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The case considers the dilemma faced by the second generation managing director of Ujwal Bharati Pharmaceuticals, a mid-size business in India. Among other issues related to corporate and family governance, he has to decide whether to retain his non-family CEO or not.This case was written in the context of the major efforts made by mid-size Indian family businesses in recent years to professionalize their operations. While the director appreciates the need to professionalize and successfully recruit non-family professionals, he is not able to retain them. The director's major dilemma is not only to delegate but to simultaneously find a way of making use of his time. Indirect opposition to changes from the old guard causes problems and the board, consisting of professionals, is ineffective. The director's elder brother, without any male heir, is non-interfering and the director's only son is not ready for the position.The case is best suited for a session on professionalization of management of a growing company but is also appropriate for courses such as family businesses, organizational behaviour, strategy implementation and entrepreneurship.

The literature on change and transformation mostly focuses on for-profit organizations, even though not-for-profit organizations offer a richer context for study, and social entrepreneurs are most often at the forefront of large-scale change. The case is an attempt to examine the evolution of a development organization. It centres on a medical professional and his thirty-year struggle in ushering in social transformation in the BR Hills of Southern India, working for tribal and forest development based on a foundation of ethics, self-organization and the assertion of human and individual rights. In 1994, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) for his efforts.<br><br>This case can teach the evolution of a) a social entrepreneur into a leader; b) an amorphous service entity into an institution with a network of organizations and c) a low-profile, undemanding clientele with no voice to a demanding clientele expecting choices and rights. The case can also be used to explore the growth of a social enterprise (in terms of objectives, service delivery, roles, scale, etc.); concepts of change and social transformation; and the organizational life cycle and evolution of systems over the cycle. The case highlights the path civic service organizations (CSOs) and social actors tread over time in undertaking to provide public service.

"A European multi-family office is weighing whether and how to invest in Asian private equity. Part A moves from a discussion of the historical and current state of Asian private equity to the outlook and risks associated with such an investment. It also starts a discussion of returns on Asian private equity and whether they adequately compensate for the risks identified earlier. Part B deals with implementation questions on how to execute an investment strategy in this market from an asset manager perspective. It follows up on the returns discussion from Part A, focussing on the top performing funds and how to identify and access them. "

The case discusses the entrepreneurial paths taken by two men, a father and son team, who created a highly successful business venture in regional marine offshore industry in the first decade of the 21st century. The factors that contributed to venture's rapid growth are examined as well as the challenges they faced in taking their company, Ezra Holdings, to the next level of fast growth. Started in 1992, the entrepreneurs leveraged on their knowledge of the regional oil and gas (O&G) and marine engineering businesses to grow the firm into a global offshore support services company with market capitalisation of US$1.2 billion by the end of January 2010. The firm began as a small company managing and operating supply vessels supporting offshore O&G activities in the region. From managing small vessels, they moved on to build the essential capabilities needed to operate efficient offshore support services for O&G exploration and production projects of major global firms. To drive growth, they embarked on a series of asset acquisitions and joint ventures with other players. In a highly capital-intensive business, they were successful in prospecting for funds needed to secure the operating assets of their business. As they moved up the value chain in their segment of the industry, they also kept a lookout for industry veterans or specialists and technical staff from acquired companies to build their human resource pool. Ezra's decade of rapid growth is examined from several perspectives: • Entrepreneurship as the dynamic process of structure and action. • Capability building as an essential condition for new venture success as reflected in Ezra's resource acquisition strategies for funds, human capital and technical knowhow.

Spreadsheet supplement for NA0068.

The board of Babbitt Ranches had officially adopted a constitution to guide the future of the family business. Babbitt Ranches was a fourth-generation, 122 year old family firm with extensive landholdings in Arizona. The firm's board recognized responsibility and obligation to organizational, ecological, economical, and community values through multiple bottom-line criteria in the new constitution. In addition, the constitution reinforced the family's heritage by outlining a philosophy designed to direct processes, interactions, and critical decisions. Several business opportunities were being considered by the board that could be evaluated using the framework provided by the constitution. The challenge for Billy Cordasco, the firm's president, was to operationalize the constitution to evaluate the current set of opportunities and to ensure the constitution was used as a "touchstone" for firm decisions on an ongoing basis.

