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Presents the background and some details on a possible acquisition opportunity--a manufacturer of ballpoint paint pens for the hobby and crafts industry. Forces students to peel the layers of this initially unattractive opportunity to find potential sources of value. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

"The Band of Angels" is a well-organized but independent group of wealthy entrepreneurs. This case details the principles and processes used by the band and offers two perspectives from entrepreneurs who have been financed.

The case describes the early evolution of Siebel Systems, a sales force automation software company, focusing on issues surrounding Siebel's use of systems integrators as implementation partners and the relationship between implementation and the selling function.

A broad set of issues faces a young company in the Internet-based training business as it begins to sell its product to corporate customers. Issues include: profile of attractive candidates, compensation, definition of territory, definition of quotas, and role of regional management.

Stacey Lawson, HBS 1996, started a CAD parts representations database company to help designers and engineers with the design process. The company has completed its product and is starting to sell it. The case examines issues involving the organization of the sales force and the pricing of the product.

While on vacation in Memphis, former investment manager Andy Wilson discovers a unique "tour bus" that travels over land and through water. He decides to transplant the concept to Boston and to add both historical and theatrical features to the amphibious tour. As he tries to start up Boston Duck Tours, Wilson must figure out how to organize and fund the new venture. The challenges seem overwhelming. He has no relevant experience and very little money. The market is untested and, at best, seasonal. Furthermore, the regulatory barriers are high. Wilson's persistence and creativity provide some solutions, but create additional challenges when it comes to harvesting financial value. This case is particularly useful in the Resourcing and Organizing module of a course on New Ventures.

Zhang Ruimin, founder and CEO of China's Haier Group, must decide whether to acquire Red Star Electric Appliance Co., an insolvent local manufacturer of washing machines. Although Haier, slated to become one of China's first global brand names, has successfully turned around other failing enterprises by infusing its distinctive culture and management style, it is not clear whether that approach will work at Red Star. Both Haier and Red Star are "collective enterprises."

This case describes the first four years of John Swift's tenure as Britain's Rail Regulator and the issues he faced in the fall of 1997. The post of Rail Regulator had been created by the Railway Act of 1993, as part of a plan to break up and privatize the national railway, British Rail, into approximately 70 companies; these included one infrastructure company, 25 passenger train operating companies (TOCs), seven freight TOCs, and over a dozen rolling stock and maintenance companies. The Regulator's primary job was to review the access charges and agreements between the monopoly infrastructure company, Railtrack, and the TOCs. In the fall of 1997, the Regulator was trying to get Railtrack to live up to some investment promises that it had made during its first access charge review and was preparing for the next access charge review. In addition, the Labor Party had won control of Parliament in the May 1997 elections, ending 18 consecutive years of Conservative Party rule, and the Regulator was trying to establish a working relationship with the new Labor government. The case is intended to support a discussion of the analytical challenges and political pressures facing a regulator of a newly privatized industry. The instructor may focus the class discussion on the difficulties that the regulator faces in determining the appropriate access charges, including strategies for gathering the information he needs. Alternatively, the instructor can focus on the extent to which the regulator is insulated from politics in practice, and what his political strategy should be. HKS Case Number 1533.3

FastLane Technologies was a young entrepreneurial software company that had developed a powerful language that could help organizations manage, administer, and control large enterprise networks. In late 1996 they received an infusion of capital from Newbridge Networks and Celtic House, a venture capital firm. In May 1997, the new vice president of marketing at FastLane must make his first presentation to the board of directors about his proposed marketing strategy for FastLane. The company faced a number of important issues, including whether to focus on the language itself or application tools based on the language and the most effective strategy for rapidly moving its products into a dominant position in its segment of the emerging market for Windows NT services. Developing effective channels to reach the large organizations that were its target customers was a particularly challenging issue. The case can be used in business-to-business marketing, marketing strategy, or strategic market planning courses or in small business or entrepreneurship courses.

