The Center For Leadership Studies

JUNE 1, 2022

Technology: This is a quote I came across recently in a business publication: “… of 53 tech-related companies that went public last year through an IPO or direct listing, all but three are now trading well below their offer or opening price … more than half have tumbled by at least 50%.”. Everyone is a coach.”. Is coaching a “good thing?

IPO 52

IPO Travel Content Reference 52

Harvard Business Review

MAY 15, 2012

I have used the social network for eight years and continue to be impressed with Mark Zuckerberg's focus on product and his vision for the internet. But equity investing and product use are very different things. And despite all of Facebook's user support, investors should be skeptical of the company's pricey IPO.

IPO 13

IPO Advertising IRR Venture Funding 13

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 13, 2014

As you may know, King Digital, the company behind the blockbuster game Candy Crush Saga , is about to IPO. Jim Surowiecki in the New Yorker and Felix Salmon at Reuters (and many, many others) have analyzed the IPO. In his interview with HBR, Salganik explained that having a cultural product of good quality is not enough.

IPO 8

IPO Consensus Quality Marketing 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 8, 2019

Youngme, Felix, and Mihir talk about the Beyond Meat IPO and whether plant-based meat alternatives like Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger will become mass-market products. They then discuss Facebook’s announcement that it is pivoting to put greater emphasis on user privacy.

IPO 12

IPO Mass Marketing Marketing Productivity 12

N2Growth Blog

FEBRUARY 8, 2019

Maybe you’re prepping for the IPO. Missing the turn or making it too late can cause a company to stagnate or implode or can spell the death of the idea; or worse, the idea becomes someone else’s to bring to market without you. When you started out you rightly focused on developing your unique new product, service, or solution.

Delegation 208

Delegation Maturity CEO Execution 208

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

Yelp's IPO filing comes hot on the heels of successful IPOs and high valuations for Angie's List and Groupon. Yelp's timing reflects both a tech-friendly market and the company's current position as the dominant consumer-review web site. But new ways of searching for products may start to change this dynamic.

IPO 14

IPO Business Model Review Advertising 14

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 15, 2018

In addition, given their quest for organization leanness, digital startups seek investors who have the expertise to help outsource their noncore business functions, such as production, distribution, marketing, and payroll processing. By the time, those opportunities reach public markets, if at all, they are fully priced.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist IPO Company Kleiner 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 2, 2017

For decades, we have heard that emerging markets are poised for huge growth that will yield even greater prosperity. Much like their famed Silicon Valley counterparts, emerging market accelerators aim to boost startups’ potential for raising growth capital.

Marketing 8

Marketing Venture Funding Entrepreneur IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 20, 2018

NewTV is the creation of Jeffrey Katzenberg, whose track record includes head of production at Paramount, chair of Walt Disney Studios, and cofounder of DreamWorks. Because the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital.

IPO 8

IPO First-mover Advantage Business Model Agility 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Venture capitalists are increasingly interested in emerging markets, and in working with local funds based in those markets (despite the fact that reverse innovation in venture capital seems counterintuitive). In contrast, emerging-market VCs such as Nadathur Holdings (established in 2000 by N.S.

Marketing 15

Marketing Venture Capitalist Biotechnology IPO 15

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

billion market valuation. As a price strategy consultant, it's common for managers and sales people to enthusiastically pitch me on a strategy of "let's get them in the door with a big discount, they'll love our product or service, and then return to pay full price." Consumers, of course, love big discounts. Yes, "50%-off" is catchier.

IPO 10

IPO Discount Price Business Model 10

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

Your company has just developed an amazing new product. Having observed management teams for decades as a mutual fund and portfolio manager, I have watched numerous companies vanish after a disastrous launch of a product or service. Baldino moved aggressively to bring Provigil to market. What do you do next?

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Biotechnology IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 21, 2016

When financial services company Square priced its IPO at $9 a share last November, well under the $15+ price that private investors paid the year before, it was a cold shower of reality for the 6-year-old company. Until the IPO, Square had been one of more than 130 unicorns: privately owned tech companies valued at $1 billion or more.

