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The Jill Draeger case is designed as an introduction to a general course on entrepreneurship. It is appropriate for many levels of students. It attempts to portray the archetype of opportunity-focused, resource-constrained behavior that is the hallmark of entrepreneurship. The case describes the career of Jill Draeger, an MBA with a background in the consumer electronics industry, principally smartphones. After a career hiatus, she has the idea of licensing the right to create Olympic-themed watches for the 2016 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Korea. The case then describes the hurdles she confronts in terms of obtaining the license, attracting the resources, and building the capabilities required to pursue the opportunity.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 920578.

This case examines a universal question: How can a tech startup (such as an AI or big data startup) address the pain points of traditional vertical industries through technological innovation and create value? Some tech startups set ambitious goals, which demand significant and sustained investments in R&D, but fail to plan for commercial development in order to remain viable: when funding runs out, they go bust. Others aim for low-hanging fruit in more easily accessible markets, at the expense of pursuing their original goal; once engaged on this path, it is extremely difficult to change course and build an iconic name. The issue, then, is how tech startups should strike a balance between "aiming too high" and "taking a faster route." The LinkDoc Technology (hereinafter "LinkDoc") case was compiled as one way to find answers to these questions. The case examines how LinkDoc, specializing in big data and serving the vertical healthcare industry, found its own answers to these issues and, more specifically, how it identified and entered its target market segment, and subsequently found a way to commercialize its technology and create a viable business.

In 2019, Eve Burton, Chairwoman of HearstLab and Chief Legal Officer at Hearst Corporation, knew that HearstLab was at a key inflection point for growth-with opportunities to take on additional capital and expand internationally. HearstLab is an incubator focused on early-stage, women-led start-ups innovating across media, business information, and technology, HearstLab provided capital, office space in New York City's Hearst Tower, and access to Hearst's resources, while taking an equity interest in the companies. The Lab was started in 2015 with the goals of increasing visibility and opportunity for women both inside and outside of Hearst, create value from investing in women-led start-ups, and continuing to bring innovation to Hearst.

Negotiating the initial equity split among founders is not as straight-forward as it might first appear. In this case, five Belgians launch Novosanis, a university spinoff, to commercialize two promising medical devices: VAX-ID and Colli-Pee. VAX-ID is an injection device suited for highly accurate and painless drug delivery effective at low volumes. Colli-Pee provides a non-invasive method of detecting Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and other infectious diseases. The Novosanis founding team includes two scientists who proposed the original ideas, two project coordinators who managed the R&D process at the university, and an industrial partner who provided technical support. The team's first inclination is to split the equity evenly, to reflect their relatively equal contributions prior to the spinoff. It becomes clear however, that if future contributions are included in the decision, an equal split might actually be unfair and counterproductive. One founder agrees to be the spin-off's full-time CEO and another consents to be part-time CTO. The remaining founders choose not to take active roles post start-up. The team has an important decision to make: How should they divide the shares of Novosanis to compensate prior contributions, while also supporting the venture going forward? Would equal be fair?

In late August 2019, Dr. Manuel del Castillo, CEO of the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital, was wrapping up a three-month stay in Washington, D.C. and preparing to present his hospital's new innovation strategy to the Management Committee upon his return. Along with Dr. Jaume Pérez-Payarols, the Director of Innovation and Research, he had defined a number of strategic innovation priorities for the next phase of HSJD's innovation journey. However, they still needed to decide how best to approach implementation and whether to adopt a more centralized or decentralized approach. As part of this decision, questions regarding the management of budgets, performance metrics, and speed also had to be considered. During the previous ten years, the two doctors had introduced innovation slowly, using minimal resources and fostering the voluntary contributions of the hospital professionals. Over time, the focus evolved from isolated projects that solved problems for specific groups of patients to cross-departmental projects that affected the core business, such as digital health and new business models. During the same time period, the hospital had sought new revenue via internationalization in order to sustain financially the complex level of care it offered. Given the hospital's evolution, the two doctors debated how to strengthen and accelerate the change effort, and each favored a different approach. They agreed to take time to think through their options and to make a decision when they reunited in the office in Barcelona a few days later.

