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Describes the issues facing a founder-CEO regarding building a board of directors, assembling an executive team, managing tension between co-founders, and outsourcing system development work.

In 2014, the owner of Shiva Tourist Dhaba, a highway restaurant specializing in authentic Indian cuisine, faced a pressing decision. The business had been successful since opening in 1995, but it now faced intense competition. The owner was working with a marketing research team in pursuit of two objectives: to gain insight into customer loyalty and to decide on his restaurant’s positioning strategy. After conducting a survey of restaurant customers, the marketing research team needed to determine the tool that would best analyze the data to help resolve the issues facing the restaurant owner.

Jiemo.net (Jiemo), an Internet-based study-abroad consultant agency headquartered in Dalian, China, began in 2010 by providing application support to customers who wished to apply to study abroad. In 2014, the company discovered that profit existed in providing services to students once they had been accepted to study abroad. Jiemo changed its traditional pricing model, used social media marketing, and collaborated with other agencies to establish an ecosystem for these students. The result was that Jiemo acquired customers by providing free Internet-based application support (“front end” services), and reaped profits by providing services that those customers needed once they were studying abroad (“back end” services). However, as Jiemo grew, the designed profit model was not supporting growth. Jiemo had to modify the model. Should it improve the back end services to reduce costs and gain more profit from existing customers, or explore the needs of potential customers and add new services?

In 2016, Chinese telecommunications equipment firm Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (Huawei) aspired to be the world’s top smartphone manufacturer. The company had identified German camera company Leica Camera AG (Leica) as a long-term partner to reinvent Huawei’s smartphone photography to beat an influx of domestic rivals and the market leaders, Apple and Samsung. The flagship dual camera smartphone that was co-engineered by Huawei and Leica, the P9, contained a camera module that was actually made by a Chinese manufacturer, Sunny Optical Technology Co., under Leica’s authorization. As a result, Huawei’s motives for the partnership with Leica were criticized as a quick fix to beat Apple in the dual camera market and repair negative publicity the company had suffered earlier. Was the long-term alliance really the best solution for both Huawei and Leica? Was it the right alliance in an emerging market?

Jiemo.net (Jiemo), an Internet-based study-abroad consultant agency headquartered in Dalian, China, began in 2010 by providing application support to customers who wished to apply to study abroad. In 2014, the company discovered that profit existed in providing services to students once they had been accepted to study abroad. Jiemo changed its traditional pricing model, used social media marketing, and collaborated with other agencies to establish an ecosystem for these students. The result was that Jiemo acquired customers by providing free Internet-based application support ("front end" services), and reaped profits by providing services that those customers needed once they were studying abroad ("back end" services). However, as Jiemo grew, the designed profit model was not supporting growth. Jiemo had to modify the model. Should it improve the back end services to reduce costs and gain more profit from existing customers, or explore the needs of potential customers and add new services?

CompuSoluciones, based in Guadalajara, Mexico, was a value-added distributor of information technology hardware, software, and services that grew from its origins as a reseller for Hewlett-Packard to become the second-largest distributor in Mexico. The company was best described as a collection of team-based businesses. It had 18 independent business units—each of which managed its own supply chain and produced its own profit-and-loss statements—and over 415 employees spread out over three offices. It was also governed by multiple consultative and representative boards. The company relied on the advice, insights, and experiences of these key advisory groups to improve the quality of its decision making and inform strategic decisions. At the same time, it had a policy to achieve consensus on major strategic decisions. In January 2017, the chairman of CompuSoluciones was reviewing his company’s corporate governance policies and practices. Given the independent nature of the individual business units, he wondered whether a consensus-based model of management was still the best way to lead the firm forward and whether the current corporate governance structure was optimal for managing this particular business.

