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Set in mid-2002, this case illustrates "a day in the life" of a district sales manager of a Silicon Valley company, as the technology market faced a downturn. The case enables a polarized class discussion about the tradeoffs that a new district manager might make relative to hiring / firing and setting quotas, after inheriting a mixed bag of talent in an underperforming district. It also seeks to provide with additional texture about the types of challenges and activities that such an individual would face (different from those faced by a sales representative). The case enables students to engage in discussions about four key dilemmas faced by the district manager: (a) Which representatives should he retain in his district, and which should he fire?, (b) How should he negotiate quotas/goals with his superior (regional manager), and with his representatives?, (c) Should he train an employee who will likely fall short of the company's growth goals, or replace him in hopes of hiring on a better performer?, and (d) What should Jim do about an employee who appears to insist in putting the customer's interests ahead of the company's?

Describes the International Fight League's (IFL) formation and growth, the mixed-martial arts (MMA) industry in 2007, and culminates in the dilemma of what the company should do strategically in order to survive. After going public, the company faced competition from various new small players like itself, and from dominant player UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). As the company fell below break-even, its challenge became to search for one or more types of revenue streams to "salvage" itself before burning through its remaining cash reserves. Evaluates the typical revenue streams of sports companies, such as television, team sponsorship, league sponsorship, advertising, merchandising, and live arena events. Each strategic direction is evaluated, given its corresponding operational model, cost of ramp-up (particularly considering UFC's position), and sustainable barriers to entry. Looks at typical challenges faced by management of a publicly traded company caught in a strategic pinch by looking at the IFL's situation.

When Vineet Nayar became president of HCL Technologies, a global IT services business, in April 2005, he knew the company needed drastic change. Since its founding as a hardware company in the 1970s, HCL had grown into an enterprise with $3.7 billion in revenues and a market capitalization of $5.1 billion. The company had 41,000 employees in 11 countries, but it was ill-prepared for the increasingly competitive market. With the shift from hardware to software and services, HCL had slipped behind its Indian competitors and multinational companies. Details the first phase of the transformation Nayar led in hopes of rejuvenating the industry pioneer. The tagline for this phase was "Employee First, Customer Second."

This case describes E+Co's approach to promoting clean energy entrepreneurship in developing countries and its current strategic challenge; how to scale up its business model to reach 100 million unserved or underserved people in the developing world by 2020. In the last 12 years E+Co was successful at demonstrating and validating an "enterprise centered model" which offered reliable access and improved energy efficiency to the poor in emerging economies. Its approach to bringing the poor up the modern energy ladder, one step at a time, was initiated in response to a challenging project for the Rockerfeller Foundation, marked by a radical departure from the top-down, large scale infrastructure projects sponsored by international institutions. So far, these models had left 2.5 million people trapped into the double bind of energy poverty and energy waste. E+Co's approach was working well; by September 2006 it had invested in 138 enterprises in 30 countries. These local entrepreneurs currently provided clean energy to more than three million people. The next issue was scaling it all up; however, this risked straining the resources of E+Co's global team of 38 employees and could change the services the company provided to local entrepreneurs. Tenfold expansion within these constraints required an innovative growth strategy. Supplemental case, E+Co: The Path to Scale (B), product 907M55, presents a set of entrepreneurial growth strategies that preserve the core of the model.

Fu Ji, the largest corporate caterer in China, is thinking about how its financing strategy accommodates the overall corporate strategy. Fu Ji has enjoyed phenomenal growth as the corporate catering market in China develops. But that growth in the business also entails a transition from a single restaurant to a restaurant chain, then to a catering business. Is Fu Ji well equipped for the new business model? What does it need to do on the financing side to accommodate the transition of its business model? The company is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is thinking about issuing additional convertible bonds to finance its growth. What is the funding need? What are the alternative sources of funding that it has? How would the choice of financial instrument affect, and be affected by, the business strategy and how is the instrument choice influenced by the general development of the financial markets in China?

