E200
Robert Chess, Mark Leslie, Joshua Spitzer
2006
The case follows the Connetics, a biotechnology and pharmaceutical company, from its founding in 1993 through the final clinical trials of its flagship drug compound in 2000. Through that time, the company had experienced the failure of another compound…
E227
H. Grousbeck, Joshua Spitzer
2006
“Tea Collection” presents several dilemmas faced by Leigh Rawdon, Tea Collection’s co-founder and CEO. Rawdon and two partners launched the company in 2002 to design and sell what she calls “lifestyle products that celebrate the beauty of cultures around…
E230
James Lattin, Mark Leslie, Joshua Spitzer
2006
“Nektar Therapeutics” examines a drug program within a biopharmaceutical company that specializes in drug delivery and formulation technologies. Through the company’s 16-year history, it developed technologies and then established partnerships that would…
E235
H. Grousbeck, Alex Tauber
2006
This case chronicles the travails of two young entrepreneurs who conducted a search fund in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After running out of acquisition options, the entrepreneurs decided to pursue a start-up in the billboard industry. The case then…
E225
Katherine Bose, Mike Harkey, Garth Saloner
2006
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…
HR27
David Hoyt, Hayagreeva Rao
2006
Rite-Solutions, a software company headquartered in Rhode Island, was founded by two successful executives that had seen innovation stifled in traditional companies. They observed that people with ideas generally had to present them to management for…
E223
Robert Chess, Joshua Spitzer
2006
“Napo Pharmaceuticals” chronicles entrepreneur Lisa Conte’s two ventures, Shaman Pharmaceuticals and Napo Pharmaceuticals. Shaman was formed to make drug discovery and development more efficient by studying traditional, indigenous healers in the tropics…
E216
John Glynn Jr., Alex Tauber, Peter Ziebelman
2006
This case is used in the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital class. Its purpose is to present to students: • The not-so-frequently discussed reality of when venture capitalist board members see a company’s performance deteriorate drastically to the point…
GS40
Hau Lee, Seungjin Whang
2006
Founded in 1987, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was the world’s first pure foundry, focused solely on the manufacturing of semiconductors. Operating in the cyclical semiconductor market, the company managed to grow rapidly and to…
GS46
Hau Lee, Guy Michlin
2006
In 2005, Erez Meltzer, the president and CEO of Netafim (the world leading manufacturer of drip irrigation equipment), was wondering whether Netafim’s supply chain was strong enough to support the change in strategy he was planning for the company…
GS49
Charles Holloway, David Hoyt, Hau Lee
2006
In November 2005, Microsoft prepared for a global launch of its next-generation game console, the Xbox 360. Microsoft’s original Xbox had been introduced a year behind Sony’s Playstation. The Xbox 360 would beat Sony’s next-generation system to market by…
GS51
Mike Gozycki, M. Johnson, Hau Lee
2006
Geoff O’Neill had led the implementation of a ground-breaking Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) inventory tracking system for Woolworths in the U.K. Bringing together leading edge technologies to build the first such commercial tracking system…
E217
John Glynn Jr., Alex Tauber
2006
This case is used in the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital class. Its purpose is to introduce students to the Venture Leasing or Lending Industry by: • Focusing on the history and operations of Western Technology Investment, one of the pioneers in this…
E218
Katherine Bose, John Glynn Jr.
2006
The protagonist is Bruce Dunlevie, a cofounder of venture firm Benchmark Capital. In early 2007, Dunlevie and his partners are faced with whether to expand their firm into China and/or India, as many other well-respected VC firms had been doing at the…
GS53
Luis Blancas, Hau Lee
2006
This case is about inter-firm IT-enabled supply chain collaboration and focuses on supplier-manufacturer collaboration. In order to assess collaboration from a holistic point of view, the case describes the distinct role played by the various parties…
E219
Dick Allen, Mike Harkey
2006
In 1978, Bill Torres launched Serrot, a plastic linings company, with $6,500 of his own money. Over time, he moved the company from its initial focus (manufacturing plastic linings for the mining industry) into new markets, e.g., installation and waste…
BME6
Margaret Eaton, Mark Xu
2006
In 1987, Eli Lilly began to market Prozac, the first available drug in a new class of psychotropic drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Prozac, and other SSRIs that followed it, revolutionized the treatment of depression and…
GS50
Hau Lee, Seungjin Whang
2006
With 26 casinos in 13 U.S. states and $4.5 billion in revenue in 2003, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. was one of the leading brand names in the casino entertainment industry. Bill Harrah, the founder of Harrah’s, was passionate about getting to know his…
SPM26
George Foster, Victoria Chang
2005
In 2005, Electronic Arts (EA) led the interactive entertainment sports category of the electronic gaming industry, developing games for multiple hardware platforms. Sports-related games accounted for more than one-third of EA’s revenue. EA’s Madden NFL…
SM143
David Brady, Vish Narain
2005
Mukesh Ambani, the CEO of India’s largest business house, Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) was contemplating a major decision that could significantly affect the future of his company, as well as the telecommunications landscape in India. By 2002, GSM…
SM142
V. Viard, Pamela Yatsko
2005
When Robert Labatt took over ezboard’s helm in 2004, he faced a quandary: How to turn the company’s essentially free information product into a paid product that would earn enough revenue to satisfy ezboard’s increasingly impatient investors? At the time…
SM141
Charles Bonini, William Meehan III, Brian Tayan
2005
Nongovernmental organizations have become an increasingly important intermediary for international development. This class note explains how the nongovernmental organization has evolved and the role they play in the early 90s as agencies and nonprofit…
OIT46
Lyn Denend, Stefanos Zenios
2005
By the mid-1980s, it was clear that not all transplant centers in the growing organ transplantation market were able to achieve and sustain the same levels of quality and high rates of transplant procedure success. Similarly, significant variation had…
IB58
Lyn Denend, R. McKern
2005
When India gained its independence in 1947, the country embarked on a journey to establish a democracy and representative government, define a plan for economic development, and build a society within which its large, diverse, and fragmented population…
