|
Case
| HBS Case Collection
|
October 2018
Zenefits Board of Directors (A)
by
Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz
|
Abstract
In early 2018, the time seemed right for Zenefits investor and director Lars Dalgaard to reflect on whether Zenefits had the right board of directors to shepherd the company through its next stages of growth. For the company whose name combined the words “benefits,” reflecting its human resources technology products, and “zen,” loosely defined as a state of calm, the past few years were not entirely zen. Once heralded as one of the fastest growing software start-ups ever, the 5-year-old company quickly achieved “unicorn” status—a term given to an elite handful of privately held start-ups valued at $1 billion or more. But leadership and legal issues that emerged in 2015 had threatened to undermine its success and compelled Zenefits to appoint new board members, hire new executives, reformulate its business model, and transform its corporate culture and philosophy. With those changes in place, Dalgaard now turned his attention once again to the board. Did Zenefits have the board it needed to navigate the next stages of growth as it sought to further distance itself from its rocky past and focus on its future potential?
Keywords: Ethics;
Business Model;
Corporate Accountability;
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Corporate Governance;
Crisis Management;
Entrepreneurship;
Human Resources;
Leadership;
Risk Management;
Venture Capital;
Technology Industry;
Telecommunications Industry;
Information Technology Industry;
United States;
California;
