IdentiGEN

Ray A. Goldberg; Matthew  Preble

Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2013

IdentiGEN

Abstract

Ciaran Meghen and Ronan Loftus, co-founders of IdentiGEN (an Irish company that had created a unique service called DNA TraceBack to help customers identify and trace meat products), were discussing the company's future. The recent crisis over beef products being contaminated with horsemeat in Europe had generated strong demand for IdentiGEN's services. But more than this, DNA TraceBack gave customers strong insight into their operations to ensure product was genuine, and helped facilitate a continuous feedback loop between all players of the supply chain to deliver a high quality product to consumers. In light of strong demand, how should IdentiGEN proceed in terms of which customers to work with, and which products should it support?

Keywords: Agribusiness; supply chain management; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Agribusiness; Supply Chain Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Canada; United Kingdom; United States; Republic of Ireland;

Language: English

Format: Print

29 pages

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Citation:

Goldberg, Ray A., and Matthew Preble. "IdentiGEN." Harvard Business School Case 914-408, November 2013.

WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey was concerned about the culture of his rapidly expanding global venture, as the scale and complexity of the organization increased. In particular, he wanted to ensure that WeWork continued to be a great place to work, both because he cared about WeWork's people and because a better experience of work was core to the company’s brand. In the summer of 2017, he had made a presentation to the company at an all-hands meeting. In it, he proposed the creation of a culture operations team, and that he announced that he would take the title of chief culture officer to lead it. In this case, which describes the founding and growth of WeWork from 2010, we encounter Miguel planning for his new role with co-founder Adam Neumann and envisioning a “culture OS” that he and Adam would use to lead the organization internally -- and to offer as a “product” to scaled enterprise externally.

Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2018 (Revised March 2018)

Chewy.com (A)

Jeffrey F. Rayport and Matthew G. Preble

In late 2013, Ryan Cohen, cofounder and CEO of online pet products retailer Chewy.com, faces a “bet the company decision”—whether to stay with a third-party logistics provider (3PL) for all of its e-commerce fulfillment or to take the function in-house. Cohen worries that the existing 3PL may not be able to scale with Chewy’s projected growth or maintain the company’s performance standards for service quality and fulfillment. While Cohen is convinced that achieving scale is essential to making the business work, he is also keenly aware that neither he nor his cofounders have any experience in managing logistics. In addition, any move they might make to in-source fulfillment would likely destabilize the existing 3PL relationship, on which the viability of the fast-growing business depends. Cohen’s board members are concerned enough about the situation to pressure him to throttle back growth and maintain the 3PL. Cohen sees four possible options: stay with the current 3PL; add another 3PL to handle additional volume; stay with the 3PL and add a company-owned fulfillment center in a new region; or fully in-source fulfilment as quickly as possible. In light of Cohen’s goal of reaching $500 million in sales by 2018, the board is divided about what to do, and the CEO is left with what appears to be a choice between two risky options as he attempts to move Chewy forward.

Keywords: Pet Food; Pet Products; retail; e-commerce; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Decision Choices and Conditions; Retail Industry; Service Industry; Florida; United States;