EMIS SL: In order to succeed, know why others failed

In 2006 EMIS S.L. (European Manufacturer of Internetworking Solutions) was in a difficult situation. Potentially, it was facing a period of consolidation and growth, but many uncertainties still had to be resolved.

That year, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) designed a new program,the Accel Program, that specifically aimed to support the accelerated growth of technology-based firms. Through this program, entrepreneurs received advice from people with extensive professional experience, in a mentoring and coaching format. For Pablo García, founder of EMIS, the program seemed to present an ideal opportunity to help him resolve the company’s main problems and consolidate it.

This case details the participation of EMIS in the Accel Program. It shows a company struggling to achieve the necessary growth and in particular, the commitment and attachment of an entrepreneur to his project.

Written by Pere Losantos and Xavier Estaran from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. Download case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org or request them from pere.losantos@upc.edu.

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.