IPO 8

IPO Innovation Price Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 26, 2011

In the last year, however, early-stage investments in clean energy production technologies have fallen substantially (see the table at the end of this piece for more detail). A star example is Google, which raised a mere $40 million in private funding before its IPO at a $23 billion valuation.

Energy 11

Energy Finance IPO Biotechnology 11

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 21, 2016

At that point it had seven different products, and it was on the verge of going out of business. The first thing I did was figure out which of the seven products we could shut down, and why this made sense strategically. One of our products involved loan syndication. ’” Later, Intralinks decided to try to IPO.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur IPO Banking Price 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

On February 13, 2018, the New York Times reported that Uber is planning an IPO. Twitter reported a loss of $79 million before its IPO, yet it commanded a valuation of $24 billion on its IPO date in 2013. Many digital companies have no physical products and have no inventory to report.

Company 8

Company Intangible Assets Depreciation IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 23, 2013

The most motivated and productive people I’ve seen recently work in an older company on the American East Coast deploying innovative technology products to transform a traditional industry. Their products are early stage, which means daily frustrations as they run through successive iterations.

Motivation 11

Motivation IPO Norton Open-book 11

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 6, 2018

Financial value is the stuff of business school and stock markets. Strategic value, on the other hand, has little to do with any of those things and almost everything to do with how a company’s product and/or market position help or hinder another company’s (usually a bigger one’s) ability to be successful.

Price 12

Price IPO Wilde Examples 12

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 30, 2014

The M&A markets are frothy, corporations are investing in Silicon Valley labs, and even PhDs looking for jobs in business schools are finding it tough to find homes without “innovation” somewhere in their background. But it’s an idea that demands attention, investment, and a long view of the market.

Long-term 11

Long-term Innovation Company IPO 11

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 8, 2018

Impact investors over the past decade largely focused on proving that impact investments could achieve a “market rate” or above return profile. Making something wildly profitable will of course attract the attention of financial markets, and thus increase the chances it will scale effectively. By 2010, they had succeeded.

Microfinance 8

Microfinance IPO Real Estate Industry 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 12, 2012

A few weeks ago, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about people who had opened up their very first investment accounts just to get in on the Facebook IPO. It also seems likely that he's kicking himself today, as the value of the stock has dropped almost 25% since its May 17 IPO. But was that so?

IPO 10

IPO Bond Long-term Short-term 10

Harvard Business Review

MAY 16, 2012

One of our most striking findings was that of the entrepreneurs we surveyed who had a successful exit (that is, an IPO or sale to another firm), about 70% did NOT start with a business plan. Many start-up plans emphasize some gigantic potential market and how getting just the smallest sliver of it will make them and investors rich.

Planning 20

Planning Mintzberg IPO Entrepreneur 20

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 30, 2016

We were reminded of this a few years ago, when we studied a major European conglomerate with more than 50 distinct businesses spread across dozens of markets. The company’s success has made it one of the best-performing IPOs in Asia in the last decade. We soon figured out why.

Supply Chain 14

Supply Chain Company IPO Talent Management 14

Harvard Business Review

JULY 21, 2014

Is there a market opportunity the company is overlooking? Erik Mason, the marketing communications manager for an aesthetic skin laser company in the Northeast, felt the firm needed a new image. Other companies with slicker marketing were gaining market share even though they had inferior technology,” Mason says.

IPO 9

IPO Audience Chief Information Officer Case Study 9

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 2, 2016

True platform innovators aren’t just market matchmakers using data-driven algorithms to drive better buyer-seller matches; they invest in new value creation. In platform markets, cultivating user capability becomes as strategically important as reducing transaction costs. Successful platforms empower their users.

IPO 8

IPO Human Capital Insurance Business Model 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 16, 2011

The financial results of Groupon's traditional business continue to deteriorate, especially in mature markets, and new ventures such as Groupon Now also have failed to drive profits. The company's product is not more valuable to users as more people adopt the platform.

