Wild Oats Markets, Inc.

John R. Wells; Travis  Haglock

Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2006 (Revised April 2008)

Wild Oats Markets, Inc.

by John R. Wells and Travis Haglock

Abstract

Ever since ex-Ben and Jerry's CEO Perry Odak took over as CEO of Wild Oats in 2001, he has been trying to turn the company around. After some apparent false starts, profits now seem to be on the rise in 2005 and 2006. Has he finally done it?

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Change Management; Profit; Retail Industry; United States;

Language: English

Format: Print

21 pages

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Citation:

Wells, John R., and Travis Haglock. "Wild Oats Markets, Inc." Harvard Business School Case 707-438, September 2006. (Revised April 2008.)

In 2013, CEO Frida Polli was contemplating the next steps for her start-up business, pymetrics. After receiving her PhD in neuropsychology and MBA from HBS, she was determined to put her scientific and academic knowledge to work to build a business solving real world problems. To this end, her team at pymetrics had adapted a set of robust neuroscience-based computer exercises designed to measure a number of elements of brain functionality and apply these exercises to the world of talent assessment. In just about 25 minutes, these tests compiled a powerful cognitive, social, and emotional profile of the individual that could match the output of experienced interviewers or much longer psychometric testing programs. And the added benefit was that these tests, unlike interviews, discussion panels, or self-reported questionnaires, were hard to “game” because the underlying brain function and rate of learning showed through. Frida believed that her exercise suite would be invaluable to recruiters and had demonstrated to a hedge fund and a major consulting firm that it was much more cost effective than their traditional approaches and could be used to broaden their search for the best talent. As she got out of the cab at LaGuardia to catch the plane for Boston, she wondered what the Harvard Business School class she was about to address would think of her ideas and how they might suggest she implement them.

In March 2013, pymetrics CEO Frida Polli visited Harvard Business School to listen to a section of MBA students from the class of 2013 to discuss her business plan and provide feedback on the tests they had taken to identify career opportunities. Polli had developed a series of neuroscience-based tests to measure brain function and map this to the profiles of successful executives. She believed that these could collect much more data than conventional psychographic tests in much less time, and it would be much more difficult for the candidate to “game” the system. Polli’s goal was to help companies recruit more effectively. In preparation for the class, the MBA students had all taken the tests. She looked forward to discussing the results.

Supplement | HBS Case Collection | September 2019

pymetrics (C)

John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In August 2018, pymetrics, a solution offering neuroscience-based recruiting tests, closed a $40 million funding round that valued the business at $160 million. Over 60 companies around the globe were using pymetrics tests in their recruiting process, including Unilever, Hyatt, and Accenture. Clients were seeing real impact, including time and cost reductions – 75% reduction in time-to-hire and 25% reduction in recruiting costs, as well as significant increases in diversity (in some cases over 100%) –and new-hire performance through metrics like retention. In addition, 1 million job candidates around the world had played pymetrics games to obtain career guidance. pymetrics tools offered significant advantages over traditional personality tests such as Myers Briggs because they measured brain function rather than responses to self-administered questionnaires. They also collected a lot more data very quickly and measured critical brain functions associated with effective executives, ranging from analytical capacity and risk aversion to attentiveness, resolve, ability to interpret emotions, speed of learning, and capacity for trust. In early 2019, the company was expanding rapidly. It employed nearly 100 people and operated out of 4 offices around the world. CEO Frida Polli was contemplating next steps. What should the priorities be? Was it more important to add more clients or develop more services to build current clients? How many global offices should the company operate, and how should these be organized? And could the company make more of its bias-free recruiting processes in a world where regulation against discrimination was becoming increasingly important?

Keywords: BrainTech; psychodynamics; psychology; Hiring of employees; hiring; strategy; strategic evolution; strategy and execution; Startup; start-up; Startups; start-ups; entrepreneur; employment; bias; rapid growth stage;