Urban Video Game Academy was founded to enhance the academic and career prospects of urban youth. How will its founder grow it into a sustainable business? Provides an opportunity to discuss the challenges of social entrepreneurship and how to create a sustainable business model for a social venture.
Explores the success factors leading to one's company's rise to the number three ranking in the aggressively competitive toy industry. LeapFrog has made the strategic decision to exploit its educational model in two industry sectors: consumer toys and educational supplemental materials. Senior executives face a number of challenges in sustaining the company's growth. Critical to its success is LeapFrog's ability to leverage its core assets, while simultaneously closely managing its relationships with customers, distributors, suppliers, and partners across these two very different industry sectors.
Sarah Vickers-Willis, HBS MBA 1999, faces a critical career decision: Does she redirect the Internet start-up she helped found or join in shaping a for-profit firm with a social mission? Sarah, a young Australian business executive, has always strived to "find space" for what's important to her in her career. Her career decisions began when she decided to interrupt a successful consulting career in Australia to attend Harvard Business School and continued through her founding (with three other HBS classmates) a fast-track Internet start-up. This case traces Sarah's increasing involvement with a small for-profit firm dedicated to improving the financial education of young women and ends with a decision point: Should she stay with the company she helped found, or should she move to the entrepreneurial firm with a social mission?