IB86B
Bruce McKern, Lyn Denend
2009
In 2008, TNK-BP was in conflict. Representatives from BP and AAR (the two partners that owned TNK-BP) were at a stand-off regarding the company’s leadership, partner representation, and their division of power. BP was criticized by TNK-BP’s Russian…
E330B
George Foster, David Hoyt
2009
This case continues the story of Focus Media begun in E-330A, with developments in 2008. During this year, the company’s stock collapsed, and it ended the year by selling its core business to SINA, a company that it had contemplated purchasing at the end…
A202
Nathan Blair, Maureen McNichols
2009
Dennis Kozlowski took over the helm of Tyco International, Ltd. (Tyco) in 1992. By the end of its 2001 fiscal year, Kozlowski’s Tyco had made over 100 announced acquisitions with total revenues in excess of $30 billion (Exhibit 1). Kozlowski’s strategy…
E353
Victoria Chang, Riad Dimechkie, Jessica Jackley, Garth Saloner, Carla Sayegh
2009
This case study captures the rich history of Silkor, a Lebanese laser medical center started by brother and sister team, Oscar and Lara Tarakjian. The case study tells the story of the founding of Silkor, and focuses on the expansion issues the company…
E360
Mark Leslie, Mark Stevens, Claire Magat
2009
The case opens with Dave Hersh, CEO of Jive Software, calling an all-hands meeting. After a record revenue year in 2007, Jive grew its sales force too quickly and missed its third quarter plan for 2008. Hersh was forced to conduct a massive lay-off…
E350B
Mark Leslie, Katherine Bose
2009
“Levi Strauss & Co.” explores the decision by the famed jeans maker to close a manufacturing facility in San Antonio, Texas in early 1990. The case follows then-vice president of operations Pete Thigpen and his team as they wrestle with the economic and…
E365
R. Ellis, Lacey Wismer
2009
As he nears graduation from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Pat Smith is considering his career plans. He wants to be an entrepreneur, but he has no start-up idea of his own. He is interested in entrepreneurship through acquisition and, based…
A203
Nathan Blair, Maureen McNichols
2009
This case takes an in-depth look at the events and causes leading to the U.S. government bailout of American International Group. Source material includes testimony before Congress, AIG’s public disclosures and various news articles. The case tells the…
A197
George Foster, Martin Haemmig, Ning Jia, Sara Leslie, Joseph Piotroski, Jennie Tung
2009
Since its official launch in January 2000, Baidu.com, Inc. (Baidu) quickly grew to become the leading Internet search engine in China. After three rounds of private funding, Baidu registered to go public on the NASDAQ Stock Market (Ticker Symbol: BIDU)…
EM6
Victoria Chang, William Guttentag, Roderick Kramer
2009
Kevin Reilly, at forty-six years old, had one of his first television executive experiences in the drama department at NBC, had-like many others-experienced his fair share of drama. What he described as the “three toughest years of my career” were at NBC…
HR34
Hayagreeva Rao, Pamela Yatsko
2009
When Chris Chen founded VanceInfo Technologies in Beijing in 1995, the firm had 25 employees and one low-end IT services outsourcing project for a U.S. multinational. By August 2008, through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, VanceInfo…
E371
Andrew Rachleff, Bethany Coates
2009
As Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, drove to his fledgling company’s board meeting in September 2007, he thought about what he wanted to accomplish. His plan for the three-month-old start-up, a video distribution website born out of a joint venture (JV) between…
E355
Victoria Chang, Jessica Jackley, Garth Saloner
2009
This case study tells the story of Shona McDonald, founder and managing director of South African company, Shonaquip. The company designed, manufactured, and supplied mobility equipment, as well as augmentative and alternative communication devices for…
E350C
Mark Leslie, Katherine Bose
2009
“Levi Strauss & Co.” explores the decision by the famed jeans maker to close a manufacturing facility in San Antonio, Texas in early 1990. The case follows then-vice president of operations Pete Thigpen and his team as they wrestle with the economic and…
E330A
George Foster, David Hoyt
2009
In 2003, Focus Media pioneered digital outdoor advertising in China, placing LCD displays in locations in leading commercial buildings that had high traffic and waiting times, such as lobbies and elevator waiting areas. The company leased space from…
IB86A
Bruce McKern, Lyn Denend
2009
On February 11, 2003, British Petroleum (BP) and a consortium of Russian investors, called Alfa/Access/Renova (AAR), first announced their intention to create a strategic partnership to jointly hold their oil and gas assets in Russia and Ukraine. The…
IB80
Gary Mekikian, John Roberts
2009
This note examines the history of the IT services industry and provides a detailed analysis of the market and its players during the period between the adoption of the personal computer as a business and consumer computing device from the early 1990s up…
CG16
David Larcker, Brian Tayan
2009
Berkshire Hathaway is known to many as the investment vehicle of Warren E. Buffett. To some extent, this reputation is well founded, given the investment success that the company has enjoyed under his leadership. Less attention, however, has been paid…
CG17A
David Larcker, Robert Lawson, Brian Tayan
2009
In January 2004, the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies announced that it would reduce its estimate of proved oil reserves by nearly 4 billion barrels, or 20 percent. The announcement set off a series of events, including a drop in the company’s share…
IB98
William Barnett, Sara Gaviser Leslie
2009
Nanosolar was founded in 2002 in San Jose, California. Nanosolar’s innovative approach to photovoltaic solar power made it one of the most visible clean technology start-ups, and had attracted high-profile venture capital. The firm had made progress in…
E311
Bethany Coates, Charles Holloway
2009
In March 2007, the staff at TerraPass (TRP), a for-profit carbon offset provider headquartered in San Francisco, decided to take a 30-minute break from the conference room in which they had been meeting. Tom Arnold, the CEO, and Alicia Seiger, the VP of…
GS66
Hau Lee, Maria Shao
2009
In November 2007, a global, cross-functional team at Cisco Systems, Inc. was seeking management approval to start manufacturing a new router, code-named Viking. The team faced a host of challenges in launching the low-cost but powerful router for…
E325
John Glynn Jr., Claire Magat, Peter Ziebelman
2009
John Dean and Danny Lui began raising their first fund as Startup Capital Ventures (SCV), a small venture capital firm in 2005. They made a soft commitment to invest 15-20% of their first $25MM fund in China. They made their first Chinese investment in…
E372
Annie Adams, Lyn Denend, Sarah Garrett, Whit Keuer, Garth Saloner
2009
Dr. Kalpana Sankar, CEO of Hand in Hand, was exhausted after an all-day meeting of the organization’s executive team at its headquarters in Kanchipuram, India. As she prepared for a drive to Chennai, she dreaded the traffic she would face. However, the…
