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MuMate, a fictional cult beverage company, requires capital to fund national expansion. Its cofounders, who have bootstrapped to this point, are now negotiating with venture capital firms to raise a $3 million funding round. The case describes MuMate's inception, early history, business model, and factors that have fueled its rapid recent growth. As the case ends, the cofounders are debating whether to raise funds from VCs, angels, or asset-based lenders. The cofounders share their concerns about valuation and whether investors will seek to change the company's strategy and organizational culture.

In 2010, a recent business graduate tries to resolve a constant bottleneck in the printing department of the family business. The two-part case discusses the issues of identifying the need for relevant information and then discusses the staff’s resistance to change and how these objections were handled and overcome. <br><br>This pair of cases seeks to identify the pressures faced by small businesses, along with the task of managing the various stakeholders, including the father-owner and the personnel on the factory shop floor.

This is a supplement to product no. 9B12E014.

Supplement for case 813122

Hillary Mallow, founder-CEO of ProLab, learns that her health-services company is two months shy of bankruptcy. She needs to act - immediately - but isn't sure where to begin. Prolab's client list and geographic presence have grown steadily over the years, so the recent downturn is quite unexpected. Most worrisome, ProLab's executive team is in major trouble; contentiousness has developed between Hillary's husband, ProLab's CFO, and Hillary's business partner, ProLab's COO, which now threatens to envelop everyone else. With her company at stake and personal relationships on the line, Hillary must scramble to resolve the complicated mess that could mean the end of her company, or worse.

Course Overview and Syllabus for RSME. This note outlines the learning objectives, course goals, module structure and class details along with the cases, dates and supplemental readings for the Running Small and Medium Size Enterprises (RSME), Winter Term 2013 course.

Course overview of The Entrepreneurial Manager.

The Tragedy of the Commons refers to the depletion of a shared resource by individuals acting independently and rationally, according to self-interest, despite knowing that an abuse of the common resource is contrary to their long-term interests. The Tragedy is a model of many of society’s resource-based problems, including over-irrigation, habitat destruction, over-fishing, traffic congestion, and air pollution. The Free Rider problem refers to when an individual benefits from another’s work without paying for it. The two practical ways to overcome this problem are through compulsory participation (e.g. carbon tax, cap-and-trade) and through linking the public good to a desirable private good (getting people to pay voluntarily). Both methods are controversial and politicized. <br><br> Social entrepreneurs have attempted to solve the Free Rider problem, including Verdant Power, a developer in the design and application of marine renewable energy. The obstacles it faces are the same as those that stymie most social entrepreneurs. The firm lacks revenue streams and profits, is at the mercy of private equity investors and/or the government, and must counter existing bureaucratic and regulatory impediments. The good news, however, is that institutional support for social entrepreneurs has grown enormously into a support ecosystem. Ultimately, the problem for social entrepreneurs may not be opportunity recognition as much as obstacle recognition and finding solutions within this burgeoning ecosystem.

The CEO of Destimoney, a Mumbai-based financial services firm, describes his company’s journey to success. After joining the equity brokerage services firm in 2011, he explored ways to make the business more viable and sustainable. Capital markets were in a downturn, retail investors were deserting, and global markets were near crisis — outside-the-box thinking was needed to survive. Costs had to be kept under control and the business needed growth. A focus on high net worth individuals and traders was decided on. Destimoney created a franchise network, which was more suited to a nation with many languages than setting up branches across the country. On the product side, the firm focused on bringing out options strategies based on the risk appetites of clients and market conditions, and might have been the first company in India to do so in a big way. The firm spotted an uptrend in commodity markets, acquired commodity brokerage licenses, and built a flourishing commodity brokerage business. Destimoney grew exponentially in 2011, despite the year being among the worst for Indian financial markets. It then developed an outsourcing model for non-core activities and diversified into third-party products like life insurance, focusing on the tier 2, 3, and 4 cities, where penetration was especially low. The firm also launched a small wealth management business in seven leading cities across country. As the article shows, penetration of financial services in India is very low, and business models that cater to the needs of the masses carry the potential for success.

Like Apple did, Makerbot Industries offered its first product in the form of a kit. Enthusiasts, who wanted to build their own 3D printer and enter the brave new world of personal manufacturing could create any object in their imagination-as long as it was no bigger than a coffee cup. The founders of Makerbot--Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer and Zach Smith--were each passionate to bring affordable 3D printing to the masses. Moreover, they would not betray their commitment to open technology and open innovation. Above all else, they wanted to make their 3D printers understandable to and modifiable by users. They did this by keeping every aspect of their 3D printers' hardware and software open and adaptable. Through the creation of Thingaverse.com (a universe of things), an expanding army of Makerbot enthusiasts could upload, share and modify a growing array of 3D objects including toys, small inventions, medical devices and even architectural models. What advantages did Makerbot's strategy of openness bestow? How was Makerbot positioned for future battles in the emerging personal manufacturing industry with Hewlett-Packard and others? Lastly, how did Makerbot turn a unique research endeavor into a powerful idea attracting venture funds from Jeff Bezos, The New York Times and venture capitalists?