Christensen 19

Christensen Fixed Costs Metrics Venture Funding 19

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 7, 2013

"Free" product competition strikes again and the latest casualty is Weight Watchers, whose CEO recently left the company in the midst of the onslaught of free weight loss and fitness applications. Advantages typically include an established customer base, brand equity, market knowledge, and financial resources.

Disruptive Innovation 8

Disruptive Innovation Advertising Discount IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 1, 2011

Microfinance has come under fire in the past 18 months, triggered in part by SKS Microfinance's IPO. The IPO, the new regulations, and a call for Dr. Yunus's retirement from Grameen Bank have led some to doubt the whole notion of microfinance. They're about market creation: When the poor earn more income, they consume more products.

Microfinance 13

Microfinance IPO Bottom-up Finance 13

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 28, 2016

Then the banks decided to turn the associations into for-profit companies, IPO them, and cash out. MasterCard IPO’d in 2006, and Visa followed two years later. That standard may then become a platform for many firms that produce complementary products and their customers. Now they are very focused on making money.

IPO 8

IPO Succession Technology Software 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 28, 2014

Er brands rely on other products or brands to explain their own. It also puts your brand under constant pressure to introduce new products on Brand X’s time line, because now your brand value is tied to Brand X’s product. That sets the bar quite high, and I understand not every product can be truly new to the world.

Brand 10

Brand IPO Marketing Strategy Airlines 10

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2014

The company was hell-bent on entering a new market but knew it had to automate its warehouse to do so. Warehouse automation systems are big and complicated; if they don’t work, you’re worse off than before since it becomes almost impossible to ship product. BlueArc’s new product hit the market and was an instant success.

CFO 8

CFO Venture Funding IPO Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 2, 2013

Great universities will spur firms to design and manufacture products locally. With Facebook’s $115 billion market cap on its IPO day, Mark Zuckerberg created wealth nearly equivalent to half of Nigeria’s GDP in 2012. The value created by Facebook and a few other tech IPOs exceeds the GDP of most African regions.

Education 8

Education Technology IPO GDP 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 23, 2013

There are three pieces of data that are particularly shocking to internet, software, and biotech entrepreneurs who are on the verge of committing their firms to starting firms in secondary startup markets (and, in particular, outside of the San Francisco Bay). It’s time spent not building product. It takes longer to raise money.

IPO 9

IPO Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Competitive Advantage 9

Rajesh Setty

DECEMBER 4, 2008

We used agile method to build the product using the latest open source stack and some mashups with a few online services. The product will be platform-agnostic as we mentioned and we think that we will “ cross the chasm &# because of the viral nature of the application. You can say that we are sort of using cloud computing a bit.

Blue Ocean Strategy 30

Blue Ocean Strategy CPM Licensing Open-book 30

Harvard Business Review

MAY 16, 2018

After the stock market’s rocky ride in recent months, some analysts are wondering whether a new economic crisis might be around the corner. Senapathy “Kris” Gopalakrishnan, a co-founder of the India-based Infosys, saw his company’s market value on NASDAQ drop 90% from 2000 to 2001. Jonathan Knowles/Getty Images.

Crisis 9

Crisis Entrepreneur Business Model IPO 9

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 4, 2016

Even when startups have great products and customer interest, they struggle with long-term growth. To borrow an analogy from our Harvard Business School colleague Shikhar Ghosh, their firms aren’t murdered by the market; they commit suicide because the founders can’t or won’t adapt to the organizations’ changing needs.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Sample IPO Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 16, 2014

Icahn later reduced his buyback request to $50 billion, and in April 2014 Apple’s board approved a $30 billion program to be carried out by repurchasing its shares on the open market — either by just buying shares outright or doing it indirectly via accelerated share repurchases. Apple is a company with phenomenal products and profits.

Safe Harbor 9

Safe Harbor Hedge EPS Price 9