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In the late 1970s, Walt Disney Corporation sought to expand its enterprise to Japan. Oriental Land Corp, which represented the Japanese side of the negotiations, and Walt Disney had to decide on a licensing arrangement or a joint venture. The objective of this study is to examine the actual determinants, models and data of that investment choice. This case study is of value to governments and multinational enterprises that want to explore an optimal alliance with a foreign partner. Based on the law, the Japanese government intervened in the negotiations between the Oriental Land Corp and Walt Disney as to the form of the arrangement for Tokyo Disneyland. Thirty eight years later, it is worthwhile to examine the validity of their decisions and which arrangement benefited the project and the partners most. This case study presents ex post empirical evidence for this discussion. The efficacy and effectiveness of the law that allows the Japanese government to intervene are also questioned.

The case starts in 1973 when Pina Bausch stood at the turning point of her professional career: the transition from being a celebrated dancer to becoming a choreographer. Reflecting on what made Pina Bauschs career as a dancer exceptional, the case then elucidates Pina Bausch´s leadership and working style during her years as artistic director at the Tanztheater Wuppertal. Not only did Pina Bausch become famous for her artistic work and creative productivity, but also for her way of leading people and making them grow long-term. Her capability of leveraging the diversity of her dancers - the collective genius - made her choreographies inherently innovative and ground-breaking. Demanding highest performance, she created one of the most successful companies worldwide. She died 2009, leaving behind a dedicated and outstanding dance theater.

Iceland has two unique features. First it has one of the most unique landscapes in the world. A country twice the size of Switzerland, it has only 300,000 inhabitants and thus most of its regions are sparsely inhabited. Second, it also has access to significant amounts of "green energy" in the form of geothermal and hydroelectric power and in the future, possibly wind. Further in Iceland green energy is comparatively inexpensive. These two attributes have set in motion a major debate - should Iceland accelerate the development of its green energy resources by attracting more power intensive industries to locate in the country and perhaps export some of its power to Europe or should it slow the rate of power development and focus on preserving its unique natural resources and build up its tourism industry? This case addresses these two alternatives. It is built around two specific decisions - whether the government should build the generating facilities that would provide the electricity for a fourth aluminum smelter and whether to accept a new plan written by the national electric company to aggressively embrace additional development of its energy resources. Case Number 1968

The Ecobank case is a pan African strategy/business development case with strong elements of Human Resources and talent management issues as well as governance and organizational design. The case is an inspirational story about a group of visionary people from 14 West African countries who in 1984 - with limited resources - decide to create a pan African bank to further the development of Africa. Today, Ecobank has 8.3 million customers, 18,000 employees and a footprint that covers 32 African countries - more than any other bank. In July 2012 Ecobank was named "Best Bank in Africa" by Euromoney for the second year in a row. The case covers the three expansion stages of the bank, and the strategy it has employed in managing rapid growth both organically and through cross border acquisitions. It has a unique approach of "acting locally, while being one bank" which is strongly reflected in its governance systems and organizational design. And it has above all been phenomenally successful in attracting and developing local talent - perhaps the most scare resource of all in Africa. Learning objectives: This is an inspirational story that should be "told" rather than "read." Because of this, the written case is intentionally very short, but supported by video interviews with senior Ecobank executives. A total of 86 minutes of video (of which 28 minutes is designed to be watched by students before the session) structured in 12 "modules" gives the instructor great flexibility in how to use the case in class. The case and video modules can be used to demonstrate: strategy and business development in an African context. How to manage organic growth and growth through acquisitions across borders. Human Resources - how to attract, retain and motivate talent in an emerging market. Organizational design as an organization grows. Governance issues in emerging markets.

This introductory case explores the venture capital (VC) and discounted cash flow (DCF) methods of valuing early-stage companies. OutReach Networks is an unusual start-up company in that it was profitable early in its development and did not have to seek VC funding to support its growth. The company has grown quickly and may soon be a candidate for an IPO. In November 2011, an experienced venture capitalist approaches the founder with an offer to invest $30 million in exchange for 30% of the company. While the founder sees some benefit from the VC's experience in preparing the firm for an IPO and the funding enabling it to scale more quickly, he cannot understand how the VC has arrived at this offer. The founder believes the funding should be worth no more than 15% of his firm. Potential reasons for the disagreement over the valuation are (1) differences in the founder's and investor's view of the company's risk, (2) disagreement over the appropriate set of comparable companies, and (3) differences in the methods used to calculate the percentage equity stake. The case is appropriate for use in courses covering entrepreneurial finance or venture capital.

