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The Vestige Capital case follows a search fund team comprised of two 2009 Stanford GSB alumni as they decide to raise a search fund in Mexico, procure search capital from U.S. and Mexican investors, and source deals over the ensuing two years. The case chronicles the difficulties the team faced during their search, including the departure of one partner from the firm and several near misses with acquisition. At the end of the case, the reader is left with a difficult decision: with very little search capital left, should the team recommence acquisition conversations with one previous target that they had previously walked away from, restructure their fund to acquire minority stakes in a handful of businesses, or shut down the fund in lieu of an attractive job opportunity with steady income.

The Indian aviation market, having experienced high growth rates that were expected to continue through 2016, was opened to foreign investment in 2012. Singapore Airlines is considering entering the market in a partnership with India's largest industrial group, the Tata Group. At the time of the case, there are five major players, none of which is dominant. Learning objectives: These include: 1) learning to gauge the attractiveness of an industry based on Porter's five forces analysis; 2) understanding how each of the five forces - supplier power, customer power, substitutes, new entrants and degree of competitive rivalry - affect industry profitability; 3) applying a STEEP analysis (social, technological, economic, environmental, political) to predict the future attractiveness of an industry.

Supplement to case IMD724. The C case takes a broader geographical view, while focusing on Singapore Airlines' strategic differentiation. The airline, while being widely considered as the standard bearer in terms of quality and customer service, has been able to achieve some of the lowest cost structures in the industry, surpassing even some LCCs. To meet this seeming paradox while minimizing trade-offs, Singapore Airlines draws the line between things that are valued by the customer, where procedural and cultural ingenuity are promoted, and things that have no effect on the traveler, where cost efficiency is sought. Learning objectives: To investigate how, why and where SIA manages its cost/service trade-offs. To identify the key internal characteristics that allow Singapore Airlines to consistently beat its rivals in terms of customer service and profitability.

The case presents the challenges confronting BrightSource, a company building a commercial-scale concentrated solar power plant in California in 2013: 1) environmentalists wanted to protect a threatened species at the site of the new plant, 2) competing solar power technology had become much cheaper in recent years, and 3) the company had been unable to get investors for its new thermal storage technology, which could be a game changer for the industry. When BrightSource was in the planning stages of Ivanpah, a 400-megawatt solar power plant in the Mojave Desert, the company encountered opposition from environmentalists because the federal land specifically set aside for the facility was also the habitat of the desert tortoise, a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. While solar energy was a positive step toward increasing renewable energy resources, and Ivanpah would power 140,000 homes during peak hours, local environmentalists were equally concerned about the survival of the desert tortoise. The case describes the steps BrightSource took to respond to the concerns raised by the environmentalists and build the plant, addressing both climate change and protecting local habitats. Company management also faced challenges from the changing economics of generating solar power due to developments in competing systems and technologies. Students are asked to consider whether the technology that BrightSource is using, Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), is the right choice for the future of the industry, given that the cost of competitors' technology, Photovoltaics (PV), had dropped dramatically in the previous few years. BrightSource also had a new thermal storage technology that would allow it to provide electricity on cloudy days, thereby significantly increasing output and the profitability of future power plants, but investors so far had not come on board, citing the risk and expense of the building out the technology.

Nurturing Green is a three-year-old private company that is trying to change the gift-giving culture of India by offering attractively packaged potted plants in place of the traditional candy or cut flower bouquets presented on special occasions to friends, family and business associates. The founder of the start-up is a young, passionate entrepreneur who is risking much in order to grow his company. To realize the idea of “green gifting” to help the environment, he has accepted funding from a venture capitalist firm in exchange for giving up 25 per cent equity in his business. Now, it is time to revisit that agreement and, although the company has been very successful, the owner is concerned that the investors will demand more control and a faster growth focus than he is willing or able to meet. He is also worried about the sales forecast, return on investment for the short and the long term, monthly cash flows and employee motivation and performance reviews. Should he respond to the many requests to franchise the business or should he concentrate on developing the brand in new markets? How can he expand business-to-business sales while also opening more stores in malls in all parts of the country to sell directly to customers? Will the new website develop more online sales? As he prepares for a meeting with the auditors and investors, the owner looks for a solution to continue growing while retaining control over his company.

