iMatari

Joseph L. Badaracco; Matthew  Preble

Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2013 (Revised March 2015)

iMatari

by Joseph L. Badaracco and Matthew Preble

Abstract

In late 2012, recent Harvard Business School graduate Hannah Lopez is given the opportunity to lead entry into a new market for Plámo, a company that created startup companies in Europe and emerging markets based upon existing successful business models. She had only been with the company a few months, and while excited by the opportunity, she was beginning to have some doubts about the company.
In the brief time she had been with the company, she had had a few experiences that made her question the company's approach to management and the sustainability of its business. Accepting the assignment could give her a unique entrepreneurial opportunity, but she wondered what level of support she could expect to receive and, if the startup did fail, what impact would that have on her career and reputation?
Lopez was also starting to worry about the ethical implications of Plámo's style of entrepreneurship. She worried that by agreeing to serve as a manager of the new operations, she would be tacitly supporting elements of Plámo's strategy and practices that she was concerned about. Was she comfortable taking other companies' ideas and simply copying them? Was this true entrepreneurship?

Keywords: ethical behavior; Ethical Judgment; ethics; entrepreneurship; imitation; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Europe; Middle East;