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Having just acquired Walker Insurance, Paul Thomson finds himself short of funds to support his original turnaround plan. He can request additional cash from his investor group, hunker down and grow at a slower rate or consider a proposal to buy his business. He has taken steps to re-virtualize the company and is challenged to build a salesforce to grow the business.

Eric Weston is struggling to keep his garden supply business alive. Revenues are up slightly from last year but profits are down in a poor economy as he attempts to integrate an expensive recent acquisition. The deal he struck with the old owner restricts a number of his options and the banker has turned the loan over to the workout division. He feels that his suppliers are willing to work with him and his employees depend on him for their livelihood. At the banks request, an outside consultant has been brought in to make their recommendations. He has made personal guarantees to the bank, loan payments to the old owner are about to come due and Weston is faced with some unanticipated expenses. The company's cash situation is very tight and he is forced to evaluate the liquidation value of the company as he considers the actions to take to avoid failing in his dream to have his own business. The case is a rewritten version of a previous case 899-212, updating the dates and financial data to 2012 timeframe.

Peter Jepsen, a newly minted MBA, has bought a furniture hardware manufacturing business utilizing debt and investors equity that in a very short time is about to trigger bank covenants due to poor financial performance. The prior owner continues to be involved in the business, handling key customers and expecting a healthy earn-out and some favorable transaction closing adjustments and Jepsen considers the wisdom of having him involved. Further, he has discovered an illegal practice to avoid customs duties that has been going on for years and condoned by the owner. He has taken steps to bring on new hires and outsource to reduce costs, but the faltering economy is lowering his revenues. He has to decide how to manage his banking relationships, the caliber of staff he needs and react to the declining revenue while maintaining the confidence of his board.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Product #4374.

The general manager of a chauffeured limousine transport company is concerned about underperformance at the company's customer service call center. The eight-person call center handles almost all customer interaction including discussing company services with prospective customers, scheduling pickups, providing pricing, confirming appointments, and handling billing inquiries. Customers have complained about extended wait times to speak with someone and about abandoned calls. On the other hand, customer satisfaction with the firm's fleet vehicles and drivers is extremely high. The general manager worries that call center service quality will limit the company's ability to expand operations into new markets. The company's founder has asked the general manager to look into the problems and propose solutions. Students must analyze the capacity utilization and demand for the call center while also considering the costs of problems including abandoned calls.

Focuses on a small start-up software company engaged in a negotiation over its software licensing agreement with a very large potential client. The entrepreneur must weigh legal and business issues versus his desire to land the key customer.

The case focuses on an investment made by AXA Private Equity, a French manufacturer of food ingredients. The investment is made at the height of the financial markets, and financed with significant debt. Soon thereafter, the financial crisis impacted the company's financial performance, the valuation of all companies, and the balance sheet of banks. When the company breaches a covenant this set off a series of negotiations over the restructuring of the debt on the balance sheet. The case raises issues over the proper valuation and financing for a company, how capital markets can impact this, and the incentives and motivations of all the stakeholders.

The case explores decisions faced by Gilt Groupe co-founders in 2009 regarding how rapidly to grow, which growth strategies to pursue and how much capital to raise.

The case focuses on the US Dept. of Energy and the $38 billion dollars of stimulus funding the DOE received to encourage clean tech. They focus on "bridging the valley of death" i.e., helping young, innovative companies finance technically risky and very capital intensive development and commercialization programs. The case focuses on two DOE programs in particular, the Loan Guarantee Program and ARPA-E. The case raises the question of why these valleys of death exist, what can be done to deal with them, and how these DOE programs are designed and implemented.

The case describes 2 individuals who have met and are in the process of starting a company together. Each is still at his/her former employer, and each has signed a different employment agreement that on paper may prohibit some contemplated acts - i.e., soliciting customers or employees. The case focuses on how individuals should think about leaving their employers in general and how these specific legal agreements may impact the situation in this case. In addition, the case includes issues around dealing with venture capitalists, non-disclosure agreements, as well as how to select and work with a lawyer.

