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A pharmacist/entrepreneur was investigating the feasibility of opening a GuardMedics Pharmacy franchise in a large urban centre. She spoke to several friends and confidants currently in the industry in an attempt to collect enough data to project cash flows and financial statements for the venture.

The co-founder and CEO of StarTech.com is reviewing his firm’s strategic plan, including an aggressive target of $150 million in sales in three years. To achieve this goal, the company needs to leverage its knowledge to develop a meaningful presence in Europe. The challenge is to identify the best way to go to market, given country and regional differences in how people buy computer parts. The company can capitalize on several favourable trends: the economic weakness in Europe, which prompts consumers to extend the life of their electronic equipment; the lack of a European direct competitor; and the company’s ability to self-finance the venture.

It was the spring of 2010 and Cindy Padnos had just been named to Fast Company's list of "The Most Influential Women in Technology in 2010." Cindy had worked in the venture capital (VC) space for over a decade, launching her own firm, Illuminate Ventures, in 2009 with a focus on early-stage companies in the enterprise cloud computing space. Cindy's portfolio of personal investments was performing well, and if she could perform as well for Illuminate, the future would be bright. Regardless, before she got to make any investments on behalf of Illuminate Ventures I, she would need to raise capital for her fund in one of the most challenging economic times in recent history. While acknowledgements by media outlets like Fast Company never hurt, such accolades were not enough to secure the $35 million that was her target. As she looked back over her professional experiences in the corporate world and ahead to the hundreds of investor meetings that lay before her, Cindy reflected that this was perhaps one of the most difficult, but most rewarding, challenges she had ever undertaken.

The significant growth of offshore analytics business process organizations over the last decade has raised important issues for the management of corporations seeking to take advantage of the opportunities that such organizations offer. Retaining an offshore analytics business process organization appears to offer a convenient path to advanced analytics, but management needs to understand that the benefits of "offshoring" analytics come with costs and should think carefully about the components of analytics that can and should be outsourced and how this process is managed.

The founder of a water purification, packaging and distribution company in Ghana, Africa, faced some operational issues. Demand has increased for the company’s water sachets, but the founder needed to develop strategies to increase the firm’s current operational capacities to meet this demand. He and the operations manager needed to determine how the company can position itself as a successful high-growth company in a developing and sometimes uncertain Ghanaian economy.

The significant growth of offshore analytics business process organizations over the last decade has raised important issues for the management of corporations seeking to take advantage of the opportunities that such organizations offer. Retaining an offshore analytics business process organization appears to offer a convenient path to advanced analytics, but management needs to understand that the benefits of “offshoring” analytics come with costs and should think carefully about the components of analytics that can and should be outsourced and how this process is managed.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Indian Management Issues and Opportunities Award, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>The Embrace case series provides an engaging context to understand social innovation, by taking students through a sequence of critical decisions from opportunity analysis and market feasibility study to formulating a competitive strategy and developing business models for growth. The focus of the case is on an innovative idea to solve the problem of a high number of fatalities in premature births in rural India, and the potential for an affordable product. <br><br><br><br>The case is structured as a four-part series:<ul><li><br>Part A: Opportunity Identification. The setting is an MBA classroom where five teams have been given five ideas and the students are asked to match each idea to each team. The focus is on how to identify and evaluate an appropriate opportunity given a unique entrepreneurial team, its composition, and its prior experience. Often, entrepreneurs discount the critical role that team-task fit plays in subsequent success.</li><li><br>Part B: Market Feasibility Analysis (9B13M005). The social problem associated with neonatal care in rural India is presented and the economics of providing reasonable care for premature babies is discussed. Is it possible to find an affordable and profitable price point, and make the project sustainable?</li><li><br>Part C: Competitive Strategy (9B13M006). The students are taken through an external analysis of the potential competition. This calls for a close analysis of what the competitive advantage of the venture is and whether it is sustainable. It forces the students to consider other available neonatal care options in the market, as well as to think about the IP issues they could face.</li><li><br>Part D: Building the Business Model (9B13M007). The team must decide between manufacturing the product in-house or outsourcing to vendors. Also, issues of distribution and sales require consideration.</li></ul>

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Indian Management Issues and Opportunities Award, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>Part B of a four-part series, which also includes 9B13M004, 9B13M006 and 9B13M007.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Indian Management Issues and Opportunities Award, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>Part C of a four-part series, which also includes 9B13M004, 9B13M005 and 9B13M007.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Indian Management Issues and Opportunities Award, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>Part D of a four-part series, which also includes 9B13M004, 9B13M005 and 9B13M006.

