprise, upon the unexpected death of CEO and patriarch Buck Benson. Benson, the son of the company's founder, left no succession plan. Caught in the middle of an emotionally torn and feuding family, the directors must determine how to proceed. How can they manage the succession process without alienating family members and worrying employees and customers? In 98108 and 98108Z, four commentators--Joseph A. Wolking, Kent Noble, Kelin Gersick, and Victor Ney--advise the directors on their best course of action.

How do family businesses handle succession? What happens when siblings compete for the position of CEO? Can nonfamily board members navigate successfully through conflicts among family members? Should they even try? This fictitious case study examines a host of issues with which family businesses regularly grapple. It describes the situation that faces the board of directors of Benson Electric, a rapidly growing family enterprise, upon the unexpected death of CEO and patriarch Buck Benson. Benson, the son of the company's founder, left no succession plan. Caught in the middle of an emotionally torn and feuding family, the directors must determine how to proceed. How can they manage the succession process without alienating family members and worrying employees and customers? In 98108 and 98108Z, four commentators--Joseph A. Wolking, Kent Noble, Kelin Gersick, and Victor Ney--advise the directors on their best course of action.