This case describes the nineteenth century founding by Werner Siemens of the Siemens electrical business in Germany. Werner's dual role as inventor and entrepreneur is explored as he created one of the world's first multinational enterprises, whose growth initially rested on its pioneering role in the new telegraph industry. Werner sent his brothers to open businesses in Great Britain and Russia, and the case explores the advantages and disadvantages of family business as a form of organization, as well as the challenges growing it poses for such family firms.

The case focuses on the US Dept. of Energy and the $38 billion dollars of stimulus funding the DOE received to encourage clean tech. They focus on "bridging the valley of death" i.e., helping young, innovative companies finance technically risky and very capital intensive development and commercialization programs. The case focuses on two DOE programs in particular, the Loan Guarantee Program and ARPA-E. The case raises the question of why these valleys of death exist, what can be done to deal with them, and how these DOE programs are designed and implemented.

This case tells the story of successful corporate entrepreneurship bringing sustainable value innovation to agribusiness. It recounts the history of EADS-Astrium, subsidiary Infoterra and the development of a new product-service called Farmstar to help farmers reduce costs and increase yields. The case describes the creation of uncontested market space through the successful development of an innovative product that increases private benefits (profits) on adoption. Farmstar also generates public benefits (lowers pollution) by reducing the negative externalities of intensive agriculture. The process of simultaneously increasing public and private benefits through productivity increase and cost reduction is known as sustainable value innovation (SVI).

The market for electricity on the Fox Islands of North Haven and Vinalhaven, Maine is unique and costly for residents. Historically, electricity prices on the islands had been three times the national average because of the high cost of importing electricity via an underwater cable and maintaining the distribution network on the islands. George Baker, a professor at Harvard Business School, decided to lower the energy costs of the island's residents with wind power.

This note provides an overview of the rationale and the challenges associated with building new businesses within established companies. It provides a framework for understanding why corporations pursue entrepreneurial ventures and the various levers that they employ. The note offers a comparison of the various approaches, with examples, and their pros and cons.

When Jonathan Bush and his partner, Todd Park, realized that their revolutionary approach to delivering clinical care was being stymied by the inefficiencies in the healthcare system and insurance red tape, they turned their proprietary technology, athenaNet, to a new business, athenaHealth, that would help physicians manage their practice, billing and revenue cycles and maintain electronic patient records more efficiently and cost effectively using the service delivered via the Internet. Despite the success of his innovative venture, Bush faced several challenges: the company's brand awareness among physicians was still low; the company had launched a new product, athenaClinicals, while its core flagship product, athenaCollector, was still growing -- and was planning a pricing innovation, athenaCommunity, over and above that. The HITECH Act passed by the Obama administration was giving a boost to the entire industry, including athenaHealth's much larger competitors, which heightened Bush's strategic dilemma: should he focus on the core and capture greater share and enhance brand awareness or should he branch out into new innovative directions?

Dr. Cameron Powell and his partner, Trey Moore, co-founders of the innovative company, AirStrip Technologies, have developed a series of apps for the iPhone and other smartphones that can help doctors monitor the vital signs of their patients anytime, anywhere. They have presented their technology at one of the highest profile tech conferences and now face a choice of focusing on the first -- and only FDA approved -- product targeted at obstetricians and driving its penetration or following through on the promise of their presentation and spreading their resources to build out the entire platform aimed at multiple specialties. As one of the early pioneers in delivering medical applications over the iPhone, AirStrip Technologies must contend with a major dilemma: the fast-cycle tech world's expectations must inevitably collide with the more deliberate and slower pace of product development and approval that is typical in healthcare.

Atlantis Paradise Island adopted a new vision and mission to provide its guests and employees an enhanced brand experience. The dilemma Atlantis faced was how to integrate the new vision and mission into all the brand touch points in order to improve customer satisfaction and employee engagement.

