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In 2001, CDC Capital Partners is facing the greatest challenge in its 53-year history. Founded as part of the U.K. government's post-war colonial reconstruction, it had operated as a developmental finance institution, largely issuing debt to the world's poorest countries. Now, however, it must transform itself to become a public-private partnership (PPP) dealing in private equity projects, but still restricted to the world's poorest countries. Can CDC succeed?

Investigates the entrepreneur's strategic initiatives to develop a mass market for specialty coffee in the 1980s and 1990s. These initiatives included the development of premium products, rapid expansion of company-owned stores--each with attractive retail environments and responsive customer service--and, especially, the creation of a strong brand. Also devotes considerable attention to how Schultz built the Starbucks organization, examining the consistent emphasis that he and his colleagues placed on the company's relationship with its employees, how Schultz financed Starbucks' early expansion, how vertical integration ensured quality control, and how--strategically and operationally--the company managed its phenomenal domestic and international growth after 1993.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 801-361.

Opens with a brief history of the U.S. cosmetics market and its rapid development in the 1920s. Also recounts Lauder's initial involvement in the sector, making skin care products and selling them in Manhattan beauty parlors during the Great Depression. Pays particular attention to the period after World War II, when widespread socioeconomic shifts were altering women's possibilities--perceptual and material. For Lauder, such shifts presented important business opportunities. Invites students to analyze how the entrepreneur exploited these opportunities by building quality products, a powerful brand, and a best-of-brand organization. Closes with a discussion of the other brands that Lauder and her colleagues created, those that it acquired in the 1990s, and the importance of specific organizational capabilities in sustaining market leadership in the global, intensely competitive market for prestige beauty products.

The owner of a shop specializing in the creation and sale of Celtic art was faced with the challenge of finding a way to rejuvenate sales; customer traffic was declining due to the closing of a local market. He was determined to develop a strategy that would better insulate his business in the future. Limited resources meant that maximizing the returns on his efforts would be critical to the survival of the business. He had to examine his marketing strategy and product mix, consider his options and generate solutions to improve and secure his short-term and long-term profitability.

The founding partners of Three Fish Solutions, a Hong Kong-based Internet start-up company, developed what they thought was a powerful business plan in preparation for a meeting with a deep-pocketed, potential equity partner. The meeting was critical because the partners were short of cash and because it would provide them with their first opportunity to discuss their business plan with a highly respected investor. Students have the opportunity to analyze a business plan of an e-commerce-based start-up company; identify critical success factors that are generic to start-up companies and areas of risk that need to be mitigated; and better understand the motivations of venture capital firms and the considerations they make when evaluating business plans. The Three Fish Solutions (B) case, product 9B01M013, discusses the meeting with the investor and the options facing the company.

Blinds To Go (BTG), a Montreal-headquartered producer of made-to-order window coverings, had made the decision to enter the Florida market by opening eight retail stores. As a result of this decision, the senior vice-president (SVP) of operations for BTG was faced with the dilemma of deciding if and when an assembly plant should be built to support these and future Florida retail stores. The most recent plant, built in Lakewood, New Jersey, had experienced operational problems during its startup, resulting in the eventual replacement of most of the supervisory staff and a significant portion of the plant employees. This led to additional start-up costs and customer service problems. Faced with this expansion into Florida, the SVP set about devising an operating plan that would achieve the goals of the Florida expansion without the growing pains of past efforts. As the stores were to be opened in six months, a plan would have to be finalized soon.

Analyzes Marshall Field's efforts to develop a market for mass retailing in late 19th-century Chicago. Examines Chicago's expansion in the 1860s and, within this context, how Field struck out on his own to, build a wholesale and retail business. Concentrates on the efforts of Field and his partner Levi Leiter to build a large regional and, later, a national market for their distribution business and the significant financial, managerial, and strategic challenges they faced. This case analyzes how Field and his partners built a strong, meaningful brand for the company.

