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<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Euro-Mediterranean Managerial Practices and Issues category at the EFMD Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br> The chief executive officer of Les Moulins de la Brague (LMB), a seven-generation French olive oil miller, was worried about the future of the business. LMB was trying to find a profitable niche in a market that was filled with multinational companies, whose products came in a variety of quality and price ranges, and filled the shelves of French grocery stores. Although LMB had achieved critical acclaim for its blended olive oils made with spices and flavours, the business was unstable for a number of reasons. First, weather conditions had caused a decrease in the number of olives harvested. Second, on the consumer front, shoppers’ interest in the health benefits of olive oil, promoted by the popularity of the “Mediterranean diet” seemed to have peaked. Finally, the market was flooded with various levels of quality: low-quality brands with low prices; medium-quality brands that dominated consumer markets; and many high-end premium brands that were produced by olive mills just like LMB. With a market environment pressured in so many ways, how could LMB keep its 200-year-old millstones turning?

greeNEWit is an energy audit company in Columbia, Maryland. The firm's three founders financed their start-up through loans from friends and family and an aggressive use of credit cards. Now the business is established, showing an exponential growth in revenues in a short time. Founder Josh Notes believes there is a billion dollar market available for the tak-ing in the area of smart grid integration. greeNEWit has been able to obtain limited bank financing but may need more to move into nationwide smart grid integration. Possibilities include additional bank loans, angel investors or venture capital, an equity partner, or perhaps generating additional revenues. A good estimate of firm value is needed in order to correctly price the share value. Josh needs to investigate all sources of financing before choosing the right next step for the firm.

Why do so many promising start-ups go off the rails? Often they have trouble scaling. Founders may resist imposing discipline for fear of losing agility and control--but the price may be chaotic operations and unpredictable performance. Drawing on extensive case studies and 75 years of research, the authors outline four activities that can help companies handle greater complexity as they seek new avenues for growth. Firms should: (1) Hire specialists in functions such as sales, HR, marketing, R&D, and manufacturing. This lets them tackle work more efficiently and catalyzes future growth by creating slack in the rest of the organization. (2) Add management structure. A few people at the top can't effectively supervise everyone's increasingly specialized daily work--and it's hard for employees to stay focused and engaged without guidance and processes. (3) Establish a framework of plans and goals. Otherwise, improvisation may amount to aimless riffing. (4) Sustain the culture. Articulate the founding values in mission statements and job descriptions, and hire and reward for cultural fit. Between the extremes of ad hoc and prescriptive organizing lies a useful middle ground--and leaders who can find it gain an important edge on their rivals.

Most successful new companies eventually face a predictable crisis that the authors call "stall-out"--a sudden large drop in revenue and profit growth or a collapse of once high shareholder returns to well below the cost of capital. Stall-out occurs when the growth engine that powered companies to success stops working. This rarely happens because the business model has suddenly become obsolete--a common misconception. Rather, research by Zook and Allen shows that the business has almost always become too complex, most often owing to bureaucracy that slows the company's metabolism, or internal dysfunction that distorts information and hampers managers' ability to make rapid decisions and take swift action on them. But stall-out can be overcome. The authors find that most companies that achieve sustainable growth share attitudes and behaviors: (1) They view themselves as business insurgents, fighting in behalf of underserved customers; (2) They have an obsession with the front line, where the business meets the customer; and (3) They foster a mindset that includes a deep sense of responsibility for how resources are used and for long-term results. Those qualities can help any company restart its growth engine by removing gunk and complexity that have built up over the years, inhibiting the clean execution of strategy.

Most managers are well versed in the defensive playbook for confronting disruptive innovation. Most commonly, they either acquire the new entrants or "disrupt themselves" by setting up autonomous units charged with developing their own new technology that can be rolled into their principal operations once the disruptive innovation begins to dominate the industry. But quite often, adopting a new technology requires companies to fundamentally change their mainstream operations--the way they manufacture and distribute their products. In these cases where the organizational model changes along with customer expectations and preferences, the playbook often falls short. In this article Joshua Gans of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management identifies three prescriptions for surviving "supply side" disruption: Companies must have an integrated organizational model, ownership of a product feature important to the end customer, and a broad and flexible sense of corporate identity. Though less commonly understood, supply-side disruption is arguably more dangerous than the kind described by Clayton Christensen in his book "The Innovator's Dilemma"; indeed, disruption of a product's architecture threatens a company's very survival in a way that changes in customer demands do not.

