More from the Author

• Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2018 (Revised September 2019)

  Chewy.com (A)

  Jeffrey F. Rayport and Matthew G. Preble

  In late 2013, Ryan Cohen, cofounder and CEO of online pet products retailer Chewy.com, faces a “bet the company decision”—whether to stay with a third-party logistics provider (3PL) for all of its e-commerce fulfillment or to take the function in house. Cohen worries that the existing 3PL may not be able to scale with Chewy’s projected growth or maintain the company’s performance standards for service quality and fulfillment. While Cohen is convinced that achieving scale is essential to making the business work, he is also keenly aware that neither he nor his cofounders have any experience in managing logistics. In addition, any move they might make to in-source fulfillment would likely destabilize the existing 3PL relationship, on which the viability of the fast-growing business depends. Cohen’s board members are concerned enough about the situation to pressure him to throttle back growth and maintain the 3PL. Cohen sees four possible options: stay with the current 3PL, add another 3PL to handle additional volume, stay with the 3PL and add a company-owned fulfillment center in a new region, or fully insource fulfilment as quickly as possible. In light of Cohen’s goal of reaching $500 million in sales by 2018, the board is divided about what to do, and the CEO is left with what appears to be a choice between two risky options as he attempts to move Chewy forward.

  Keywords: Pet Food; Pet Products; retail; e-commerce; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Decision Choices and Conditions; Retail Industry; Service Industry; Florida; United States;

  Citation:

  Rayport, Jeffrey F., and Matthew G. Preble. "Chewy.com (A)." Harvard Business School Case 818-079, March 2018. (Revised September 2019.)  View Details

  CiteView DetailsEducatorsPurchase

  Related

• Other Presentation | 5 Aug 2019

  3 Elements for Creating Extraordinary Retail Experiences

  Jeffrey F. Rayport

  Keywords: retail; customer experience;

  Citation:

  Rayport, Jeffrey F. "3 Elements for Creating Extraordinary Retail Experiences." #130 Retail Gets Real Podcast, National Retail Federation, August 5, 2019.  View Details

  CiteView Details Listen Now

  Related

• Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2019

  Peabody Essex Museum: What Next?

  V. Kasturi Rangan and Jeffrey F. Rayport

  • The case describes the 25-year transformation of Peabody Essex Museum, which was created in 1993 by the merger of two sub-scale predecessor cultural institutions, operating since 1799, in Salem, Massachusetts. Dan Monroe, its founding CEO, began a process of building the institution, which, when he arrived, had a budget of $3 million and an endowment of $23 million in 1993, as compared to a budget of $33 million and an endowment of $650 million in 2018. Monroe made changes in practically every aspect of the museum’s operations as PEM broke into the ranks of the top 15 museums in the U.S. All of this was happening at a time when museums in general had lost some 20% in visitation as a result of significant shifts in population demographics and what they understood by “cultural experience.” As Dan Monroe handed off the reins of an institution that had successfully run counter to trend to his successor in 2019, the trustees of the museum and its new CEO faced the challenge of how to keep the positive momentum going – and how potentially to reinvent PEM again for a rapidly changing world.

  Keywords: museums; Strategy; Leadership; Transformation; Innovation Leadership; Strategic Planning;

  Citation:

  Rangan, V. Kasturi, and Jeffrey F. Rayport. "Peabody Essex Museum: What Next?" Harvard Business School Case 520-009, July 2019.  View Details

  CiteView DetailsEducators

  Related