個案總覽

B case to 820002 In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital-backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had originally focused only on search engine optimization (SEO) software. Aiming to accelerate growth, over the past three years the startup had launched products targeted at content marketers, social media marketers, and small local businesses. Adoption of these new products had been disappointing, and the resource drain and distraction of launching them had reduced the growth of Moz's core SEO product. Management was wrestling with whether to either: 1) shut down or sell the new products; or 2) double down on the new products, funding further investment in them by selling the core SEO business or milking it as a "cash cow."

C case to 820002 In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital-backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had originally focused only on search engine optimization (SEO) software. Aiming to accelerate growth, over the past three years the startup had launched products targeted at content marketers, social media marketers, and small local businesses. Adoption of these new products had been disappointing, and the resource drain and distraction of launching them had reduced the growth of Moz's core SEO product. Management was wrestling with whether to either: 1) shut down or sell the new products; or 2) double down on the new products, funding further investment in them by selling the core SEO business or milking it as a "cash cow."

On June 22, 2018, Stephanie Wilkinson, co-founder of the Red Hen, a small farm-to-table restaurant in rural Virginia, was caught off guard when a frantic call from her chef told her that the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, had just sat down to eat at Wilkinson's restaurant. Staff at the Red Hen were tense because they fundamentally disagreed with Sanders's support of the Trump administration on issues such as immigration and transgender rights. Wilkinson was equally concerned because she had kept politics off the menu at the Red Hen for over 10 years in a politically charged city. Now, Wilkinson had to decide whether to side with her employees and her own moral values and ask Sanders to leave, or permit Sanders to stay at the restaurant. Either way, Wilkinson knew that there would be consequences and that the media would be knocking at her door.

The start-up BlueVine Capital Inc. (BlueVine) used data and technology to help finance small businesses via factoring and lines of credit. The case explains the small business financing market in mid-2010s, how CEO Eyal Lifshitz identified the opportunity for BlueVine, and how he built the company through its first five years of operations. Through the case, Lifshitz and his team discover insights about their small business customers that inspire them to change their product portfolio. In December 2018, Lifshitz must decide which new products to launch next.

Ace Company (Ace) was a Chinese start-up developing software for the Internet of Things (IoT). The company was founded in February 2015 by three colleagues for the initial purpose of providing an unprecedented universal IoT operating system, the absence of which was severely crippling developing development in IoT. By mid-2017, having proven the technical viability and market acceptability of its offering, the company was ready to scale up. However, the co-founders disagreed on the choice of growth strategy. One founder advocated extending Ace’s business to as many industrial scenarios and companies as possible, while the other founder was in favour of Ace focusing on and penetrating deeply into a few industries. The third founder was stuck in the middle and wanted to know which path they should choose.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of the government-owned Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) is setting the marketing policy for the incubation program at HKSTP, Hong Kong’s leading incubator of high-technology companies. Seeing marketing as a driving force to convey the strategy of HKSTP, the CEO must analyze the key services through which HKSTP can increase an incubatee’s chances of success; analyze the advantages and disadvantages that HKSTP presents for a start-up’s location; analyze how HKSTP positions itself in the competitive market for incubation services; discern how successful it is; and determine what marketing ideas HKSTP should use to convey its competitive advantages. The task is complicated by the global nature of the incubatee servicing market, the position of Hong Kong within the Greater Bay Area of the People’s Republic of China, and the CEO’s belief that a company has to be on its own, not relying on government programs. Not only did the CEO have to give HKSTP’s incubatees the resources to help them survive and prosper, but he also had to attract the best tech start-ups to join the program.

Between 2010 and 2015, Opera Philadelphia experienced a steep decline in household subscribers and single-ticket buyers, coupled with severe revenue fluctuations. At that time, market behaviours had changed along with growth in more sophisticated use of digital media for entertainment and social interaction.<br><br>The general director’s critical objective for the Opera was to develop a fresh strategy that specifically targeted evolving tastes for opera performance in Philadelphia and the surrounding area. The Opera had to determine whether it needed to revise its segmentation and positioning strategy, as well as make adjustments to its product. This new strategy also had to provide protection for and prevent further loss of the Opera’s existing subscription audience, many of whom were loyal donors.

