Icarian, Inc.

In February 1999, Doug Merritt and Rani Hublou, the co-founders of Icarian, Inc., had just finished celebrating the launch of their first product at a patio barbecue with their entire company. The pair had founded Icarian in 1997 to create solutions that would help companies plan for, hire, deploy, and retain their ‘people assets.’ Merrit and Hublou had raised several million dollars, attracted five strong customers, and developed and launched a 1.0 version of a Web-based software application. This case explores Icarian’s strategy to be the leader in Enterprise Workforce Planning (EWP), covering industry background, competitive landscape, and an assessment of the company and where it was in achieving its goals.