This case is primarily about the opportunity for mid-career professionals to return to work after a career break. It focuses on the company iRelaunch, which helps companies develop and implement career re-entry programs and connects employees and employers. The case protagonist is Carol Fishman Cohen, co-founder of iRelaunch. The case also touches on the different types of return to work programs and includes a vignette on Chevron which highlights the experience of three women participating in the company's pilot return to work program.

SM-315 Michelin Group is told from the perspective of Florent Menegaux, COO of Michelin, and other senior leaders at the company. Michelin had recently undergone a company wide reorganization, and Menegaux was tasked with how to maintain the company's relevance and competitiveness in a changing global marketplace, particularly as customer needs and expectations around service were becoming more specific and demanding. Given that Michelin was a large French company with a long operating history, Menegaux and others pondered what would the best approach be to implementing changes throughout the company to adapt to a more digital and customer-centric business landscape while still preserving and embracing the company's rich culture and proud history. One necessary element was the need to hire more "entrepreneurial" talent from outside the company (as opposed to the company's tendency to promote from within) in order to pursue several initiatives outside, but still related to, the core tire business.

In Part A, Valley Systems, a computer hardware company which manufactures high performance internetworking systems, was six months post-IPO and struggling to make their quarterly earnings. Matt Tucker, the company's CEO, was very concerned about the negative impacts of missing their numbers (especially so closely following their IPO) and evaluated the option of swapping some larger deliveries in the next quarter with smaller deliveries in the current quarter to achieve their target revenues. The students are asked to determine what they would do in Tucker's situation and discuss the implications of their decision on the business, investors and employees. Part B reveals that Tucker and his team did decide to adjust their delivery schedule to meet their numbers. Now, two quarters later, the company is in the same predicament-they were almost certain to miss their numbers resulting in low employee morale and high investor anxiety. Once again, Tucker is faced with the question of how to best manage the situation. He considers the option of optimizing the product delivery schedule based on product mix and profit margin. Students are asked to decide whether this "schedule optimization" strategy is good business or revenue manipulation as well as to consider the implications on sales reps and the overall health of the business.

The case follows Mel Young, founder and president of Homeless World Cup, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to eliminate homelessness around the world. Homeless World Cup organizes annual football (i.e., soccer) tournaments in host cities and through its grassroots partner organizations recruits and trains homeless people to play in the events. The case highlights the early days of founding and building the organization, including Young's inspiration for the idea, and also covers the importance of branding and marketing and the organization's relationship with Nike.

The case follows Laurie Thomas, a Silicon Valley software executive, as she transitions to a career in the restaurant industry as Executive Vice President of a small restaurant management company in San Francisco. Specifically, the case covers Thomas's background and introduction to the company and her decision to come on board full time. When she takes over the company, she discovers a series of problems that had been going on under the founder and she has to make several critical decisions early on. The case then highlights several employee related issues that are going on at one of the restaurants and the different potential options Thomas has for dealing with them. Next the case covers the events of a company offsite where Thomas was confronted with some negative feedback from her direct reports. The case concludes with Thomas considering the different options she has in confronting the various problems at the company.

The case follows Andrew Housser and Brad Stroh, two recent graduates from the Stanford GSB, as they search for a business opportunity and ultimately start a company in the consumer finance industry. It covers their inspiration for the business idea and their decision to initially bootstrap the company. The case then highlights some of the complexities involved in managing a rapidly growing business. Specifically, Housser and Stroh are faced with challenging decisions regarding expansion/opening a second call center and with hiring/firing and the resulting difficult conversations with employees. Finally, the case concludes with an overview of a lawsuit currently filed against the company and the founders trying to decide the best course of action for Freedom Financial Network.

This note explores the idea identification stage of becoming an entrepreneur. It covers common sources of inspiration for ideas, such as career, education, hobbies and interests. It discusses the importance of team creation, execution and passion. It emphasizes 4 different categories of trends that create opportunities for new businesses to emerge, illustrated with examples. Finally, the note covers testing the basic viability of an idea, including the customer, product, competition, industry, timing, and risk and reward relationship.