Blink Booking

William R. Kerr; Magnus Thor Torfason; Alexis  Brownell

Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2012

Blink Booking

by William R. Kerr, Magnus Thor Torfason and Alexis Brownell

Abstract

Rebeca Minguela hopes to create an arbitrage platform, similar to Rocket Internet, that can bring start-up ideas and opportunities to Spain. However, Blink Booking, her first venture and proof of concept, is rocked by a co-founder's breach of confidence and departure. Minguela must repair the damage to Blink's management team, restore investor confidence, and continue Blink's rapid growth to deliver on the venture's initial promise. The case explores management team roles, equity splits, and related entrepreneurial challenges that Minguela must navigate. Minguela must also decide whether her long-term goal of an incubator-like platform for Spain is really feasible. The case describes how her vision differs from Rocket Internet—a large German incubator that also provides its entrepreneurs with ready-made business models from existing companies—allowing students to compare the models and discuss the ethics of cloning.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; clones; cloning; ethics; Rocket Internet; start-up; equity split; arbitrage; incubator; mobile app; Expansion; Spain; Europe; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Information Technology Industry; Accommodations Industry; Travel Industry; Spain; Europe;

Language: English

Format: Print

24 pages

Educators Purchase

Citation:

Kerr, William R., Magnus Thor Torfason, and Alexis Brownell. "Blink Booking." Harvard Business School Case 813-121, December 2012.

Article | Harvard Business Review

Navigating Talent Hot Spots

William R. Kerr

Innovation clusters like San Francisco and Boston have long had an outsize impact on the global economy, and their influence keeps growing. In 2017, for instance, America’s ten largest tech hubs accounted for 58% of U.S. patents. Globally, cities such as Tokyo, Paris, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Seoul produced a similar proportion. The increased geographic concentration of innovation activity poses a challenge for firms based in suburban industrial parks. To stay relevant, they need to tap into urban hotbeds, but setting up operations there can be extremely expensive. In his work on global talent flows, Harvard Business School’s Kerr has seen organizations try three solutions: At one extreme, they can relocate their headquarters to a hub, as GE recently did (but make them much smaller). A less expensive strategy is to create an innovation lab or corporate outpost in a talent cluster, as Walmart did with Walmart Labs. The most conservative strategy is to run executive retreats and immersions in talent clusters—a tactic Vodafone uses effectively. These three options aren’t mutually exclusive. Given the need to stay in touch with multiple clusters, companies may want to try them all. Each one involves substantial risks that executives must manage. But together they offer a good playbook to firms that are finding themselves outside the action as the clout of a handful of cities grows.

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Innovation and Invention; Urban Scope; Industry Clusters; Innovation and Management;

Citation:

Kerr, William R. "Navigating Talent Hot Spots." Harvard Business Review 96, no. 5 (September–October 2018): 80–86. View Details

Cite View Details Find at Harvard Register to Read

The case opens in 2017 with two of the five co-founders of MISHA telling the company’s CEO Michal Portz that they believe it is time for the global venture to shut down its operations and cease investments. Portz and another co-founder believe MISHA can still work.
The case describes the origins of the ready-to-use capsule solution for shisha smokers and the evolution of MISHA from idea to product design, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution. Consequent mishaps slow down the performance of MISHA, and after five years of the product being in the market and four financing rounds, numbers are far behind what they were in the business plan. The case explores the pivots the company goes through. The central dilemma is this: should the cofounders pull the plug on the company or invest more time and money to try to turn it around? When and according to which criteria should Portz make such a decision?

Faculty & Research

Blink Booking

Abstract

Citation:

About the Author

More from the Author

Faculty & Research

Blink Booking

Abstract

Citation:

Related Work

About the Author

More from the Author