This note is used in the course elective, Strategic Post-Merger Integration. This case is taught in Darden's Global EMBA Strategy course. Well suited for MBA, Executive MBA, GEMBA, and executive education programs, this case describes the circumstances at Leica Camera, the famed German manufacturer of high-end cameras, and allows for an analysis of the firm's competitive position. Although the company decides to stop production of its R-system camera and lenses, a backlash from users surfaces. That leaves the case open to exploring the uncertainty over achievable sales volume for the R-series lenses as well as where the company fits in the market as new and less-expensive competitor products gain popularity. The case provides an overview of the competitive style of major camera and lens manufacturers and allows a discussion of core capabilities of these competitors. What products would secure Leica's future? Was there development potential for a new universal system? The case describes an issue that many organizations face today-how to decide whether components are strategically critical.

Beyondsoft, a leading software outsourcing enterprises in China, began to make preparations for its overseas listing in 2004, including establishing a red-chip structure needed by overseas listing and introducing overseas institutional investors. However, a global financial crisis broke out when Beyondsoft was going to submit its listing application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2007. As a result, Beyondsoft had no choice but to temporarily shelve the listing plan and to wholeheartedly cope with the sudden crisis. Only after Beyondsoft showed steady performance and cash flow in 2009 did its listing was put on agenda again. However, the U.S. capital market was no longer as booming as it had been in the past after the peak of the crisis, making it difficult to reopen a window for the listing in the U.S. To wait patiently, looking forward to the next boom in the U.S. capital market to come soon, or to turn to other overseas markets or resolutely give up the overseas listing plan and go back to the domestic A-share market? Beyondsoft President Ben Wang fell into repeated comparisons and options. Finally, Beyondsoft chose to return to the domestic A-share market and was successfully listed at the SME board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on January 6, 2012. The cases of Beyondsoft IPO include part (A) and part (B). (A) is used mainly for classroom discussion and (B) is an after-class reference for students

Founded in 2004, TGOOD is now the largest specialized developer and producer of cubicle-type transformation and distribution equipment in China, with the main products of outdoor cubicle-type power equipment supplemented by indoor switchgear cabinets, offered mainly to the railways, coal-mining and power industries. In 2001, TGOOD president Yu Dexiang led a dozen of his young colleagues to resign from state-owned enterprises and dive into the market. By 2011, by riding on the huge wave of China's railway construction and struggling arduously, TGOOD has developed from an unknown business of 20 people and RMB 8 million assets into a growing enterprise with net assets of over RMB 1.1 billion, annual operating revenue of over RMB 600 million, and employment of around 1,000. In September 2009, TGOOD became the first company in China to trade on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange GEM. At the same time, Yu Dexiang has crafted in his special way a cohesive and complementary entrepreneurial team and core employee team. In 2011, due to the stepping-down of railway minister Liu Zhijun for corruption reasons and the severe HSR accident happened in June 2011, China slowed down its railway construction, causing a great setback to TGOOD's development. This case was written at a time that TGOOD was starting to readjust its industrial structure and Yu Dexiang was pondering about the strategic directions of the company's "second starting-up" and the new task of team building.

With the rapid growth of China's economy and China's increasingly integration into the global economy in the past two decades, China's leisure clothing and garment enterprises achieved a rapid rise and became an important competitive force confronting with the foreign brands in the Chinese market. Zhejiang Semir Garment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Semir Group") was founded in 1996 and currently owns two brands ("Semir", targeted at 16-25 year olds, providing affordable casual clothing featuring "fashion and vitality"; Balabala, providing children's clothing, targeted at 3-12 year-old children in better-off families). Both brands occupy a leading position in the Chinese market. However, with the intensified market competition and changes of cost elements and new sales channels, Semir Group faces new challenges.

This case is the follow-up of Kingdee A(6-311-351). In 2011, Kingdee made strategic investments and business expansions, suffering net profit decline despite operating revenue growth and also changes to top managers.

In 2012, China attained a historic development milestone with more Chinese citizens living in cities than in the countryside. China's rapid urbanization, and the accompanying conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural uses, raised a number of economic, social, and political concerns. Could China maintain its food security in view of the sharply rising demand for land for urban development? How could it ensure the sustainability of local government finances? Was the growing number of land protests the harbinger of major changes in China's political institutions? How would the challenges of urbanization affect the business environment for private firms? The success and viability of China's overall growth strategy depended crucially on managing a successful urban transition.

