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In May 2008, the president of Montreal-based retailer of designer furniture store, Mobilia, was reviewing her workload. Mobilia's growth had required she to spend increasing amounts of her time in operations, finance and human resources and significantly less time on sourcing and purchasing. With a doubling of her direct reports in recent years, and recognizing that external hires would soon be necessary to support Mobilia's growth, she wondered if the organization might be best served by hiring an operations manager. A successful operations manager would need to be experienced, flexible and demonstrate a willingness to work in a family-owned enterprise; however, she also was cognizant of the costs to be incurred if the initiative stalled. She wondered what factors to consider when deciding whether outside help was needed or whether efficiencies could still be reached with her current team in place.

This is a supplement to Stitch It (A), product number 9B09M022. The Stitch It Group (Stitch It) is a mall-based clothing alteration service. Having previously sold Stitch It to its current owners in 1990 (retaining the chief executive officer (CEO) position), the founder and CEO was presented with an opportunity in 2003 to repurchase the company. Having originally sold the business because he was too cash-strapped to grow it himself, Stitch It had since grown from three store locations to 84 stores under three brand names spread throughout Canada and the United States. In determining whether to buy back the firm he founded, the founder and CEO also needed to consider his daughter Jennifer's expressed interest in becoming an executive in the firm. How would he provide Jennifer with the proper technical training to become familiar with all aspects of the firm's business, and improve her business acumen and leadership skills? The founder and CEO had one week to inform the owners of his intent to purchase and he felt it was a good deal, considering the opportunity for growth. Even if the founder and CEO resolved to buy back his company, he wondered how to train Jennifer to take over the business one day.

On 11 September 2001, Edwin Lee, a young investment banker from Hong Kong, survived the World Trade Centre attacks in New York City. His office in lower Manhattan, however, and his prestigious job with Credit Suisse were lost as a result of the tragedy. Jobless, Lee decided to take a chance and use his personal savings to start HKBI, Hong Kong's first business brokerage. In the six years that followed, the business went through different stages ultimately establishing itself as Hong Kong's prime business brokerage for small enterprises with a 61% market share and revenues exceeding HK$68m. For 2008, Lee expected revenues to exceed HK$84m. To reach this target he had launched a number of new initiatives including a deal with a local bank to provide prospective buyers with financing. Would Lee be able to grow HKBI at the desired rate?

In 2010 Glenn Dubin reflected upon the enduring organization and culture he and co-founder Henry Swieca had infused into Highbridge Capital Management over the course of almost two decades. Since the firm's launch in 1992, New York-based Highbridge had grown to become a diversified investment platform comprising hedge funds, traditional asset management products, and credit and equity investments with longer-term holding periods. The company employed more than 315 people at offices in New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and managed $21 billion for prominent institutional investors, public and corporate pension funds, endowments, foundations and family offices. Highbridge was known by many on Wall Street as a "benchmark," largely due to the firm's investment performance and to the diversity and dynamism of the organization. Investors had come to rely on Highbridge's consistent returns and attention to risk management. The firm comprised a group of gifted, committed professionals as a result of Dubin's longtime focus on talent, nurturing a culture of collaboration, building a sophisticated risk management and technology platform, and maintaining a robust operating infrastructure. In 2009, J.P. Morgan completed its purchase of Highbridge-a strategic partnership the two organizations began in 2004 when J.P. Morgan Asset Management purchased a majority interest in the firm. In 2010, Dubin described his desired impact on the increasingly complex and sophisticated organization: "I hope that my legacy will be a bigger and more diversified Highbridge-but one that has the same culture and core principles of excellence, staffed with individuals with high integrity and an interest in successful collaboration. This is the only way I know to ensure that our initial goal of creating an organization that can outlive its founders will be achieved."

The regulations in the home care industry are changing. The industry is moving toward consolidation and favouring large companies. Closing the Gap, a small home care provider in Ontario, reaches a crossroad. The company has three strategic options to choose from: (1) sell the company, (2) buy another company, or (3) grow organically. Given these conditions, students will be asked to conduct an industry analysis and help the chief executive officer (CEO) of Closing the Gap make the appropriate decision. In the (B) case, students will be asked to evaluate an acquisition possibility and advise the CEO whether the acquisition will be a successful one or not.