In 2005, the vice-president of Lundbeck, a Danish based central nervous system (CNS) pharmaceutical firm, needed to decide what to do with one of his most promising subsidiaries, Lundbeck Korea. Over its short lifetime, under the leadership of the country manager and the Asia regional manager, the subsidiary had grown well beyond the original goals set for it. The vice-president wanted to create a reporting structure and management mix that would balance the local demands that Lundbeck Korea required for growth with Lundbeck's overall strategy of specialization, speed, integration and results. While focusing on Lundbeck Korea, the case also traces Lundbeck's internationalization efforts in Asia over the past 20 years. Over that time, the company has grown from pure licensing arrangements to establishing its own country level subsidiaries. This case introduces the dynamic tensions between taking advantage of local management expertise and executing a corporate strategy developed for an entire global group. In addition, it illustrates the importance, but difficulties, of being sensitive to local management goals, while promoting a global corporate culture.

The note describes a systematic process for framing and researching the issues that should be analyzed in the course of considering a new venture idea.

This case includes structured interviews with four serial entrepreneurs about the way in which they built and used their boards in each of their companies and what they have learned through that process. These entrepreneurs were asked similar questions, such as "How do you build a board of directors in a venture-backed start up?" "What do you expect of the board and how do you ensure those expectations are met?" "What are the most and least value-added board activities?" "How do you manage the board?" "How does board composition change over time?" "What were your biggest surprises about boards?" and "What advice would you give first-time entrepreneurs?"

This interactive spreadsheet accompanies the ProfitLogic case (#802-110) to enable analysis of the cash flow implications of three business models that the company is considering. Students are able to change key assumptions and see the impact on cash flow.

The case focuses on Lance Johnstone, a former NFL player, who has dabbled in real estate development during his playing career, and now, as a retired player, is trying to pursue the development of a 10-unit rental apartment building in a depressed area of Philadelphia, his hometown. The case presents the process Johnstone and his partner went through to purchase the vacant land, develop a construction budget and financing plan, and asks students to evaluate the prospective financials for this development and assess the viability of the development plan and its prospective returns. The case then ends with a change in the fundamental assumption - the bank has withdrawn and a new bank will loan less than the original plan, and the construction budget has come in considerably higher. Students must evaluate the plan and prospective returns in light of this new information.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 808017

Describes Texas Pacific Group's purchase and operation of J. Crew, the catalog and specialty clothing retailer. Highlights the issues involved in financing such a transaction, and then focuses on the operational challenges of turning around the business, and of TPG's intensive involvement in the running of the business. Details the improvements in the business, and then the retrenchment, leaving the business facing a significant debt payment coming due. TPG must decide whether to sell the business and get out "whole," or whether it can develop and execute a more successful strategy going forward.

Describes a prospective "venture debt" loan to a new venture from the perspective of Patrick Lee, a principal at Pinnacle Ventures. Forces students to grapple with the nature of financial risk in the start-up firm and assess the prospective risks and returns to a lender to such a firm. To reach a perspective on these issues, students need to assess the existing pro forma cash flows of the venture backed firm, overlay the cash flow implications of a venture debt loan, and assess how much additional "runway" (months till cash runs out) the venture debt will provide. Students must also look at the prospective returns to the venture debt firm from the warrants and the option to invest in follow-on financings that is provided to Pinnacle as part of the loan. Thus, they must look at risk and return from the prospective of both parties. Also provides information on the returns to venture capital, venture debt, and other forms of private equity, and asks students to address the issue of what the risk and return in these various private equity asset classes has been and is likely to be.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 808048

Traces the genesis and founding of Zoots, the largest chain of dry cleaning establishments in the U.S. Founded by some of the founders of the very successful Staples chain, the company raises a very large amount of capital without fully proving its business model, and by 2006 is in need of yet more funding. Pushes students to dissect the business model and current operations--and their financial performance--and figure out what went wrong initially, if the business model and operations are now on solid footing, and, assuming capital can be raised, whether it is better to take the "bird in the hand" of significant capital at an admittedly disappointing valuation, or wait for a strategic investor who would pay a higher price but will need significantly more time to complete due diligence.