Jenn Braus (HBS 2013) was half-way through the 90-day exclusivity period for her proposed acquisition of Systems Design West ("SDW"). She had completed her business and accounting due diligence. Just as she was about to ask her lawyer to begin drafting the purchase agreement, she received a call from the seller that the company had reached agreement with a large new client that would increase revenue by roughly 20%. The seller asked that the success be reflected in an increased offer price, although he had not specified the amount of the increase. Braus needed to decide on an appropriate response. Should she stand fast? In her mind, she had already agreed to pay a premium price for SDW, with a higher than typical multiple of EBITDA. Part of her rationale for the high multiple was that she believed the company had significant growth potential. Paying a higher price in response to the new customer seemed like paying twice for the growth. However, because the new customer was so large, Braus imagined that it would nudge the run rate EBITDA for SDW to about $1 million, eliminating a concern she had about the small size of the business. If she decided to negotiate a higher price, how much an increase was appropriate? Simply applying historical margins would imply that a 20% increase in revenue would correspond to a 20% increase in price. Alternatively, it could be more as margins improved with operating leverage or it could be less if significant fixed costs were required to on-board the new customer. Additionally, Braus was concerned that a new customer was inherently riskier than SDW's typical customer that had a history of recurring revenue.

In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital-backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had originally focused only on search engine optimization (SEO) software. Aiming to accelerate growth, over the past three years the startup had launched products targeted at content marketers, social media marketers, and small local businesses. Adoption of these new products had been disappointing, and the resource drain and distraction of launching them had reduced the growth of Moz's core SEO product. Management was wrestling with whether to either: 1) shut down or sell the new products; or 2) double down on the new products, funding further investment in them by selling the core SEO business or milking it as a "cash cow."

In 2006, four successful entrepreneurs decided to establish a world-class mega university. Initially, the project progressed slowly until Vineet Gupta was able to locate a small plot of land in Sonipat, Haryana. Forty-eight hours before the payment deadline, Ashish Dhawan and Sanjeev Bikchandani agreed to invest in their personal capital to kick start the project. They however suggested a pivot in favour of a smaller private liberal arts college. Meanwhile, Pramath Sinha, with prior experience in establishing the Indian School of Business launched a pilot through the Young India Fellowship (YIF). Dhawan and Bikchandani, through their extensive entrepreneurial networks, raised scholarships for the first two batches of the fellowship in the hope of attracting other donors to the board and getting a buy-in for Ashoka University. The team faced a number of challenges: managing the new model of collective philanthropy, recruiting faculty and finding jobs for the first undergraduate batch. At Ashoka University's first graduation ceremony in 2017 they wondered whether this model could revolutionise the higher education space like the IITs and IIMs had done for the country.

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 the summer of 2016, the unprecedented growth of Pokémon GO introduced augmented reality into mainstream gaming. Pokémon GO was developed by San Francisco-based Niantic, Inc. (Niantic), a highly successful spinoff from Google Inc., which partnered with the Japanese video game company Nintendo Co., Ltd. to bring the popular video game franchise into the mobile gaming sphere. Niantic's version included the innovative use of augmented reality, a technology that merged artificial reality with the real world. Although this strategy was a fresh approach, it also presented risks. Niantic was determined to shut down cheating apps and websites that were overloading the company's servers and giving some players unfair advantages. Some players were dismayed by Niantic’s actions and by the apps and websites themselves, while others predicted that the game's popularity would disappear as quickly as it had grown. By late 2016, Niantic needed to decide how to move forward. Should Pokémon GO continue to evolve as an augmented-reality game, with teams and live events, or should Niantic create a new gaming experience focused on features from the original Pokémon games? Alternatively, should the company partner with third-party developers, including those that had developed popular cheating apps and websites? Finally, how should Niantic fund its unexpected growth?