This case chronicles the challenges of establishing an innovative tissue bank service to accelerate the research and development processes of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Asterand's two major challenges involved achieving a standardized approach to collecting tissue samples in hospitals all over the world and achieving the highest possible quality of tissue samples shipped to their primary customer, Amgen. Despite the identified need for high-quality tissue samples, Asterand was experiencing multiple quality control problems in their processes and procedures. Tissue samples were being packaged poorly, labeled incorrectly or delivered at the wrong time or to the wrong place. Additionally, there were quality issues with the RNA analysis of the samples, which was a critical factor in the usability of the tissue sample for research and development of new therapies and drugs. The head of pathology at Amgen's California facility was threatening to terminate their existing order and communicate the failure of Asterand to all company employees, which would have had a devastating ripple effect across the industry and likely destroyed opportunities for any future orders with Asterand. If this happened, Asterand would not have been able to secure contracts with customers and would've been at risk of losing investors and going bankrupt.

A hybrid entrepreneur working at a full-time job has come up with the idea for his first product, a smartphone car stereo. He has invested $10,000 of his own money plus $3,000 from an early investor to develop his prototype. He needs to put together a viable commercialization plan and is considering crowdfunding as a viable funding source. He also needs to decide whether to distribute his product through direct sales or a traditional retail mode

In the summer of 2010, the members of the business development team of Target Systems were carefully considering the possibility of entering the Electronic Health Information (EHI) systems arena. The company had both breadth and depth of experience in providing logistics, project management and information technology (IT) services to clients in the public and private sector. Although the employees of Target Systems were experts in a full range of IT services, no one in the company had deep expertise about the way IT applications were being used to manage patient care or administer health care organizations. The lack of expertise implied that a movement by Target Systems into the EHI systems arena would call for the company to simultaneously develop new products and services for a new set of clients -- to engage in growth by related diversification. That strategy would stand in contrast to the growth by concentration strategy the team had employed throughout company history. To pursue a diversification strategy the team would have to decide if it should provide services to regional health information organizations, hospitals or individual physicians' practices. It would also have to decide whether it would cultivate new capabilities by investing in internal development or by seeking a strategic partner that was already operating in the arena. Ultimately, the way the business development team weighed the opportunities versus the challenges of adopting a new growth strategy in the context of a still uncertain external environment would strongly influence its decision as to whether or not the company should enter this new arena.

Schneider Electric has focused primarily on urban customers in the energy management space. The question is the extent to which it should prioritise rural opportunities for meeting the energy needs of the bottom of the pyramid, and whether these initiatives can be transitioned from subsidised social responsibility projects to self-sustaining businesses.

Genentech is a rare success story in the biotechnology industry. Hundreds of billions of dollars of venture capital have been invested without the expected transformational effects. Established in 1976, Genentech was to develop the new science of recombinant DNA into viable therapeutic products with mass market appeal, something that most scientists agreed was at least a decade away. The founders, Herbert Boyer and Robert Swanson had limited financial resources, so they turned to Tom Perkins, the co-founder of Kleiner-Perkins, for venture funding. Genentech developed through an effective union between scientific and venture investment mindsets. In 1980 an IPO valued Genentech at $300 million. In 2009 it was fully acquired by the Swiss-based healthcare company, Roche, for $47 billion. Roche had held a majority stake in the company since 1990.

The case described the issues faced by a mid-sized Indian generic pharmaceutical firm, in its attempt to acquire a small unlisted Japanese generics manufacturer. It showcases the strong motivation of a successful emerging market pharmaceutical firm to expand into the developed market, buoyed by its cost competitiveness. The case presents an opportunity to discuss the trade-offs involved with most of the dynamic decisions in a cross-border acquisition, such as estimation of synergies and value, bidding, and financing the acquisition. The case may be used in programmes on valuation, and mergers and acquisitions.

This case teaches the impact of variability on process performance. In 2009, media coverage of long wait times in a local hospital brought considerable embarrassment to the state secretary of health. The hospital, located in a midsize European city, had the only emergency care facility in its metropolitan region. After the delays in care were brought to light, the secretary of health ordered the hospital's CEO to produce an action plan-and measurable progress-before the end of the month. But the CEO faced scarce resources and was already under pressure to reduce spending. What reforms should he make? Would he need to increase the emergency department's staff, and if so, how should he balance the costs? As this case explores the challenges of the healthcare industry, students learn to address questions of process mapping and operations.

Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant must guide his global agribusiness technology company into an uncertain future where food security, food safety, sustainability, and climate change will all impact the global food system.