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• Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2019 (Revised December 2019)

  Zillow Offers: Winning Online Real Estate 2.0

  Luis Viceira, Marco Di Maggio and Allison Ciechanover

  Founded in 2005, Zillow had become the leading online real estate and home-related marketplace. The brand was recognized as a trusted resource for players in the real estate market, providing information and transparency on home prices. Revenue, which was historically derived primarily from advertising fees paid by realtors and mortgage lenders, totaled $1.3 billion in 2018. This was in the process of changing, however. The company had entered the direct home buying and selling market in 2017. To Zillow, the move was a logical extension of its business model. Research showed that there was pent up desire to sell homes, but that sellers disliked the conventional process. Zillow Offers made home selling easy and fast – for sellers of homes that met certain criteria, Zillow Offers made an offer within 48 hours of the seller submitting a request for an offer online. Zillow Offers provided sellers a fair price and a guaranteed cash close, then performed renovations and hoped to sell the home within a target of 90 days, although actual times varied by market. The company’s stock was more volatile in the period since launching Zillow Offers and some industry observers wondered if it was in part due to the market’s perception of the risks associated with the new business. CEO Rich Barton believed the “instant buyer” or iBuyer market could one day account for up to 30% of all domestic real estate transactions and that Zillow Offers could bring in an additional $20 billion in annual revenue within three to five years. But there remained work to be done to improve transaction metrics, fend off competition from well-funded startups and incumbent realtors, and convince shareholders of the attractiveness of the new businesses.

  Keywords: real estate; corporate culture; Intermediation; brokerage; Startup; Evaluating business investments; Property; Technology; Business Model; Expansion; Business Startups; Real Estate Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Viceira, Luis, Marco Di Maggio, and Allison Ciechanover. "Zillow Offers: Winning Online Real Estate 2.0." Harvard Business School Case 220-021, August 2019. (Revised December 2019.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2019 (Revised November 2019)

  Sustainable Investing at J.P. Morgan Private Bank

  Sara Fleiss and Luis Viceira

  This case features Monica Issar, then Global Head of J.P. Morgan Endowments & Foundations Group in the Private Bank. In just five years, she and J.P. Morgan have grown the Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) business from $5 billion in AUM from primarily family foundations to $30 billion AUM of institutional capital. Increasingly, clients are requesting guidelines that reflect not only their risk and return preferences, but also their social or environmental preferences. Monica Issar contemplates a variety of strategic questions around how best to engage clients and their needs moving forward on these non-traditional financial dimensions while balancing the bank's fiduciary role.

  Keywords: sustainability; Investment; Management; Strategy; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Banking Industry;

  Citation:

  Fleiss, Sara, and Luis Viceira. "Sustainable Investing at J.P. Morgan Private Bank." Harvard Business School Case 220-016, August 2019. (Revised November 2019.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2019 (Revised November 2019)

  Ajeej Capital: Investing in Emerging Markets

  Luis M. Viceira and Eren Kuzucu

  In October 2007, Tarek Sakka and Fouad Dajani launched Ajeej Capital, the first independent investment advisory in the MENA region. Fittingly named ajeej, an Arabic word that translates to “growth and propagation in a chaotic setting,” the firm’s AUM grew from $20 million to $1 billion before its 10th anniversary despite a deep-cutting global financial crisis, market turmoil driven by the Arab Spring, and years of weak oil prices. Leveraging deep local knowledge, strong relations in the region, and a “PE investment approach in public equity markets,” Ajeej had outperformed its benchmark regional stock indices and attracted investing capital from large institutional investors around the world.
  
  The case follows the investment methodology of Ajeej Capital’s investment fund, the Ajeej MENA Fund, through the turmoil of Ajeej’s first decade. The case then focuses in on September 2016, with Sakka and Dajani facing a historic hurdle: Saudi Arabia, the largest economy in the region, had just announced their first ever public-sector pay cuts, triggered by the Vision 2030 agenda. Ajeej, with 50% of its portfolio invested in Saudi companies, had to decide how to position its investment portfolio to successfully navigate a period of structural change in the region.

  Keywords: Security Selection; Investments; Growth; culture; UAE; Finance; Asset Management; Emerging Markets; Capital Markets; Investment; Growth Management; Risk Management; Middle East; Saudi Arabia; Dubai; United Arab Emirates; Egypt; North Africa;

  Citation:

  Viceira, Luis M., and Eren Kuzucu. "Ajeej Capital: Investing in Emerging Markets." Harvard Business School Case 219-029, January 2019. (Revised November 2019.)  View Details

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