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• Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2020 (Revised September 2020)

  Facelift at Olay (A)

  Sunil Gupta, Rajiv Lal and Olivia Hull

  By October 2017, Procter & Gamble’s skincare brand Olay has been struggling with declining sales for several years. The team has tried many remedies, but none has returned the brand to growth. As pressure grows from Olay’s competitors, including hundreds of new direct-to-consumer brands catering to millennial women, North American Skin Care General Manager Chris Heiert must identify a winning marketing strategy that will appeal to women of all ages.

  Keywords: Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Demographics; Age; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Online Advertising; Transformation; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States; Ohio;

  Citation:

  Gupta, Sunil, Rajiv Lal, and Olivia Hull. "Facelift at Olay (A)." Harvard Business School Case 521-011, August 2020. (Revised September 2020.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2017 (Revised September 2020)

  Classtivity: Payal's Pirouette

  Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull

  A few months after launching a new fitness technology product, the small staff of New York startup Classtivity gathers on a Saturday in April 2013 to take stock. With one successful pivot under its belt, Classtivity is finally generating revenue and enthusiasm among customers. But cofounder and CEO Payal Kadakia has some doubts. There are signs that customers love the offering, but studios are less enthusiastic. Efforts to get customers to return to the studios after their monthly packs expire have largely failed. Kadakia must decide, preserve the product or pivot to a new business model?

  Keywords: product pivot; boutique fitness; fitness industry; market sizing; consumer technology; bundling; subscription model; two-sided marketplace; ClassPass; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Transition; Customer Focus and Relationships; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Marketing Strategy; Failure; Business Strategy; Technology Industry; Health Industry; New York (city, NY);

  Citation:

  Bussgang, Jeffrey J., and Olivia Hull. "Classtivity: Payal's Pirouette." Harvard Business School Case 817-002, January 2017. (Revised September 2020.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2020 (Revised September 2020)

  MobSquad

  Prithwiraj Choudhury, William R. Kerr and Susie L. Ma

  Irfhan Rawji (MBS 2004) launched MobSquad in October 2018 to help American tech start-ups retain hard-to-find talent, many of whom struggled with U.S. work visa issues, such as software engineers with experience in artificial intelligence, machine learning, or data science. MobSquad also helped companies fill open roles by tapping into its database of pre-vetted foreign tech workers. While there was growing demand for these specialists, the talent supply in the U.S. was relatively constrained and American companies often filled positions with foreign-born workers using a temporary visa called the H-1B. However, U.S. President Donald Trump temporarily suspended immigration in June 2020, including foreign workers on an H-1B visa during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rawji contemplated what kind of impact this would have on MobSquad and the tech industry in Canada. There was already evidence that a growing number of foreign tech workers were choosing Canada over the U.S. due to Trump’s immigration policies. Now Rawji suspected that Trump’s latest move would further accelerate this trend, and he wanted MobSquad to be ready to help companies and workers who had been counting on the H-1B.

  Keywords: work visas; Business Ventures; Business Startups; Labor; Human Capital; Human Resources; Crisis Management; Employment Industry; Canada; United States;

  Citation:

  Choudhury, Prithwiraj, William R. Kerr, and Susie L. Ma. "MobSquad." Harvard Business School Case 821-010, July 2020. (Revised September 2020.)  View Details

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