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- September 2023
- Case
RightHand Robotics: Choosing the First Market
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Stacy Straaberg
In early 2015, RightHand Robotics’s (RHR) leadership faced several decisions in commercializing the startup’s robotic picking solution. RHR’s central product was the RightPick integrated robotic picking system which featured a robotic arm, a three-fingered robotic hand...
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- April 2023
- Case
Twitter: The Freedom to Speak Freely and Be Heard
By: Randolph B. Cohen, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Mel Martin
In April 2022, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk announced that he would be interested in purchasing the social media site Twitter for $44 billion. With more than 100 million twitter followers, Musk had historically leveraged the site to engage with the customers of his...
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- April 18, 2023
- Article
The Rebirth of Software as a Service
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Jacco van der Kooij
Traditional sales models focus on customer acquisition and the “funnel” or “pipeline” metrics that dominate talk about sales. But this approach falls short when applied to a recurring revenue business, where the customer life cycle looks more like a bowtie, not a...
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- October 2022
- Case
Volt Lines: Leading a B2B Service Provider through a Crisis (A)
By: Navid Mojir and Gamze Yucaoglu
Volt Lines was a next-generation transportation service in Istanbul, Turkey. The company was trying to disrupt the traditional corporate transportation market by developing software that allowed it to offer subscription-based transportation. Under the subscription...
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Keywords:
Business To Business Marketing;
B2B Marketing;
B2B Pricing;
Subscription Model;
Crisis Marketing;
Startup;
Service Management;
Information Technology;
Transportation;
COVID-19 Pandemic;
Disruptive Innovation;
Digital Platforms;
Business Model;
Price;
Crisis Management;
Opportunities;
Transportation Industry;
Technology Industry;
Turkey
- August 2022 (Revised February 2023)
- Case
NewLab: Scaling an Innovation Engine
By: Tarun Khanna and George Gonzalez
Silicon Valley-veteran Shaun Stewart is the CEO of NewLab, a dynamic technology hub headquartered in the storied Brooklyn Navy Yard. Founded in 2016, NewLab fostered a community of entrepreneurs, corporate and government partners, and investors, all seeking to apply...
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- August 2022 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
Pricing at Netflix: The Sequel
By: Elie Ofek and Amy Klopfenstein
This case continues the themes discussed in "Pricing at Netflix" (Case 521-004). Following the conclusion of the original case, Netflix developed new, high-profile original content, added millions of subscribers, and introduced another price increase in January 2022....
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Keywords:
Marketing;
Advertising;
Marketing Strategy;
Entertainment;
Film Entertainment;
Television Entertainment;
Finance;
Strategy;
Competition;
Competitive Strategy;
Business Strategy;
Adaptation;
Internet and the Web;
Customers;
Customer Satisfaction;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Advertising Industry;
North and Central America;
United States
- March 2022 (Revised April 2022)
- Teaching Note
Spotify's Audio-First Strategy: Leading the Podcasting Market
By: Hong Luo and Carol Lin
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 721-439. Within 15 years, CEO Daniel Ek had led Spotify from an ambitious startup to a multi-billion dollar company that had transformed the music industry. As part of Spotify’s next phase of growth, the platform would invest heavily in...
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- December 2021 (Revised March 2022)
- Case
Collaboration Wars: Slack vs. Microsoft Teams
By: David B. Yoffie, Kriti Gupta, Mehek Punatar, Poonam Sacheti and Poorvi Vijay
In 2021, Slack was acquired by Salesforce. While widely viewed as the best corporate collaboration and messaging software, Slack was being challenged by Microsoft, which was giving away its competitive product, Microsoft Teams, for free with a subscription to...
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- October 2021 (Revised September 2022)
- Case
GoPro: Becoming a Subscription Hero
By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini and Nicole Tempest Keller
In 2021, Nick Woodman, founder and CEO of GoPro, was reviewing the company’s subscription offering, considering whether to extend it beyond benefits that were directly related to the company’s iconic camera. Founded in 2002, GoPro had gained renown for its innovative...
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- September 2021 (Revised March 2022)
- Case
Katie Couric Media: Landing the First Client
By: N. Louis Shipley and William R. Kerr
In May 2018, celebrated journalist Katie Couric and her husband, John Molner, had recently launched a full-service media firm called Katie Couric Media (KCM). Couric treasured the opportunity to address important social issues like gender equality, environmental...
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- September 2021 (Revised December 2021)
- Case
STARZPLAY: Shooting for the Stars
By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini and Alpana Thapar
In mid-2021, Maaz Sheikh, cofounder and CEO of STARZPLAY, a Dubai-based subscription video on demand (SVOD) provider that catered to the Middle East and North Africa region, was wrestling with how to find the right balance between continued subscriber growth and...
