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Park Hyeon-Joo, the founder and Chairman of Korea's earliest and largest mutual fund company, plans to expand internationally. After first offering emerging market funds to his Korean customers, the company then began selling local-currency funds in India and Brazil. Now he has to decide his next steps. Should he build on his emerging market expertise and focus his business expansion in developing countries? If so, where should he concentrate his efforts -- India, Brazil, China, or other countries? Or should he instead focus on expanding into developed markets through operations in New York and London?

Creative Capital provides grants to individual artists using a venture capital model-the money comes with guidance and governance. Artists receive money as milestones are reached and also receive guidance on managing their lives and business to increase their sustainability. But as Ruby Lerner, CEO of Creative Capital, looks to the organization's next decade, how can she ensure the sustainability of this high-touch, uniquely individual model?

The three-case series is about how a medium-sized Taiwanese company approached competition with 3M in global markets. The series covers a 14-year period. The A case starts in 1994, when 3M decides to launch a lawsuit against companies (including Hopax) selling repositionable notes that compete with 3M's highly successful Post-It notes in the United States. How should Hopax respond? The B case explains that, unlike the other players, Hopax decides to fight in court. Staples, Hopax's largest customer in the United States, decides to cancel its contract. What should Hopax do now? The C case recounts the events that follow until 2008 and explains how the company applies principles of judo strategy to become the second largest supplier of repositionable notes in the world. The series allows students to explore options to smaller innovative companies as they try to compete in global markets with large, resource-rich, players who do not hesitate to use courts to try to eliminate their smaller competitors.

This supplement to Hopax (A), product number 9B10M004, explains that, unlike the other players, Hopax decides to fight in court after Staples, Hopax's largest customer in the United States, decides to cancel its contract.

This supplement to Hopax (A), product number 9B10M004, recounts the events that followed until 2008 and explains how the company applied principles of judo strategy to become the second largest supplier of repositionable notes in the world.

Twitter has become an incredibly popular micro-blogging service since its launch in 2006. Its founders have ambitious plans for the service, and are backed by hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital funding, which values the company at $3.7 billion in 2011. Twitter seems to attract a diverse audience of users, such as political organizers looking to disseminate information to their followers; businesses looking to reach out, in real time, to potential customers; and social users. The company charges consumers nothing for its service. By 2011, competitors have emerged, some of whom are financially strong. It remains unclear - at least to some observers - whether the company will ever make money from its service.

Examine the life journey of an HBS 2002 alum, in her own words, and her perspective on success.

Examine the life journey of an HBS 1969 alum, in his own words, and his perspective on success.

The case describes 2 individuals who have met and are in the process of starting a company together. Each is still at his/her former employer, and each has signed a different employment agreement that on paper may prohibit some contemplated acts - i.e., soliciting customers or employees. The case focuses on how individuals should think about leaving their employers in general and how these specific legal agreements may impact the situation in this case. In addition, the case includes issues around dealing with venture capitalists, non-disclosure agreements, as well as how to select and work with a lawyer.

This note offers a new approach to Venture Capital term-sheet negotiations, with actionable steps based on insights from Prof. Wasserman's "Rich-vs.-King" approach to founder decisions. A core thesis of this note is that trying to negotiate all terms in a term sheet will be less effective than focusing on the terms that are most important to the specific entrepreneur in question, taking into account the entrepreneur's goals and motivations in founding the venture. In particular, terms that are higher-priority to a control-motivated "King" founder are often lower-priority to a wealth-motivated "Rich" founder, and vice versa. Thus, this note identifies the most common terms that differ in their importance to different types of founders, and provides a framework for weighing the relative importance of each potential term sheet outcome for their specific type.

Twitter has become an incredibly popular micro-blogging service since its launch in 2006. Its founders have ambitious plans for the service, and are backed by $155 million of venture capital funding, which valued the company at $1 billion in 2009. Twitter seems to attract a diverse audience of users from political organizers looking to disseminate information to their followers; businesses looking to reach out, in real time, to potential customers; and for social networking purposes. The company charges consumers nothing for its service. By 2009, competitors have emerged - some of whom have deep pockets. Yet, it remains unclear - at least to observers - whether the company will ever make money from its service.

In early 2009 Andrew Sears, Executive Director of TechMission, a Christian social service nonprofit, faced a challenge known to many not-for-profit organizations, how to develop a sustainable organization, especially in an economic climate where charitable giving had declined. With limited resources and an expanding portfolio of programs, he had to balance three competing factors within TechMission: staying true to its Christian principles, sustaining its credibility in urban communities, and using technology as the driver for promoting social justice. Different initiatives presented different paths for potential growth. As well as determining the correct path, Sears knew that any path would require obtaining additional funding, potentially from secular organizations. The challenge was securing this funding in a tightening market and then allocating it to the initiatives that had the most potential. Additionally, it would be necessary to assure that all initiatives had the right programs, people and funding to move forward.

