CM: Becoming a technology firm

Founded in 2000 as a Short Message Service (SMS) marketing company for discos (clubs), CM evolved into a technology provider for SMS services. By 2008, CM was market leader in The Netherlands, a position won by offering high quality services at low prices. In 2010, the founders of the company were looking for different growth opportunities. Should they develop new products and/or expand internationally? Did they need to attract external funding? Or should they continue to focus on their core technology and home market?

Written by Elco van Burg, Isabelle Reymen and Sharon Dolmans from Eindhoven University of Technology. Download the case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org or request them from j.c.van.burg@vu.nl.

IT’S LEARNING: A born global going international

The case describes how a group of students at the University College of Bergen, Norway, early realized the potential of internet to make life easier for students and faculty, and moved from a ‘virtual classroom’ to form the multinational company “IT’S LEARNING”. Covering the home market in Norway first, the founders gained valuable feedback for improvement, learned from their mistakes, and gradually expanded into international markets. After securing major market shares in both the Netherlands and the UK, IT’S LEARNING was now ready for new challenges in even larger markets. The major issue, however, was which markets they should move into, and how to do it. This is a case for courses in entrepreneurship and international entrepreneurship and international strategy.

Written by Tor Aase Johannessen from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. Download case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org or request them from Tor.Johannessen@nhh.no.

What next for fromAtoB?

Between 2005 and 2010, the internet became the preferred medium for people searching for passenger transport options. However, the search for connectivity from point A to point B was cumbersome and to obtain optimum results, necessitated calls to the web sites of many different transportation providers. The comparison between potential train connections, different airlines, using your own car, ride-sharing and sometimes the need for additional public transport links made this a time-intensive process.

However, in Germany in 2007, these inefficient and time-consuming search-and-compare processes were replaced by the internet platform www.fromAtoB.com. This enabled people to perform a comprehensive search that included every relevant transport mode (rail, air, own car, ride sharing, bus, rental car, taxi).

fromAtoB.com was founded as a spin-off from RWTH Aachen University, Germany. In 2009, the internet platform was successfully launched in the German market under the domain www.Verkehrsmittelvergleich.de. However, by August 2010, faced by the threat of competition from new market entries backed by big internet players such as Microsoft’s search engine, bing.com, fromAtoB.com’s founders were forced to consider expansion outside Germany. The question was, how best to finance an internationalisation strategy?

Written by Malte Brettel, René Mauer and Tobias Karmann from RWTH Aachen University. Download case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org or request them from karmann@win.rwth-aachen.de.

Petosan: Helping dogs to a longer life

There is an estimated 1 billion dogs in the world today. Every day, about one million dogs are born. The US has the largest number of dogs. Dog owners around the world spend enormous amounts annually on dog food, as well on accessories and visits to veterinarians. Strangely enough, dogs’ oral hygiene has not been much in focus, while studies show that poor oral hygiene might shorten a dog’s life with many years. Based on these studies, veterinarians strongly recommend that dogs have their teeth cleaned regularly. Until a few years ago, this was normally done by veterinarians only, involving costly visits to veterinarian clinics, and often dogs had to have anaesthetics in order to have the job done. Some years ago, Ole Barman, son of the inventor of the famous three-headed tooth brush for human beings, developed this idea, and the result was a tooth brush for dogs. The brush is so simple to use, that the owners now can perform adequate cleaning of the dogs’ teeth at home. Could he repeat his father’s formula? And would investors give funds to grow in the pet market?

Written by Tor Aase Johannessen from Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. Download case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org or request them from Tor.Johannessen@nhh.no.

When intellectual property rights go beyond patents

In 1999, three technical engineers invented a membrane system to clean sewage water. They filed for patent for their inventions, founded their company Watertreat GmbH, and in 2000 received financial support from different start-up support programs. The founders successfully acquired venture capital from an investor and for the next three years, the product worked well.

In December 2003, the company received its first major order; for Watertreat, the future looked bright. And then in January 2004, a lawsuit alleging multiple infringements of intellectual property rights threatened the company’s very existence. How would the founders react to this danger, and what options did they have to counter it?

Written by Malte Brettel, René Mauer and Tobias Karmann from RWTH Aachen University. Download the case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org or request them from karmann@win.rwth-aachen.de.