Read the case: ‘Webvan’, and submit a report that addresses the following:
Summarize the case.
What happened here? What are the main reasons that Webvan failed as spectacularly as it did?
What was supposed to happen? How did Webvan’s founders and initial investors hope the future was going to unfold for the company?
Webvan realized that its goals were ambitious, but were they too ambitious? What do you think of the quote from the Webvan spokesperson that, "You don’t build a rocket to go halfway to Mars?
What could the company have done differently to increase their chances for success?
Do you think that large numbers of people will buy their groceries over the Internet? Explain.
What lessons do you take away from the Webvan story about the ‘dot-com’ era?