The case highlights Mike Gilliland, who built a single organic foods store in 1987 in Boulder, Colorado, into Wild Oats Markets, a chain of natural foods stores that by 2001 had annual sales of $1 billion and stores in 38 states. The case includes a history of the natural foods business and explores why Gilliland's timing was so favorable. By the 1980s, when Gilliland got started, the natural foods business had grown and matured, consisting mostly of small specialty stores selling locally grown natural foods. Although the industry was created by the California counter-culturists, it was built into a national phenomenon by the second generation of leaders, including Gilliland and Whole Foods founder John Mackey. The natural foods industry was clubby and congenial until Gilliland sought to grow his business beyond Boulder, Colorado, expanding into four states, including California. Mackey responded by moving into Boulder. Whole Foods became the nation's number one natural foods seller by the early 1990s. Whole Foods went public in 1992, and Wild Oats, in 1996. Whole Foods's success had begun to erode Wild Oats's market share, hurt sales growth, and depress the stock price. Gilliland favored taking Wild Oats in a new direction, modeled after Henry's Marketplace, a San Diego chain that Wild Oats had purchased in 2000. Henry's approach was to offer a product mix that appealed to a broader range of people than did the natural foods stores. Henry's competed effectively with Whole Foods because it had a different customer base; the stores were cheap to build if the company wanted to expand; and the company had showed sustained growth since its founding in 1943. But the Wild Oats board of directors disagreed, opting instead for continuing on the same path. The board also expressed an interest in replacing Gilliland. He now had to weigh his options and contemplate leaving the company he had nurtured for the past twenty years.

Iqbal Quadir, a former New York investment banker, set about to bring universal telecommunications to his native Bangladesh. He was convinced that, GSM, the same advanced wireless technology that penetrated developed countries in Europe was also the right solution for Bangladesh. He assembled a critical group of partners in a venture, GrameenPhone, that included Scandinavian telecom operators, Grameen Bank, the microfinance pioneer, Bangladesh Railways as well as a Japanese investment firm. Each partner brought a different capability to the venture, but the coalition was fundamentally unstable. Quadir was facing roadblocks no matter which way he turned in his quest to assemble the venture. He came to a point where the rational decision seemed to be to abandon the venture and return to his secure investment banking job. This case highlights the role of bottlenecks and constraints in sparking innovations in business models by the creative entrepreneur.

Supplements the (A) case.

Silver Sales Company's president is building a growing company that sells extremely accurate flow meters used to measure water flow in pipes and channels. In addition, Silver Sales Company provides inspection and assessment services to water agencies. The president owns 31 per cent of the company. Ring Manufacturing, the sole owner of the intellectual property and manufacturing facility for the flow meters, controls 62 per cent of the ownership of Silver Sales Company. The president is considering his long-term stake in the organization. Recently, the president has been approached by a U.K. company that is a sales agent for Silver Sales Company's products. The company has expressed an interest in a possible merger or acquisition between the two companies and has further indicated that it has an investor to support its desires. The president is now trying to determine whether a closer relationship with, or sale to, the U.K. company might be a way for him to capture some of the value he has created over the last several years.

PANELpro is a startup company and presently a subcontract assembler of control panels. Its president is a former high-tech executive with technological, management and sales experience who wants the company to grow rapidly based on such expertise. He is unsure of the business model to follow (design, assembly, parts distributor or consulting) and how to promote PANELpro. He has some information about potential customers and competition but wants more before proceeding. Two marketing research approaches have been suggested but he ponders whether he should spend his limited funds on research or act based on what he already knows from his corporate experience. If he spends on research, what should be its objective, method and possible payoff?

In December 2008, Thomas G. Tsao, acting CEO of Digital Media Group (DMG), a venture-backed provider of technology and media used primarily in subways, must decide how to structure the company's bid for the advertising concession in Shanghai's 13 existing and planned subway lines. This is complicated by the fact that he is also a general partner in Gobi Partners, one of DMG's largest investors. The company is bidding against its largest competitor, which also investigated acquiring DMG a few months before. DMG has very little cash, and the publicly traded competitor knows it. How does Tom structure the bid? How does he get the money for it? How does he manage the company, given its inability to attract a CEO and his firm's need to have an exit? Lastly, how does he manage his responsibilities - to his firm, his limited partners, his coinvestors, and the company?

On January 5, 2010, 48-year-old Richard Canny was on his way to meet the Governor of Indiana. He was reading his newly issued press release, announcing that THINK planned to start automobile production in Elkhart County, Indiana and to launch its THINK City battery-operated electric vehicle (EV) in the North American market. The announcement boldly outlined plans to invest $43.5 million in a factory that could begin assembling vehicles in early 2011 and that was sized for a manufacturing capacity for more than 20,000 vehicles per year. A proven automotive industry executive, but a first-time entrepreneur, Canny was CEO of Think Global AS (THINK), a privately held Norwegian maker of battery-operated electric vehicles (EVs) that were rechargeable through residential electrical power outlets. With this announcement, Canny was committing the company to support the broad North American launch of its line of EVs, among the very first commercially available, highway-approved safe cars in the world that produced zero greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions.

This case is about a boutique chocolate manufacturer's decision to grow. Zotter, an Austrian company that was a pioneer in the organic and Fairtrade chocolate movement, uses the traditional confit technique to make premium hand-scooped chocolates in unusual and innovative flavor combinations. Having done many novel things to educate the market about the value of premium, organic and Fairtrade chocolate, Zotter consolidated its market position within the premium segment of the Austrian market for chocolate. The company only recently started to sell its product outside Austria. However, the time- and labor-intensive manufacturing process and the high prices of Zotter chocolates limit the scalability of the company, even though the founder desires to grow. While the founder has many ideas for the firm, it is not clear which path would be optimal for the kind of growth he desires. The case provides students an opportunity to discuss how entrepreneurs create markets for novel products, and how they can consolidate their position.