In 2008, Blue Man Group's three co-founders are facing the prospect of losing not just a business but a way of life they have built together. The case follows the story of Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton as they pursue their creative passion, and build the Blue Man Group from street performers to a performance arts empire with a global brand. The story has a personal as well as professional dimension to it, including the launch of the Blue School, to provide their and other people's children with the kind of education they wish they'd had. The immediate challenge is to find a way to survive a major economic downturn. The case is complemented by a video (HBS. No. 810-704) with co-founder commentary, and extensive live footage of Blue Man performances and the Blue School.

The case describes the growth of Guggenheim Brothers as one of the largest mining companies in the world in the early twentieth century. Global expansion led the firm to Chile, first in copper and later in natural nitrates. Chile's economic growth was driven by the profits from mining, especially its world monopoly of nitrates. The Guggenheims invested in Chilean nitrates after synthetics were developed by German chemists. Their strategies to modernize the industry collapsed with the outbreak of the Great Depression, during which Chile experienced the greatest fall of incomes of any country. The case serves as a vehicle to explore the devastating economic and political impact of the Great Depression on the countries of the South, such as Chile, which had specialized in primary commodities, and on mining and financial capitalists such as the Guggenheims.

Set in November 2007, the case is about a soon-to-launch social networking website (Yumcha) in Australia intended for the country's significant Asian population and diaspora. The case describes the process that Yumcha's founder went through in establishing the entity, including her initial motivations and business rationale. The case goes on to describe the dilemma facing the founder in choosing a web developer for the site, including whether to source the developer from new online bidding platforms. The challenges involved in this relatively new means of sourcing and bidding for technical talent are presented. The case also outlines the strategy questions facing the founder concerning expanding the social networking venture in an external environment that has seen the rapid development and expansion of numerous other social networking websites.

Tennant, a leading producer of floor cleaning equipment, must determine the business model to use for its new chemical free cleaning technology. In 2005, Tennant Company had developed an innovative, environmentally friendly, cleaning technology that could potentially revolutionize cleaning. Historically, Tennant was a producer of floor and carpet washing machines for industrial and commercial markets. Over time, it became clear that the technology had applications far beyond Tennant's core markets. In mid-2009, the company set up a new venture to develop the technology's promise. In 2010 this venture was wholly owned by Tennant and run by a Tennant manager. The case examines the decisions the CEO and new venture head must make to best structure and position the venture to succeed.

The case is woven around the decision dilemma faced by the second generation managing director of Ujwal Bharati Pharmaceuticals, a mid-size business. He had to decide whether to retain his non-family CEO or not. There are other issues related to corporate and family governance covered in the case as well. This case was written in the context of the major efforts made by Indian family businesses in recent years to professionalize their operations. This is particularly so among mid-size businesses. In this case, while the director appreciates the need to professionalize and successfully recruit non-family professionals, he is not able to retain them. The director's major dilemma is not only to delegate but to simultaneously find a way of making use of his time. Indirect opposition to changes from the old guard causes problems and the board, consisting of professionals, is ineffective. The director's elder brother, without any male heir, is non-interfering and the director's only son is not well-groomed for the position. The case is best suited for a session on professionalization of management of a growing company but is also appropriate for courses such as family businesses, organizational behavior, strategy implementation and entrepreneurship.

Studies from around the globe consistently link entrepreneurship with rapid job creation, GDP growth, and long-term productivity increases. That's why the new holy grail for governments in both emerging and developed countries is to create an environment that nurtures and sustains entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, many governments take a misguided approach to building entrepreneurship ecosystems. They pursue some unattainable ideal and look to economies that are completely unlike theirs for best practices. However, today the most effective practices often come from remote corners of the earth, where resources-as well as legal frameworks, transparent governance, and democratic values-may be scarce. Drawing from lessons learned in such countries as Rwanda, Chile, Iceland, Israel, and Colombia, this article defines nine principles for building a successful entrepreneurship ecosystem: (1) Stop emulating Silicon Valley. (2) Shape the ecosystem around local conditions. (3) Engage the private sector early. (4) Favor the high potentials. (5) Get a big win on the board. (6) Tackle cultural change head-on. (7) Stress the roots. (8) Don't overengineer clusters; help them grow organically. (9) Reform legal, regulatory, and bureaucratic frameworks. Each of these is critical to entrepreneurship-yet insufficient to sustain it. They key is to integrate them all into one holistic system.