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Keywords:
Pricing;
Growth;
Profitability;
Subscription Business;
Business Model Innovation;
Fintech;
Subscription;
Performance Measurement;
Promotions;
International Marketing;
Streaming;
Competition;
Marketing;
Price;
Strategy;
Entrepreneurship;
Performance;
Measurement and Metrics;
Business Model;
Media and Broadcasting Industry;
Middle East;
North Africa
- May 2021 (Revised August 2021)
- Case
Melissa Wood Health: How to Win in the Creator Economy
By: Eva Ascarza
In October 2020, Melissa Wood-Tepperberg, founder of the digital subscription wellness platform Melissa Wood Health (MWH) and creator of ‘The MWH Method,’ was evaluating the strategic directions of her company. What had started as a way to share workouts and wellness...
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- May 2021 (Revised May 2022)
- Case
Headspace vs. Calm: A Mindful Competition
By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne Wilson
By 2021, the mindfulness app wars reached their apex. Over 2,000 meditation apps were available to consumers, but two apps, Headspace and Calm, dominated the space, jointly holding about 70% of the total market. Headspace had established itself as the approachable...
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Keywords:
Marketing Communication;
Integrated Strategy;
Brand;
Brand ＆ Product Management;
Brand Communication;
Brand Differentiation;
Brand Building;
Brand Management;
E-Commerce Strategy;
Ecommerce;
App;
App Development;
Applications;
COVID;
COVID-19;
Pandemic;
Pricing;
Pricing Strategy;
Subscription Model;
Subscription;
Partnerships;
Strategic Partnerships;
B2B Vs. B2C;
B2B;
Health ＆ Wellness;
Wellbeing;
Digitization;
Commoditization;
Mobile App;
Mobile App Industry;
Mobile Healthcare;
Mobile Marketing;
Digital Brand;
Digital Health;
Consumer Health;
Apps;
Online Business;
Online Competition;
Online Community;
Online Entertainment;
Entertainment And Leisure;
Meditation;
Marketing;
Marketing Communications;
Brands and Branding;
Price;
Strategy;
Competition;
Competitive Strategy;
Competitive Advantage;
Partners and Partnerships;
Health;
Well-being;
Mobile and Wireless Technology;
Communication;
Communication Strategy;
Disruption;
Consumer Behavior;
Digital Marketing;
E-commerce;
Applications and Software;
Health Industry;
Technology Industry;
Communications Industry;
United States;
North America;
United Kingdom
- 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
- November 2020 (Revised May 2023)
- Case
Holaluz: Taking on the Spanish Energy Market
By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Oded Koenigsberg, Elena Corsi and Emer Moloney
In 2020, the three cofounders of Holaluz, a newcomer to Spain’s electricity retail market, are preparing to launch a new offering: installing and managing solar panels on households' roofs at no extra cost for the consumer, who would still benefit from the energy...
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- July 2020 (Revised September 2020)
- Case
Property Finder's Strategy for Online Classifieds in the MENA Region
By: Krishna G. Palepu, Gamze Yucaoglu and Fares Khrais
The case opens in 2020 as Michael Lahyani, founder and CEO of Property Finder, Dubai’s leading online real estate classifieds portal, contemplates the company’s five-year growth strategy.
Since its founding in 2005 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Property...
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- June 2020
- Supplement
Comcast Corporation (B)
The (B) case, set in the summer of 2020, highlights the concern of Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, as the streaming war intensifies. In a short period of time several new streaming services, such as Disney+, Apple TV+, Quibi, and HBO Max were launched and cable subscription...
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- April 2020
- Teaching Note
Tailor Brands: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Branding
By: Jill Avery
Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology, startup Tailor Brands set out to democratize branding by allowing small businesses to create their brand identities by automatically generating logos in just minutes at minimal cost with no branding or design skills...
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- March 2020
- Case
Hotstar
By: Krishna G. Palepu and Kairavi Dey
Hotstar was an online video streaming platform owned by Star India Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Corporation. Since its launch in 2015, the platform had grown to offer over 100,000 hours of TV content, movies in nine Indian languages...
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- March 2020
- Case
Minneapolis Star Tribune
By: Joseph L. Bower, Elizabeth Hansen and Michael Norris
In the summer of 2019, Mike Klingensmith, CEO of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Twin Cities metro region’s largest newspaper, reviewed subscription trends and plans for future experimentation. The newspaper industry across the U.S. had suffered a steep decline for...
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