In 2011, a major coal producer in China - Yancoal - must make several decisions in terms of product and geographic diversification. One option is to retain its focus on the coal business. Here, it can acquire other coal assets in Australia to further increase its coal reserves. Another option is to acquire 19 potash-exploration permits in Saskatchewan, Canada. This represents an opportunity for both product diversification and further geographic diversification. Yancoal has to decide whether it should focus on the coal industry or pursue the potash opportunity as well.

The case descirbes a wine-tasting competition held in Princeton, New Jersey, in 2012. The competition pitted the best wines from New Jersey (NJ) against the best wines from France in blind taste tests. The case stops after the scores of nine judges tasting 20 wines have been recorded. Students are asked to take these 180 scores and determine the best red and best white and to also compare the performance of the 12 NJ wines to the 8 French wines.

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In 2011, IBM India was experimenting with social media applications to extend its marketing mix. A social media campaign named Digital Influence was launched to gain market share for the company’s software products, influence groundswell and develop technical evangelists. Within a year, the share of voice and reach for the company’s five software brands increased significantly. However, the company’s marketing and communications director was hesitant to declare victory. Was the model sustainable? What challenges would the company face in the implementation process? Would the plan of operations continue to help the company gain market space and create technical evangelists?

The pharmaceutical industry prides itself on being the second largest growth industry in India; by the year 2015, it will be the third largest industry in the world. One of its major players, Micro Labs Limited, was established to provide quality healthcare products at an affordable cost. From supplying antibacterial antiseptics and vitamins to a local market, the company has expanded both nationally and internationally in such fields as eye care, heart disease, diabetes, neuropsychiatry, dermatology, paediatrics and gynecology. It not only provides training for specialists in its various sectors, but has a strong emphasis on research and development of new drugs and licensing them internationally. The founder’s sons have taken over the firm and now must decide how to maintain its competitive edge and how to achieve its goal of becoming a $1 billion company while respecting and enhancing their father’s vision for the brand.

Dominion Resources is an industry giant, generating and distributing electricity throughout much of the northeastern United States. The company has continuously explored and expanded into new markets. Its portfolio includes fossil-fueled electricity, nuclear power, renewable energies, gas exploration and more. This standalone A case considers a recent question of the proper mix between regulated and unregulated markets and the impact of such a decision on the firm’s future success. The standalone B case, Dominion Resources, Inc. (B) 9B13M009, examines how the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan affects Dominion’s strategic planning given the change in public perception of nuclear power following the incident.

This standalone B case, which can accompany Dominion Resources, Inc. (A) 9B13M008, examines how the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan affects Dominion’s strategic planning given the change in public perception of nuclear power following the incident.

In 2012, the director of a subsidiary campus of a national university was faced with many problems: he was personally overworked as both manager of the new campus and as a lecturer; there were too many part-time lecturers on staff, leading to a loss of commitment and morale; a decision had to be made about buying or leasing the newly renovated campus building; and, most importantly, all of his decisions were subject to approval by the main administration of the university. Without controlling the campus’s bank account, the director was unable to implement the initiatives he believed will allow the school to grow in a sustainable manner. The issues that arose as a direct result of this arrangement provided an interesting perspective on the difficulties involved in managing a small subsidiary of a large public organization.

In the early years of the new millennium, citizens of the growing industrial and commercial city of Pune, India, often faced power cuts as the state-run electricity utility struggled to meet growing demand. Government projections suggested that this situation would continue for several years. Rather than take this situation for granted, a group of concerned industrialists met under the umbrella of the Confederation of Indian Industry and the leadership of Pradeep Bhargava to find solutions to this problem. They soon realized that each of the large companies resident in the city had huge back-up diesel generation sets that were often idle since the power supplied from the grid was cheaper, even after they paid a commitment charge to the utility for ensuring continuous power supply. Could this back-up resource be used to meet the shortfall of power faced by the city? A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation revealed that the city's shortfall and the captive generating capacity of the largest companies matched each other. Feeding this power into the grid was complex technically as well as from a regulatory perspective. Instead, the group realized, why not persuade the companies to use their diesel gensets for their own consumption during peak periods, thus freeing up grid power for use by the citizens and other businesses of the city? This proposal came to be known as the Pune Power Model. Different stakeholders such as the industry regulator, citizen groups, the government, political parties and the industry had different views on the feasibility as well as the desirability of pursuing this model. This case describes the challenges faced, and the change strategies used, by the proponents of the Pune Power Model in getting the model accepted and implemented. It raises questions regarding the appropriateness of such a model as well as the role of industry in solving social problems.

