In this live, web-based simulation, participants play the role of the founder of a new startup company in the exciting and competitive clean tech sector. Can you develop your technology into a successful company? Each quarter you must set prices, decide how many engineers and sales people to hire, a...
In late 2008, Vermont City Electric (VCE), a municipal electric utility company, needed to determine which investments in demand-side management (DSM) programs to undertake in the context of the budget restrictions it faced. Based on the information contained in the case, students must construct and...
In 1998, Jill Medvedow was hired as the director of Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art. Her mandate was to reinvent a museum that had no permanent collection, drew a mere 25,000 visitors a year, and had few members and almost no money. This case demonstrates how Medvedow was able to rebuild (lit...
In late 2004, Walt Bernstein, the director of production control for Toyota Motor Manufacturing’s Macon, Georgia operation, was notably frustrated with the plant manager for ChassisCo, a Toyota supplier. There were quality and conformance issues with the rear suspension cradle that ChassisCo was man...
In January 2015, after several stints at the U.S. Department of State and a New York communications consultancy, Medora Brown packed her bags and moved to Kenya to pursue a passion for social enterprise. She had been accepted as a communications fellow at Sanergy, a company providing modern sanitati...
Set in 2009, and based on interviews with and publications by MIT Sloan Professors Simon Johnson and Andrew Lo, this note describes the “why” and “how” behind the global financial crisis that hit in 2008 as well as the short-term and long-range solutions being publicly advocated by Johnson and Lo.
Focuses on the role of the learning curve in building competitive advantage, asking how SunPower can compete against rivals that are many times larger in an industry that is almost certainly subject to significant learning effects; and introduce students to the challenges inherent in investing in al...
Facilitates a discussion on making decisions under pressure, when the available information is insufficient. Allows understanding of team dynamics and facilitating a productive discussion under duress when there is no single decision maker. Encourages consideration about managing people over whom yo...
In 2011 Rich Piltch, founder and CEO of ARS, a full-service restoration and reconstruction company based in New England, and the owners of three other restoration and reconstruction companies founded Restoration Affiliates (RA), a network of independent, full-service disaster restoration companies. ...
Generates class discussion on the challenges entrepreneurs and startups face in commercializing a unique, niche-oriented technology, particularly when the funding that is available may well lead them down a less desirable strategic path.
