WholesalerDirect

Alan D. MacCormack; Kerry  Herman

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Case | HBS Case Collection | February 2001 (Revised August 2001)

WholesalerDirect

by Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Abstract

Describes the development of WholesalerDirect, a B2B electronic commerce venture in the plumbing, heating, cooling, and piping industry. Adam Berger, the CEO, is trying to raise funding to roll out the company's e-commerce platform to the industry's more than 3,000 wholesalers. But amid the sinking stock market, no one is ready to commit funds. WholesalerDirect has valuable assets and a solid idea, but how can it communicate these attributes to potential investors?

Keywords: Online Technology; Valuation; Business Plan; Financing and Loans; Financial Strategy;

Format: Print

24 pages

Find at Harvard

Citation:

MacCormack, Alan D., and Kerry Herman. "WholesalerDirect." Harvard Business School Case 601-067, February 2001. (Revised August 2001.)

About the Author

Alan D. MacCormack

MBA Class of 1949 Adjunct Professor of Business Administration

Technology and Operations Management

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Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2018 (Revised June 2020)

The Boston Cranberry Company

Alan MacCormack

This case describes the operations of a fictitious company that processes Cranberries. The case contains data that allows students to calculate the bottleneck stage in production, and to evaluate alternative investment options for increasing cranberry processing capacity.

Keywords: process analysis; operations; production; Plant Management; Operations; Production; Management; Analysis; Performance Capacity; Investment;

Citation:
MacCormack, Alan. "The Boston Cranberry Company." Harvard Business School Case 619-009, July 2018. (Revised June 2020.) View Details

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Supplement | HBS Case Collection | October 2018 (Revised February 2020)

Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL

Chiara Farronato, Alan MacCormack and Sarah Mehta

Citation:
Farronato, Chiara, Alan MacCormack, and Sarah Mehta. "Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL." Harvard Business School Spreadsheet Supplement 619-702, October 2018. (Revised February 2020.) View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2018 (Revised February 2020)

Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL

Chiara Farronato, Alan MacCormack and Sarah Mehta

Set in March 2018, the case follows ride-sharing company Uber as it develops and launches a new product called Express POOL. This product offers a reduced price to riders willing to carpool, walk a short distance to/from their pick-up and drop-off points, and wait a few minutes before being matched to a driver. Two weeks after the launch of Express POOL in six U.S. cities, Uber’s product managers discover that if riders are made to wait five minutes to be matched to a driver—rather than the standard two minutes—rider cancellation rates increase, but Uber’s costs per ride are reduced. Together with data scientists, engineers, and product operations specialists, the product managers must decide whether to keep rider wait times at two minutes or increase wait times to five minutes in the six newly launched cities. The decision is complicated by the fact that Uber’s data science team normally places a five-week moratorium on changes to any new product, to allow robust data to be collected on its performance. This case is paired with a supplementary dataset from Uber (HBS No. 619-702). In advance of the class discussion, students can analyze the data and draw their own conclusions about the trade-offs of maintaining the standard wait times or increasing them.

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Technology; Mobile Technology; Software; Technology Platform; Decision Making; Technology Industry; California; San Francisco;

Citation:
Farronato, Chiara, Alan MacCormack, and Sarah Mehta. "Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL." Harvard Business School Case 619-003, October 2018. (Revised February 2020.) View Details

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WholesalerDirect

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