Staff.AI is a start-up technology company featuring a new resource-sharing application for hospitals and health care professionals. Developed by neurosurgeon Dr. Carl Einarsson, the application addresses the substantial cost of staffing personnel for temporary requirements of acute care hospitals. Utilizing familiar mobile technology of Airbnb, TaskRabbit, Uber, and other resource-sharing companies, Staff.AI matches hospital staffing needs with available professionals, streamlining the recruiting process, reducing staffing agency costs, and correlating data of medical teams and clinical efficacy. Having conducted a successful beta-test with a major academic medical center and recruited capital, Dr. Einarsson must determine a reasonable pricing model to bring the company's namesake product to market.

Precision medicine company Blueprint Medicines was building a successful track record for bringing drug therapies to market 40% faster than average. The company had spent $40 million dollars and two years building a compound library that became its drug development engine. Blueprint's drug development strategy was twofold-it focused on creating a single drug compound for multiple disease indications, while at the same time developing drugs to track a disease through its progression. The company's goal was to become a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company that could move from drug discovery to development to marketing. But it was increasingly challenging to prioritize and manage programs, personnel and partnerships.

Based in the Canadian Prairies, Promotions Manufacturing had been manufacturing promotional items for over 40 years. The organizational structure consisted of four manufacturing units and the administration department, each with its own distinctive staffing needs and cost structure; consequently, profitability calculations and operations management had become increasingly difficult. In June 2018, the question of how to allocate the overhead and administration costs to each manufacturing unit became a pressing concern. The different cost allocation methods resulted in diverse profitability levels. Subsequently, decision-making with regard to production priorities, operation scheduling, and staffing needs had become unsystematic, often resulting in missed deadlines and disappointed customers. The general manager had to make a decision: which cost allocation method would offer the most accurate profit centre profitability, provide guidelines in reorganizing operations, and result in higher efficiencies?

Brewing Peace was a company based in the Philippines that sold coffee beans. Despite having a base of 80 customers, 70 per cent of its business depended on 9 key accounts; this included its biggest buyer, Concepcion Coffee Enterprises Limited (CCEL), which accounted for 20 per cent of Brewing Peace’s revenues. After a ₱30 million order from CCEL with a profit margin of less than 20 per cent, a payment period of 90 days, and a short delivery time, the co-founder of Brewing Peace was forced to review its relationship with its biggest client. The dilemma facing Brewing Peace was that it could not accept this order on CCEL’s terms without jeopardizing the company’s payment terms with its vendors and affecting the supply for orders, worth ₱25 million, to its other customers.

Haboydem was a second hand clothing store in Jerusalem that operated as a social enterprise by hiring and training individuals who were living with mental illness. The two store locations had successfully trained workers, and 70 per cent were able to find employment in mainstream businesses; however, in mid-2017, the co founders faced new issues. How should they deal with emerging competition from other second hand clothing retailers? How should they address the possibility of partnerships with other organizations? Should the company expand to additional locations or into additional activities? How should the co-founders measure Haboydem’s success? They needed to reflect on how to best address these challenges, and how their social enterprise could best move forward toward a long term future.

Career Karma is a startup focused on helping individuals looking to transition careers into computer engineering roles or similar fields by preparing them for formal technical training programs, or "coding bootcamps," that would lead to a successful career pivot upon graduating from the program. The platform also encouraged users to engage with each other in "squad" support groups and paired users with mentors (other users who successfully transitioned careers through Career Karma). This case explores the journey of Career Karma's three founders and navigating growth through an unexpected recession caused by a global pandemic.

This (B) case expands upon the journey of Career Karma's three founders by presenting a fictionalized Investor Meeting scenario.

In January 2015, the founder and chairman of Sunyuki Agricultural Co., Ltd. (Sunyuki), was considering a major change to his company. Founded in 2010, Sunyuki was one of the first online fresh-food retailers in southwest China, providing safe, fresh, organic foods to high-end consumers who had a strong preference for high dietary quality. Since its launch, Sunyuki had achieved soaring average annual growth rates of almost 100 per cent. However, it was becoming difficult to attract new customers through online channels alone. Therefore, the founder was considering the option of opening physical stores as an off-line channel to complement the company's successful online sales and distribution channel. Because of rapid growth in the fresh-food industry and intensifying competition, the founder needed to carefully consider the company’s next steps. If Sunyuki opted to expand off-line, how should it proceed? Specifically, how should the company manage a new online and offline strategy in an omnichannel sales and distribution environment?

