LLE has grown while intentionally staying lean and relying on subcontractors, many of whom are minority-owned businesses. Now growth raises a capacity question: what should LLE own, what should it continue to outsource, and what should it access through strategic partners? Learners evaluate vertical integration, a strengthened subcontractor network, and strategic partnerships using the case's operational and mission trade-offs.
Players tasks
Have learners compare all three capacity strategies, examine fixed versus variable costs and control versus flexibility, consider the mission implications for minority subcontractors, make a recommendation for the next stage of growth, defend it, and identify one 90-day implementation action.
Learning objectives
Learners analyze make-or-buy decisions, vertical integration, fixed versus variable costs, operational flexibility, strategic partnerships, resource-constrained growth, and mission-driven capacity strategy.
About the authors
Case content and teaching direction are based on the supplied Breaking Barriers in Business Part 2 materials and teaching notes. Additional LiveCase characters are fictional composites created for immersion and are not presented as research participants.
Who is this for?
Undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship, strategic management, operations management, small business management, entrepreneurial finance, social entrepreneurship, minority entrepreneurship, and women in business.
FAQ
LiveCase is an educational and training simulation tool that immerses participants into a situation.
Please feel free to reach out to us for a demo.
Simply contact us and we'll be happy to give you a demo.
Yes! For all cases authored by LiveCase we can provide extensive Teaching Notes.
We can't make them public to avoid participants getting a hold of them, but you can simply reach out to us.
You get to choose in the next step. If you "Host" (Instruct) the case, you can pick during the setup if you want to pay for the participants or they pay by themselves.
We offer several options for payment depending on the situations
If you are Hosting
- If the participants pay for the case, they will be requested to pay before joining the case.
- If the host pays, we ask you to purchase your expected number of seats. If you need more, you can purchase more later. If you bought too many, please contact us to arrange a reimbursement.
- Get pre-approved: You can get pre-approved for Invoice billing at a later date. If interested, please reach out to us.
The purchase of the seat has no time limit except if the case is removed (hasn't happened yet), or if the methodology has changed too much.
In the extremely unlikely scenario, you can simply contact us for a reimbursement.
If there is a problem with the payment, please contact us and we will be happy to help.