ShotSpotter

Mitchell  Weiss; Sarah  McAra

Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2016

ShotSpotter

Abstract

SST, Inc. offered a subscription-based gunfire detection service, ShotSpotter Flex, to cities across the United States in addition to a few abroad. Over its 20-year history, SST had mostly honed a reliable business-to-government sales model, and the company had been focused on expanding to new cities. But Ralph Clark, President and CEO, was also interested in investigating new services. Mass shootings, in U.S. schools to cities abroad, were consistently followed with calls to his office: “Do you have a solution for us?” Could a ShotSpotter Flex-like service be sold to college campuses and other venues concerned with shootings? Should SST adapt the hardware and the software for indoor applications, like shopping malls and movie theaters? Was the next step in the company’s growth a move towards citywide deployments through smart cities, even to detect gunfire during terrorist attacks? Clark had been cautious about moving the company into new services. However, he was also aware, as were his investors, that the market of U.S. cities with gun-violence problems would eventually cap out. Entering new markets posed a great opportunity but also significant technical and operational challenges. In 2016, Clark weighed the implications.

Keywords: ShotSpotter; SST; Internet of Things; IoT; smart cities; public entrepreneurship; Sales; Enterprise Sales; Scaling and Growth; government; public sector; innovation; Ralph Clark; entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Sales; Innovation and Invention; Public Administration Industry; California; United States;

Language: English

Format: Print

25 pages

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Citation:

Weiss, Mitchell, and Sarah McAra. "ShotSpotter." Harvard Business School Case 817-034, November 2016.

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

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ShotSpotter

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