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Supplements the (A) case.

Jim Sharpe, 11 years after receiving his MBA from Harvard and working for others, has finally become his own boss and 100% owner of manufacturer of aluminum extrusions. After 10 months of an unfunded search, he acquires the business in an LBO and prepares to face his employees on the first day.

A venture-funded start-up runs into trouble when health care reimbursement policies change radically. With the help of its board, the company develops a new strategy, becomes profitable, and makes a public offering. The second wave of changes introduced by Clinton health-care initiatives create the need for strategic reevaluation and operational changes. The case traces the development and strategic changes

Jim Sharpe, 11 years after receiving his MBA from Harvard and working for others, has finally become his own boss and 100% owner of manufacturer of aluminum extrusions. After 10 months of an unfunded search, he acquires the business in an LBO and prepares to face his employees on the first day.

A new pharmacy owner seeks advice on her financial position and operating results.

The managing director and founder of Bangkok-based Siam Canadian Foods Co., Ltd., was considering the emerging business opportunities in neighboring Burma (also known as Myanmar). Although relatively undeveloped compared to the rest of Southeast Asia, Burma had been experiencing increasing levels of foreign investment activity in recent years. Siam, who had considered entering Burma in the past but declined, needed to determine if the time was now appropriate for the company to enter the market.

Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble is faced with an urgent need to revitalize new-product innovation, given its recent focus on incremental product improvements and its aggressive growth goals. As part of this effort, the company's top executives form a small, autonomous, cross-functional Corporate New Ventures team led by a young former brand manager. Operating within a conducive work environment, the team invents a systematic approach to gathering information and producing creative ideas for radically new product categories.

OXO, a kitchen tools and gadgets company, was started by a businessman who had 30 years of experience in the housewares industry. With his wife and son as founders, he creates a new niche in the gadgets industry for high-end gourmet stores. The company has headquarters in New York City, but it outsources product design to a NYC industrial design firm, manufacturing to Asia, and warehousing to a site in Connecticut in order to manage start-up costs and growth. Because of the veteran businessman's reputation and industry sense, the company grows quickly and in 1992 is sold for $6.2 million to a large housewares distributor, General Housewares. The original owners stay on as consultants to the parent company and decide to turn over management of the company to a Harvard MBA who also has extensive industrial design experience. Innovative product design is the key to OXO's success, and the company has worked exclusively with one design firm based on royalties of sold products. The new managing director initiates new product category programs for the bathroom, the garden, and home baking. He must coordinate the outsourcing of the design and development function.

Focuses on entrepreneurship--both in setting up a new business and in keeping the entrepreneurial spirit alive in large, established organizations--and on internationalization. Describes how toy manufacturer Hasbro receives a proposal from an American entrepreneur specializing in plastic injection molding for a new toy. Describes the proposal, the toy industry, and Hasbro itself. Should Hasbro accept the proposal for the new toy? Also, how can large companies stay open to ideas coming from the outside?

Midnight Networks, Inc., is a small computer network validation company. This case describes how the five founders built their business from operations earnings and how they established "best practices" operational processes to run their firm successfully. Operational processes include developing a company procedures manual and assigning topics to specific people to maintain procedures; cross-training every employee in support and sales functions; employees entering weekly tasks and accomplishments on an online whiteboard that the whole company can view; group reviews of computer code for quality; performance reviews done by a committee of supervisor and peers. The company grows quickly, and a larger firm offers to buy it. Midnight Networks also has been considering going public. The founder must decide whether to go public or sell the firm to continue its growth.

Bill Kenerson, the owner-operator of a retail bow-tie business faces two decisions. The first is whether to bring production of bow ties in-house. The second concerns his telephone-order- entry system. The case invites students to calculate the capacity of the production facility and determine the appropriate staffing plan for telephone operators.

Symantec includes acquisition of entrepreneurial companies as part of its growth strategy. This case examines the motivation for each party to engage in the transaction and focuses on how Symantec manages the process of the acquisition, from the initial "prospecting" to the final "integration." Examines the specific examples of the acquisitions of Dynamic Microprocessors Associates and Contact Software. Documents the motives of Symantec and the entrepreneurial companies to do the acquisition. Describes the major difficulties in the process. Also documents Symantec's method of valuation.

In 1996, IKEA's $5 billion in revenues made it the world's largest retailer of home furnishings. This case uses IKEA to analyze how large companies can retain their entrepreneurial roots and innovative capacities through various means, including the management of global networks of alliances, internal systems that encourage innovation, and a strong corporate culture. IKEA has extended its activities as an innovator through its incorporation of the Natural Step framework for assessing the ecological and social sustainability of commercial activity. The case lends itself to class discussions on entrepreneurship and innovation in large firms, environmentally responsible strategies and network ties, leadership, and corporate culture/values.

In May 1996, Henry Bower, an asset manager for a real estate adviser, Medcem, has to negotiate the details of a lease after signing a letter of intent with a high technology company, Defentek, Inc. Defentek, Inc. is a fast-growing company with limited net worth that is dependent on the government as a government contractor. Defentek, Inc. would be taking a large block of space in a recently acquired Class A suburban office building outside of Washington, D.C., which has had a history of problem tenants in a problem market that is now somewhat improving. Henry must determine a negotiating strategy and take a position on the various issues raised by the tenant and the tenant's lawyer.

A framework for assessing new business opportunities and the business plans used to describe them is developed. Useful for aspiring entrepreneurs in MBA programs.

Bob Hellman, a partner in a West Coast middle-market buyout firm, is attempting to simultaneously acquire and merge three disparate firms in the rapidly consolidating telemarketing services industry. Hellman must value the individual companies as well as the combined entity, structure a deal that is attractive to each party, and evaluate the prospects for the combined entity while developing a plan of action to more fully develop the deal.

This case concerns the development of a marketing plan for a southern Ontario dock builder, John Morrison, who is entering his second year of business. He has distribution and promotion decisions to make.

Diversify your product line. Stick to your knitting. Hire a professional manager. Watch fixed costs. Those are some of the suggestions that entrepreneurs sort through as they try to get their ventures off the ground. Why all the conflicting advice? Because in a young company, all decisions are up for grabs. Based on his observations of several hundred start-up ventures over eight years, Amar Bhide has developed a three-step sequence of questions that all entrepreneurs must ask themselves in order to establish priorities among the vast array of opportunities and problems they face: What are my goals? Do I have the right strategy? Can I execute the strategy?

Chronicles Trident Health, a British medical information company founded in April 1993 by Stan Shepherd and his partner Ray Jordan. The relationship between Stan and Ray began as an informal consulting partnership, as they attempted to capitalize on opportunities to help shift the U.K. health care system from a paper-based system to electronic storage, retrieval, and exchange. Realizing that this was a much larger opportunity than the two of them could handle as partners, they decided to build a company to pursue these goals. Stan and Ray confronted a host of challenges during the early months of Trident Health. To counteract financial pressures, they decided to generate cash flow by accepting consulting-type contracts. On the personnel front, they hired software engineers who could assist in the development of the planned flagship product. They also began to forge relationships with companies they felt were certain to play crucial roles in the transformation of the U.K. health care system. Notwithstanding these steps, Stan and Ray had much to accomplish to build a solid foundation. The company needed an executive team that could add a broad business perspective to Stan, who was the visionary, and Ray, who headed up development. The company also needed to be capitalized adequately. And it needed to develop a coherent strategy with respect to potential partners with which it could tackle these challenges.

Describes the early career of an MBA who went to work in a small business, bought the company, and is now contemplating an acquisition to expand the business. The issues involve personal/business finance and financial risk, as well as valuation and financial structuring.