A Vermont solid-waste company seeks mezzanine financing to finance its strategy of acquiring and consolidating local competitors. The mezzanine private equity group must decide whether this investment offers an attractive risk-return tradeoff.

Empresas CAP began as a private-sector steel company in 1946. Over the next 40 years, CAP's ownership structure moved from nationalization to reprivatization. Unrestricted by state ownership, CAP began to diversify its holdings. The case considers the viability of CAP's diversification into forestry, and the course of action that CEO Roberto de Andraca should take.

Tyco, a diversified U.S. conglomerate, has grown rapidly for more than 20 years. This case examines Tyco's acquisition strategy as well as its internal control systems.

Scandinavia Translations (Scantran) provides translation services between English and the three Scandinavian languages (Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian), as well as Finnish. The business is operated primarily by one person, Heidi Wade, assisted by her husband Mike. The unique thing about Scantran is that it is a purely virtual business: Heidi and Mike never meet with, see, and rarely even speak with any of their clients, nor with any of their individual translators. Almost all the business is done over the Internet, supplemented by faxes and occasionally the telephone. Documents are mainly transferred as file attachments to Internet electronic mail messages. There are no other permanent employees, and all the work is done out of the couple's apartment, with no need for expensive overhead such as office premises or fixed salaries. Scantran's business has grown rapidly since its inception. The Wades are faced with a number of decisions, including whether to try to stay the size they are or "go for growth," which implies adopting a new business model. If the decision is to grow, what should the new business model be? Can the company maintain the great flexibility provided by the Internet and still expand? This case nicely illustrates both pros and cons of virtual small businesses, typical of a great many Internet-dependent startup companies created in recent years.

Executives at Pepsico are considering a possible redesign of the Pepsi carbonated beverage packages worldwide to give the brand a modern, up-to-date image and "ownership" of the color blue against Coca-Cola's "ownership" of the color red.

Dell started online commerce for its PCs in 1996, and by 1997 had achieved a sales rate of $3 million a day. The case describes the internal process that led to these dramatic results and poses the question of how the firm should leverage this activity to meet Michael Dell's goal of achieving 50% of the company's anticipated $20 billion in sales by the year 2000 via Internet channels.

Presents a series of problems that face a newspaper publisher, including inventory level, effort level, subsidy for unsold inventory, and commission for sales. Students must make various operational decisions.

The executive director of the Asian Neighborhood Design (AND) attempts to quantify the potential financial and social return for investors in his nonprofit enterprise. AND seeks to raise $2.27 million. However, as a nonprofit organization, it cannot offer potential equity investors a share of future earnings, and it is not eligible for loans. The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund encourages AND to apply for a grant, but requires that the organization demonstrate that it is both operating efficiently and achieving its social goals. Using innovative tools including a true cost accounting framework and a social return on investment analysis, the director attempts to capture the fund's likely total return on investment. As the field of social enterprise continues to develop, such methods are increasingly important tools for managers and funders to measure real social and financial results.

BroadVision develops software that allows Internet-based businesses to gather information about their online customers and deliver customized information to them in return. The firm was founded in May 1993 by a successful entrepreneur with a track record of two previous successful startups. The case discusses the role of "rules-based systems" in delivering personalized information directly to the consumer and allowing one-to-one marketing to happen on the Internet. Trust and privacy issues related to the use of this "mass-customization" technology are discussed. Related personalization technologies, such as "collaborative filtering" are analyzed as well. Finally, the case deals with the growth strategy and business model of BroadVision, as a young Internet software company competing with software giants such as Microsoft, Netscape, and Oracle.

Describes the marketing strategy of an entrepreneurial start-up engaged in electronic purchasing for large manufacturers. By creating an electronic bidding platform, the company has been able to cut down procurement costs by about 15%. The case question concerns how this company should now go to scale.

Three second-year students at the Harvard Business School decide to buy a company. The case focuses on their thoughts about an entrepreneurial career, their search process, and the evaluation of an Icedelights (an ice cream/cafe) franchise. This is a rewritten version of an earlier case.