Motive Communications

Jeffrey F. Rayport; Marco   Iansiti; Myra M. Hart; William W Chan; Find  Findsen

Case | HBS Case Collection | April 1999 (Revised October 2001)

Motive Communications

by Jeffrey F. Rayport, Marco Iansiti, Myra M. Hart, William W Chan and Find Findsen

Abstract

The founders of Motive Communications, Inc., a recent start-up dedicated to reinventing the support chain involved in the delivery of information technology support services, put in place a development process hinged on extensive customer feedback. As part of this, a select group of "lighthouse customers" agreed to pay $50,000 to participate in beta testing--but as a deadline approached, none had sent in their checks. The founders therefore reevaluate the lighthouse policy and its rationale.

Keywords: Business Startups; Customer Relationship Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Information Technology Industry;

Language: Spanish

Format: Print

12 pages

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Citation:

Rayport, Jeffrey F., Marco Iansiti, Myra M. Hart, William W Chan, and Find Findsen. "Motive Communications." Harvard Business School Case 699-157, April 1999. (Revised October 2001.)

Case | HBS Case Collection | May 2018 (Revised February 2019)

The Powers That Be (Internet Edition): Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft

Jeffrey F. Rayport, Julia Kelley and Nathaniel Schwalb

As of early 2018, five U.S. technology companies—Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft—were among the largest companies in the world. Similarly, three Chinese technology firms—Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, or BAT—had emerged as global players due in part to the protection of China’s “Great Firewall,” which made it more difficult for foreign companies to compete in Chinese markets. As these companies continued to scale by branching into new businesses, such as voice AI and self-driving vehicles, they also faced new and challenging questions about user privacy. The European Union had recently passed the General Data Protection Regulation, a comprehensive set of consumer data protection laws that would require technology companies to make significant changes to their operating model. Meanwhile, social media giant Facebook was facing allegations that Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm, had accessed information on tens of millions of Facebook users without their consent, prompting calls for big technology firms to be more strictly regulated. How would the five U.S. companies and BAT respond to these concerns? And, looking forward, in what ways would these big companies compete with one another, and which would come out ahead?

Keywords: Internet; Business Ventures; Customers; Data and Data Sets; Safety; Corporate Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Technology Industry;

Citation:

Rayport, Jeffrey F., Julia Kelley, and Nathaniel Schwalb. "The Powers That Be (Internet Edition): Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft." Harvard Business School Case 818-111, May 2018. (Revised February 2019.) View Details

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Riccardo Zacconi was the co-founder and CEO of King Digital Entertainment, the video game company that had quickly established itself as the world’s leading maker of casual games for mobile devices after the sensational success of its game “Candy Crush Saga.” Zacconi had only a few days left to decide what to reply to Activision Blizzard, one of the largest video game publishers in the world, which had offered to acquire King for almost $6 billion. King had already managed to successfully adapt to disruptive technological changes in the course of its history. Could it continue to go solo? Or would an acquisition by a complementary video game maker like Activision be the best choice for King to continue to thrive? The clock was ticking, but Zacconi knew that whatever the final decision, it had to satisfy one condition: Player was King.

WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey was concerned about the culture of his rapidly expanding global venture. In particular, he wanted to ensure that WeWork continued to be a great place to work, both because he cared about WeWork's people and because a better work experience was core to the company’s brand. In the summer of 2017, he had made a presentation to the company at an all-hands meeting. In it, he proposed the creation of a culture operations team, and he announced that he would take the title of chief culture officer to lead it. In this case, which describes the founding and growth of WeWork from 2010, we encounter McKelvey planning for his new role with co-founder Adam Neumann and envisioning a “culture OS” that he and Neumann would use to lead the organization internally—and to offer as a “product” to scaled enterprises externally.

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