Publications
Publications
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- January–February 2023
- Article
The Overlooked Key to a Successful Scale-Up
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Davide Sola and Martin Kupp
Many start-ups experience enormous popularity and runaway growth, but only a few go on to become stable giants. What separates them from the pack? They all go through a developmental stage called extrapolation, say three business school professors.
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- October 2022 (Revised December 2022)
- Case
Aphro Beverages
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Amram Migdal
This case focuses on distribution, sales, and product decisions as Aphro Beverages reaches an inflection point in its growth trajectory. In 2020, Aphro Beverages, based in Accra, Ghana, successfully launched its brand and brought two new alcoholic spirits products to...
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Keywords:
Agribusiness;
Plant-Based Agribusiness;
Business Ventures;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Entrepreneurship;
Food;
Geography;
Geographic Scope;
Management;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Growth Management;
Resource Allocation;
Marketing;
Brands and Branding;
Digital Marketing;
Product Marketing;
Product Launch;
Product Positioning;
Social Marketing;
Operations;
Distribution;
Distribution Channels;
Product;
Product Design;
Product Development;
Supply Chain;
Sales;
Salesforce Management;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Africa;
Ghana
- September 2022
- Case
AllSpice: GitHub for Hardware Engineers
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Mel Martin
AllSpice, a software-as-a-service company that built a GitHub-like revision control tool for hardware engineers, was in the midst of preparing for rapid scale when the 2022 market downturn left them with big decisions to make. Cofounder and CEO Valentina Ratner had to...
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- August 2022
- Exercise
Joy4Home Brands: Pricing Matters
By: Elie Ofek, Oded Koenigsberg and Marco Bertini
Joy4Home Brands, the maker of novel houseware items, was gearing up for its launch. The company would be introducing two lines: kitchenware products and storage containers. The initial go-to-market plan called for a direct to consumer (DTC) channel strategy. While...
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- April 2021
- Case
Transforming BlackBerry: From Smartphones to Software
By: Ranjay Gulati and Nicole Tempest Keller
On the verge of failure, BlackBerry brought in John Chen as CEO in 2013 to orchestrate a bold turnaround of the company. Once an iconic leader in the smartphone market, BlackBerry was best known for its tactile QWERTY keyboard, strong security, and a focus on business...
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Keywords:
Pivot;
Managing Change;
Turnaround;
Smartphone;
Change Management;
Leading Change;
Transformation;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Digital Platforms;
Change;
Information Infrastructure;
Applications and Software;
Competitive Strategy;
Cybersecurity;
Technology Industry;
Transportation Industry;
Canada
- April 2021
- Teaching Note
Drinkworks: Home Bar by Keurig
By: Sunil Gupta and Jonathan Levav
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 521-010. In the summer of 2018, Drinkworks CEO Nathaniel Davis needed to make a number of go-to-market decisions ahead of his company’s upcoming product launch. Formed through a joint venture between Keurig Dr. Pepper and Anheuser-Busch...
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Keywords:
Marketing;
Marketing Strategy;
Product Marketing;
Product Launch;
Product Positioning;
Markets;
Bids and Bidding;
Demand and Consumers;
Consumer Behavior;
Market Design;
Distribution;
Distribution Channels;
Product;
Product Design;
Product Development;
Business Model;
Customers;
Customer Value and Value Chain;
Decision Making;
Decisions;
Goods and Commodities;
Innovation and Invention;
Technological Innovation;
Business or Company Management;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Research;
Research and Development;
Strategy;
Adoption;
Competitive Advantage;
Segmentation;
Information Technology;
Information Infrastructure;
Value;
Value Creation;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
North and Central America;
United States
- March 2021 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
Seeding and Selling Asana
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Susie Ma and Amram Migdal
In December 2019, Oliver Jay, Asana’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), was reconsidering his go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Asana was cloud-based work management software that enabled users to break up projects into discrete tasks that could be assigned, scheduled, and...
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Keywords:
SaaS;
Customer Journey;
Business Model;
Business Organization;
Change Management;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Growth Management;
Marketing Channels;
Marketing Strategy;
Product Marketing;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Organizational Design;
Organizational Structure;
Digital Platforms;
Internet and the Web;
Technology Industry;
United States
- March 2021 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
M-KOPA: Empowering Lives
By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Wale Lawal and Pippa Tubman Armerding
The Pay As You Go solar power company in East Africa had sales of $71 million in 2019. It wished to grow to $300 million by 2025. M-KOPA, founded by three entrepreneurs in 2011, had grown nicely in Kenya and Uganda to reach nearly 750,000 households with an...
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- January 2021 (Revised October 2021)
- Case
eToro: Building the World's Largest Social Trading Network
By: Elie Ofek and Danielle Golan
Social trading platform eToro was preparing for the launch of its expanded offering in the U.S. The company faced critical decisions regarding product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, positioning and monetization. Moreover, it faced the challenge of how best to make...
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- Article
How Long Can a Company Thrive Doing Just One Thing?
By: Andy Wu and Scott Duke Kominers
The news that the chat app Slack was being sold to veteran customer relationship management company Salesforce for $27.7 billion raised a lot of eyebrows. Why sell after a year of explosive growth? The deal, however, epitomizes a question facing so-called best-of-breed...
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- December 2020
- Case
Château Margaux: Serving Up the Third Wine
By: Elie Ofek
In fall 2019, Corinne Mentzelopoulos, owner of the famous first-growth Château Margaux, is pondering a series of decisions with respect to the chateau's third wine. Margaux du Château Marguax, as this wine was called, was launched in 2013 with a particular goal in mind...