Describes the attempt of Texas Pacific Group (TPG), a buyout firm, to purchase a controlling stake in Ducati Motor, the world's leading high-performance motorcycle company, based in Bologna, Italy. Ducati is part of Cagiva Group, a family-controlled industrial group. Cagiva has fallen on hard times and Ducati is the crown jewel in the group. Yet even Ducati is under great financial pressure and short on working capital. Abel Halpern, a partner at TPG, is frustrated because a deal with the owners seems to be an ever-moving target. Although TPG has negotiated with the seller for almost a year. In spite of costly due diligence efforts by TPG, Abel Halpern is now ready to walk away from the deal. In his decision he needs to consider not only valuation and the feasibility of hiring new management to turn the company around but also the feasibility of an eventual exit via the public markets in Italy.

Outlines many of the supply-side innovations, such as improved transportation, communication, and technological developments, that greatly expanded the productive capacity of the United States in the late 19th century. Explores a range of demand-side shifts, including rising incomes, population growth, and urbanization, that changed consumers' wants and needs. These developments, taken together with those on the supply side, altered the nature of the American economy, ushering in widespread industrialization, markets of unprecedented size, and consumption on an entirely new scale. Investigates how, within this context, H.J. Heinz created a successful food-processing business in the last three decades of the 19th century.

Four years ago, Diane Ashton and Sundeep Lal were working together at MIT on a titanium extraction project. Durable and highly heat resistant, titanium is a key constituent of many specialty alloys, but it's also very expensive to produce. So when Diane discovered a solution that isolated titanium efficiently, the partners recognized that the technology would be worth billions to large manufacturers. Sundeep and Diane secured a $20 million investment from a prominent VC and drew up a business plan. Within six months of their discovery, Titrolyte Inc. was born. But Diane and Sundeep soon discovered that what had been a fairly straightforward operation in the confines of an MIT lab was difficult to reproduce on a large scale. In just two years, they had to go back to investors for more money. Sundeep thinks that Titrolyte is ready to go public. Besides, he's concerned that if they don't IPO now, they might miss the bus. But Diane is worried that they're moving too fast. They haven't perfected the technology yet, and Titrolyte's business systems leave a great deal to be desired. Should Titrolyte risk going public now, while the market is still open? Five commentators offer advice in this fictional case study. In R0102A and R0102Z, William Bourne, Tim Draper, Sarah Mavrinac, Neil Jones, and David Perry offer advice on this fictional case study.

When Roger Brown and Linda Mason decided to start a child care and early-education company 15 years ago, they knew about the challenges inherent in the industry: no barriers to entry, low margins, few economies of scale, heavy regulatory oversight--to name just a few. But that didn't stop them. They eventually built Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a company that now has more than 340 high-quality child care centers, serving 40,000 children and employing 12,000 people. How did they do it? Sheer determination helped. But even more important, they developed a business model that took advantage of industry weaknesses. When the couple sat down to hash out a plan for the company, they realized that the key to achieving profitability and creating barriers to entry was to partner with companies. They could achieve higher returns by having those companies build and outfit the centers and, at the same time, boost customer loyalty. Brown's first-person account describes the difficulties the couple and their company faced along the way, including the struggle for funding and a board that questioned Bright Horizons' business model and basic philosophy of good child care. But, Brown says, the commitment to a singular business model and the determination to make strengths out of weaknesses made the impossible possible.

Four years ago, Diane Ashton and Sundeep Lal were working together at MIT on a titanium extraction project. Durable and highly heat resistant, titanium is a key constituent of many specialty alloys, but it's also very expensive to produce. So when Diane discovered a solution that isolated titanium efficiently, the partners recognized that the technology would be worth billions to large manufacturers. Sundeep and Diane secured a $20 million investment from a prominent VC and drew up a business plan. Within six months of their discovery, Titrolyte Inc. was born. But Diane and Sundeep soon discovered that what had been a fairly straightforward operation in the confines of an MIT lab was difficult to reproduce on a large scale. In just two years, they had to go back to investors for more money. Sundeep thinks that Titrolyte is ready to go public. Besides, he's concerned that if they don't IPO now, they might miss the bus. But Diane is worried that they're moving too fast. They haven't perfected the technology yet, and Titrolyte's business systems leave a great deal to be desired. Should Titrolyte risk going public now, while the market is still open? In R0102A and R0102Z, William Bourne, Tim Draper, Sarah Mavrinac, Neil Jones, and David Perry offer advice on this fictional case study.

