City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact

Rosabeth Moss Kanter; Jonathan  Cohen

Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | September 2018

City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact

by Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

Abstract

This teaching note assists in the classroom instruction of the HBS No. 318-089, “City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact.” It offers to instructors a case summary and analysis, along with student preparation questions and a guide for classroom discussion of the case. The teaching note helps explain teaching objectives of the case, including lessons on how to manage the growth and evolution of not-for-profit social enterprises and how to pursue even bigger societal change.

Keywords: scaling; Education Entrepreneurship; Education; Service Operations; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Efficiency; Resource Allocation; Change Management; Social Entrepreneurship; Middle School Education; Secondary Education; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Human Capital; Growth Management; Service Delivery; Organizational Design; Social Enterprise; Poverty; United States;

Language: English

Format: Print

18 pages

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Citation:

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, and Jonathan Cohen. "City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 319-040, September 2018.

From 2008-2010 Anand Piramal ran a series of pilots for his digital healthcare startup, Piramal e-Swasthya (PeS) to “democratize healthcare” in rural areas of India. PeS ran into difficulties so Anand Piramal had to decide whether to continue the organization and if so how. In 2010, an unexpected opportunity emerged that could have significant implications for PeS’s organizational structure and future prospects. Anand Piramal now faced several options for PeS. He needed to weigh the pros and cons of each option to make the best decision to fulfill his vision of providing quality healthcare services to “bottom-of-the-pyramid” populations. This case exemplifies the strategic decisions an entrepreneur must make to ensure that a social impact venture can be sustainable and scalable.

In 2010, Anand Piramal acquired the Health Management Research Institute (HMRI), a healthcare venture, and merged it with his original digital healthcare startup Piramal e-Swasthya (PeS), so that PeS became Piramal Swasthya. After acquiring HMRI, Piramal Swasthya scaled across 20 Indian states and became India’s largest private primary healthcare initiative by implementing public-private partnerships with state governments. In 2012, Anand Piramal stepped down as CEO of Piramal Swasthya, leading to organizational change and a healthcare strategy focused on improving maternal health amongst India’s most vulnerable populations. This case shows how an organization can achieve innovation at scale through cross-sector collaboration.

In the middle of a crisis, everything looks like a failure. But it’s possible to come out the other end with a strong company—and often with a plan for growth. Companies with a people-first culture can succeed by paying attention to three things: establishing clear accountability in the leadership ranks; developing a nuts-and-bolts, collaborative plan for getting through the crisis; and putting a separate group in charge of defining the “new normal,” when the worst is over.

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City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact

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