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VanCity has been Canada's biggest success story in the field of community banking. The board of directors must consider whether the credit union should venture into mezzanine financing, a competitive industry in which the organization has no prior experience. The proposal is favored by a board member who feels that the credit union can re-invent itself in the marketplace by following this route. The decision is troublesome because even if it makes economic sense there is an issue of whether it will achieve organizational fit with VanCity's overall culture and employee orientation.

Vivosonic is a start-up biomedical company that needs to raise $565,000 to continue research and development of its biomedical devices. The executive director of a venture capital firm feels Vivosonic's technology is sound but the costs for the company would be high. He must decide whether or not to invest in the company and determine what the best terms and conditions are for the deal.

A scientist at a well-known university has been working for several years on the development of a drug that is a treatment for a particular type of cancer. He has successfully completed all pre-clinical trials and has filed an application for an investigational new drug. Once the application has been accepted by the Food and Drug Administration, the scientist plans to embark on a series of clinical trials. Although his work to this point has been financed by research grants and personal funds, he now needs to obtain more substantial financing from a venture capitalist. However, the scientist does not know what his fledgling company is worth.

Describes the evolution of Amazon.com and its business model since its founding. Specifically, discusses Amazon's transformation from an e-Tailer to a commerce platform and its marketplace initiative, which has driven this. Also describes the economics of various commerce models that Amazon employs and discusses a decision confronting Jeff Bezos regarding how the company should participate in the apparel segment.

Circles, a corporate concierge company on the verge of profitability, must make a decision whether to take a D-round venture capital despite ever-changing and ever-worsening terms. A four-year-old company with several major clients, it has met its business plan projections and finds itself only a month or two away from profitability. Co-founder Janet Kraus works with her board and management team to consider alternatives to taking venture capital money. Together, they weigh the pros and cons of different types of funding and growth strategies and, ultimately, they must decide which path to pursue.

Supplements Charles Schwab in 2002.

Details the evolution of the Charles Schwab business model, from its founding in 1975 to October 2002. The protagonist, David Pottruck, is faced with re-inventing the firm as a full-service brokerage at a time of tremendous industry instability as the industry reels from the effects of deregulation, consolidation, global economic downturn, and investor lack of confidence.

Introduces Khalid Awan, co-founder of TCS, an entrepreneurial air-express company in Pakistan. Awan has succeeded in building a sizeable company despite serious obstacles, including pressure from the public postal system, an environment prone to corruption, and a nonexistent market for venture capital. The firm largely followed an organic financing strategy and made extensive use of leasing contracts. However, in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, Awan is now faced with a number of questions regarding further expansion of the firm. The tragic events of September 11 will most likely put pressure on the firm's revenues and create considerable uncertainty. Awan is also starting to think about diversification of his personal wealth, which is concentrated almost entirely in TCS. Decisions on all these issues will impact the firm's future financing policies and growth.

Abstract to follow.

Large, tradition-bound organizations can make space for radical, low-cost (and therefore low-risk) innovations. Just ask executives at the World Bank. The story of this best practice begins in 1998, when a young new-products group at the international funding agency proposed holding an Innovation Marketplace to capture novel ideas within the bank for alleviating poverty. The forum, which eventually was opened to external participants, let people informally present their antipoverty ideas to potential funding sources. Funders could move among hundreds of booths and evaluate proposals. The marketplace concept met with some skepticism at the beginning. However, the marketplace team believed an open process for allocating grants would produce more breakthrough ideas in the long run than a centralized one. In this article, the authors describe how the new-products team brainstormed to create a market for ideas, how it got senior management's support, and how it has expanded on the original concept for these innovation marketplaces.

Introduces angel investing as a concept and discusses recent developments in the industry. Angel investing has been a long-standing practice, dating back to Broadway play financiers at the turn of the 20th century and including wealthy benefactors of burgeoning business, like Laurance Rockefeller in the 1930s. Angel investing experienced high-profile success in the 1980s and memorably in the dot.com economy of the late 1990s. After the dot.com fallout in 1999 to 2000, Angel investing took hard punches and many angels retreated from active investing. The next generation of angels had different expectations, different experiences, and different practices. Focuses on the new generation of angel investors and the steps taken on both sides of the investing equation to mitigate the risks inherent in the relationship.

Describes the founding, early growth, and expansion plans of New Leaders for New Schools, a nonprofit public education venture that recruits, trains, places, and supports principals in U.S. urban school districts. This case presents the strategic, financial, and operating issues that arise as New Leaders' senior management team tries to transition their organization from a start-up two years after the creation of the company, to a mature and fully stabilized company capable of influencing national reform of school leadership practices. Focuses significantly on New Leaders' choice between two alternative ten-year growth strategies. One plan calls for New Leaders to expand aggressively by raising approximately $100 million in outside investment, opening principal recruitment and training programs across the country, and reaching millions of students through its principal corps. An alternative plan envisions New Leaders as a smaller and more focused organization that works closely with carefully selected school districts and charter school operators to demonstrate the impact on student achievement of well-designed school leadership practices.

During a short vacation, the owner of Rae and Jerry's Steak House read a book on family businesses that prompted him to think of succession planning for his own company. His daughters, ages 21 and 17, were not yet ready to take over the business and he was not sure that they would be interested in doing so. He would also like to reduce the number of hours he spends at the restaurant to spend more time with his wife. He must assess his options and develop a reasonable plan of action.

Extreme CCTV, a start-up company that specializes in closed circuit television equipment, is looking at purchasing one of it distribution partners, Derwent Systems Ltd - a leading European manufacturer of infrared illuminators. The two companies have been successful in promoting the others products in their respective markets, now Derwent's founder wants to retire. Without Derwent's founder, Extreme CCTV will lose the ability to sell complementary Derwent products in North America and will have to look for another way to distribute its products in the European market. The president and founder of Extreme CCTV has to decide whether or not he should proceed with the purchase of Derwent Systems Ltd. and how he would manage both companies while preparing for an initial public offer.

Lauri Union graduates from Harvard Business School and takes over her family's steel-corrugated roofing and siding manufacturing firm, which her mother has most recently run. The industry is mature, entry barriers to competitors are low, and the company is over 50 years old and performing poorly. This case details Union's efforts to turn the company around by changing the management team to help increase sales, streamline operations, improve customer service and employee morale, and confront a culture of low expectations and performance.A rewritten version of an earlier case.

The CEO of a two-year-old start-up must now decide whether to become a technology provider or a service agency. In a time of enormous uncertainty about the viability of various business models for Internet-delivered services and products, Collabrys has survived the burst Internet bubble by partnering with brand-name large companies and by responding to market feedback. This case traces the company from its earliest days and its original value proposition to a point at which the two very different future strategies appear feasible. Originally funded by venture capital, the company has changed key personnel, experimented with different distribution and partnering schemes, developed some sophisticated intellectual property, and raised a second round of funding.

Describes the transition to a new CEO at Intuit, a successful software and financial services firm in California. The new CEO must decide what to change and how fast. He must also navigate within a culture everyone believes to be successful but he envisions can be improved.

Describes the internal reporting package for a rapidly growing company in the e-learning industry. Management must analyze the data in the package and decide what actions to take. They must also decide what to communicate to the board of directors. Contains a description of the company and a copy of the reporting package.

Supplements the (A) case.

Describes a newly formed manufacturer of insulation materials. The company has developed and patented a new insulation material that can be used in a wide range of markets. Capital must be raised to finance building a manufacturing facility and fund early market penetration.