This three-part case highlights the strategic decision-making and growth management challenges in the suddenly liberalized Kenyan dairy industry. Following the 1999 collapse of the nation-wide distribution system on which small-scale dairy farmers in Kenya relied to reach the market, the resulting gap in the value chain between supply and demand created an opportunity for one entrepreneur. Cool Pastures Dairy was later founded in 1999 and rapidly expanded in an atmosphere of not only little competition but also corruption and lack of infrastructure, especially poor roads, limited banking, and almost non-existent cell phone accessibility. Although the company considered various alternatives to expanding, the business was overcome by problems with inefficient or corrupt retailers and accountants, as well as the owner’s lack of business experience, and went bankrupt. When conditions improved as the government invested in infrastructure, the entrepreneur considered restarting his business. Is this a viable enterprise in light of improved conditions? Which expansion alternative should the resuscitated company pursue? The B case 9B13M045 discusses managing corruption and the C case 9B13M046 re-considers the business model.

Part B of a three-part series. See 9B13M044 and 9B13M046.

Part C of a three-part series. See 9B13M044 and 9B13M045.

The co-founder of a Kenyan microfinance institution was troubled. Although his company had experienced great success in the past three years, it faced cash flow problems in June 2012. The co-founder had exhausted his personal resources and seeks an investor, local or international banks, or a process improvement program to ensure the company’s long-term success. The co-founder needed to evaluate his options and propose a solution to the other board members.

The Brooklyn Warehouse, a popular restaurant in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is cramped for space because of its popularity within its neighbourhood and as a tourist destination in the city. The restaurant is a private company with two shareholders, one of whom is not involved in operations. Because of the economic downturn, the risky nature of the business and the fact that it has been open only four years, the owners are having trouble securing financing for their expansion plans from their bank and other conventional lenders. However, while negotiating a renewal of their lease in late 2011, their landlord offered to pay for half the cost of building a patio to increase the size of the restaurant. To raise the other half, the owners turn to crowdfunding as a method of raising capital through social media by tapping into their community of friends, family and loyal customers. In return for their donation, which may vary from $100 to $2,500, sponsors are offered various packages, including free meals, a company T-shirt and their name listed on a wall of honour. However, little is known about the appropriate accounting or tax treatment for money raised in this manner. The owners had heard horror stories about businesses that used innovative ideas to raise funds only to have fines and penalties levied by government agencies for income tax and sales tax or even by the Securities Commission for improper accounting. The owners turn to their accountant for advice.

This case lends itself to courses covering the topic of rapid expansion of an enterprise. By 2012, Rick Berry, the founder and CEO of Demandforce (DF), and his team had built a company with annual revenue of approximately $70 million. DF provided small businesses with software tools used by more than 23,000 individual businesses and 50,000 business users to communicate with their customers. DF's business model was software as a service (SaaS) for a monthly fee. The company's value creation for its clients was evidenced by a high client renewal rate of 88%. But after DF was acquired by Intuit in April 2012, Berry knew that the game had changed dramatically. He was now confronted with a new challenge-one he had never faced: building a big company. He had to take his business and grow it into one with $750 million of revenue as quickly as possible.

In early 2009, following the collapse of the housing market, Doug Brien and Colin Wiel began buying single family homes (SFH) to renovate and rent. SFH rental had previously been a mom-and-pop business due to scaling difficulties-buying and managing large properties such as apartment complexes was well suited to institutional investors, but no one had solved the problem of buying and managing large numbers of relatively inexpensive SFHs. Brien and Wiel raised a series of funds from high-net-worth individuals, and the success of their company, Waypoint Homes, eventually attracted institutional investors as well as competition from large private equity firms. The case discusses Waypoint's growth to the end of 2012, at which point it owned more than 3,000 homes. The case also describes the changing economic and competitive environment, and asks about how the company can adapt to these changes going forward.

A budding entrepreneur wants to start a mobile software company by developing a golf scoring and playing app called Golfgamez. He has assembled some raw data related to market size, as well as start-up and development costs, but is unsure how to proceed. He must evaluate the revenue and cost estimates for this business idea and prioritize the issues he faces. He must also consider the costs and benefits of available funding options, such as debt, equity or accelerator funding; crowdfunding; government grants; or sweat equity funding. Should he quit his successful career in banking to pursue his dream, should he try to do this part time and risk failure or should he give up altogether? Golfgamex (B): Funding a Digital Startup, 9B13M011, is the supplement to this case.

Supplement for W13133

This case reviews the two-generation history of the Brazilian media company, RBS, and examines how the second generation family CEO manages through a crisis facing the company.