This case explores the relationship between Tenet Healthcare, the third largest for-profit hospital chain, and its subsidiary Conifer Health Solutions, a health services company. Conifer's IT programs help health care providers with revenue cycle management and population health management; the case provides an overview of both sectors. Conifer has been growing rapidly, leading some to question what the best relationship is for Tenet and Conifer going forward. The current parent-subsidiary arrangement presents synergies as well as potential conflicts.

In October 2015, five years had passed since John Trautwein’s oldest son, Will, had taken his own life. Trautwein, a former Major League Baseball player, was now president and chief operating officer of an information technology solutions company, and president and co-founder of the Will to Live Foundation. He had started the Will to Live foundation to save lives and honour his son, but was concerned about developing a long-term strategy and suitable performance metrics for the organization. He also wanted to identify a suitable balance between his work, his foundation, and his family. Since 2010, Trautwein had delivered many presentations and speeches to schools, teams, coaches, and religious groups in order to spread the message that teen suicide was a national epidemic and that people needed to talk openly and candidly about it. Yet he knew that he could not continue to devote this much time to only one aspect of his life. How could Trautwein grow the foundation while prioritizing his family and his own well-being?

In 2014, as large investments poured into the e-commerce space in India, there was a general expectation that the online retail (e-tail) industry was heading toward a consolidation that would squeeze out smaller players. While e-tailers in India focused on following a marketplace model and developing a brand for their online market platforms, fashion2go created a product brand that targeted a very specific segment of young customers. Fashion2go was therefore faced with the challenge of demonstrating to its investors that its strategy was capable of ensuring long-term business viability and sustainability. Without further investments, fashion2go could not expect to continue building its brand and its operations, both of which were critical for the company’s planned aggressive growth.

In early 2015, the chief information officer at Lumière Business Solutions (Lumière) was reflecting on the impact of technology on the company’s business performance. Lumière had been using cloud technology to provide clients and employees 24/7 access to project progress and documentation. Clients appreciated the fact that, despite being a small firm, Lumière was as competitive and quick to respond as any other big market-research company. What were the factors that had made this adoption easy? How much of the firm’s efficiency could be attributed to the cloud? So far, most of Lumière’s applications on the cloud had been sourced from Google Marketplace, but with other players like Microsoft getting into cloud technology aggressively, should Lumière start to explore these new offerings as well? Given the trade-offs that Lumière had made while choosing the cloud, would this technology continue to pay off in the future?

Uber was a technology company that relied on its mobile app and word-of-mouth advertising to reach customers interested in its transportation services. It prided itself on being an on-time, stylish, unique, and modern transportation option. However, in 2014, Uber faced many challenges and questions as an industry incumbent. Could its business model succeed despite being heavily reliant on buyers’ willingness to pay a substantial premium in some situations? Could the model be sustained and expanded into cities worldwide? How could the regulations protecting the taxi industry be overcome in so many diverse markets? Finally, how could Uber position its business model in a way that would create entry barriers to keep rivals out of the market?

In 2015, iQmetrix, a company founded in 1999, developed and sold point-of-sale (POS) software using the software-as-a-service model. Two iQmetrix enterprise account managers were discussing strategies for closing a software subscription deal with a large customer who asked for significant customization to be completed before the deal could be signed. The customization appeared to be critical for the customer, and the account managers thought the added functionality might be valuable for the rest of the company’s customer base. iQmetrix’s product was specialized for use by mobile wireless retailers, and the company was the current market leader with approximately 60 per cent of the POS market in Canada and the United States. The company’s executives now needed to make a decision. Should iQmetrix commit to the customer’s request for significant customization?

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER -Corporate Social Responsibility Award, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>In the fall of 2013, the family-owned Martin Bauer Group, a German-based company and world leader in the business-to-business market for tea and herbal extracts, became interested in the idea of collaborating with the frugal innovation company EinDollarBrille (OneDollarGlasses). The Martin Bauer Group was engaged in multifaceted corporate social responsibility activities, both domestically and abroad. Specifically, it fostered the development and diffusion of frugal innovations, which were affordable products or services developed under strict financial constraints to cater to low-income individuals in emerging markets. These companies usually worked in collaboration with partners. One such frugal innovation company, OneDollarGlasses, created durable, yet affordable, eyeglasses for people in the African country of Sudan, a prime sourcing market for the Martin Bauer Group. The work of OneDollarGlasses illustrated the reasons, motivations, and challenges that innovators often faced within developed and emerging markets when engaging in corporate social responsibility activities. Should The Martin Bauer Group work with OneDollarGlasses? Could the company be helpful and make a meaningful difference to the people in emerging markets by collaborating with frugal innovators like OneDollarGlasses? What benefits would there be for the Martin Bauer Group if they do?

