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Two entrepreneurs, Andrew Ive and Aldo DiBerlardino, are poised to launch their first product. The decisions they make will have a crucial impact on the future of their company.

Guidant is a successful IPO start-up selling pacemakers and defibrillators. The case describes how managers install systems to balance innovation and control. Three parts of a shareholder value strategy are described. Controls include incentive systems, beliefs systems, and risk management systems.

How does a firm in a high-tech industry compete when both innovation and cost effectiveness are critical? T.J. Rodgers, founder and CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, has developed a unique human resources system that attempts to do both. Describes the elements of this system and raises a series of questions about how aligned the HR system is with the business strategy. Also illustrates the role of formal and social control (culture) in stimulating innovation and change.

The Beta Group is a technology incubator in Menlo Park, CA that has successfully built a portfolio of businesses in the medical, consumer products, and industrial technology sectors by systematically matching proprietary technologies to unmet market needs. Beta has developed a new golf club technology that allows golfers to reduce the dispersion of miss-hit golf balls. The case addresses questions of strategy and finance as Beta considers its options to commercialize the technology. Also presents an opportunity to discuss Beta's unique investment approach.

Since its creation in 1964, executive search firm Egon Zehnder International (EZI) marketed its consultants as "generalists." As searches became more global and industry-specific in the 1990s, CEO Daniel Meiland decided the firm needed to offer specialized services. By 1995, industry-specific practice groups were incorporated into EZI's organizational structure. The case examines how practice groups might affect EZI's ability to maintain its "one firm" egalitarian philosophy. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Lehigh Steel is a specialty steel manufacturer that plummeted from record profits to record losses in less than three years, driven by an inability to distinguish between profitable and unprofitable business. The scale and growth of service activities and overhead costs in an increasingly customized product line suggests that activity-based costing (ABC) could unlock the secrets of profitability. However, the high fixed-cost structure suggests that theory of constraints (TOC) could also be relevant. Lehigh must determine how to measure profitability to rationalize its products.

This case features an entrepreneur who must decide whether to sell his small distribution company. The case explores several issues for class discussion: (1) valuation of a private company, (2) assessing the entrepreneur's perspective and alternatives, (3) deal structuring (including earnouts), (4) risks and their effect on value, and (5) advice from a banker's perspective.

Bronner Slosberg Humphrey has succeeded by providing integrated direct marketing solutions for major service companies such as AT&T, American Express, and FedEx. A new CEO takes over from the company's founder and is wondering how to grow the company. Options include selling individual services (teleservices, database, web), and/or opening global offices.

Discusses the Asian crisis and economists' opinions and solutions.

The purchasing officer at the Hillview Hospital in London, Ontario, was reviewing four suppliers' quotes for antiseptic handsoap. He had asked for new quotes after receiving a large number of complaints from hospital staff about sudden problems with the current handsoap. Testing revealed that the current supplier had changed the soap's formulation without informing the hospital.

The general manager of a beverage company must decide what to do about the declining performance of its' Vietnam-based operation. Employees seem unmotivated and lackadaisical about their work and these same workers blame the weather for the poor results.

The president of Bristol Compressors, Asia-Pacific, chaired a meeting of his top management team to discuss the company's ongoing management challenges in the region. The Hong Kong-based team, known as the management committee, was made up of the president and seven other senior functional managers. Despite attractive markets in the region, Bristol Compressors' growth in Asia-Pacific had not met expectations. Some individuals attributed this to a slow entry strategy, weaker markets than anticipated in the region, unexpectedly fierce competition and ineffective strategy and execution. However, over the last two years a consensus was emerging among committee members that there was a lack of management depth that was contributing to poor performance. Although everyone was convinced that something had to be done, a specific plan of action had not yet been developed. The president charged the committee members to come up with a set of recommendations to increase significantly management bench strength in the region. This case focuses on the challenges of building a high performance organization in a short period of time in Asia.

Examines the on-line division of Barnes & Noble, barnesandnoble.com. The on-line bookselling industry is examined, with emphasis on its biggest competitor, Amazon.com.

Launch has developed an entertainment publication on CD-ROM with 240,000 subscribers and has recently introduced an on-line entertainment product (www.mylaunch.com) to complement the CD-ROM. Deals with multiple-channel delivery and platform selection and branding on the Web.

ONSET Ventures, is a venture capital firm focused on seed-stage start-ups. Describes the principles and strategies the firm has developed over its life. Also presents an in-depth discussion of one of the seed-stage companies ONSET has been incubating.

Samina Quraeshi, principal of Boston-based Shepard Quraeshi Associates, must decide whether to take legal action against her key employees after they leave her firm to start their own, taking with them key clients and data. Quraeshi sees the situation as reflecting cultural tension between Eastern and Western ways of doing business. This case details Quraeshi's cultural journey from her Muslim past in Pakistan to her life in the United States, including service as the director of the Design-Arts Program for the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts.

Mark Johnson, general manager of HCM Beverage Co., must decide what to do about the declining performance of Vietnam-based HCM Beverage. Employees seem unmotivated and lackadaisical about their work. These same workers blame the weather for the poor results. Figuring out the problem and solution is Johnson's major challenge.

After three years of investments, Bristol Compressors' performance in Asia-Pacific has been disappointing. The lack of management bench strength is perceived as the number one problem for the company. This case focuses on the challenges of building a high performance organization in a short period of time in Asia.

Xedia, a networking equipment manufacturer that helps provide high-speed Internet service for corporate clients through access routing, wants a bridge loan to fund daily operations until it raises its next round of equity financing.

A large German manufacturer of ball bearings and precision machinery experiences severe financial difficulty brought on by poor management practices, an ill-conceived acquisition of a former East German ball-bearings company, and an industry recession. The company hires a German professional turnaround manager who in past turnarounds of German firms has engaged in "U.S.-style" corporate downsizing practices including massive layoffs and asset sales.