CompuSoluciones was a value-added distributor of information technology hardware, software, and services based in Guadalajara, Mexico. In 2016, the firm’s chief executive officer was aware that the company faced the threat of disintermediation as some of its vendors looked to sell directly to end-users. The industry in which CompuSoluciones competed was known for its rapid technological changes, which affected the design, supply, and price of products, and even the structure of the industry. As an intermediary in the business, CompuSoluciones was threatened by disintermediation, which was enabled by two new technologies: cloud computing and software as a service. If software vendors could interact directly with end-users, they would not need to pay intermediaries (resellers or wholesalers such as CompuSoluciones) to distribute their products. <br>CompuSoluciones’s chief executive officer needed to consider what the company could do in the next few months to prevent or slow the process of disintermediation or to participate in the industry in a different way. The decision would have significant implications for the firm’s business model.

In 2012, a real estate entrepreneur and his long-time friend and former neighbour, a police director, had enjoyed the profits of guanxi—a bilateral flow of personal favours—for many years. The use of guanxi in China had long been a core component of successful and sometimes illegal business. However, China’s new president had recently created a tough anti-corruption Disciplinary Committee. As a result, many respected citizens who had previously profited from corrupt practices were being exposed, prosecuted, and imprisoned. News was leaked about the city’s entire police force having enjoyed a six-day vacation in Bali at the expense of the police budget. The real estate entrepreneur and the police director were going to be questioned about their role in arranging this vacation. What should they do? Could they escape the consequences of their questionable business practices, or were they headed for a future in prison?

In late 2016, the founders of Flatiron School, a startup offering 12-week coding bootcamps, are formulating their growth strategy. Their new online-only program has matched the excellent job placement results for their in-person bootcamps. Should Flatiron shift investment to aggressively expand online, or grow online and in-person bootcamps in tandem? Should they pursue opportunities to sell online programs to universities and corporations, in addition to their direct-to-consumer offer?

The Nanyang Technological University's Energy Research Institute (ERI@N), which focuses on the applied research, development and commercialization of innovative energy solutions, has developed an energy controller that would act as the heart of a microgrid. A microgrid is a local source of electrical power that feeds a relatively small network of electricity users, and even when attached to a centralized regional or national grid, is able to function independently. The ERI@N team in Singapore deploys 210 research staff and 150 PhD students from 26 countries to tackle emerging challenges in the energy industry. Two ERI@N flagship programmes - EcoCampus and the Renewable Energy Integration Demonstrator Singapore (REIDS) - develop and implement working solutions for energy efficiency and renewable energy integration. By 2017, ERI@N had amassed great depth of knowledge on the delivery of distributed energy resources (DER). The immediate challenges for ERI@N are: What is the best path to introduce its microgrid controller to a rapidly evolving market for distributed energy solutions, and how would it sustain its early lead in affordable DER technology?

The prevailing geographic model for high-technology industrial organization has been the "nerdistan," a sprawling, car-oriented suburb organized around office parks. This seems to contradict a basic insight of urban theory, which associates dense urban centers with higher levels of innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity. This article examines the geography of recent venture capital finance startups across U.S. metros and within a subset of them by neighborhood. It concludes that the model is changing. The suburban model might have been an historical aberration, and innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship are realigning in the same urban centers that traditionally fostered them.

Pressures on infrastructure-due to growing urban populations, the ubiquity of new technologies, and collaborative business models-are fostering a new form of entrepreneurship focused on addressing quality of life in cities. Urban entrepreneurs are challenging the logic of formal market structures, forcing us to reframe our thinking around the interactions between place, individuals, institutions, and the resulting innovative outcomes. Urban entrepreneurs-operating at the neighborhood, city, and global levels-are developing alternative forms of private-public-people partnerships and unique business strategies.

Strength Pharma was an Indian health care company that focused on developing, manufacturing, and marketing products that catered to the sports nutrition market in India. The senior director of marketing was responsible in March 2016 for managing the upcoming launch of the company’s newest whey protein supplement, Muscle-RDX. This new product would be the first protein supplement for high-endurance athletes ever to be approved by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India, and its chances for success in the Indian market looked quite promising. <br><br>With the upcoming new-product launch just a few months away, the marketing director needed to develop a product-positioning strategy and a marketing communication plan for Muscle-RDX. To find the best plan, he had several questions to answer: Who would be the ideal target customer? How should the key stakeholders be reached? What was an appropriate message for each of the fitness coaches and athletes? What role would the mobile application play in the marketing communication roll out?

