Ample Hills Creamery started in 2010 as a temporary ice cream pushcart in Brooklyn, New York City. On the strength of inventive flavors and clever marketing, husband-and-wife founders Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna built a premium, artisanal dessert empire of 16 retail locations in four states. However, some decisions that fueled their rapid growth were double-edged swords. Licensed partnerships with Disney raised the brand''s profile, but .....more

This case features the same protagonists as Ample Hills Creamery (HBS No. 822-073), and can be used as a continuation of that story. Ample Hills Creamery started in 2010 as a temporary ice cream pushcart in Brooklyn, New York City. On the strength of inventive flavors and clever marketing, husband-and-wife founders Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna built a premium, artisanal dessert empire of 16 retail locations in four states. However, some decisions .....more

Agora was a civic technology (civic tech) startup founded by Elsa Sze, who wanted to enhance the connection between political officials and their constituents by facilitating virtual "town halls," making underrepresented voices heard and benefiting elected and appointed leaders who often struggled to collect meaningful feedback. Despite success in startup accelerator programs, challenges and complexities with government sales cycles led .....more

This is the conclusion to Agora (A), where founder Elsa Sze decides if she wants to continue investing energy in her civic technology startup. Agora was a civic technology (civic tech) startup founded by Elsa Sze, who wanted to enhance the connection between political officials and their constituents by facilitating virtual "town halls," making underrepresented voices heard and benefiting elected and appointed leaders who often struggled .....more

Founded in 1998, Tencent Holdings Ltd. (Tencent) is a pioneer in value-added internet services in China and was listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in June 2004. Tencent''s messaging and social networking platforms, WeChat and QQ, are leaders in internet instant messaging. Its business also includes the cloud, industrial internet, and interactive entertainment. The number of employees increased from a few dozen to over .....more

Wahl Clipper Ningbo Ltd. is a wholly owned company of Wahl Group, a century-old American enterprise, in China. Owing to a crisis in 2008, Wahl (Ningbo) was on the verge of bankruptcy. Qian Moxing was appointed as a general manager at the time of the crisis. In line with the proverbial saying ''new broom sweeps clean'', ''A new person makes many changes''. Qian was enlightened with traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, .....more

Heilongjiang Feihe Dairy Co., Ltd. (Feihe) was located in Qiqihar City, a medium-sized city in Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China. Situated in the golden milk source zone at 47 degrees north latitude, the city had been producing powdered milk products and sold them to domestic consumers for 58 years. However, the 2008 melamine incident (MLM) almost wiped out local brands in the domestic infant formula market and left a vacancy for foreign brands .....more

Community Solutions was an anti-homelessness nonprofit founded in 2011 after protagonist Rosanne Haggerty grew frustrated with the limited impact of traditional housing and outreach strategies. It set an ambitious goal, reached in some partner communities, of ending homelessness. Its Built for Zero methodology helped communities across the U.S. improve their data collection, outreach, and provision of homelessness services, improving on often inefficient .....more

Bubble was a software company in the low-code/no-code market, making tools that allowed users without traditional programming backgrounds or technical skills to build software. The case covers cofounder Joshua Haas''s engineering background, as he experienced a high demand for coding expertise in the startup community, but a low supply of coders. It then outlines his founding, with cofounder Emmanuel Straschnov, of Bubble in 2012, and their .....more

This case covers a common issue concerning traditional manufacturers in the digital era. As we know, Chinese manufacturers mainly focus on products and make profits by ramping up capacity and expanding dealer channels. As the Chinese economy shifts to a lower gear, this type of business model leads to overproduction and market saturation while also failing to meet consumer demand for more personalized products. In the digital era, therefore, traditional .....more