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Case HBS Case Collection November 2016 (Revised February 2017) BrightStar Care: The Evolution of a Leadership Team |
BrightStar Care was a rapidly growing franchise of home health care agencies. Founded by husband and wife team JD and Shelly Sun as a single agency near Chicago in 2002, BrightStar had opened nearly 300 franchises across the United States by 2016, generating over $300 million in revenue. BrightStar was now a very different company from the one Shelly and JD had started during their first year of marriage. Shelly Sun, CEO, had decided to franchise the business in 2004, believing that the franchise model presented a relatively low-risk and high-return approach to growing BrightStar. As franchises began to sell, Sun quickly set about building scalable operations and infrastructure, including a centralized technology function and custom software for franchisees. As more and more locations opened around the United States, she focused on growing BrightStar’s national marketing profile and putting measures in place to distinguish BrightStar’s services as higher quality than those of its competitors. A shifting regulatory landscape and labor shortages posed challenges, but BrightStar continued to grow swiftly. As the company evolved and Sun attempted to spend more time away from headquarters, surveying the field and building relationships, she knew she needed a strong senior management team. Some members of her senior team had been with BrightStar for years, expanding their responsibilities as the company expanded, while others she recruited from outside. In the early 2010s, Sun was close to filling all BrightStar’s crucial executive roles but had to consider whether some longtime leaders were the right fit for the company’s current needs. As she thought through the composition of her senior team, she also revamped her board of advisors and pursued international franchising opportunities and a debt recapitalization. By early 2016, Sun was looking to the company’s next phase of growth while handing management of her executive team to BrightStar’s President and COO.
Keywords: health care services; entrepreneurs; board of directors; boards of directors; health care industry; growth strategy; Organizational change; brand positioning; entrepreneurial organizations; entrepreneurial management; Franchising; Family-owned business; home health care; managing growth; management styles; organizational development; talent management; women executives; women and leadership; Business Startups; Family Business; Small Business; Talent and Talent Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Health Care and Treatment; Human Capital; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Succession; Management Systems; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Strategy;
Groysberg, Boris, Colleen Ammerman, and John D. Vaughan. "BrightStar Care: The Evolution of a Leadership Team." Harvard Business School Case 417-020, November 2016. (Revised February 2017.)
