Entrepreneurship

March 2022

Refinitiv: A private equity-led transformation

By Julian Birkinshaw, David Craig

In August 2019 CEO David Craig was considering the likely benefits and challenges of merging his company, financial-markets data and infrastructure provider Refinitiv, with the London Stock Exchange Group. Craig had led a turnaround of Thomson Reuters’ Financial & Risk division (F&R), then...

February 2022

TrueLayer: Innovation, regulation and the future of financial services

By Julian Birkinshaw, Ken Mark, Farhan Lalji

In April 2021, having just raised $70 million in a Series D funding, Francesco Simoneschi, Co-Founder and CEO of TrueLayer, was thinking about expansion plans. Should the company focus on product innovation, broadening its line-up within the 13 countries in which it operated, or should it look to gr...

November 2021

Patrick McGinnis

By John Mullins, Jeremy Hughes, Tiffany Putimahtama

The case analyses the scenario facing Paddy McGiness, the sole founder of Breathe coffee shop in Hays, Kansas, as he seeks to launch his new business without seeking any external financing. The case explores the various mindsets that characterise many entrepreneurs and uses Mullins' texts 'The Count...

November 2021

Pass the Keys (B)

By John Mullins

The past year, 2019, had been an exhilarating one for Alex Lyakhotskiy and his team. Buoyed by a new franchise model that was working well for opening new cities, alongside better execution in some of the company’s existing cities, Pass the Keys’ growth had accelerated. Happily, it was looking l...

November 2021

Pass the Keys (A)

By John Mullins

It was a cold, blustery February morning in 2019. Pass the Keys co-founders Alex Lyakhotskiy and Zoe Vu were reflecting with their team on the three and a half years that their fast-growing company had been in business. “We’re now managing 480 properties in nine cities across the UK. Most of our...

November 2019

Funovation

By John Mullins

Erick Mueller was thrilled! The fledging company that he and two friends had started a few months earlier had been the widely acknowledged ‘hit’ of the 2007 IAAPA Attractions Expo, a trade show in Orlando, Florida that brought together more than 1,100 exhibitors and nearly 20,000 buyers from mos...

April 2009

Multi Media Mapping Ltd Case (B)

By John Bates, Cosette Reczek, Sean Phelan

It was early October 2007 as Sean Phelan, founder of Multi Media Mapping Ltd, reviewed the previous 12 months. It had been a year of highs and lows that now set the scene for the most important decision in the company’s 12-year history. At least he now had some options to consider – unlike this ...

April 2009

Multi Media Mapping Ltd Case (A)

By John Bates, Cosette Reczek, Sean Phelan

It was nearly 10 years since Multi Media Mapping Ltd had gone live with the launch of the Multimap.com website and Sean Phelan, founder and majority shareholder, was facing the classic entrepreneur’s dilemma. The company had a successful platform and business model that had made it the market lead...

November 2021

MOVE Guides (C)

By John Mullins, Tiffany Putimahtama

Having decided to go where her customers wanted to take her, CEO Brynne Kennedy had led MOVE Guides into the managed-moves market segment, in addition to the lump-sum moves segment that had given her company its start. By any measure, the company had grown: in top-line revenue, in head count, and (t...

November 2021

MOVE Guides (B)

By John Mullins, Tiffany Putimahtama

It was August 2014. The MOVE Guides team had successfully converted two of their initial pilot clients into paying customers whose employees were delighted with the company’s support of their moves.  Brynne Kennedy and her team were successfully closing a couple of additional lump-sum clients reg...