Robert Sutton, Hayagreeva Rao, Rebecca Hinds
2014
After a delayed shipment of flooring materials impeded Jeff Booth’s ability to complete a construction project on schedule, he, along with cofounder Robert Banks, was determined to solve the inefficiency of the heavyweight building supply industry. They…
H. Irving Grousbeck, Jason Luther
2014
It was March 2013 and one week after James Browder’s sixth board meeting as CEO of Aegis Systems Corp. (Aegis), a vendor management software provider based in Birmingham, Alabama. As Browder sat at his desk, pen and notepad before him, he reflected on…
George Foster, David Hoyt
2014
Through the first part of the twenty-first century, the number of people playing golf in the United States had been in decline. Fewer people played the game, they played less frequently, and more golf courses were closing than opening. Players…
Jim Lattin, Kirk Bowman, Justin Kiessig
2014
The Trunk Club: Hiring, Motivating, and Managing A Sales Team case begins with a description of the company’s business model and the path that led the main protagonist, Brian Spaly, to the CEO post. Five sections compose the main body of the case. The…
Condoleezza Rice, Amy Zegart, Jessica Renier
2014
Examines a hypothetic challenge facing a telecom company as it enters a frontier market that is undergoing political changes.
John Glynn, Tim Hsia
2014
The case provides an overview and history of women in venture capital. The case examines the lack of funding that female entrepreneurs have had in the past. The case focuses on 4 women at venture capital firms: Sharon Wienbar (Scale VP), Joyce Chung…
Robert Burgelman, Debra Schifrin
2014
In 2013 Basware, the Finland-based e-invoice operator and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software vendor, was going through a large and critical transition: moving from selling and installing licensed software to selling Software as a Service (SaaS)…
Glenn R. Carroll, David Hoyt
2014
In 2009, Caterpillar shipped its first D7E tractor, an “electric drive” machine in which electric motors moved the tracks and blade, using electricity from a generator powered by a diesel engine. In an industry where new products provided performance…
Sarah A Soule, Davina Drabkin
2014
Melissa Stepanis, deal team leader for Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) New York tech lending group, had been on maternity leave. When she met with her manager to discuss her anticipated return to work, she was not ready to come back. Not wanting to make…
Peter Ziebelman, Pamela Yatsko
2014
A swelling current account deficit, ballooning interest rates, and a plunging currency: These were just some of the worrisome trends in India that Krishna ‘Kittu’ Kolluri contemplated on his 20-hour return flight from Mumbai to Silicon Valley in September…
Jim Ellis, Justin Randolph
2014
The case profiles the protagonist, Luke Tashie, CEO of Yobella — a self-serve frozen yogurt retail chain that Tashie acquired via a search fund — as the company struggles post-acquisition.
The case provides an overview of Luke Tashie’s background, his…
Hau Lee, Christopher Tang
2014
As the world population exceeded 7 billion by the end of 2011, various agencies working to alleviate poverty had come to a general consensus that pure charity was not a sustainable solution. In the absence of venture capital and angel investors in…
Hau Lee, Michael Kennedy, Jonathan Elist
2014
After deciding to transform a former government-owned poultry farm in Ethiopia, two American business partners encounter challenges related to input costs, inventory management, delivery, government relations, and other key challenges that are common to…
Hau Lee, Christopher Tang, Jawad Masood
2014
In 1984, Trung Dung fled political persecution in Vietnam, the country of his birth, to arrive in the United States as a refugee with only $2 in his pocket. Over the next two decades, he proved his mettle as one of the most astute and successful…
David Miller Dodson
2014
1. Decision to transfer an African American employee to a different shift at the request of a customer that is uncomfortable with the employee’s race.
2. What, if anything, to do about promoting an existing employee to become the protagonist’s…
Sheila Melvin, Larissa Z. Tiedens, Webb McKinney, Yifat Sharabi-Levine, John Cronkite, David Hoyt, Margot Sutherland
2013
This is a role-play case, intended for use in a leadership development course for MBA students. The case has four roles, two each for students playing U.S.- and China-based managers. There are two versions of the case, one for students playing the role…
Sheila Melvin, Larissa Z. Tiedens, Webb McKinney, Yifat Sharabi-Levine, John Cronkite, David Hoyt, Margot Sutherland
2013
This is a role-play case, intended for use in a leadership development course for MBA students. The case has four roles, two each for students playing U.S.- and China-based managers. There are two versions of the case, one for students playing the role…
H. I. Grousbeck, C. G. Prober, Alexander Tauber
2013
This case uses two important examples based at the Stanford Hospital. In the first, Joe Kelly is diagnosed with fast-growing lung cancer and must quickly go through a series of chemotherapy. Joe’s path includes discussions with his wife, son, and doctor…
Ilya Strebulaev, Sara Rosenthal
2013
The Sunrun case profiles the evolution of this residential solar financing startup, focusing on the company’s milestones leading up to the Series A financing round. Founded by two GSB graduates, Ed Fenster and Lynn Jurich, together with one of Fenster’s…
David Dodson
2013
Donatella, LLC will be losing a key board member in about two years, and the current board members must work to find a new member to replace him with someone with similar operational experience. After finding Peter Jeter, the company struggles with how to…
David Dodson
2013
The Black Iris Systems vignette describes a brief scenario where the CEO of Black Iris Systems, Malcolm Briggs, receives opposing emails from two of his board members re: their differing points of view about their participation in the board. The scenario…
Michael Child, Sara Rosenthal
2013
The Tiny Prints case describes the founding of the online stationery company in 2004, through its growth and evolution to 2007. The three cofounders bootstrapped the company from the beginning, primarily so that they could retain control over the…
Robert Burgelman, Debra Schifrin
2013
The case presents the significant challenges confronting Intel in 2011 in its efforts to break into the mobile market. In the beginning of 2011, Intel dominated the microprocessor market for personal computers (PCs), but had essentially no presence in the…
Ilya A. Strebulaev, Justin Randolph
2013
The case profiles the protagonist, Vineet Rai, managing partner of Aavishkaar Venture Management Services (an Indian, early stage VC firm with a focus on rural, underserved regions and sectors), as he debates whether to make a follow-on investment in a…