In 2008, Roshan, Afghanistan’s leading telecommunications provider, launched M-Paisa, its mobile money transfer service, which allowed Afghans to use their mobile phones to transfer funds, receive and repay microfinance loans, make purchases, and disburse and receive salaries. The company was committed to building a financial ecosystem for transparent, safe, convenient, and secure services, which would also contribute to the long-term development of Afghanistan’s society. Utilizing technology from Vodafone Group Plc, which had been successful in Kenya, Roshan enjoyed several successful pilots, but it still faced a myriad of issues as it sought to scale the service amid a challenging operational environment. In 2011, three years after its launch, the M-Paisa service had yet to make a profit. Roshan’s chief executive officer and chief operating officer wondered what more they could do to turn M-Paisa around and, ideally, make an even more significant social impact.

In September 2018, the leadership team of Agarwal Packers and Movers Limited (APML) gathered for a meeting at the company’s headquarters, located in the heart of New Delhi, India. The founder was considering whether the company should go public by the end of 2019. Since APML’s inception in 1987, the team had worked hard to create a healthy brand recall, establish customer loyalty, and build a robust financial base. However, in the 18 months leading up to the intended initial public offering, the founder needed to consider two key questions: How could the company create and maintain service differentiation in an industry characterized by low entry barriers and limited pricing flexibility? How could it deliver quality service to retain customer loyalty?

The director of World Tailors, a small Canadian manufacturer that employed immigrant and refugee women to sew high-quality aprons, napkins, and market bags, wondered how all of the needed products would be completed for the 2017 December holiday season. During the past seven years, demand for World Tailor products had steadily increased from craft markets, online orders, and retail stores. How could the capacity of its current operations be better managed and expanded? World Tailors was more than a local manufacturer: it supported courageous women, who had recently arrived in Canada as refugees and immigrants, to integrate into the community. Would reorganizing as a business co-operative better balance the unique social mission of the organization?

Four years after being founded Amir Amir Konigsberg (CEO) and Adi Avidor (CTO), Twiggle had developed a search enhancement that plugged into the online merchants' existing framework. The company utilized advanced structuring and linguistic tools to build search technology that understood shopper intent and matched it with the right products. Twiggle was founded in 2014 by former Google executives Amir Konigsberg (CEO) and Adi Avidor (CTO), who believed e-tailers were losing enormous revenue due to poor search results. The team built a set of proprietary tools that created a human-like understanding of customer queries in the e-commerce search experience, using natural language processing that translated text into meaning. The team also constructed a semantic model of the e-commerce world for three product domains: fashion, home and electronics. The resulting "ontology" was a set of concepts and categories in a subject area that showed their properties and the relations between them. The Twiggle's tools could also unlock significant online sales revenue by increasing click-through and add-to-cart rates, ultimately improving sales conversions. So far, Twiggle had secured deals with more than half a dozen large e-commerce retailers and, so far, could improve search results in three product categories: fashion, home, and electronics. The company initially targeted large direct-to-consumer e-commerce players. Yet the cofounders encountered challenges pursuing this type of customer. The customer acquisition process included lengthy, intensive face-to-face sales cycles, expensive and technologically complex proof-of-concept testing, and requests for customization. Konigsberg and Avidor wondered if they should expand their customer focus to target a wider set of smaller e-tailers that still had significant volumes of online search queries, but their search quality tended to be less robust and might be easier to improve.

In 2010, Anand Piramal acquired the Health Management Research Institute (HMRI), a healthcare venture, and merged it with his original digital healthcare startup Piramal e-Swasthya (PeS), so that PeS became Piramal Swasthya. After acquiring HMRI, Piramal Swasthya scaled across 20 Indian states and became India's largest private primary healthcare initiative by implementing public-private partnerships with state governments. In 2012, Anand Piramal stepped down as CEO of Piramal Swasthya, leading to organizational change and a healthcare strategy focused on improving maternal health amongst India's most vulnerable populations. This case shows how an organization can achieve innovation at scale through cross-sector collaboration.

In 2017, the owner of Toboggan Brewing Company (Toboggan) needed to increase production capacity for his craft beer without making a capital investment. Toboggan was a very small player in the Ontario market; however, its craft beer had significant opportunity for growth due to the owner’s strong business acumen and a proven consumer demand for the product. The owner had four options for potential contracting partners. The trade-offs between his contract partners were price, experience, location, and distribution.