In September 2018, WaterEquity, a US-based investment vehicle for both financial and social returns, had to raise US$50 million in total funding capital. The sales team had to propose sales pitches for alternative investments for three types of investors. From a financial perspective, the investment was essentially a risk-free asset with an annual return of 3.5 per cent. However, this investment could also positively affect four developing countries—India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Cambodia—by providing clean water solutions for billions of people. Through the lending facilities of the local microfinance institutions of these four countries, WaterEquity could offer support to the poor and empower more women, generating both financial and social returns. Different groups of investors might be attracted by different levels of these social returns as well as the financial returns. The sales team planned to use a simple extension of the standard Markowitz portfolio theory framework to incorporate social returns and account for two distinct types of returns, customizing the sales pitches for each of three groups of investors.

In 2011, the vice-president of Craig Manufacturing (CM)was preparing a presentation for the company’s advisory board and senior management. Craig Manufacturing, based in New Brunswick, Canada, was a privately held, third-generation family business that manufactured attachments for heavy equipment used in large construction projects in Canada and the United States. The company had achieved a strong reputation by pursuing a differentiation strategy based on product quality, leading technology, and exceptional customer service. However, the company needed new revenue streams, as it was experiencing less demand for its customized heavy equipment attachments. The vice-president was about to suggest launching a new product line by producing attachments for mini, or compact, construction equipment and growing the company with a cost leadership strategy. However, entering this market would mean focusing on standardized products, in contrast to the company’s traditional focus on customized attachments. Would the new product line and its cost leadership strategy help propel the company to be the leading manufacturer of industrial attachments in Canada and the United States?

In early 2015, the chief executive officer of Bumbox Logistics Private Limited (Bumbox) faced a challenge. The company, launched in Singapore, provided smart lockers for use by delivery companies and consumers to ensure the safe and timely receipt of online purchases. The lockers offered an attractive opportunity, given their ability to resolve last-mile delivery problems that plagued both logistics companies and online consumers. Despite the promising business concept, 18 months after launching, the business had not gained much traction—or revenue. The chief executive officer was fully aware of the company’s multiple challenges: because parcel lockers were a new concept in Singapore, consumers needed to be educated on their use; the company faced competition from other companies, including the nation’s post office; and while increasing the number of smart lockers would help the company succeed, expanding the network could only be justified once the lockers were being widely used. The company had tried to target three segments—online shoppers/consumers, logistics companies, and e-tailers—but because of limited resources, it needed to focus on one segment only. What strategy should the chief executive officer follow to take Bumbox to the next level?

In May 2018, Philippe Boisclair, business owner and president of McGill St Laurent (MSL), sought to grow the firm and increase annual profitability by CA$35 million by 2020. MSL was a medium-sized commodities trading firm with interests in wood, grain, and energy. Founded in 2009 by two business school graduates and veterans of the lumber industry, MSL had enjoyed significant growth. The company had not only expanded into grain and energy trading but had also diversified its wood business to encompass architectural design and manufacturing as well as industrial lumber products. Boisclair, a serial entrepreneur, had to decide on a corporate growth strategy, which he had to present at the upcoming advisory board meeting.

SenseTime Group Limited was founded in Hong Kong in 2014 to commercialize artificial intelligence for digital recognition of images, particularly human faces. After only three years in business, the company was profitable, with annual sales revenue of about US$100 million. In 2018, it employed over 2,000 workers and was referred to as the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence start-up, with a valuation of US$7.6 billion. China had become the largest market in the world for facial recognition technologies, with its share of global sales expected to grow from 29 per cent in 2017 to 45 per cent in 2023. And the global facial recognition market was forecast to be worth US$6.5 billion by 2021. SenseTime Group Limited aimed to empower more industries throughout the world with its artificial intelligence platform. A key question in early 2019 for the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer was how to adapt its strategy to achieve that mission in an increasingly fraught global environment.

In June 2019, the founder and chairman of Shandong Moris Chemical Co. Ltd. (Moris), a leading chemical production group, had to decide whether Moris should diversify into an unrelated industry. Moris’s main business had been the production and processing of brine chemicals. With several of its chemical products dominating worldwide markets, Moris had become a hidden champion in these industry segments. Through the company’s most recent diversification move into water treatment and land improvement, the founder had stretched Moris’s corporate umbrella beyond purely chemical businesses, hoping to transform the negative corporate image associated with chemical industries. Now, he had to determine whether the cultural and creative industries would fit with this strategic aspiration, especially since a move into this area would be the first unrelated diversification for the company.