A summer employee at NoVeggie Inc. (NoVeggie) of Toronto, Ontario, was analyzing the viability of changing delivery companies. NoVeggie's largest client, Select Grocers (Select), had recently decided to introduce NoVeggie's products to a new group of Select's grocery stores in Ontario. Although this move would increase sales, it was also expected to increase delivery costs. Now the summer employee is trying to determine the actual delivery costs in order to assess whether the increase in sales would be beneficial, or whether changes in the delivery system were necessary.

The founder and president of I-Love-Stickers.com (ILS), a web-based sticker subscription service, was wondering how she could best continue to market the firm to increase subscriptions for all the sticker packs. Her final MBA exams, countless deadlines, the birth of her baby, and the June summer rush period for the business were all approaching rapidly. In addition to these concerns, she also planned to open a sushi restaurant in London later in the spring. She wanted to solidify her plan of action for ILS for the remainder of the year without delay.

Wayne Eisener has received two job offers. The first offer is an executive vice-president position at Richmond Hill Mortgages (RHM). The second offer is a junior lawyer position at Weiler and Simons LLP, Barristers and Solicitors. The mortgage company offers a small base salary but potentially large commissions in the long run. The law firm offers a higher base salary and the opportunity to be promoted to partner within five years. However, Eisener would need to update his knowledge of law substantially. As he reflects on the advantages and disadvantages of each job, Eisener must consider his past and how each job will help him accomplish the goals of providing for his family and creating a resurgence in his career.

Would it be possible for Google to enter China without violating its informal corporate motto, "Don't Be Evil?" In 2005, Google, Inc.'s top management team and board of directors struggled to decide if the company should enter China--and if so, how. Since 2000, the company had offered a Chinese-language version of its popular search engine hosted on servers outside China. However, Chinese users found this service slow and unreliable, and Google was rapidly losing market share, particularly to the Chinese firm Baidu. At the same time, the number of Internet users in China--and with them the potential for online advertising revenue--had been growing almost exponentially. Yet, serious ethical questions remained unresolved. China operated the most far-reaching and sophisticated system of Internet censorship in the world. Any Internet firm doing business there would have to filter content that the communist regime considered offensive. Moreover, the Chinese government had demanded that other U.S. Internet firms identify individuals who had used their e-mail or blogs to criticize the authorities, and at least one dissident had been jailed as a result. Was doing business in China compatible with Google's mission to make the world's information "universally accessible and useful?"

Managing conflict and differences has always been an essential, but challenging, skill to master for effective leadership. This case was designed to build expertise in developing external and internal relationships and dealing with conflict. Grounded in the pedagogy of experiential learning, the case consists of three role-play scenarios that exemplify three challenging education situations. In each scenario, two individuals are faced with a possible difference in perspective or goals. The role-play requires students to assume the role of one of the individuals, and each scenario requires one student to initiate the follow-up discussion. Please note: This case should be printed single-sided only.

NeoGenius Co., Ltd. (NeoGenius) is an early stage entrepreneurial venture based in South Korea. Founded in February 2000, NeoGenius provides a wide range of business to business (B2B) e-business software and related services. The company's chief executive officer must decide among several options including growth and exit. Students will analyze different growth options that entrepreneurs commonly face, as well as an entrepreneur's decision-making process.

The president and founder of the non-profit organization, Let's Talk Science, needs to ensure that the marketing plan provided by her staff for a new training package would meet the sales goal of 100 units each year. The package, called "Science with Impact" is intended to train scientists and engineers on educational techniques to use for delivering effective and age-appropriate presentations to children and the non-scientific community. This marketing case focuses on the development of a pricing and promotion strategy for a product in a non-profit environment.

Examines the type of security that is appropriate for an Internet company to have on its site. Focuses on a 20-person electronic e-commerce company trying to decide what parts of the information security product line they should acquire from the largest security service company in Japan, Secom. The services include everything from server hosting, advanced housing, firewall intrusion detection, etc. Introduces the wide range of products that can be used to ensure secure operations.

