More from these Authors

• Case | HBS Case Collection | June 2020 (Revised July 2020)

  TraceTogether

  Mitchell B. Weiss and Sarah Mehta

  By April 7, 2020, over 1.4 million people worldwide had contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Governments raced to curb the spread of COVID-19 by scaling up testing, quarantining those infected, and tracing their possible contacts. It had taken Singapore’s Government Technology Agency (GovTech) and Ministry of Health (MOH) all of eight weeks to develop the world’s first nationwide deployment of a Bluetooth-based contact tracing system, TraceTogether, and deploy it in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19. From late January to mid-March 2020, GovTech’s Jason Bay and his team raced to create a technology that would supplement the work of Singapore’s human contact tracers. Days after its launch, Singapore’s foreign minister announced plans to open source the technology. Now, in early April, TraceTogether was a beta for the world. Whether the system would really help in Singapore, and whether other countries should adopt it was still a wide-open question.

  Keywords: COVID-19; contact-tracing; Government Administration; Crisis Management; Health; Health Pandemics; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Technology; Mobile Technology; Software; Technology Adoption; Health Industry; Public Administration Industry; Singapore;

  Citation:

  Weiss, Mitchell B., and Sarah Mehta. "TraceTogether." Harvard Business School Case 820-111, June 2020. (Revised July 2020.)  View Details

  CiteView DetailsEducatorsPurchase

  Related

• Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2020

  Poppy (B)

  Thomas R. Eisenmann, Scott Duke Kominers, Jeff Huizinga and Allison Ciechanover

  Avni Patel Thompson, founder and CEO of Poppy, an online marketplace for on-demand childcare, revisits the venture's final months, and discusses the steps she took in the wake of the shutdown. This case explores experiments the company conducted to refine its original business model, as well as how Patel Thompson rekindled her entrepreneurial ambitions. It is part two of an A and B case, the A case being: Poppy: A Modern Village for Childcare Case 818 075, November 2017.

  Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Marketplace Matching; Business Model; Business Exit or Shutdown; Personal Development and Career; United States;

  Citation:

  Eisenmann, Thomas R., Scott Duke Kominers, Jeff Huizinga, and Allison Ciechanover. "Poppy (B)." Harvard Business School Case 820-715, March 2020.  View Details

  CiteView DetailsEducatorsPurchase

  Related

• Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2020

  Aereo

  Thomas R. Eisenmann and Jacey Taft

  Aereo aimed to disrupt television program distribution by providing consumers access to local broadcast TV programming using offsite antennas, cloud-based DVRs, and an Internet connection. With Aereo, consumers could “cut the cord” and avoid the high cost of a cable TV subscription. Soon after launching service in NYC in 2012, Aereo was sued by broadcasters, who asserted that the startup was distributing their programs without permission — and without paying retransmission fees. After Federal District and Appeals Court victories for Aereo, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the startup in 2013, and it was shut down, after investing $97 million. The case looks at Aereo's journey and offers reflections from founder/CEO Chet Kanojia.

  Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Failure; Lawsuits and Litigation; Internet; Media; United States;

  Citation:

  Eisenmann, Thomas R., and Jacey Taft. "Aereo." Harvard Business School Case 820-043, March 2020.  View Details

  CiteView DetailsEducators

  Related