TalentCorp Malaysia runs the "Returning Expert Programme" (REP), a government program designed to encourage Malaysian professionals abroad to return home through use of various incentives. The REP is intended to combat the "brain drain," caused by highly educated professionals moving away to take advantage of better career opportunities by offering returnees benefits such as tax breaks and permanent residency for family members. In 2011, TalentCorp took over administration of the REP, and through adjustments to incentives and application requirements was able to dramatically increase the number of REP applicants and approvals. Now they are considering another set of changes and must demonstrate that their changes will increase "bang for the taxpayer buck," raising the number of applicants while maintaining the same level of quality.

This case follows an African-American entrepreneur through the process of sourcing a potential acquisition, valuing a company, and securing the funding to purchase the company. This entrepreneur must decide if he should close the deal and which financing term sheet to accept.

This is Case A in a three case series. In December 2015, the managing director and chief executive officer of Sunitha Nath Boutiques in Bengaluru, discovered that her most trusted employee had abandoned and deceived her. She had recruited the employee as an intern and mentored him during his growth within the organization, eventually promoting him to the post of studio manager with complete power to run the business in her absence. But the employee had quit his job without giving any notice; stolen confidential information, designs, and documents relating to the business; and started his own competing design firm in Bengaluru. One of Sunitha Nath Boutiques’s important projects had been terminated by email a little while earlier, and the rumour was that her ex-employee was continuing to work on that project under his new design firm.<br><br>In this case, the managing director’s lawyer helped determine what had transpired, had taken steps to contain any further damage, and preserved relationships with clients and vendors. However, there were other matters to also consider. See 9B17M014 for Case B and 9B17M015 for Case C.

This is Case B in a three case series. In December 2015, the managing director and chief executive officer of Sunitha Nath Boutiques in Bengaluru, discovered that her most trusted employee had abandoned and deceived her. She had recruited the employee as an intern and mentored him during his growth within the organization, eventually promoting him to the post of studio manager with complete power to run the business in her absence. But the employee had quit his job without giving any notice; stolen confidential information, designs, and documents relating to the business; and started his own competing design firm in Bengaluru. One of Sunitha Nath Boutiques’s important projects had been terminated by email a little while earlier, and the rumour was that her ex-employee was continuing to work on that project under his new design firm.<br><br> In this case, the managing director and her lawyer reviewed the employment contract and determined what, if anything, might be done to prevent the ex-employee from using Sunitha Nath Boutique’s resources—knowledge, designs, clients, and employees—in a new competing business. See 9B17M013 for Case A and 9B17M015 for Case C.

This is Case C in a three-case series. In December 2015, the managing director and chief executive officer of Sunitha Nath Boutiques in Bengaluru, discovered that her most trusted employee had abandoned and deceived her. She had recruited the employee as an intern and mentored him during his growth within the organization, eventually promoting him to the post of studio manager with complete power to run the business in her absence. But the employee had quit his job without giving any notice; stolen confidential information, designs, and documents relating to the business; and started his own competing design firm in Bengaluru. One of Sunitha Nath Boutiques’s important projects had been terminated by email a little while earlier, and the rumour was that her ex-employee was continuing to work on that project under his new design firm.<br><br> In this case, the managing director and her lawyer reviewed the nature of confidential information and trade secrets. They also explored what intellectual property rights the managing director had and how she might prevent her ex-employee and others from misappropriating or stealing that information. See 9B17M013 for Case A and 9B17M014 for Case B.

Established in 2013, Glints was an online job search service for new graduates, marketing itself as “LinkedIn for youth.” The Singapore-based company was founded by three 21-year-olds who chose to put their university education on hold and forfeit their scholarships in order to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions. Using the lean start-up approach, Glints pivoted its business model several times before finding a suitable position in a resegmented job-search market. As a young company, Glints’ biggest challenge was growth. Having raised seed capital of SG$475,000 from its investors, Glints was expected to sustain its exponential growth in revenue base and the number of subscribers. Its young co-founders had to identify ways to make that growth happen.