MedAvante: Navigating Resistance to Innovation

By George Foster, Joseph Golden
2019 | Case No. E676 | Length 31 pgs.
MedAvante, a provider of clinical trial services and technology solutions to the pharmaceutical industry, struggled to find product/market fit for many years, because its innovative service offering met fierce resistance from other stakeholders in the ecosystem. A strategic pivot to work with the ecosystem, not against it, saved the company and brought its co-founders to the brink of a successful exit. This case explores the difficulties of bringing innovation to a deeply conservative, highly regulated industry. It also analyzes the role that other stakeholders in a market ecosystem can play in encouraging, or blocking, the adoption of a startup’s products/services.

Learning Objective

Understand the limits of innovation in driving adoption of a new product or service. Appreciate the importance of creating value for other stakeholders in the marketplace, not just the economic buyer of a product or service. Think through the differing incentives and goals between management and investors in negotiating a company sale.
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