This is a supplement to Closing the Gap - The Changing Home Care Environment (A) case, product #9B10M051. The regulations in the home care industry are changing. The industry is moving toward consolidation and favouring large companies. Closing the Gap reaches a crossroad. In this (B) case, students will be asked to evaluate an acquisition possibility and advise the chief executive officer whether the acquisition will be a successful one or not.

The citizen sector, composed of millions of groups worldwide that are attempting to address critical social needs, has long been regarded as understaffed and inefficient. But it has grown and matured over the past three decades, say the authors, both of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. Citizen sector organizations (CSOs) are attracting talented and creative leaders, and their work is changing the game in critical industries such as energy and health care. For-profit companies now have an opportunity to collaborate with CSOs to create new markets for reaching the four billion people who are not yet part of the world's formal economy. The power of such collaborations lies in the complementary strengths of the partners: Business offers scale, expertise in manufacturing and operations, and financing. Social entrepreneurs offer lower costs, strong social networks, and deep insights into potential customers and communities. The authors call this framework the hybrid value chain. In one example, Colceramica, a Colombian manufacturer of kitchen and bathroom tile, collaborated with the human-rights organization Kairos, which recruited and managed a sales force of previously unemployed women, to reach a low-income market. Within three years sales had grown to nearly $12 million; the living conditions of more than 28,000 families had been improved; and 179 saleswomen were each earning $230 a month.

Entrepreneurs can play a central role in finding solutions to the world's toughest social problems. The failure rate for start-ups, however, is high. And new ventures in emerging economies face such challenges as uncertain prices and costs, nonexistent or unreliable infrastructure, and unpredictable competitive responses. The authors offer guidelines for launching successful businesses in uncertain markets. One of those guidelines, discovery-driven planning (a well-known process developed by MacMillan and Rita Gunther McGrath), helps managers test their assumptions about preliminary business models and revise them on the basis of emerging data. The remainder were informed by the authors' efforts, with the Wharton Societal Wealth Program, to help launch socially beneficial ventures in Africa and the United States. Those guidelines include outlining the minimum number of people a venture should serve and the minimum level of profitability it should achieve; identifying important stakeholders; planning how to terminate the venture in an acceptable manner; and anticipating unintended consequences of the enterprise. The lessons aren't just for entrepreneurs. The management teams of multinationals, foundations, and NGOs can apply them to any challenging and highly uncertain business situation. In doing so, they can better control their costs, minimize the effects of surprises, and increase their impact on society.

The popular take on entrepreneurs in the developing world is that they are few in number and run only microbusinesses. But in a two-year study of entrepreneurship in emerging markets, Habiby and Coyle, of AllWorld Network, uncovered hundreds of high-potential ventures poised for significant growth. Many were in surprising markets like South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan-economies dominated by top-down government policy, large business groups, and social elites. The ventures AllWorld encountered were far from microenterprises. They included companies like Bayt.com, the leading job search site in the Middle East, which attracts 4.5 million job seekers; and Airblue, of Pakistan, the world's first totally paperless airline. They generate large numbers of jobs, create industries, and open new markets. When it comes to educational and employment backgrounds, the entrepreneurs running these companies look just like their Western counterparts. But notable differences do exist: The company builders that AllWorld identified in emerging markets launch 25% more businesses; they have higher success rates; and the vast majority are serial entrepreneurs. These ventures represent new channels for growth for multinationals and investors. For developing nations, they could be the path to progress and prosperity. To realize their potential, however, these firms need global customers, talent, and capital, and that means getting on the global radar screen.

Spreadsheet Supplement for KEL484.

As CEO of not-for-profit adoption agency The Cradle, Julie Tye had taken the organization from the brink of dissolution in 1992 to a position of financial stability and health by 2007. One of the innovative steps Tye took in 2002 was to introduce an online learning venture that provided education for families preparing to adopt. The Cradle launched Adoption Learning Partners (ALP), using donated funds and government grants when possible and subsidizing the rest. The income generated by ALP grew from zero in 2002 to approximately $50,000 per month in 2007. But ALP's major market (parents preparing to adopt internationally) was forecasted to decline 50% over the next three years; the Web site was outdated; and new competitors were entering the market. ALP had built a reputation as a pioneer in adoption e-learning by providing high-quality, effective online courses. But without the infusion of at least $400,000, ALP risked losing its leadership position and, possibly, its viability. ALP needed a significant investment of time, talent, and funding. Tye had an MBA, a keen business sense, and fourteen years of experience in healthcare administration and the social services field. Even with her leadership, did The Cradle have the appetite to take on such a demanding strategy? In the end, would it be worth the investment?

