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Updates Paul Olsen (A).

Paul Olsen, a doctoral management student, is considering forming a limited partnership to open a restaurant in a renovated downtown mall in Pittsburgh. He must assess the opportunity, find investors for the anticipated $250,000 start-up costs, and create a workable business plan for the restaurant. He has no prior industry experience.

Momenta is a one-month-old high-tech company founded by Kamran Elahian who has already helped found two other successful firms. Having faced problems of teamwork and communication before, Kamran is determined to establish the right corporate culture early on. Teaching Objective: To discuss when and how corporate cultures might be established in a rapidly growing industry. May be used with Momenta Corp. (B).

Don Cornwell and his partner Stuart Beck formed Granite Broadcasting Corp. (GBC) to acquire under-performing TV stations. Cornwell is now in his fourth acquisition. This case focuses on the management challenges and strategies he uses to turn around his stations, specifically the third acquisition.

Addresses the interrelated challenges of marketing and finance faced by a small, struggling packaged foods company.

Conscience explains why most business men and women keep their word and deal fairly with one another. There is no evidence that honesty pays, despite efforts to argue otherwise. As business people, we tell ourselves that dishonesty is punished, but it is hard to find cases in which retaliation is swift and sure, even when wrong has clearly been done.

Helps the potential franchisee analyze the issues to be faced when considering opening or buying a franchise. What are the opportunities--what makes franchising attractive? How does someone look for and then evaluate a franchise?

Outlines the issues and alternatives faced by start-up businesses in attracting bank credit. The topics covered are how to lay the groundwork for establishing a banking relationship, selecting a bank, preparing an application, and negotiating a loan.

Describes how Vinod Khosla got Sun Microsystems started, and a critical marketing challenge the company faced at the end of the first year. Objective is to illustrate how bold creative thinking can make or break start-ups.

Provides a continuation of the (A) case.

Provides a continuation of the (A) case.

Acquiring resources--or to put it more broadly, attracting stakeholders--is a basic entrepreneurial task. While every enterprise needs employees, customers, suppliers, and financiers who are willing to risk their time and money, attracting these "stakeholders" to an entrepreneurial venture is a particularly difficult challenge. This note first describes the importance of the challenge and then the set of tasks the entrepreneur must work on in order to overcome it: Designing the enterprise to minimize the stakeholder investment needed, selecting the right stakeholders, and then convincing them to participate in the enterprise.

Excess cash and unused debt capacity make up a company's financial inventory. Too little can be crippling. But too much costs money and invites takeovers. To determine the proper balance, CFOs must understand three factors: the cost of holding reserves, the risks that reserves protect against, and the needs that reserves may have to cover.

The age of competitive strategy may be past. Sophisticated managers are learning that handsome returns come directly from superior strategic execution--not strategic planning. Their method: hustle and get it right. A look at the financial services industry provides valuable lessons. Few of the bases of competitive advantage exist--no economies of scale, few obstacles to product imitation, minimal costs and time required to bring out a new product. The organization's people and their executional skills--not the company's fixed assets--determine the bottom line.