This case series explores the issues faced by the key account manager appointed to handle one of the company's major accounts, but one that is just about to walk out the door. The cases demonstrate efforts to turn the situation around, including improved knowledge of the client's business and industry, cross-company team building, and a governance process for continual improvement. Learning objectives: The learning objective is to demonstrate how key account management can be the most productive way to increase sales and profits: sell more to existing customers. This requires well coordinated and sometimes difficult actions from the business units and divisions. The case emphasizes the need for the whole team, and not just the key account manager, to invest time in building relationships with the client and become more customer-centric. There are some interesting issues as to who should make decisions, have power, and where the P&L should reside. These depend, in the end, on the history and culture of the organization.

The customer care team lead at Hospital Software Solutions was becoming increasingly distressed in her workplace. Her supervisors were not managing her or the department effectively; her responsibilities did not align with her job description; she was being blamed for computer system failures; and she felt she was being viewed as the office slacker. The case provides for the application of theoretical concepts surrounding leadership, power/influence, motivation, corporate culture and conflict. The supplement case, Hospital Software Solutions (B), product # 907C19, follows the events after the customer care team lead attends a town hall meeting to air her concerns about computer systems problems.

In January 2006, Andrew Banks and Royce Yudkoff were considering raising a 5th fund for their media-focused private equity firm, ABRY Partners. ABRY had a strong track record that the co-founders attributed to their group's deep knowledge of the media industry and relationships with media lenders, coupled with a client-service approach to working with Limited Partners. For the fund, Banks and Yudkoff had intended to raise $1 billion and continue their existing strategy, but potential Limited Partners had indicated that they would be willing to commit up to $4 billion. Banks and Yudkoff had to decide whether or not to quadruple the capital in their latest fund.

Newly public Persistent Learning is acquiring vital computer assets. They need to determine how the lease or purchase decision will impact their financial statements, and how the market will react given previously forecast earnings and competitor's accounting.

Investigates the challenges that Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer confronted in seeking to create organizational change at the largest integrated health care system in North America, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Kizer was appointed as the Under Secretary of Health, to oversee the VHA, in 1994. Upon Kizer's arrival, it was immediately apparent that the management style that pervaded the VHA was ineffective and out of date. At the same time, the VHA faced inefficient health care delivery systems coupled with a steadily increasing number of patients. Kizer started to make plans to change the VHA into a modern, responsive, efficient, and effective health care organization. However, success in executing on his plans would require challenging a bureaucratic system with a long history. Documents progress, including organizational efficiencies gained that include consolidation of health care facilities, and illuminates leadership actions that facilitate this progress. Clearly, many challenges still lie ahead. Near the end of the case, Dr. Kizer awaits news from Congress on his reappointment for another four-year term.

The "Central Bank" series analyzes the use of information and product design for managing the counterparty risk of newly acquired customers. Central Bank, a mid-sized regional U.S. bank, was attempting to grow its customer base by increasing the number of new checking accounts. Like many banks, Central saw checking accounts as an important tool for customer acquisition and loyalty-building. However, the bank realized that the aggressive pursuit of new accounts could result in an increased number of overdrafts and, ultimately, customer defaults. The first case, "Central Bank: The ChexSystems(SM) QualiFile(R) Decision," analyzes how QualiFile, a debit scoring product commercialized by ChexSystems, can be used to manage this risk.

The purchase of a single-family home is generally the major investment for most young couples in China. Shows in detail the process that a young couple goes through in late April 2007 to find, finance, and close on an apartment in Beijing within what they believe to be their financial capabilities. Takes place in the context of the rapidly developing Chinese real estate market and introduces issues concerning the search and property acquisition that are specific to Beijing. Also deals with the direct and indirect cost involved in home acquisition, and compares these costs to the rental alternative. Also explores the role that the Internet can play in the home-buying process in China.