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Case Studies

This listing contains abstracts and ordering information for case studies written and published by faculty at Stanford GSB.

Lumo Bodytech: A Bumpy Journey

|E645
George Foster, Amadeus Orleans
2018

Monisha Perkash cofounded Lumo Bodytech during an incubation program organized by Innovation Endeavors – the venture capital firm started by Eric Schmidt – in 2011. At the time, she had barely met her cofounders and...

Note on Creating a Viable Venture - A Global Perspective

|E651
Steve Ciesinski, Howie Rosen
2018

This note identifies the key issues that must be addressed in the creation of a viable venture, and provides an overview of the processes and techniques available to resolve the issues discussed.

Also...

Leading with Humor

|M367
Debra Schifrin, Jennifer Aaker, Noami Bagdonas, Leslie Blodgett, David Hornik, Kelly Leonard, Anne Libera
2018

“Leading with Humor” explores two major themes: 1) Why businesses should embrace and foster humor in the workplace, and 2) how individuals can bring humor and levity into their own organizations. The first section details...

Zuora in 2017: Leading the Subscription Economy Revolution

|SM284
Robert Burgelman, Robert Siegel, Julie Makinen
2018

Long before Spotify had become a household name, and when Netflix was still mailing off DVDs to customers’ homes, Tien Tzuo had foreseen a major transformation in the business world: from one-off sales to subscription...

Innovium 2018

|SM306
William Barnett, Christy Johnson, Morgan Salama
2018

Innovium has been focusing on disrupting an entrenched space . After getting product market fit the company wrestles with how to scale up, how to build a strong culture and how to raise more funds....

Andrea Jung: The Challenges of Letting Go

|E648
David M. Dodson, Amadeus Orleans
2018

Andrea Jung became CEO of Avon Products Inc. in 1999 – the first woman to ever hold the position since the foundation of the iconic cosmetics company, in 1886. In a few years at the...

Stride: The Early Sales Decisions

|E647
Michael Speiser, Amadeus Orleans
2018

Stride was founded in April 2016 and offered a software that gathered data from disparate sources and organized such data in one platform with a simple interface, with the goal of enabling marketing teams to...

Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies - Cards Against Humanity: The Power of Levity to Activate People in the Face of Gravity

|M371-1
Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter Seibert
2018

This set of Humor: Serious Business “Caselet Studies” follows three visionaries (Dick Costolo – Partner at Index Ventures and Former CEO of Twitter, Gregg Spiridellis – CEO and co-founder of JibJab, and Jenn Bane...

Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies – Dick Costolo: The Power of Humor in Leadership

|M371-3
Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter Seibert, Sophia Pink
2018

This set of Humor: Serious Business “Caselet Studies” follows three visionaries (Dick Costolo – Partner at Index Ventures and Former CEO of Twitter, Gregg Spiridellis – CEO and co-founder of JibJab, and Jenn Bane...

Humor: Serious Business - Caselet Studies – Gregg Spiridellis: Humor in Physical Space to Engage a Mindset of Levity

|M371-2
Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter Seibert, Sophia Pink
2018

This set of Humor: Serious Business “Caselet Studies” follows three visionaries (Dick Costolo – Partner at Index Ventures and Former CEO of Twitter, Gregg Spiridellis – CEO and co-founder of JibJab, and Jenn Bane...

On Humor and Honey Badgers

|M373
Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Steve Reardon
2018

Steve Reardon, CEO of Bill4Time, loved a good practical joke. But humor was more than just a side passion—it helped shape how Reardon operated as a CEO, and helped define the office culture he...

Privateer Holdings: Navigating a Rocketing, But Complex, Cannabis Marketplace

|E646
George Foster, Sheila Melvin
2018

Privateer Holdings was a Seattle-based private equity firm that was “shaping the future of the legal cannabis industry.” In late 2017, Privateer held an expanding portfolio of global brands intended to “lead, legitimize, and define...

Box: From Seed to IPO

|SM296
Robert Chess, Cameron Lehman
2018

Dylan Smith, Co-Founder and CFO of Box, describes the various stages of founding the enterprise digital document and data storage company. At each financial raise, beginning with the very earliest family-and-friend money all the way...

StyleSeat

|SM295
George Foster, Cameron Lehman
2018

Melody McCloskey, founder and CEO of StyleSeat, discusses the earliest stages of her hair-appointment booking platform, from bootstrapping to fundraising, from a potential business model pivot to potential obstacles in the future.

Arterys

|SM297
Robert Chess, Cameron Lehman
2018

Fabien Beckers, Founder and CEO of Arterys, walks through the creation of his medical / AI imaging company, including the equity struggles of the founding team, building the right team and final the right channel...

Humor: Serious Business – Caselet Studies - Sara Blakely: Using Humor to Launch a Company

|M370A
Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter Seibert, Sara Blakely
2018

This set of Humor: Serious Business “Caselet Studies” follows three visionaries (SPANX CEO Sara Blakely, Deloitte Partner Brian Fugere, and Friend of a Friend Productions CEO/Founder Eric Gurian) as they examine their strategic use of...

Humor: Serious Business – Caselet Studies - Brian Fugere: Bigger Than Bullsh*t

|M370B
Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter Seibert
2018

This set of Humor: Serious Business “Caselet Studies” follows three visionaries (SPANX CEO Sara Blakely, Deloitte Partner Brian Fugere, and Friend of a Friend Productions CEO/Founder Eric Gurian) as they examine their strategic use of...

Humor: Serious Business – Caselet Studies - Eric Gurian: Humor Ignites Positive Action in Dark Times

|M370C
Jennifer Aaker, Naomi Bagdonas, Peter Seibert, Eric Gurian
2018

This set of Humor: Serious Business “Caselet Studies” follows three visionaries (SPANX CEO Sara Blakely, Deloitte Partner Brian Fugere, and Friend of a Friend Productions CEO/Founder Eric Gurian) as they examine their strategic use of...

MongoDB

|SM300
Mike Speiser, Julie Makinen
2018

By 2015, MongoDB was seven years old and a so-called “unicorn,” a startup valued at more than $1 billion. MongoDB’s open-source software had been downloaded about 9 million times, and the company seemed to have...

Sonos in 2017: Non-Founder CEO Transition and Change Management

|SM293
Mike Volpi, Dione Chen
2018

Sonos, a home audio equipment manufacturer known for pioneering wireless speakers that offered home listeners greater convenience and superior sound quality, had good reason to be optimistic in 2015. For the past several years, sales...

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Publicly available cases in this collection are distributed by Harvard Business Publishing and The Case Centre.

Leadership in Focus

Leadership in Focus is a large collection of short videos that bring to life real-world business challenges and spark lively discussions aimed at improving executive skills. Each short video is accompanied by teaching notes for added context, suggested discussion questions and role-playing ideas to help engage groups of managers in learning experiences of their own. Leaders may also experience the cases online with opportunities to calibrate their thinking for actionable insights.

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