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Graham Weaver
Graham Weaver
This case tells the story of Graham Weaver, a young entrepreneur, as he forms and grows a private equity company over the course of three years. While still a student at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Graham began a search process to acquire a small company. Having purchased his first company, a label manufacturer, in 1998, he goes on to acquire six more in the same space, all of which he now owns under the umbrella Alpine Ventures. As CEO of Alpine, and chairman of all six companies, Graham’s plate is constantly full not only of “big picture” company growth and management issues, but also smaller scale matters including hiring and firing company personnel, providing guidance, support, and development for company management, and other leadership conundra. The case is structured around four main dilemma, all of which Graham must bring to resolution within a 24 hour period. The first is an incident of possible sexual misconduct at one of the companies. The second concerns a major slip-up by a valued consultant at another company; the consultant inadvertently sent a private email – one that discusses employment status of top personnel – to unintended recipients. The third situation addresses the ‘in-fighting’ going on between top management at yet another company; Graham needs to intervene to squelch the constant battling between the company president and the head of sales. Finally, Graham needs to fire a long-time employee, and must decide how to handle the delicate process, including timing and wording, as well as compensation.