This case study describes Mark Lund's journey in starting and growing two different businesses. The businesses are set in Brazil. The time period of the businesses span two decades, the 1980s and 90s. Mark is firstly a surfer, musician and philosopher. Yet, he had an uncanny ability to identify business opportunities, develop and shape these opportunities and to capture opportunities.
As the new millennium dawned, many old economy companies faced the challenge of transitioning into the Internet era, making "Go Web or go dead" the common mandate. For John Kilcullen, CEO and publisher of IDG Books, the Internet offered an opportunity to fashion a new business model based on recurring revenues rather than one-time transactions. Instead of just selling books, Kilcullen envisioned the IDG Web site as the locus of continuing education and information. Chronicles the evolution of the "Dummies" series of books within the structure of the huge IDG organization, offering insights and discussion on what it takes to foster a successful corporate entrepreneurial climate.
After restructuring Scott Paper with a 34% reduction in head count and successfully selling the company to Kimberly Clark, Al Dunlap is hired as CEO by Sunbeam. This case describes the management principles of this corporate turnaround expert and his actions at Sunbeam.