Four years ago, Diane Ashton and Sundeep Lal were working together at MIT on a titanium extraction project. Durable and highly heat resistant, titanium is a key constituent of many specialty alloys, but it's also very expensive to produce. So when Diane discovered a solution that isolated titanium efficiently, the partners recognized that the technology would be worth billions to large manufacturers. Sundeep and Diane secured a $20 million investment from a prominent VC and drew up a business plan. Within six months of their discovery, Titrolyte Inc. was born. But Diane and Sundeep soon discovered that what had been a fairly straightforward operation in the confines of an MIT lab was difficult to reproduce on a large scale. In just two years, they had to go back to investors for more money. Sundeep thinks that Titrolyte is ready to go public. Besides, he's concerned that if they don't IPO now, they might miss the bus. But Diane is worried that they're moving too fast. They haven't perfected the technology yet, and Titrolyte's business systems leave a great deal to be desired. Should Titrolyte risk going public now, while the market is still open? In R0102A and R0102Z, William Bourne, Tim Draper, Sarah Mavrinac, Neil Jones, and David Perry offer advice on this fictional case study.

The founder of Surgery Futures Research, a London, Ontario-based startup, developed a new technique to assist with minimally invasive surgery. His innovation eliminated the need for incisions and retractors to manipulate the bowel, and relied instead upon magnets and an ingestible fluid. He put his surgical residency on hold and spent several years developing the technology as a sideline to his medical career. He invested his time, personal savings and much of his income into this enterprise. Even under the most optimistic scenario, commercialization was still years away and would require significant expenditures for research, development, manufacturing and marketing. At age 35, and with his wedding approaching, he felt the time had come to reevaluate the venture, considering what actions needed to be taken to commercialize the technology and what role he should play in the process.

The founder and only employee of Montreal-based Drawn and Quarterly, a company that published comic books and graphic novels, wondered whether there were changes he should make in how he ran his company. He loved his job; he was working with excellent cartoonists, and he enjoyed being his own boss. He wanted to invest in new projects, but his ability to do so depended on getting enough revenue from sales. He recently made a substantial investment in the publication of an anthology of international comics and knew this investment could put the company at risk. There were many factors for him to consider in planning the growth of this small company: management preferences in strategic growth, marketing in entrepreneurial firms, the comic book industry and the management of small companies in cultural industries.

OP4.com, an Internet portal for teenagers, had just celebrated six months of existence. The co-founders of OP4.com knew that the internal culture had to reflect the identity of its Web site, so they wanted to cultivate a savvy, hip staff. They used unique methods to evaluate a prospect's fit into the company and some unorthodox training and feedback systems. With profitability being the next key step, they had to determine how to maintain this culture through the next stage of growth; one which would result in the creation of business units and formal reporting structures for staff.

Silent Witness Enterprises Ltd. was one of Canada's fastest growing technology-based firms. The 14-year-old publicly traded company created a new market niche in the security surveillance industry by introducing novel applications of VCR-based technology. The company's founder forecasted growth that would take the company from annual revenues of $34 million in 1999 to $250 million by 2005. In achieving these goals, he must decide how to balance the need to sustain innovation and new product development, while at the same time, develop the capabilities needed to manage the firm's increasingly complex operations.

The chief executive officer of the venture capitalist Portal Investments had to decide whether to invest in eHarvest.com, a company with a vision to become the worldwide Internet portal for production agriculture. To do so, he needed to examine Portal Investment's strategic objectives; eHarvest.com's business model and the challenges and opportunities it faced in carrying it out; and issues related to valuation and deal structuring.

Describes two aspiring entrepreneurs who have just received offering documents for venture funding (known as term sheets) from two venture capital firms. Neither of the entrepreneurs have experience in raising capital and they are wondering how to compare the two proposals and which one to choose. They need to make a decision fast. The documents contain two complete term sheets which are similar in structure but different in important ways. Both term sheets have advantages and disadvantages for the entrepreneurs. Choosing one over the other requires a careful analysis as well as a certain set of assumptions about the growth of Trendsetter, Inc.