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- November 2020
- Teaching Note
DayTwo: Going to Market with Gut Microbiome
By: Ayelet Israeli
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-010. DayTwo is a young Israeli startup that applies research on the gut microbiome and machine learning algorithms to deliver personalized nutritional recommendations to its users in order to minimize blood sugar spikes after meals....
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Keywords:
Start-up Growth;
Startup;
Positioning;
Targeting;
Go To Market Strategy;
B2B Vs. B2C;
B2B2C;
Health ＆ Wellness;
AI;
Machine Learning;
Female Ceo;
Female Protagonist;
Science-based;
Science And Technology Studies;
Ecommerce;
Applications;
DTC;
Direct To Consumer Marketing;
US Health Care;
＂USA,＂;
Innovation;
Pricing;
Business Growth;
Segmentation;
Distribution Channels;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Business Startups;
Science-Based Business;
Health;
Innovation and Invention;
Marketing;
Information Technology;
Business Growth and Maturation;
E-commerce;
Applications and Software;
Health Industry;
Technology Industry;
Insurance Industry;
Information Technology Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Israel;
United States
- November 2020 (Revised July 2022)
- Case
Dell Technologies: Bringing the Cloud to the Ground
By: Navid Mojir and V. Kasturi Rangan
The case tells the story of Dell Technologies and its efforts to revitalize its value proposition and escape a commodity trap by acquiring EMC for $67 billion—the largest tech acquisition in history. It also shows the deeply intertwined connections between a company’s...
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- September 2020
- Case
Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience
By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller
Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in...
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- September 2020
- Case
Drinkworks: Home Bar by Keurig
By: Sunil Gupta, Jonathan Levav and Julia Kelley
In the summer of 2018, Drinkworks CEO Nathaniel Davis needed to make a number of go-to-market decisions ahead of his company’s upcoming product launch. Formed through a joint venture between Keurig Dr. Pepper and Anheuser-Busch InBev, Drinkworks had developed an...
View Details
Keywords:
Marketing;
Marketing Strategy;
Product Marketing;
Product Launch;
Product Positioning;
Markets;
Bids and Bidding;
Demand and Consumers;
Consumer Behavior;
Market Design;
Distribution;
Distribution Channels;
Product;
Product Design;
Product Development;
Business Model;
Customers;
Customer Value and Value Chain;
Decision Making;
Decisions;
Goods and Commodities;
Innovation and Invention;
Technological Innovation;
Business or Company Management;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Research;
Research and Development;
Strategy;
Adoption;
Competitive Advantage;
Segmentation;
Information Technology;
Information Infrastructure;
Value;
Value Creation;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
North and Central America;
United States
- June 2020
- Teaching Note
Armarium: Luxury Fashion Brands for Rent
By: Jill Avery and David Fubini
Armarium, a two-sided digital platform that offered consumers the opportunity to rent the most coveted, current season high fashion clothing and accessories from the top global luxury brands, had emerged from its first sales season with two distinct customer segments:...
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Keywords:
Luxury Brand;
Fashion;
Sharing Economy;
Two-sided Marketplace;
Target Market;
Customer Selection;
Marketing;
Brands and Branding;
Luxury;
Two-Sided Platforms;
Business Model;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Customer Value and Value Chain;
Fashion Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
United States;
North America
- March 2020
- Case
Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire
By: Ayelet Israeli, Danilo Tauro and Sarah Gulick
This case provides a post-mortem of the advertising technology (adtech) company Sizmek. Sizmek grew via multiple acquisitions, with the vision of becoming an integrated adtech company that could leverage AI to buy digital media, while creating and serving display and...
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- August 2019
- Case
Apex Ski Boots
By: Kate Barasz and John T. Gourville
Apex Ski Boots has introduced a new ski boot that, due to its radical design, is meeting resistance in the marketplace from many retailers, ski experts, and consumers. The company must decide how best to drive sales in the face of this resistance.
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- March 2019
- Case
DayTwo: Going to Market with Gut Microbiome
By: Ayelet Israeli and David Lane
DayTwo is a young Israeli startup that applies research on the gut microbiome and machine learning algorithms to deliver personalized nutritional recommendations to its users in order to minimize blood sugar spikes after meals. After a first year of trial rollout in...
View Details
Keywords:
Start-up Growth;
Startup;
Positioning;
Targeting;
Go To Market Strategy;
B2B2C;
B2B Vs. B2C;
Health ＆ Wellness;
AI;
Machine Learning;
Female Ceo;
Female Protagonist;
Science-based;
Science And Technology Studies;
Ecommerce;
Applications;
DTC;
Direct To Consumer Marketing;
US Health Care;
＂USA,＂;
Innovation;
Pricing;
Business Growth;
Segmentation;
Distribution Channels;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Business Startups;
Science-Based Business;
Health;
Innovation and Invention;
Marketing;
Information Technology;
Business Growth and Maturation;
E-commerce;
Applications and Software;
Health Industry;
Technology Industry;
Insurance Industry;
Information Technology Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Israel;
United States
- November 2018
- Case
Yatooq: Longing for Arabic Coffee
By: Mark Roberge, Gamze Yucaoglu and Samer Al-Rachedy
As one of the few female entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia, Lateefa Alwaalan had been trying to produce the perfect cup of Arabic coffee for over a decade. In 2007, she began testing various coffee blends, which she later branded Yatooq, the Arabic word for “craving” or...
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurial Sales;
Entrepreneurial Selling;
Entrepreneurial Marketing;
Barrier To Entry;
Business Start-ups;
Yatooq;
Entrepreneurship;
Private Sector;
For-Profit Firms;
Business Strategy;
Patents;
Business Startups;
Strategic Planning;
Competitive Strategy;
Adaptation;
Corporate Entrepreneurship;
Corporate Strategy;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Saudi Arabia;
Asia