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Results from the fourth year of MIT Sloan Management Review's research collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group have found that managers who say sustainability has caused their organization to change its business model are also more likely to say that the organization's sustainability activities have added to profits. Respondents to the survey who not only changed their business model because of sustainability but also generated profits from their sustainability-related activities and decisions -"Sustainability-Driven Innovators"-represented 23% of the survey pool. The survey results suggest that business model change, top management support, collaboration with customers and having a business case are associated with creating economic value from sustainability activities and decisions. Ninety percent of all managers who said their companies have all these characteristics also say that their sustainability activities add to their profits. The authors'research suggests several ways in which companies can become more effective at connecting business model change with sustainability-based profits. Based on the behavior of Sustainability-Driven Innovators, they make three recommendations for how managers can improve their odds of profiting from their sustainability activities. First is to be prepared to change the business model, which may involve extensive corporate change, require significant top management attention and entail setting multiyear goals. Second is to learn how your customers think about sustainability and understand what they are willing to pay for in connection with sustainable products or services. The final recommendation involves increasing collaboration both internally and externally with customers, businesses and groups beyond the boundaries of the organization to improve operations and competitive advantage.

Course Overview and Syllabus in the Fall Term 2012 for the Entrepreneurial Management in a Turnaround Environment (EMTE) course.

The case is set in July 2010. André Glardon, who is the regional sales director of a major health care products provider for the Levante and the Balearic Islands regions, returns from an unpleasant customer visit. The head of administration to the Hospital de Gandía, one of his important customers, just delayed the order of two MRIs, making it almost impossible for André to reach his personal annual sales targets. External factors such as the health care reforms, the exploding costs of the health care system, a shift in the buying behavior of hospitals and increased economic pressures on hospitals, might be causing a fundamental shift in the industry. Although this might raise serious questions regarding the existing business models of established industry players i.e. the major producers of medical equipment, radiology centers and hospitals, it might also offer likeminded sales directors, the chance to benefit from these developments. How though? Through the implementation of new business models that address these issues. André and two friends developed a business idea and were wondering whether they should push this idea within their company or leave their company and launch the business on their own.

The Roaring Dragon Hotel (RDH), a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE), was under pressure to become a profit generating 5-star hotel due to the continued development of the Chinese market economy. As for many SOEs, the RDH was overstaffed, filled with archaic work practices, internal cliques, unsystematic production systems and a dysfunctional motivation system unrelated to performance. During modernization, a number of human resource management problems became increasingly evident; solving these problems had become a priority. In 2000, the RDH’s provincial government and stakeholders made their first attempt at modernizing the hotel by hiring a globally renowned company to undertake the upgrade. The disastrous outcome caused the provincial government and stakeholders to lose heart, momentum and motivation until six years later. A new joint venture owner and the RDH board recovered enough confidence to attempt modernization for a second time. They contracted Premium Hotel Services (PHS) to undertake the second attempt at improving operations. The PHS found the quality of older employees, increasing turnover of new staff and policies emerging from the continuing evolution of the Chinese economy were now presenting problems never confronted before at the RDH. How could the stakeholders solve these problems and have the RDH emerge as an internationally recognized five star, commercially viable hotel?

Partners in Nunavut Iron Ore Acquisition Inc. (Nunavut), an entity that had been set up to bid for control of Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation (Baffinland), are forced to respond to a rival bid. Baffinland owned the Mary River project, one of the most significant iron ore reserves in Canada, and had been trying to develop the project since 2004, but the number of prospective mining and financing partners declined following the onset of the global financial crisis in 2007. Baffinland’s share price tumbled as a result of its inability to move the project forward, falling from over $4.68 in October 2007 to $0.17 cents in 2008. In September 2010, sensing an opportunity to pick up an asset at a distressed price, Nunavut, backed by a private equity firm in the United States, had sparked a bidding war for Baffinland against ArcelorMittal, a Belgium-based steel company.

Peninsula Investment Group is deciding wether or not to recapitalize an equity investment in a Residencial Los Andes, a residential project in Santiago, Chile, or take a substantial loss. The project did not met its sales goals and the bank pressured the investors to liquidate the construction loan. Early on, Peninsula had identified Chile a target market, however, in investing in Residencial Los Andes, it had made several exceptions to it's investment strategy. The case addresses what went wrong in the evolution of the project, what measures need to be taken if Peninsula did increase it's capital committment.

The young CEO of a venture-backed startup needs to figure out his go to market strategy and the right profile for his first key sales hires. Should he develop partnerships with channels that would provide leverage or build out a direct sales force? And should the sales team be led by an experienced senior sales executive or a scrappy, mid-level sales manager?

How do you convince American parents living in the Midwest to hire tutors from India? How do you convince them to hire a tutor that they and their children will never meet in person? Can you build a personal connection between students and tutors when they are separated by thousands of miles and come from vastly different cultures? These are questions that faced Krishnan Ganesh as he began thinking about remote tutoring. A year later he founded TutorVista, an internet-based remote tutoring services company. So far, the remote tutoring firm seems to have the right answers to all of the questions above.