The scientific consensus on climate change's origins in human activities has begun to influence international law and corporate policies. Suitable for MBA and undergraduate students, this technical note is a compilation that replaces a three-part series of the same name (UVA-ENT-0036, -0037, and -0038)International concern over global climate change began in the late 20th century, when scientists saw a correlation among increasing atmospheric concentrations of certain gases, human activities emitting those gases, and an unusual increase in global ambient temperature readings. The scientific community was joined by international policy makers who had grown concerned about reports of climate change impacts ranging from melting polar icecaps to regional flooding, drought, and extreme-weather events. While a small number of scientists disagree, most researchers suggest that prudence requires action to reduce human contributions to atmospheric pollutants that cause the greenhouse effect.

One day during the summer of 2008, Paul Maeder, co-founder and general partner of Highland Capital Partners (HCP), was walking with his wife around Reykjavik, Iceland, marveling at how clean the city felt and at the widespread use of naturally occurring geothermal energy to power everything from trams to buildings. "They don't treat their air and water like an open sewer," Maeder thought. "This is the way people need to live and this is the way people are going to have to start living in 10 or 20 years." To his wife, Maeder said aloud: "I think Highland should revisit the idea of investing in cleantech."

Explores the challenges of female entrepreneurship in Afghanistan through the case of Kemeli Sediqi, who built a business under the Taliban, and founded a consultancy in 2004. The case positions Sediqi's experiences against the background of Afghanistan's turbulent history, with a focus on the contested role of women in Afghani society.

A married couple who have a successful industrial B2B business evaluate whether or not to sell the business to two of their offspring, who are both entrepreneurial MBA graduates. Complicating factors include the fact that the sale price and structure need to finance the couple's retirement and give fair inheritance treatment to the remaining siblings. In addition, the father has had some health issues and the business is doing well, so there is a lot of forward momentum to sell to the next generation.

Lindsay Ronga and Gary Vaynerchuk are launching Cork'd, an online social network for wine lovers. Despite Gary's status as a celebrity wine connoisseur, the team faces a significant challenge: several other wine social networks are well established and already have large user bases. How can Cork'd gain traction in this crowded space?

Starting from a humble beginning of being a manufacturer of down feather products owned by Shunde Township, Galanz Enterprises Group Co. Ltd. (Galanz) had transformed itself into a world class manufacturer of microwave ovens producing about 50 per cent of the global output in 2003. This case describes the competitive and operational strategies that Galanz used to achieve such a meteoric growth. The company started out with a clear competitive strategy based on cost leadership. It designed and implemented operations system to help achieve lower cost through economy of scale, the transfer of production capacity from developed countries and full utilization of the available production capacity.

In January 2008, the manager of Sarajevo Graduate School of Business (SGSB) was looking ahead to a set of meetings that would mean a new beginning or the end for the fledgling business school he had managed over the past couple years. SGSB provided U.S.-style MBA education in English in Sarajevo, Bosnia and served an ethnically diverse student population of young managers from across Bosnia and six other countries. These meetings would, he hoped, bring two new partner organizations into the school's leadership. He was contemplating the analyses he would need to prepare for the meetings.

A technical consultant is travelling to New York Bakery, an eastern U.S. confectionery company that is under bankruptcy protection. The consultant's task is to assess New York Bakery's readiness for the installation of a new payroll system, which will help it move through the bankruptcy process. By his first week on the job, the consultant realizes that his task is greater than he imagined. In trying to help the organization prepare for the changeover, he faces a series of tough decisions that require his immediate attention. The objective of this case series is to expose students to leadership dilemmas that have to be decided upon in real-time. Collectively, the series of choices the consultant has to make will determine whether or not the project stays on track or is derailed. The series consists of cases A to J, product numbers 9B10C023A to 9B10C023J.