Gary Burnison had a lot of faith in Korn/Ferry's brand when he became a significant investor, back in 2001. The company was suffering in the aftermath of the dot-com bust, but he believed he could help--so he came on board as chief financial officer and worked with the rest of the executive team to lead a turnaround. A major portion of the problem was Korn/Ferry's near-total reliance on executive recruiting fees for its revenue. Burnison's ambition was to move the company into other aspects of talent management. He saw the growth of LinkedIn as an opportunity as well as a threat: It gave the firm an additional channel for gathering rich and individualized data on professionals. Korn/Ferry's close C-suite relationships, strong financial position, and that powerful brand aligned the company for success. And clients have embraced the firm's metamorphosis: One has increased its spending from $300,000 a year to $6 million; another's annual billing has gone from $700,000 to $10 million.

Attention is the basis of the most essential of leadership skills--emotional, organizational, and strategic intelligence. And never has it been under greater assault. If leaders are to direct the attention of their employees toward strategy and innovation, they must first learn to focus their own attention, in three broad ways: on themselves, on others, and on the wider world. Every leader needs to cultivate this triad of awareness, in abundance and in the proper balance, because a failure to focus inward leaves one rudderless, a failure to focus on others renders one clueless, and a failure to focus outward may cause one to be blindsided. The good news is that practically every form of focus can be strengthened. The author of "Emotional Intelligence," "Social Intelligence," and many other books on the power of cultivating awareness here explains why focus is crucial to great leadership. Focused leaders can command the full range of their own attention: They are in touch with their inner feelings, they can control their impulses, they are aware of how others see them, they can weed out distractions and also allow their minds to roam widely, free of preconceptions.

High-performing knowledge workers often question whether managers actually contribute much, especially in a technical environment. Until recently, that was the case at Google, a company filled with self-starters who viewed management as more destructive than beneficial and as a distraction from "real work." But when Google's people analytics team examined the value of managers, applying the same rigorous research methods the company uses in its operations, it proved the skeptics wrong. Mining data from employee surveys, performance reviews, and double-blind interviews, the team verified that managers indeed had a positive impact. It also pinpointed exactly how, identifying the eight key behaviors of great Google managers. In this article, Harvard Business School professor Garvin describes how Google has incorporated the detailed findings from the research into highly specific, concrete guidelines; classes; and feedback reports that help managers hone their essential skills. Because these tools were built from the ground up, using the staff's own input, they've been embraced by Google employees. Managers say that they've found their training to be invaluable, and managers' ratings from direct reports have steadily risen across the company.

When a new work group forms, people often make snap judgments about who is qualified to lead. If the players don't already know one another, they tend to afford status to teammates on the basis of factors such as age, gender, race, attractiveness, and rank. These are characteristics beyond your control, but they don't necessarily predetermine the influence you can have on a group. Anyone, the authors say, can achieve higher status and more influence by getting in the right mind-set before engaging with new teammates. There are three psychological states that can increase the optimism, confidence, and proactive behavior that people associate with leaders: promotion focus (defined as a focus on goals and positive outcomes), happiness, and a feeling of power. And all it takes to help you enter one of these states is a simple five-minute exercise before starting a group task: Write about your ambitions or a time when you felt happy or powerful. The authors report that study subjects who did exactly that were more likely than others to speak up, steer decision making, and be viewed by their teammates as leaders--both in initial group meetings and in follow-up meetings two days later.

Terranola is a wildly successful company with a market cap of $8.1 billion. Its product, the Express granola-bar-making machine, is on kitchen counters across North America, and market analysts suggest that household penetration of Express machines could triple. Then Jeremiah Hughes, a well-known hedge fund manager and short-seller, starts making public comments suggesting that the company is overrated. Its managers debate how best to respond. This fictional case study is written by Suraj Srinivasan and features expert commentary by Guy Gresham and Dan Mahoney.