R. Ellis, Mike Harkey, Garth Saloner
2005
Mother and son tandem Toby and Greg Waldorf started Destination-U, an online college matching service, in April 2004. Greg had a deep background in start-ups and technology companies, most notably as an early investor in eHarmony, an online dating…
Garth Saloner, Angie Strange, Alex Tauber, Amanda West
2005
The vignette starts at the time Jo Anne Heywood was promoted to be the CEO of Converged Networks. This promotion was almost by coincidence. That is, Heywood had just been hired as the CTO of Converged Networks as the company prepared to raise its third…
Garth Saloner, Angie Strange, Alex Tauber, Amanda West
2005
The vignette is a continuation of the Jo Anne Heywood (A) vignette. In the first vignette, Heywood wonders how she should approach her first Board meeting with the news that sales have significantly missed projections. In the (B) vignette, although…
Emily Melton, Garth Saloner
2005
The vignette briefly recounts the story of how Katrina Garnett single-handedly launched Crossworlds, a successful enterprise application company. The vignette then focuses on two issues that Garnett must wrestle with as she tries to “manage” her Board of…
Aisa Aiyer, Carly Irestone, Garth Saloner, Alex Tauber
2005
The vignette starts by presenting Rosemary Brooks’ background. After seven years at Lockheed, Brooks was interested in joining a company where she could take more of a “customer facing” role. Brooks’ healthy appetite for risk, her desire to make an impact…
Carly Irestone, Kathryn Shaw, Angela Shelton, Alex Tauber
2005
This vignette chronicles how the birth of Sheryle Bolton’s second son with a life threatening illness made Bolton reconsider her professional ambitions. Her son’s misfortune had grounded Bolton in the belief that whatever she did professionally had to…
Hau Lee, Barchi Peleg, Seungjin Whang
2005
The Toyota demand chain is efficient, flexible, customer oriented and product specific. The case studies how Toyota uses its advanced distribution channels, inventory management, planning methodologies and production capabilities to create and manage its…
Hau Lee, Barchi Peleg, Seungjin Whang
2005
The Toyota Motor Co. Ltd, in addition to its world class supply and demand chain management practices, excels in managing its service chain. The service chain, which the company views as key to its long term success, is responsible for providing products…
David Hoyt, Hau Lee
2005
In early 2005, the market for cement in Mexico was changing. The market, particularly in northern Mexico, had traditionally consisted primarily of sales of bagged cement, which was common in developing economies. There appeared to be a shift to bulk…
Victoria Chang, Garth Saloner
2004
Capital One CEO and founder, Rich Fairbank had much to be proud of both in terms of his and co-founder, Nigel Morris’ accomplishments, and the accomplishments of Capital One. However, he and Morris didn’t want to rest on their laurels. In 2000, they had…
Philip Meza, Garth Saloner
2004
This case examines Overture Services, Inc., the Internet search engine and online advertising company that was acquired by Yahoo!. Overture was a leader in the market for sponsored search, in which a search engine sells to advertisers keywords that users…
Charles Catalano, John Roberts
2004
In December 2003, Paolo Rocca, Chairman and CEO of Tenaris S.A., could look back on a momentous first year for the company. Much had been accomplished since Tenaris, a leading global supplier of seamless steel pipe and related services, had been formed…
Lyn Denend, Hau Lee
2004
In January 2003, West Marine (the nation’s largest boating supply retailer) was on the verge of acquiring its biggest competitor — BoatUS. Several years earlier, the company had acquired E&B Marine, another boating supply company of a similar size…
Robert Burgelman, Philip Meza
2003
Digital media (legitimate and otherwise) was one of the few bright spots for high technology companies in the middle of a deep and protracted recession. These demands left computer makers, and builders of components such as microprocessors, software…
Jamie Earle, Garth Saloner, Jeffrey Skoll
2003
Circles is a company that runs employee and customer loyalty programs for enterprises. The company was founded by two GSB alumnae in the late 90s. The case describes the idea formation process, the founding of the company, various dilemmas management had…
John Glynn Jr., Andrea Higuera
2002
This case examines how the investment professionals at the Shoreline Investment Management Company, the wholly owned subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard (HP) that manages HP and Agilent Technologies’ corporate pension plans, evaluate venture capital funds…
Peter Laub, James Phills
2002
A non-profit organization founded in 1990, Innermotion was a dance company that presented performances based on themes related to incest and childhood sexual abuse as well as therapeutic workshops for survivors of such abuse. The organization consisted of…
Garth Saloner, Janet Feldstein
2002
Scott Brady, Dave Leeds, Harpinder “Harpi” Singh Madan, and Eric Botto met at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) at the height of the dot-com boom. Harpi and Dave first met in 1998 as first-year students in Stanford’s MBA program. Both came…
David Hoyt, Hau Lee, Enrique Lopez-Tello
2001
In June 1998, Lucent Technologies had the opportunity to win a major contract to supply a Y2K compliant network to Saudi Arabia. The Lucent facility that managed business with Saudi Arabia, and manufactured products for that region, was in Spain. In…
Katherine Doornik, John Roberts
2001
Nokia Corporation is a global telecommunications company that in eight years went from a near-bankrupt conglomerate to a global leader in mobile telephony, delivering almost 30 percent annual compound growth in revenues during 1992-2000 while shedding…
Tyee Harpster, Garth Saloner, A. Michael Spence, Meredith Unruh
2000
In April 1999, Matt Glickman, CEO and co-founder of BabyCenter, an online provider of content, community, and commerce for new and expectant parents, was facing many new competitors. Pure-play online baby companies kept popping up and traditional…
Eric Marti, Garth Saloner, A. Michael Spence
2000
This business case study describes the traditional dealership channel for retailing new cars, and provides data on how the dealership value chain was coming under attack in late 1999 from online buying services (OBSs) and others. The case presents…
Garth Saloner, A. Michael Spence, Christopher Thomas, Elizabeth Urban
2000
Many resources are required to turn business ideas into established, successful companies: funding, business strategy development, human resources, technology, real estate, finance and accounting, as well as the basics - photocopiers and office space. To…
Katherine McIntyre, Ezra Perlman, Garth Saloner, A. Michael Spence
2000
One of the first bricks and mortar retailers to venture online, Gap Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, was widely considered an e-commerce pioneer in an industry renowned for its resistance to change. Long before other apparel companies were even…