Andrea Kaneb had worn hearing aids for thirty years and had extensive first-hand consumer experience with available assistive hearing devices. In her view, the products she had tried were too expensive and underperformed with respect to user needs and desires. From January through August 2015, Kaneb and three of her fellow MBA students completed a two-semester, team-based, capstone project course in their MBA Program, during which they developed and assessed a new venture opportunity; wrote a business plan; and presented it to a panel of experienced entrepreneurs / investors. Kaneb's project team undertook significant primary and secondary research as a basis for analyzing the feasibility of a new venture aimed at commercializing an innovative assistive hearing system that would be superior to competing products. The topics of their feasibility analysis included: (1) The Opportunity; (2) The Micro-Market (customers, particularly initial customers); (3) The Macro-Market; (4) The Macro-Industry (especially competition); (5) The Micro-Industry (sources of competitive advantage); (6) The Business Model; (7) The Entrepreneurial Team; and (8) Projected Financial Performance. In December 2015, she met with her professor to review progress and to discuss next steps in her exploration of the opportunity. She needed to determine the most critical uncertainties that would need to be addressed before she approached investors; to develop alternative approaches for addressing those uncertainties; and to decide which approaches she would implement, and how. The case study is designed to serve as a final exam and / or topic for the case discussion in the final class of an introductory course in entrepreneurship - during which students have explored each of these issues via readings, case discussions and interactions with guest entrepreneurs.
EnerNOC - a clean energy company -- sells energy-monitoring, management and efficiency services to utility customers, who agree to reduce consumption during peak-period emergencies in exchange for payments throughout the year. Utilities sign long term contracts with EnerNOC for delivery of "negawatts", i.e. the reduced consumption of electricity during peak periods, as a way to avoid adding power generating capacity. EnerNOC is undergoing explosive growth and must manage the build out of its energy management system, as well as the growth and evolution of its sales force. This case can be used in a variety of courses. In an entrepreneurship course, it can be the basis for a discussion of entrepreneurial opportunities in the clean energy sector, as well as the challenges of managing rapid growth. In a marketing class, it can be used to discuss the concept of adjacent markets. It can be used to stimulate a discussion of a broad range of issues in a sales management class: rewards systems; identification of sales skills in potential employees; entry into a new market; sales training; and so forth. It can be used in MBA level courses and in upper level undergraduate courses.
Looks at two MBA classmates who are considering launching their own new venture. Discusses the process of identifying and confronting both the attractive aspects and the worrisome uncertainties involved in a start up. Allows for development and discussion of alternative strategies for dealing with the risks. Gives students an opportunity to choose a path, defend their decision, identify their assumptions and how they will test them, and indicate what they will do if their assumptions prove false.
Eric Palmer arrived at the top floor of Camden Robotics, a supplier of industrial automation tools, excited to tell CEO Tom O'Reilly about his latest win: a print ad account with a well-known local software maker. "You pulled in more business?" the boss responded. "It's really working out, then, isn't it?" Six months earlier, Palmer, the head of marketing communications at Camden, had been in a less optimistic mood as he'd walked into the executive suite. His department had recently expanded and hired some pricey designers, but because of the economic slowdown, Camden was launching fewer marketing campaigns, and Palmer had feared that his department would be targeted for layoffs. Instead, O'Reilly proposed recasting the marketing function as a business unit. It would continue to provide services to other units within the company, but it would also be free to engage in "value pricing" and could propose project work internally just as outside agencies might. In addition, the new group, Creative Central, could serve customers outside Camden in its spare time to earn revenue to defray its expenses. At first, the reaction to the news was overwhelmingly positive across the company. Palmer was thriving in the role of corporate entrepreneur. But several months into the change, the complaints started. As the discontent grows, O'Reilly is left to decide whether this organizational change is working. In R0204A and R0204Z, commentators Dan Logan, Michael McKenney, Mark P. Rice, and Jeffrey W. Bennett weigh in on this fictional case study.
Eric Palmer arrived at the top floor of Camden Robotics, a supplier of industrial automation tools, excited to tell CEO Tom O'Reilly about his latest win: a print ad account with a well-known local software maker. "You pulled in more business?" the boss responded. "It's really working out, then, isn't it?" Six months earlier, Palmer, the head of marketing communications at Camden, had been in a less optimistic mood as he'd walked into the executive suite. His department had recently expanded and hired some pricey designers, but because of the economic slowdown, Camden was launching fewer marketing campaigns, and Palmer had feared that his department would be targeted for layoffs. Instead, O'Reilly proposed recasting the marketing function as a business unit. It would continue to provide services to other units within the company, but it would also be free to engage in "value pricing" and could propose project work internally just as outside agencies might. In addition, the new group, Creative Central, could serve customers outside Camden in its spare time to earn revenue to defray its expenses. At first, the reaction to the news was overwhelmingly positive across the company. Palmer was thriving in the role of corporate entrepreneur. But several months into the change, the complaints started. As the discontent grows, O'Reilly is left to decide whether this organizational change is working. In R0204A and R0204Z, commentators Dan Logan, Michael McKenney, Mark P. Rice, and Jeffrey W. Bennett weigh in on this fictional case study.
Within the context of the large established organization, breakthrough ideas are frequently lost. This article describes how breakthrough innovations are captured through opportunity recognition. Based on evidence from a six-year-long study of twelve radical innovation projects in ten large U.S. firms. Highlights inefficiencies in current managerial processes and provides examples of organizational structures, mechanisms, and roles directed at reducing these inefficiencies. Presents a set of approaches for improving opportunity recognition capabilities and identifies several mechanisms for senior management to encourage "radical innovation" people and processes.