Ethos - Spirit of the Community (Ethos), a sustainable tourism company in Sa Pa, Vietnam, existed to support a wide variety of environmental and social initiatives that benefited members of local, ethnic minority groups. In early 2019, the organization’s founders were working with 22 female tour guides and 260 ethnic minority host families to offer sustainable and socially responsible treks in the region. However, their ability to continue was in jeopardy due to changing regulations that would affect the working status of the company’s local trekking guides. Addressing this change was essential because the business depended on the local women who led Ethos tour groups, and the new requirement could mean Ethos’s underlying business model could fall apart, undermining its ability to support related environmental and social initiatives. How could the founders ensure that Ethos would survive as a long-term venture that was able to make a difference in the lives of the local people while also accomplishing their own long-term goals?
In early 2019, arc Thrift Stores was supporting 14 Colorado chapters of the Arc, an organization that advocated for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) in schools, helped individuals with I/DD live more independently, and supported legislation regarding their rights all across the state. The chief executive officer and marketing director of arc Thrift Stores were reviewing a survey they hoped would help them understand arc Thrift Stores’ customers and broaden the interest in arc Thrift Stores among younger generations. By all measures, arc Thrift Stores was very profitable, but its core audience was aging, and the team wanted to ensure that it continued the successes of its past 50 years into the next 50 years. The company wanted people to understand the value of shopping their stores and the quality of items they could expect to find there. How could the company make inroads with a younger demographic? Should it focus more on sustainability? Should it consider moving into the e-commerce space?
In mid-2015, the founders of what3words, a technology start-up in London, England, were eager to position their company for growth. After having financed their two-year entrepreneurial journey with the help of angel investors, they were preparing to meet with a strategic investor to finance the next level of growth. The strategic investor needed to know that the founders had a clear path to profitability and a strategy for continued growth in order to secure long-term business potential. How could the founders create an action plan to move the start-up from surviving to thriving?
In early 2017, the directors at Protospace, a makerspace in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, faced some challenges. The nine-year-old member-run organization operated as a “do-ocracy,” with a minimum of official oversight. However, the directors and some of the membership wondered whether Protospace could and should scale its growth by recruiting and accepting new members. Would a larger membership help or hinder the membership-driven makerspace? Should the organization hire a staff member so that members would have more time to work on their projects? What would be the implications of a having larger membership and a paid staff member?
In January 2016, two entrepreneurial brothers attended an academic conference on small business and entrepreneurship to sell their product, the Online Venture Challenge, a web-based software-as-a-service retail simulation system. The brothers also hoped to demonstrate their second product idea, Launchboard, an interactive product that enabled users to make development plans and record their progress. Both products were intended as tools for entrepreneurship educators. The brothers did not have much success selling their first product during the conference, but two professors wanted to use Launchboard that semester. The brothers needed to decide how to position their product line. Should the Online Venture Challenge be promoted as one primary product that offered multiple complementary features? Or should their two products be positioned as two separate but complementary products? Or was it better to have two stand-alone products and two corresponding businesses? The brothers needed to better understand their own business ideas to determine the approach they should take. Fittingly, Launchboard, the new tool they had created, might actually help them to do just that.
The case, set in 2012 and 2013, follows two students enrolled in a business accelerator program who experience the uncertainty of creating an idea from an interesting sandbox, or broad problem space, (in this case, the construction industry) and then developing it into an innovative idea for a new business. The two students elicit a broad range of feedback from individuals in the construction industry and use that feedback to develop their venture idea. The case is process-focused in that there is not one right answer in terms of how the students should proceed with developing their idea. Instead, the case provides an opportunity to practise making decisions based on external feedback.
In 2012, an entrepreneur and his business partner have created ServiceBox, a web-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) work order management system for use in plumbing and heating businesses. The product was developed in response to a request from a friend, who owns a plumbing business. The entrepreneur is now ready to sell this product, relying on a subscription-based SaaS business model for revenue. He has scheduled a meeting with a heating contractor and is ready to sell. This case presents an exercise in sales negotiation, in which the entrepreneur (whose perspective is provided in Case A) works to sell a subscription to the heating contractor (whose perspective in provided in Case B). Students have an opportunity to practise sales promotion and selling for an entrepreneurial venture. Use with 9B16M016.
In December 2013, an entrepreneur based in Orange, a small town in Australia, is considering the difficulties besetting his five-year-old start-up, the Orange Watch Company. He faces seemingly insurmountable challenges: his business is located far away from major cities; Australia is not close to the demand or supply market for high-end watches and watch parts, which is largely in Asia and Europe; and he has limited financial resources. Yet he continues to persist in his efforts to grow the firm. He has come close to bankruptcy several times and his venture is far from being able to provide a steady stream of income. He is wondering whether to continue to push forward or if he should shut his business down.