In February 2015, Premier Explosives Limited (PEL) was preparing for a sudden expansion. The Indian company was the sixth-largest manufacturer of explosives in the country and also made defence products such as solid propellants and pyrogen igniters. PEL had many prominent customers in the mining industry and defence business, and exported bulk explosives to a number of countries. PEL signed a joint venture agreement with the well-regarded Kalyani Group, to manufacture additional defence products. To fund the expansion, PEL approached the Commercial Bank of India for a preferential allotment of equity shares to mobilize ?510 million and an enhancement of working capital limits from ?460 million to ?740 million. The Central Bank of India's president of the investment banking group perused the proposal, but was presented with a dilemma due to the recent slowdown in the mining and infrastructure sectors - the main industries that used PEL's products. Given the decline and the associated risks, should the banker reject the funding proposal for PEL to expand?

Near the end of 2014, Derek Belch decided to turn his master's thesis into a virtual reality athletic training company called STRIVR Labs [Sports Training in Virtual Reality]. Born out of Stanford University's famed Virtual Human Interaction Lab, STRIVR garnered immediate interest from a wide array of organizations. Having played and coached football at Stanford University, Belch had connections within several professional and collegiate football programs. Furthermore, he had tested STRIVR's revolutionary product extensively with the Stanford University Football team throughout the 2014 football season. During this testing phase, Belch made drastic improvements to the virtual reality training solution, and several national media outlets began to take notice of the innovative technology. Against this backdrop, Belch was able to secure several meetings in the beginning of 2015 with coaches, scouts, and NFL executives, with the hope of acquiring a few customers. By the end of June, STRIVR had signed contracts with two NFL teams and six colleges. By the end of August, STRIVR had added an additional four NFL teams, three college football teams, the NBA's Washington Wizards, and the NHL's Washington Capitals. As STRIVR grew its customer base, it generated significant press, which led to even more inbound interest in STRIVR's solutions. Much of the interest came from sports teams, eager to utilize STRIVR's sports training solution. However, several companies approached Belch to discuss partnership opportunities outside of sports training-some related to sports entertainment, and others in industries completely unrelated to sports. In less than a year, Belch and the STRIVR team had seemingly endless opportunities for growth. And while Belch was thrilled about the many potential avenues for STRIVR's continued expansion, he knew that the excitement needed to be tempered with caution.

Student spreadsheet for case W16127.

Two undergraduate business students wanted to assess the feasibility of starting a business that would sell an all-natural and completely biodegradable alternative toothbrush - the Miswak. A total of $50,000 had already been secured for the initial investment; however, the young partners wondered whether this investment would be sufficient to sustain the cash flows of the business for its first three years of operations and, if not, how much additional funding would be needed. To discover whether their proposed venture would be feasible, the pair set out to perform a variety of qualitative and quantitative analyses.

Solectric was a small solar power venture located in Sydney, Australia. The founder was an academic entrepreneur who was planning to return to his academic career. A new business development manager had been hired to explore and enter markets with varying degrees of uncertainty and potential profitability. The capital was running out and an unfocused strategy was exacerbating negligible sales revenues. Together, they were faced with the decision of which market(s) to focus on, how to allocate available capital, and how to consider the implications regarding distribution of equity and control.

The case provides a detailed description of the various significant points in time or company milestones, since the launching of the concept, the growth of the franchise in Venezuela, the internationalization process in Europe, and the development of new formats. Each of these landmarks is an opportunity in itself to explain different elements of the Lean Startup method applied to a franchise. The case's focus, along with the strategic decision or choice of the entrepreneurs must make to channel sustainability, is placed on how to validate and manage some of the alternatives chosen. The experience lived by the Decofruta team is an example of how -empirically- a business may resort to a validated learning approach prior to allocating time and resources to develop something that is only in the minds of its creators. It also pinpoints the consequences of investing time, money and passion in a product or service that does not add value to the customer.

This introduction to the special issue on crowdfunding begins by providing some information about the history and nature of the phenomenon. It then summarizes some of the key advantages and disadvantages of crowdfunding for entrepreneurs and for investors, introducing the various articles in the issue that explore these topics in greater depth. It concludes with some speculations regarding the possible future of the industry and its effects on entrepreneurship, innovation, and inequality.

The expansion of crowdfunding raises two related questions: what type of platform suits each project and how should existing platforms expand? The answer lies in analyzing the field of crowdfunding as a solution to four specific problems: gatekeeping, coordination, inexperience, and patronage. Using an inductive analysis of the largest U.S. sites, this article identifies the range of problems crowdfunding addresses and their performance to date. Crowdfunding succeeds in raising money within and across networks, but efforts to use crowdfunding to educate or to generate recurring revenue are less successful.