This note focuses on the fundamentals of managing process flows. A process viewpoint is useful when the goal is to manage operational metrics such as capacity, cost, inventory, or responsiveness. The note examines Little's Law, the fundamental relationship among three important metrics: average inventory, average throughput time, and average throughput rate in any system that is in equilibrium.

Rakesh Gupta sits in his new office at Nariman Point, Mumbai contemplating the future of OceanCove, which in the last two years has grown from a single seafood restaurant to a chain of five restaurants. Aware that aggressive expansion is planned in 2002 and worried about the recent proliferation of moderately expensive restaurants serving international cuisine in India, Gunta must consider a proposal to increase the size of the existing restaurants from 120 seats to 160 seats. His immediate concern is whether accepting this proposal will necessitate changing OceanCove's operating processes. The case is accompanied by a queuing simulation of the restaurant operation, implemented in Flash. Students can observe Little's Law in action and develop intuition about the operational impact of a change in demand or a change in processing rates within the restaurant.

This video walks the viewer through the student team project component of an MBA elective that focuses on the process of developing a new product or service, from idea to working prototype. For the team project, each student team identifies an unmet market, develops a working prototype of a new product to fulfill that need, and showcases the product and the process used in a design fair at the end of the class ADDITIONAL MATERIALS: Video tape #M1250

This case focuses on product design as a source of competitive advantage. In the late 1990s, Carrier France faced extremely high labor and overhead costs relative to smaller Italian competitors in one segment. The only way Carrier could compete was by designing a product with low labor costs. While one design alternative would lower assembly costs and space requirements, market acceptance was unpredictable. Relative to another more conservative design alternative, a delayed launch was likely. The case contains rich qualitative and quantitative information on the costs and benefits of the two Aquasnap design concepts in consideration, and focuses on which alternative to introduce.

Our Daily Bread wasa small boutique bakery, producing a variety of daily and specialty breads. The company had excess capacity and was considering several options to increase revenues by entering the wholesale bread production business. The case allows students to perform process analysis in a multi-product setting with seasonal demand and evaluate the impact on capacity--as well as the profitability of--potential wholesale orders. The case also enables analysis of the option to purchase new equipment. This case is available in a multimedia CD version that highlights the stages in bread making and provides a bird's eye view of the entire operation. (UVA-OM-1018M).

This B case allows students who have completed the Tastee Snax Cookie Company case (UVA-OM-0803) to analyze how the duration of project described in that case can be most cost-effectively shortened.

Our Daily Bread wasa small boutique bakery, producing a variety of daily and specialty breads. The company had excess capacity and was considering several options to increase revenues by entering the wholesale bread production business. The case allows students to perform process analysis in a multi-product setting with seasonal demand and evaluate the impact on capacity--as well as the profitability of--potential wholesale orders. The case also enables analysis of the option to purchase new equipment. This case is available in a multimedia CD version that highlights the stages in bread making and provides a bird's eye view of the entire operation. (UVA-OM-1018M).

This case focuses on product design as a source of competitive advantage. In the late 1990s, Carrier France faced extremely high labor and overhead costs relative to smaller Italian competitors in one segment. The only way Carrier could compete was by designing a product with low labor costs. While one design alternative would lower assembly costs and space requirements, market acceptance was unpredictable. Relative to another more conservative design alternative, a delayed launch was likely. The case contains rich qualitative and quantitative information on the costs and benefits of the two Aquasnap design concepts in consideration, and focuses on which alternative to introduce.

This note teaches students at all levels how to establish a board for a new venture, explaining why it is necessary, how to attract the right members, how to compensate them, how to distinguish advisors versus directors, how to deal with board conflicts.

Ideal for a study of entrepreneurship as a phenomenon, this note explores the difference between causal models and effectuation. Whereas causal models focus on maximizing returns by selecting optimal strategies, effectuation begins with a determination of how much one is willing to lose and leveraging limited means in creative ways to generate new ends as well as new means. The effectuator then uses the very process of building the venture to bring other stakeholders on board and creatively leverages slack resources available in the world. At each stage of the process he or she chooses options that create more options in the future.

What are the characteristics, habits, and behaviors of the species entrepreneur? Is there such a thing as "entrepreneurial thinking"? Is there a learnable and teachable "core" to entrepreneurship? The author studied the problem-solving process of 30 entrepreneurs from a variety of industries whose companies ranged in value from $200 million to $6.5 billion. Careful analysis revealed a distinct thought process: "effectual reasoning." Using U-Haul as an example, she delineates the way in which entrepreneurs factor in affordable loss, strategic partnerships, and leveraging contingencies. Thinking entrepreneurially, as opposed to managerially or strategically, means believing in a yet-to-be-made future that can be shaped by human action, and realizing that to the extent that such action can control the future, they need not expend energies trying to predict it. It is much more useful to understand and work with the people who are engaged in the decisions and actions that bring it into existence.

Students at all levels explore the psychology of entrepreneurship and new product branding and marketing as a young IBM executive decides whether to become an entrepreneur. He must evaluate his business plan; seek advisors; and decide how much money it will take to get started. His product idea? On-the-go water for dogs. With market research complete and a team of advisors assembled, he must decide whether to take the plunge.

This technical note explores a framework by which entrepreneurs can evaluate their ideas before going forward based on who they are, what they know, and whom they know. Drawing on frameworks presented in textbooks, trade books, journal articles, periodicals, and on Web sites that claim to predict the feasibility and value of new venture ideas. Figure 1 depicts a simple and useful summary of four key concepts at the heart of many of these frameworks: Is it doable? Is it worth doing? Can I do it? Do I want to do it? These questions address feasibility from a technical, market, financial, organizational, and motivational standpoint.

This note reflects a new focus on "effectuation," the logic behind entrepreneurial expertise, which consists of tacit as well as learnable and teachable aspects of experience that are related to high performance in specific domains. Instead of taking either traits or circumstances as inputs and trying to explain variance in performance, the expertise lens focuses on understanding commonalties across a variety of experts in a single domain, given high levels of performance. Effectuation matters, not merely because expert entrepreneurs prefer an effectual logic over a causal one, but because of the details it offers of a comprehensive alternative frams for tackling entrepreneurial problems. Which fram entrepreneurs use influences how they formulate problems; what alternatives they perceive and generate; which constraints they accept, reject, and/or manipulate and how; and why they heed certain criteria over others in fabricating and implementing new solutions. Logical framing matters because it makes a real difference in the world and makes a world of difference in the reality entrepreneurs perceive and make possibel or impossible.

This note examines the pros and cons of two ways to build new ventures. The former is called causal or predictive, because it depends on accurate predictions and clear goals. The latter is effectual or nonpredictive, and it is extremely stakeholder-dependent and means-driven. It is very tempting to jump to the conclusion that the latter is the better way since it is overwhelmingly preferred by expert entrepreneurs. But is that really so?