The newly appointed director of Innovation Management & Strategy at Boehringer Ingelheim, a German-based multinational pharmaceutical company, is finding his way forward in his firm’s new, first-of-its-kind role, which is central to the company’s growth rejuvenation strategy. His job has a threefold mandate: to build internal networks, to establish internal structures and to leverage internal ideas. His biggest challenge, however, may be transforming the organization’s DNA. The blockbuster business model that has characterized the company for decades is no longer appropriate. Instead, the firm needs to develop healthcare products available to end users over the counter. This shift in strategy requires innovative changes in distribution, delivery and customer focus. To accomplish this goal, he needs to institutionalize innovation so that it becomes sustainable. But in doing so, he must also identify the metrics for assessing progress. The case provides an opportunity for students to step into the shoes of an innovation leader, to develop an innovation roadmap for the organization in the face of uncertainty and to understand how to engage in innovation leadership at various levels of a global enterprise.
An entrepreneur has a venture idea that he believes can be successful. After his family’s farm was sold to a company, the entrepreneur was contacted by the new owners and asked for help finding farmers to rent the land. This request formed the seed of his idea that a website could be used to link farmers with landowners for the purpose of land rental. Following an invitation to submit an application to a local business pitch competition, the entrepreneur faces many questions about what steps he should take to launch the business, specifically what he should do, how he should do it and when and why he should take these actions. The entrepreneur is also challenged to act entrepreneurial in the face of uncertainty.
Supplement to 9B14M015. This case highlights many of the changes that were made at General Mills Canada to build an innovative culture. The results were positive, however, not all employees were convinced that being innovative would enhance, not harm, their careers. This follow-up case explores what else can be done to more fully build the culture of innovation, focusing especially on the challenges of cultural change.
The president of General Mills Canada wants to build a culture of innovation in his firm. Prior to a senior management meeting in 2010 to review the company’s plans for 2011 and beyond, he met with the vice-president of Human Resources and asked him to provide feedback and suggestions about what the organization could do to change its corporate culture. A conservative organization with a collegial atmosphere where consensus and support were essential to moving projects ahead, General Mills Canada had developed an analysis-based, detail-oriented culture that was not necessarily conducive to innovation. This case provides an opportunity to engage in a discussion about the uncertainty faced by senior management in terms of specifically how to build a culture of innovation. While the senior leaders know they want to build a culture of innovation, the real question is how they should go about doing this. Also available is supplement case 9B14M016.
In 2009, an entrepreneur believes in the potential of Readeo, his idea for a website that combines the love of reading with video calling. He sees Readeo as a solution that would allow, for example, his son to interact and spend quality time connecting with his grandparents. The entrepreneur has several important factors to consider as he works to launch his website. The case explores the challenges that he faces in the midst of uncertainty. While he knows he wants to start the business, the real question is how he should go about doing this.
This case describes AskTheDoctor.com, a web site that allows users to ask medical doctors questions for free, and the challenges facing its founders in 2010. While AskTheDoctor.com has exhibited steady growth since its inception in 2005, the owners are uncertain about the future of the site and where to take it next. One partner is keen on selling the company, while the other wants to develop a partnership with a technology firm. Students can evaluate these options from a variety of perspectives. The case also addresses the distinct differences between the actions underlying entrepreneurial discovery and entrepreneurial creation.
This case describes AskTheDoctor.com, a web site that allows users to ask medical doctors questions for free, and the challenges facing its founders in 2010. While AskTheDoctor.com has exhibited steady growth since its inception in 2005, the owners are uncertain about the future of the site and where to take it next. One partner is keen on selling the company, while the other wants to develop a partnership with a technology firm. Students can evaluate these options from a variety of perspectives. The case also addresses the distinct differences between the actions underlying entrepreneurial discovery and entrepreneurial creation.
The founder of Play On!, a national street hockey tournament, is in the process of reviewing his venture and determining what led to its failure in 2006. The case focuses on entrepreneurial decision-making, opportunity identification, and the ability to adapt to the environment given new information. This is a two-part case: the first case focuses on the founder's review of his venture in 2006. The supplemental case,Play On! Weighing the Option to Restart, product # 9B10M075, focuses on whether the founder should restart the venture.
The founder of Play On!, a national street hockey tournament, is in the process of reviewing his venture and determining what led to its failure in 2006. The case focuses on entrepreneurial decision-making, opportunity identification, and the ability to adapt to the environment given new information. This is a two-part case: the first case, Play On! Building the Entrepreneurial Opportunity, product #9B10M074, focuses on the founder's review of his venture in 2006. This supplemental case focuses on whether the founder should restart the venture.