EPS160 - New Venture Creation: Case Studies

  Authors: Archana Kalegaonkar, Jonathan Lehrich andRichard M. Locke

Biocon India Group has just formed a new subsidiary, Clinigene, to provide services in clinical trials. Concerns abound, however, as to whether this new subsidiary could prove to be a distraction or worse to this enzyme and pharmaceutical manufacturer.

Authors: Jonathan Lehrich, Paul John Paredes and Ramesh Ravikumar

In 2004, after a year of declining revenues, Brazilian startup Compsis, the leading systems integrator for electronic toll collection in Brazil, was considering whether and how to enter new markets, particularly the United States.

Authors: Katie Barrett, Anand Mohanrangan, Teru Tanaka and Yipeng Zhao

Since 2003, Buenos Aires-based Conexia had grown successfully by providing electronic billing and reconciliation services to the Argentinean healthcare market. In 2010, the company was preparing to enter the U.S. market, where healthcare, insurance, and payment providers were in rapid flux.

Authors: Ketan Bhole, Jordan Lee, Eileen Lu and Indrajit Sen

In early 2009, Taiwan-based CX Technology was looking for new markets to enter. A leading manufacturer of cold-forged steel, the company was considering entering the automotive industry as a Tier 2 supplier. At a time when the future of the U.S. automotive industry was in peril, the question was where and how.

Authors: Anju Mathew, Grete Rød, Jaime Villalobos and David Yates

Digital Divide Data had grown from a small IT outsourcing company in Cambodia to an internationally recognized social enterprise. In 2009, the company was weighing how best to grow while safeguarding its social mission: to offer training and employment to disadvantaged youth.

Authors: Inaki Berenguer, Liu Jing, Li Liang, Cai Shijun and Ningya Wang

In 2008, China-based Yunnan Lucky Air, a low-cost, domestic airline modeled after Southwest Airlines in the United States, was searching for new competitive advantages in China’s increasingly competitive yet heavily regulated airline industry. Ecommerce was being looked to as one growth strategy.

Authors: Paul Cassleman, Burt LaFountain, Brian Newkirk and Akbar Thobhani

In the small western Kenya community of Kipkaren, the faith-based Empowering Lives International ran a clinic offering basic medical care. In early 2009, David Tarus reflected on the development of his organization, its role in the community, and the mission he and his colleagues served, while keeping the recent mandate from the organization’s board in mind: making the clinic financially sustainable.

Authors: Jennifer Jeng, Laura Rieber, Gautam Shewakramani and Irina Starikova

Rapid-test manufacturer i+MED wanted to be the missing link between Thailand’s national research and development laboratories and the global biotechnology markets. In 2009, eight years after its founding, i+MED was ready to launch its first breakthrough product outside of Thailand. The company had set its sights on India.

Authors: Benjamin Black, Ajit Dansingani and Dong Min Kim

In early 2008, in response to new labor laws and increasingly complex staffing requests from clients, Chile-based Kibernum was in the process of evolving from an IT professional staffing firm to a full-fledged software factory. A team of MIT Sloan students was helping the company develop its new business plan. But with only three weeks on-site, the team needed to decide where it should focus its efforts in order to be a truly effective partner.

Authors: Zeynep Ton and Cate Reavis

In July 2015, Managed by Q co-founder and CEO Dan Teran was trying to decide how best to grow the 15-month old on-demand office cleaning and maintenance company. As Teran saw it, Q, which differentiated itself from the competition by leveraging people and technology, could grow by acquiring customers in its existing markets of New York, Chicago, and San Francisco; expanding into new markets; or, diversifying the range of services it offered in the office management space. No matter which path Q chose, Teran was committed to protecting the company’s unique business model and culture.

Authors: Erica Carlisle, Chris Lin, Libby Putman and Emily Sporl

In early 2010, Mercy Corps, a global nongovernmental organization (NGO), wanted to find a way to turn its KeBal pilot project, which sold nutritious food from food carts to kids in Jakarta, Indonesia, into a self-sustaining, scalable business that would benefit the local communities. Although the Mercy Corps office had concluded that growth would be best served by franchising, that conclusion left them with further questions.

Authors: Tania Aidrus, Sarah Bird and Sameer Sabir

In 2007, Asad Jamal, a Pakistani-born entrepreneur and founder of ePlanet Ventures, a technology-based fund, wondered whether his firm should be one of the first entrants in the largely untapped market of Pakistan. The country’s political, economic, and social situation posed a number of opportunities and risks that Jamal had to weigh very carefully.

Authors: Aaron Rackoff, Kevin Anthony, Roger Erdong Chen and Wai Yan Wong

In 2008, startup PPS.tv, a China-based, peer-to-peer online video provider, was under pressure to deliver profits and a larger user base. With several growth strategies to choose from, PPS.tv needed to make a decision—one that would appeal to potential investors.

Authors: Ezra Zuckerman and Cate Reavis

Resolute Marine Energy (RME) founder and CEO Bill Staby and COO Olivier Ceberio believed their company’s wave energy desalination system could provide safe and affordable drinking water to water-stressed communities. They set their sights on launching RME’s Wave2O system in Ugu, South Africa, population 700,000, where wave energy was abundant. Keeping in mind the many commercial failures of wave energy companies that came before them, what Staby and Ceberio were less certain of in the spring of 2012 was which of three strategic approaches to take as they worked to commercialize RME’s unique technology.

Authors: Cate Reavis and Deborah Ancona

In October 2000, with just a couple of weeks until the three-month-old car sharing startup closed on its first round of funding, Zipcar co-founder Robin Chase made an alarming discovery: the amount of revenue that Zipcars had generated for the month of September was half of what she estimated. After spending the previous 10 months networking, building a team, overseeing technology development, seeking funding, and otherwise navigating the confusing maze of twists and turns that entrepreneurs face in launching new ventures this was one set-back she was not expecting. The question facing Chase was what could and should she do to set the company on a profitable course, and fast, while safeguarding the company’s developing relationship with its 430 members.

Authors: Racheal Rutendo Chimbghandah, Shirley Xue Li, Marie No and Jennifer Louise Tutak

Since 1996, Srinivasan Services Trust (SST) had successfully improved the lives of thousands of rural Indians by helping establish village enterprises. In late 2009, SST Chairman Ashoke Joshi was trying to decide what role the trust should play in helping beneficiaries scale up their enterprises and increase their profits.